The Pride issue
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IN THIS ISSUE T R building their own community in the and protest the Fly Honeys stretch Chicago premiere - CITY LIFE tattoo world their wings 41 Early Warnings Rescheduled @ 03 Letter From the Publisher 16 Community Lifestyle and event concerts and other updated listings Tracy Baim on the Reader’s pivot to brand Peach launches a digital 41 Gossip Wolf Reunion Chicago FILM P T B a biweekly print schedule headspace 26 Pride Pioneers of Queer Cinema Slo ’Mo and Open Television E C S K K H highlights the long history of throw a threenight virtual Pride C L R H LGBTQ stories in movies party Brent Gutzeit of TV Pow M E P M FOOD & DRINK TD K R 04 Feature Farmer Vera 27 Movies of Note Beats is assembles a massive compilation C E B W Videnovich is raising Balkan sisters a jaunty rollicking ride Ella to benefi t the fi ght for racial justice A E J L the Native American way Fitzgerald Just One of Those and rapper Roy Kinsey teases a S W M D L G D I B J M S Things proves the singer’s new single with an allstar cast of E A S N L NEWS & POLITICS story is timeless and House of Chicago women G D A H 06 Joravsky | Politics Get off the Hummingbird is a stunning and L C S C -J C E B N B couch America we’ve got a racist emotional slow burn L C M D L C M C despot to defeat J F S F J H I H C M J M K S K 18 Business Tiff any Hudson and N D LJ L her partners are bringing diversity M M A M -K equity and inclusion to Chicago J R N J N M O M S C S businesses their way ------24 No Cops An illustration about D D J D why police presence at Pride S M C J G parades is a contentious issue SS P OPINION A T A 43 Savage Love Dan Savage off ers S I D M N MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE advice on what to do when an ex D D C W 08 Isaacs | Culture The Field and 30 Galil | Pride How three gay coworker keeps sexting your man M P C Y D the Poetry Foundation face winds barsLa Mere Vipere O’Banion’s E A S L K of change and Ozbecame the cradle of the CLASSIFIEDS S EC K K city’s punk scene 45 Jobs ADVERTISING PRIDE 36 Records of Note A pandemic 46 Marketplace -- @ 10 Freeing Gary Chichester refl ects can’t stop the fl ow of great music C on the riotous roots of the fi rstever Our critics review releases that you - @ Pride parade can enjoy at home V P S A M 12 History How Cliff Raven the gay THEATER 40 ChiMusic Damon Locks O I A C R M T P grandaddy of tattooing changed 20 Pride Queer performers bust the founder of the Black Monument H F H’ S A R L M -H L S the city’s ink culture forever binaries and bigotry Ensemble still feels the ripples C S M W R 14 qttr These four queer artists are 22 Virtual Cabaret Amid pandemic from Soul Train years a er its N A V M G -- - J L S B THIS WEEK ON CHICAGOREADER.COM ------D C [email protected] -- CHICAGO READER LC BP D R L T E R SJ S A- S V
C C E B ------R ISSN - R LC S M S C IL --
C © C R ‘Fighting for my future’ Policy or policing? Amplifying Sally Banes P C IL A C R R Inside the 19-hour occupation of An investigation into the use A remembrance of the R R T ® the University of Chicago Police of batons at protests raises formidable dance writer headquarters questions about reform.
2 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll When A Great Deal Matters, Shop Rob Paddor’s... from the publisher Evanston Subaru in Skokie Changes at the Reader GRAND REOPENING OUR SHOWROOM IS OPEN! NO APPOINTMENTS ARE NEEDED WELCOME BACK DEALS! % % % % A new future 0% ONTHS he changes to the news industry by a newly formed nonprofi t, the Read- 63 M have been devastating, some have er Institute for Community Journalism. Tsaid extinction level, in the past That application is pending, and the few years, recently accelerated by the Reader is currently an L3C, mission-driv- 00 00 COVID-19 crisis. We at the Chicago Read- en company. er have an “adapt-or-die” approach to The Reader is undergoing a complete this and other challenges that arise. We digital makeover in 2020, with a new FORESTER OUTBACK ASCENT IMPREZA have kept our editorial team together, website and other digital channels to without layoffs or furloughs, and we come. 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FOOD FEATURE Farmer Vera Videnovich CHICAGOREADER.THREADLESS.COM is raising Balkan sisters the Native American way She’s bringing corn, beans, and squash back to where they came from. By M S
aba Petra was getting old. She wanted to programs for developmentally challenged see her family in her village near Banja adults. Until last season, her produce still made BLuka again, so during the middle of the regular appearances on menus at restaurants Bosnian War in the early 90s, she left her Chi- such as Lula, Giant, and Café Marie-Jeanne. cago garden to go back home and say goodbye. Back in the day, Baba Petra and her daughter She came back with beans. regularly helped out on the farm, so when she Baba (or “Grandma”) Petra, was a family returned from Bosnia, she gave Videnovich a friend of Vera Videnovich, whose Serbian fa- backup stash of black pole beans specific to ther left his maintenance job in Chicago in 1962 the region that she smuggled back in a pair and built a 25-acre farm in Berrien County in of socks. “It was just to keep the seeds going western Michigan, planting crops from seeds if she lost her stash,” says Videnovich. “We brought back from the old country. cook them in a stew with garlic, tomatoes, and “They started growing things they couldn’t maybe some beef.” buy in the stores, raising sheep, or the type of It’s a good thing she shared them, because peppers we like to eat,” says Videnovich, who, not long after her return, Baba Petra suc- along with her two brothers, still works the cumbed to a stroke. Videnovich, at the time a land and raises sheep (23 babies this spring). typesetter at the Reader, planted the beans and Up until three years ago, she was a reliable saved them every year to keep the supply going. presence at Chicago farmer’s markets, and But over time, her stash diminished—when she’s since taken a job running horticulture mice invaded, an extra-damp winter set in, or 4 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants at chicagoreader.com/food. FOOD & DRINK
Taking three companion crops back to their roots this season she carved out time to grow just VERA VIDENOVICH for seed saving, including some 15 varieties of tomatoes, sweet Turkish peppers, Greek and she got too focused on other crops. Persian melons, and a few other types of Balkan But she, like her father, is a seed saver. The beans and peppers. “It’s like I’m pretending I’m beans remained on a shelf in a cardboard box, traveling,” she says. “I think that’s why I do it. I even as she befriended a monk from a monas- want to travel but I can’t, so I’m recreating what tery in Grayslake who gifted her a supply of I imagine the food would be where I would go.” seeds that produce the bundevara, a sweet, She’s only growing a handful of each va- white-fleshed pumpkin typically made into riety to see what comes up and to cook with a strudel across the Balkans. “He brought all them, and share with friends in exchange for these seeds in pill bottles,” she says. “He had feedback. Due to the pandemic and the drasti- melons, squash, peppers, tomatoes, pepper, cally reduced restaurant market, she’s growing fl owers, onions. This other priest saw us chat- about a quarter of what she normally would. ting and he’s like, ‘You’re selling drugs.’” So she has lots of time to focus on the three Something came full circle two autumns sisters. In March, Slow Food West Michigan ago when Videnovich traveled to Turin, Italy, awarded her a $300 biodiversity microgrant as a delegate for the biennial Slow Food Inter- meant to support small farmers cultivating national Terra Madre conference. “Everybody heritage varieties and breeds, and she planted was just like me,” she says. “Three thousand two 50-foot rows of Balkan beans, corn, and delegates from every corner of the planet.” squash the Native American way. This season Among them was a contingent from the Bal- she’ll let them all grow to maturity to build up kans that included a woman who tossed two her seed reserve, and if that goes next season, handfuls of dried corn into Videnovich’s purse, she thinks she can bring the produce to market representing two light-colored varieties that while continuing to save seeds. had been bred for milling and incorporating It is a bit of a gamble. The squash seeds and into recipes little known outside of individual beans are a few years old, which isn’t ideal, and families (but most notably the polenta-like could result in poor yields. But she’ll be keeping porridge known as kachamak). careful records on how well the plants grow Videnovich traveled on to Serbia and Mace- and how much they produce so that informa- donia on the same trip and visited family, tion could be passed on to someone else who farms, and green markets, the corn bouncing wants to give it a go. around the bottom of her bag along with her She says much of the grant money is meant sunglasses and loose change. to document and promote the work of saving In the Balkans, these corn varieties aren’t these varieties, but the cooking demos she typically eaten with beans or squash, nor are planned for each of the sisters won’t be hap- they grown together, something she realized pening at harvest. Still, she’ll be blogging about was a practice adapted by Europeans after the project and documenting it on social media they brought them over from their indigenous (she’s on Twitter and Instagram), and hopes to habitat—America. produce enough seeds to distribute to home Native Americans knew centuries ago that if and community gardeners, Serbian churches, you grow corn, beans, and squash together in and to replenish her friend at the monastery’s the same plot, the corn acts as a space-saving stash. trellis for the beans to climb, while in return And maybe, in a bright and distant future, they fi x nitrogen in the soil for the corn. Mean- she’ll get some of them on the menus of her while, the prickly squash vines discourage old restaurant customers. But that’ll have to raccoons from raiding the corn and shade out wait. “I don’t even want to contact my chefs the weeds. This method of companion planting right now,” she says. “Everyone’s in pain. I is known as the Three Sisters and originated in don’t want to put any pressure on them. I have Mesoamerica before spreading all over North income from my day job. I can take a hit on my America, including to the Potawatomi land in farm this year. western Michigan where the Videnovich farm “I don’t mind the labor it takes because I now stands. don’t want to lose this. Histories are merging. “I thought, ‘This is fantastic,’” she says. “This I understand the land I farm had been part is New World corn. I’m in the New World. Let’s of a whole other culture, and it should be see if we can adapt it back.” respected.” v In recent years Videnovich scaled back her production on the farm due to her day job, but @MikeSula ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 5 NEWS & POLITICS
POLITICS coverage, with there being so much to choose from. Was it the rows and rows of empty blue Trump in Tulsa seats? Or was it that Trump had to cancel plans to Get off the couch, America, we’ve got have a separate outside stage for the overfl ow a racist despot to defeat. crowd—as there was no crowd overfl owing? Or that Trump was steaming mad because of By B J the low turnout? Or that in desperation to spin away the embarrassment, Trump’s handlers blamed the ne of the highlights of my Father’s Day low turnout on the “fake media” scaring people celebration was reading press coverage away with news about COVID-19 and counter- Oof President Trump’s colossal bust of a protesters? As though MAGA—as Trump calls campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. his diehards—listen to CNN or read the New For future historians, that would be the rally York Times. of Saturday, June 20, 2020, in which Trump Or that Trump and his aides had bragged of returned to the campaign trail after taking the the millions who registered to attend the rally, last three months o because of the pandemic. only to learn that many of those who regis- Future historians should also note that I tered were teenage TikTokers and K-pop stans read three accounts of that rally as I lay on my who had no intention of attending? living room couch, listening to Stanley Turren- Or that one leader of the TikTok rebellion tine booming over the stereo. Stan the Man was Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old Mayor Pete will blast Trump away any day. supporter from Fort Dodge, Iowa, who had this It’s hard to believe Americans would reelect a man who sounds this crazy, Not sure which was my favorite part of the vision of the “19,000-seat auditorium barely but that doesn’t mean they won’t. ALBERT HALIM / SHUTTERSTOCK COM FIGHT WITH PURPOSE
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6 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll NEWS & POLITICS
fi lled . . . leaving Trump standing there alone As much as I loved the TikTok and K-pop bizarre—even for Trump—15-minute explana- system. How about a piece of your immune on the stage”? crowds for messing with Trump, I think their tion of why he’s not really a doddering old man. system?’ They don’t even know about this. Way to go, Mary Jo! role in the low turnout is overstated. Even though he looks like one half the time. Let’s open the schools, please, open. Open the Or that I’m so proud of myself for knowing I think MAGA didn’t show up ’cause they As in the following discourse on COVID-19, schools. that the word “stans” originates from “Stan,” were afraid of catching COVID-19. which comes directly from the transcript: “And every once in a while, I’ll have one of a song by Eminem about an insanely obsessive I realize that a central tenet of MAGA is that “We’ve tested now 25 million people. It’s these days where I’m hit left and right, left fan? the pandemic is a hoax created by Democrats, probably 20 million people more than anybody and right, like, even this great event. What—if A song that featured Elton John singing the China, and the mainstream media to turn the else. Germany’s done a lot; South Korea’s done you could have seen outside or you could have chorus when Eminem performed at the Gram- country against Trump. a lot. They call me, they say the job you’re heard the reports. The reports, ‘Oh, it’s COVID, mys in 2001. I’m still a little irritated at Sir But it’s hard to maintain that delusion when doing—here’s the bad part, when you test it’s this—I’ve got—by the way, it’s a disease Elton for lending credibility to Eminem when Trump’s asking you to sign a waiver absolving of—when you do testing to that extent, you’re without question has more names than any he was doing all that gay-bashing. Though, in his campaign of any liability in the event you going to fi nd more people, you’re going to fi nd disease in history. I can name kung flu. I can retrospect, I really think it’s time I let that one catch the disease while attending his rally—a more cases. So, I said to my people, ‘Slow the name 19 di£ erent versions of names. Many call go. waiver the Trump campaign asked Tulsa at- testing down, please.’ They test and they test it a virus, which it is. Many call it a fl u, what Back to that bust of a Trump rally . . . tendees to sign. . . . di£ erence?” About 6,200 people attended the rally, Apparently, there’s a list of things MAGA “Even though he’s very liberal, the governor And they say Biden’s demented? according to the Tulsa fi re department, even won’t do for their supreme leader—with dying of New Jersey, right? Do you know him? Now, Look, just because it’s hard to believe that though the arena can fi t 19,000. of COVID-19 being high on that list. listen. He said to me something that’s amazing. America would reelect a man who sounds this If this had been an election, the empty seats Eventually, I got around to watching New Jersey was very heavily hit, very hard hit, crazy doesn’t mean we should get complacent. would have won in a landslide. Unless, of Trump’s speech. It was like watching a fl abby, thousands of people. He said, with thousands It’s time to get o£ the couch and get to work. course, it was a presidential election. In which old rock star with a comb-over regurgitating of people that died, thousands of people, there Register to vote. Register others to vote. Cam- case, the filled seats would be declared the his greatest hits. was only one person that died under the age paign in the swing states. Do what you have to winner by the electoral college and get to fi ll He ripped the mainstream media, bragged of 18, would you believe that? Which tells me do. We’ve got a racist despot to defeat. v Supreme Court vacancies. about building a wall, called Joe Biden sleepy, one thing, that kids are much stronger than Definitely not letting that one go anytime denounced anarchists and radicals, made us. When you see a little kid running around, @bennyjshow soon. no mention of George Floyd, and went on a say, ‘Boy, oh, boy, do you have a great immune
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ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 7 NEWS & POLITICS
Anna Villanyi outside the Field ANNA VILLANYI they suggest could be better spent on free community programs. committed to “engaging in this work,” while On June 12, the Foundation sta issued an acknowledging that “real change takes time apology “for our silence in the face of crisis,” and dedication.” an acknowledgment of their “privileged Translation: this is going to be so hard for identities,” and a list of corrective actions us, don’t expect it to happen anytime soon. underway. But poets know how to parse a few lines. Meanwhile, at the Field Museum staff An open letter on June 6, signed by 27 Poetry members reacted to the announcement last Foundation fellows and three poets who work month of likely job and salary cuts by pre- with the Foundation (including University of senting management with a petition asking Chicago’s Eve Ewing) noted that, “Given the for a moratorium on layoffs, staff input on stakes, which equate to no less than genocide cost-cutting plans, and—if salary cuts be- against Black people, the watery vagaries of came necessary—a graduated scale, so that this statement are, ultimately, a violence.” higher earners would share an equitable They also observed that for years, “your amount of the pain. constituents have been calling on the Foun- Museum education coordinator Anna Vil- dation to redistribute more of its enormous lanyi says that employees had suggested op- resources to marginalized artists” and to tions that might reduce the need for layo s, make change in the “local community and “but those were generally dismissed and, beyond.” (Most recently, a separate April 4 during an online sta meeting, our president petition, originally asking the Foundation noted specifi cally that taking graduated pay to establish a $5 million fund to help poets, cuts at a steeper level for higher earners publishers, bookstores, and literary organi- would be an empty gesture.” (A museum zations struggling because of the coronavirus spokesperson says Field president and CEO has attracted more than 2,600 signatures.) Richard Lariviere meant that “the defi cit that The poets listed demands including specif- the museum was trying to overcome due to ic plans for supporting racial justice; “large COVID was so large that reducing executive contributions” to anti-racist organizations; pay wouldn’t help.”) CULTURE and “acknowledgment of the debt that the “That was disheartening,” and a catalyst Foundation owes to Black poets” as well as for bringing the staff together to try to be recognition of “harm done” to poets who are heard, Villanyi says. Nevertheless, on June Fault lines at the Field Latinx, disabled, and LGBTQ. They called for 12, after benefi ting from federal PPP money, a more diverse sta and for the replacement and from more than $200,000 worth of va- of president Henry Bienen and board chair cation time that Field employees donated to and Poetry Foundation Willard Bunn III. Without these changes, avoid layoffs for their coworkers, Lariviere they vowed to no longer allow themselves announced that 71 jobs were being eliminat- Issues of diversity and economic justice become fl ash points. to be exploited by working with, or for, the ed, another 56 employees were being fur- Foundation, or being published in Poetry loughed, and an across-the-board pay cut of By D I magazine. They gave the Foundation a week 10 percent was going into e ect immediately to respond and posted the letter, which was for anyone making more than $20 per hour. promptly cosigned by more than 1,800 other (Workers making between $16 and $20 per n the last week or so, on the cusp of the our elitist, donor-dependent cultural sector poets and readers. hour would be docked $1 an hour.) city’s partial reopening, there was a cluster is showing stress, cracking at old fault lines By June 10, both Bienen and Bunn had According to the announcement, a pre- Iof cancellations from its largest venues and that are economic and political as well as ra- resigned. Bienen—a former Northwestern vious pay cut for “top earners” had already events. The 2020 season is over, at least as far cial. Take, for example, recent turmoil at two University president—exited blaming his been implemented. The announcement didn’t as live, in-house performance goes at Lyric bastions of Chicago’s cultural establishment: staff, complaining in a resignation letter to reveal the size of that cut, but it was also 10 Opera, Jo rey Ballet, Ravinia, and the Grant the walled Gold Coast fortress of the Poetry the board (as reported by the Chicago Tri- percent, and only kicked in on earnings over Park Music Festival. Pull up the covers and go Foundation and the venerable Field Museum. bune), that, “I have lost respect for the sta $100,000. In 2018 Lariviere’s own total com- back to sleep; maybe we’ll see you next year. Like nearly every other organization and . . . it was their work, not mine, that they pensation was $796,000. Or maybe we won’t. If we don’t have an corporation, the Poetry Foundation respond- found they could not defend.” In theory, equity is one of the Field’s prior- e ective vaccine by then, crowds at the big ed to the murder of George Floyd—or, rather, Which may be what inspired Red Rover ities, Villanyi says: “We’re trying to build to legacy cultural venues will be thinner than the protests over the murder of George poetry series founders Jennifer Karmin and a more equitable future in access to the mu- the Trump turnout in Tulsa. Too sparse for Floyd—with a statement denouncing “injus- Laura Goldstein to take the poets’ demands a seum and in everything to do with our work. sustainable operation. tice and systemic racism.” Its four-sentence step further last week, calling for the eradi- And this looks like an example of something And those that survive are likely to be message, issued June 3, said the Foundation cation of this apparently superfl uous job. The that is not happening equitably.” v changed. Under the triple onslaught of pan- and its magazine, Poetry, “recognize that president’s salary and benefits—$436,000 demic, economic disaster, and civic unrest, there is much work to be done” and are in 2018 (the most recent record available)— @DeannaIsaacs 8 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll Virtual Pride Month Celebration SOBER & PROUD Friday, June 26, 2020 | 7 to 9 pm Bonaventure House Featuring DJ Ralphi Rosario
