FREE AND FREAKY SINCE | APRIL FREE AND FREAKY SINCE
Does the punishment fit the cannabis crime? Tatiana Walk-Morris 10
The future of CBD is female Ariel Parrella-Aureli 20
The last men’s hotel For those who live there, the Ewing Annex Hotel is a refuge, an artifact, and a last chance. The man who’s been holding it together for more than 20 years is about to retire. By K P | THIS WEEK CHICAGO READER | APRIL | VOLUME NUMBER
IN THIS ISSUE T R - in Illinois but expunging records 37 Chicagoans of Note Annie @ and freeing prisoners remains Saunders veterinarian and founder complicated of Punk House Chicago P P T B P E C K H 38 Records of Note This week the E C S K Reader reviews current releases P MK W by Fauvely Bongzilla Pansy Dx G D A H M E P M Damon Locks & Black Monument TDE K R Ensemble and more C E B W 41 Rescheduled A E J L FILM Early Warnings S W M D L G 28 Reopening Local movie theaters concerts and other updated listings D I B J M S and fi lm programs are returning to 41 Gossip Wolf A new Zoom opera L C S C -J business not quite as usual honors the health care workers S J R FOOD & DRINK F A M R 04 Sula | Review A father and 30 Filmmaking Kyra Jones fl ips the fi ghting COVID country cat daughter team sling loaded script on sexual assault fi lms Lawrence Peters leads a workshop ------wieners from a storage container in 12 Housing For those who live there 31 Movies of Note French Exit for aspiring record collectors and D D J D Bronzeville the Ewing Annex Hotel is a refuge is a fascinating escape Monday rapper Defcee drops an expanded S M C J G E B A T an artifact and a last chance The looks at a love aff air beyond the version of his latest EP A NEWS & POLITICS man who’s been holding it together happily a er and Wolfwalkers is a 06 Joravsky | Politics There are for years is about to retire charming tale with a huge heart OPINION S I D M N billions of reasons to keep the 44 Savage Love Dan Savage D D C W schools under mayoral control ARTS & CULTURE off ers advice to a woman whose M P C Y 18 Health Painful sex shouldn’t be a depressed ex is now dating a man D E A S L K mystery condition M P D 20 Weed for Wellness Two local CLASSIFIEDS A A C women entrepreneurs are bringing 45 Jobs S E C K K holistic wellness better access and 45 Apartments & Spaces ADVERTISING equity to the cannabis industry 45 Marketplace -- @ C THEATER - @ 22 Dance Choreographer Rika Lin V P S A M uses classical Japanese forms to O P L S D A N S A R examine gender and identity DG F DG ’ MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE L M -H T P 08 Isaacs | Culture The Chicago 26 Reclaiming History Ghostlight 32 Feature The Jeff erson Park EXP W R L S Monuments Project wants us to Ensemble spotlights unsung women concert series brings a diversity of P B B - - - N A rethink our public art playwrights of the past sounds to a neighborhood library E A H V M G -- - 10 Criminal Justice Weed is legal and to the Internet J L S B
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C © C R ‘Gaslight our conscience’ What are human rights? Redefi ning sci-fi P C IL How suburban infl uence Two books highlight the creativity Made for Love stands out with A C R R defeated a resolution to of the incarcerated—and their slapstick comedy and a complex R R T ® condemn the Indian government lack of basic necessities. look at female liberation.
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ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 3 Search the Reader’s online database of T thousands of Chicago-area restaurants R E. st FOOD & DRINK at chicagoreader.com/food. thehotdogbox.com
Clockwise from le : The Compass Steak Dog, the Yeah Man Jerk Salmon Hot Dog, and the Bronzeville Bourbon Steak Dog NICK MURWAY FOR CHICAGO READER
Vienna dog dressed far off the traditional template. “I love to drench my hot dog in barbecue sauce,” he says. “My wife and I make a special bourbon barbecue sauce, sweet with a hint of smokiness. I would just eat it plain but I knew I needed more texture.” He layered on a carrot-cabbage slaw, sport peppers, and crumbled bacon, and dubbed it the Bronzeville Bourbon Dog, which remains his best seller. Morelli was looking to hire outside help, but instead brought on his nine-year-old daughter Brooklyn, who was already a regular presence on his recordings and videos. When she wasn’t in her online classes, she helped taking orders, washing dishes, and shopping. Together they’ve become the father-daughter Instagram (@thehotdogboxchicago) face of the business, cracking corny jokes and playing Connect Four by the takeout window. Brooklyn takes a starring turn in the full choreographed video they released during the slow winter months. Her celebrity threatens to overtake her fa- ther’s. “People started asking for Brooklyn on days when she’s not here,” he says. Morelli experimented with new dog variet- ies over the months, but a key adoption was a four-ounce fi let mignon dog over the winter, with a pronounced heft and beefiness that could stand up to increasingly dense strata RESTAURANT REVIEW of toppings. These include the surf-and-turf Compass Steak Dog, piled with snappy shrimp, spinach, and a creamy chipotle honey sauce he Bobby Morelli is the sausage king of Bronzeville started to bottle and sell along with the cran- berry honey mustard that appeared on the A father-and-daughter team sling loaded wieners from a storage container. Prairie Blues Steak dog, with collard greens, carrots, and feta cheese. Morelli also brought By M S on a salmon sausage with teriyaki and jerk expressions, and added chicken and vegan sausage substitute options. He’s still in R&D mode, currently testing obby Morelli has no professional culi- loaded wieners whose ambition and audacity partner who was to handle the cookie end of recipes for summer limited editions, like a nary experience. He’s an R&B and pop hasn’t been seen since the glory days of Hot the business bailed, and Morelli scrambled to chicken-and-wa e dog, and a steak dog with Brecording artist with a web design and Doug’s. come up with a new business model. Moroccan-style tomato and onion relish, feta, marketing agency whose plans for those proj- Morelli released a new album, Life on “What else can I do that would be simple but sour cream, and spinach. He’s also toying with ects tanked with the onset of the pandemic. Replay, last April but quickly had to cancel still fun that would make this business be year the idea of an alligator dog, which he worries He’s also a borderline pescatarian who since scheduled tour dates in Atlanta, Miami, and round vs. seasonal,” he says. “I was like ‘Well, might be ahead of its time in the neighbor- August has more or less become the sausage Dallas. A lot of his small business clients closed hot dogs.’ I’m walking through the grocery hood, but he didn’t come to Bronzeville to not king of Bronzeville. or downsized, and he was searching for the store and I’m thinking, ‘What can I do to make push things. That’s when, after just a few weeks of plan- proverbial pandemic pivot when he teamed a hot dog that stands out?’” “It’s defi nitely gonna be out there,” he says. ning, he threw himself into The Hot Dog Box, a up with a partner to open a cookies and ice Morelli opened on August 1 with a classic “But it’ll still make sense.” v steel shipping container fronting 51st street at cream concept at the seven-year-old container Chicago-style Vienna Beef natural casing dog, Boxville Marketplace, with a growing menu of market. Then, three weeks before opening, his dragged through the garden, and another @MikeSula 4 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll We Love CHICAGO Our Readers Love YOU
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ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 5 NEWS & POLITICS
The current board, all appointed by Mayor POLITICS ipality in the state without an elected school Lightfoot, none elected by the people board. CHICAGO BOARD OF EDUCATION His bill—sponsored in the house by state School board politics representative Delia Ramirez—would divide Chicago into 20 districts. Each district would The billions of reasons to keep the schools under mayoral control elect one school board member. And there’d be billion that Mayor Rahm got the City Council a school board president elected citywide. to give to Lincoln Yards. By B J In the past, former senate president John As such, mayors want rubber-stampers on Cullerton did Mayor Rahm’s bidding, killing the school board so that there’s no opposition Martwick’s bill in the senate. from CPS when money gets diverted from the But Cullerton has retired—replaced by Oak schools for various development schemes. t the risk of sounding like Richard Nixon, $1.3 billion Lincoln Yards boondoggle, and, Park senator Don Harmon. He didn’t bring the And so, there’ve been nothing but yes men I want to make something perfectly of course, the failed effort by Mayor Rahm bill to a vote in the lame-duck session earlier and women at the school board since 1995, Aclear . . . and Governor Rauner to fork over billions to this year, largely as a favor to Mayor Lightfoot, when the state passed a “reform” law, giving My support for an elected school board is Amazon. who opposes it, even though as a candidate Mayor Daley a free hand in naming them. not a knee-jerk reaction to the people who So far there have been no super-duper-bad, she supported the concept. Years ago, one Daley school board aide oppose it. money-wasting ideas from Mayor Lightfoot, Why the mayoral opposition? Well, there’s explained it to me this way: if you want to be Namely that’s a coalition of the civic, cor- which suggests that she’s a) less of a tool of the publicly stated reason, and then there’s my on the mayor’s team, you gotta do what the porate, and editorial elite of Chicago, who corporate elites, or b) she’s been so preoc- theory. mayor demands. are more than happy to keep the schools con- cupied with the pandemic she’s had no time The public reason, as expressed by Mayors And that explains why no school board trolled by a mayor they think they can count to come up with new ways to waste our tax Rahm and Lightfoot, is that an elected school member or CEO has ever opposed projects like on to do what they want to do when it comes dollars by doling them out to rich people who board would be too unwieldy. Too many dis- the Olympics, Amazon, or Lincoln Yards—no to dividing up the economic-development pie. don’t need them. tricts. Too many members. It would politicize matter how much money those projects di- In other words, their opposition to an elect- Take your pick, Chicago. the schools. verted from the schools. ed school board has little to do with anything Anyway, the reason the elected school board I like to point out that Chicago’s school Let’s go back to the Amazon deal for a mo- remotely connected to what goes on in a is on my mind is that I’ve noticed an uptick in system is already very much politicized. It’s ment. Je£ Bezos turned down Mayor Rahm’s classroom and much more to do with doling the number of op-ed pieces and editorials largely a political tool used by mayors to make o£ er and decided to split his corporate head- out handouts to powerful interests who don’t from corporate leaders and from groups like them look good. quarters between New York City and suburban need them. the Commercial Club urging Chicagoans to So that every hike in test scores or gradu- Virginia. Oh, I know that sounds cynical. And reading stick with an appointed board. ation rates—no matter how exaggerated—is But then Congresswoman Alexandria Oc- it, you might conclude that I must have spent Working from the assumption that there hyped up as evidence that our mayor is an asio-Cortez tweeted out opposition, and one the last 40 years of my life following Chicago are no coincidences in life, I’ve concluded that exalted leader we must worship. thing led to another and pretty soon some politics to be so jaded. Mayor Lightfoot is rounding up corporate sup- Think of Eddie Murphy in Coming 2 Ameri- unions in New York City were demanding that And you would be right. So, OK—maybe part port as she takes her opposition to an elected ca, where scantily clad attendants throw fl ow- Amazon allow warehouse workers to unionize. of the reason I’m for an elected school board is board another step. That is—she’s planning to ers before him as he walks their way. Eventually, Amazon decided not to move its because of the people who oppose it. propose a hybrid plan that would mix elected As for my theory, it goes like this. Filling the headquarters to New York. Let me point out that much of the opposi- members with mayoral appointees. With the board with mayoral appointees pretty much One independent-minded school board tion comes from the same cast of characters mayor having the greatest say, most likely. guarantees that there will be no opposition member, like AOC, could do a lot of damage to who were cheerleaders for really atrocious At the moment, there is an elected school from the schools to really bad mayoral devel- some of the big publicly funded development mayoral ideas over the past 15 or so years. A board bill on state legislators’ agenda. opment deals, even if they’re financed with deals around here. No wonder the powers list of money-wasters that includes . . . It’s sponsored by northwest-side state money diverted from the schools. that be want to keep schools under mayoral Mayor Daley’s Olympics, Mayor Rahm’s senator Rob Martwick, who’s been champion- Like, for instance, a good chunk of the control. v South Loop basketball/hotel scam (the money ing the issue for years. Martwick says it’s an billions of TIF dollars that Rahm and Rauner wound up going to Navy Pier), Mayor Rahm’s outrage that Chicago remains the only munic- were so eager to give to Amazon. Or the $1.3 @bennyjshow 6 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll When I Think Of You By Rocío Franco
I hear your bells chiming in my ear A summons for a smooth, simple treat Respite from scorch of summer and sweat pooling at my feet I run after you like hailing a cab to an unnamed destination Discovering at the end of the ride, a chock full of possibilities Strawberry like red blush forming on my cheeks Tamarindo lightly sours but quenches dry desert lips Limon, tangy green neon sign to the last days of summer Chocolate like the hands of the boy I’m in love with You are always a reliable friend for those few months when the city thaws and climbs out of a winter slumber Cold, solid, and rectangular; your sturdiness on wooden sticks disguises the taste bud tornado that bursts on the tongue The simplicity of your fl avors delight children and adults alike Reminding us of small joys that relieve a day burdened by the humidity of the hood and the stickiness of the streets Emerging as the days stretch and put us in a haze, Paletas, you are so much more than popsicle You are my abuelita giving me her last dollar tucked away in her apron You are colors of a country that I don’t visit as much as I’d like to You are the fi eldworkers that pick the fruit to sculpt you You are a reminder of ancestor and the connection to all the fl avors they try to assimilate and mass produce But they can’t mass produce this fl ood of memories melting what rushes to numb me.
Rocío Franco is a Latinx poet and activist from Chicago, IL. She’s a 2020 Frost Conference on Poetry Alum. Her poems have appeared in The Acentos Review and Outpatient Press. She works as a health insurance counselor at a non-profi t union health fund and strongly believes in universal healthcare. She loves exploring the city with her family on the weekends, practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and approaches the world with a social justice lens.
Poem curated by José Olivarez: José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a fi nalist for the PEN/ Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. A biweekly series curated by the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.
Celebrate Poetry Month with the Poetry Foundation! Celebrating the Poets of Forms & Features Featuring poets honing their craft in this long-running workshop series Thursday, April 22, 2021, 6:00 PM Open Door Reading Series: Xandria Phillips, S. Yarberry & kiki nicole Highlighting Chicago’s outstanding writers and poetic partnerships Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 7:00 PM
Learn more about FREE resources and opportunities at PoetryFoundation.org
ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 7 NEWS & POLITICS
Statue of Christopher Columbus in Arrigo Park Burnham Park (a gift from one fascist memori- JYOTI SRIVASTAVA alizing another; see John Greenfi eld’s report- ing on this), and Ron Onesti allows that “the narrative should be broadened,” but notes began meeting in September. that “our Columbus statues were the only stat- The project aims to deal with the fact that ues taken down,” and “we want them back.” “many of our existing monuments perpetuate Last week, Onesti, president of the Joint harmful and untrue narratives that are o en- Civic Committee of Italian Americans, sent sive to many people,” and to “address the hard Chicago Park District head Michael Kelly a let- truths of Chicago’s racial history.” ter announcing that, thanks to FOIA document To start a public discussion about that, releases, the JCCIA has discovered an agree- the committee came up with a list of 41 ment signed by the Park District in 1973 that problematic pieces, all created between 1893 requires permission from their organization and the 1930s, when mythmaking about the before the Columbus statue in Little Italy’s founding of the city and the nation buried Arrigo Park—originally displayed at the 1893 issues like slavery and genocide while (among World’s Fair, and one of those abruptly placed other things) “promoting narratives of white in storage by Lightfoot—can be removed. supremacy.” On Monday, the Park District replied that The monuments range from images of Leif the agreement only calls for JCCIA approval Erikson, Abraham Lincoln, and Columbus, to for “substantial changes,” and that since this the golden replica of the “The Republic” that removal (nine months ago and counting) is stands in Jackson Park. temporary, “No substantial changes were There’s been some pushback. made to the statue or plaza therefore the Last week, after drawing heat for previous Chicago Park District is not in violation of the sessions held in private, the advisory commit- agreement.” tee met publicly, on Zoom. You can still access The Monuments Project is hosting a series that meeting (and other past public events) at of public events that run into June, many of the project website. If you do, you’ll hear co- them in partnership with other organizations. chair Mark Kelly addressing misconceptions I caught two of those in the last week: one co- about the project. “This is not an e ort to tear hosted by the Chicago Cultural Alliance (with CULTURE it all down,” Kelly says, but is more about “re- presentations by the Bronzeville Historical purposing, recontextualizing, reimagining.” Society, the Haitian American Museum, and “We’re not here to rewrite history. We’re the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance), the other by Monumental undertaking looking to understand the omissions and the Mother Jones Heritage Project, which half-truths that are represented in our public wants to put a statue of its namesake on The Chicago Monuments Project wants us to rethink our public art. monuments.” Wacker Drive, just o Michigan Avenue. And you’ll hear 38th Ward alderman Nick Did you know that Mother (Mary) Jones By D I Sposato say that “when I hear ‘reimagine,’ it immigrated to America from Ireland as a child, bothers me.” And, “We need to add in, not get lost her husband and four children to an epi- rid of.” demic of yellow fever, and moved to Chicago s much as we’d like to think that we’re Created by Mayor Lori Lightfoot in re- Some of what follows, in nearly two hours (for a second time) in 1867, setting up a dress- doing everything right, right now, we’re sponse to the protests last summer that also of comments by committee members, are making business that was wiped out in the Anot. Not totally. prompted her to cause Christopher Columbus suggestions that future monuments don’t Great Fire before embarking on her legendary In a century or so, the folks who’ve taken statues to vanish from public parks, the Monu- have to be statues, but can be, for example, career as a labor organizer? our place here on the shore of Lake Michigan ments Project is led by a 30-member advisory gathering places, and that they should be less Mother Jones wasn’t perfect; she failed to (assuming that we’re not messing up so badly committee that includes artists, architects, about prominent individuals and more about embrace the cause of women’s suffrage. But that there’s not still a Lake Michigan) will rec- scholars, and civic leaders. women, people of color, and the collective she raised hell to get children out of the mines ognize our failings. They’re turning an overdue critical eye on experience. DCASE sta ers report that 125 art- and factories. v They’ll wonder how we could have been so the city’s stock of public art and historical ists submitted ideas for new monuments, and ignorant and careless. Or worse, so craven. markers, looking, in particular, at the way that, after Chicago, no place is more interested In the next week or so the Monuments Project is They’ll attempt to set things right. And, with history’s been presented. Or, rather, misrep- in the project website than Croatia, homeland offering programs on “North Lawndale Monu- the benefi t of history’s rearview mirror, they’ll resented. They’ll be making recommendations of sculptor Ivan Meštrović, whose Bowman ments” and the “Indian Boundary Line Marker,” decide the fate of any monuments to false about what to do about that now, and how to and Spearman sculptures (at Michigan and Ida with the “Three Patriots Statue,” the “Chicago heroes or disastrous causes we may have left avoid it in the future. B. Wells Drive) are on the list. Race Riot,” and much more coming up. Check behind. Cochaired by DCASE commissioner Mark There are also remarks from two members the website (chicagomonuments.org) for the With luck, their task won’t be as difficult Kelly, Landmarks Illinois president Bonnie of the public, allowed just three minutes schedule. as the one that’s been handed to the Chicago McDonald, and Jane Addams Hull-House mu- each to comment. Anthony Onesto argues for Monuments Project. seum director Jennifer Scott, the committee keeping the controversial Balbo monument in @DeannaIsaacs 8 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll NEWS & POLITICS
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ‘Does the punishment fit the crime?’ Weed is legal in Illinois, but expunging records and freeing prisoners remains complicated. By T W -M
n 2018, William Thomas C. was caught imprisoned for cannabis convictions, to help nearly $109 million in March 2021, according contact with Governor Pritzker’s office. Toi with 18 pounds of cannabis a few days free Tom. to the Illinois Department of Financial and Hutchinson, the senior adviser on cannabis after returning home from vacation with Tom is one of dozens incarcerated on Professional Regulation—nonprofits have control, seemed very interested in working his grandchildren. He was charged with cannabis o enses despite Illinois legalizing stepped up to help free people incarcerated with the organization on identifying more cannabis tra cking and manufacturing or marijuana for recreational and medicinal on cannabis o enses and remove those con- inmates incarcerated in state prisons for can- Idelivering more than 5,000 grams of cannabis, use. In Illinois and in other states where can- victions from their records. nabis crimes. The nonprofi t, however, has run according to court records. Before then, Wil- nabis has been legalized, there’s generally no The irony of Tom’s imprisonment isn’t lost into administrative holdups as it seeks to do liam, better known as Tom, ran a family farm resentencing or commutation procedures for on him and his family. Tom’s mother won- the same for other prisoners. and a lawn care business in Bloomington, Illi- those who are incarcerated, the only mech- dered why her son remained incarcerated “Most states, including Illinois, it seems, nois. Since Tom has been serving a nine-year anism for expungement or sealing cannabis even after the state legalized weed. He’s been don’t necessarily have that data readily avail- sentence at Centralia Correctional Center, his criminal records, said Sarah Gersten, execu- asking Tara to research charitable organiza- able. You know, oftentimes, the systems that sister Tara C. has managed his businesses and tive director and general counsel of the Last tions that could help him get released. Tara they’re using are antiquated,” Gersten said. talks with him several times a week. Prisoner Project. said she felt confl icted. “So, it takes a proactive initiative and a will- Tara, who asked for her last name to be Now that the state has legalized recre- “I am a fi rm believer if you break the law, ingness for the state to want to just start the withheld to preserve her career, said Tom ational and medicinal cannabis use, 108 in- you have to suffer the consequences,” Tara process and work to get that data, and work su ered a terrible motorcycle accident sever- mates remain incarcerated for o enses rang- said. “I don’t think that he should—because to identify those individuals. That I would al years ago and turned to marijuana to help ing from producing less than 200 cannabis he’s a nice guy and comes from a great back- say is, sort of, you know, the next biggest hur- with his pain management as an alternative plants to tra cking, according to the Illinois ground and has a great family and whatev- dle in Illinois.” to prescription medications. During Tom’s Department of Corrections’ December 31, er—that he shouldn’t have to pay the price. Though COVID-19 has taken many gover- trial, his family had to sell assets to pay for 2020, prison population fi gures, which were But does the punishment fi t the crime?” nors’ attention away from releasing cannabis his attorney’s fees. But following his convic- the most recent statistics available. As the Of course, Tom’s family isn’t alone in won- prisoners, Gersten said the pandemic has tion, Tara reached out to the Last Prisoner state expunges records for low-level cannabis dering how soon before cannabis prisoners also created newfound urgency to decarcer- Project, a Denver-based nonprofi t which ad- crimes and dispensaries rake in millions in serving lengthy sentences will be released. ate inmates as the coronavirus spreads vocates for the freedom and welfare of people cannabis sales—recreational sales reached Gersten said the organization has been in within prisons. Correctional facilities aren’t 10 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll #TVKUV9TKVGT NEWS & POLITICS 2GTHQTOGT! %4'#6+8' 51.76+105 (14 %4'#6+8' 2'12.' designed to protect inmates from infectious for personal use,” Gersten said. “Now, we’ve a cannabis offense may hinder someone’s 5WRRQTVKXG #HHKTOKPI CPF )QCN disease, and the organization has been decided that cannabis is legal, people should ability to get jobs, federal public housing, hearing “really atrocious stories” from its profi t o of it, but, of course, only certain peo- fi rearms, state licensing, and schooling, she &KTGEVGF 2U[EJQVJGTCR[ CPF constituents about prison conditions. ple are profi ting o of it. And the individuals said. *[RPQVJGTCR[ HQT #FWNVU “My hope is that more progressive gover- that were in the cannabis business before it “No matter what you’ve done in your life, nors, like Governor Pritzker, will see this as became a legal business, they’re not able to there are points in time and di erent oppor- /#: - 5*#2'; .