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The fi rst ever Pride march on Saturday, June 27, continued meeting as Chicago Gay Libera- 1970. COURTESY GARY CHICHESTER tion. With the support of these activists and many more, Chichester organized Chicago Gay Alliance and, later, the fi rst gay commu- rest of the week protesting, which he says nity center in Chicago. Out of that space on made him political. “That was really the fi rst Elm Street, the activists held meetings, start- time I’d ever even thought about being an ed a phone line, shared donated books, held activist. Being a privileged white male, you weekly bu¤ ets, o¤ ered housing, and wrote a don’t really think you’re gonna be in protests. newsletter. They picked up the activist tools I said, ‘This is really a police state,’ much like established by earlier groups like the Daugh- it is today with certain people in the White ters of Bilitis and Mattachine Midwest, which House. I kind of consider myself, hopefully, warned gay people of police o cers (such as knowing the difference between right and the notorious John Manley) posing as cruis- wrong. And I was proven to be on the right ers in order to entrap gay men. side of history because it was considered Chichester kept himself on the ground, later down a ‘police riot.’” so to speak, in the gay community by tend- The following summer in June, Chichester ing bar at the Gold Coast and several other and his boyfriend at the time received a call businesses owned by future International from a friend in New York City. “You won’t Mr. Leather founder Chuck Renslow. There believe what’s happening here tonight,” he he witnessed more police actions, such as his said. The daily live updates from the Stone- coworker’s arrest for keeping a “disorderly wall riots continued to motivate Chichester. house.” He had been to the Stonewall Inn, a dumpy The next day when they got him out of jail, mafia-owned gay bar where patrons paid a Chichester says, “he had his chaps o¤ and he HISTORY steep cover charge and had to pass through was wearing them like a stole, it was so cold! the men’s room to get to the dance fl oor. “You Things like that happened all the time.” don’t really feel oppressed until you start After the fi rst march, organizers decided ‘It was really a freeing kind of opening your eyes,” Chichester says. As word the next anniversary should be a new form spread through Chicago of an anniversary of celebration: a parade. They knew it would march celebrating the Greenwich Village up- be a much larger event in 1971. Chichester feeling’ rising, Chichester prepared the fl ags. Their went downtown to apply for the permit. “It’s symbol, two female symbols linked with two all a learning process,” he says of organizing Gary Chichester refl ects on the riotous roots of the fi rst-ever Pride parade. male symbols under a proud fi st, was print- a large action. “You realize as you get older, ed on his back porch and attached to a pole if you’re worried about being told no, you’re By D C using the sewing machine of his neighbor— gonna be told no. If you just go ahead and do an unaware vice cop. About 200 people gath- what you wanna do, usually there’s not that ered in Bughouse Square on Saturday, June much pushback.” On the permit, “we named 27, 1970, one day before New York City’s fi rst everything we could think of, including a fl ea march. The organizers chose this starting lo- circus. Animals, bands, fl oats. They said yes young, conservative homosexual from that [police brutality] was going to be an cation because of its longtime reputation as to everything. The only thing they didn’t say the northwest suburbs was cruising issue.” Chichester would soon stand among an area celebrated for free speech. A bonus, yes to was that fi rst year, they did not stop A in Lincoln Park in the summer of 1968. the beaten protesters, watching police yank somewhat underground reason: the square tra c.” That took about fi ve years, he says. “I loved cruising,” says Gary Chichester, the fi lm from cameras and antagonize activists. had also been a popular cruising ground for Finally closing down the streets became a cofounder of the Chicago Gay Alliance and “There was another demonstration that decades. The marchers raised their fl ags as necessity for the city when the parade date a longtime activist, in June 2020. “It comes was on Michigan Avenue,” Chichester recalls. they headed for Daley Plaza. “It was really a lined up against a Cubs game. Pride parade natural, that process. The subtle eyes, the “Dick Gregory, the comic and activist, invited freeing kind of feeling,” Chichester says. He organizers finally got word from baseball’s contact, the different ways of approaching everyone to his south-side home for a barbe- adds that it wasn’t a frightening experience, National League on future schedules: somebody was really a lot of fun.” The ritual cue, so thousands of people started marching but he did see expressions of disbelief and “They’re not gonna put a baseball game up was interrupted on this particular night as down. Slowly as we approached 18th Street, jaws dropping from passersby who weren’t against the parade, so fabulous! That was young Chichester saw buses fi lled with hel- people started leaving the march. And next used to such bold protesting. another win.” meted police o cers heading south toward thing I knew, a conservative kid from the Out of that energy, Chichester found more Chichester recalls about 1,000 people the Democratic National Convention. The northwest suburbs is face-to-face with a line resources from radicalized individuals like gathering in 1971 at Belmont Harbor, near an- Sunday before, August 25, Allen Ginsberg and of jeeps with barbed wire fi xed to the front himself. Vernita Gray created an LGBT help- other known gay gathering place and cruis- other gays were peacefully meditating in this of them. I thought ‘Oh my god, I’m right up line by listing her new home phone number, ing ground called the Belmont Rocks. A few park after the 11 PM curfew when the police front here.’ Next thing I knew I get hit by a cleverly chosen as FBI-LIST. Richard Pfei¤ er fl oats were lined up and they headed south to came swinging batons. Chichester decided tear gas canister. So that really changes your picked up organizing the next Pride march Lincoln Park. The parade grew in size every to follow these buses out of curiosity. “After mind a bit.” (which he would do every year until his death year following, especially after more big seeing what happened in Lincoln Park, I knew Chichester was radicalized. He spent the in late 2019). Henry Wiemhoff and others wins like marriage equality, Chichester says. 10 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll POETRY CORNER
It took me a while to stop trusting the world’s opinion. n the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall By Jackson C. Santy riots in 2019, Chichester took a trip to New York City, not to join the parade, Someone once taught me that life is measured by the moments that leave us breathless. O but to march with the Reclaim Pride Coa- This cliché is all I can seem to clinch at while a man’s sleeves lition’s new Queer Liberation March. This noxious and meandering, shapeshift into serpents sewn across each armful separate event was held to recognize a lack of of wrinkled and beer-soaked fabric, constricting tighter and tighter. activist involvement in corporate-sponsored, I name him—Vasco Da Gama. police-lined Pride parades that have become the most common forms of annual celebra- I name him and his five predatory predecessors after colonial explorers. tion. Chichester recalls the street queens Who expand their reaches to places they are not welcome, to desecrating what my mother taught me was sacred land. and friends he made in places like the early Stonewall when explaining the type of inclu- Who day after day continue to be celebrated due to the Destiny Manifested between the lines of “Boys will be boys.” sion he saw at Reclaim Pride. “I don’t need a Someone once told me “ableism doesn’t exist;” million people to make me feel happy, I just that I was “lucky” for the special treatment I am afforded as a Little Person. need the right people, people who are out- spoken.” He believes that if there were to be Try telling that to Blake Johnston; snatched mid-cigarette & spiked to the ground by a stranger, left paralyzed more marches, and di erent options such as it was his birthday. Reclaim Pride’s event or the Dyke March, it would ease crowds from corporate Pride and To Martin Henderson; get more people out and able to be vocal. “I set on fire by a drunken party goer his boss laughed, love Rich Pfei er,” Chichester says of the 48- thought it was a joke. year Pride parade organizer. “I don’t know how he did it for that length of time and the To Adam Smith; slammed head first on a street corner pressure of trying to keep everybody happy.” left for dead by blunt force trauma. This year will see no Pride parade, only marches. Sunday, June 14, saw the largest Over and over again, I hear stories of internalized torment metastasized into obligatory introversion after too many protests for transgender rights in recorded Sunday strolls crash into unwanted spectacle. history. Thousands of activists filled the streets of Chicago, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles PeopleP say I have to pick my battles; but every day is my battle. to protest the frequent murders of transgen-
der women of color, two of which happened Every day I am fighting for air; just days before. The following morning, so if to resist is to survive the Supreme Court announced its ruling then every breath is a revolution. against discrimination of LGBTQ employees, a victory the movement has worked for since If my existence is not in line with the status quo, its beginning. Prior to the ruling, a brief of then it is a defiance of the status quo.
historians as amici curiae was submitted to If my existence is a defiance of the status quo, the court, citing writing by Bilitis cofounder then every morning that I wake up Del Martin and 1954 Mattachine Society my disfigurement takes the form of a middle finger.
meeting notes using the phrase “sex variant” I cannot help but recall that the world treats me as if something is wrong with me; as evidence that midcentury Americans it took me a while to stop trusting the world’s opinion. recognized the meaning of the term “sex” to include the identities of LGBT individuals, thus including them in the Civil Rights Act of Jackson is a burgeoning poet and essayist with a professional background in child behavioral care. As both a writer and youth advocate, 1964. Jackson’s work hopes to echo and uplift our unique capacities for resilience amongst even the utmost humiliations. “I love Pride,” Chichester says. “You see A biweekly series curated by the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation. Poem by Nikki Patin, who holds an MFA in creative what good it does. All the lost folks out there non-fiction from the University of Southern Maine, is a recipient of a 3Arts Make A Wave award in music, and was recently named one of “30 Writers to who are committing suicide or unhappy or Watch” by the Guild Literary Complex. Patin is the community engagement director for the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation and the founder and executive producer of Surviving the Mic, a monthly live podcast and writing workshop series based on the south side of Chicago, where she lives with losing their family—I’ve been very lucky with her six-year-old son, Tobias. my family, they’ve been very supportive over the years, but I’m on the small end of that percentage.” He begins to reminisce about the march against Anita Bryant, the Orange Balls at the Aragon, the LGBT Hands Across America. “There’s always something new to do.” v Poetry Foundation | 61 West Superior Street | poetryfoundation.org/events @DevlynCamp ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 11 pride
point, Raven was regularly cruising Bughouse Square looking to be picked up by men on motorcycles because he liked tough guys and tough things. “I wasn’t aware of [such bars] when I lived there. I’m not sure if they really were there. I basically said, ‘Oh gee, tell me where they are, so I won’t make the mistake of walking into one!’” Then he planned a New York getaway to fi nd them. Shortly afterward, he met Renslow and his Cliff Raven outside partner Dom Orejudos, perhaps better known Sunset Strip Tattoo under his art monicker “Etienne” as a pioneer shortly a er buying it from Lyle of the buxom gay imagery commonly attribut- Tuttle— there are ed to Tom of Finland. It was 1959. Renslow and more Raven fl ash, Orejudos were already running Kris Studios, memorabilia, and a popular beefcake photography spot, and photos like this at Great Lakes Tattoo. a gym that kept them amply supplied with COURTESY NICK COLELLA/ sculpted models. Raven brought Renslow GREAT LAKES TATTOO some of his erotic drawings, hoping Kris might have a use for them. Instead, he got invited to an orgy. Quickly, something blossomed between Renslow and Raven, and Renslow asked Orejudos if he could bring Raven into their home as a second lover. Not a thruple, he explained, but part of their family. Orejudos gladly accommodated, and “The Family” was HISTORY His mother was warm and would invite born. neighborhood kids over even before Raven Renslow was into BDSM, and Raven became was old enough to play, while his father was one of his submissives. As Renslow explained Chicago’s gay grandaddy severe and distant in a way typical of men of to Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen in The that generation. Once, he killed their family Leatherman: “Our personalities worked well dog, Shep, for “showing fear.” That meant together. He was very passive; that was im- of tattooing Shep was a coward, his father explained, and portant. My saying is ‘Boys and dogs should be a coward can’t protect his family. When Raven obedient.’” How Cliff Raven changed the city’s ink culture forever ran from his fi rst schoolyard fi ght, his father Emboldened by his immersion in an erot- was quick to label him a coward, too. This ically charged tough-guy world, Raven felt By M C would haunt him until the end of his days. Is desperate for a tattoo. Word on the street someone unworthy of love if they’re a cow- was this guy Phil Sparrow, then considered hat about Stonewall?” the inter- volvement with gay Chicago. If Chuck Renslow ard? Should you just get rid of them? Chicago’s most accomplished tattooer, would viewer asks. was the heart of Chicago’s leather community, Perhaps this is some of what drove Raven trade blow jobs for tattoos, so Raven hoped he “W “What about it?” Cliff Raven Raven was the valve. He shuttled the commu- away from home. There’s not much known might trade erotic drawings for ink, too. Spar- says. nity’s ideas and influence into a career that about his teens and 20s except that he was row, better known as Samuel Steward, subject “Did that have any effect on you when it elevated the craft and safety of tattooing; but wild and wanting. By 15, he had given himself of The Secret Historian, gave him a two-inch happened in 1969?” Reading the transcript, soft-spoken and modest, a man of the “don’t a stick-and-poke of a winged wheel, and at 16, butterfl y on his forearm, and it changed more you can almost hear Raven taking a drag on a ask, don’t tell” generation, Raven minimized he forged his draft card to get into bathhouses. than his physique. cigarette as he smirks at the question. this. By his own account, he was just a very He started college, then dropped out and fl ed Sparrow was already friendly with Renslow, “When I really got into tattooing,” he says, busy tattooer. to New York. But he was strongly connected and with Cli ’s added interest, each man saw “when I became, you might say, successful Before becoming Cli Raven, who the Star to his mother, brother, and extended family. In something new in him: for Raven, a career to at it—it was very absorbing of my time. So Tribune once called the “Elvis of Tattooing,” 1957, his mom beckoned him back to the mid- aspire towards; for Renslow, a potential gold- I wasn’t aware of all the ins and outs and in- he was Cliff Ingram, a Catholic kid born in west to fi nish art school at Indiana University, mine. At the time, tattooing was a dangerous trigues [of gay politics].” 1932 by a steel mill in East Chicago. Early on, and upon graduation, he settled into a Chicago line of work, but existing as part of an under- The conversation is part of an oral history he had a mind for details. Some of his favorite life in advertising. Over drinks one night, world made it feel like a safe job for a man collected for the Leather Archives & Museum childhood memories were leaving Lincoln someone mentioned there were bars in New who wanted to be more openly gay. Plus, for by acclaimed leather writer and educator Park Zoo to walk around with his mother, al- York with “strange” people. Had he heard of Sparrow, also a BDSM enthusiast, tattooing Jack Rinella. It’s between him and one of the ways a balloon in hand, savoring the features these? Men walked around completely decked felt sexual: an exchange of fl uids and strong most infl uential tattooers in American history of gilded lamp posts and Victorian two-fl ats. in leather. physical sensation, one person desiring pain whose success is owed, in large part, to in- “Gorgeous,” he’d later write in his diary. “I perked up,” he explains to Rinella. By this and handing control to another. 12 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll pride
This may be some of what interested doned the trade or moved. According to a demonstrates skills honed from deep trust 1986—though Greg James, another tattooer Renslow, who learned the basics from Spar- 1974 edition of Chicago Guide, the city went and sensitivity to men’s bodies. who worked with Raven, says they were slow- row but quickly lost interest. However, Raven from around 20 working artists spread across That kind of mindfulness is what put health ly becoming common in the early 80s. Raven saw tattoos’ artistic potential. Renslow six shops along State Street to none—except on the forefront of Raven’s mind. Until the began wearing them in the late 70s, and he taught what he knew to Raven, and his talents Raven. He loved tattooing too much, and he late 60s, tattooers made their own inks and was using an autoclave, the machine hospitals quickly eclipsed his daddy’s. Now working had a strong community interested in perma- needles. These were highly protected trade se- use to sterilize reusable equipment, as early as a freelance commercial artist, Raven took nent ink. Plus, he’d be the only guy in town. crets that distinguished some artists over oth- as 1970. a weekend gig tattooing. It was at a hybrid Under Renslow Family Enterprises, he set ers but also made tattooing a little unpredict- At the time he bought Sunset Strip Tattoos, penny arcade/burger joint two hours south, by up his first solo shop, the Old Town Tattoo able and even dangerous. Allergic reactions Tuttle laughed and said Raven would be lucky Chanute Air Force Base. Salon, in a storefront of their apartment build- and infections from ink were common, as was to get by on tattooing alone. Briefl y, the space Contrary to popular lore, Raven did not ing on Larrabee Street. When they lost the reusing needles and inks because of the time also functioned as a hair salon for his life part- assume his surname as a nod to Sparrow or building to gentrifi cation, they relocated to a and labor required to make new ones. With the ner, Pierre Mitchell, who dabbled in tattooing other tattooers with bird monikers. Tattooing rundown spot on Belmont and opened what help of then co-owners Buddy McFall and Dale as Bob Raven, Raven’s “brother.” But he grew was not considered respectable work, and eventually became Chicago Tattoo Company, Grande, Raven started Chicago Tattoo Supply, the shop to support multiple artists, even- many used pseudonyms to separate their which is still in business today. This is when one of the first companies to mass-produce tually selling it to protege Robert Benedetti personal and professional lives, especially to Raven started to feel removed from, as he inks and needles. While tattooers had mixed in 1985 and retiring to run a used bookstore spare families any shame or embarrassment would say, the “ins and outs and intrigues” feelings on wider equipment distribution, the and private studio with Mitchell in the sleepy their work might cause. Through a queer lens, of a larger gay scene, but his community was growing availability of supplies forced them city of Twentynine Palms. Thanks to guidance renaming can be viewed as an act of self deter- always his life force. to confront ways they had been failing clients. from Raven, networking, and being in the mination—a separation from a life on other’s Partially from Sparrow’s encouragement, This is also a reason Raven was an early “right place, right time,” Benedetti and James terms vs. a life on one’s own. Raven has never Raven took to Japanese-infl uenced tattooing. adopter of tattooing with gloves. In 1976, he became the premiere tattooers of the Sunset remarked on this. What he has said is, grow- Nick Colella, owner of Great Lakes Tattoo bought Sunset Strip Tattoos from legendary Strip, marking the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, ing up, his father explained “Ingram” meant and uno¡ cial historian of all things Chicago tattooer Lyle Tuttle and relocated to Los An- Mötley Crüe, and Guns N’ Roses. Axl Rose can “Raven” in Old English. If being a tattooer was tattoo, believes this was because Japanese geles—a move he’d been dreaming of since even be seen wearing the shop’s shirt in the his most authentic self, he still held his birth tattooing lent itself to intricate, custom, large- childhood, when an aunt on the west coast video for “Sweet Child of Mine.” family close. scale work. In the 1970s, Raven, Ed Hardy (ap- would send Christmas cards with palm trees. Being gay and having a legacy so robust it’s Renslow was an enterprising business prenticed by Sparrow), and Don Nolan were As he explained in his journal, the money even visible in music videos has led some to person, but everyone in the Family—whose known as “the big three” because they poured and community in Chicago were extremely celebrate Raven as an openly queer trailblaz- lineage grew and shifted over the years—be- over Japanese art and tattooing and fused it difficult to give up, but he longed for sunny er. But this is not exactly accurate. Much of his came part of Renslow Family Enterprises. This with old school Americana to change people’s winters and beaches. Once a Californian, he sexuality is documented because of his prox- helped members share resources, including ideas of what the artform could be. For years, worked closely with a doctor who provided imity to Renslow—they even fi lmed a BDSM names for paperwork since homophobic ar- they took all the top prizes at tattoo conven- medical insight to running the cleanest, saf- scene together for the Kinsey Institute!—but rests barred some, including Renslow, from tions because of it. est shop possible, which included things like after leaving the Family, there is scant public legally assuming certain responsibilities. In But whereas Hardy was very strict about covering surfaces with single-use protective information about that part of Raven’s life. By turn, this grew everyone’s infl uence and eco- traditional Japanese imagery and approach, barriers. all accounts, those who were meant to know nomic stability, including Raven’s. even spending extensive time studying in When HIV emerged, studios began refusing he was gay at the time knew. But everyone else Raven had the idea to start a leather meet- Japan, and Nolan skewed more Americana, homosexual customers, and many gay tattoo- didn’t. up, and when the group got kicked out of bar combining the Japanese composite method ers left the fi eld. In a letter to Raven, one artist This was as much for Raven’s personal and after bar, Renslow decided to buy the bar the with a more western visual lexicon, Raven explains feeling relief that police raids closed professional safety as it was a desire for priva- Gold Coast so they’d have a permanent com- found inspiration to push tattoos’ beauty. him down. “I do not fancy working continually cy. As Ed Hardy told the Tattoo Archive, Raven munity site. Ironically, Raven was against this Eventually, he abandoned stencils in favor of with people’s BLOOD on my hands in these was “always a private man.” So much so, many because a fi nancial stake might shift the prior- drawing directly on people’s bodies. His entire plague days of anguish and horrible viruses didn’t even know he was deeply spiritual. He ities of the space, but he was outvoted. (Until working life he traded tips and correspon- which they . . . don’t know shit about,” he says. abandoned Catholicism in junior high but his death, Renslow insisted Gold Coast was dences with Japan’s most signifi cant tattooers His community’s palpable anxiety bolstered continued praying and contemplating God till never intentionally or accidentally a money- to bring depth and complexity to his work. Raven’s commitment to providing a medi- the end of his life. He even kept extensive reli- maker—always just a gift to his community.) “His ability to blend and pack so much color cal-grade sterile environment, and it secured gious correspondences with his devout Cath- Raven was also a copartner in a short-lived in the skin with the tools they had in the 70s him as a beacon to gay men who wanted ink. olic cousin. James describes him as someone bathhouse and the uncredited art director of was insane,” Colella says. Pat Fish, the last tattooer trained by Raven, who could connect to a high school dropout Renslow’s bodybuilding magazines Triumph In Colella’s private archive, there are pho- recalls him saying three things are necessary mechanic as much as an Ivy League-educated and Mars. tos that register Raven’s pieces as a tribute to be a good tattoo artist: art, craft, and mor- lawyer, but Raven was careful how much of to the male form: in one, a large Bengal tiger als. Part of having morals meant prioritizing himself he revealed and to whom. n 1963, amid hepatitis outbreaks, concerns moves along the curve of a man’s thigh to clients’ health. In 2001, Raven died of hepatitis C with about unsanitary conditions, and nuisances emphasize his buttocks, its tail snaking down “He made me buy an autoclave before he Mitchell, his lover of 27 years, by his side. Ipurportedly attracted by tattooing, Illinois the hip, then under and around onto the penis; let me buy a tattoo machine,” she laughs. This In the annals of tattoo history, though, he is raised the tattooing age from 18 to 21. Barely in another, a garland of fl owers are rendered was in 1985. According to her, gloves weren’t immortal. v legal military recruits were tattooers’ bread to frame the genitals while accentuating the even industry standard until a doctor led and butter, so Chicago artists either aban- movement of the man’s breath. It’s work that a workshop on it at a tattoo convention in @miccoslays ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 13 pride
COMMUNITY #QTTRs make their mark These four queer artists are building their own community in the tattoo world. By T A
he tattoo industry, as we typically think tattooing there for ten years. of it, seems like no place for queer people. Regalado’s tattoos are appointment only TEven with early pioneers like Cli Raven right now due to COVID-19, but “the books are and Phil Sparrow, it’s remained an overwhem- always open.” Her Instagram is @dianaregal- ingly heteronormative, patriarchal, and white ado; e-mail [email protected] for field, a fact that was only confirmed by my appointments. search to find Chicago queer tattoo artists, especially folks of color, which yielded many a buddy. “nobody like that works at our shop, sorry!” But pockets of queer tattooers exist and seem to be April O’Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Tur- growing, forming their own communities and tles was buddy.’s fi rst crush, and one of the fi rst reimagining industry standards, especially to indications of queerness that they remember. cater to clients beyond those who are typically They were born and raised in the deep south, represented. Queer tattoo artists are around; though, so it wasn’t until dropping out of high you just have to know where to look. school and moving to Chicago that buddy. felt more at ease being themself. Now, as a pro- Diana Regalado fessional tattoo artist, buddy. is changing the industry with their activism, inclusivity, and Diana Regalado used to get in trouble for killer illustrative blackwork tattoos. drawing naked ladies on her arms during buddy. has tattooed a huge range of people, school. She’d get sent to the dean’s o ce for seeing clients with severe scarring, clients in the fi ne line black and gray artwork that pre- wheelchairs, clients with MS, and more. “I can- ceded her tattooing, a style of drawing that not say this loud enough: everybody is welcome she didn’t even know was Chicanx at the time. in my chair—unless you’re racist or an asshole, It remains her style today, but the Latinx gay/ then be gone. We wouldn’t have a good time lesbian/queer artist is drawing at Archer Ave- anyhow.” nue Tattoo instead of in class. Regalado started Outside of their regular appointments, in the tattoo industry after nearly a decade at a however, is where buddy. truly shines. In order graphic design fi rm. Between her art experience to combat the rampant cases of sexual assault and her time under the needle (she is heavily on clients and artists in the tattoo industry, covered with tattoos herself), she quickly se- buddy. started a Facebook group called “o with cured an apprenticeship, something for which their hands.” It serves as a platform for people she feels incredibly grateful (artists usually around the world to call out offenders—par- need formal apprenticeships, which require ticularly repeat offenders who get away with working many hours for free, or even at a price). assault by relocating or abusing their industry Archer Avenue Tattoo is located on the south clout. side in Brighton Park, and the clients are mostly On a local level, buddy. is involved with a col- people of color. According to Regalado, “Like in lective of femme-identifying, nonbinary queer any workplace, you just have to fi nd a shop or tattooers called “broad squad.” They raise space that best fi ts you and makes you comfort- money for various charities and folks in need able, one with like-minded people. There are via art shows, fl ash events, and more. COVID-19 so many di erent kinds of shops out there now interrupted plans for multiple events, including that you’ll always find the right place where one to help at-risk LGBTQ+ youth and women’s you’ll fi t in. I’ve been fortunate enough to work shelters, and one for tattooing over mastecto- with very down-to-earth guys, and Archer has my scars. always had a neighborhood and family vibe— buddy. currently tattoos at Speakeasy more like annoying brothers that constantly Custom Tattoo in Wicker Park. Take a look at Gabriel Chalfi n-Piney is a queer, polyamorous, self-taught tattoo artist. COURTESY THE ARTIST mess with me.” It’s no wonder that she’s been their portfolio @snak3oil on Instagram, and 14 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll Housing Discrimination pride is against the law! Northside Community Resources Fair Housing and Housing Programs e-mail [email protected] to set up a a tattoo machine o a friend, began seeking ad- consultation. vice about safety and sterilization, and started It is against the law in Cook County to discriminate in the rental and use of offering free tattoos to folks in upstate New housing because of: Becca Iturralde York, where they lived. Since then, they have re- located to Chicago and continued learning with Race Gender Sexual orientation To some surprise, Becca Iturralde actually each new tattoo. In terms of style, activists, Ethnicity Family status Gender Identity credits their quick success in the tattoo indus- “scratchers” (self-taught artists), and print- Religion Disability Criminal history Source of income (including housing choice vouchers) and other classes try to their intersectional identities. They’re makers have been their inspiration all along a Pilsen native who identifi es as a nonbinary the way, particularly contemporary artists like Did you know that refusing to rent, lying about whether an apartment is available, queer person of Mexican American ethnicity, Inez Nathaniel Walker, Francesco Clemente, and showing apartments only in certain areas, buildings, or parts of buildings is which is uncommon in the Chicago handpoke Gwendolyn Knight, Martin Puryear, and Philip housing discrimination? tattoo scene. Guston. Being a tattoo artist was always a dream for Chalfin-Piney cites Instagram as playing a NCR’s Fair Housing Program offers outreach and education to all and legal Iturralde, but the gatekeeping of the industry formative role in their work as a tattoo artist. representation to people experiencing discrimination. It investigates possible was made to exclude people like them. However, They looked to @ritasalt and @framacho, housing discrimination and assists clients in filing and resolving discrimination after they discovered handpoke tattoos on Ins- artists who had tattooed them in the past, for complaints to address violations and prevent future discrimination. tagram, Iturralde fell in love and started doing guidance in getting started. @inkthediaspora, NCR’s Housing Program educates tenants and landlords about their rights whatever they could to learn and practice by a platform that highlights BIPOC folks and and responsibilities under the Chicago Residential Landlord-Tenant Ordinance themself and in their community. It’s only been provides resources and workshops, has helped regarding leases, repairs, security deposits, and much more. The program a year and a half, but it’s now their full-time job. them learn more about color-matching and provides assistance to tenants and landlords to improve the rental experience. “How I approach tattooing is definitely communicating with clients when tattooing shaped by my experience living as a QTPOC,” non-white skin. Hashtags like #qttr (queer For more information about housing discrimination or if you feel you have been they say. “My style is illustrative and soft, and tattooer) and #queerchicago provide an imme- discriminated against, please call or email us today. Our services are free and my goal is to cause the least amount of trauma diate network for clients and artists to fi nd each confidential. If you are a tenant or landlord and want to attend a training session, to the skin. Black and Brown folks often expe- other. please contact us. rience racism in tattooing whether it’s inten- They emphasize the influence of @tama- tional or not, since many tattooers are not well rasantibanez, who’s been very vocal about dis- 1530 W. Morse Ave., Chicago trained when it comes to tattooing darker skin mantling white supremacy and anti-Blackness phone: 773-338-7722 ext. 16 tones. Many artists believe they must tattoo in the scene, as well as providing guidance for email: [email protected] deeper or harder to make the ink stick better informed consent and trauma-aware tattoo- website: www.northsidecommunityresources.org
on dark skin (this just scars people) or artists ing—guidelines for which can be found through The work that provided the basis for this publication was supported by funding under a grant with the U.S. will deny potential clients color tattoos based @disciplinepress. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The substance and findings of the work are dedicated to the public. The author and publisher are solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations contained in this on the color of their skin (this is just ignorant). “I always ask someone coming in for a tattoo publication. Such interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Government. Because of this, many Black and Brown people if they are comfortable with me touching a are wary of the mainstream tattoo industry, and part of their body that I am planning to tattoo they want to try handpoke because of how gen- during the session and letting them know that tle and intentional the craft is when done right if they need a break at any time, we can stop,” . . . Traditionally, tattooing is a sacred practice. Chalfi n-Piney says. “I do this regardless of loca- It was invented by BIPOC, and I fi nd it incredibly tion of the tattoo; having a stranger touch your important to honor that.” body is intimate and requires repeated verbal H C R A M | E C N I S LY K E E W E E R F S ’ O AG C I H C Iturralde only allows fellow queer and/or consent and check-ins. There is some idea in the Don’t miss Brown artists to tattoo them, avoiding the “ste- tattooing industry that you have to wait to take reotypical tatt bro” and continuing to support breaks or ‘we just need to fi nish this line’ and I and grow the queer and POC tattoo community. disagree with that concept. At least for me, we an issue Iturralde works out of a private studio, and can stop whenever we need to. There’s no rush.” their books remain closed due to COVID-19, Chalfin-Piney says, “I really think there is which disproportionately affects Black and space for queer folks in the industry. I think Brown communities. They will announce re- realizing that you can ask for help is the big- Get the Next 12 Issues opening on their Instagram @softbarrio and gest step; I had to be patient when I started of the Chicago Reader website softbarrio.com. tattooing, taking time to learn all of the safety procedures and ways of tattooing, and I’m still Delivered to Your Home STAY AT HOME Gabriel Chalfi n-Piney learning.” chicagoreader.com/ Chalfi n-Piney is not currently tattooing due A printmaker by trade, Gabriel Chalfi n-Piney to COVID-19, but they are on Instagram @garlic. support is a queer, polyamorous, self-taught tattoo bagel and @daddyasthma. v artist with a style all their own. About three years ago, Chalfi n-Piney bought @itstarynallen ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 15 pride
An IRL Peach party from the before times of racism, violence, and oppression given that KELAINE PHOTO these are very real threats. Thus, coping does not always look like decreasing alertness; and vulnerability in the health-care system. rather, it may look like seeking out or creating Since many LGBTQ people live in metropolitan spaces in which you feel certain you are actual- areas with the highest numbers of coronavirus ly safe. This is why it’s so important for queer cases, they have also been impacted by job folks to have access to queer-only spaces, and loss and unemployment, as well as disparities for BIPOC to have BIPOC-only spaces—virtual, in physical health and mental health. With 17 or otherwise.” percent of LGBTQ adults not having access to Right now, folks are taking to the streets and health insurance coverage (compared to 12 per- still battling rising numbers of COVID. Patricia cent of non-LGBTQ citizens), it can be a terrify- Newton, chief executive and medical director ing and mentally distressing time. The inequal- of the Black Psychiatrists of America, told the ities around BIPOC and the LGBTQ community Washington Post that the quarantine was the are refl ected in their access to health care. “kindling, and the police brutality lit the fi re.” Recently, the Vine published a video with Anger and isolation have confl ated and resulted Casey Tanner, who runs Queer Sex Therapy, a in a national response. Systemic racism has COMMUNITY virtual brand that promotes anti-oppressive, contributed to decades of trauma and stress, pleasure-positive, queer content on Instagram, closely linked to PTSD. Psychologists call this and partners with various sexual health brands “racial trauma,” where years of e ects can se- Queer self-care straight from the that are looking at better ways to reach queer verely damage the mental and physical health communities. Her “Sex Pros You Gotta Know” of Black folks. PTSD may be caused by a one- highlights BIPOC sex educators, therapists, time event, whereas racial trauma is ongoing Vine and artists. Tanner has also been an avid Peach as Black people continue to be murdered and attendee since the collective’s early days. endure discrimination. For the Black LGBTQ Lifestyle and event brand Peach launches a digital headspace. Tanner’s episode for the Vine was filmed community, trauma takes many roots. With the and posted prior to recent protests, but she recent deaths of Riah Milton and Dominique By S N L addresses queer resilience and ways of coping “Rem’mie” Fells plus the Trump administra- in a healthy way with the stressors and anxiety tion’s reversal on protections for trans people’s of COVID. When I ask her how folks can armor health care, communities are overwhelmed n the before times, Saturdays were filled able future, we had team meetings to discuss themselves amidst the stress of the protests, with heartbreak and frustration. As a result, with cocktails, sequins, queer DJs, and per- what Peach should focus on and how we could she explains that she has to look at everyone’s self-care and mental health take a back seat. Iformances. My Saturdays look a lot di erent contribute support to the community during di erent identity. “White people in the LGBTQ+ Tanner’s video addresses concerns surround- nowadays and my Sundays are a little less this time. We created the Vine to give a plat- community are going to have entirely di erent ing our mental stabilities during the current hungover. Before, I would be plotting, planning, form to members of the Chicago queer commu- experiences than LGBTQ+ Black folks, and health climate and how to overcome these and scheduling days to dance and surround my- nity and create helpful, entertaining videos for Black folks will have di erent experiences than obstacles. The Vine shows us that Peach was self with other dancing bodies. Since 2017, the our Peaches.” The digital content series, which other people of color. As a white person, I can’t never just about partying—it’s so much more lifestyle and event brand Peach has celebrated lives on Instagram @peachpresents, features speak to ways in which people of color should than that. LGBTQ women and nonbinary folks with music, LGBTQ folks like DJs, health-care profession- cope, however, I can say that other white folks “From the start, the goal of Peach has been drinks, food, and dancing. The parties Peach als, and more discussing sex, dating, wellness, should be armoring themselves as protectors, to create incredible queer experiences and threw at Market Days and Bad Hunter created music, art, and more. Where folks went to Peach advocates, and accomplices in this movement. gatherings that we ourselves would want to a safe space for femme folks to join a commu- parties to connect with their queer community, We need to prepare ourselves to have hard con- attend and that also give back,” says Auberry. nity of anywhere from 70 to 400 people. And the Vine has stepped up as wellness support for versations with family about white supremacy. “Every event and almost every project we do Peach is so much more than just an outing on queer people while in isolation. We need to practice our distress tolerance skills has a giving element with donations, support, a Saturday night. Dancing is self-care. Getting Black Thread Agency is a multicultural mar- that help us really self-evaluate our growth resources, etc.” They recently partnered with pampered and primped is self-care. Connect- keting and events firm. Auberry began BTA edges.” Raygun to create a “Pride Is a Protest” shirt, ing with queer communities is self-care. With as a way to create projects that empower her In her Vine video, Tanner mentions “hy- and a portion of the proceeds will go to Brave events and parties obviously being canceled community and colleagues. “We build with in- pervigilance” as a response during times of Space Alliance, the only Black-led, trans-led and postponed, party projects like Peach have tention and use our skills to uplift movements, stress. “Hypervigilance can look like being LGBTQ center in Chicago, which is doing great been hit hard during the pandemic. During the people, and places that mean the most to us,” extra aware of your surroundings, feeling like work with jail support, CPS meal distribution, quarantine period, Peach promoters found she says. To continue this momentum, Auber- you’re constantly on alert, and/or being easily and feeding south- and west-side Chicagoans. that they needed to seek an alternative, digital ry’s creation of the Vine helps address certain startled,” she says. Our vigilance and alertness Auberry hopes that viewers will get a “nice component for their project. As a response, the concerns and anxieties occurring within our can cross the boundary into hypervigilance little ten-minute mental break while they watch Vine was born. society during these precarious times. as we continuously scroll through news feeds, an episode” and feel connected to “others in the Bre Auberry, the president of Black Thread A USA Today article from early May looked bombard our brains with constant information, community, gaining useful tips for adapting to Agency, which produces Peach, says, “When at how coronavirus is a ecting LGBTQ folks, es- and get worked up about negative outcomes. everything happening now.” v quarantine went into effect and we saw that pecially those of color, and how the community “For example, Black folks have every reason to events wouldn’t be happening for the foresee- is—and has been—experiencing discrimination be hypervigilant about possible experiences @snicolelane 16 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 17 pride
is being pushed to the top because the had some negative experiences, so I’m able to dominant narrative has been talked about relate to a lot of di erent people. For me, my for so long, and so for us the nondominant personal experiences have certainly put me in narrative is something that we really focus a position where I have seen a lot, I’ve experi- on when we’re having conversations with enced a lot, and I’ve learned when and how to organizations. We ground our work in so- react. cial identity. A lot of companies and organi- zations talk about unconscious bias, or talk It seems like a very di cult job to separate Tiff any Hudson about allyship, or talk about these di erent from your personal life because it has to be ASHTON TY DEI topics, but what we say is, “Yes, we can personal. certainly talk about those topics with you, but instead of diving into those topics, let’s Especially with everything right now with the lay some foundational work here and talk movement, the Black Lives Matter movement about social identity, because really that’s has always been incredible to me, and I think why all of those things are existing.” And now seeing where the Black Lives Matter I’ll tell you, some companies are totally on movement has gone, there’s certainly, certain- board with it, and some companies hate it, ly some personal feelings around all of it, and but it’s something that we will not shy away then there is a professional side. I think I’m still from. fi guring it out. Our business is the busiest it’s ever been since we started. I prioritize my care, Why do you think there is that pushback I’m never ashamed to say I’m upset. And my from some people to approach it in that business partners and employees, we also take BUSINESS way? care of each other. My business partners are real good at knowing if we’re in a conversation The new face of DEI work What we’ve been told [is], “Well you’re and I’m checking out, to know we have to step Tiff any Hudson and her partners are bringing diversity, equity, and inclusion to putting people into boxes” or “You’re back, especially at a time like this. Chicago businesses their way. quote-unquote calling people out,” and we’re actually not doing that at all. A lot of How are you approaching all the business By B W these big corporations have what we call you’re getting right now and making sure employee resource groups, and so busi- people continue to do the work beyond this nesses with employee resource groups are specifi c moment? i any Hudson is in the DEI business—and to do it a little di erently than we saw a lot of often defi ned or explained by social iden- right now, business is booming. For the companies doing it. That’s really why we start- tity. Like, if we have a resource group for I’ll be very honest with people. A lot of the Tpast three and a half years she’s been ed the business, we’re very passionate about Black individuals at the organization or a people I’ve spoken to—and now mind you, we helping companies improve their diversity, it. We think that in the United States, and even resource group for folks who identify on the are in the process of hiring folks and we are equity, and inclusion practices, work that’s in the world, diversity, equity, and inclusion LGBTQ+ spectrum. We’re already talking dividing and covering it as a business—but quickly gained momentum in recent weeks as work—there have been some great people out about social identity, we’re just not calling the folks that I’ve spoken to, no one is really in a result of national attention being drawn even there doing some great work for quite some it that, so the groups are already there. So it for the one and done, and I’m actually very, more to how systemic racism affects every time now, I think most people would be sur- I think that this is more of an approach that very happy to hear that. It’s very interesting to industry. Hudson and her business partners prised to know how long this work has been gets people a little uncomfortable, and I me that some people are really just realizing work with all industries—they call themselves done, and we thought, “Let’s be another one of think that’s what folks have to start doing, that systemic racism is a thing, but also I’m “industry agnostic”—and the companies range those companies that’s making some change, is getting comfortable with being uncom- glad that they’re realizing it. It’s better now in size from two people to 40,000 employees. and making impactful change, not just coming fortable when talking about diversity, equi- than never. I think that a lot of companies The reasoning behind that is simple: everyone in and doing one workshop and leaving.” Really ty, and inclusion. and organizations are understanding that can benefi t from improving diversity, equity, it was about wanting to see a di erence in the this is not something that changed overnight, and inclusion. I talked with Hudson about the corporate space and disrupt some things cor- How has your experience growing up and because this has been hundreds and hundreds Nova Collective’s approach to their work, her porately, that’s what we’ve been trying to do. working in the world informed how you of years that it has been building. And so now personal experiences she brings to the job, and approach this topic for other people? how do we break it down. Right now we’re of- the work we all still need to do. What are some of those things you do di er- fering companies something called processing Our conversation has been edited for length ently at Nova Collective? My dad has worked in diversity, equity, and sessions, and the one thing that we’re telling and clarity. inclusion at a bank here in Chicago for quite them is, “Hey, here’s the deal, if you have this, We have a very strong commitment in making some time, right up until his passing. I think we want you to understand that this is going Brianna Wellen: What made you fi rst decide sure all of our teams are sta ed with a majority I’ve always been around the work and I’ve to unearth a lot of things that are happening to form the Nova Collective? women and majority people of color. We’re subconsciously probably been taking in so at your organization, and what you have to always prioritizing underrepresented groups, much growing up, and I think growing up understand is this is not the end, this is just the Tiffany Hudson: The four founders decided and honestly when we’re talking about diversi- in a diverse suburb right out of Chicago, I beginning.” v we wanted to work exclusively on diversity, ty, equity, inclusion work, we’re always trying saw a lot. I think being a Black gay woman, equity, and inclusion work, and we wanted to make sure that the nondominant narrative I’ve had some positive experiences and I’ve @BriannaWellen 18 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll LIVE WITH PURPOSE 100% of profits go toward HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in Illinois
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ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 19 pride
right here. We are not going anywhere.” The Vixen JOSHUAN APONTE