%59 an opportunity to further reduce their prison take advantage of these laws.” tunities that a background check can ruin all .QECVGF KP &QYPVQYP 'XCPUVQP population, because there’s such an urgent For people with cannabis criminal records of that,” Johnson said. “It’s just [a] lack of op- health need right now,” Gersten said. seeking to get them expunged, the state has portunities, whether it’s an absolute barrier The Illinois Department of Corrections did funded New Leaf Illinois, an initiative aiming to you getting it or it’s making you settle for YYYOCZUJCRG[EQO not respond to multiple interview requests to provide free legal representation or infor- something less because of something in your OCZUJCRG["CQNEQO from the Reader. mation. Illinois Legal Aid Online, one of 20 past.” NWG TQUU NWG 5JKGNF 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT KIPC 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT Hutchinson maintains that there’s no dis- organizations involved in the e ort, has cre- The House passage of the Marijuana Op- connect between the governor’s office and ated a collection of online tools to help users portunity Reinvestment and Expungement the organizations seeking to free cannabis through the process of getting their records Act (MORE) in December 2020 is a sign that prisoners. The government was already slow, cleared. The state’s third universal form used the federal government could decriminalize but the pandemic has further complicated for the people with more complex cannabis cannabis, which paves the way for people the state’s ability to operate. Still, Hutchin- cases is expected to be approved sometime in incarcerated on federal crimes to regain son commended the e ort to expunge canna- early 2021, at which point Illinois Legal Aid their freedom, Gersten said. But the Senate bis o enses so far. will create an automated form for the public, referred the legislation to the Committee on “There’s nothing normal about life right said Andrew Sharp, content director at Illi- Finance. now,” Hutchinson said. “Every single day, we nois Legal Aid. “I think in the new administration, we do as much as we can from as many di erent People with cannabis criminal records will see progress,” Gersten said. “I just think directions as we can.” often come to the organization with ques- it defies logic for lawmakers to continue to Once the state law took e ect on January 1, tions about whether their case qualifi es for believe that individuals should remain incar- 2020, legalizing recreational cannabis, Illi- automatic expungement or requires them cerated while others are profi ting o of this nois had to begin expunging certain classes to fi le a motion, as well as to ask about their same activity.” of o enses over a fi ve-year period, Hutchin- rights with regard to consumption, and how Tom’s incarceration has taken a toll on his son said. When asked at what point Pritzker that changes with employment and immigra- family, Tara said. She and his other siblings would begin examining more complex can- tion status, Sharp said. will support Tom once he’s released, and nabis o enses, Hutchinson said, “we’re doing “There’s a lot of instances where your their mother is handling the situation better that now.” rights are limited by the fact that it’s still than expected, Tara said. However, Tom’s She went on to tout the Illinois State Police illegal at the federal level,” Sharp said. “Even incarceration has been difficult for his two Department and the Illinois Prisoner Review people who are using cannabis medically still adult sons, she noted. Board’s efforts to expunge nearly 500,000 have to worry about some of these federal “There’s a lot of hurt, but we’re a very close arrest records ahead of schedule. A spokes- repercussions.” family. We’re very supportive. He’ll have a lot person told the Sun-Times that the governor Besides the federal law complicating ex- of support when he does get out,” Tara said. has pardoned more than 20,000 cannabis pungement for folks with cannabis records, “Hopefully, there’ll be a life for him when convictions. Meanwhile, State Representa- the complexity of Illinois’s local court sys- he gets out and he can still be a productive tive Mary Flowers has introduced a bill that tems is another hurdle for people navigating human being and give back to society in a aims to automatically expunge criminal the process, Sharp said. Though Pritzker, good way.” records and free people who are incarcerated state legislators, and the Illinois Supreme Tara noted that Tom has exercised, con- for cannabis crimes. Court are doing what they can to streamline tinued taking his blood pressure medication, “The thing that’s so . . . sad about this topic the process, each circuit court has its own and received his COVID-19 vaccine. She hopes is that the sheer number of records that there clerks and the Illinois Prisoner Review Board Tom will continue this healthy lifestyle. She are shows you how prolifi c the overpolicing hearings for determining which cases to rec- foresees him returning to Michigan, where and targeting was,” Hutchinson said. “Re- ommend for pardoning aren’t transparent or they grew up, and enjoying nature, but won- member, we are trying to undo 87 years of a open to the public to attend, he said. dered what limits would be placed on her horrible drug problem, and this is our first The federal prohibition of cannabis contin- brother after he’s released. attempt. And it’s a very, very strong one. But ues to complicate lives, said Beth Johnson, “He loves a snowmobile, and he loves to . . . we should never again be lulled to sleep project manager for the Illinois Equal Justice hunt—although he can’t hunt because [he] and think that our work is done on one e ort.” Foundation. Johnson pointed out that state can’t have a gun,” Tara said. “He loves the As the state expunges low-level cannabis sentences for cannabis o enses can be short- outdoors stu , and I would love for him to get offenses, some have remained in prison for er than federal ones, which could last for back to that area and be able to go where he’s crimes pertaining to more than 30 grams, more than 20 years, so state o enders could always wanted.” v an amount of cannabis that “seems like an be released before commutations procedures incredibly small amount to me just to have begin. But once released from prison, having @Tati_WM ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 11 NEWS & POLITICS
HOUSING men’s-only hotels, left over from an earlier era in an earlier century when meatpacking and manufacturing were the city’s golden coin of promise, and hotels like this were a common way for men, single and attached THE LAST MEN’S HOTEL alike, to live on the cheap as they saved up For those who live there, the Ewing Annex Hotel is a refuge, an artifact, and a last chance. The man who’s been holding it together for more than 20 years is about to retire. for an apartment of their own or sent their wages back to their country families. In this By K P century, it’s the fi nal refuge for many of the 200-plus men who live there now, between themselves and homelessness, where small hen Mike Bush was 12, all clubs by Chicago police at the Democratic 95th to Adams and Wabash,” Mike recites to rooms—sometimes called cubicles and some- knees and soft eyes, he National Convention downtown, it began with me 53 years later. From there, he’d walk one times called cages—rent for $19 a night, and won a scholarship to attend Mike, a young Black aspiring artist from the block due east, the promise of the Art Insti- where many, like Mike, live for decades of youth classes at the School Wild Hundreds by way of Memphis, slinging tute’s tall columns and Lake Michigan’s cool their lives. of the Art Institute of Chi- his bag of paper and pencils over his shoulder waters pulling him home. Mike has lived in A single stairwell lit by fl uorescent lights cago. It was summer 1968, hot and angry and and stepping out into the sun. the Ewing Annex Hotel, located in the South runs from the ground floor on up to the Whopeful, and while it would end with young “105th and Moore, to 111th and Michigan. Loop, for the last 24 years, working as the fourth, linking the hotel’s two wings like a anti-war protesters getting beaten with billy Thirty-four [bus] from Michigan to 95th, manager for 22. It’s the last of Chicago’s spine. To choose your wing, your room, and 12 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll NEWS & POLITICS
“The guys that are here would be sleeping on the works, a twin-size bed with a sheet, and a with city fi nancial help, become homes again housing segregation, the hotel is “the United streets if we weren’t open,” says Mike Bush. LLOYD DEGRANE ceiling of chicken wire that lets your neigh- once more. Nations of Poor People,” laughs Mike. And, bor’s conversations, odors, and dust drift Mike’s home is the hotel. At any given day, like in the past, there are rumors of idiosyn- your future, you must first open the thin through—hence the “cage” nickname. A the same is true for up to 210 men, some of cratic millionaires or the fallen rich living glass door that’s sandwiched between Coco’s century of gra ti painted over in brown and whom stay for a night and vanish, some of here from time to time. In 1946, the Chicago Fried Lobster and a nameless party store ad- cream still glimmers through, and the new whom check in and out and in again, and Tribune reported that after a man died in vertising scratch-o s and Bud Light. Follow additions shine outright: Christ is life. Don’t others who have lived there for decades. the cubicle he’d lived in for years, detectives the stairs to a landing where Mike, serene knock on this door unless you got a pussy. They are as old as 86 and as young as 18. At doing a routine search of his room found in his black zip-up and mask and lacquered Pictures of foreign cities cut from magazines the front desk, they show driver’s licenses, $40,000 in bonds (worth over half a million behind COVID-protective glass, greets you. taped to one door, sunfl owers on another. No state IDs, passports. They were born in dollars today), bits of bread and cheese, and From here, any door besides the lobby re- air conditioning here, though the windows at Cicero, they were born in Ghana, they were a large box of cigarette stubs with traces of quires permission from sta and a buzzer to each fl oor’s end are frequently open and the born on a table in Cabrini-Green. They work lipstick on their ends. Mike says two Enron open if you’re a male resident, or the buzzer whir of steel fans encourages the hot, heavy as substitute teachers, as security guards, executives flashed their work IDs when he plus the accompaniment of Mike if you’re a air to fl ow. as dishwashers, as panhandlers, as personal asked for identifi cation during their stay in woman like me. Mike lives in the quieter wing, as does his aides. They’re retired. Some are veterans, late 2001. To the right of the stairs are the private son Demetrius, handsome with his father’s others former competitive swimmers. Many The Ewing Annex Hotel exists today in a rooms, many of them o ces until the 1980s, quiet manners and slow smile who, now that have been to jail. To stay alive, many rely on weird blurry space: beds are advertised for when this wing was purchased and renovated he’s out of prison, is leaving the hotel soon daily medications: for their heart, their blood men in transition, but many residents stay by Wayne and Randy Cohen, two brothers to pursue a career as a personal assistant pressure, the mental illnesses that make it for years. It’s a hotel that asks if you’ve been who own the hotel, the pawnshop, and four for people with disabilities. He stayed longer di cult for them to distinguish reality from incarcerated in the last six months during other businesses on the same block. These than he planned to help his dad, something hallucination, threat from friend. check-in, a home where the front door to your rooms range in size from space enough to Mike regrets now. “I feel like I’m kind of For 22 years, Mike has arbitrated fights, building doesn’t lock, and where you drop o host a small fridge, a desk, and a guest to holding him back from what he wanted,” he administered Narcan, arranged flu clinics your keys to your room at the front desk every just a couple inches wider than the twin bed. tells me. I’ve never seen Mike’s room, which and holiday meals, coaxed residents into time you leave. A four-story building without In the room of one man I meet, a 66-year-old he lives in as part of his wages, but I know taking their meds, connected those looking elevators that rents to many with disabilities, artist named Louie Albarron, there is no bed, that these days, a friend in Englewood stores to outside housing, and, for some, made sure including those who use crutches, wheel- only art he’s made with what he’s found in Mike’s artwork because his room is too small their bodies were properly cared for after chairs, and those who are amputees. dumpsters: paintings of the lakefront and La for most of his paintings, his drawings, and being carried out the door. This year, he’s In his two decades on the job, the number Madonna, jean jackets he’s embroidered with the found materials he wants to turn into leaving. of elderly, disabled, or ill residents has in- explosive reds and golds, earrings of twisted large-scale sculptures. This friend touches creased so much that Mike has a collection copper and small spoons that dangle from his the paint up and mows the lawn of every he Workingman’s Exchange was built of abandoned walkers and wheelchairs piled ears. A single window shines clear sunlight unoccupied home on his block. He uses solar in the 1890s to make money and meet a three high in the crawl space above one of the on his guitar and photos of his ex-wife, her light to power his home and a few of the oth- need. Men needed cheap housing, and lobby’s vending machines. blonde hair piled dreamily on top of her head. ers. Mike loves that this friend cares enough TAlderman Michael Kenna needed their votes. On one day I visit, Mike is on the phone By day, Louis uses the room as his studio; about the empty homes in his neighborhood Before his rise to City Council, he worked as with a resident recovering in the hospital by night, he blows up an air mattress and to tend to their possibility, to work towards a a committeeman churning out votes for the from heart surgery. “Some of the equipment sleeps on the floor. Other rooms contain future in which they’re homes again. city’s infamous Democratic machine. While he’s gonna need outside of the hospital is too other wonders: pothos vines trailing out of Like his friend and like his son, Mike Kenna didn’t run the hotel, he did run its ad- much for the normal-size room even,” he ex- water-filled jam jars; carefully constructed strongly believes in caring for what and joining saloon. Nicknamed “The Hinky Dink,” plains to me. The man is adamant. He doesn’t miniature trains lined up on tiny tracks; a who are already here. In every one of the a nod to the powerful Kenna’s slight height, want to go to a nursing home, which, to him, family of black and brown belts, still pinned many conversations we have from May 2020 “this was Kenna’s ‘philanthropic’ saloon,” represents poor care and certain decline till with their security tags, that slink over the to February 2021, he shares with me, in his Chicago’s fi rst historian emeritus Tim Samu- death. He wants to return to the hotel. back of chairs like snakes. Some of the rooms quiet, passionate voice, his vision: shuttered elson wrote to me, “o ering huge, inexpensive on this side have windows, some do not. The schools across the south and west sides re- glasses of beer and free lunch for the working he second time I meet Bob Boardman, price ranges from $400 a month to $450, with modeled, their doors opening like petals for poor of the area.” he doesn’t remember the fi rst. It’s May the higher end providing air conditioners women and children fleeing violent homes, The men of the Exchange were hungry and 2020. I’m at the hotel, with photogra- and, perhaps, a sink. It’s quieter in this wing, or for other Chicagoans in need of shelter eager, with sweethearts they were moving Tpher Lloyd DeGrane, to talk to him for a story where only five men live on each floor and while they wait for housing vouchers to come towards or families they were fl eeing, with we’re working on about opioid users who’ve where all the rooms have ceilings. through. Classrooms converted to dormito- the promise of a job but little money in their had access to their drugs or medications cut To the left of the stairwell is the original ries, cafeterias serving whoever needs to eat. pockets, or small fortunes and a desire to dis- o by the early shutdowns of COVID-19. hotel, the part that began as The Working- With his words, long dark factories light back appear. They spoke English, Swedish, Can- Bob is white, 65, wears great jackets and man’s Exchange. On this side you fi nd wood up in their second lives as clinics treating tonese. They came from all over the country, layers outrageous sweaters on his thin frame, floors, not tile; narrow hallways, not wide. substance use disorders. Other factories are they took boats across oceans, they hopped a and nearly always has a bandana around Two men can’t pass each other without at once again noisy, this time with the sounds of train from Indiana, and they ended up here, his long, gray-yellow hair. He looks like an least one turning sideways. Each fl oor holds job training, or maybe a second life in man- at 426 S. Clark. anti-war hippie, but no middle class pretense 54 of the famous cubicles: each cubicle, for ufacturing masks and other high-demand Like their historical brothers, the men of and not all peace. He carries two doses of $19 a night, $120 a week, or $360 a month, health care products. Homes sunk by preda- the hotel today are racially, ethnically, and Narcan at all times. He’s a good listener and provides a door that locks, an outlet that tory mortgages could o er day care, or even, linguistically diverse. In a city notorious for a good conversationalist, though his laugh ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 13 NEWS & POLITICS
continued from 13 catch up, plus buy a little something for him- and promise to stay on their meds. They show do is swim,” he tells me, and laughs a little at sometimes has an edge to it. The pupils in his self. During his stay at the hospital, Bob told him bottles. “‘I’m taking it now, I’m alright.’” the memory. “Thousands and thousands of blue eyes are shrunken sometimes, the way his doctors he was prescribed methadone, an In that case, Mike says, “I give ’em a second miles. And I won a lot of gold medals.” Fake a younger brother of mine’s are when he’s opioid-dependency treatment drug, but they chance.” This man Mike cu ed to the radia- gold, he assures, me, handed out by park dis- relapsed. Bob also has an older sister. “She couldn’t get his prescription cleared in time tor, though, didn’t come back, he tells me. trict sta . “But man, I just had a stack of ’em, worries to death,” he says, tiredly. That’s to maintain his regimen. He went through like Mark Spitz, you know? I was just taking it why they talk, depending on how his phone is withdrawal there in the bed. It wasn’t nearly ne day in June, not long after Mayor all.” One day, his apartment got robbed. Gone holding up, about once a week. When needed, as bad as when, a few years back, he went Lightfoot’s decision to raise down- were the medals he’d carefully brought with she helps pay his rent. through withdrawal in prison. Knowing what town bridges during Black Lives Mat- him through every move. Later, he saw them Bob’s lived on the streets since he started was coming, he asked prison sta for metha- Oter protests leads to police kicking, punching, in a pawnshop. “I said to myself, how much running away from home as a kid, and he fi rst done. “We don’t have that,” Bob says he was and shoving protesters on Wabash Bridge, they give you, a dollar? I said, man I earned went to jail when he was 15. He’s the one who told. And so, he just balled up in the bed, and I bike to the hotel. The day is hot and bright, those. I really earned those.” told me the cubicles are the same size as the once released, began using again. but the sunlight doesn’t glint off the glass Despite growing up in The Great Lakes single cells at Stateville Prison. “Which I The hotel is full of many men like Bob who, windows I pass—they’re all boarded up. After State, I didn’t learn how to swim until I was know,” he says, grinning wildly the fi rst time after surgery or rehab or in-patient treat- locking up and nodding to the men smoking nearly 30. When I go home, I look Mark Spitz we meet, “cuz I’ve been a bad, bad boy.” He ment for mental illness, return. As he says, “I nearby, I head up the stairs, where I meet up. I learn about his cheeky mustache, his runs with a younger white man named Jason, have nowhere else to go.” Lloyd at the desk. Mike is elsewhere in the nine Olympic golds, his perfect white teeth. who stays in a small garden o of Congress hotel, putting out fi res metaphorical or real, Nelson would’ve been ten in 1972, the sum- near the busiest fi re station in Chicago. We ike does everything he can to avoid and Nelson is covering for him, so he’s who I mer Spitz won seven gold medals and set a take a walk to go visit him, and find Jason calling the police. “Save tax dollars hang with after Lloyd is buzzed in the stairwell world record with each. I like to imagine Nel- listening to music from a small radio and and their time,” he explains to me one door to go rouse Bob. son diving into a city pool, feeling his body carefully cutting his own hair while eyeing a Mday in mid-February, breath condensing in our “Are you OK?” Nelson asks me. “I heard you slice through the water, his triumph golden mirror he has balanced on a rock. All around masks. Out of every ten calls he does make to sneeze.” I assure him that I’m fi ne—no COVID, and real. us, lilac petals drift down. the cops, Mike estimates that fi ve are related just dust. He glances at my mask. “Try not to Bob has lived at the hotel, on and off, for to a mental health crisis. While Mike says that get the disposable ones,” he advises me. Nel- ometime in the 80s, after moving 20 years. He calls it a fl ophouse, an “old-fash- many cops he interacts with show restraint son favors cloth masks he can wash every day, around the south side throughout his ioned 1960s dive.” “They used to have a lot and patience, other times, “A lot of them don’t but really wants one he saw a commercial for teens, Mike left high school for Uptown, of them,” he tells me, they meaning the city. know how to handle that situation. It’s not on the lobby’s endless TV. “It’s beautiful,” he Swhere he lived alone. He wanted to get away “And they’re necessary, they still are. But always pulling a billy club and taser out all the tells me enthusiastically, black, $29 or less, from crime and from the police harassment they shut ’em down.” If the hotel didn’t exist, time. Sometimes it’s just a matter of talking to with copper in it. “The copper, if you get sick that came with living in a neighborhood asso- Bob tells me, he’d be back out on the street, the person.” And so, at fi rst, he tries to de-es- inside, it heals you. And if anything touches ciated with crime. But, as he says, “I jumped with Jason in his park, building careful calate the situation himself with calm words you, you’ll still be healing.” right into the frying pan up there.” On his way shelters on the nights when the falling petals and clear directions. If that doesn’t work, he Nelson is 58 years old and white, with short to the train, people would offer him drugs; switched to rain or snow. But the park’s been has handcuffs. Handcuffs? “Yeah, I do,” he hair and an earnest face and movements that on his way back, cops would stop him. “‘Hey, sold by the owners and will be a parking lot laughs. “Couple cases, I had to actually hand- remind me of a rooster. A resident interrupts you,’” Mike says, sticking out his chest and soon. cu ’em to the radiators.” I ask him how he got our conversation to check his mail. Nelson deepening his voice. “‘Come here.’ Jump out of Bob likes the rent, understood by the men the handcu s, but his answer is murky: he says helps him, then starts talking again, only a car on you. I thought I was leaving that, when to be the lowest in the city, and after years he found them, he “always had a key.” Regard- now, the subject has changed: “But you know, I left Woodlawn. I thought I was leaving that of sleeping outdoors, he likes being out of less of their origin, Mike is grateful they exist. one of my best friends went into my room. behind.” the weather. When he’s not panhandling, he “One day, I had to use them,” he tells me. “And ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I mean, Mike took a job working for an adult book- reads one of the many books the hotel has, thank god I [did], ’cause the guy was actually nobody’s ever, in 20, 25 years, no one’s ever store that also sold sex toys. The company donated by do-gooders or left behind after trying to jump out the window on me.” After gone in my room while I was sleeping.” Like required employees to periodically rotate to another man moved out. He likes adventures, being tackled, the man fought so hard “I was Mike, Nelson lives at the hotel. locations across the city. The day Mike was crime stories, spy novels. There’s no washing getting ready to lose the fi ght, so my only re- Recently the guy in the cubicle next door arrested, he was working at the shop on the machine so once a week, Bob takes a bucket course was to cu him to the radiator.” Soon, to him died. “Russian guy,” Nelson says. “Al- corner of Irving Park and Sheridan, talking and washes his clothes by hand. “As bad as an ambulance came, and the man was released ways taking his medication with that booze to a man who stopped by to chat every other the conditions are over there, you can kick from the radiator and taken to the hospital. like it was water. He fell between the bed and day on his way home, the man told him, from back, relax, grab a book. You can read there During every hotel check-in, resi- the stand.” His friend, I realize Nelson is tell- work. He didn’t know it, but the man was for a while, block out the noise,” he says. “I’m dents-to-be are asked if they take any medi- ing me, came into his room to check on him, using their conversations as cover: he actual- good at that.” cation, and if so, what kind. Their answers are worried that it was Nelson’s body who made ly sold drugs outside of the shop. When we talk, it’s been a year since bad carefully recorded on sheets of paper Mike that thump. Swept up in the raid was another shop reg- drugs caused Bob to, as he puts it, fl ip out. “I can refer to “in case somethin’ happens” and Nelson says he always carries Narcan, ular, a sex worker who sometimes asked Mike went to the nuthouse for fi ve days,” he says the paramedics get there. Mike notices when always wears gloves. He’s one of four or fi ve if he could front her a couple of condoms until somberly. “This was like a hallucinogenic. I they’re not taking it, too. A few times, he tells clerks who work the hotel desk in shifts. He she made some money. When she told the didn’t know. I haven’t had anything like that me, he’s had to ask people to leave when the grew up in Rogers Park without biological police Mike sold her the drugs they found her since ’71.” When Bob returned to the Ewing, time they’ve paid for is up, “because of their family, moving through fi ve di erent foster with, he believes she was protecting herself he was late on rent. A year later he’s still late, behavior, getting aggressive, not taking their homes across the city until the age of 21. then, too, by not turning on the man who was and planning on using his stimulus check to meds.” Over the years, Mike’s had men return After that, he was on his own. “All I used to her actual supplier. 14 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll NEWS & POLITICS
The entrance to the Ewing Annex Hotel on March 30, 2021 LLOYD DEGRANE