The elephant in the room Get your dollars out Humboldt Park-based UrbanTheater is also When south-side-born-and-raised drag acting up online and oª . UT’s weekly series queen the Vixen addressed Chicago’s Drag ¡Que Pasa! launches with comedy from Ros- March for Change in Boystown Sunday, June coe Village native Gwen La Roka, who fi nds 14, the RuPaul’s Drag Race alum evoked the funny at the intersection of social justice Johnson’s righteous rage. and social distancing. “Growing up gay and Black on the south “Usually, I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ll talk smack side, you had to worry about dying because about anything,’” La Roka said. “But now? of how you looked and also because of how There’s a lot of triggers for a lot of people you felt,” recalled the Vixen. The overwhelm- around the devastation of COVID. You have ingly white gay enclave in Boystown didn’t to tread lightly, but you can’t go up on stage offer much of a respite, she added. “When and ignore that very obvious elephant in the I fi nally went to my fi rst Pride on the north room.” COVID isn’t the only elephant. side, it was like, ‘Oh. I’m not welcome here “I saw a post recently that asked why some either.’” people are acting like Black people just came With her Black Girl Magic and Queer out, like, the extent of racism (BIPOC) people Table, the Vixen is forging her own brand of deal with is something that’s news that we’re welcoming space. BGM is an online variety all just realizing. But that elephant has been show for Black drag queens; Queer Table is a here for 400 years.” talk show where cohosts Vixen and Dida Ritz La Roka describes her ¡Que Pasa! set as and a crew of LGBTQIA+ youth discuss every- “comedy up front, hang around, have a drink thing from body dysmorphia to transphobia. and pick my brain” after the stand-up set. “When I started drag in 2013, there was “I tell stories about growing up queer this respectability factor. If you were a drag with Mexican and Guatemalan parents, queen, you were there to entertain, and that sometimes with Spanglish. I’ve had little old was it. Well, I could only keep my mouth shut ladies say to me, ‘I didn’t understand every for so long,” she said. “Black trans women word you said, but I know exactly what you have always been at the forefront of every were talking about. My Italian mother was movement,” she informs audiences at the top just like your mom.’” of BGM. “It’s time for us to show them some love. So get your dollars out,” she said. Pushed, challenged, broken PRIDE Actor Christine Chang is making their pro- You don’t get to look away fessional debut in Chicago online. They play Aimy Tien radiates a similar boldness with Ferdinand in Shakespeare All-Stars online A parade of online talent for The Constitution of Queerdom, penned and staging of The Tempest. Ferdinand’s story is performed by About Face Theatre’s youth almost eerily timely: a shipwreck (or a space ensemble. wreck in All-Stars’s revisionist take) leaves Pride “So many people think Pride is just rain- Ferdinand cruelly isolated and struggling to bows and glitter and naked people. I’m like survive in a strange, scary new world. Zoom Queer performers bust binaries and bigotry. no, Pride started as a riot. We celebrate, but rehearsals were a challenge, but Chang de- we have to keep fighting,” Tien said. “The cided to approach Ferdinand’s love scenes as By C S work is not done, not when the life expectan- “a Skype call with someone I have a long-dis- cy of a Black trans woman is around 35. All tance relationship with, or an extreme crush s Pride Month unfurls amid plague and world, ushering in a binary-busting revolution lives can’t matter until Black Lives Matter. on.” long-overdue global upheaval, you have that marches on some 51 years later. All Black Lives can’t matter until Black trans “This was my first Chicago show, and it Ato ask yourself one question: What To paraphrase the great Tony Kushner, her and queer lives matter.” was supposed to be on a regular stage. So would Marsha P. Johnson do? great work continues. For Pride 2020, much of The Constitution of Queerdom is part of I’ve mourned the loss of that,” they added. In the Beginning (June 28, 1969 to be exact), it continues online as artists navigate a world About Face Youth Theatre’s “Power in Pride “But then I got excited to see how we were Johnson allegedly lobbed a brick (some say where contagion has redefi ned what it means at Home” series, which has the young en- going to transition. I mean, yes there are a stiletto) at the cops who had decided, yet to create community. semble creating new mini-plays weekly, all limitations, but limitations are meant to be again, to fuck with the LGBT (it would be Below, a roundup of artists celebrating geared toward amplifying queer voices. pushed, challenged, broken.” decades before the acronym became truly in- Pride and—like the late, great Marsha “Pay “The more stories we can tell, the better,” clusive) kings and queens of the Stonewall Inn. It No Mind” Johnson—demanding the world said Tien. “Queer stories matter. Queer peo- Pretending to be a man Johnson fl ung the projectile heard round the take notice. ple matter. You don’t get to look away. We are Like Chang, Kory Wall is making their Chica- 20 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll pride PEOPLE MAKE go acting debut electronically. The nonbina- Theater’s Wasted, Sebastian Olayo (alter CHOICES. ry 25-year-old plays Man in playwright (and ego: drag queen Cindy Nero) had to adapt Reader contributor) Jack Helbig’s Thinking fast when COVID shut down in-person re- of Her. . ., slated to run June 25 through July hearsals of a youth-devised exploration of 12 via cutlassartists.com. environmental racism. The production Olayo The elliptical romance unspools as a love describes as a mash-up of docudrama, John triangle where traditional gender roles Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, and an SNL skit CHOICES are shrugged off as Man/Waiter, Someone/ was in rehearsal when the shutdown came. Waiter, Woman and Woman (Later) navigate “Some teens expressed being over- MAKE romance. Wall is in Springfi eld, Illinois, with whelmed and ready to give up,” Olayo said. other cast members rehearsing from Oregon “We told them, yes, we might feel hopeless and Nebraska. Director Mark Hardiman over- or helpless, but we are not at a standstill. We HISTORY. sees the project from his Kansas home. “The are making a fully formed new work that we virtual rehearsing is new, but I’ve had a lot of will share with the world. We’re doing more experience pretending to be a man, so—that work than anyone on Broadway right now. I wasn’t new,” Wall said. am proud to say we didn’t lose anyone. They all honored the ensemble and the work they’d Deja vu already put in.” Fostering safety within the LGBTQIA com- munity—specifi cally among its dancers—has Broadly speaking been a priority for Chicago’s Mark Ferguson If anyone knows about keeping the faith Gomez since he performed in Dance for Life in COVID times, it’s Meghan Murphy. The more than 20 years ago. Under the auspices cabaret artist was on a ship in the middle of Chicago Dancers United, Dance for Life is of the Indian Ocean when countries started in its 29th year of raising money for the Chi- closing their borders due to COVID-19. After cago Dancers’ Fund, where dancers can apply failed attempts to dock in both Sri Lanka and for fi nancial relief. Gomez and his husband India, the ship eventually stopped at Oman. Tom Ferguson Gomez have chaired the an- Murphy headed home, and began work on nual DFL gala for years, but this year is their Adventures from a Broad, a Patreon series fi rst time overseeing a virtual program. that follows the singer as she traipses the “I’ve had friends say I don’t seem too world from the ruins of Rome to the tropics worried,” he said. “I’m like, well, I’ve already of Tanzania, the travelogue punctuated by been through something similar, something numbers from a nightclub act that’s played that was killing us and we didn’t know what from Broadway to Boystown. She’s donating it was. With AIDS, we had to learn to navigate a chunk of the proceeds to Brave Space Al- the unknown, the fear.” liance, the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ DFL 2020 (August 10-14) will feature center on the south side. STAND UP TO RACISM, past performances followed by an August “It’s giving me purpose in this time of, ‘OK, 15 world premiere fi nale choreographed by what are we supposed to do now? Because BIGOTRY AND HATE. Hanna Brictson. It will also feature work by live theater isn’t going to happen for a min- internationally renowned choreographer ute,’” she said of the project. With theaters Facing History & Ourselves has been Randy Duncan, whose joy-infused 1994 en- including the Mercury and iO announcing committed to creating a more just world semble piece “Lean on Me” is prominently permanent closures, fi nding that purpose is posted on Chicago Dancers United website. paramount, she said. for over 40 years. We help educators use “Who’d have thought something I created “I think the Mercury closing could be a the lessons of history to transform the more than 20 years ago would hold so much precursor,” she added. “That doesn’t mean next generation and stand up to racism, resonance today?” Duncan said. art is going anywhere. And whereas I do be- bigotry and hate. Duncan has thoughts for dancers stagger- lieve theater isn’t going anywhere, we simply ing under the fi st of COVID. “I tell dancers to cannot collectively continue in the same way Learn more at www.facinghistory.org/chicago hold on, better days are coming. We will get theater has been operating in recent years. back. You can’t let the despair swallow you We must diversify the stories, elect more up. Do what you can. Do classes in a park or leadership positions to BIPOC, and honor wherever if your apartment is too small. But and give power, not just responsibility, to the most of all, have faith. Believe,” he said. actual people making the art. It’s time to pass the torch and redesign the whole thing.” v Garbage, galvanized As the assistant director of Free Street @CateySullivan ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 21 THEATER
The author shows off her Fly Honey chops. “The culture that my team and I work really BRIANNA WELLEN hard to create is deeply embedded in the idea of togetherness and allowing for the dancers issue with those stated limitations. She talks and the witnesses—I say witnesses because about dance like other people talk about yoga the dancers are also each others’ witnesses, or mindfulness: It’s something you practice. right? It’s not just the audience—to exchange Make adjustments. Try something di erent. energy,” Kilmurray says. “To adapt that in the “Choreography is a conduit for a feeling virtual world was certainly a challenge.” that you as a dancer can create for yourself,” The “Honey From Home” project evolved Kilmurray says. “You don’t have to be ‘good’ from week to week before hitting pause in at it. My goal is that we give the tools to each June, while the Honeys rest their wings and person who’s practicing to make choices that rethink what this year’s “Honey Season” might feel right for you because of the story you’re look like. Advanced workshops were added trying to tell.” on the Zoom platform on Monday mornings. It’s still unclear to me exactly what story The choreography team established a “Honey I was trying to tell in those early weeks of Hotline” to ensure communication between lockdown, or to whom. But over the course of the class instructor and the live audience six or seven classes, I gradually started to pick learning and rehearsing at home. And the up more Fly Honey lingo. A “dancer’s choice world kept turning (hardly twirling) around moment,” for example, means taking however us. many counts of music to freestyle, to be pres- Gregory wore a Black Lives Matter shirt ent in the live experience, to add some hips or as she taught a class on Sunday, May 31, the some shoulders or whatever feels right. Love fi rst weekend that police protests seemingly VIRTUAL CABARET on yourself. Make a choice. I’m also a fan of engulfed the city in a collective fl ame, licking what I’m calling the “shoomp-shoomp,” where and raging and fusing together and splitting you sort of throw everything to one side and apart. Honey, I’m home! then the other, a pleasingly symmetrical one- “That day was insanely hard,” recalls Greg- two punch. ory, who doubles as the organization’s social Amid pandemic and protest, the Fly Honeys stretch their wings. “We’re well versed in the practice of making media manager, of the morning after the may- material that gives people the choice to work or’s fi rst curfew. Though she felt deeply sup- By S P with what they’ve got, whether that’s their ported by her team, she felt a responsibility to bodies, or their dance experience, or the room show up to work: “For me, my body experienc- that they’re in,” Kilmurray says. The group ing any moment of joy is an act of resistance. n a Sunday afternoon in early April, summer season for the cabaret ensemble, had hosted citywide in-person workshops in I don’t want to give this so much power that I feeling trapped at home and desperate which marked ten years as a Chicago dance springs past, so “that’s already built into our can’t do my job. . . . In hindsight, I didn’t real- Ofor a dose of glamour, I threw together tradition last August with a well-attended culture and our class culture.” ize until I started the live video and going over the sexiest outfit/attitude I could muster run at the Den Theater in Wicker Park. I never The Instagram Live videos indulge a pretty choreography how OK I actually wasn’t.” and tuned into an online dance workshop I’d managed to catch the show, which I’ve heard luxe backstage-showgirl fantasy, if you ask The decision to shift donations to charities heard about on Instagram. I needed to get my described as “part cabaret, part variety event, me. Kilmurray says it seems to be a decent mix in light of the recent police protests made blood moving and I couldn’t handle any more and part burlesque,” with the feel of a “joyous of newcomers, like me, and former ensemble immediate sense to the group’s leadership. drizzly, chilly walks around the same few city private party.” members or otherwise known quantities. Over the course of the fi rst week of June the blocks, avoiding eye contact with neighbors I’ll call my relationship with the Fly Honeys The online open-level workshops this spring Fly Honeys saw a spike in giving when they masked and unmasked. Feels like ages ago. a social-media crush, as I was always bowled attracted about 50-60 people each—certainly announced a fund-raiser for Black Visions For one hour that weekend, in the privacy over by images of the performers’ bold con- more than one could reasonably fi t in your av- Collective, a Minneapolis-based social justice of my studio apartment, I shook out all my fidence and raw sexuality. Even more than erage dance studio. Kilmurray says the work- organization, and the south side’s Brave Space early-quarantine stress: the abrupt shift to the range of body types and skin tones and shops, which have been free of charge with a Alliance (after the fl ooded Chicago Communi- remote work, the isolation of my living sit- ink on display, they always seemed to me to suggested donation of $5 per class, have been ty Bond Fund encouraged donors to shift their uation, and the pervasive, collective fear of represent a certain kind of cool-babe self-love. self-sustaining for the teaching artists and giving to other organizations in need). They exposure to inevitable illness, death, and/or The classes cover about one minute each of administrative side. raised a total of $2,669 for the two groups. utter fi nancial ruin. NBD. I cleared a makeshift choreography from a past season of the show, One Friday night, Kilmurray teaches a tease “Fly Honey is a body-based performance dance space and attempted moves that would taught by one of the three members of the cho- from a few seasons ago, set to “Pony” by Ginu- project,” Kilmurray says. “Bodies and space make my Catholic mother blush. I don’t re- reography team: Kasey Alfonso, Alyssa Grego- wine. She offers some storytelling options are political, no matter what space they’re in member the last time I felt so good in my body. ry, and founder and director Erin Kilmurray. around the fl irtatious choreography: the idea and whose they are. We’re doing what we can This was my first direct encounter with I should admit up front that I’m not much is that you’re dancing to the left wall, whether with the resources we have to contribute to The Fly Honey Show, which hosted a wave of of a dancer, nor am I particularly athletic. that’s your partner, or an imagined audience the movement. It’s really as simple as that. It “Honey From Home” open dance workshops I’m also a person with Type 1 diabetes who member who’s caught your eye, or your cat, or doesn’t feel like a radical gesture.” v this spring through Instagram Live and Zoom. relies on an insulin pump and feels awkward in your couch. Keep returning to that sightline It was an unprecedented start to an uncertain group-fi tness situations. But Kilmurray takes and think about who you’re dancing for. @sallyannihilate 22 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll eChicago Reader is now biweekly More than 50,000 copies will be available at nearly 1,200 locations across the city and suburbs. Find one near you: Upcoming Issues: chicagoreader.com/map
June 25, 2020 Pride Issue July 9, 2020 L I R P A | E C N I S LY K E E W E E R F S ’ O AG C I H C
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ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 23 24 CHICA O READER - JUNE JUNE - CHICAGO READER 25ll pride
Victor and Victoria
the only one produced in Germany during the rise of the Nazi Party—Mädchen in Uniform is more than deserving of its radical cinemat- SAT JUNE 27 @ Online ic legacy. Adapted from Christa Winsloe’s play Gestern und heute, Mädchen in Uniform Sophia Lucia’s Freak Show Cabaret explores a forbidden relationship between (EVENT REPEATS WEEKLY) Manuela (Hertha Thiele), a new student at an all-girls boarding school, and one of her WED AUG 5 @ Online, Gourmet Expos, Inc. teachers (Dorothea Wieck). Rumors of their A Live~Virtual Tasting of Liqueur & relationship wreak havoc on the boarding Artisan Specialties school’s elite image—and they are forced to face the consequences of the love that has FRI SEPT 25 @ Shore Club been deemed shameful by the institution, Beer Fest on the Beach - Oktoberfest be it through expulsion or treatment of this supposed illness. Mädchen in Uniform is an interesting piece of the classical queer film to add your event to canon as it refuses to lean into the territory of TIXREADER COM unrequited love—a trope that has only gained and see it listed here weekly, in popularity in recent years. Instead of one please send an email to woman pining over the other to no avail or at [email protected] the risk of being seen as predatory, the film ruminates on the complexities of a fi rst love PRIDE that is returned. The fi lm doesn’t critique their relationship but the persecution of it, and the fundamental inequities that stem from Film has always been queer someone being allowed to wield power over another. Pioneers of Queer Cinema highlights the history of LGBTQ stories in movies. Victor and Victoria (1933) By C C Directed by Reinhold Schünzel
If you’re a consumer of queer and transgender t’s safe to say that there are more stories a tenuous and intimate partnership between cinema, you may already be familiar with being told by queer fi lmmakers than ever acclaimed painter Claude Zoret (Benjamin Blake Edwards’s Julie Andrews-fronted musi- DATING APPS GOT Ibefore, and which are even more diverse in Christensen) and his young assistant Michael cal Victor/Victoria (or the 1995 stage musical recent years not just in terms of representa- (Walter Slezak) that becomes upended when also fronted by Andrews). But the original YOU DOWN? tion, but also in narrative and form. But queer Michael falls for a countess whom Claude is 1933 version from German fi lmmaker Reinhold Try finding someone the people have existed forever—even in film!— commissioned to paint. Michael is a delicate Schünzel—which tragically did not get much old-school way. and it’s imperative to immerse ourselves in look at loneliness and loving someone as an circulation in the United States at the time—is our own history. Pioneers of Queer Cinema, expression of one’s art when that love cannot just as delightful as its sequin-clad remakes. available through Kino Lorber’s virtual cinema be reciprocated in reality, paralleled with Susanne (Renate Müller) is an aspiring enter- Kino Marquee, highlights classic queer fi lms mesmerizing cinematography from Karl tainer, but can’t seem to get any work despite that paved the way for our current landscape, Freund and Rudolph Maté that manages to her burgeoning talent. Her opportunities many of which have been less than accessible encapsulate the fantasy of desire and art. Mi- explode, however, when she pretends to be to modern audiences—and which explore chael might be an overlooked gem in Dreyer’s a man doing drag as a woman, but juggling themes of gender and sexuality that ring just extensive filmography—from The Passion of her personal life, her career, and her various as true now as they did when they were made. Joan of Arc to Vampyr to Ordet—but it holds identities becomes overwhelming, especially its own not just through its stunning technical when she fi nds herself falling for her producer, Michael (1924) prowess, but also in its surprising cultural who has only seen her as a man. Victor and Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer longevity. Victoria is charming as a musical comedy, but it is also a remarkably poignant commentary Before there was Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Mädchen in Uniform (1931) on the performance—and illusion—of gender Carl Theodor Dreyer’s silent marvel Michael Directed by Leontine Sagan far before the likes of Judith Butler and other SUBMIT YOURS FOR FREE at examined gay desire through the relationship feminist scholars would do the same. v chicagoreader.com/matches between an artist and his muse. Based on Her- Heralded as one of the earliest lesbian fea- man Bang’s 1902 novel Mikaël, the fi lm follows ture-length films ever made—and certainly @codycorrall 26 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll R READER RECOMMENDED b ALL AGES N NEW F FILM
when you think you’ve clinched the plot, only to have it into perspective. Amoo packs a lot in—sometimes too go one—or two or three—steps further. The overserious much—and the fi lmmaking is o en frenetic, but what he giallo vibes add to the fun; it takes itself seriously so has to say needs to be heard. —K S 98 you don’t have to. In Italian with subtitles. —K min. 6/26-7/9, Facets Virtual Cinema S 102 min. Gene Siskel Film Center From Your Sofa You Should Have Left You Should Have Le is a third-place movie. Literally, it The Last Tree is the third of three horror movies released in the last R In England in the early 2000s, Femi (played by six months about a dad and his second-try family going Tai Golding as a child, then Sam Adewunmi as an adult) on a bond-building getaway only to fi nd themselves is reunited with his birth mother a er having lived with fi ghting to survive. It also happens that the other a white foster mother in the idyllic rural countryside. two fi lms, The Lodge and Becky, are better. While The two return to London, where Femi grows into Blumhouse Productions brings the star power with the a troubled young man who resists authority both at excellent Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried, it lacks House of Hummingbird home and at school, instead fi nding camaraderie on the elsewhere. The couple’s marriage (yes, they address the streets. British-Nigerian writer-director Shola Amoo’s age gap) is crumbling, so they book a modern home in NOW PLAYING this fi lm’s arrival just as the Black Lives Matter move- semi-autobiographical sophomore feature has been the Welsh countryside and bring their daughter. Soon, ment has grown momentum as a global phenomenon called the “British Moonlight”; it’s reminiscent of other Theo’s (Bacon) grasp on reality begins to unravel, set- Beats underlines that even more. —J L 90 min. coming-of-age dramas yet still wholly unique, owing to ting up psychological twists and turns, which the house A jaunty, rollicking ride, this black-and-white fi lm follows Gene Siskel Film Center From Your Sofa the specifi city that Amoo brings to it. Eventually Femi mimics physically à la Rose Red. However, his big reveal two teenage boys in Scotland in 1994. Jonno (Cristian begins to question his choices and comes to terms with is as predictable as Susanna’s (Seyfried) smaller one, Ortega) is a moody but quiet adolescent, struggling facets of his life that had been frustrating him; this is which leaves little to look forward to but an explanation to come to terms with an impending move to a better House of Hummingbird partly realized through a trip he and his mother take of the house’s history, which never comes. —B neighborhood, as well as the presence of his mother’s R Director Kim Bora paints an airy watercolor to Lagos, which helps put their fraught relationship J R, 93 min. In wide release on VOD v new cop boyfriend. Spanner (Lorn MacDonald) lives portrait in this 2018 fi lm about a 14-year-old girl living in with his brother, Fido, in a violent, barely-held-together Seoul in 1994. Eun-hee (Park Ji-hoo) fl its around the city, household. The two are best friends, unlikely but like the titular hummingbird, from school’s oppressive inseparable, and as they grapple with their increasingly boredom to her volatile home, searching for aff ection in divergent lives, they decide to go to an illegal rave for teachers, friends, boyfriends, and girlfriends. Perfectly one last night of fun. Touching on themes of deindus- capturing the listless searching feeling characteristic trialization and disillusionment, director Brian Welsh of early adolescence, this movie is delicate and sub- The Virtual Beach Ball carefully constructs this gritty portrayal of a northern tle, never verging into saccharine sentimentality, but Scottish town in the early 1990s. —N L C 101 instead delivering a stunning emotional slow burn. min. Music Box Theatre Virtual Cinema With an easy, lingering tempo and stunning frames Online Auction shot through with light, this South Korean drama leaves bac.givesmart.com the viewer with a sense of contemplative midsummer Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of lassitude. Korean with subtitles. —N L C 138 R Those Things min. Music Box Theatre Virtual Cinema I’m always surprised when documentaries about legacy The Virtual musicians seem content to speak primarily to existing fans, without fully capturing the energy their subjects The Invisible Witness brought to the table during their time or their ongoing I’m usually too impatient to read mystery novels— infl uence. But from the fi rst minutes of Ella Fitzgerald: inevitably I fi nd myself fi ghting the impulse to thumb Just One of Those Things, this profi le on the “First Lady ahead and satiate my curiosity—but mystery in cinema of Song” presents a diff erent tone: the fi lm opens with assuages my occasional urge to ask “Whodunit?” This famed dancer and comedian Norma Miller describing 2018 fi lm by Italian director Stefano Mordini (based how she watched a young, homeless teen named Ella on a Spanish fi lm by Oriol Paulo from two years prior) Fitzgerald win Amatuer Night at the Apollo Theater in isn’t anything to write home about, but it sure is fun to 1934. The rest, as they say, is history. Through interviews watch; if anything, its relative artlessness underscores with friends and colleagues—generations of musicians the gratifying, though somewhat unwieldy, plot. A er including Smokey Robinson, Laura Mvula, Alexis Mor- a tech entrepreneur (Riccardo Scamarcio) wakes up in rast, and, notably, Fitzgerald’s son, Ray Brown Jr.—the a hotel room to fi nd his mistress (Miriam Leone) mur- fi lm showcases how Fitzgerald’s sheer talent, resilience, dered, authorities are quick to accuse him of killing her. and hard work helped her overcome personal tragedy, Insistent that he’s been framed, a revered lawyer (Maria loneliness, racism, and gender-based bias to become Paiato) comes in to help suss out the entrepreneur’s one of the most notable fi gures of the 20th century. story, which soon involves an unfortunate car accident Just like her music, Fitzgerald’s story is timeless, and and an unlikely revenge scheme. The best parts occur ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 27 PAID ADVERTISEMENT NEW TIMES REQUIRE NEW THINKING It’s times like these that your largest asset can be a life saver. 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325049_10_x_9.875.indd 1 6/3/20 3:58 PM
28 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll Illustration by Mel Quagrainie MEL_ODIOUSART
ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 29 pride
FRANK OKAY
he Sex Pistols rewired lots of young minds in 1976, when they How three gay bars—La Mere began their scorched-earth climb Vipere, O’Banion’s, and Oz— to infamy in London—and within became the cradle of the city’s Tlittle more than a year, their punk scene music had also changed the life of a 24-year- old in Chicago named Terry Fox. On a Sunday Chicago night in August 1977, Fox and a couple friends BY were walking north on Halsted Street in Lin- coln Park when someone opened the front LEOR door of a squat A-frame nearby and a burst of noise rushed out. “It sounded like TNT going GALIL o , there was fl ashing neon lights—and then punk was the door closed,” Fox says. Though he was sur- rounded by music at the time—he had a ware- house job with the M.S. Distributing Company in Morton Grove—he’d never heard anything like that sound. “I opened the door, and Kenny Ellis—who born queer was the doorman—was standing there,” Fox 30 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll pride
says. “I said, ‘What is this place?’ And he goes, mostly cover bands, and hardly any local punk to it constantly,” says Snake Pit regular Mike at La Mere Vipere. They’d opened it as a disco ‘La Mere Vipere—it’s the mother of the snake.’ bands existed yet anyway. It was a place where “Sparkle” Rivers, who’d moved to Chicago with the same nonconformist attitude as the And I go, ‘What kind of music is this?’ He people who loved the emerging punk counter- from Detroit in the early 70s with his partner, Snake Pit, with a bar on the second fl oor, neon said, ‘Punk rock, man. It’s cool.’” And though culture could hear the music and dance to it. John “Taco” Morales. Rivers particularly liked palm trees and flamingos on the walls, and it might seem too on the nose to be true, Fox The club was so important to the emerging the Snake Pit’s eclectic jukebox, whose selec- barstools decked out in leopard print. The swears the song that brought him into La Mere punk community that it was name-checked tions included Barry White, David Bowie, and dance fl oor, walled in by exposed brick, took was the Sex Pistols’ debut single, “Anarchy in by Chicago’s first punk fanzine, the La Mere Roxy Music—Boudreau and Wroblewski even up most of the ground fl oor, and the DJs’ sets the U.K.” Gabba Gabba Gazette. let people bring in their own records to play included the Isley Brothers, Donna Summer, In August 1977, the Sex Pistols had already After the fi re closed La Mere, two other bars on it. and Love Unlimited. But La Mere just wasn’t a been signed and then dropped by a couple fi lled its niche: O’Banion’s in River North and The Snake Pit drew an irreverent crowd of big draw. “Because it was Tom and Noe’s bar, a major labels in the UK, but they were yet to Oz in Rogers Park, which later moved to River gay and straight people, including many art- lot of the big gay crowd didn’t go there,” Riv- close their deal with Warner Brothers, which North and then Lakeview. By 1979 they’d both ists and actors. It stood in contrast to Dugan’s ers says. “Because it wasn’t ‘cool.’ It wasn’t a that November would release the U.S. version started hosting emerging local punk bands, Bistro, a hot River North gay disco that had ‘real’ gay bar.” of their first and only proper album, Never who often had nowhere else to play. Many of opened in 1973. The Snake Pit and its owners Rivers was bartending at La Mere when he Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. EMI those bands contributed to a live 1981 compi- didn’t aspire to the glamour of the Bistro or pitched Boudreau and Wroblewski the idea of had issued “Anarchy in the U.K.” in the UK in lation album recorded at Oz’s third and final other mainstream queer spaces; musically and hosting a punk night. They decided to take a November 1976, but the label dissolved their location, called Busted at Oz—a landmark otherwise, they aimed for something stranger gamble on a Sunday night—Mother’s Day, to contract with the band less than two months document of the Chicago punk scene, it fea- and sleazier, and they were open to straight be exact—since gay bars didn’t draw a lot of later. The circumstances made it hard to hear tures some of the fi rst recordings by the likes artists who shared this attitude. The bar’s foot tra¨ c on Sundays anyway. Molini and fel- the Pistols in the States, never mind Chicago. of Naked Raygun, Silver Abuse, and the Effi- subversion of an already subversive counter- low Sounds Good employee Rick Faust helped Difficult, but not impossible: you could hear gies. Though neither O’Banion’s nor Oz would culture appealed to Rivers, and he started Rivers plan what became Anarchy at La Mere. them at La Mere Vipere, Chicago’s fi rst punk survive past 1982, they were critical to helping bartending there a couple nights a week. They took out an ad in the Reader and spread disco. punk flourish in Chicago—and like La Mere, “The Snake Pit was just such a weird bar,” word through the shop. They charged a $1 Located at 2132 N. Halsted, La Mere Vipere they started and to some degree continued to Rivers says. “Back then, gay people were very cover, which Molini collected at the door, and had only just gone punk when Fox stumbled operate as gay bars. conservative, ’cause a lot of them had to live in Rivers and Faust helped DJ. across it. Its fi rst punk night, “Anarchy at La In their recent book, Glitter Up the Dark: the closet—but when they were gay, they were La Mere’s fi rst punk night didn’t cause much Mere,” was on May 8, 1977. The night quickly How Pop Music Broke the Binary, music critic like, really gay. A primary part of my life was commotion in Chicago’s mainstream gay became a weekly happening, and La Mere and Reader contributor Sasha Ge en provides never that I was gay, ’cause I never cared that community, to the extent that anyone noticed began to attract a hodgepodge of newcomers detailed insight into the ways queer and I was gay.” it at all. The club was already a punk hot spot eager to dance to the Pistols, the Ramones, and gender-nonconforming artists shaped pop Rivers also held down a job at Sounds Good by the time Ralph Paul addressed its makeover Blondie. At the end of June, La Mere threw a music—including punk and its antecedent, Records on Broadway near Belmont, which in his lifestyle column for the October 1977 three-night party called “Punk-o-Rama,” com- glam rock. Geffen’s book made me curious stocked lots of disco 12-inches and glam-rock issue of Gay Chicago News/Journal, and his pleting its transition. Central to the success of about the intersection of gay bars and the albums for the neighborhood’s gay clientele, brief note sounds more bemused and curious the club’s new identity was its old identity: La punk scene in Chicago. Punks and queer people including a healthy selection of imports. By than o ended: “Swinging from a try at being Mere Vipere had opened in Februrary 1976 as were both marginalized, but for very di erent 1976, Rivers had become an assistant manager a gay disco the La Mere Vipere has become the a gay bar. Because it was already a welcoming reasons. How and why did this intersection at the shop, and as punk began to break out in headline Punk Rock Palace for the Windy City. space for people cut o from the mainstream, happen in the fi rst place? And how did queer the UK, Sounds Good started selling the Sex Punks I’ve been told have no sexual preference it made a natural home for a fringe subculture culture influence the character of Chicago Pistols, the Ramones, and other punk releases but it is attracting many curious about the with queer roots. punk? from both sides of the pond. Rivers saw punk new wave.” La Mere would only last as a punk disco for “I have always pointed out the fact that punk as an extension of the glam he loved, and with- Future Oz proprietor Dem Hopkins also ap- a little more than 11 months—it closed after really grew in Chicago out of queer culture,” in a couple years Sounds Good had become a pears in that month’s Gay Chicago News/Jour- a mysterious fire in April 1978. But its brief says Oz owner Dem Hopkins, who booked the destination for fans of the Village People as nal. He’d led an all-night vigil outside Tribune run has reverberated for decades, in Chicago bar’s bands and briefl y managed the E¨ gies. well as fans of Richard Hell & the Voidoids. “It Tower after the Tribune refused to run an ad and beyond. It nurtured a local scene whose In his eyes, there’s no question that at the was kind of like a culture clash, but the two for Lend-a-Man (later renamed Benchmark), infl uence is still being felt: among the regulars beginning, punk and queer culture went hand cultures were both based on minority culture,” a gay employment agency he co-owned. The were punk pioneer Jim Skafi sh and confron- in hand. “They’re inextricably linked,” he says. he says. “That’s why I think the punk scene August issue of GC News/Journal had already tational pranksters Tutu & the Pirates (one of “If you’re gonna look at queer bar culture in was so accepting of the whole gay side of it.” reported on Lend-a-Man’s trouble placing ads a few plausible candidates for Chicago’s fi rst the 70s, there’s two paths: one is to disco, and The shop’s gay disco fans didn’t seem to in mainstream papers; in October it published punk band), and several members of the glam- one is to punk rock.” mind punk. “It bothered some of the straight a letter from Hopkins’s business partner, Dick my, R&B-infl ected B.B. Spin worked at the bar. people, because sometimes we’d be playing Nielsen, updating readers with news that the On a trip here from New York, Steve Maas was y the time La Mere Vipere owners it—it was just a di erent vibe,” says John Mo- Tribune had backed down and agreed to run a so smitten by a chance visit to La Mere that he Noah “Noe” Boudreau and Tom Wro- lini, another Sounds Good manager. “You’re slightly altered ad. was inspired to create something similar back Bblewski birthed the city’s first punk not gonna be blasting ‘God Save the Queen’ Hopkins would run afoul of at least part of home, cofounding the famous Mudd Club in disco, they had been running a gay bar at on a crowded Saturday. I don’t think the Carly the mainstream gay community in mid-1978, October 1978. 2628 N. Halsted called the Snake Pit for years. Simon crowd is gonna like that.” after he turned the Greenleaf, the gay bar he La Mere didn’t host live music often. At fi rst “It was a really sleazy little dive bar that ba- Punk remained a fringe concern locally in owned, into Oz. “There were people in the the punk scene coalesced around records and sically was decorated for every holiday. They 1977. By that spring, Boudreau and Wroblews- queer community—especially established DJs, not shows—at the time, clubs booked never took the stu down—they kept adding ki were already struggling to stay in the black queer media—who felt like it was some kind of ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 31 pride
whose members included Molini, Miglio, and betrayal, not going along with the disco craze,” Lynch (who referred to her role as “lead hair- Hopkins says. “Also, they didn’t like the fact do”). DJs reigned supreme at La Mere, though that there were more and more straights in the “If you’re the nature of the music made their jobs unusu- club. I thought that was a great thing, but at ally taxing. “It wasn’t like you put on seven- the time, the queer bars were very segregated. minute disco songs,” Rivers says. “You had They really weren’t looking to have straight two- and three-minute punk songs; you had to people in their bars.” gonna look do a slam mix into the next song. You’d only DJ Though some queer Chicagoans didn’t like for an hour at a time, and then somebody else the idea of punks taking over gay bars, others would take over.” didn’t consider the likes of Oz and La Mere Punk songs generally didn’t have specific at queer bar moves or dances that went with them—pogo- proper gay bars in the fi rst place. That schism in the community—along with bar owners’ ing, shimmying, and all sorts of uncoordinated need to fi nd patrons wherever they could—al- fl ailing and jumping around were all welcome lowed Chicago punk to thrive. culture in the at La Mere Vipere. One thing dancers did need, though, was stamina. “It was like, ‘How long ord that a gay bar was hosting a punk can you dance? Can you dance for 30, 40 min- night reached Mary Alice Ramel- utes to punk-rock records at the speed of 130 WHoeksema through a coworker at the 70s, there’s beats or 140 beats per minute?’” says Metro downtown location of Rolling Stones Records. owner Joe Shanahan. “You were happy when a “I was fascinated by the underground scene reggae record came on—you could slow down that was going on in New York and London— a little bit.” the punk stuff—and the minute we had an two paths: Shanahan was enrolled at Southern Illinois opportunity to do something in Chicago, I University in Carbondale when he discovered jumped at it,” she says. Ramel-Hoeksema La Mere. On the weekends, he’d organize went to Anarchy at La Mere, where she met “It was queer kids that wouldn’t necessarily fi t old-fashioned one-piece bathing suit with a visits to Chicago by groups of like-minded stu- the woman who’d become her best friend in in within the aesthetic of gay discos, and their matching babushka, applying lipstick to my dents—he’d pool everyone’s money and they’d the scene, Jeanne Genie. Within a few weeks, lady friends. And people who were reading face, and the audience completely erupted,” pile into a station wagon, which he called the they had befriended Boudreau, and together about the emerging punk scene and didn’t Skafi sh says. “They were right on the verge of “Carbondale art music limousine service.” they launched a fanzine: the La Mere Gabba necessarily have a scene of their own.” rushing the stage—the Chicago police stopped Their trips usually included stops at La Mere at Gabba Gazette. Ramel-Hoeksema was the Lynch had previously worked at the Bistro the show.” In a haughtily dismissive Billboard night. Shanahan noticed the prominence of the editor in chief, Genie was assistant editor, and as the club’s fi rst female go-go dancer. While review, Alan Penchansky almost admitted that DJ booth, which sat in an elevated box on the Boudreau wrote the gossip column. she slung drinks at La Mere, she also worked he didn’t get it, but instead mostly fi xated on west wall of La Mere’s lower level. “I always Ramel-Hoeksema had been a scenester for as an in-house model for designer Billy Falcon. Skafi sh’s “transsexual narcissism” and aggres- thought a lot of places didn’t really take the DJ a while before she arrived at La Mere—she’d For the second night of La Mere’s Punk-o- sively odd gender presentation. booth very seriously,” he says. “But gay culture even become friends with Roger Powell, the Rama extravaganza in June 1977, she cohosted When La Mere went punk a few months and gay clubs always said, ‘The DJ is a very im- synth player in Todd Rundgren’s band Uto- a punk fashion show with her friend Steve later, Skafi sh heard about it from his fans, and portant fi xture.’ That comes straight out of the pia—but she didn’t look the part. She thought “Spin” Miglio. The scene hadn’t yet developed he started visiting early in the club’s brief run. Warehouse and the Paradise Garage.” of herself as plain, and she didn’t try to fit a “look,” so the models dressed however they “It was paradise,” he says. “I would refer to it In his role as scene fi gurehead, Boudreau not in—she never even bothered to try on a black pleased; Miglio wore a parachute fi tted to his like the summer of love, punk style—it’s exact- only wrote for the Gabba Gabba Gazette and leather jacket. At La Mere, it didn’t matter. body like a hooded cassock, with scraps of raw ly what it was like. You could be gay, straight, tended bar, he also DJed. “He would not only “One of the things I always remember is meat sewn to the front. “This is Chicago, so it transgender, you don’t want to be classifi ed, play straight punk, but he would mix it in with when Jeanne looked at me and said, ‘Oh my was a little bit tamer, visually, but there were you might be having a sex change, you might soul, rockabilly, and all sorts of stu¦ ,” says La God, look around, we’re the kids nobody want- a lot of kids there that were just doing their dress in drag, guys dance on the dance fl oor Mere doorman Ken Ellis, who calls his old boss ed to be friends with in high school—we’re the thing,” Lynch says. “There wasn’t another with guys, girls dance with girls, guys use “the founding father of the Chicago punk-bar misfi ts,’” Ramel-Hoeksema says. “I don’t know place for Skafi sh to do his thing.” the girls’ bathroom, girls use the guys’ bath- scene.” And Ellis knew a good mix when he that I would have described myself that way, Jim Skafish had already achieved an room—that’s the way it went, OK?” heard one: prior to discovering La Mere, he’d but in that setting that was very true. I was impressive degree of local infamy by the La Mere also offered Skafish a place to spent his nights disco dancing at gay clubs, there because I wasn’t fi tting into any other time La Mere hosted its first Anarchy night. express himself without fear of violent harass- which were hospitable to young Black men scene that I could think of. When I was there, His music thrived on confrontation—his ment. “For somebody like me, who was being (even straight ones). “All the straight disco it was like there were no judgments—just fun, anti-gay-bashing song “Knuckle Sandwich,” bullied every day and being attacked onstage, bars back then—the mid-70s—were kind of just music.” for instance, adopted the perspective of a offstage having guns pulled on me, people racist,” he says. “If you really wanted to party, Monica Lynch, who became a bartender at belligerent homophobe. When his band, also attacking me all the time,” he says, “this is a you had to go to the gay bars.” La Mere after it went punk, credits the club’s called Skafish, opened for Sha Na Na at the place I felt safe.” Ellis and his friends first stopped into success as a punk disco to its beginnings as Arie Crown Theater on February 4, 1977, they Skafi sh was one of only a handful of musi- La Mere while club hopping on a night out. a countercultural gay bar. “I think it really provoked boos and a hail of projectiles from cians to perform live at La Mere—also on that “Everything changed from that point on,” he helped set the tone of inclusiveness,” she says. the audience. “I stripped down to an old lady’s short list are Tutu & the Pirates and B.B. Spin, says. “I thought, ‘God, this is the best place on 32 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll pride
earth—the mixture of people, the music that didn’t mention La Mere Vipere by name, but trical malfunction. He added, “There is little hours—the punks only came out at night. Fox was playing, the energy. It was like nothing four days later the Tribune published an arti- doubt amon [sic] the regulars that its death quit his job at Sounds Good to manage O’Ban- you had ever seen before.’ I just threw away all cle about the club. came by arson.” ion’s after he showed up to DJ on Saint Patrick’s my suits after that. I ripped up some T-shirts, As outsiders flocked to La Mere, Ramel- Day 1979 to fi nd the bar in disorder and no one and next thing you know I’m there almost as Hoeksema and Boudreau argued about the a Mere regulars didn’t know where on hand to work the night shift—he cleaned much as possible.” The night Groucho Marx club’s direction. “I wanted this place to stay else to go to hear punk, but a DJ named the place up, called bartenders to come in, and died, Ellis and a couple friends walked into this pure kind of private space,” Ramel- LNancy Rapchak had an idea. Before she’d worked the fl oor. At the time, Fox fronted the La Mere dressed as the Marx Brothers, which Hoeksema says. “He used to say, ‘No, we can’t started going to La Mere, she’d already made band Clox, and managing gave him the fl exibil- tickled Boudreau; Ellis began working as the keep people out—we can’t be the judge of who a habit of spending her free evenings at gay ity to play gigs. doorman shortly afterward. comes in.’ It just started losing its sparkle bars—she knew she wouldn’t be harassed by Ellis worked the door at the newly punk When La Mere closed each night at 2 AM, after a while.” straight men at the Bistro. Rapchak had taken a O’Banion’s. “In the early days it was real fun, regulars usually didn’t want to go right Some of Boudreau’s choices rubbed Rivers liking to a divey gay bar called O’Banion’s, a few but a lot of the spillover people could get home—often the party would continue at the wrong way too. La Mere had become a sort blocks north of the Bistro at 661 N. Clark. Its nasty,” he says. “I had some drag queen threat- other gay bars. “We would go to Cheeks, Par- of home base for the work of Michael Cegur, a dance fl oor abutted the bar, and the premises en to slice my throat open ’cause I wouldn’t let adise, Dugan’s Bistro,” Fox says. “We would go bizarre performance artist who called himself were in disrepair. One of the owners, Russell him in—he didn’t want to pay the buck-fifty, to all these gay bars and just keep dancing to Beluga. Boudreau saw Beluga as La Mere’s an- Clancy, would play Linda Ronstadt’s “Despera- two-buck cover charge.” disco, it didn’t matter to us—you went with swer to the Bistro’s Bearded Lady, but Rivers do” in the bar when he was sad. The state of his Bill Meehan and his bandmates in Silver the gay people from the bar to where they didn’t care for the act, which involved lots of business was such that he played it frequently. Abuse came up with their own way to weasel would go.” costume changes and odd monologues. When Nancy suggested Clancy host a punk night out of paying full price. “We’d dress ourselves Sometimes the regulars hosted afterparties Rivers dropped by La Mere on a night o and at O’Banion’s, and enlisted Ellis and another up with aluminum foil, chain ourselves togeth- in their homes instead—Fox threw a few in his saw Beluga, something snapped. “I lifted my La Mere doorman, Bob Bell, to help make her er at the ankle, and then demand to get into tiny apartment, which was in a complex on leg and tried to pee on Beluga, so I got fi red,” case. On a Saturday night in June 1978, Clancy O’Banion’s for one cover charge because we Lincoln that a friend of his owned. (Fox helped he says. “Or I quit. I don’t remember.” gave it a shot; Rivers and a tag team of La Mere were a single entity,” Meehan says. so many folks he knew from La Mere move in As La Mere grew in popularity in early veterans spun records. Rapchak couldn’t make O’Banion’s soon brought in a big suburban there that he nicknamed it the “punk-rock 1978, other regulars left too. When Ramel- it—she’d been juggling DJ gigs at lesbian bar crowd eager to experience punk for the first dorm.”) One of his parties happened after Hoeksema threw a drink at a strange woman Marilyn’s and gay bar Sunday’s. “Russell was time. “A lot of the punks hated the suburban- Ramel-Hoeksema walked into La Mere late who’d been pushing her, Boudreau banned such a great guy that he kept a spot open for ites, because they were poseurs,” Rivers says. one night with Elvis Costello & the Attrac- her from the bar. Lynch moved to New York in me,” she says. “But they came, they liked the music, they had tions. “I put about 50 people in a one-bedroom April. That same month, La Mere burned. Fox says that 700 people passed through fun, and most of them were pretty cute.” with a galley kitchen—we were there for like In his Chicago scene report for Bomp! mag- O’Banion’s that first night. By early 1979, Rivers took a liking to a young suburbanite he four hours,” Fox says. “Elvis Costello basically azine’s 20th issue, Cary Baker wrote about the O’Banion’s had gone all-in on punk, though its nicknamed “the Surf”—his blonde hair made sat on the couch and didn’t talk to anybody the fi re, noting that the o¤ cial cause was an elec- dwindling gay clientele held on during daytime Rivers think of a surfer. “I’ll never forget—one whole night.” night, he came up to me and said, ‘Sparkle, I just told these guys o because they said that I was hen Ramel-Hoeksema wrote for the La a poseur and I didn’t belong here, that I was a Mere Gabba Gabba Gazette, she didn’t suburbanite,’” Rivers says. “‘I said, “Don’t you Whave much trouble landing interviews know who I am? I’m the Surf! I’m friends with with key fi gures in punk. She had a harder time one is to Sparkle! So don’t tell me I don’t belong here!”’ protecting the scene she cared so much about. It was funny, it kind of did change a lot of those She says that within six months of La Mere’s suburban attitudes.” fi rst Anarchy night, the club and its original Ken Mierzwa was a student at Northeastern core of punk regulars couldn’t meaningfully disco, and Illinois University when he discovered O’Ban- claim ownership of the scene anymore—it had ion’s in summer 1978. Growing up in the sub- grown to the point that it was attracting what urbs, Mierzwa hadn’t had much contact with she calls “tourists.” She dropped “La Mere” anyone he knew was gay. O’Banion’s changed from the title of the zine for its fi fth issue in one is to that. “Yes, there are people there who obvious- November 1977. “It didn’t take that long for La ly are gay,” Mierzwa says. “That wasn’t how Mere, I feel, to become invaded by the people we thought of them. They were just intelligent who didn’t like us in high school,” she says. punk rock.” people that were fun to talk to—bias never had This trend was doubtless accelerated by a chance to get started, at least in the crowd the exposure La Mere got from June’s Punk- that I moved with in those places, because it o-Rama extravaganza. On July 11, 1977, Time was not why we were there. Orientation was magazine ran a trend piece on the internation- —Oz owner Dem just irrelevant.” al rise of punk; it included photos of La Mere revelers, including the famous Bearded Lady n the mid-1970s, Dem Hopkins paid from the Bistro and Miglio in his meat suit, Hopkins around $10,000 to buy a Rogers Park gay next to a shot of Johnny Rotten. The story Ibar called the Greenleaf, where he was ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 33 pride already bartending. Hopkins also co-owned squirt guns. The cops busted us.” queer hiring agency Lend-a-Man, but because It wouldn’t be the last time the cops made his business partner, Dick Nielsen, oversaw trouble for Hopkins and Oz. day-to-day operations, Hopkins could focus on “All the the Greenleaf. That’s not to say he always did, ’Banion’s began regularly hosting live though—in the early days of 1978, he found music in 1979. “We didn’t have a stage. another obsession. “I completely neglected the OPeople would come in and play on the bar,” he says. “Fortunately, I had a great sta , straight fl oor,” Rapchak says. “Eventually, we put a little but I was living at La Mere.” platform in.” Local bands such as Poison Squir- Hopkins packed the Greenleaf’s jukebox rel, Immune System, and Clox were among the with glam and added Ramones and Sex Pistols disco bars fi rst to play. records as he found them. “Our customers Clancy had hired a man named Everett were overall pretty cool about it,” he says. “Of Rogers as O’Banion’s general manager—Fox course, we upset some—there was a divide in worked under him, and tried to keep the bar the community, because the majority of the back then— from falling apart. Clancy wasn’t putting bars and the majority of the queer community money into repairs, and Fox would spend entire were in love with disco. It was my bar—I wasn’t weekends fi xing up the dance fl oor. “It was OK, gonna go that route. It seemed like a perversion and then it was bearable, and then it became of everything about rock ’n’ roll that I loved.” the mid-70s— unbearable,” he says. Hopkins ruffled more feathers when he One afternoon in early 1980, Fox was in the ditched the Greenleaf’s name for Oz, shortly bar’s basement trying to fi x a leaky pipe, and after La Mere burned down. “I took a lot of it burst. “I saw rats and cockroaches scurrying criticism, a lot of heat, from places like Gay were kind and I just said, ‘That’s enough, I can’t do this Chicago Magazine,” he says. “I was getting anymore.’” He shut o the water, called Rogers some feedback that I was a traitor to the queer to quit, and locked up. Fox went to work at community.” Most of the original gay clientele Lakeview rock club Tuts at its new location on didn’t abandon the bar, but Oz also attracted of racist. If Belmont. straight punks from the far north side who might not have ventured all the way down to t its Rogers Park location, Oz booked River North for O’Banion’s. Hopkins wanted it Canadian hardcore icons D.O.A. for to be known as a place where anyone could hear you really Atheir fi rst Chicago show—which Hop- punk, and he liked to tell newcomers to leave kins believes was one of the city’s fi rst hardcore their hang-ups at the door. shows ever—in 1979. The bar could only hold Before it became Oz, the Greenleaf was the wanted to about 120 people, which wasn’t nearly enough. target of homophobic harassment frequently “There used to be an old walk-in cooler—we enough that Hopkins had to hire security. That had torn the cooler out, and they could barely stopped being an issue shortly after the bar be- get on what we called the stage,” says Hopkins. came Oz—the punks were happy to fi ght back. party, you “It was mobbed. People out in front listening.” “The fag bashers weren’t quite sure what was By early 1980, Oz had relocated to 112-14 W. going on there—they thought they were going Hubbard, replacing a River North gay bar called to attack, and they got their asses kicked,” the Ranch; the move nearly tripled its capacity, Hopkins says. “People that had been nervous had to go to and it ramped up its show schedule. Oz sat before, there was this sudden feeling of being amid a throng of gay bars, and its new neigh- emboldened.” bors weren’t all welcoming. “We were a total As Hopkins tells it, Chicago police were island there,” Hopkins says. “Those queer bars largely indi erent when the Greenleaf was the the gay bars.” down there were very unhappy—they wanted target of abuse, but once the bar went punk, me shut down. I tell people it’s because I think they took an unwelcome interest in it. During we wore leather better than their kids.” the Iran-Contra hostage crisis, Oz promoted a This incarnation of Oz is where Hopkins themed party with a satirical window display —Ken Ellis, doorman began showcasing many of the local punk at the Wax Trax! record store in Lincoln Park— bands that ended up on Busted at Oz—among it included a banner that read “Free America, them Naked Raygun, Strike Under, and Silver kill the hostages.” at La Mere Vipere Abuse. Effigies guitarist Earl “Oil” Letiecq, “It was maybe in poor taste, but we were not who moved to Chicago in 1980, bonded with serious about killing the hostages,” Hopkins his new bandmates at Oz. “The very fi rst time says. “The police didn’t see it that way, and had and O’Banion’s I ever went to Oz, I’m walking up to the front threatened to arrest me if the party went on. door on the sidewalk, and who comes walking We had papier-mache hostages and people had out but Tom and Regina—they were two huge, 34 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll pride
huge drag queens,” Letiecq says. “Being from a special going on with these bands. Never did ble, ’cause I would play things that some people small town in upstate New York, I wasn’t really I imagine that people would still be talking didn’t like,” Rivers says. He remembers deliber- exposed to much of that.” Chicago punk opened about them all this time later.” ately annoying dancers with “Ska Wars,” a 12- his eyes. Within three months, Oz was closed. inch ska cover of the Star Wars theme. “I had Oz moved to its third and fi nal location, at too much of a sense of humor,” he says. 3714-1/2 N. Broadway in Lakeview, before the apchak had taken over as manager Fox, who’d hired Letiecq to tend bar at Exit, end of 1980. This Oz had no sign out front, but of O’Banion’s by the time it closed in moved on after a few years to Metro and Smart it did just fi ne on word of mouth. The bar could Rearly 1982; beloved bartender Roseann Bar, which Shanahan had opened in 1982. “Be- hold around 250 people, and a New Year’s Eve Kuberski helped her run the place. “Everyone tween La Mere and the Warehouse—that’s the show with Naked Raygun, Strike Under, and looked at me really strange after I became the incubator for Smart Bar,” Shanahan says. the E gies drew a bigger crowd than could fi t manager,” Rapchak says. inside. The place was run-down, but that was The demise of O’Banion’s was accelerated fter the fi re at La Mere, Rapchak broke part of the charm. “It wasn’t exactly the Pump when Fox, its former manager, helped open Old into the burned-out building and took Room, but it was ours, thanks to Dem,” Meehan Town punk bar Exit in 1981 (its initial location Asome keepsakes, including a few melt- IS NOT says. “It was a place we could go, that we could was at 1653 N. Wells, and it still operates at 1315 ed bottles. But she eventually disposed of most play, that we could do whatever you wanted.” W. North). Exit was close enough to O’Banion’s of them. “I was like, ‘Why do I have these?’ They Hopkins also kept Oz’s sta majority queer. to draw away a lot of its customers, and it were like an altar to La Mere,” she says. She’s Hopkins didn’t initially have trouble with the wasn’t falling apart. Letiecq remembers that still got one of the bar’s leopard-print bar- police at the Broadway location, but he’s pretty the E gies were asked to play a fundraiser to stools, though it’s split down the middle. “I’ve FREE sure they just weren’t yet aware he was there. help keep O’Banion’s open. “We said, ‘No, we’re had it forever,” she says. “I’ve moved it with me “It was a struggle to get the liquor license, but not going to play, because it’s still going to for years.” chicagoreader.com/donate chicagoreader.com/donate I ran it for about three months before I got the close,’” he says. In 1980, Skafi sh’s band issued its self-titled We Couldn't Be Free Without You— liquor license, and we were actually doing OK,” “They wrote a song to me about O’Banion’s, debut through I.R.S. Records, a division of Support Community Journalism he says. “I got the liquor license, they busted us how I was trying to keep it alive,” Rapchak says. A&M. He wasn’t the only La Mere alumnus to the next day, because then they knew exactly In a live recording from a 1983 set at Paycheck’s break into the majors: In 1981, Lynch became who we were.” Lounge in Hamtramck, Michigan, you can hear one of the fi rst employees at New York hip-hop Hopkins says he ended up in jail at least 20 E gies front man John Kezdy introduce that label Tommy Boy, which partnered with War- times while running Oz. “There were times on song, titled “Rather See None.” “This one’s ner Brothers in 1985. (She eventually worked Broadway, they’d hold me for 23 hours, release about certain Chicago bars,” he says, “and the her way up to president, managing the likes of me—I only lived about fi ve blocks from the sta- people that try to save them.” Queen Latifah and De La Soul.) Though Skafi sh Never tion—and before I’d get home they’d arrest me In 1996, Ukrainian Village bar Club Foot didn’t abandon the Chicago punk scene when again,” he says. He says he heard it from a cop began hosting annual O’Banion’s reunions. La Mere Vipere burned—his band went on to miss a on “pretty good authority” that Mayor Jane Rapchak had moved to New York City after play O’Banion’s and Exit—he never stopped show Byrne had taken advice from California police O’Banion’s closed, but came back for a reunion missing that club’s special magic. “I don’t think to sniff out any hardcore punk bars and shut and ran into Kezdy. “He told me that he didn’t that there was ever gonna be any re-creating again. them down. think I would ever get the credit that I de- what happened at La Mere in terms of its club served,” she says. “I thought that was the nicest level,” he says. “The scene changed, the vibe n their short lives, O’Banion’s and Oz thing anyone could say to me.” changed.” hosted some of the most important early As hardcore overtook punk in the 80s, it IU.S. punk bands. O’Banion’s booked Minor he shuttering of O’Banion’s wasn’t the brought a crowd with a much higher tolerance Threat, Hüsker Dü, and Dead Kennedys. When blow it might have been, because at that for atavistic displays of tough-guy machis- Hüsker Dü played Oz in late March 1981, they Tpoint the punk scene had spread beyond mo. By the middle of the decade, violence, met Greg Ginn of Black Flag, who suggested just a few bars. Hardcore had begun its rise, and homophobia, and misogyny had overrun the they contact Minutemen bassist Mike Watt. some of the original players from La Mere had scene. It became harder and harder to find EARLY The following year the New Alliance label, moved on from punk. Ramel-Hoeksema had signs of the anything-goes queer culture that which Watt had founded with Minutemen published the final Gabba Gabba Gazette in had made La Mere such a great incubator for WARNINGS guitarist D. Boon and a mutual friend, released 1979, in part because mainstream publications Chicago punk. Hüsker Dü’s debut, Land Speed Record. had started picking up on punk. Other local “When that ended, it wasn’t gonna be re- The live recordings on Busted at Oz were zines followed in the Gabba Gabba Gazette’s created—that crowd, the misfi t crowd, the gay Find a concert, buy a made a couple weeks before that Hüsker Dü wake, including Coolest Retard, to which Mier- crowd, the transgender crowd, the ‘we don’t ticket, and sign up to show. Naked Raygun, the E gies, Silver Abuse, zwa contributed. “There really was no need know who we are’ crowd, migrated into those get advance notice the Subverts, and Da performed at Oz over for it,” Ramel-Hoeksema says. “I guess I never other clubs, but that energy became dissipated three nights (two bands played each night) thought about it, but we served a need.” as the years went on,” Skafi sh says. “At a cer- of Chicago’s essential to create a kind of snapshot of the local punk Some of the La Mere crew moved on to Neo, tain point, as punk evolved in Chicago, it wasn’t music shows at scene. “I could see that Oz would be coming which opened in July 1979 as a new-wave bar celebrating the kind of things that were being to an end very soon, because of the police—I and hired Boudreau to manage. Ellis worked celebrated in the beginning.” v chicagoreader.com/early. couldn’t miss that,” Hopkins says. “At the there too, and Rivers sometimes DJed, though same time, I knew that we had something very he was getting burned out. “I would get in trou- @imLeor ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 35 Recommended and notable releases and critics’ insights for the week of June 25 MUSIC
Blu & Exile, Miles: From an Interlude PICK OF THE WEEK Called Life Dirty Science Icepick renew jazz’s love affair with the el on bluandexile.bandcamp.com/album/miles Since 2007, Los Angeles rapper Blu has dispensed their third LP, Hellraiser more than a dozen albums indebted to hip-hop’s golden age, and on his releases with produc- er Exile, his garrulous style finds a firm footing. The duo’s third eff ort, the double disc Miles: From an Interlude Called Life (Dirty Science), spans the globe and the history of the African diaspo- ra. The nine-minute epic “Roots of Blu” tells the story of humanity through the accomplishments of Black folks, name-checking the likes of Tut- ankhamun, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Sun Ra; meanwhile, the rangy narrative of “Blue as I Can Be” spins lis- teners through Blu’s Los Angeles childhood. His expression of creativity, determination, and lyrical munificence is deeply personal, but he also dis- sects life on the road and the complexities of nav- igating the music industry with the day-in-the-life vantage point of “Miles Away.” What isn’t express- ly addressed is that following the critical embrace of Blu & Exile’s debut, 2007’s Below the Heavens, Blu made NoYork! under his own name—it leaked in 2011, while he was under contract to Warner Broth- ers, and within weeks that major-label deal was over. (The album got a formal release through Blu’s own New World Color label in 2013, and was later retitled York!) That album seemed to strike out for purposely different territory than the MC’s soul- ful work with Exile: Blu’s vocals fl oat over relative- ly electro-related productions that, while not exact- ly anti-commercial, might’ve been a bit jarring to COURTESYASTRALSPIRITS traditionalists. Whatever the signifi cance of his ill- fated dalliance with Warner Brothers, Blu retains his ability to transform personal insights into ambi- tious narrative projects—Miles is the most expan- sive and all-encompassing exploration of his life thus far. This probably means we can expect him to unfurl a few more novel-like albums before this seri- Icepick, Hellraiser alization is complete. —D C Astral Spirits icepicktrio.bandcamp.com/album/hellraiser Drab City, Good Songs for Bad people Bella Union drabcity.bandcamp.com/album/good-songs-for- bad-people
SUNRAMAYHAVE told everyone he was from Saturn, but the Afrofuturistic avant-gardist To some Chicagoans, “Drab City” might sound like spent the 1950s in Chicago. While he was here, he recorded “El Is a Sound of Joy,” jazz’s the name of a pickup band that plays melancholy greatest tribute to the city’s public transport system. No one in improvising trio Icepick— covers of Will Oldham and Joanna Newsom tunes, but it’s actually a Berlin duo that specializes in an bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, trumpeter Nate Wooley, and drummer Chris Corsano—now understated, lo-fi combo of cinematic trip-hop and lives in Chicago (Håker Flaten spent a few years here in the aughts), but in 2018 the group folky dream pop, fl avored with a little jazz and some came to town to play a benefi t for Experimental Sound Studio’s Option Series, a weekly con- fuzzy samples. Multi-instrumentalists and produc- ers Chris Dexter Greenspan (who helped pioneer cert and salon launched in 2015 that served as a beacon for improvisers around the world witch house as oOoOO) and Asia (who performs as until COVID-19 closed everything down. Hellraiser, the trio’s splendid third album, was Islamiq Grrrls) hatched Drab City a er joining forc- Providing arts coverage recorded at that gig, which took place at Fulton Street Collective, a near-west-side loft space es on a 2018 collaborative album under their stage names; that record, Faminine Mystique, is eclec- in Chicago since 1971. where it’s possible to hear the Green Line trains when the music goes quiet. So it’s only fi t- tic enough to incorporate 80s metal-ballad guitar ting that two of the LP’s three tracks (“El-Bound” and “Blueline”) are titled in homage to the and Auto-Tuned vocals from one track to the next CTA’s elevated train system. The collective experience of Icepick’s members encompasses without seeming incoherent. The artists carry this taste for variety over to Good Songs for Bad Peo- a myriad of improvisational possibilities, and their technical acumen allows them to tackle ple, their fi rst album as Drab City, and from its fi rst tradition-steeped swing as easily as post-everything noise, but they keep their focus on moments it’s clear they want us to immerse our- www.chicagoreader.com evolving sonic narratives that resolve each knotty exchange or coarse textural exploration selves in their sepia-tone world rather than peek in from outside—instrumental opener “Entrance to with a nakedly emotional tune. —B M Drab City” plays like a warped record unearthed in 36 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll MUSIC
F.A.B.L.E. DENIS THOMPSON
a dusty attic. That exploratory tone defi nes much from the only Chicagoan to make upli ing hip-hop of the record, whether the tracks lace their charm- fi lled with introspective lyrics about his neighbor- ing pop melodies with smoky keys and twangy gui- hood, Black life, and community, but his jubilance, tar (“Hand on My Pocket”) or feel like they could his open-book warmth, and his expressive fervor fall apart at the seams (“Devil Doll”). Though heart- help him stand out. Horace originally released (IX) break and despair are familiar bedfellows in Drab The Hermit in April, and in May he made it avail- City’s lair—the synth-driven ”Standing Where You able on Bandcamp as well—all proceeds from sales Because of the pandemic, our doors Le Me” could be a B side to one of Martin Gore’s through that platform benefit the George Floyd more yearning songs—there’s some scrappy resil- Memorial Fund. —L G ience too. Greenspan’s vocals give a laid-back were forced to close until further stoner vibe to “Live Free and Die When It’s Cool,” which dovetails with the tune’s grooving, psyche- Heathen Beast, The Revolution Will notice. The livelihoods of our box delic interlude to give it an upli ing feel—despite Not Be Televised but It Will Be Heard its bleak lyrics about alienation and struggle a er Self-released migrating to a new city. —J L heathenbeast.bandcamp.com/album/the- office workers, security, stagehands, revolution-will-not-be-televised-but-it-will-be- heard F.A.B.L.E., (IX) The Hermit techs, and bar servers have been Storybook Kolkata blackened death-metal band Heathen storybookfable.bandcamp.com/releases Beast are atheist, antifascist, and pointedly anony- directly affected by this decision. mous, and their self-released album The Revolution Englewood multi-instrumentalist, engineer, and Will Not Be Televised but It Will Be Heard is 35 min- rapper Christopher Horace started releasing solo utes of vitriol aimed at the anti-Muslim bigotry of recordings a little more than two years ago. He India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the Indi- We want them to know how much released his first mixtape, February 2018’s Exo- an government’s turn toward authoritarianism and dus, under the name Nephset, but since then he’s hate. The song titles are direct, pithy, and profane: been performing and recording as F.A.B.L.E., which “Fuck Modi-Shah,” “Fuck Your Police Brutality,” we appreciate their hard work stands for Finally a Black Life Explained. For a “Fuck the Economy (Modi Already Has),” and “Fuck year or so now, Horace has been working on a full- the B.J.P.,” which takes aim at India’s current ruling length tentatively titled Duckweed, but he’s grown faction, the Bharatiya Janata Party. For those not and help support them so frustrated with his own process that he decided familiar with current Indian political issues, clips of to compile seven of its songs and release them via news announcements provide brief context about during this trying time. his own Storybook Records as (IX) The Hermit. (He anti-Muslim citizenship laws and sexual-assault alle- still plans to fi nish Duckweed eventually.) Whatever gations against religious gurus. Carvaka (vocals, causes the underlying friction that’s stalled Duck- guitars), Samkhya (bass), and Mimamsa (drums) weed, it’s imperceptible on the cool, in-the-pocket don’t write complex or varied tunes, and their lyr- hip-hop on (IX) The Hermit. Horace’s rambunctious ics can come across as a bit schematically dry, when inflections impart a youthful swagger to the EP’s they’re intelligible at all (“Humanity suff ers for your PLEASE DONATE: slender horns, billowy keys, and relaxed percus- hate / Religious disharmony you create / Exploit sion, and he’s so comfortable on the mike that he the poor for your gains / Your powerful friends can make his wordiest verses go down smoothly. have their way”). But Heathen Beast have a gi for jamusa.com/helpourstaff When he raps about his artistic individuality on the channeling rage into pounding, anthemic assaults summery “Boogie Board,” he makes the better half that beg for headbanging—they scrape away layers of his point with his commanding presence. He’s far of fl esh, viscera, and bone to reveal a pulsing mass ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 37 Stay Home. Stay Positive. MUSIC Stay Connected.