“So they kept searching me. ‘Where’s the before, so I’m scared for my life, you know? Chicago, I interrupt, thinking of his up- stronger when it rains. money? Where’s the money?’” Mike’s voice Thirty years? I’m in my 30s now! You know coming move south, but Mike continues: I do most of my interviews in this lobby, grows deeper, louder, his shoulders thrusting what I’m saying?” And so, Mike pled guilty to “—this earth. Because I don’t want to criss-cross from a donations table where out as he imitates the cops of his memory. something he says he didn’t do. In exchange, die with that on my name. I didn’t do that. I church groups and other organizations drop “What money?” he continues in his normal he served three years probation. “I even lost a didn’t do that. I didn’t do that.” off clothes and packaged food and where tone. “What happened was, she came in and job because I didn’t put that down [on my ap- hotel sta puts goods salvaged from cleaning asked me for change from a bill that they plication] at the time,” he tells me now, in the he sound of fl oor fans hum here year- out rooms after residents leave. Decades of gave.” lobby of the hotel. Recently, he heard some round; the TV in the lobby is always handmade and printed signs are taped or He was arrested on the spot. While locked senior housing won’t admit residents with a on, always loud. The lobby smells like nailed up: for veterans help hotlines, infor- up, Mike says the state’s attorney kept pres- felony on their record. He’s worried. Twhatever was microwaved last. In the winter mation about free meals in the city, a chicken suring him to plead out. “‘Well, if you don’t Do you think you will fight it now? I ask. when I come home from the hotel, my coat and curry special from the Indian restaurant a sign these papers to agree on this,’” Mike Mike nods. hair smell like cigarettes even though no one I few storefronts down. recounts, “‘then you gonna wind up getting “Yeah,” he says, “Imma have to. Before I interviewed indoors was smoking. The aroma, The third or fourth time I’m here, Wesley 30 years.’ And I’m—I’ve never been in trouble leave—” seeping out of the walls like an invisible fog, is Duran comes out from behind the desk with a ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 15 NEWS & POLITICS continued from 15 clear plastic trash bag. He spreads it out like a picnic blanket, wrists snapping, over one half of my table, securing the edges with clear tape. He leaves, returns with another bag, repeats the routine. He does my chair next, slipping a third bag over the rough plastic. He does this as an added layer of protection from coronavirus, which has yet to rip through the hotel. “When you’re having guests,” he says when I thank him, “you wanna keep the place clean, you know? You wanna put the good china out.” Wesley works his ass off. Everyone who works at the hotel does, but Wesley, or Wes, tends to be working the shifts I drop by, so I see him most often: hustling to mop the bath- room, giving returning residents their keys to their rooms when a clerk needs to step out, o ering me an orange pop from the vending machine and refusing my money for it. I’m not sure what his exact title is. He’s white, wears a thin ponytail, and favors baggy T-shirts. Wes is from Cicero. “I grew up on very strong fundamental groundwork in loyalty, in being someone you can count on,” he says. He moved into the hotel in 2006. He’s an avid reader, a studier of philosophy, and deeply suspicious of cable news. Wes loves that I’m a writer. Like Nelson, like at least half a dozen other men I meet over the course of the year, for the majority of his adult life, Wes’s career was delivering the paper. “I’ve got 33 years between the Tribune and the Sun-Times,” he tells me. Thousands on thousands of days loading up trucks and riding out in the predawn dark to make sure the rest of the city had the day’s news to read over their co ee or on their commute. “That All that separates one room from another are thin walls and chicken wire across the ceiling. LLOYD DEGRANE had purpose,” he says. “I had a point.” When he started at the Tribune, Wesley says there erything. Sometimes, he explodes.” is. Some people have health issues, they can’t the city how to apply for TIF funding for the were eight unions. He liked working at a place be in the heat. That’s why I was trying to ac- hotel, but was told it wasn’t eligible. with such collective strength. ike doesn’t want to be in a position cess the TIF funding, to put the air condition- The Ewing is not technically an emergency He lost his job on October 18, 2010, when where he’s handcuffing people to ing, industrial air conditioning, in the upper shelter or a congregate living center, even if the Sun-Times merged delivery services with radiators to save their lives, protect fl oors. So it would make it more comfortable it frequently functions like one. For example, the Tribune. These days, there’s no Tribune Mhis own, or protect other residents. Mental for the people that live here,” he says. back in 2005, “the city of Chicago brought trucks rolling, either: both papers have health services and addiction services rank TIF, or Tax Increment Financing, is a fund- and introduced a person that was heading switched to independent, contract drivers. high on the list of resources he wishes the city ing tool used by the city to “promote public funding for housing for the Hurricane Ka- “When someone moves, Wesley cleans the provided to his residents, but the list is long, and private investment” via development. trina victims,” Mike says. As he tells it, after room, he scrubs it down, he burns what has full of items he’s been pushing for years. He Under state law, an area must meet numerous that initial o¤ cial meeting, one survivor was to be burned,” Bob says, including torching wants to install elevators. He wants to repaint “blighting factors” for TIF consideration, but relocated to the Ewing with the understand- fl oorboards and baseboards. “He’ll spray, but the walls. He wants to put in water fountains: the 2018 approval by former Mayor Rahm ing that the city would foot his rent for the he can only do so much. He’s one person. It’s with no kitchen, the only water for those in the Emanuel of a $1.3 billion TIF in Lincoln duration of his six-month stay. “He stayed a big turnover.” He drags on his cigarette, cubicles comes from bathroom taps. Park—one of the wealthiest and whitest here, but we never received payment.” looks somber. “I feel sorry for the guy. I used “Usually during the hot summer, I fi ll those neighborhoods in the city—continues to It’s not a mental health services center to tell him, ‘Man, they doggin’ you.’ And they containers up there with ice water and allow raise questions about the equity of this pro- either, though, according to a survey of the do. ‘Get Wesley, get Wesley!’ He’s doing ev- people to sit in here where the air conditioner cess. Several years ago, Mike says he asked hotel completed by the Chicago Coalition 16 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll NEWS & POLITICS
for the Homeless in 2013 (the most recent of them, Alderman Brendan Reilly, whose and his neighbor would slink back to their “somebody cared about me at one time.” After year for which information is available), 25 ward borders the Ewing, said, “Average Chi- rooms. summer 1968, Mike qualifi ed on scholarship to percent of residents are veterans and 42 per- cagoans wouldn’t want to house their dogs in A Jewish, white, hot-tempered veteran attend weekend SAIC classes for three more cent identify as having a “mental or physical this type of facility.” Housing activists, along and a Black artist whose whole life had been years. During those classes, he made sculp- disability.” During my visits, I met several with the residents of these hotels themselves, a lesson in the necessity of de-escalation for tures, watercolors, and sketches. men who told me that, after completing pro- pushed back against that language, which survival, they had little in common but the The care Mike takes of the Ewing and the grams at Thresholds, an Illinois nonprofit they found insulting, and against the closure address they shared. But when Sid called, men who call it home is obvious, but so is the that supports people with mental illness and of their homes without any input from the Mike answered. Mike no longer remembers labor required to, in so many ways, pull it o¦ substance use disorders, they were “sent” by residents themselves. Mike shows me the what it was that Sid asked him to bring to the alone. It’s why he’s quitting, I think, or part of Thresholds workers to the hotel. From that handmade T-shirts he and others wore to hospital that day. He only remembers what it. He’s excited to leave. He’s excited to pursue point on, they live at the hotel while social ensuing City Council meetings and protests. Sid told him once he was there. his art, to mount an exhibition, to live out a workers managing their SSI money come in Please Don’t Make Us Homeless, they read. “Before you leave the hospital today, I need wonderfully boyish dream of living in a re- once a month to pay their rent. Thresholds Ultimately, the proposed ordinance did not to talk to you about something. I’m gonna purposed fi rehouse, sliding down a pole from told me that while they don’t have a “formal pass, but eight years later, the Ewing Annex trust you to take care of my business when I his bedroom to his art studio every morning, relationship” with the Ewing, they do man- Hotel is the last of its kind. pass. Here’s my bank card. There’s enough to fi nally go home to Memphis, the place he’s age rent payments on the behalf of some Several men told me that, although the money to bury me decently,” Mike recalls. Do never quite gotten over. But while avoiding men who live there who are also enrolled in Ewing is noisy, at times dirty, and the that for me, Sid said. Whatever is left in the sanctifying him, I don’t know what the hotel Thresholds programs, via a process known as bedbugs drive them nuts, here they’re able account, I want you to have. is going to be like without him. representative pay. to come and go as they please, with their Mike knew Jewish burials had to be done a In my eyes the city, and perhaps other in- “During this pandemic, a lot of these guys autonomy and dignity intact. There are no certain way, but he didn’t know what that way stitutions with power, have come to rely on work either day labor places or in factory set- benchmarks to meet, no curfews, no religious was, and Sid died in the hospital before Mike the hotel to catch men they otherwise will tings where they wasn’t able to go to work,” services they’re required to attend in order could ask. In between his duties as the hotel let fall through, but it’s a reliance based on Mike tells me. Although the CDC moratorium to keep their beds. This is their home; they manager, he tried to learn. He also wanted evasion: as long as they don’t look too closely, on evictions doesn’t include hotels or motels, choose it. In their home, these men deserve, Sid to get a military burial, full honors, but he they don’t have to do anything about it. When no one was evicted from the Ewing. Indeed, like everyone else, to live safely and well. says the VA never returned his calls. Finally, they do look closely, some see a hotel from a resident after resident tells me stories of at the funeral home rang. They couldn’t contin- nearly bygone area that’s “not fit for dogs” some point, during their tenure, being unable eath comes to the hotel unevenly, but ue to hold Sid for much longer. taking up space where high-priced condos, to pay rent for weeks that turn into months, it does come. Some years, two men die. So Mike, the way he’s done countless times and the di¦ erent clientele they bring, might but never are they threatened with eviction. Last year, it was eight. They pass from before as manager of the Ewing Annex Hotel, be. But these men aren’t bygone. They’re still Instead, Mike works out deals with men who Dold age or overdose, heart attack or stroke. made the best decision he could with what he here, in this hotel, that some of them hate and need them. If a resident usually paid by the This is why he asks for emergency contacts had. He took out a plot for Sid in the military some of them love and all of them call their week, for example, when they start making during check-in, Mike explains to potential section of the cemetery, thinking that at least home. money again, they resume paying by the residents. He’s seen too many men buried un- then, he’d be among comrades. He picked a Mike is right, of course, to remind me that week, “plus a couple few dollars toward what claimed, unmourned, but not alone—in Cook nondenominational service. Mike felt bad it takes no special goodness to pay attention they owe.” County, unclaimed remains are cremated and that time had run out before he could sort to someone, only effort—repeated, ordi- Over the years, in an attempt to help his buried up to 20 urns per casket—to not try out what Jewish rites to follow. He felt worse nary, every day. It’s also right to note that aging, ill residents thrive, Mike has connect- and get a name and number for each resident’s when, the day of Sid’s memorial, among all the fate of hundreds shouldn’t rest on the ed regularly with local organizations like the records, just in case. the chairs the funeral home sta¦ had set up effort of one, especially not when powerful Night Ministry, which provides health care Several years ago, an 86-year-old named for mourners to come and pay their respects institutions seem to quietly rely on that one to people who are homeless or in poverty. In Sid Weinstein called Mike from the hospital to this old, fi ghting man, he mostly sat there to do their work. Perhaps this effort to pay 2020, they stopped by twice to administer and asked him to bring something. He’d alone. “Nobody should have to go like that,” attention only seems natural to Mike because COVID tests, but he wants more care, and lived at the hotel even longer than Mike, and he says. he’s done it all his life. So much so that it’s he wants it from the city. Mike’s angry. “We while the younger man used to sometimes As Mike sat at the service with his artist’s become a reflex of his, allowing him to see should be able to get somebody to come, a give him rides back and forth to doctor’s eye for detail, he paid attention. He noticed deeper, look farther, walk by empty schools company to come through that specialize in appointments, they weren’t exactly friends. the light coming in the windows and how and imagine fi nally housed families, look at sanitizing hospitals for the virus,” he says. Sid didn’t really have those. Fairly regularly, it hit the fl oor. He watched as a woman with closed factories and see something life-giv- Even though they’re eligible, it would be Mike would be in the lobby, checking some- long gray hair and a fur coat strode in, whis- ing and real underneath the surface of what’s very di cult for many residents to make an one in and minding his business when the pered something to Sid’s casket, and took a been present all along. The drawing he made appointment at the United Center, where the sound of stomping and shouting would drift seat, where she remained until the memori- and submitted that summer just shy of 13 city has set up mass vaccinations for eligible in through the old floorboards above his al’s end. And he saw, once outside after the years old, when the rest of his life was wide residents, let alone get there and back twice. head. memorial’s end, the Star of David engraved open and waiting to begin? A beautifully He wants the health department to come by “Two old guys, slipping and sliding on the above the door. It was then that Mike real- rendered, anatomically correct drawing of a and vaccinate residents, but tells me he’s fl oor,” Mike tells me. He shakes his head, but ized: in a previous life, it had been a Jewish human heart. v given up on calling them. For now, the Night his eyes are smiling. “One throw a punch and funeral home until the mid-20th century. Ministry has been able to provide fi rst doses miss, the other throw a punch, he misses.” This story was published in collaboration with to a handful of men at the hotel. Each time, Mike’d give them a minute of dig- ike is really good at his job. He notices The New Republic. In 2013, two aldermen tried to shut down nity before breaking it up. “OK. You swung detail and cares about people. “Well,” every cubicle-style hotel left in the city. One enough, guys?” Panting and glowering, Sid Mhe says quietly after I tell him this, @katie_prout ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 17 ARTS & CULTURE
From the zine Opening Up K FRY/ KFRYDRAWS
to get ovarian cysts, a result of her Mirena IUD. Community is essential. Ten years ago, After deciding to get it removed, she thought there were virtually no articles or studies on sex would be pain-free again. “Instead the pain vaginismus. No one was talking about it. The HEALTH kept getting worse to where I physically could Internet was mute. That’s why Chicago-based not have intercourse,” she explains. podcast Tight Lipped, which focuses on pain Painful sex shouldn’t be Vaginismus pain can vary from person to during intimacy, is such a sigh of relief. Noa person. No two symptoms are the same. For Fleishacker, cohost and producer, opens up a mystery condition Claire, she started with a tight and dry feeling, about her chronic vulvar pain and interviews This common condition aff ects more even when she was aroused. After she had sex, writers, patients, and activists who share people than we think. We shouldn’t she would begin to burn and it would be pain- their stories and experiences—all so painfully ignore it anymore. ful to urinate. Light bleeding was sometimes similar to Claire’s experience. Feeling any kind present, too. Over time, the pain began to of pain is a claustrophobic experience, and to By S N L increase and the entrance to her vagina would mix in the inability to have sex is incredibly begin to burn. “Even with lots of lube and overwhelming. In 2019, Tight Lipped launched foreplay my body felt completely closed o to a zine called Opening Up in which more than sex,” she says. Like many vaginismus patients, 50 contributors shared their stories about vul- Claire says it feels like her partner was hitting vovaginal and pelvic pain through art, poetry, a rock wall. This “closed o ” feeling is a com- and prose. Virtual events have also kicked o mon thread between patients, a blocked-off during the pandemic where folks can connect muscle reaction that hurts like hell. and build community over state lines. The emotional and mental exhaustion “It seems like, in the U.S., we need a celeb- n 1996, feminist scholar Susan Wendell birth control, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, of vaginismus can be overwhelming. Many rity or some other well-known person to open wrote: “What can I know if I can’t know an STI—the list goes on. However, for many folks begin to feel a loss of self-esteem and up about a stigmatized experience before Iwhat I am feeling in my own body? How can patients, doctors dismiss them, deny them an confi dence, in the bedroom and out of it. The we’ll talk about it,” says Labuski. We see this I remain connected to a world that denies I am answer, and leave them with no treatment. thought of being intimate began to initiate type of advocacy and awareness about endo- in pain, or dizzy, or nauseated, when I myself Painful sex becomes a reality with no cure. panic attacks for Claire, who has been with a metriosis, for example, where celebrities like cannot deny that I am?” A 2014 online survey found that 2,400 long-term partner of fi ve years. “There were Chrissy Teigen and Tia Mowry have been open Vaginismus is fairly common, impacting women in the U.S. live with chronic pain and fi ghts with my partner at the beginning when about their pregnancies and their endo jour- 5 to 17 percent of people in a clinical setting. 91 percent felt that their doctors discrimi- we didn’t understand what was happening and neys. Vaginismus hasn’t hit the mainstream The number is likely higher, as many patients nated against them for being women. Almost I was starting to shut down. I was eventually yet. There isn’t an advocate in the limelight don’t come forward or talk to a doctor about half of the participants in the study were told unable to communicate my physical and emo- preaching about their intercourse woes. their condition due to embarrassment or anx- that their pain is in their heads. And vaginis- tional pain. I did not want to admit that this Claire blamed herself, as many people who iety. During intercourse, or while inserting a mus patients are no strangers to this type of was happening to me and to us,” she explains. are on the receiving end of pain do. With the tampon or fi nger, the pelvic muscles contract dismissal. This common method of medical In 2008, Christine Labuski gained a PhD. in lack of education surrounding vaginismus, and patients feel so much pain that any type gaslighting is incredibly damaging to patients. cultural anthropology after she left work as a people think this pain is unique to them. And of penetration becomes impossible. Some Folks begin to feel alienated and don’t reach nurse practitioner in the fi elds of gynecology, with doctors lacking research and misdiag- folks describe it as burning and aching while out for help. Relationships su er. The body-to- sexuality, and queer health. She was interested nosing pain, studies and data are largely ab- others say it’s like hitting a wall. Vaginismus is mind connection falters. in “lived experiences” like STIs and abortions. sent from medical textbooks. “I had constant essentially the body’s natural fear reaction to Claire, 34, who prefers to only go by her fi rst Her dissertation turned into her book, It Hurts anxiety that my partner would want to break protect the individual from pain, but by doing name, said her history of assault is one of the Down There. Now, Labuski teaches women’s up with me,” says Claire. “I questioned daily so, more pain is induced. Muscles tighten biggest triggers for vaginismus. “I hadn’t re- and gender studies at Virginia Tech. why they were with me. We had not had sex without any control. alized how much I relied on alcohol and drugs Labuski’s research has looked at the emo- in two years by the time I found a doctor that Imagine this: if someone puts their finger for me to be able to be intimate until I went tional toll and mental health impact that could help me.” near your eye, you automatically flinch or sober in 2015,” she says. When she fi nally made chronic vulvovaginal pain can cause. Many Labuski says that folks should redefi ne the shut your eye. You can’t control it. That’s major progress with a partner, doctors discov- of the people who Labuski spoke to said they word “sex” so that they “don’t have to feel like vaginismus. ered precancerous cells on her cervix due to shut down and shut out the idea of sex. Many they are missing out on ‘sexual’ pleasure be- The reasons for the condition vary widely— HPV. Her doctor suggested a loop electrosur- of them were concerned that when a partner cause one specifi c act is too uncomfortable for some are psychological and stem from sexual gical excision procedure (LEEP) that cuts out kissed them, they would want to have sex and them.” Experimenting with outercourse, like abuse, fear of sex, or religious upbringings, the abnormal cells and the area of the a ected that sex would ultimately result in pain. This kissing, massaging, or including sex toys can while others don’t have a history in any of cervix. “My healing after the LEEP procedure cycle of anxiety and stress led many folks to create a more explorative and intimate space these areas. was longer than expected and I was in pain consider themselves “abnormal.” in the bedroom. It’s imperative to make sure In the same vein, vaginismus is di cult to a lot longer than my doctor had suggested I “This meant that a lot of people with these your partner is working alongside you, under- diagnose due to similar side e ects crossing would be. It took me a couple of months after pain conditions were cutting physical and standing you, and communicating as much as over among various pelvic and vulvar dysfunc- the procedure to feel comfortable having sex emotional a ection out of their lives, due to possible. Vaginismus is a two-way street. tions, disorders, and diseases. Vaginal pain again and when I did it was painful,” explains their fear of painful penetrative intercourse,” So, how is vaginismus treated? What makes could be a yeast infection, a side e ect from Claire. In addition to this recovery, she began she says. the condition di cult to treat is the fact that 18 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll ARTS & CULTURE meetthe As we look forward to our 50th Anniversary on October 1st we celebrate the staff of the Reader who make the paper possible. it is a mixture of physical and emotional re- sponse. Where dilators may physically train the body to accept objects inside, the mind- body block may cause the body to tense up Brianna Wellen Mariah Neuroth and many folks describe a severe loss of libido. Culture Editor Strategic Innovation This will also cause painful sex. It becomes a Director Cancers are said to be loyal, cyclical battle between mind and body. intuitive, and caring, and Mariah Neuroth joined the “One of my committee members joked that those words describe the Reader just before Chicago the physical therapists were the ‘heroes’ of my Reader’s culture editor went into lockdown in March dissertation. And they were right!” says La- Brianna Wellen to a T. The 2020, and she’s since become Rockton, Illinois native a central nervous system buski. Styles and treatments range for people earned her bachelor’s degree of innovation across every with painful sex, but most people do well when in journalism at Columbia side of the organization— physical therapy includes cognitive therapy. College before she joined essentially translating what the Reader crew in the happens on the page into Claire began seeking physical therapy, spring of 2013. “Working at real-world applications. where she would go to downtown Chicago the Reader was always my “The Reader has always been once a week to have specialists vaginally dream job,” she says. “Just the cultural heartbeat of to be able to tell the stories Chicago and it is a privilege release tensions and tightness. Occasionally, of the people, places, experiences, and more in Chicago that don’t always to contribute to the work,” she says. The northern New York native first anal releases were also done since it is tied to get the spotlight. I still get to do that every day, and the fact that all my landed in the midwest as a student at the University of Missouri, and she the pelvic floor. Many suggestions from PTs colleagues are weirdos like me makes it that much dreamier.” Along with later earned her Master’s in youth development at the University of Illinois all those weirdos, Brianna enjoys spending time with her siblings Lily and are pelvic floor exercises and stretches that at Chicago. As a Gemini, Mariah is full of good vibes and positive energy, Lenny Wellen, her roommates Amira Jazeera and Atom Eyezd, and her which she brings to her work, as well as her favorite Chicago activities, are linked to yoga. Additionally, she began cats / Reader Zoom-meeting regulars Tofu and Miso. A prolific comedic such as swimming at Promontory Point and checking out live music at the using silicone dilators (tube-shaped devices storyteller, Brianna has co-produced live lit series including Feminist Metro. If you weren’t already convinced that Mariah is a jill-of-all-trades, that are inserted into the vagina) and a vibrat- Happy Hour, and she is the ONLY person on the paper’s sta who has she’s also a fourth-generation maple sugarer who spends what little free starred in not one, but multiple hot dog commercials. Brianna’s list of time she has converting a minibus into a tiny home and being an excellent ing wand every other night. Slowly, patients favorite Chicago places could fill a small phone book of culture, comedy, cat mom to Lady Logan (aka Go Go). She also claims she does a “mean goat should work up in dilator sizes to retrain the and nightlife hotspots, with a few beloved dives including Parrots Bar impression,” and while she hasn’t shown it o at work yet, we trust that it vagina to accept foreign objects. Eventually, a & Grill, Late Bar, and Sidekicks thrown in for good measure. And like all lives up to the hype. Is there anything Mariah can’t do? true Chicagoans, she loves the lakefront. “There are truly too many more phallic object can be introduced. favorites to mention,” Brianna says. “This city is the best.” Instagram: @Chi_Riah | Facebook: facebook.com/mariah.neuroth Since pelvic pain awareness has been budding at a grassroots level, penis bumpers Twitter: @briannawellen | Instagram: @breezamarie like the OhNut ($65) have also hit the market. The device slides onto a person’s shaft, or a Adam Rhodes Kirk Williamson toy, and shortens the length, and serves as Social Justice Reporting Production Manager a bumper, to eliminate deep pain inside of a Fellow person. Production manager and resident Pixies enthusiast “Hot baths with CBD/THC bath bombs are Adam Rhodes came to the Reader in September 2020 as Kirk Williamson ocially magic when it comes to relaxing your pelvic the paper’s first-ever social joined the Reader in October fl oor. I make sure to do a bath with CBD/THC at justice reporting fellow. The 2020 after a stunning least every other week,” says Claire. Miami native and graduate nearly two-decade run at of the University of Central the Windy City Times. Born While Claire is still recovering, she says she Florida in Orlando launched in Gary, Indiana and raised is more hopeful. “I know what my body needs their career in New York, in Wheaton, Illinois, Kirk to help stay relaxed, and I feel confi dent with where they worked as a attended Wheaton Central legal journalist, reporting High School (now Wheaton the tool kit that my PT taught me. I don’t feel primarily on civil-rights Warrenville South) before ashamed or anxious anymore that sex has not issues, particularly LGBTQ+ heading o to Beloit College, been a part of my relationship lately, because issues and racial equity. where he earned his degree In 2019, they left the Big Apple for the Windy City, where they earned in Russian. A Scorpio, Kirk is intelligent, inquisitive, and charismatic, I realized that we had developed intimacy in their Master’s in journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School which is probably why he’s got a knack for hosting and emceeing, which other ways that are also important to a healthy shortly before starting their fellowship with the paper. “Working at he does with aplomb at his weekly Kwizmaster Trivia nights. When he’s relationship,” she explains. the Reader is a dream job,” Adam says. “I’ve never felt safer and more out and about, Kirk enjoys spending time at the Rogers Park Social, but he’s equally happy to chill in his living room while watching episodes of She still has an emotional block when it encouraged to bring my whole self to work, and it means the world to have leadership that supports me 100 percent. And I get to do the work a trifecta of classic sitcoms that includes The Golden Girls, The Nanny, comes to intimacy, impacting her ability to I’ve always dreamed of with the coolest people in the business,” Adam and Frasier. Sitcom or otherwise, if there was a TV show about his life, orgasm. She says, “When I am ready for sex, I says. As a Pisces and relative newcomer to the city, they enjoy exploring he’d be played by Jordan Peele (who ideally would also direct). Despite want to be able to enjoy it fully. I am currently Chicago’s neighborhoods and stumbling upon its diverse local shops his own star appeal, Kirk remains incredibly modest. When asked about and restaurants, and though some of their discovery process has been working at the Reader he said, “It’s a joy to be collaborating with such an working on learning how to be intimate with hampered by the pandemic, they’ve already become a big fan of Lost Lake innovative group of creators. I’m thankful that they regard me as being myself and what my body needs now that we in Logan Square. Back at home, you can catch Adam spending time with equal to their talents.” Right back atcha, Kirk! have gone through this together.” v their magnificently snuggly four-year-old beagle, Hibachi. Facebook: facebook.com/kirkwilliamson Social media: @byadamrhodes @snicolelane ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 19 ARTS & CULTURE
CBD products from Ida, BE WELL COURTESY IDA NELSON