We can’t wait to get back to making music and dancing together at the Old Town School!
Longshot ANDREW DOENCH In the meantime, many of our classes are
currently running online, and we are actively continued from 37 Run The Jewels, rtJ4 of adrenaline and righteous anger. The revolution RBC/BMG working on more ways to keep you making can definitely be heard, and even from a couple runthejewels.com music and learning new things with us, from of continents away, it will make your ears bleed for justice. —N B The fourth Run the Jewels full-length, RTJ4, is the home, in the near future. hardcore rap duo’s fi rst since Donald Trump’s inau- guration. Not at all by coincidence, it’s also the Longshot, I’m saying most sociopolitically outspoken album they’ve SureShot Productions released to date. On their third, released at the We are so thankful to be part of the wonderful mclongshot.bandcamp.com/album/imsaying end of 2016, rapper-activist Killer Mike and rapper- and supportive arts community in Chicago and producer El-P let poignant, sober lyrics about war, In a recent interview with Minnesota Public Radio religion, love, and redemption shine through the are especially thankful for all our dedicated host Andrea Swensson, rapper Chad Heslup (aka cracks in their armor of car-bombing braggado- Longshot) talked about his history of involvement cio. Their fuck-the-power attitude and rap- battle students and teaching artists persevering with in protest movements since moving from Chica- instincts also inform RTJ4, which features plenty of go to Minneapolis 11 years ago. He was inspired to the group’s characteristic mix of John Carpenter- us during this time. join his first march after Minneapolis police shot esque synth sounds, boom-bap beats, and trap and killed 24-year-old Jamar Clark in November rhythms. The album unflinchingly addresses the 2015, and he returned to the streets to protest the societal ills dominating the zeitgeist of 2020, and For updates, rescheduled concert info, ways to death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis it feels especially prescient given the nationwide offi cer Derek Chauvin on May 25. “My energy felt protests against racist police brutality that had help support our staff & more please visit like I wanted to be up front with this,” Heslup told started by the time of its release. “Walking in the Swensson. The spirit that got him marching also Snow” begins by addressing the Trump administra- oldtownschool.org/alert drives his eff orts on the mike throughout the new tion’s child-separation policy: “Pseudo-Christians, I’m Saying (SureShot Productions). Floyd’s death y’all indiff erent?” raps El-P. “Kids in prisons ain’t a catalyzed Heslup’s ruminations about police brutal- sin? Shit / If even one scrap o’ what Jesus taught Stay safe, sane, and keep on playing from all of ity, the racial stratifi cation of society, and Black life connected / You’d feel diff erent.” Killer Mike then and death in the U.S., and he’s pledged to donate references the tragic killing of Eric Garner and sim- us at Old Town School of Folk Music! proceeds from Bandcamp sales of I’m Saying to ilar cases of police brutality, and sadly foreshadows Chicago and Minneapolis organizations dedicated the murder of George Floyd by law enforcement: to ending police brutality and social injustice. Hes- “And everyday on the evening news, they feed you lup hates being forced to live in a country that pri- fear for free / And you so numb you watch the cops oritizes fi nancial rewards over the lives of its Black choke out a man like me / Until my voice goes from oldtownschool.org citizens, and on the grimy, dramatic “P.O.P. (Profi t a shriek to a whisper, ‘I can’t breathe.’” On “JU$T,” Over People),” that grief and anger are palpable the most trap-inspired track on the album, guests even in his quietest bars. —L G Pharrell Williams and Zack de la Rocha take turns telling us to “look at all these slave masters posin’ 38 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll Find more music reviews at chicagoreader.com/soundboard. MUSIC
BIT.LY/GOOSEDELIVERS
Wire GIULIANA COVELLA
on your dollar” before El-P makes his own allusion it” record, I try to prepare myself for the worst. to Garner: “The X on the map where the pain Whether the band in question have retained only keep hitting / Just us ducks here sitting / Where one original member in a completely retooled line- Donate to get Leor Galil's best articles murderous choke-hold cops still earnin’ a liv- up (like present-day Gang of Four), or replaced ing.” Other tracks talk about murdered oligarchs, their figurehead (like the Misfits did in the 90s), over the past 10 years of Chicago music! unions for sex workers, and media-manufactured or awkwardly embraced current musical trends propaganda. Even the video for “Ooh La La,” one (remember Iggy Pop’s 2003 collaboration with Sum of the biggest bangers on RTJ4, depicts the end of 41?), or pivoted to whatever the fuck “Black Flag” chicagoreader.com/leorbook capitalism, with people dancing and burning money were doing on 2013’s aptly titled What The . . . , in the streets. What began as two new friends mak- the odds of disappointment are high. But I guess I ing fun, cocky rap tracks that bridged El-P’s old- should’ve given experimental postpunk pioneers school east-coast roots and Killer Mike’s southern Wire more credit: their recent 17th album, Mind style has grown and matured over four albums. Hive, can easily sit alongside their best. The London The duo still drops lines about being “cool as pen- band formed in 1976 and initially split in 1980, but guin pussy on the polar-cap peninsula,” but these they’ve operated on and off since they fi rst came days even their most violent fantasies and most back together in 1985. Today, their lineup still fea- boastful we’re-the-shit swagger reflect a deeper tures three of the four original members. Perhaps understanding of the human condition. RTJ4 also it’s due to the amount of genuine Wire DNA at touches on issues of the heart and soul, with recur- work that Mind Hive has everything you’d want in ring themes of gratitude, personal growth, self- a Wire record: terse rhythms, robotic vocals, alien medication, and being broken down by the world’s melodies, and angular guitar interplay from the evils. On “Pulling the Pin,” special guest Mavis Sta- band that invented it. “Cactused” sounds like it was ples sings the most heart-wrenching refrain on pulled off Chairs Missing, while “Off the Beach,” the album: “There’s a grenade in my heart / And the new record’s poppiest song, would be right at the pin is in their palm.” The album is an unfl inch- home on 154. This month Wire dropped their sec- ing criticism of the world, packaged in hilarious ond record of the year, an odds ’n’ sods collection chest-thumping bombast, dystopian synth sounds, called 10:20. This delayed Record Store Day release and head-banging beats. Run the Jewels might not consists of previously unissued material they’ve be soothsayers, but RTJ4 will go down as a defi ning accumulated over the past decade—half its tracks soundtrack of 2020. —S M are outtakes from 2010’s Red Barked Tree, while the other half are from the Mind Hive sessions. With songs built on motorik Krautrock as well as the Wire, 10:20 band’s signature dreamy postpunk, 10:20 demon- Pink Flag strates how modern-era Wire have managed to stay pinkfl ag.greedbag.com/buy/kruicd fresh while honoring their roots. Talk about aging gracefully—they’re doing it right, and really, none of Before I fi rst press play on an “aging punks still at us should be surprised. —L C v ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 39 MUSIC
SEBASTIÁN HIDALGO Black culture in this vibrant, Technicolor, surround-sound way. Another part of the campaign is this Reader collaboration: a series spotlighting important Speaking of Chicago, what ultimately drew figures in Chicago music serving as #Chi- you here? Music35 ambassadors. This week, we hear from visual artist, educator, and musician I was in New York, and I went to the School Damon Locks. Locks was a founding member of Visual Arts. I was an illustration major. And of influential Chicago posthardcore band at the time I wasn’t that happy in New York. It Trenchmouth, which split in 1996, and he still wasn’t what my imagination said it was going fronts the Eternals (where he plays alongside to be. There was a woman that I was interest- former Trenchmouth bandmate Wayne Mon- ed in that came out to the Art Institute of Chi- tana). He’s been a vocalist with Exploding Star cago, and I came to visit the Art Institute and Orchestra, one of many hard-to-categorize I saw a whole school full of weirdos. And it groups led by cornetist and composer Rob was diff erent than being in New York. It wasn’t Mazurek, and his latest album, 2019’s Where organized. Future Unfolds, features a similarly ambitious So I was really attracted to that collection group that he leads himself, the Black Monu- of weirdos, and I decided to come out here. ment Ensemble. Illinois was not a place that I thought I would This interview was conducted by Ayana go to. But once I got here, the experience of Contreras, who’s a DJ, a host and producer at being able to make something without a lot of WBEZ radio, and a columnist for DownBeat the baggage of New York seemed like a possi- magazine. bility. You could make connections and create something that wasn’t fi nished, in a way. Ayana Contreras: What’s your favorite Chi- cago music moment? Yeah. I agree. Chicago is a place where you can will something into being while work- Damon Locks: The experiences in my list ing through it if it’s got a few scraggly ends. of [moments] were things that caused rip- So that leads me into my second question. ples that went on forever. So I’m not talking What do you think it is about Chicago’s about when I saw Fred Anderson take apart music and cultural scene that has made it so Peter Brötzmann at the Empty Bottle, which infl uential internationally? was great. I’m talking about the emergence of Soul Train [which premiered in Chicago in I feel like in many ways, Chicago . . . they don’t 1970]. Even in Maryland, where I was from, we keep their doors shut to you. If you’re putting #CHIMUSIC35 felt the eff ects of Soul Train when it expanded in work, and if you ask for help, someone’s and became a nationwide show. going to be like, “I have some resources. Why don’t you use these?” That has always been Damon Locks’s greatest moment So I’m going to dig a little deeper with you. the case in Chicago for me. And I feel that You said that you felt the ripples of Soul musically, I feel that in the arts, I feel that on a Train. Tell me about a way in which you felt bunch of diff erent levels. v in Chicago music history those ripples. The founder of the Black Monument Ensemble still feels the ripples from Soul Soul Train was kind of a beacon for fashion, Train 50 years a er its Chicago premiere. movement, and culture. Every weekend, you NEVER MISS A SHOW AGAIN. would stand in front of the TV as a little kid By D L A C and just watch it. You remember those giant TVs that were super huge? We’d stand in front of that TV and we would do the double bump or whatever. [It] was a way of finding ot only is 2020 the Year of Chicago ChiMusic35.com, which includes a public out about new music. We’d practice the dance EARLY Music, it’s also the 35th year for the poll to determine the consensus 35 greatest moves. You’d look at the costumes. Nnonprofit Arts & Business Council of moments in Chicago music history as well as That was something that expressed a con- Chicago (A&BC), which provides business ex- a ra e to benefi t the A&BC’s work supporting temporary Black culture, but also was so WARNINGS affirming and representational. Every week pertise and training to creatives and their or- creative communities struggling with the chicagoreader.com/early ganizations citywide. To celebrate, the A&BC impact of COVID-19 in the city’s disinvested you could turn on the television and there has launched the #ChiMusic35 campaign at neighborhoods. would be something that was expressing 40 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME
b ALL AGES F EARLY WARNINGS WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK Munition 7/13, 7 PM, Reggies’ Never miss Music Joint, postponed until a a show again. date to be determined James Arthur 9/24, 7 PM; Sign up for the 9/26, 8 PM, House of Blues, newsletter at canceled chicagoreader. GOSSIP Jason Bieler & Jeff Scott Soto 8/7, 7 PM, Bananna’s Comedy com/early Shack at Reggies’, canceled WOLF Blunts & Blondes, Subdocta, Bawldy, Smokahauntas 7/17, 4/3/2021, 8 PM, Chicago A furry ear to the ground of 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, Theatre, rescheduled; tickets postponed until a date to be purchased for previously the local music scene determined, 18+ scheduled dates will be Bonelang 7/25, 9 PM, Concord honored A THIS WEEKEND Humboldt Park event Music Hall, postponed until a date to be determined, 17+ space Reunion Chicago partners with Califone with Robyn Mineko UPCOMING queer party collective Slo ’Mo and Web Williams and more 12/21, TV platform Open Television for the 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, resched- Antibalas 9/17, 9 PM, Sleeping three-night virtual Pride festival #4theQul- uled b Village Brandy Clark, Kelsey Waldon Black Pumas, Seratones 8/27, ture. Reunion founders Elijah McKin- 4/10/2021, 8 PM, SPACE, 9 PM, House of Blues, 17+ non (who cofounded OTV and just won a Evanston, rescheduled b Batu, Hijo Prodigo 10/2, 10 PM, Leaders for a New Chicago grant from the Cold Waves IX featuring Front Smart Bar Field Foundation) and Kristen Kaza (who Thair COURTESY OF SLO ‘MO 242, the KVB, Paul Barker, Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing Cyanotic, Kollaps, and 12/6-12/7, 8:30 PM, Thalia cofounded Slo ’Mo and collaborates with more 4/4/2021, 7 PM, Metro, Hall, 17+ the Reader) have put together an intersec- NEW Stoole, Tribble, DeWayne tream at ess.org/the-quaran- rescheduled, 18+ Budos Band 9/5, 8:30 PM, tional, intergenerational lineup that cen- Perkins, Thee David Davis, tine-concerts The First Time live lit and Thalia Hall, 17+ ters Black LGBTQ+ artists and their com- Anteloper 7/1, 9 PM, livestream Ashley Ray, Thair, Tasha, Puddles Pity Party 6/27, 4:30 music series with the First Chosen Few Virtual In-House at hideoutchicago.online b Bambi Banks-Coulee, Mister PM; 7/11, 4:30 PM; 7/25, 4:30 Time Four 8/12, 8 PM, Mar- Picnic & Festival 7/4, lives- munities. OTV hosts the free event Friday Chris Barron 7/2, 3:30 PM, Wallace, Sasha Love, KC PM, livestream at puddlespi- tyrs’, canceled tream at chosenfewdjs.com b through Sunday, June 26 through 28, with livestream at stageit.com Ortiz, DJ Audio Jack, DJ typarty.veeps.com/stream/ Hoodoo Gurus 9/22/2021, Cimafunk 9/6, 8:30 PM, Thalia performances from many great Chicago Beach Slang 7/11, 4 PM, lives- Selah Say, and more 6/26- schedule 8 PM, City Winery, resched- Hall, 17+ acts, including Drea the Vibe Dealer, Lucy tream at stageit.com 6/28, 7 PM, livestream at Rico 7/3, 7 PM, FitzGerald’s, uled b Clannad 9/15, 8 PM, Irish Amer- Big Hearts for Big Kids fea- 4thequlture.com b Berwyn b Luttrell 8/13/2021, 10 PM, Con- ican Heritage Center, 17+ Stoole, Avery R. Young, Mother Nature, turing Tenille Townes, Dierks Girl Talk 5/4/2021, 8 PM, Metro, Riot Fest 2021 featuring cord Music Hall, rescheduled; Damien Escobar 11/7, 6 and 9 DJ Duane Powell , and Thair . Tune in to Bentley, Brandi Carlile, Luke 18+ My Chemical Romance, tickets purchased for previ- PM, City Winery b OTV to see who’s on each night! Combs, Andy Grammer, Laine Hardy 6/25, 7:30 PM; Smashing Pumpkins, Run ously scheduled dates will be Melissa Etheridge 9/26, TV Pow cofounder Brent Gutzeit Mickey Guyton, Caylee 7/9, 7:30 PM, livestream at the Jewels, Pixies, Coheed honored, 18+ 7:30 PM, Genesee Theatre, Hammack, Ashley McBryde, lainehardy.bubbleup.live b and Cambria, Taking Back Matchbox Twenty 8/27/2021, Waukegan b moved from Chicago to Milwaukee four Lori McKenna, Chrissy Metz, Hotel California 8/9, 7 PM, Sunday, Sublime With Rome, 7:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Flesh Panthers, Bobby Lees years ago, but he hung onto the Rolodex John Osborne, Lucie Silvas Arcada Theatre, Saint Charles Dirty Heads, Lupe Fiasco, Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, 8/7, 10 PM, Schubas, 18+ of talented friends he built here. In less 6/30, 7 PM, livestream at face- b Vic Mensa, All-American rescheduled b Flor de Toloache 11/12, 9 PM, than a week he assembled the 106-track, book.com/tenilletownes b Natalie A. Ingram 7/26, 3 PM, Rejects, New Found Glory, Million Tongues Festival Sleeping Village Andrew Bird 6/28, 7 PM, livestream at facebook.com/ Circle Jerks, L7, and more featuring Chris Thompson, Terisa Griffi n 9/11, 8 PM, the 11-hour compilation Building a Better livestream at go.seated.com/ natalieaingrammusic F b 9/16/2021-9/19/2021, Douglas Peter Walker, Ruthann Promontory b Reality, released on Juneteenth to bene- events b Larkin Poe 6/27, 3 PM, lives- Park b Friedman, Singleman Aff air, King Gizzard & the Lizard fi t Black Lives Matter, the NAACP Legal Bluesday Tuesday featuring tream at fans.com Roots Picnic Virtual Experi- Mark Fry, Alisha Sufi t, Nick Wizard, Leah Senior 10/29, Defense Fund, and the Greater Chica- Cash Box Kings 7/7, 7 PM, Ramsey Lewis 6/27, 1 PM, lives- ence featuring H.E.R., Lil Garrie 8/2, 2 PM, resched- 7 PM, Radius Chicago, 17+ FitzGerald’s, Berwyn b tream at stageit.com b Baby, Roddy Ricch, SZA, uled; livestream at ess.org/ La Roux 11/17, 7:30 PM, Park go Food Depository. “This is just some- Bounce and Break Yo Back 3 Lost Souls of Saturn 6/25, Kirk Franklin, Snoh Aalegra, the-quarantine-concerts West b thing that I could do,” Gutzeit says. “We featuring Thank You Chicago 5 PM, livestream at mocade- D-Nice, Polo G, G Herbo, Monsieur Periné 8/12, 8 PM, Little Big Town 10/22-10/23, all can help out in diff erent ways—fi gure it DJs 9/5, 10 PM, the Prom- troit.org b Musiq Soulchild, Earthgang, City Winery, postponed until 8 PM, Chicago Theatre b out and do it.” Artists donated live tracks, ontory LP’s Happy Hour featuring and more 6/27, 5 PM, lives- a date to be determined b Liturgy, Leya, Anatomy of Dollyrots 6/28, 3 PM, lives- Jon Langford, Sima Cunning- tream at rootspicnic.com/ Penny & Sparrow, Sawyer Habit 8/21, 10 PM, Empty unissued material, and new recordings. tream at stageit.com/the_dol- ham 6/26, 5 PM, livestream at philly 8/25, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, Bottle Among the contributors are Ken Van- lyrots hideoutchicago.online Scientifi c Map 7/10, 7 PM, Fitz- canceled b San Fermin 6/4/2021, 8 PM, dermark, I Kong Kult, Al Margolis, Azita Drama 7/9, 9 PM; 7/23, 9 PM, Metal Monday with DJ Eleven Gerald’s, Berwyn b Random Rab, Canter 8/13, Maurer Hall, Old Town School Youssefi , Fire-Toolz , Fred Lonberg- Holm, Livestream at drama.veeps. 