cream. The ice cream comes in seven fl avors to get addicted to narcotic pain meds. including peach cobbler, caramel crunch, and “I really suffered in silence for a while. It turtle cheesecake, each with 50 mg of CBD was brutal,” says Millard, who recently moved oil, and they are smooth, creamy, very rich, to the western suburbs. “I stumbled upon and yes, very relaxing (I ordered five pints). [CBD] really out of desperation.” She admits To order some, folks can check out the menu that when she discovered CBD, she didn’t online and then text Nelson at 773-956-3353— know anything about it and had never smoked she or her daughter will deliver it to you over marijuana. But she started taking oils daily for the weekend. her pain and anxiety and balancing being a In December, she rode the wave of her CBD mom. “It gave me my life back,” she says. ice cream’s success and founded her solo proj- Rose & Jade sources cannabis oil from ect called Ida, BE WELL, a cannabis company Colorado and sells CBD oil drops, gummies, that sells products like CBD tinctures, cham- and bath salts, and even CBD for dogs. Before omile teas, and pre-rolled joints to encourage launching, Millard and her small team—which WEED FOR WELLNESS people to take hold of their wellness naturally. includes her husband and an assistant—inter- She also aims to provide greater access to can- viewed women around the country to see what The future of CBD is female nabis for Black people and educate them about they wanted in CBD pain relief. She found that Two local women entrepreneurs entering the cannabis industry are bringing its powers—as well as dismantle the mental there was a “big silent market” of women who holistic wellness, better access, and equity to the game. health stigma in the Black community. wanted natural assistance but didn’t know The company is in its early stages, but the where to turn—or who were afraid to speak up By A P -A founder hopes to work with local grocery because of stereotyped ideas about marijuana. chains to sell her products and hire Black folks “There are a lot of women using cannabis from the neighborhood to sell her products so and CBD, and I am excited for the day that it he reality is women actually run survey that questioned 567 U.S. marijuana they can gain business experience and build up won’t be such a hush-hush topic,” she says. the world,” Ida Nelson told me senior executives, owners, and founders. their community. “I want to educate and em- “People are ashamed to raise their hands and “Tover the phone last week, which The global legal marijuana market size is ex- power the people of Lawndale and East Gar- say, ‘Hey, I need help.’” got me laughing and clapping at the same pected to reach $84 billion by 2028, according fi eld Park to be able to understand the benefi ts As she expands her products to appeal to time. Women know this statement as fact, to a March 2021 report by consulting company of cannabis or CBD,” she says. “A lot of people men and begins working with mom-and-pop but we still have to prove ourselves and our Grand View Research, Inc. It’s no surprise don’t know how to even acquire it.” vendors nationwide, she also hopes to steer worth within mostly white, male-dominated the U.S. is leading the charge, as cities and With the high stress, depression, and PTSD her customers away from alcohol abuse as a industries. Nelson is using the hustle from states have legalized recreational marijuana from constant police brutality and violence coping mechanism and instead highlight the the pandemic to change that and showcase in recent years. Illinois raked in more than $1 toward people of color, Nelson saw 2020 as medicinal properties of cannabis, which is her strength in entrepreneurship within the billion in legal cannabis sales in 2020 and set a prime time to start her CBD endeavors. She largely spearheaded by younger generations. cannabis industry, which has grown tremen- yet another marijuana sales record in January, also wants to change the reputation of Black “People are fi nally noticing CBD is a safe alter- dously in Illinois since the state legalized with nearly $89 million in adult-use cannabis women. native; it’s natural and anxiety-relieving—like, recreational marijuana in 2020. purchases in the fi rst month of the year. “When someone says to me, ‘You are such why are we not doing this more?” she says. While the local cannabis industry has had Women like Nelson, who is a single mother a strong Black woman,’ it’s not a badge of Millard sees the women-led growth in the its own slew of equity and diversity issues and of fi ve from Lawndale, sees the fi nancial po- honor,” she says. “I don’t want to be a strong cannabis industry as a refl ection of the times, still lacks a Black majority-owed dispensary, tential in being part of the growing sector, but Black woman, I just want to be a woman. It’s and how people respond to new methods of women and people of color are slowly climbing for the self-described “serial momtrepreneur,” important for us to step into our power in an natural treatment, especially as it gains legal the ladder and creating a space for themselves it’s more than just about the money. “Repre- authentic way. We should be able to inspire and mainstream traction. And a big part of in the industry that’s also climbing at a steep sentation is important,” Nelson says. “I feel each other in a way that isn’t inspired by our that is representation: as more women start rate, both for its medical and recreational ben- like right now we are in a Harlem Renaissance ability to struggle. I want to unnormalize the cannabis businesses, their clients feel more efi ts. Less than 2 percent of Illinois dispensary as a people. A lot of people are starting to fi nd struggle.” confident in speaking up about their needs. owners were Black or Latino and less than 25 their voice, find their power, and there has Chloe Millard, founder of Rose & Jade, also Local entrepreneurs like Millard and Nelson percent were women as of last June, according been an uprising in Black power in a positive started her company last year to normalize a are positively impacting their communities by to a state report. Nationally, the percentage of way.” di erent kind of struggle: seeking help to re- opening up new doors glittered with hope for women in senior-level executive positions at Like most folks who sought out new op- lieve chronic pain, particularly for new moth- better wellness, access, and equality within cannabis companies has teetered since 2015 portunities because of the pandemic, she ers. Like Nelson, Millard experienced chronic the industry. and currently stands at just under 37 percent, started two businesses in 2020 and built o pain from anxiety, stress, and pandemic life. “We cannot wait for someone to say we are according to a 2019 Marijuana Business Daily her passions of baking, women’s wellness, After her second pregnancy, the 29-year-old enough,” Nelson says. “I need to find some survey. And it’s still low for people of color: and community empowerment. After getting was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease, way to empower myself. We can build our just 4 percent of cannabis business owners laid off from her corporate job in May, she an ailment in which discs between the verte- own community and lean on one another to and founders are Black, nearly 6 percent are launched Ida’s Artisan Ice Cream & Treats and brae of the spine deteriorate or break down. heal.” v Latino, and just 2 percent identify as Asian, made a line with organic cannabidiol, or CBD, With a professional background in medical according to a 2017 Marijuana Business daily which was the city’s fi rst local CBD-infused ice devices and pharmaceuticals, she didn’t want @ArielParrella 20 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll You’ve got the goal. WGU can help you achieve it. Don’t let nancial barriers or lack of reliable internet access stop you from reaching your dreams.
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Rika Lin in Yu at Links Hall, 2018 KIRSTIE SHANLEY
inated society, but all the Japanese classical dance teachers were women.” “There are five major schools of Japanese classical dance,” she says. “The Fujima school is known for having very intricate, complex choreography and a strong connection to kabuki.” When Fujima Shunojo began his apprenticeship in Japan, as the youngest of a cohort with several boys, it was decided that he would learn the female dances. “It was an unusual thing that there were so many male apprentices in his teacher’s school. So it was fate.” Lin continued training in both Japanese classical dance and Shotokan karate. “The dojo [JKA Chicago Sugiyama Dojo, founded by Shojiro Sugiyama] was on the second floor, and my dance teacher worked on the fi rst fl oor,” she recalls. “In karate, my teacher would say, ‘You’re dancing! This is karate!’ And I’d go to dance, and it would be, ‘You’re doing karate—this is dance!’ And I’d be like, ‘What am I doing?’” Yet Lin was drawn to dance in spite of herself. “The characters and the dances had a complete story. You knew your character. It was comforting to know. You are dancing a woman, and you’re selling your fl owers, and DANCE this is how a woman moves, this is her class, this is what she’s wearing. It’s a comforting security that there’s this path, this is what you Rika Lin bridges centuries of tradition do, and you try to do it as best you can. I al- ways fi gured, growing up, you have this track The choreographer uses classical Japanese forms to examine gender and identity. to follow. This expectation, you’re supposed to have ‘osmified’ into you by your family: By I H you get good grades, undergrad, med school.
B B Sat-Sun / - / , PM CDT, linkshall. org, $ suggested donation. lack hair. A jilted woman. A sacrifice. bitter because she chose this sacrifi ce.” Upon her return, Rina continued at Shubukai, Snow. “She’s a geisha who falls in love Now Lin, in collaboration with musicians the Chicago school of Japanese classical dance Bwith a samurai. They have their one se- Matsuya Nozawa and Tatsu Aoki, calligrapher founded by grandmaster Fujima Shunojo in It was planned. It was secure. So dance was a cret night together, but she realizes the future Hekiun Oda, director Subhash Maskara, user 1976—and their mother took Rika, a self-de- way to not worry about the real world. It was of the clan depends on his marrying this other interface designer Derrick Fields, and soft- scribed “tomboy” who practiced martial an escape,” she says. (An escape that looks just woman, so she says, ‘Go.’ It’s their wedding ware engineer Michael Flood, is developing arts, along. “Japanese classical dance in the like the trap, I suggest. I never thought about night. She’s alone and undoing her hair. It’s Kurokami e{murge}, a contemporary rendi- conventional older ways was one more line it that way, she laughs.) black hair—a symbol of youth, the strength of tion of this classical work for virtual reality in your ‘I’m going to be a good wife’ resume,” Dance was also a connection to Japanese a woman, resilience, beauty,” says choreogra- presentation—the latest project in a body of says Lin. “Can you do the tea ceremony? Do culture as Lin grew up in a predominantly pher Rika Lin on Kurokami (“Black Hair”), an work that examines gender and tradition you do flower arrangement? Do you dance? white neighborhood in Warrenville. “My fi rst excerpt from the now-lost 18th-century kabuki through the lens of Japanese classical dance. I’m sure my mom was thinking, ‘Here’s my language was Japanese, but in the burbs, there play Oakinai hirugakojima. “If you listen to the Born in Chicago to first-generation immi- butch daughter who likes karate; I better get were no other Japanese people at all. My fa- lyrics, it sounds like she was this innocent girl, grants from Japan, Lin began dancing after her something so she’s presentable.’ So I went ther [a radiology physicist] would moonlight and he went, ‘We’ll be together forever, baby!’ her younger sister, Rina, got a taste of Jap- and had my lesson, and it was this rare thing, at checking MRI machines in hospitals. We But if you know the play, she’s in anguish and anese classical dance one summer in Japan. a male dance teacher. [Japan is] a male-dom- would go to Iowa—a big family vacation!—and 22 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll DANCE
we were across from the hospital in a play- “The Fujima school operates under a to myself, to the times, to differences?’ My ground, and I distinctly remember a Caucasian headmaster system, like most cultural arts body type is my body type. I excelled more in boy in a station wagon with a window open in Japan. Usually it’s a family. The headmas- the male dances. And I did karate and all that, and he’s standing on his seat, and he goes, ter controls the knowledge and certifies the too. It was an opportunity, as fate would have ‘Chinese!’ I go, ‘Where?—oh, he’s talking about teachers that then teach that style. When you it, that my male teacher who excels in wom- us!’” she recalls. receive your professional stage name, you’re en’s dances was teaching me when I’m good at Yet, as a result of American hostility to- a representative of the school.” Following a male dances.” wards Japan and those of Japanese descent training process that can only be completed in These observations of boundaries, bound- before, during, and after World War II, rela- Japan, recipients of the Fujima name acknowl- ary-crossings, and the ingenuity of necessity tionships even among Japanese Americans edge their professional status with the perfor- began with and extend to her teacher Fujima can be complex: “During the internment, there mance of one of three hour-long dances—the Shunojo and the Shubukai school, prompting was a line drawn between nationals, people white heron maiden, the lion dance, or the her to launch Revitalizing Tradition, an annual who come from Japan, and families who were temple maiden (“your teacher will choose ac- program in its 14th season this April (with a interned and went through the camps. Typi- cording to your personality”). “I didn’t realize year skipped for the pandemic). IS NOT cally they don’t speak Japanese because they it cost a lot of money. My parents were against “If you’re in Japan, you have a professional were trying to assimilate. So nationals were it because there’s no future in it. I refi nanced wigmaker, costume maker, makeup artist, kind of deemed the enemy,” notes Lin. On the my condo and I got my professional name musicians. But I grew up watching him do other side, her Japanese teachers expressed against my parents’ wishes. But, being stub- everything. Traditionally, the teacher does the ambivalence about becoming American. “My born, I was like, ‘Well, I guess I’m just going to fi rst and last dance. Here, he does the fi rst and FREE karate teacher, we always used to ask him, do it,’” she says. “I’m still paying o my stage last dance and changes everybody in between. ‘You’re not going to get your green card?’ He name”: Fujima Yoshinojo, which acknowledg- I started helping with the dressing, makeup, chicagoreader.com/donate chicagoreader.com/donate experienced the war in Japan. He would say, ‘If es the lineage of her training by combining wigs, and props—and thought, ‘Good grief, I We Couldn't Be Free Without You— women, the bodies fl oat downwards, and men the name of the school with the names of her wish I could just watch my teacher dance for Support Community Journalism they fl oat upwards.’ He was giving an expla- teachers. once!’ So I proposed to him, ‘How about we nation after a fi rebombing or something. We But before Lin could officially teach or do a program where only you dance, and we were stupidly lighthearted, like, ‘Why won’t choreograph, she still needed to acquire a have some time to talk about it?’” For the fi rst you become an American citizen? Go, Ameri- grandmaster license, which requires years program, her teacher performed two dances, ca!’ And he’d start telling these stories. He saw more training and an arduous exam before the one “male” and one “female” (she notes that that.” headmaster. “When I got my grandmasters li- these performances of gender were invent- In college at Northwestern, Lin found her- cense, then I was able to do Beyond the Box”— ed by men: “The classical dance aesthetics self surrounded by Asian friends for the fi rst her fi rst self-produced show at Links Hall in were coming from kabuki, the male ideal of a Don’t miss time (“everybody was premed”)—yet her ac- 2017, which included duets with Ayako Kato woman”). After the fi rst year, her teacher in- tivities set her apart. “I scheduled my classes (Swathe) and Lenora Lee (Anger and the Bell), vited Lin to dance as well—he would continue to make sure I could hit my dance teacher’s a piece with her students in collaboration with to perform female roles, and she would dance an issue classes Monday, Friday, Saturday, and my composer Eric Leonardson (Quantum Monk male roles—and guests including lecturers, karate classes Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. II), and a solo (Mai Ougi). Beyond the Box 4.3, calligraphers, and students could contribute While I was going to karate and dance, my an iteration of Kurokami developed in collab- to the program as well. “This year we’re fl ip- Get the Next 12 Issues friends were studying their butts o . They’d go oration with puppeteer Tom Lee, continues at ping it for the fi rst time—he’s going to dance a of the Chicago Reader out while I was studying, so my path diverged Links Hall this May. male [role]; I’m going to dance female.” from everyone else’s.” One day, in frustration, The ten years between stage name and Lin views the virtual reality edition of Kuro- Delivered to Your Home she said, “Why do I have to be a doctor, Mom?” grandmaster license—during which she kami (scheduled to premiere in summer 2021) Her mother replied, “No one told you you had “scrambled and had different grants and and its continuing evolution with a particular to be a doctor.” begged and borrowed”—allowed Lin’s cho- focus on the freedoms and constraints of the So Lin became a physical therapist in- reographic voice to simmer to the surface. “I futuristic medium. Virtual reality, like film, stead—and continued to dance. “The only don’t have the typical body type to be a Jap- “makes you focus on certain things,” she says. time I missed the annual performance was anese dancer—to even be Japanese,” she says. “You are given a sense of freedom, but it’s not in grad school, because there was no way. “I remember when I was five, they’d be like, really there. You’re forced to perceive and When I became a physical therapist, half the ‘You’re kind of fat!’ When I started training think of [certain] things, even as you might time to break the ice with my patients, I’m for the exam, they’d say, ‘You’re sweating too not realize you don’t have a choice. I think talking about dance. It’s this ‘super hobby’ much!’ That’s a dealbreaker, if you’re sweat- it’s a good example of the model of life. One that’s all you do. When you go home, you’re ing. But I’m living! If I think about it, I’m going of our hashtags is #chooseyourreality.” It’s a doing dance.” As she rose through the ranks to sweat! Seeing all these boundaries and all revealing perspective for an Asian American at Shubukai, she assumed more responsibili- these walls and having things told to me about choreographer bridging centuries of tradition ties—“coordinating performances or calling my body type and my natural stance—‘Why with emerging technology in a lifetime of nav- and making arrangements or stage manag- are you dancing it that way?’ ‘What do you igating choice and fate. “How you live your life chicagoreader.com/ ing”—and eventually sought her professional mean? I’m as small as I can get!’—all these appears in your dance.” v support stage name with the intention of continuing questions throughout my training, I thought, her teacher’s school. ‘What if I do it in a way that’s more applicable @IreneCHsiao ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 23 For Your (Re)Consideration R New shows premiere Sun PM CDT through / ; available online anytime with purchase through /, ghostlightensemble.com, $ -$ THEATER suggested donation
Holly Robison and Andrew Coopman MARIA BURNHAM ADAM FONTANA queer, and it’s time for our stories to get told.” “I’m immensely collaborative in my work,” Coopman says. “I consider myself a very collaborative director that welcomes the cre- ativity of all the artists to the table, and [what ry,” says Andrew Coopman, a Seattle-based resulted] was the manifestation of creativity storytelling interdisciplinary artist, who and conversation about this play from 1668, directed The Convent of Pleasure for Ghost- centered in the goal of having fun.” light. “The sharing of this piece wasn’t about Ghostlight Ensemble member Holly Ro- the performance, it was about the sharing and bison curated the (Re)Consideration series celebration of this narrative that had been after initially having the idea a few years ago, overlooked.” which is when she first came across The En- The Convent of Pleasure was never per- chantment by Victoria Benedictsson, who was formed during Cavendish’s lifetime (she died said to be an inspiration for the much-lauded in 1673), meaning that—even for the play’s Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, as well as August author—the play wasn’t exactly about perfor- Strindberg’s Miss Julie. As a performer and mance, so much as it was about the opportuni- burgeoning director, Robison says she was ty to gather together and discuss the various inspired to seek out more female playwrights sexy and heady themes Cavendish explores: and scripts by women that would inevitably marriage, sexuality, power, performance, and include varied and dynamic female roles, more. It was originally written by Cavendish rather than just one great female character of as a closet drama, the formatting of which a man’s creation. translated perfectly to the Zoom platform. “In my research, I came across this descrip- “Translating Convent of Pleasure to online tion of Victoria Benedictsson as a contempo- performance was really centered in this idea rary of Ibsen and Strindberg, and [Ibsen and of: how do we make it campy and fun?” Coop- Strindberg] are produced consistently and man says. “As a closet drama, it was about a constantly and over and over again,” Robison RECLAIMING HISTORY group of Margaret Cavendish’s closest friends says. “I thought, ‘Why have I heard of so many gathering in the parlor, probably with some productions of these plays, but I’ve never Back to the future sherry, and reading this play together, and heard of this woman?’” Ghostlight Ensemble spotlights unsung women playwrights of the past. having a good time doing it. And so for us it Robison is directing Clare Bayley’s adap- was like, ‘Well, let’s just gather online and get tation of The Enchantment for Ghostlight on By K R campy and get creative and tell this story.’” May 2. Coopman says the campy approach they As a whole, the (Re)Consideration series took to the script allowed for more heartfelt is about challenging the idea that anything conversations around the play’s subject mat- outside the heteronormative, white male cre- ter amongst the cast. Cavendish published ative realm is in any way “revolutionary” or a group of unmarried women decide to The Convent of Pleasure, written by Cavendish this play under her own name—a rarity for the product of recent culture. encloister together on an idyllic estate and published in 1668, as the fi rst in their new time—but as much as it’s groundbreaking for “It’s not that they weren’t there, but they A inherited by their ringleader, Lady reading series, For Your (Re)Consideration, both its authorship and subject matter, it is were either marginalized or they weren’t cul- Happy. No men are allowed on the premises at which explores the works of historically over- not without its problematic aspects, Coopman tivated the way the mainstream gatekeepers any time. The women’s chambers are lush and looked female playwrights. says. cultivated [male playwrights],” Robison says. seasonally thematic. There are fresh fl owers Cavendish’s play is the fi rst of what will be “This beautiful romance comedy about two “It’s not just, ‘Well those are clearly master- everywhere and the wine never stops fl owing. weekly Sunday readings broadcast through women falling in love is suddenly overtaken pieces,’ I’m not going to argue that [male-pro- Only the choicest cuts of meat are served. May 2, and all performances will be available by Margaret’s husband in the fourth act for duced] works aren’t masterpieces, but also Every room has the perfect selfi e mirror. And for streaming on-demand through May 9. In no explicit reason,” Coopman explains. Two who [else] didn’t get the cultivation? When again—no men allowed. addition to being an overlooked, female-writ- sections of the play are denoted as “Written by you’re a playwright, you’re writing a play that What sounds like an amalgamation of a ten script, The Convent of Pleasure, as My Lord Duke.” you’re handing o to an ecosystem to create modern-day women’s communal utopia, Ghostlight emphasizes, is a queer, nonbinary “Maybe he was embarrassed by this love and develop, and if that doesn’t happen, your the campiest and most luxurious you can narrative, too; Lady Happy falls in love with a story that his wife wrote, who knows?” Coop- skill and your talent will not get cultivated.” imagine, was actually the brainchild of Mar- woman, a princess who arrives at the convent man says. “Maybe Margaret was experiencing Women, people of color, and queer humans garet Cavendish, a 17th-century author and and who inexplicably becomes a prince at the real questions about her gender identity. I have been writing and creating since the dawn philosopher. Which means that for more than end of the play. think that’s where the idea of queer identity of time. And their work has always been rev- three centuries, women have been in pursuit “We’re gathering together as a community not being a revolutionary idea of the 1980s and olutionary in its own way, even if the celebra- of pleasure unadulterated by men, however to tell some really important and impactful the rise of the AIDS epidemic comes in. Queer tion of such is some 300 years delayed. v “modern” that idea might seem now. stories and celebrate the narratives of the humans have been here throughout history. On April 4, Ghostlight Ensemble broadcast unheard and overlooked throughout histo- We’ve always been here, we’ve always been @kaylenralph 26 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll “ You deserve recovery.” KAT C. / RCA ALUMNA