7/6, 9 PM; 7/13, 9 PM; 7/20, 9 Ron Vincent 8/20, 7:30 PM, 9 PM, Sleeping Village, of Folk Music b com/stream/schedule b PM, livestream at periscope. Arcada Theatre, Saint Charles canceled Gilberto Santa Rosa 9/19, Gel Set, and Nick Mazzarella & Tomeka Duo Diorama 6/28, 3 PM, tv/ChgLateBar b Riot Fest 2020 9/11-9/13, Doug- 8 PM, Copernicus Center b Reid, and standout cuts include a breath- livestream information at ut . Molly Hatchet, LynSkynyrd Voices: a Benefi t Concert for las Park, postponed until 2021 Teskey Brothers, Joshy Soul taking 30-minute piece by Joshua Abrams org b 8/2, 7 PM, Arcada Theatre, Chicago Artists featuring Johnny Rivera & Caribe 10/11, 8 PM, the Vic, 17+ and a live Michael Zerang track that con- Ensemble Evolution, Interna- Saint Charles b Taylor Mallory and more 7/5, Project Orchestra, DJ Carlos Wavves, Juiceboxxx 11/5, tional Contemporary Ensem- Monsta X 7/25, 10 PM, lives- 6 PM, livestream at facebook. Guate 11/7, 10:30 PM, Joe’s 7 PM, Schubas, 18+ jures a cloud of unsettling sounds. ble 7/2, 6 PM, livestream at tream at livexlive.com, on sale com/rattlebackrecords Live, Rosemont, rescheduled Wavves, Sadgirl 11/5, 10 PM, In February, Chicago rapper Roy Kinsey youtube.com/international- Fri 6/26, 7 AM b Ricky Warwick 7/11, 3 PM, Johnny Rivers 8/23, 7 PM, Schubas, 18+ dropped one of the year’s best albums, contemporaryensemble b National Tap Day, Chicago livestream at stageit.com/ Arcada Theatre, Saint Waxahatchee 6/29, 8 PM; 7/6, Kinsey: A Memoir. Last weekend he teased Etc Radio featuring DJ Payam Style 11/29, 7:30 PM, Maurer ricky_warwick Charles, postponed until a 8 PM, livestream at nooncho- Parvizi, DJ Salar Ansari 7/17, Hall, Old Town School of Folk date to be determined b rus.com/waxahatchee a new song , a remix of the 2019 single 10 PM, livestream at twitch.tv/ Music b Sheer Mag, Young Guv 8/15, Bob Weir & Wolf Bros 10/20, “She/Her” with an all-star cast of Chicago groove_cafe F Old Town School of Folk UPDATED 10 PM, Empty Bottle, can- 7 PM, Chicago Theatre b women: Mother Nature, Cali Hendrix, and Fea 7/9, 9 PM, livestream at Music’s Virtual Pride Jam celed Wingtips, Panic Priest, None Tweak G. —JRNLG stageit.com featuring Andrea Bunch & NOTE: Contact point of pur- Two Feet 5/25/2021, 9 PM, of Your Concern 10/9, 9:30 #4theQulture Fest Virtual Julia Storke 6/26, 6 PM, lives- chase for information about Metro, rescheduled; tickets PM, Sleeping Village Pride Celebration featuring tream at ots.fm/pride ticket exchange or refunds. purchased for original date Winnetka Bowling League Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail Darling Shear, Avery R. Option series presents Joanna will be honored, 18+ 10/3, 8 PM, Subterranean [email protected]. Young, Mother Nature, Lucy Mattrey 7/13, 8 PM, lives- Aether Realm, Paladin, Axxios, Widespread Panic 4/1/2021- b v ll JUNE - CHICAOREADER 41 BREAKING NEWS... PAID ADVERTISEMENT Men’s Virility Restored in Clinical Trial; 275% More Blood Flow in 5 Minutes A newly improved version of America’s best-selling male performance enhancer gives 70-year-old men the bedroom performance they enjoyed in their 30’s.
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322977_10_x_9.875.indd 1 6/12/20 12:44 PM
42 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll OPINION
JOE NEWTON IS NOT FREE chicagoreader.com/donate
SAVAGE LOVE We Couldn't Be Free Without You— An ex-coworker keeps sexting my man Support Community Journalism You’re “fi ne” with fl irting, but she won’t stop blowing up his phone.
By D S :
: I’m committed to my male right now and I’m struggling NO BOUNDARIES! I AM partner and he’s committed with depression. I’m speaking INCAPABLE OF BEING to me. (I’m a woman.) But we with a therapist and I’m on CONSIDERATE! I HAVE both understand we need to meds. But the meds have NO SELF CONTROL!” We teamed fl irt and that we will both want made me gain about 50 Even if you were in a place to sleep with someone else at pounds, which doesn’t help where you felt better about up with the some point. We live together, with the depression. I get the your partner getting some city’s best we have a dog, and neither need and desire to fl irt. But attention elsewhere, the shit chefs and of us believes in marriage. right now I’m not confi dent this woman is pulling would bartenders to We plan to purchase a enough to be OK with him still be annoying, unsettling, house in the coming months. being sexual with another and totally bothersome. give you their Here’s the issue: He met a person even if it’s just texts. And this shit should be stay-at-home woman at work. He’s not And I feel this way knowing disqualifying—meaning, your staples. sexually attracted to her he has no plans to be with partner should’ve shut this at all. She, however, would her! He continues to tell me woman down already. He love to blow him. She’s in an he has no desire to spend should’ve told this woman to unhappy marriage and has his life with anyone else knock it off and, if she didn’t no friends. They exchanged but me. Yet he’s suddenly knock it off, he should’ve $30 PDF numbers when my partner hesitant to buy a house. I told her to fuck the fuck off download was transferred and now guess I’m asking WTF should and blocked her number. If she texts him constantly. It I do? —D P he tried to shut her down doesn’t totally bother me. But R E S - and she kept texting him, $55 printed not only does she text him S D DPRESSD, then I have to won- and drinks! at all hours of the day and der why he hasn’t blocked her copy + PDF night, but she continuously A: You say it doesn’t bother number already. Assuming tells him he’s the hottest you—it doesn’t totally bother he’s telling you the truth about Chicago Cooks man she’s ever met. She you—that this woman texts not being attracted to her— ^ sends him nudes, which I’ve your partner day and night, and it sounds like he is—he at Home seen, and wants to suck his DPRESSD, which strikes may have allowed this to go K>
continued from 43 different med might give you long distance for seven have a problem with him find- the same benefits without this months. I’ve been transparent ing someone else to swap particular side effect. about my need for an open flirty sext messages with, so relationship. Recently this long as it’s someone who can : I met someone I gentleman asked me to tell sext in moderation and at connected with during him if I slept with someone appropriate times. If it’s the quarantine. We’ve all but else. I agreed because I’m latter, DPRESSD, make it clear committed to screwing our not sleeping with anyone at to your partner that this shit is brains out a er we’re given the moment due to COVID- hurting your feelings and, as the all-clear. But she recently 19. But since March, I’ve his partner, you expect him to suff ered a devastating loss. been having phone sex with prioritize your feelings over We will meet, on her terms, a long-term booty call who his former coworker’s feelings. most likely very soon. I know lives across the country. All that said, DPRESSD, I should follow her lead, but Neither knows about the even if the thought of your should I avoid sex even if she other and neither one knows partner going off to play wants to have sex? I don’t I’m bisexual. No big deal, with another woman didn’t know if sex will help or hurt. Is right? I’m a fi rst responder in make you feel insecure, you being chaste and supportive a male-dominated fi eld and I wouldn’t want your partner the right move? Can sex put up with enough bullshit getting blown by this particu- help in a time of loss? I just without the men in my life lar woman. Even if your part- don’t want to be the asshole knowing I eat pussy. How ner has never said, “Don’t text someone winds up writing to much of an asshole am I for me at all hours of the day and you for advice about. not disclosing what I don’t night,” that’s no excuse. No —L O S need to? —N B one wants their phone or their T O D partner’s phone blowing up at 3 AM; that’s not a boundary A: Follow her lead—that’s A: You’re being an asshole— anyone should have to articu- a good impulse—and if she to yourself. Hiding your late to set and, articulated or wants to have sex a er bisexuality from the men not, no one with any common you’ve met in person and you’re dating increases your sense would do that. (And, a er you’ve made it clear odds of winding up in a holy crap, if this is how this to her that there’s no rush, relationship with someone woman behaves in pursuit of LOST, and if you want to have who judges, shames, or hates your partner’s big cock, how sex a er you’ve met her in you for being bisexual, NBOD, is she gonna behave after she person, go ahead and have and why on earth would you gets a taste?) sex. Some people fi nd sex want to do that to yourself? As for the house issue, a er a devastating loss to be Disclosing your bisexuality DPRESSD, press your part- healing and affi rming and the ups your odds of attracting ner to clarify his sudden hes- last thing that person needs a guy who fetishizes your itancy. It may have nothing is for someone else to decide bisexuality, of course, but it’s to do with your relationship; they shouldn’t be having sex easier to weed those guys it’s entirely possible that he’s or even wanting to have sex. out early than it is to leave freaked out by the state of the As for the all-clear you’re (or divorce) some guy who world—because, my God, who waiting for, well, that could reveals himself to be biphobic isn’t?—and he’s having second be a long time off , seeing as a er you’ve made a huge thoughts about sinking his COVID-19 rates are spiking all emotional investment in him. savings into a house. Depres- over the country. If you decide As for the phone sex . . . you sion often puts the worst pos- you can’t wait for the all- should disclose that too. If Mr. sible spin on things; it can lead clear, please consult the New Seven Months can’t handle us to reject a calming truth York Health Department’s you having phone sex with someone is telling us in favor safer sex/harm-reduction some other guy, NBOD, he of an alarming lie we’re telling recommendations for people certainly won’t be able to ourselves. Don’t fall into that who want to have sex during handle you sleeping with trap. this pandemic. (Google “New someone else. And if he can’t And finally, DPRESSD, York Health,” “coronavirus,” handle that, he’s not the right please talk to your doctor and “sex.”) To quickly guy for a woman who wants/ about switching out your summarize: you can minimize needs/requires an open meds. If weight gain is a side your risk of contracting or relationship. v effect of the ones you’re on transmitting COVID-19 by now and weight gain is mak- wearing a mask, not eating Send letters to mail@ ing you more depressed, then ass, using condoms, and using savagelove.net. Download it doesn’t make sense to keep a glory hole. the Savage Lovecast at treating your depression with savagelovecast.com. the meds you’re on now. A : I’ve been dating someone @fakedansavage 44 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll Reqs 4 yrs of prgrssvly & minimum 2 yrs JOBS resp experience in a test experience using large GENERAL driven dvlpmt envnmt. and complex data sets the cannabis platform Exp must incl: wrkg w/ to develop standard Senior Software dynatrace, log monitrg, & ad hoc reports in a a Reader resource for the canna curious Engineer Core splunk, & site traffic variety of formats to a Services (Foot Locker reprtg & analysis tools; high degree of accuracy. Corporate Services, levrgng soasta & cloud No travel is required. For Inc.) (Chicago, IL) Plan based load testg tools fullest consideration, & execute a variety of to create wkloads that please submit CV, cvr Thursdays on methodologies as part mimic normal & holiday ltr, & 3 references by of the concept stage traffic; creatg & curatg 7/19/2020 to Susan in the overall project dashbrds to allow for Ramirez, Ofc. of Budget Cannabis dvlpmt of web srvcs. comparative metrics & Financial Analysis, 601 Design & implement across prdct blds & S Morgan St, Chicago Chicago’s friendliest scalable & highly secure powering metrics/alertg IL 60607 or via email to Conversations Cloud Native RESTful w/ catchpoint, dynatrace, [email protected]. UIC is cannabis shop chicagoreader.com/joravsky API. Reqs a Bachelor’s & apm solutions; & defi ng an Equal Opportunity, degree or foreign equiv & analyzg prformnc -reltd Affirmative Action in comp sci, electrical or metrics & providing employer. 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CLASSIFIEDS Continuous Integration department w/ the Assets apps supprtg www.neuromedici.com 312-772-2313 (CI), Continuous Delivery following responsibilities: web, mobile & store (CD), Agile/Scrum test- Under direction & customers. Create driven dvlpmt envnmts & supervision, assist continuous intgratn & integratg w/ SonarQube department in providing continuous delivery for evaluatn of code central oversight to the pipelines to supprt the quality; & wrkg knwldge collection of University- sftwr releases built from & exp on ecommerce wide budget data Agile Methodology. Reqs JOBS systems to bld a scalable required to produce a Bachelor’s degree or ecommerce platform. budget summaries. foreign equiv in Comp ADMINISTRATIVE Send res to Foot Locker Perform various Sci, Mgmt Info Sys or Corporate Services, Inc., reconciliations to ensure a reltd field. Reqs 4 yrs SALES & Attn: M. 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Modify SSIS i.d. bottlenecks & work Accounting or related pkages to accmmdate Whole-plant hemp HEALTH & w/ the Engineering teams field of study as well partitn of the Delta Data formulations for peace WELLNESS & srvc owners to address as a minimum of 3 yrs loads as per Biz needs. of mind and body. issues & imprv base experience in accounting, Provide assistnc w/ DBA INSTRUCTION perfrmnc,reduce resrcs budgeting, financial task incl grantg access to consmptn & shorten reqst analysis, forecasting, users, creatg databases MUSIC & ARTS latency. Monitr solutns and/or financial & providg read & write to estblish & maintain modeling. Minimum of access. Create pipelines, NOTICES website prfrmnce on a 2 yrs experience using connectns & ETL in wide range of critical advanced reporting Azure Data Factory & mineralhealth.co MESSAGES webpgs across applctns. software to create large monitrg/mntaing the Reqs a bachelors degree and complex custom connectns for failures. LEGAL NOTICES or foreign equivt in comp queries, data sets, Reqs a bachelor’s
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Mail methodologies by graymatteranalytics.com. apps; wrkg w/ Cosmos yr exp as an assistant résumé to Amgaabaatar ensuring that capital DBA activities, Micro engineer, engineer I, Purevjal, iCodice LLC, modeling and allocation Soft Azure Dvlpmt, Data engineer II or related. 5005 Newport Dr, Suite# approaches meet both factory pipeline creatns, Exp must incl: developing 505, Rolling Meadows, IL internal corporate MARKETPLACE MySQL DBA activities, & design drawings incl 60008 needs and regulatory ADULT SERVICES HYBRIS middlwr; creatg alignments, profiles, & requirements related pipelines, connectns cross-sections using TransUnion, LLC to prevailing regulatory Danielle’s Lip Service, & ETL in Azure Data microstation, powerrail, & seeks Sr. Analysts for guidance. Evaluate Erotic Phone Chat. 24/7. Factory & monitorg the autocad civil 3d. Writing Chicago, IL location existing model risk Must be 21+. 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Harvey, REF: AN, cash flow statements, Tracy Guns - Hollywood materials for release to reference job code RP54. 555 W Adams, Chicago, and applying regulatory Rose media & donors. reqd: EOE. IL 60661 requirements for model Guns N Rose Bach’s deg in journalism, risk; and 1 year of 312-206-0867 communications, or rel Schedule Supervisor experience with utilizing 772-323-5173 fld. Resumes to: Kyiv Computer Programmer with Arcadis U.S., Inc. modeling techniques chicagoreader.com/puzzle Mohyla Foundation of Writing computer- (Chicago, IL)- Plan, supporting Capital Dominick D. rocks America, P.O. Box 46009, programming code coordinate, & develop Planning, Stress Testing, Lia Lakely as Paul M. Chicago, IL 60646. as required to meet schedules to facilitate including DFAST, Pricing & Wings, D. Cassidy S. clients’ goals and Department’s Capital models, and Marketing Bono, & Cher, Britney TransUnion, LLC seeks contracted services, Improvement Program. models. Job location: S, Izzy A. S. 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Sci./related to integrate into existing SchSupervisorIL and a copy of the ad to Tracy Guns field + 2yrs exp. or client software, creating F. Cooper, Recruiting 312-206-0867 Stay Home cover series. Bachelor’s in Info. Tech./ innovative functionality The Northern Trust Consultant, 50 S. LaSalle 773-323-5173 Comp. Sci./related field for the existing program, Company seeks a Street, Chicago, IL + 5yrs exp. req’d. Req’d operating and maintain Senior Consultant, 60603. This is a 432-piece, 18” x 24” puzzle. The skills: sw development the system, providing Risk Analytics t o exp. w/Ab Initio, SQL, continuous improvement be responsible for Junior Designer: cost of this puzzle is $60 + $10 for shipping. relational databases, to the application, testing performing independent Childs-Dreyfus Group Agile, Java, Python, and documenting the risk model validation and in Chicago seeks Jr. (U.S. orders only) Netezza, Business system once the program assessing the accuracy Designer to work in all Objects, Hive, Hadoop, is migrated to a test or and performance of design project stages. Presto, Informatica, staging environment and quantitative models Req: Bach degree SSIS, Cognos, UNIX/ performing integration and qualitative in Interior design, Wanderlust: let’s travel! Linux Shell scripting, and system testing, estimations across the architecture or related I am 51 biracial woman Pig, C, C++, Perl, testing software organization. Provide field & 2 yrs exp., incl. with a lot of life in me! Autosys, MapR. performance to ensure technical and theoretical one yr. exp. using ould li e to fi nd elia le 100% telecommuting the delivery of an expertise to evaluate Revit 3D prog, Adobe & financially stable man permitted. Travel to accurate, functional, the conceptual and Photoshop, Autocad, for companionship and TransUnion offices as and satisfactory theoretical soundness Powerpoint, and MS travel. Worked for 35 needed. Send resume product, conducting of model design, Office. Email resume to years in social service to: R. Harvey, REF: MRT, user acceptance validity of selected [email protected], and I am altruistic by 555 W. Adams, Chicago, testing, consulting model methodologies “Jr. Designer” in subject nature. Humor and IL 60661 with managerial and and assumptions, line. positive outlook a must. technical personnel to effectiveness of 630-634-5880 please recycle this paper WANT TO ADD A LISTING TO OUR CLASSIFIEDS? E-mail classifi [email protected] with details or call (312) 392-2970 46 CHICA O READER - JUNE ll the platform The Chicago Reader Guide to Business and Professional Services travel entertainment home improvement
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Chicago Reader Coloring Book
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