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Theaters across the city are dusting off their play video games; meanwhile locations for projectors. REBECCA LYON another prominent chain, Regal Cinemas, have remained closed indefinitely. Some theaters the future. In conversations with managers, are operating exclusively in the rental space, programmers, and theater workers around like the New 400 and the Harper Theater, the city (most of whom, full disclosure, I know whose event planner, Brittany Low-Lipsey, from my own tenure in the Chicago fi lm com- remarked that the dearth of new releases is munity), a few consistent themes emerged, partly the reason for that. “Once Hollywood the most prevalent being optimism, tenacity, opens completely and starts sending movies and a yearning to fi nally be back at the movies to theaters, then we will open to the public,” while looking to apply lessons gleaned during she says. “At the moment, the private theater the pandemic. The Music Box, specifically, rental is working better for us.” has been one of the less-commercial venues Facets is another local theater dabbling in pioneering the in-person experience; they virtual releases and private rentals. Long-time reopened for the first time in July (just in programmer Charles Coleman said the theater time for Tenet), closed again in November, is planning a “ramped-up reopening” begin- reopened again in February, and recently ex- ning in late June, when the Facets Film Camps panded their showtimes to seven days a week will also return using a hybrid model. In order in late March. to keep audiences safe, and despite their reve- This progress comes after a hellish year for nue decreasing by 35 percent, they’ve invested exhibitors who rely on in-person screenings in “ventilation upgrades and will implement WORLD REOPENING for most or all of their revenue. “Sadly we lost reserved spaced-out seating along with mask hundreds of thousands of dollars,” says Oes- guidelines and increased cleanings,” Coleman treich. “We had to let go of veteran sta who says, echoing the precautions being taken by Now playing: a return to the know the business, who know the job.” With other theaters. Some upgrades, however, are the extended showtimes and the possibility of a little more fun: “We have given our public expanding their capacity in coming weeks or fi rst fl oor spaces a facelift,” he says, “creating movies months, he says they’ll fi rst look to hire back hangout spaces for cinema lovers with an ex- workers they let go, though it’s possible some panded snack and co ee menu.” A er several pandemic pivots and herd immunity on the horizon, local movie will have moved on to other jobs. This is an- While other theaters have already or an- theaters and fi lm programs are returning to business not-quite-as-usual. other theme among exhibitors—the fi rst right ticipate opening at reduced capacities, the of refusal for previously existing and even new Gene Siskel Film Center says they won’t—they By K S positions being reserved for staff who had can’t, really—open until they’re able to do so been laid o . at full capacity. “We can’t make payroll and After Godzilla vs. Kong, the Music Box will everything if we’re not at 100 percent,” says present, in addition to their ongoing virtual executive director Jean de St. Aubin. “We can’t his time last year, the fi lm-loving farceur Now, more than a full year after the initial cinema, a week of Oscar contenders, the cover all of our expenses.” The Film Center had behind the Music Box Theatre’s beloved lockdown, amidst the rollout of a vaccine few much-lauded “pig movie” Gunda, a series of been thinking about late July as a potential TTwitter account—now restored to its thought would have arrived so soon, audienc- heist films, and, in early May, they’ll reopen opening date but are reconsidering that—as former glory after a bogus several-week sus- es are returning to theaters in double-masked, their garden for movies on the patio seven many theaters likely are—as COVID-19 cases pension due to supposed copyright infringe- socially-distanced droves for the spectacle nights a week. Horror fans can look forward to rise amidst the dreaded fourth wave. Still, she ment—replied to a tweet from a fi lm fan in a that is Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong—the a “Halfoween” drive-in event with Creepy Co. says that much of what they’ve learned this conversation about Christopher Nolan: “Keep keyword here being spectacle. Catching up at the end of April and the beginning of May, past year will continue even as the theater your fi ngers crossed that this is all over in time recently with the Music Box Theatre’s general and the annual Music Box of Horrors is already reopens, specifi cally referencing their virtual for TENET in July!” manager, Ryan Oestreich, he confessed that on the books for October. cinema, the Screen to Screen conversations, July came around, the pandemic was very seeing the two titans of cinema battle it out Another way the Music Box has made up for and their robust lecture series, which has much not over, and the response to Tenet, was the big-screen display he’d hoped Tenet lost revenue is through theater rentals, a tac- brought such luminaries as critics Jonathan which Warner Brothers released to theaters would be, so much so that it caused a distinct tic being employed by various players across Rosenbaum and Ann Hornaday, programmer despite hesitancy among exhibitors and au- emotional response. “I . . . might have teared the city, ranging from neighborhood theaters, Sergio Mims, and fi lmmakers John Sayles and diences alike, was lukewarm in all respects. up a little bit,” he says. Later, he elaborated, like the New 400 Theater and the Davis The- Jennifer Reeder to audiences across the coun- Moviegoers were wary about the prospect, “No matter if you love arthouse fi lms or spe- ater, to sprawling multiplexes, with theater try in the comfort and safety of their homes. and, if they did journey out to see it, were cifi c genres of movies, whatever it is that you chains such as AMC (whose Navy Pier IMAX During this time, partly because of the largely disappointed by what they found: a love, there’s something that pulls you to the location, however, has closed permanently) shutdown but mostly due to the events of last film that was too loud, too confusing, and, cinema.” and ShowPlace ICON o ering new and older summer, many theaters and institutions are perhaps most frustratingly, was being viewed The Music Box is one of several local the- releases for private screenings at some loca- reevaluating the diversity of both their orga- in an atmosphere devoid of the usual joviality aters, fi lm festivals, and organizations dedi- tions alongside truncated showtimes open to nizational structures and their programming. that surrounds such summer behemoths, good cated to cinema that have felt the strain of the the public. ShowPlace ICON is even offering “One of the other silver linings of this year, or bad. past year but are nevertheless hopeful about audiences the chance to rent out theaters to this pause, is really looking at our program- 28 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll FILM
ming, and our staff, and our board, and the dent-run fi lm society is their “dwindling num- outside from a distance. York on a virtual guest program. They have cultural makeup of the city, and of us,” says de ber of volunteers.” In order to “help make the Mimi Plauché, artistic director of the Chi- an outdoor screening planned for early July St. Aubin. “And our sta does not refl ect our transition to opening back up easier,” they’re cago International Film Festival, says, “Right with Comfort Film at Comfort Station, who diverse programming or the cultural makeup “in the process of organizing a projectionist now we’re preparing to be ready for both themselves are planning for three months of of the city. One of our priorities as we start booth workshop called ‘Booth Camp’ in an in-person and online” for their annual fall open-air programming this summer, including rehiring is really making sure that we’re inclu- attempt to remind . . . [apprentice projection- event. Though they still have some months collaborations with Sophia Wong Boccio from sive and that we’re diverse. That’s really a top ists] how to project.” It would seem we’re all a ahead of them before this year’s edition of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema and South Side Projec- priority.” little rusty. festival, Plauché says she and her team are tions, as well as a continuation of their Silent There’s a lot to look forward to when the Smaller, independent venues have been assessing how it went last year and looking to Films and Loud Music series. Film Center reopens, though it may be a slow largely sidelined this past year, with micro- apply those insights to this year. “There were Exhibition-wise, Rebecca Hall and Rebecca rollout, with events geared toward members cinemas such as the Nightingale Cinema and some really nice outcomes from last year, de- Lyon from the Chicago Film Society say they’re and donors to thank them for their support fi lmfront having ceased in-person screenings spite the circumstances,” she says. thinking that they’ll return to in-person during this time. That will also allow for the indefinitely. In addition to being a cinema, “The past year . . . has given us the opportu- screenings in the fall, though that’s subject to theater’s sta , returning and new, to become the Nightingale is also a residence currently nity to evaluate who we are, how we do what change. “We just started working on a plan for reacquainted with the ins and outs of running occupied by three people. Its director, Emily we do, and how we can do it better. As many a possible fall program that we could imple- a movie theater, especially during what we all Eddy, says that “it would feel complicated challenges as it presented, I think there’s also ment pretty a ordably,” says Lyon, “meaning hope will be the tail end of a global pandemic. and a bit scary to invite the public into our the possibility of continuing to have positive probably prints from our own collection.” In some ways, “it’s like opening a movie the- living space,” a dilemma faced by many DIY outcomes, that once we get through it, it will Considering how crucial the communal mov- ater for the fi rst time,” says the Film Center’s venues where community members also further be able to elevate film as an artistic iegoing experience is to the organization’s programming director, Rebecca Fons, who did live. The organizers behind filmfront, Malia medium that both changes the way we see the ethos, it follows that they’re being especially just that when she rehabilitated an old theater Haines-Stewart and Alan Medina, who also world and brings people together.” thoughtful and diligent in how they’ll eventu- in her hometown. It’s an apt metaphor for the- run the bookshop Inga in the space, face simi- Along those lines, the Chicago Film Soci- ally return to theaters. “It’s really important ater workers and moviegoers alike, for whom lar conundrums but have embraced the respite ety—who, pre-pandemic, showed a variety that when we go back,” says Hall, “it’s doing a return to cinemas may feel like the first during this era of tumultuousness. “[We’ve] of films on 16-millimeter, 35-millimeter, justice to that part of our mission.” time, so physically and mentally unfamiliar given ourselves permission to take time off and 70-millimeter at Northeastern Illinois It’s possible and even likely that some of this might the experience seem as people adjust and let the project and ourselves rest during University and the Music Box Theatre—has will change. It’s much too soon to determine to the world post-COVID. It will, of course, be this transitional time,” says Haines-Stewart. taken this time to focus on a lot of things more the future of moviegoing in Chicago, though worth it: the Siskel, for example, is already “Since we’re not part of a larger organization tangentially related to fi lm exhibition. They’ve there’s no doubt that the outlook is hopeful, planning what they’ll show when they’re or a ticket-selling/profit model, there isn’t released two issues of a zine, Infuriating as purveyors and audiences of fi lm around the fully reopened, including retrospectives and necessarily the same urgency to reopen. In Times, and started a projector loan program, city anticipate watching movies on screens events such as their annual Black Harvest Film some ways we’re in a more fl exible position, which allows people to borrow projectors and bigger than those we have in our homes, any- Festival, which both de St. Aubin and Fons are but also without the structure, there’s less films to project at home—there’s currently thing from a little-known experimental gem confi dent will be in-person, though there will support in a challenging time.” Both venues a two-month wait list. They’ve also gotten a to the excesses of Hollywood, and again with still be a virtual component, as it allows for plan to pursue outdoor screenings going into new o§ ce space, where they’re storing many other people—strangers in the darkness but the fi lmmakers involved to receive even more the summer. of the prints from their collection, and will still old friends who many of us are desperate exposure. One of the biggest pandemic pivots has been be collaborating with the Metrograph in New to see again. v Conversations at the Edge (CATE), a pro- whole fi lm festivals transitioning from in-per- gram of the Department of Film, Video, New son events to online, often with a few drive-in Media, and Animation at the School of the Art screenings to supplement the digital o erings. Institute of Chicago, which takes place at the This was the case for last year’s Chicago Un- Film Center, will also embrace a hybrid model derground Film Festival, whose next edition, in the fall, with “some programs happening in cofounder and artistic director Bryan Wendorf the theater, some online, and some spanning tells me, is on hold until they’re able to be back both,” per curator Amy Beste. CATE is among in theaters at full capacity. This year’s Chicago many programs and venues in the city that Latino Film Festival also has a drive-in com- excel in nontraditional programming. Block ponent, though it’s otherwise entirely online. Cinema at Northwestern University, which, The festival’s founder, Pepe Vargas, plans to like CATE, has transitioned some of its o er- continue with the virtual screenings, even as ings online, will also pursue a hybrid model they’ll “be at the theaters most defi nitely” this once they’re back in person, a proposition time next year. Also in progress right now is contingent on guidance from the school. the Asian Pop-Up Cinema, a festival-like fi lm Another local venue attached to higher series that transitioned online with select education, Doc Films at the University of Chi- screenings at the drive-in, including upcoming cago, plans to reopen in the fall, along with the shows of Minari, a nominee for Best Picture at school, though it’s likely they won’t be at full this year’s Oscars. Coming up in early summer, capacity until early 2022. Hannah Halpern, the Onion City Experimental Film and Video Doc’s current programming chair, says that Festival will take place online with some out- one of the biggest struggles faced by the stu- door screenings and installations accessible ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 29 “Unpacking Intimacy on Brave Sets” R Mon / , : PM, bit.ly/ FILM otvunpackingintimacy
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“How can we support Black women survi- vors in a way that doesn’t further the carceral system?” she says. “What does protecting Black women actually look like?” The fi lm is dedicated to Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau, a 19-year-old Black female activist from Florida who disappeared in June of 2020 shortly after tweeting about being sexually assaulted by a Black man who o ered to give her a ride. Salau was later found dead and that same man allegedly confessed to her murder. Salau’s death prompted a wave of conver- sation online about how Black women and femmes can advocate for justice and liberation for Black people, but still be at risk of violence FILMMAKING from the same men whose lives they are pro- testing for. The phrase “protect Black women” can be seen in hashtags and in real life: on Kyra Jones fl ips the script on sexual assault fi lms T-shirts, buttons, tote bags. “The phrase is overused and I don’t know Go to the Body explores healing, justice, and what it actually looks like to protect Black women. what people mean when they say it anymore,” Jones says. Jones adds that oftentimes when By N DL Black women ask for protection, they don’t mean through physical violence. Go to the Body paints this picture well: Kendrick’s phys- he year 2021 has already been a whirl- eventually be Jones’s feature-length film, being stigmatized or not believed. In the case ical ability as a boxer may seem like the logical wind for Kyra Jones. In the span of just a which she’s currently raising money for. She of Sanaa and many other Black women, there’s route for Sanaa to take after she is assaulted, Tfew months, the 28-year-old Chicagoan hopes to shoot in the spring or summer of also a distrust of a criminal justice system but the fi lm explores if this is what she truly has landed her fi rst full-time position as a sta 2022 and premiere in 2023. The project won that unfairly targets people of color—Sanaa needs. writer for Hulu’s Woke, made plans to move to The Pitch at the Chicago International Film struggles with being responsible for poten- “Protecting Black women doesn’t [always] Los Angeles, and released the proof-of-con- Festival in October, and the proof-of-concept tially putting another Black man behind bars. just mean squad up and get your guns . . . cept trailer for her upcoming feature fi lm, Go will be screened with OTV on April 19 as part Jones’s fi lm challenges viewers to think about You have to be aware of all the other types to the Body. of “Unpacking Intimacy on Brave Sets,” a dis- what justice looks like outside of the carceral of harm,” Jones says. “You know that your “A month ago I couldn’t get any managers or cussion with Jones and others about intimacy system, especially when the abuser is some- homeboy is creepy? Make sure that he’s not agents or whatever to read my stu and now coordination and hand-to-hand combat on one the survivor is in community with. hitting on that intoxicated Black woman in the they’re blowing me up,” Jones says through fi lm sets. “It’s so hard to fi gure out what to do to hold corner.” laughter over a Zoom call on a Tuesday morn- The film’s central relationship between those people accountable,” Jones says. “If this Following the #MeToo movement, portray- ing from her home in Uptown. Sanaa (Al Kelly) and her fi ancé Kendrick (Brian character does not believe in police and pris- als of sexual assault have been depicted more The Northwestern grad, who is typically Keys) explores how the e ects of sexual vio- ons, what are her next steps?” frequently in film and media. Most recently, known for her comedy work, like her 2019 lence can reach far beyond the victim. “The One route that some survivors may take Jones hated Promising Young Woman but award-winning webseries about dating in the survivor isn’t the only one affected,” Jones is through restorative justice, a process that loved HBO’s I May Destroy You. Jones is glad digital age, The Right Swipe, says her latest says. “It’s hard to fi gure out how best to sup- focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders to see more nuanced depictions of sexual vi- project is “a lot darker than the other things port the person you love.” through reconciliation with their victims and olence and rape culture, but she still believes that I write.” The fi lm follows Sanaa, a Black Kendrick is a boxer and pushes Sanaa to the greater community, which may include a that there’s room for improvement: she wants female organizer who is sexually assaulted by fight back, to not let her rapist “get away meeting between the victim and the abuser to see more intersectional survivor stories a fellow activist, and details the aftermath of with it,” as he urges in one scene. In most with a mediator. Jones herself is a survivor of that center women of color. She says putting the event as she tries to move on with her life. fi lms about sexual violence, a survivor seeks sexual assault and has spoken publicly about these stories in the hands of Black women is “I’ve always seen such an unrealistic por- justice through reporting their assault to law her experience with restorative justice. The a step in the right direction, something she trayal of the aftermath of sexual assault,” enforcement. Despite experiencing sexual original draft of Go to the Body included a hopes Go to the Body can contribute to. Jones says. “I know people who have survived violence at higher rates than other groups of restorative justice process that did not make “Sanaa’s story is just sadly way too com- an assault and don’t cry at all, or cover it women, Black women are less likely to report the fi nal cut. Jones plans to have the upcoming mon,” Jones says with a sigh. “Even if you up with humor . . . Everyone’s healing looks a rape or sexual assault. In fact, for every Black OTV screening and others for the proof of con- don’t know about it, everybody loves someone di erent.” woman who reports rape, 15 others do not re- cept and eventual feature fi lm to include Q+A who has been assaulted.” v Go to the Body is Jones’s directorial debut. port according to the American Psychological and workshops that discuss the themes of the The project is a shorter version of what will Association. This can often be out of fear of fi lm. @NoelleDLilley 30 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll R READER RECOMMENDED b ALL AGES N NEW F Get showtimes and see reviews of everything playing this week at chicagoreader.com/movies. FILM
Better Days Night in Paradise in Paradise off ers an entertaining end, tying up a fi lm R The lead of Night in Paradise, Park Tae-goo that is sure to please existing Korean action fi lm fans. (Uhm Tae-goo), is a respected member of a mid-level —AM -K 131 min. Netflix crime organization who upon the murder of his family enacts a brutal revenge on a rival organization. Forced Wolfwalkers to fl ee to the relatively remote Jeju island off the coast R The latest from the humble Irish animation of South Korea, Tae-goo is given shelter by a local arms studio Cartoon Saloon (The Secret of Kells, Song of the dealer and his troubled niece Jae-yeon (Jeon Yeo-been). Sea, The Breadwinner) is a mesmerizing marvel that An uneasy friendship develops between Tae-goo and should put them on the map. Based on Celtic folklore, Jae-yeon, but as the past intercedes, they’re forced to Wolfwalkers follows a plucky aspiring hunter Robyn come to terms with events they’d both rather forget. Goodfellowe (Honor Kneafsey) who moves to a mystical Director Park Hoon-jung creates a well-composed, con- version of Ireland with her father—who is tasked with temporary noir despite being just a tad bit overplotted. destroying the last remaining wolfpack. But when Robyn Um Tae-goo and Jeon Yeo-been are both captivating meets Mebh (Eva Whittaker), a member of a tribe that is in their sardonic chemistry, while Cha Seung-won, as rumored to be able to shi into wolves, her perception NOW PLAYING up in her and Malcolm’s aff airs. (Valerie Mahaff ey stands the rival mob lieutenant Chief Ma, is delightful in his of who she is and what her family is trying to eradicate out as a hauntingly awkward Madame Reynard, a fan of bombastic cruelty. Jeju island serves as an ideal location gets completely upended. Wolfwalkers is an incredibly Better Days Frances and fellow widow who brings both humor and to emphasize a somber and contemplative beauty inter- charming tale with a huge heart, but it’s in the lush R Chinese student Chen Nian (Zhou Dongyu) incredible cringe-horror elements to the fi lm.) cut with a violent tension lingering under the surface. and kaleidoscopic animation style where it shines the falls in love with petty criminal Liu Beishan (Jackson At face value, it’s a meandering rich white people The action sequences are both well-choreographed brightest—and manages to outpace and outshine the Yee) a er they become prime suspects in the murder of movie, adjacent to being a knock-off Wes Anderson and somewhat gratuitous in their violence, with the fi nal far more resourced animation giants that rival them. a school bully, Wei Lai, in Kwok Cheung Tsang’s Better fi lm with a toned-down aesthetic, but there’s something third of the fi lm reaching levels of violence that may —C C 103 min. 4/18-4/21, Music Box Days. Chen Nian is a smart student ready for college about French Exit that feels compelling in an intangible bring into question whether viewing the fi lm is in fact an Theatre; Apple TV v with a well-meaning but absent mother. A er showing way. It’s a fi lm that’s hard to read, with its present-day enjoyable experience. In its resolution however, Night an act of kindness to a student who commits suicide, setting and characters riddled with anachronisms, and Chen Nian fi nds herself the victim of bullying from the its occasional supernatural moments, but those couple popular girls at school, led by the spoiled and vicious with a solid cast and simple score to mold French Exit’s Wei Lai. It’s part romance, part thriller with a meet-cute identity. Patrick deWitt’s screenplay, based on his book fi tting of the young adult-genre book it’s adapted from. of the same name, contains smart humor and self-aware It also plainly shows the challenges victims face: when characters in no hurry to divulge details or backstories. APRIL 8 - 18, 2021 Chen Nian reports the bullying, it only escalates. Better It has its own set of rules that the audience never quite Days has quite a few twists as fl ashbacks tell the truth learns, but that just contributes to the antiquated of what really happened to Wei Lai. The characters dreaminess that director Azazel Jacobs fosters in the CHICAGO experience the struggles nearly every teenager has fi lm. Accept that you’re living in Frances Price’s reali- ever faced, like the pressure to succeed or the many ty—which Pfeiff er makes easy—and French Exit will feel th ways adults fail them. It’s a genre-bending fi lm with an like a fascinating escape. —TA 113 min. AMC LATINO important message that will connect with those who Theatres, Landmark Century Centre Cinema are young just as much as those who are no longer. In FILM Mandarin with English subtitles. —N D L R Monday 37 138 min. Through 5/6: Gene Siskel Film Center From At the center of Monday is the evergreen ques- FESTIVAL Your Sofa tion, can love and life coexist harmoniously? Following a whirlwind weekend, where Mickey (Sebastian Stan) and Presented by French Exit Chloe (Denise Gough), two Americans in their mid-30s R Famous Manhattanite widow Frances Price living in Athens, meet and quickly bone on a beach, (Michelle Pfeiff er) has just been told that she’s bank- Monday asks what happens a er the hint of happily rupt. It’s not a surprise—her fi nancial adviser has been ever a er. For Chloe, this means giving up a job back warning her for years—she just fi gured she’d be dead by home, and for Mickey, it means navigating how his new the time it happened. With nothing else to do, Frances love interest and son will coexist. The pressure seems abruptly takes her adult son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) exceptionally high, but in reality, it’s pretty run-of-the- Get Social With Us to a friend’s apartment in Paris, smuggling in their cat mill. That’s the beauty of Argyris Papadimitropoulos’s Small Frank (Tracy Letts), who’s mutually understood follow-up to Suntan; it’s a movie that accurately refl ects to be the late Franklin Price reincarnated. Resigned the highs and lows of relationships once the dust of a @ChiLatinoFilm to her fate as a cliche-come-to-life, Frances is isolated fl ing starts to settle and the work begins. It’s a reality and unpredictable, hinting that once her cash supply slap caught on camera that makes Mickey and Chloe’s #CLFF37 runs out, she’ll go ahead and kill herself. Played by a relationship more endearing than any overly romanti- For more information visit delightfully erratic Pfeiff er, Frances carries the dramatic cized version of the events could. —B J 116 ChicagoLatinoFilmFestival.org comedy French Exit alongside a slow-growing cast of min. Glen Art Theatre, IFC VOD o eat secondary characters who fi nd themselves tied ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 31 MUSIC
line. Like many a future experimental musi- ‘It opened my mind to the possibilities of what cian, he got interested in punk music early and started a band with a friend. “Aside from piano lessons, we didn’t know how to play any music could be’ instruments, but we played what we had,” he says. “A Casio Rapman, some random pieces of The Jeff erson Park EXP concert series brings a wild diversity of sounds to a neighborhood library—and to the Internet. metal, buckets, an old record player-receiver combo, cheap electronic toys, and micro- By N B phones from Kmart.” Helt moved to Chicago in 1998 to study writ- ing at Columbia College; he also started play- ing guitar and putting together other bands. or her livestreamed concert in the increased, liquid and sand and fl ame started EXP, has been coaxing experimental sounds The most stable of these was the Rories, which Je erson Park EXP series last Decem- to tremble and flicker, forming restless and out of their cones in Chicago for more than a he began as a one-person recording project in ber, Chicago experimental musician intricate interference patterns. Eventually the decade. The live series has been running since the early 2000s. The album Four in One Com- Kimberly Sutton trained her camera hums and throbs grew intense enough that the 2017, and it arose from the work of a netlabel bine collects some of the Rories’ early output, on a pair of lit candles and several water began to bubble and spatter; you could called Pan y Rosas Discos that he started in the which sounds like bedroom pop punk—if the Fspeaker cones of various sizes, resting on see the sound leaping free of its cages and late 2000s. bedroom in question were a hole in the ground their backs like bowls and filled with water making a bid for freedom. Helt grew up in Woodstock, one of the last lined with corrugated tin. or sand. As the vibrations from the speakers Keith Helt, 42, organizer of Je erson Park stops on the Union Pacific Northwest Metra Helt put out Four in One Combine in 2008, 32 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll MUSIC
Le : Arizona-based artist Lauren Sarah Hayes livestreams as part of the Jeff erson Park EXP series in November 2020. COURTESY KEITH HELT
the same year he properly launched Pan y Rosas Discos as a netlabel. It had started informally a couple years before, but at that point it was little more than a name to put on what he calls “slightly fancy” CD-R releases of his band’s music. Around the time of Four in One Combine, he decided CD-Rs were too much trouble and started just releasing Rories tracks as MP3s. It was so easy that he realized he could do the same for his friends. The fi rst non-Rories release, also in 2008, was an 18-minute live set by Piss Piss Piss Moan Moan Moan, a noise project that in- cluded latter-day Rories bandmate Alejandro Morales. Later that year he released a full- length by Black Math, a darkwave punk trio with keyboards and drum machine by Jimmy Lacy, a friend from library school. (Lacy went on to play in Population and currently releases music as Sip.) All Pan y Rosas Discos downloads have always been free. Originally, that was because Helt didn’t see the Rories as a money-making venture. “We all had regular jobs, and our primary goal was to be heard,” he says. “We wanted people to hear our music and maybe Above: Chicago experimental musicians Jim Jam and Alexander Adams support an April 2018 live performance by Shrine, aka video artist and poet Sara come to our shows sometimes. So just mak- Goodman, at the Jeff erson Park branch library. COURTESY KEITH HELT ing the music available and accessible was paramount.” Pan y Rosas has no revenue and provides its J. Ritch. “It has some of my traditional tonal ating music, but because our society’s default collapses and synthetic life-forms start to artists with no compensation—just a curated acoustic music compositions,” she says. “And is white dude, that is what currently rises up,” ooze and flop and skitter in. The electronic platform and Helt’s labor. Over time, as the then I also had a couple of my electronic pieces he says. “Without taking specific action to instrument she uses on Manipulation (and in label expanded, its refusal to put a price on and some electroacoustic hybrids.” The album counter that inertia, white dude is what will much of her music) is of her own design, but its music became a more intentional act. “The is a marvelous hodgepodge of Ritch’s interests perpetuate itself. It’s not only in experimental she hasn’t named it. “I’m really interested act of releasing music for free and in an orga- across classical and improv. “Oftentimes when music—it’s all music. But experimental music in the idea from queer theory of not over- nized way is resistance to capitalism, how- I try to describe my music, some feedback I’ve is where I have a platform and where I can try categorizing things,” she says. “It’s just my ever small,” Helt says. The label, he explains, gotten is that it’s not focused,” she admits, to make a change.” He says he doesn’t have a instrument, I guess.” provides “a means for art to exist outside of laughing. quota, but he’s aiming for gender parity in the Helt still puts out music through Pan y Rosas capitalist systems. I like to think that in some Helt immediately found Ritch’s range and Pan y Rosas catalog. Discos: the label’s 301st album, Drop Shadow small way it contributes to the development of eclecticism exciting, though, and since String Lauren Sarah Hayes, a Scottish musician on Airport Runway by French electronic musi- envisioning new futures.” Theory he’s released several more albums fea- who teaches at the Phoenix campus of Arizona cian Nicolas Tourney, came out March 15, and As the label’s politics became more radical, turing Ritch. Over the past fi ve years or so, the State University, believes that Helt’s concerns a free-jazz release by Argentinian guitarist so did its output. The Rories were based in two of them have frequently recorded them- about gender bias are well-founded. “There’s and sound artist Luciana Bass is in the works. rock and punk, but in the late 2000s, Helt selves jamming together, and they’re putting still many academic studies that demonstrate And though Je erson Park EXP has had to sus- began immersing himself in Chicago’s free the finishing touches on an edited album of gender and also racial bias in the experimental pend its in-person shows at the Je erson Park jazz, improv, and experimental scenes. “I those recordings that they hope to release on music community and the institutions that library, it’s continued as a livestream series. dreamed of being able to release music by Pan y Rosas within the next year. support it,” she says. “So I think Keith’s ap- these improv musicians I was getting really As the label has evolved, Helt has also proach is absolutely valid and important.” elt and his family moved to Jefferson inspired by,” he says. developed a commitment to releasing work Hayes has recorded for Pan y Rosas Discos Park in the mid-2010s, and he quickly The label’s expanded purview includes the by women. Many experimental labels, he’s herself. In 2016 the label released her album Hnoticed a shortage of entertainment 2012 release String Theory by Chicago com- noticed, are very male dominated. “Basically Manipulation, whose poptronica improvi- options in the neighborhood. “There are a poser, cellist, and electronic musician Sarah it comes down to, there are lots of women cre- sations feel almost danceable until the fl oor few things like the mighty Gift Theatre and ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 33 MUSIC
can handle the louder feedback.” The audience in August. She soundtracked a series of over- is typically a mix of experimental music fans lapping abstract visuals and nature videos who’ve come for the performance and people with minimalist electronic patterns evolving who just happen to be in the library. “You into drones—it’s like watching some ominous might think that the people who just wan- extradimensional life cycle. dered in would turn around and leave,” Ritch Helt is still working with Chicago artists says. “But they always stick around, which is too, including one of the newer additions to really nice.” the Pan y Rosas catalog. Helt found self-taught One of Helt’s favorite entries in the series noise musician Helena Ford on Bandcamp and is a 2018 performance by Chicago video artist reached out, and her album Wir Brauchen and poet Shrine, aka Sara Goodman, assisted Angst. Und Schade. came out on the label last by fellow Chicago experimental musicians Jim November—the same month she appeared on Jam and Alexander Adams. Goodman’s work a Je erson Park EXP livestream. involves the projection and manipulation of The album’s 13 drone tracks total more nostalgic video, and it fits with comfortable than two hours; the longest is more than 15 eeriness into the library space, evoking school minutes. The length, Ford says, is a way to slideshows and educational programming “expose to my listeners what it’s like to be from decades past. Grazing deer roam around going through the process of becoming trans- the screen, but then the gentle nature-special gender, or what it’s like being transgender.” visuals dissolve into drippy rainbow patterns; Each track is sometimes crystalline and lovely, meanwhile, ambient throbbing and barely sometimes hammering and painful, evoking a audible voices suggest teachers and PBS process that seems to go on forever. narrators gathered for a meeting in a distant Ford is relatively new to the Chicago exper- boiler room. imental scene. She grew up here but didn’t Jefferson Park EXP hosted in-person con- start creating noise music till she was in col- certs roughly once per month until the library lege at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. She closed for renovations in summer 2018, and graduated in 2018 and returned to Chicago, it had only just resumed in late 2019 when and since then she’s self-released most of her the pandemic shut it down. Its livestreams, music—so when Helt contacted her through which began in July 2020 via Twitch, have Bandcamp about putting out an album, she been more irregular—sometimes three in one was thrilled. “It was a huge, huge honor,” she month, sometimes none for two months. Helt says. “I really felt like I achieved something by has hated losing neighborhood audiences and releasing something through an established face-to-face interactions to COVID restric- record label.” tions, but moving Je erson Park EXP online “Experimental music is a really diverse In November 2020, Chicago experimental musician Helena Ford played a Jeff erson Park EXP has created possibilities and opportunities space that allows people to break away from livestream and released an album through Pan y Rosas Discos. COURTESY THE ARTIST too. Kimberly Sutton’s speaker-cone instal- the conventions of academic classical music, lation probably wouldn’t have worked as a and really allows people to get involved in library concert, for example; you need to be their own thing,” Ford continues. “And I think continued from 33 little taken aback. Sta have tried to be careful up close to see the liquid and sand shaking and that’s really wonderful.” the awesome Ed Paschke Art Center,” he says. to put up signage so people will know that the trembling. The next livestream is Sunday, April 25—a “But my general impression was that the vibe library is going to be less quiet than usual. The shift to livestreams has also made it return engagement by Argentinian artist here was largely ‘Live and sleep in Je erson Many patrons have appreciated the chance much easier for Helt to invite performers from Mariela Arzadun and a set by Chicago multi- Park but drive elsewhere for anything else.’ I to hear something different, though, and beyond Chicago. Lauren Sarah Hayes was back instrumentalist Reid Karris. It’s followed on really wanted to help improve that situation Dohnalek has too. “For me, the fi rst perform- in Phoenix after her fi rst live tour when lock- Sunday, May 2, by performances from two by providing some music activity up here, ers, in March of 2017, were the most memora- down arrived in March 2020, and she loved Chicago acts, indie-pop four-piece Impulsive since that’s what I have experience with.” ble, mostly because the music was so di erent the idea of being able to perform for an au- Hearts and guitarist Cinchel. Helt hopes to Helt was already a regular patron of the than what I would defi ne as music,” Dohnalek dience in some form. Her half-hour Je erson restart the library concerts when COVID is Jefferson Park library when he approached says. “It opened my mind to the possibilities Park EXP concert in November 2020 takes full controlled. He’s already musing about ways to its sta about booking live music. He’s a fan of of what music could be, beyond traditional advantage of the format to create an audio- continue including faraway artists, perhaps by libraries in general, and works as an archivist genres like rock, folk, or classical.” visual assault. The screen shifts and segments projecting streams for library patrons as well in his day job. He thought the library would Sarah J. Ritch gave the fi rst performance on with colors and e ects, through which you can as booking in-person performers. Whether be a perfect venue to provide free concerts to March 18, 2017, playing cello and electronics. sometimes see Hayes speaking into a micro- that’s possible or not, Pan y Rosas Discos and people of all ages, including those not able to Helt uploads video of Je erson Park EXP con- phone or manipulating what looks like a video Jefferson Park EXP will keep going for the get out late on weeknights. certs to Vimeo, and during Ritch’s set you can game controller to create power-electronics foreseeable future, opening minds and splash- Branch manager Eileen Dohnalek was en- occasionally hear a child’s exclamation from squalls and blasts of noise. Even further ing unusual sounds around. v thusiastic about the idea too—though she says o -screen. The space, Ritch says, “is surpris- afield, Mariela Arzadun, aka Florconvenas, that a handful of older patrons were initially a ingly great for intimate, quiet sounds, and also contributed a performance from Buenos Aires @nberlat 34 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll Pick it up DON'T until it’s gone! STOP THE PRESSES LAGER
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328371_10_x_9.65.indd 1 3/31/21 11:44 AM
36 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll MUSIC
PHOTO COURTESY ANNIE SAUNDERS gle. One day I stumbled across Punk House Oakland, which is run by Elizabeth Whitney. I lived in the Bay Area for about a decade, and I a bar in Rogers Park. That turned into the noticed a lot of familiar faces on the page. The Community Shower Loft, and it was even more she posted, the more it sprouted these more expansive as far as the bands coming great memories. I realized I had this whole through—there was even a band from Italy shoebox of pictures sitting around, so I wrote that stayed with us. her and asked if she’d be OK if I started a page The whole concept of a punk house, at least for Chicago. She got really excited and gave it to me, is that you could live with your friends her blessing. for cheap while you learn how to navigate the It’s still early, but I’m starting to get photo world. It creates a tight-knit community that submissions from other people, and that’s might be lacking elsewhere. That’s what’s really my goal. It’s not about reliving the old refl ected on Punk House Chicago. The focus is days; it’s about celebrating how amazing Chi- not as much on the bands as it is on communal cago is, and how close-knit and intertwined life and the weird things you get up to when the DIY scene is from the north side to the you’re making minimum wage and you’re south side. That’s a really important thing, bored. especially when we’re all feeling so isolated. I’m still friends with the friends I made Had the pandemic not happened, I proba- when I was 15. We’re all still playing music, bly wouldn’t have launched this. It’s a way to and it’s just amazing. I also learned a lot from connect while we can’t be together in person, the people that came through, which helped and it’s been nothing but positive so far. Even shape my values and ethics and teach me a lot if someone hasn’t been directly involved in a of new ideas, politically and socially. I don’t punk rock house, they can see the human con- think I’d be the person I am today if I hadn’t nections—even if the people have spiky green CHICAGOANS OF NOTE lived in those two houses. hair and studded jackets. It sounds cliche to say “Punk made me a bet- It’s about the sense of community and ter person,” but it did. Our place was so small what we’re bonded by, which for most of us Annie Saunders, veterinarian and intimate that we were able to provide a was local punk music. Though it’s called Punk really safe space. We didn’t tolerate sexual ha- House Chicago, it isn’t limited to just the hous- rassment, and because kids as young as 14 and es that we lived in. I’ve got a few pictures from and founder of Punk House 15 would come out, we had to make sure they the Mutiny and the Fireside and other small were safe and not threatened by anything. venues too. To me, they’re just as important Punk also instilled me with a mad respect as photos of people dressing up in their living Chicago for animals. At 22 or 23 I was going to UIC for room on a Monday for no reason. labor history (specifi cally Chicago labor histo- Most of the photos so far are from the mid- “The focus is not as much on the bands as it is on communal life and the weird ry from the 1880s). The school made a really 90s through the early 00s, but that’s just one things you get up to when you’re making minimum wage and you’re bored.” horrible administrative error that caused me tiny slice of a much larger deep dish pizza. to have to drop out for a semester. I quickly There were plenty of punk houses in the early As told to J L found a job at a doggy day care, and I fell in 80s. And there are plenty now. There’s no love with it. Then a job opened at Higgins An- time limit on these photos—punk is punk. If imal Clinic, where they trained me on the spot people feel inclined to share, I’m honored to be Annie Saunders, 46, grew up in the Chicago Pistols, but when I was 15 I went to a local DIY to be a vet assistant. I took off running and involved. If anybody wants their photo down, area, and as a teenager she moved into a punk show and my whole world exploded. I spent never really looked back. I now live in Wiscon- there’s no questions asked or explanation house and began putting on shows. These days, a lot of time as a teenager at McGregor’s, the sin, where I work as a shelter veterinarian at a necessary. she works as a veterinarian in Wisconsin and Fireside Bowl, and tons of house shows. Humane Society. I feel like it’s an extension of Even though I don’t physically live in Chica- sings and plays bass in Chicago-based punk After I graduated high school, I moved into my punk rock sensibilities to care for animals. go right now, I still feel as much a part of the and power-pop band Time Thieves. Inspired a house called the Haven House in Elmhurst, It’s also given me a lot of empathy. community as I did as a teenager. I hope that by the Instagram page @punkhouseoakland, where my friends and I started putting on I’ve played in Time Thieves for exactly three someday soon we can play live music with our Saunders launched @punkhousechicago last shows. Los Crudos played there; the Mushuga- years this month. Before Wisconsin, I spent friends again, but I don’t see the page ending month to document the city’s punk houses past nas played there. Maximum Rocknroll used to two years in Washington, but I’d save up any in the near future. Along with Punk House and present. She’s accepting photo submis- put out this yearly magazine called Book Your expendable income to come back to Chicago Chicago, there’s now Punk House Philly, Punk sions at [email protected]. Own Fuckin’ Life. If you put on shows, you every six months or so to record or play shows House Reno, and pages from all these other could send in your information, so we started for a weekend. cities. I feel like we owe it all to Elizabeth, and grew up in Bensenville, just outside of Chi- getting bands from as far away as Georgia and Before the pandemic hit, my whole social it’s been exciting to watch it grow—it’s like cago, and when I was about 14 I was intro- Canada too. structure was built around the music scene one big punk house. v I duced to punk rock. It started mostly with I moved to Chicago in ’97, and a year later and the friends I’ve made through music. Hav- well-known bands like the Misfi ts and the Sex my friends and I moved into this space over ing that taken away so suddenly was a strug- @unlistenmusic ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 37 MUSIC Recommended and notable releases and critics’ insights for the week of April 15
PICK OF THE WEEK
Andrew CS, * Chicago-born shoegaze group Fauvely roll back the Leaving distortion on Beautiful Places andrewcs.bandcamp.com/album/--3 Multidisciplinary artist Andrew CS moved to Chi- cago from Rockford, Illinois, in the mid-2010s to study interaction design at Columbia College, and then began booking intimate Sunday DIY shows— but long before either of those things happened, he’d developed an interest in field recordings by playing indie video games. “The fi rst mode of cre- ation that I got into was game development—spe- cifically indie game development,” Andrew told Darwin Grosse in a 2019 interview for the podcast Art + Music + Technology. “I fi gured just to do that, I need to fi gure out how to code.” He started cod- ing in middle school, and during his freshman year in high school he asked his parents for a Zune so he could make his own fi eld recordings. Fast-forward to 2019, and his growing catalog of ambient elec- tronic music had helped land him a deal with Leav- ing Records, an experimental label run by produc- er Matthew “Matthew david” McQueen. Andrew’s newest release for Leaving, an EP that bears the minimalist title *, mixes digital reveries with natu- ralistic atmospheres, sometimes by turns and some- times alongside each other. The phalanx of bird- calls that swirls through “Fallen Log Bridge Island” feeds directly into the overheated fanlike whirr of “Fusebox Photograph,” illuminating how these sub- tle sounds color our daily lives. On “Dead Leaves / Morgan Brown,” Andrew combines gentle, yawning synth tones with what might be a recording of dry leaves crunching or burning, in the process build- ing the kind of immersive sound world that can carry you away from mundane daily tasks. This past year I’ve had trouble making time to explore near- by forest preserves, but Andrew’s work reminds me that the solitude I’ve hoped to fi nd in the woods is always within reach. —L G
AARONEHINGER Big|Brave, Vital Southern Lord bigbravesl.bandcamp.com/album/vital Fauvely, Beautiful Places Self-released Quebec trio Big|Brave have always been great at fauvely.bandcamp.com/album/beautiful-places drawing things out. Most of their songs pass the ten-minute mark, and they’ve made a hallmark of de ly adding heady layers of emotion to minimal, glacial drone rock. On the brand-new Vital (South- ern Lord), though, the band lean further into doom FAUVELYFRONTWOMANSOPHIEBROCHU has built a creative life working with the warm, distorted tones of shoegaze; for much of the 2010s, metal—and this dramatically less minimal sound she explored the style’s indie-pop possibilities in Chicago fi ve-piece Videotape, and she’s helped push amps to their breaking points as part of works astoundingly well for them. The elements that make Big|Brave so beautiful and special remain— the live lineup for Scott Cortez’s wall-of-sound project Astrobrite. Brochu launched Fauvely as a solo outlet in 2017, but she’s since turned it the folky fl ourishes, the incredible dynamic range, into a full-fl edged band with the addition of guitarist-keyboardist Dale Price, drummer Dave Piscotti, and bassist Phil Conklin. The musicians the lo y, gut-wrenching vocals of guitarist and front recorded their new self-released debut full-length, Beautiful Places, last summer at Jamdek, and as they recently told Chicago Crowd Surfer, woman Robin Wattie—but they coexist with a new focus on crushing volume, walls of guitar, and sludgy that fall Brochu and her husband relocated to her hometown of Savannah, Georgia, because the pandemic had crushed their plans to open a drums. With the trio’s slamming rhythm section restaurant in Chicago. The couple’s move is temporary, though, and the band plan to stay together till they return. On Beautiful Places, Fauve- relentlessly hammering the depth and majesty of ly recall the romance of classic doo-wop and the relaxed confi dence of slacker college rock—Brochu and company tamp down the saturating the songs into your skull, assisted by blistering but pristine production from Seth Manchester, Vital is shoegaze atmospherics till there’s only just enough gauzy majesty to tease out every song’s dreamy potential. On “Haunts Me,” they begin with the best Big|Brave album to date. It’s heavy, uncom- a drifting melody that sounds like it could dissolve at a moment’s notice, then transform it into a headstrong ballad, helped along by Brochu’s promising, and powerful, and it elevates an already performance—she intensifi es her tender voice to deliver steely, serrated lines, singing about lingering hardships from her past with a resolve excellent band to a new level of greatness. Though the year is still young, Vital will be a hard record to that suggests she’s on a better path now. —L G top in 2021. —L C 38 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll MUSIC
Bongzilla COURTEST THE ARTIST Black Monument Ensemble founder Damon Locks KRISTIE KAHNS
Bongzilla, Weedsconsin kicked in way harder than you expected—though that seems driven by the anger arising from the packs an even greater wallop than its predecessor. Heavy Psych Sounds I hesitate to imagine how big a dose you’d need to economic and social frustrations of Latin American Now was recorded in two sessions at Experimental heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ knock down Bongzilla! —M K revolutionaries. “III. Pachacuti / The World Upside Sound Studio as summer 2020 turned to fall, and bongzilla-weedsconsin Down” builds on a Nahuatl account of the last days the samples used throughout the record suggest of the Aztec empire, starting with an ominous mil- similar dualities—reunited but isolated, healing but It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 years since Madison Gustavo Cortiñas, Desafío Candente itary march interspersed with notes that evoke an hurting. They include an interview with a wrongly stoner giants Bongzilla dropped a studio album— Woolgathering orchestra tuning up in preparation for a perfor- convicted Black man, a sound bite of an exasperat- surely at least a few people rocking out to their gustavocortinasmusic.com/discography/desafi o- mance. The horns then layer into a chaotic, mourn- ed community organizer, and an audio snippet from brand-new Weedsconsin LP were in diapers back candente ful finale, heralding bloodshed and the destruc- the 1969 made-for-TV movie J.T., a bittersweet tale then. The band, formed as a four-piece in 1995, had tion of ancient regional cultures and civilizations of how a Harlem boy’s decisions are circumscribed a lengthy run as one of the midwest’s finest pur- The third release by Gustavo Cortiñas, Desa o Can- by European colonizers and their armies. Despite by poverty. The blooming theme of the harp- dusted veyors of slow, sludgy metal before going on hia- dente (“Incandescent Defiance”), is an epic set of Desa o Candente’s despairing explorations of the title track flows effortlessly into a soulful “duet” tus in 2009. They reemerged as a trio in 2015 and jazz and spoken word inspired by Las Venas Abi- tragedies throughout nuestra historia, the album between the Black Monument Ensemble’s vocal- have put out a few compilations and a self-titled ertas de Latinoamérica (“The Open Veins of Latin le me with a sense of triumph—it ultimately feels ists and the keening choir of cicadas that surround- box set of their previous albums—but Weedsconsin America”), an iconic series of historical essays by like a celebration of the many cultures and peoples ed ESS’s back patio during the group’s outdoor is their first new recording since then. The album Uruguayan author and poet Eduardo Galeano. who came together, survived against all odds, and recording session; the insects’ song stamps the is dedicated to sound engineer John Hopkins, who The Chicago-based drummer and composer invit- continue to create beauty today. The closing piece, track with a seasonal watermark, but its spirit tran- worked with Sleep, the Melvins, High on Fire, Neu- ed more than 30 musicians and speakers from 11 “XIV. Un Mundo en que Quepan Muchos Mundos” scends temporality. (“That was a forever momen- rosis, Boris, and many other heavy bands; he passed countries to appear on the recording, in addition (“A World in Which Many Worlds Fit”), is a lush tary space,” clarinetist Angel Bat Dawid declares at away in November 2020, a month after recording to his usual sextet: double bassist Kitt Lyles, pia- soundscape that creates the impression of stepping the end of the recording.) Later on, the psychedel- and mixing Weedsconsin. I imagine its title may be nist Joaquín García, reedist Artie Black, trumpeter into a primeval jungle. Rife with elements of jazz and ic, grooving “Keep Your Mind Free” exhorts audi- a response to the fact that the Badger State has yet Drew Hansen, trombonist Euan Edmonds, and gui- sounds from nature (including what seem to be frog ences to do just that, despite physical and system- to join neighboring Illinois and Michigan in allow- tarist Matt Gold. The 14 tracks on Desa o Canden- croaks), it summons visions of new beginnings and ic constraints. Exuberant, clarinet-streaked album ing residents to purchase and enjoy the sweet leaf te address milestones in the sprawling unfolding of possibilities ahead. —C M J closer “The Body Is Electric” urges us to “Listen legally, but no matter the inspiration, Weedsconsin is forces that have shaped Latin America—colonialism, close to the stories told / Behind us is a crowd- a satisfying follow-up to 2005’s Amerijuanican. Lead slavery, imperialism, neoliberalism, and revolution. ed street.” As the talk-show sample leading into single “Sundae Driver” is raw and gnarly, and “Free The tracks are presented as chapters; each opens Damon Locks & Black Monument that track muses, “If you know ‘now’ fully, it’s past, the Weed” introduces the longer, spacier themes with an incisive spoken-word segment in Spanish, Ensemble, Now present, and future.” On Now the past, present, that course through the rest of the tracks. The aptly Tzotzil, or Nahuatl (subtitled in English in the accom- International Anthem and future all wail in concord, and the louder they named “Space Rock” (what, no weed pun?) settles panying videos), then segues into cinematic, mus- intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/now roar, the more people will listen —H E into its ten-minute-plus length with lovely cyclical cular music that invites refl ection. The ensemble’s blues-tinged guitar licks chasing each other about, rhythms provide rich accompaniment for the spo- Flipping through television channels. Flicking then returns to Bongzilla’s signature heaviness. The ken word, and on most tracks the horns add their through radio stations. They’re quotidian actions— D2x, The Color Blue 15-minute medley “Earth Bong / Smoked / Mags voices to the instrumental narratives. “VII. Combus- until they’re not. When you’ve lived through a year Self-released Bags” opens with a coy, playful intro before reveal- tible Humano” (“Human Fuel”) begins with words like 2020, every frequency delivers the same night- d2xmusic1.bandcamp.com/album/the-color-blue ing its sludgy intentions with killer, snaking riff s that about the first enslaved persons from Africa to mare from a diff erent angle. On Now (International ease you in for the long haul. Bongzilla have always arrive in Brazil, and then ambling, horn-laced Brazil- Anthem), Chicago sound collagist Damon Locks and Chicago rapper D2x has poured all 23 years of his played to their strengths and celebrated metal’s ian rhythms build dramatically to a violent, explosive his Black Monument Ensemble confidently grasp life so far into his debut album, The Color Blue. roots in electric blues, and on Weedsconsin that’s fi nale. “X. Los Caudillos Campesinos” (“The Peasant the tuning dial of history. Like 2019’s Where Future Across its 13 tracks, he delivers lines about his child- most apparent on “Gummies.” Its crisp guitar play- Leaders”) riff s on Galeano’s text and the words of Unfolds, the new album blends Locks’s archival sam- hood in the south suburbs, his time playing bas- ing and sampled ghostly laughter perfectly echo Chiapas insurgent leader Subcomandante Marcos, ples with the talents of a generous and bountiful ketball as a student at Western Illinois University, the experience of realizing that your edible just with horns issuing laments within a riveting track collective of musicians and singers—and it somehow his struggles with depression, his faith in God, his ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 39 Find more music reviews at MUSIC chicagoreader.com/soundboard.
Christopher Horace, aka F.A.B.L.E. CECELIACARLSON Vivian McCall, aka Pansy EMMACOLLINS
continued from 39 highlight “Adult Swim,” a bouncy hip-house cut with a league with some of the great local MCs who’ve with disco and house beats, and bass clarinetist recent marriage—and his desire to make a classic a shimmering hook from executive producer Ro helped enrich hip-hop on an international level, and Jason Stein and harmonium player Lisa Alvarado album that sums it all up. D2x began releasing music Marsalis, D2x compares pursuing his goals to swim- with any luck he’ll soon be recognized as one of Chi- braid spiraling melodies and fl ickering textures into in 2017, and since then he’s stood out with a cohe- ming laps, in the process referencing his childhood cago’s strongest new voices. —L G those grooves. While NIS are quite capable of evok- sive combination of soulful beats and focused vers- fondness for Odd Future’s Adult Swim series, Loi- ing rapture on their own, the intricate and astound- es. Rapping about making an iconic rap record, as ter Squad. Now that The Color Blue is out, D2x has ingly lengthy lines that Parker threads through their he does on 2019’s “Go” (“My tape gon’ rock, gonna launched a social media campaign to get the song Natural Information Society with playing put the music over the top. —B M sell out in stores,” he boasts), may seem absurd, but played on the Cartoon Network. Given that he’s Evan Parker, Descension (Out of Our he’s taking part in a long-standing hip-hop tradi- already proved his ambition to be more than fanta- Constrictions) tion. The likes of the Notorious B.I.G. (“Juicy”), Rich sy, I wouldn’t be surprised if that coveted placement Eremite Pansy, Pansy Gang (“Lifestyle”), and Lil Tecca (“Ransom”) have all becomes another part of his story. —J R eremiterecords.bandcamp.com/album/ Earth Libraries attempted to conjure reality from speech—as if rap- descension-out-of-our-constrictions earthlibraries.bandcamp.com/album/pansy ping about success could bring it their way. On The Color Blue, D2x presents a charming F.A.B.L.E., Duckweed (A Hermit’s While it’s impossible to pinpoint a single peak in Chicago multi-instrumentalist and recording engi- everyman persona, taking more than a few cues Odyssey) John Coltrane’s vast discography, Ascension is one neer Vivian McCall helped turn Andrew Smith’s from Kanye West’s 2004 debut, The College Drop- Storybook of his most intense expressions of transcenden- bedroom project, Jungle Green, into a bona fi de six- out. D2x maintains a similar focus on major-key sam- storybookfable.bandcamp.com/album/duckweed- tal intent. Local musician Joshua Abrams knows piece band when she joined in 2017. Since they all ples and thumping drums, and when he raps about a-hermits-odyssey his Coltrane, so it’s no accident that he’s given the began playing together, she’s engineered sessions daydreaming on the clock on “Day Job,” he recalls name Descension to this summit between his group for projects by the band’s other members, and she’s Kanye’s verses about the frustrations of working Last year Englewood rapper, multi-instrumentalist, Natural Information Society and English saxophon- also stepped out on her own with her self-titled retail on “Spaceship.” The Color Blue largely side- and studio engineer Christopher Horace, aka ist (and fellow Coltrane aficionado) Evan Parker, solo debut as Pansy. The nine-track album came out steps the trappings of contemporary rap hits (Auto- F.A.B.L.E., grew frustrated with his lack of prog- recorded in 2019 at London’s Cafe Oto. The title early this month via Earth Libraries, a label in Bir- Tuned vocals, triplet flows, morose attitudes) in ress on an ambitious full-length and released the of the 75-minute piece suggests downward move- mingham, Alabama, whose catalog includes punk, favor of densely packed rhymes, live instrumenta- EP (IX) The Hermit as a stopgap, throwing it togeth- ment, but the recording proves just as effective experimental, and lo-fi music. McCall harnesses tion, and frequent references to D2x’s Christianity. er in an effort to break his creative blocks. The as Coltrane’s music at inducing an ecstatic state— the contemplative power of intimate home record- But he includes modern sounds too—the electric EP’s seven irrepressibly joyful songs have become even though it incorporates infl uences that never ings and the emotional punch of eff ervescent power piano and drum patterns on “It Was Written” recall some of my most cherished music over the past 12 showed up in the master’s work. Abrams is a multi- pop to document her journey as a trans woman. Pivot Gang—so that he never sounds dated. Like months, so my expectations were high when I heard instrumentalist who has worked as a jazz and pop She began her transition a few years ago, and she fellow Chicagoan Matt Muse, D2x excels at making that Horace was finally about to drop the album bassist, a free improviser, a DJ, and a soundtrack has a gi for expressing that complex experience songs that could easily work on a festival stage, in he’d been working on when he made them. The composer, and he understands the importance in undeniable hooks, which she rolls out in a vari- an acoustic set, or in a killer playlist. On closing track new Duckweed (A Hermit’s Odyssey), released on of bringing the right tool to the job. With NIS, he ety of distinctive indie-rock subgenres. Throughout “Picasso Blue / Thoughts From a Basquiat,” D2x ref- his Storybook Records label, doesn’t disappoint. plays the guimbri, a Moroccan three-string lute Pansy she covers a lot of emotional territory: at one erences Joey Bada$$’s breakout 2012 mixtape 1999, Horace sounds as comfortable on the mike as he that’s o en used in prayer and healing ceremonies moment she longs for a lover who will see her as drawing a parallel between that release and The does juggling diff erent instrumental styles; on “The by the Gnawa (an ethnic group descended from an she sees herself (in the plainspoken, hushed acous- Color Blue. But while 1999 updated 90s New York Pond” he half-sings his verses atop an acoustic gui- enslaved population brought to Morocco from the tic number “Who Will Love Me Enough?”), and at rap tropes from Wu-Tang and Rawkus Records, tar, and on “Sum Bout God” he squeezes his words Sahel). Abrams is fully cognizant of the instrument’s the next she rages at her body mid-transition (in D2x’s album recalls the hook-heavy, personality-fi lled into crowded lines that almost overlap. On the hook spiritual role in traditional contexts, but he’s also the fuzzy, lo-fi rocker “Anybody Help Me”). McCall’s boom-bap from buzzed-about early- 2010s indie hip- for “Ashland,” he artfully drags his voice across a characterized it as “the original 808” because of its resolve and magnetism carry her easily through hop artists such as J. Cole, the Cool Kids, and Mac sun-drenched soul instrumental in a performance visceral bass tones. The hurtling rhythms that he these stylistic changes, and even in the album’s Miller. D2x is at his best when he fi lters his autobio- so impeccable that any Chicago hip-hop playlist and drummer Mikel Avery lay down on Descension most disconsolate moments she sounds like she can graphical tales through specifi c themes. On album is incomplete without it. Duckweed puts Horace in sound like a convergence of Gnawa ritual rhythms overcome anything. —L G v 40 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME
b ALL AGES F EARLY WARNINGS
WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK Greer 5/8, 7:30 PM, Lincoln Hall, canceled Never miss Guess Who 1/30/2022, a show again. 7:30 PM, Genesee Theatre, Waukegan, rescheduled b Sign up for the James Taylor & His All Star newsletter at Band, Jackson Browne 7/29, chicagoreader. GOSSIP 7:30 PM, United Center, rescheduled b com/early Kaytranada, Stwo 5/8, 9 PM, WOLF Aragon Ballroom, canceled Kindo, Milquetoast & Co. 4/27, Chicago 11/7, 7:30 PM, Rialto A furry ear to the ground of 8 PM, Schubas, canceled Square Theatre, Joliet b Live From New York featuring Chicago Cellar Boys 4/27, the local music scene Edie Carey, Andrew Kerr, 8 PM, Green Mill Teddy Goldstein, Anne Josh Chico & Quartet 4/24, Heaton 5/5, 7:30 PM, SPACE, 8:30 PM, GMan Tavern Evanston, postponed b Clannad 9/20, 8 PM, Irish WE CAN’T KNOW how many decades Matchbox Twenty, Wallfl owers American Heritage Center, it will take for humanity to heal from the 8/27, 7:30 PM, Hollywood 17+ physical and psychological damage of Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Micah Collier’s Alec Trio 4/22, the COVID-19 pandemic, but musicians Park, opener added b 6 and 8:15 PM; 4/29, 6 and Rage Against the Machine, 8:15 PM, Andy’s Jazz Club are already honoring in song the dignity Japanese Breakfast PETER ASH LEE Run the Jewels 7/11/2022- Shawn Colvin, Daphne Willis of the sick, suff ering, and dead—and the 7/12/2022, 8 PM, United 5/13/2022-5/14/2022, 8 PM, bravery of their caregivers. The folks at Center, rescheduled b SPACE, Evanston b Bellissima Opera, an incubator run by Milk Carton Kids 4/29, 8 PM; Residents 8/27, 8 PM, Lincoln Brian Culbertson 11/17, NEW 5/13, 8 PM, livestream at UPDATED Hall, rescheduled 7:30 PM, Rialto Square The- Chicago nonprofi t Working in Concert, mandolin.com b Rookie, Bur, Duke Davenport atre, Joliet b were so moved by the plight of health- Accidentals 5/9, 7 PM, live- Typhanie Monique 4/25, 7 PM, NOTE: Contact point of 11/26, 10 PM, Empty Bottle, Sima Cunningham 5/28, care workers that they created the hour- stream at crowdcast.io b City Winery b purchase for exchange or rescheduled; openers added 8 PM, Constellation, in-person long Zoom opera On Call: COVID-19. All Them Witches 12/16, 9 PM, Mother Mother 1/23/2022, refund information. Steely Dan, Steve Winwood concert at the venue and Metro, 18+ 7 PM, Metro b 6/19/2022, 7:30 PM, Holly- concurrent livestream at Soprano Christine Steyer wrote the Bingo at the Bottle featuring Noisebringers and guests 6/27, Align, Tvvin, Levity 5/13, wood Casino Amphitheatre, youtube.com/ libretto, and pianist David Shenton com- Old Timey 4/25, 7 PM, Empty 2 PM, livestream at 8:30 PM, Schubas, canceled Tinley Park, rescheduled b constellationchicago, 18+ posed the music; the opera portrays Bottle, a night of bingo and twitch.tv/jeff ersonparkexp Eva Ayllón 10/20, 8 PM, Maurer Al Stewart with the Empty Ferris & Sylvester 9/18, Zoom calls among six medical profession- music F F b Hall, Old Town School of Folk Pockets 5/15/2022, 8 PM, 7:30 PM, Martyrs’ Toronzo Cannon 4/24, 5 and On Call: COVID-19 with Bellis- Music, rescheduled b SPACE, Evanston, 5 Seconds of Summer 6/18, als in New York City, Seoul, Rio de Janei- 8 PM, City Winery b sima Opera 4/17, 7 PM; 4/18, Barenaked Ladies, Gin Blos- rescheduled b 7 PM, Huntington Bank ro, Chicago, the Lombardy region of Italy, Cherry Bombs 4/23, 2 and 2:30 PM, stream at soms, Toad the Wet Sprocket Teskey Brothers, Joshy Soul Pavilion b and a Syrian refugee camp. The opera’s 8 PM; 4/24, 2 and 8 PM; 4/25, bellissimaopera.com b 6/27/2022, 7 PM, Chicago 10/15, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, Flora Cash 6/18, 8:30 PM, Lin- format, designed by director Carl Rat- 2 and 8 PM, livestream at Arlo Parks 10/2, 9 PM, Lincoln Theatre, rescheduled b canceled coln Hall b veeps.com b Hall, 18+ Black Pumas, Seratones 10/17, Two Feet 5/25, 9 PM, Metro, Charlie Hunter & Lucy Wood- ner, kept the cast safe—they all recorded Consider the Source 4/26, Andrea Pensado, Ryan T. 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 10/18- canceled ward 6/11, 7 PM, SPACE, at home. Tickets for the premiere (Satur- 7 PM, livestream at Dunn 5/23, 2 PM, livestream 10/19, 9 PM, House of Blues, Evanston b day, April 17, at 7 PM and Sunday, April 18, twitch.tv/therelixchannel F at twitch.tv/jeff ersonparkexp rescheduled, 17+ International Contemporary at 2:30 PM) are available via Bellissima’s CSO Sessions episode 18: F b Elijah Bossenbroek 7/9, UPCOMING Ensemble with Fay Victor, Messiaen’s Quartet for the Portland State University 7:30 PM, PianoForte Studios, Darius Jones, and Skerpla website; for an extra $10, which includes End of Time 4/22-5/21, stream Laptop Ensemble 5/30, rescheduled b Courtney Marie Andrews 9/29, Ensemble 4/21, 4 PM, live- a donation to the Greater Chicago Food at cso.tv b 2 PM, livestream at Bully 8/27, 10 PM; 8/28-8/29, 7 PM, Szold Hall, Old Town stream at roulette.org b Depository, ticketholders can attend a Dawes, Erin Rae 12/4, 7:30 PM, twitch.tv/jeff ersonparkexp 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, dates School of Folk Music b Local Support featuring Kara virtual postshow meet and greet. the Vic, 18+ F b added Apocalyptica, Lacuna Coil 9/5, Jackson, Kamaria Nayo 4/29, Delta Bombers, Royal Son Rookie, Tobacco City, Brbra Rose Cousins 6/3, 7:30 PM, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ 8 PM, livestream at New record collectors couldn’t ask for of a Guns 5/2, 5 and 9 PM, Bush 11/27, 9:15 PM, Empty SPACE, Evanston, canceled Joseph Arthur 4/20, 7 PM, facebook.com/ a better guide than local DJ and coun- Bananna’s Comedy Shack at Bottle Dance Gavin Dance, Animals livestream at citywinery. goldendaggerchi F b try musician Lawrence Peters , who leads Reggies’ Kent Rose & the Remedies as Leaders, Veil of Maya, com b Julian’s House Party at the the Lawrence Peters Outfi t, plays in the Robben Ford 4/24, 6:30 PM, 5/5, 7 PM, Montrose Saloon Eidola, Wolf & Bear 9/21, Nicole Atkins 8/13, 8:30 PM, Drive-In: The Divas Edition livestream at F 5:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom, Lincoln Hall, 18+ featuring Lisa Lisa, Sweet Golden Horse Ranch Band, and hosts citywinery.com b Salute the Songbirds hosted lineup updated b Backstreet Boys 7/31, 7:30 PM, Sensation, Shannon, Dajae, two shows on Lumpen Radio. On Sun- Godspeed You! Black Emperor by Maggie Rose and fea- Disturbed 8/8, 7 PM, Holly- Hollywood Casino Amphithe- and more 5/1, 5 PM, Seat- day, April 18, at 2 PM, Peters hosts a virtu- 3/19/2022-3/20/2022, turing Nicole Atkins, Nicki wood Casino Amphitheatre, atre, Tinley Park b Geek Stadium, Bridgeview b al Old Town School of Folk Music work- 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Bluhm, Elizabeth Cook, Tinley Park, canceled Julien Baker, Thao, Katie Tom Kastle 4/29, 8 PM, Impulsive Hearts, Cinchel 5/2, Jillette Johnson, and Katie Doobie Brothers, Michael Malco 9/22-9/23, 7:30 PM, livestream at shop , sharing tips on hunting down cool 2 PM, livestream at Shorr 4/28, 8 PM, livestream McDonald, Dirty Dozen Brass Metro, 18+ oldtownschool.org b albums and storing and cleaning them twitch.tv/jeff ersonparkexp at mandolin.com b Band 8/29, 7:30 PM, Holly- Between the Buried & Me Alicia Keys 8/24, 8 PM, Hun- once you’ve got them. Registration is $30 F b Say Sue Me 4/22, 6 PM, wood Casino Amphitheatre, 8/20, 8:30 PM, House of tington Bank Pavilion b ($25 for Old Town members). Japanese Breakfast, Luna Li streaming as part of Busan Tinley Park, lineup updated b Blues, 17+ King Gizzard & the Lizard 9/16, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Biennale: The Chicago Chap- Eighth Blackbird presents the Black Crowes 8/7, 8 PM, Holly- Wizard, Leah Senior 10/16, On Friday, Chicago rapper Defcee Reid Karris, Mariela Arzadun ter at noonchorus.com b Chicago Artists Workshop wood Casino Amphitheatre, 7 PM, Radius Chicago, 17+ dropped a new version of the Decem- 4/25, 2 PM, livestream at So, You Want to Be a Record featuring Ayanna Woods Tinley Park b Kiss, David Lee Roth 9 /4 , ber EP Ceenick, cut with producer Nick twitch.tv/jeff ersonparkexp Collector workshop with 6/30, 7 PM, livestream at Blackberry Smoke, Allman 7:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Arcade. The expanded edition doubles F b Lawrence Peters 4/18, 2 PM, eighthblackbird.org, Betts Band, Wild Feathers, Amphitheatre, Tinley Park b Korn 4/24, 3 PM, livestream at livestream at rescheduled b Jaimoe 7/17, 6 PM, Aragon Nile 11/4, 7 PM, the Forge, the number of luxurious instrumentals kornlive.com b oldtownschool.org b Girl Talk 4/5/2022, 8 PM, Ballroom, 17+ Joliet b and tongue-twisting verses and includes Bulgarian Diaphonic Singing Streetlight Circus 4/22, 6 PM, Metro, rescheduled, 18+ Boombox with the Backbeat Nnamdï 5/15, 8 PM, livestream appearances by Rich Jones and Add-2. Workshop with Le Mystère livestream at veeps.com b Goo Goo Dolls 8/6, 7 PM, Hun- Brass 10/22, 7 PM, Chop at audiotree.tv b —J R NLG des Voix Bulgares 4/17, 11 AM, Stuck 5/11, 4 PM, livestream at tington Bank Pavilion, lineup Shop, 18+ Off Broadway, Handcuff s livestream at audiotree.tv F b updated b Andy Brown Trio 4/25, 6 and 10/30, 8 PM, Reggies’ Rock oldtownschool.org b Dan Tyminski 9/25, 8 PM, David Gray 7/18/2022, 8 PM, 8:15 PM, Andy’s Jazz Club Club, 17+ Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or Meagan McNeal 4/22-4/23, Maurer Hall, Old Town School Huntington Bank Pavilion, Caifanes 5/7-5/8, 7 PM, Seat- Transviolet 10/2, 10 PM, e-mail [email protected]. 5 and 8 PM, City Winery b of Folk Music b rescheduled b Geek Stadium, Bridgeview, 17+ Schubas, 18+ v ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 41 the cannabis platform CHICAGO READER a Reader resource for the canna curious INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE PROFILE: MADISON STREET BOOKS WRITTEN BY TARYN ALLEN
CBD / cannabis recipes, psychedelic d awings to color, word puzzles to stimulate your b ain, growing tips, and more!
chicagoreader.com/420book
COURTESY MARY MOLLMAN Your partners in health and wellness. Find out today if medical adison Street Books opened its doors on March 14, 2020. Those doors closed on March 16, cannabis or infusion therapy is 2020. right for you. Telemed available! M Serving medical cannabis patients since 2015. 312-772-2313 It was a habit of Mary Mollman’s to casually scout storefronts, in the hopes that she’d find the www.neuromedici.com perfect location to fulfill her longtime dream of owning a bookstore. A er jumping at the chance to start her business in the West Loop, COVID-19 put her plans to a screeching halt. “When the store went dark on March 16,” Mollman remembers, “I had no idea how we would survive without a customer base. Word of mouth and some very thoughtful, well-placed articles saved us. Slowly, the orders started to trickle in. People started telling their friends and neighbors. Our upstairs neighbors told their family. We had a guardian angel who sent a monthly check. Soon we had orders coming in.” Madison Street Books has opened and closed throughout the past year based on health and safety mandates, but the storefront is currently open. Up to six customers may browse at a time, and both single-use gloves (provided) and masks are required. When the world reopens and business feels stable, Madison Street Books hopes to really anchor the West Loop community. Their store’s information and events billboard remains fairly empty, but they are already active members of Madison Row and the West Central Association, the West Loop Chamber of Commerce. Madison Street Books works with neighborhood schools on fundraisers, and they host Dawn-Marie Rocks, a sing-along with Miss Dawn-Marie Hamilton that’s broadcast on Facebook Live and available in-store for up to four families on a first-come, first- serve basis. More events for both children and adults are in the works. On a larger scale, Mollman comments, “Chicago has always been a city that does it our own way. We dig deep from within our own neighborhoods to provide ourselves with what we need. We have one of the best literary communities in the country. From the writers who put the words on the page, to the printers and publishers who turn them into books, to people who read those books, we are a city that celebrates the written word. It is only natural that we esteem an inde- pendent, neighborhood book shop where one can lose themselves in the shelves and find an old favorite or a new release.” She continues, “It is in an independent bookstore that one can get a recommendation from a bookseller, who has actually read that book, and can converse on it. It is in an independent book- store that a recommendation will lead one to a sleeper story that will become the next new ‘must read.’ It is in an independent bookstore where one’s child can turn the pages of a picture book or listen to a lively story hour, while they engage in a discussion on the merits of their favorite author. CANNABIS Who would want to live in a city or a world without that?” Mollman is incredibly proud of her staff and the fact that Madison Street Books is still in business. CONVERSATIONS However, despite slow reopenings, year two will be more difficult. A few weeks ago, the team launched a GoFundMe, and while they’re making progress, the goal has yet to be reached. Con- We’re continuing the conversation! Watch for the next tribute at www.gofundme.com/f/madison-street-books-year-2. Reader Cannabis Conversations on May 27, 2021 Space is limited. Reserve your spot now. For more information, contact This yearlong partnership with [email protected] independent bookstores is supported
To advertise, email [email protected] To by the Poetry Foundation.
Poetry Foundation | 61 West Superior Street | poetryfoundation.org
42 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll The Chicago Reader Author Talk The Chicago Reader Author Talk BOOK CLUB April 22, 2021 BOOK CLUB May 26, 2021
Rebecca Makkai Natalie Moore Author Author Rebecca Makkai’s latest novel, The Great Believers, was a fi nalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; it was the winner of the ALA Carnegie Medal, the Stonewall Book Award, the LA Times Book Prize, the Clark Fiction Prize, the Midwest Independent Natalie Moore reports on segregation and inequality, covering race, housing, economic Booksellers Award, and the Chicago Review of Books Award; and it was one of the New development, food injustice, and violence. She is the author of The South Side: A Portrait of York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2018. Her other books are the novels The Borrower and The Chicago and American Segregation, which won a 2016 Chicago Review of Books award for Hundred-Year House, and the collection Music for Wartime—four stories which appeared in nonfi ction and was named a Buzzfeed best nonfi ction book of 2016. Moore is also co-author of The Best American Short Stories. Rebecca is on the MFA faculties of Sierra Nevada College The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall and Resurgence of an American Gang and and Northwestern University. She is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago. Visit her at Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation. Using RebeccaMakkai.com or on twitter @rebeccamakkai. her degrees from Northwestern University and Howard University, Moore has worked for the Detroit News, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Associated Press in Jerusalem, Columbia College, and Northwestern’s Medill School. She also spent time reporting in Libya as a fellow at Columbia Tracy Baim - Moderator College. Moore reports at WBEZ and writes a monthly column for the Chicago Sun-Times, but her work has also been published in Essence, Ebony, the Chicago Reporter, Bitch, In These Tracy Baim is co-publisher of the Chicago Reader newspaper. She is co-founder and former Times, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Guardian. Just publisher of Windy City Times. Baim received the 2013 Chicago Headline Club Lifetime some of her awards include the Chicago Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award in 2017; the Achievement Award. In 2014, she was inducted into the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Studs Terkel Community Media Award in 2010; a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism; Association Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Association for Women Journalists– the 2017 Voice of Progressive Journalism Award; and other honors from the Radio Television Chicago Chapter Hall of Fame in 2018. She is also in the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. Robert Digital News Association (Edward R. Murrow), Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, Feder named her to his Top 20 Women in Chicago Journalism list. She has won numerous National Association of Black Journalists, Illinois Associated Press, and Chicago Headline Club. LGBTQ+ community and journalism honors, including the Community Media Workshop’s She and her husband Rodney currently live in Hyde Park with their four daughters. Studs Terkel Award in 2005. Baim has written and/or edited 12 books. Her most recent books are Kuda: Gay & Proud and Barbara Gittings: Gay Pioneer. Her other books include Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America; Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage; and Out and Proud in Chicago. Baim was executive producer of the lesbian fi lm Hannah Free, starring Sharon Gless, and Scrooge & Marley. She directed Maya Dukmasova - Moderator and produced e. nina jay’s Body of Rooms fi lm. She is creator of That’s So Gay!, an LGBTQ+ trivia game. Baim is the founder of the Pride Action Tank and the Illinois LGBT Chamber of Maya Dukmasova is a senior writer at the Reader, where she’s been on staff since 2016. Commerce. She was also co-vice chair of Gay Games VII in Chicago, and in 2013 was founder Her work is focused on housing, the courts, policing, local government, and social justice of the March on Springfi eld for Marriage Equality. movements. She’s won several local and national journalism awards for feature writing and investigative reporting and been the recipient of fellowships and grants to support long-term She received the American Institute of Architects–Chicago Presidential Citation Award in projects. Her writing and translations have also appeared in The Appeal, Places, Harper’s, 2016 for her work on tiny homes for the homeless. Additional awards include those from the Broadly, Truthout, The Progressive, In These Times, Jacobin, and Slate. A Home in Chicago: Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, the LGBT Chamber of Commerce of Illinois, and Unity Rent, ownership, and neighborhood struggle since the collapse of public housing, a collection Parenting. of her reporting on city housing issues, was published by the Reader in December 2020.
Presented by: Presented by:
ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 43 OPINION
SAVAGE LOVE My depressed ex is now dating a man I’m so angry. Was he just closeted and wasting my time? By DS
: I’m a female in my late feel better. I’d be very appre- it turns out your ex is gay, 20s. I broke up with a toxic ciative of any guidance you well, that means he was lying ex about a year ago and I’ve may have. Not sure what to to you and using you and been walking around (my think. —B E wasting your time. It’s possi- house!) thinking I was over AR D ble he’s bisexual, however, in it. I never missed him and which case he wasn’t being rarely thought about him. A A: I don’t want to add to your fully honest with you but may brief backstory: In the fi nal rage, BEARD, but that night not have been using you or months of us living together, he made you go to a friend’s wasting your time. But gay or we started having more house? It wasn’t “alone time” bi, your ex treated you very discussions about children he was a er. Dude was poorly and the news that he’s and making a lifelong hosting. dating a man now is making commitment. He told me Before I tell you what to you reassess your relation- he wanted both, yet at this do about you rage, BEARD, ship and his depression, to exact time his moderate there’s something I wanna say nothing of that night he depression became more clear up: I don’t think having threw you out of your own severe and he refused to get the opposite of everything apartment because he need- help. I tolerated his cruel your ex-boyfriend had—I ed “alone time.” To look back behavior because I knew don’t think having conserva- on a relationship and think, “I how badly he was hurting. tive friends instead of pro- did what I could and it didn’t This ranged from icing me gressive friends, straight work out but at least I tried,” out to berating me and sisters instead of bi or heter- is different than looking back demanding I leave the home oflexible sisters, shitty par- and knowing, “Nothing I did that we shared—my house— ents instead of accepting would have made any differ- citing his need for “alone” parents—are appropriate ence and I was cruelly used.” time. One time he demanded reasons for a grown-ass man I think there are two I get up and leave in the in his 30s to stay closeted. things you need to do now: middle of the night and go When people are young and resolve to never make excus- to a friend’s house. It’s worth dependent on their parents, es for someone who treats noting the sex was mediocre sure, having shitty parents you with cruelty again. We at best, which I chalked it up and no support from friends all have our moments, of to him being a decade older. or siblings is good reason to course, but someone who Real Men. My self-esteem suff ered. I stay closeted in high school can’t treat their partners with fi nally le . and maybe until after col- some modicum of respect Real Community. Fast forward to now. I find lege. But it’s no excuse for and compassion even when Real Community. out he’s been dating a man. remaining closeted into your they’re struggling isn’t in I can barely cope with the 30s—and it’s certainly no good enough working order VISIT WWW.SQUIRT.ORG AND anger I feel about this. I feel excuse for using someone to be in a relationship in the like a casualty of his shame. the way your ex appears to first place. And I think you CHECK OUT OUR NEW FEATURES: We have progressive friends! have used you, i.e. as a beard, should write him a letter and His sister has dated women! BEARD. (Urban Dictionary: really unload on him. Tell him His parents are accepting! “The girlfriend or boyfriend you’re angry, tell him why. Video Chat None of the reasons you of a closeted homosexu- You may or may not get a list as appropriate ones for al, used to conceal their response—you may or may Video staying closeted apply to homosexuality.”) not want one—but you’ll feel him, Dan. His inability to Another thing I wanna better after writing the let- Push Notifications accept himself caused me clear up: there are lots of ter. And who knows? If he the most severe emotional guys out there in their 30s responds with a heartfelt Search Filters trauma of my life and I just and 40s and 50s and beyond apology, BEARD, you may feel enraged. I logically know who are good at sex and lots feel even better. v … and more! this is not about me. It’s of guys in their 20s who are about him. So why does this mediocre at best. Send letters to mail@ retroactively bother me so Alright, BEARD, you have savagelove.net. Download much? Part of me wants to every right to be angry. You the Savage Lovecast at say something to him but I’m put a lot of time and effort savagelovecast.com. not sure that would make me into this relationship and if @fakedansavage 44 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll Building Performance The Department of Staff Auditor / Accoun- ( B o l i n g b r o o k , I L ) DePaul University seeks modules, , , SD; JOBS Analyst sought by WSP Urology, at the Univ of tant (7 positions) Chi- BCFoods, Inc. seeks Technical Operations yrs exp defin syst strat, USA Buildings Inc. in IL at Chicago (UIC), lo- cago, IL. Do full range Quality Control Assis- Project Managers for devlop syst reqs, design Northwestern Memo- Chicago, IL. Core du- cated in a large metro- of tax, audit & acct’g. en- tant Manager w/ Bach Chicago, IL location protot, test, train, defi n rial Healthcare seeks ties include: Undertake politan area, is seeking gagements (Fed./State/ or for deg equiv in food to oversee tech infra- sup proced & implem IS Team Leader for design analysis & opti- a full-time Assistant Pvt.); Perform audits in sci, food safety, microbio, structure projects for pract bus solut under Chicago, IL to design mi ation work utili ing Professor of Clinical accordance w/ prof’l. chem or rltd fld yrs Depts. Bachelor’s in mult deadlines; & develop IS solutions, administer, energy, daylight, & CFD Urology/Physician Sur- stds. & regulatory req’s.; exp in ob off ered or ual Comp Sci/Info Systems/ & deliv train for internal automate administrative m o d e l i n g s o f t w a re ; geon with the following Understand acct’g. & contr in food or bev ind related field yrs exp end users ensure eff ect tasks, & troubleshoot prepare complex energy responsibilities: Under auditing issues. Travel incl exp in root cause req’d. Skills req’d: Must use of SAP APO & ECC systems. Bachelor’s in analysis calculations & direction and supervision, req’d. 50-75% of the time anal & correct action have exp in higher edu syst. Occas domes trvl Comp Sci/Electronics complete corresponding assist department to to unanticipated client writ; perform risk anal in environment w/ Windows re d. pply to H Eng+5yrs exp req’d. reports in support of the teach and train medical sites w/in continental US, food safety envir; facil Client/Server systems, Norman Drive South, Req’d Skills: 5yrs w/lead established sustainability students and residents in ea. visit not lasting over 5 lead rd prty audits ASP.NET (MVC, Web Waukegan, L IS operations projects; goals; research new a& urology. Provide clinical days. Must report back to & responses to correct , ure, racle, S L, design IS solutions; existing technologies for patient care, including HQ after ea. visit, & must actions &must possess T-SQL, TFS, Ajax, JavaS- Quantitative Trading Administration & trouble- application in the built the treatment of male reside w/in commuting H A C C P c e r t i f i c a t e . cript/JQuery/AngularJS/ Analyst: Look for statis- shoot of ce , ure environment; deliver infertility, urological trau- distance of Chicago, IL. pply to H , West Knockout, CSS/Sass/ tical arbitrage opportuni- AD, & ADConnect; man- high performance design matic injury, and urologic Req. Bachelor’s in Ac- Crossroads Pkwy, Ste B, Less, SQL Server/RDMS, ties in fi n markets using aging hybrid messaging analysis & project design oncology cases in the counting, Mgmt., or Inter- olingbrook, L Entity Framework, Ob- math computations & & collaboration systems; advice of a high technical hospital and outpatient nal Audit. Email resumes ject Oriented & Service spec quantitative trad- IS strategic planning; AD standard, integrated clinics. Conduct medical to delfi a LL at mfbalita Wi-Tronix LLC- Product Oriented architecture ing models. Trading fin Federation Services. Exp across architecture science research regard- adelfi acpas.com. Owner (Validation Engi- (SOAP, RESTful), Unit securities; generating must incl: implementing: and building system; ing the mechanisms and neer) – Bolingbrook, IL Testing, Automated Build revenues, manage desk’s SSO w/MFA, conditional & other related tasks. treatment of reproductive Software Developer - Resp to codify vision for Tools, Design Patterns, trading books w/senior access policies; multi Bachelor’s degree in dysfunction, publish and in Chicago IL. Must cust-centric prod, defi ng Agile/Scrum, UX design traders. naly e large domain mgmt.; admin mechanical engineering, present research find- have Bachelor Degree in customi ed prod re . principles. Send resume data. Research methods automation; DFS; Group architecture or related ings, and perform Univer- Comp. Scien. or related. prioriti ing the backlog to: Amada Powers for capturing risk expo- Policy; domain migra- field re ’d. months sity service as assigned. Develop customi ed to ensure high-value prod Snowden, REF: MR, 1 E. sure. 1yr exp as quanti- tions; managing multiple exp as an engineering Requires an MD degree system to control inven- features are delvrd to Jackson Blvd, STE 9500 tative trading analyst or versions of Exchange or architectural intern or its foreign equivalent, tory level. Use Big Data/ cust. Customer Prod Val- hicago, llinois working w/Risk Manage- server, migration to Ex- or related req’d. Exp five years of Urology BI to predict future usage idation - nitiate coll ment and/or Quantitative change Online. On call must include: preparing residency training, and based on past data. Perf. inno w/cus input; facilte Senior Network En- Research projects. Mas- for emergency purposes architectural drawings & a valid Illinois medical data pre-processing/data elect prod inno meetgs gineer, Consolidated ter’s degree in Statistics, only. Background check reviewing envelope detail license or eligibility for an cleansing/data analysis/ w/cust advotes. Prod Trading LLC, Chicago, Finance or Mathematics. & drug test req’d. Apply using computer assisted Illinois medical license. data visuali ation. se e ngt scope IL. Configure and trou- Res: Prime Trading LLC, online: http://jobseeker. design (CAD), building Some travel may be Object-Oriented Pro- define prod reqs to val- bleshoot issues related to 111 W Jackson Blvd, Ste nm.org/ Requisition ID: information modeling, periodically required for gramming & languages idate high value, cust & multicast routing proto- , hicago L REF15494B virtual D modeling; conferences and/or pro- (Python/C++/HTML/PHP/ indtry inno needs; Back- cols like PIM SM and PIM performing parametric fessional development. Javascript/CSS/SQL). log ngt - ptimi e SD . onfi gure and trou- Engineering Technical CLASSIFIEDS Logistics Coordinator: building energy analysis, For fullest consideration, Use AI method to im- Agile team’s efftivness; bleshoot routing proto- Support: Proficient w/ Exp, route incoming & climate analysis & enve- please submit CV, cvr prove material planning Defne prioriti e prod cols like BGP, OSPF and working in D D D outgoing freight ship- lope analysis using opti- ltr, references by accuracy & reduce man- backlog. REQS: BS deg EIGRP. Architect modern Software, comp skills, ments. Take orders, ar- mi ation utili ing energy ay , to Human ual work. Use Tableau to in Elec Eng, Comp Eng network designs to fa- blueprint & tech accura- range pickup of freight for analysis software (IES-VE Resources, Dept of present on-hand inven- or similar reltd field w/5 cilitate high throughput cy. Read prints, specs, delivery. Prep & examine & EQUEST), parametric rology, S Wood St, tory & material in transit, yrs prog exp. In lieu of across our environments. requirements: toleranc- bills of lading to deter- analysis within rhino hicago L or via & forecast for top mgmt. BS+5 yrs exp will accept Implement advanced es, manufacturability, JOBS mine shipping charges & modeling (Grasshopper)& email to a urologyhr@ easy to understand. Use S in same fi elds yrs network monitoring sys- machinability, material, tariff s. Track progress of envelope software (WUFI uic.edu. UIC is an Equal D . s Web L for real prog exp. Skills: Must tem for a critical trading welding, fi nish, revisions. ADMINISTRATIVE shipments. Notify cus- & THERM); & document- Opportunity, Affirmative time inventory control. have the following skills environment. Configure Develop process plan tomers, arrange for de- ing & managing green Action employer. Minori- Send resume to: RDI Inc, gained thro exp or crse- and maintain site to in M1 acc to customer SALES & livery. Determine method building certification w/ ties, women, veterans, & 4101 W Ann Lurie Pl, Chi- wrk certifi n for validation site VPNs. Re-architect re uirements. tili ation of shipment, prep bills of focus on energy & IEQ individuals w/ disabilities cago, L . eng duties: - Object portions of the network. of Enterprise Resource MARKETING lading, invoices, shipping aspects. Send resume are encouraged to apply. Oriented programming Test and deploy/upgrade Planning Software as docs. Estimate freight to: Matthew Beatus, One UIC may conduct back- D e P a u l U n i v e r s i t y C++; -Agile sft dev frame- n e t w o r k h a r d w a r e . M1. Quotes, time frame, FOOD & DRINK rates, record shipment ground checks on all job seeks Intermediate ERP work scrum; -Proj Mngt Troubleshoot LAN/WAN/ working w/purchasing. enn l ., th l., ew Verify customer require- SPAS & SALONS costs & weights. Must York, NY 10119; or email candidates upon accep- Business Analyst/De- Tools (specif Trello & Git); VPN connectivity issues. speak Polish. Bachelor in tance of a contingent velopers for Chicago, -Prod Mngt, Prod Owner Configure and deploy ments w/Red Layer matthew.beatus@wsp. Standards. Bachelor of BIKE JOBS Logistics. months exp com offer letter. Background IL location to analy e Training or Sft Prod Mngt network equipment and as logistics coord or any checks will be performed enterprise resource plan- Cert; - SAFe Prod Owner maintain connectivity to Science in Mechanical ngineering. months of GENERAL other profession related Business Manager in compliance with the ning sw apps in client/ or Prod Mangr Cert or various exchanges. Con- figure and deploy net- any Machining/Manufac- to business admin. Res: In These Times, a non- Fair Credit Reporting server & web-based similar. **Will accept West Wind Express, Inc, Act. The University of enterprise app environ- suitable combo of edu, work devices (switches, turing related exp. Res: profi t maga ine covering routers, firewalls). Must ce etal rafts o, 7050 S Archer Rd, Bed- politics and social move- Illinois System requires ment. Master’s in Comp training, & exp. ***Intl & Sci or Info Systems/Tech dom travel req 5-10%. have a Masters Degree Thomas Dr, Bensenville IL ford ark L . ments from the left, is hir- candidates selected REAL for hire to disclose any or related fi eld yrs exp Send resumes careers@ in Computer Science or ing a business manager. OR Bachelor’s in Comp wi-tronix.com, Attn: M. a related fi eld. ust have ESTATE NEW PRODUCT INTRO. years experience as documented finding of PROJECT MANAGER. sexual misconduct or Sci or Info Systems/Tech Oster-Polen, Wi-Tronix, five (5) years of experi- business or project man- sexual harassment and to or related fi eld yrs exp LL , oughton d, ence as a Network Engi- RESEARCH – CHICAGO – Evaluate ager required. $54,000 RENTALS product design and authori e in uiries to cur- req’d. Req’d skills: exp Suite , olingbrook, neer. ust also have fi ve salary + great benefits rent and former employ- in higher ed environment L, . o calls. (5) years of experience Have you had an un- FOR SALE performance, plan and package. Based in Chica- in network deployments; wanted sexual experi- implement product de- ers regarding findings analy ing, designing, go, near the Western Blue testing ERP, incl SDLC, network security designs; ence since age 18? Did velopment processes, of sexual misconduct or Manager: Elmhurst IL. NON-RESIDENTIAL Line. Deadline to apply: peoplesoft sw apps, peo- Direct, coord activities of and installing, confi guring you tell someone in your conduct testing and anal- sexual harassment. For onday, pril . L more information, visit: plesoft CRM data mining, employees for optimum and deploying firewalls. life about it who is also ROOMATES ysis. Bach. Mech. Eng./ https://inthesetimes. working w/customers to e ciency in op. lan, de- Qualified applicants willing to participate? related, mail res., cov. let. https://www.hr.uillinois. com/job-hiring-busi- edu/cms/One.aspx?- analy e re uirements, velop org policies, goals. should submit their Women ages who to Diane Korach, Esdal, ness-manager portal d page- windows server, Linux, Coord activities, market- resumes to recruiting@ have someone else in 4400 S. 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