CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY SINCE | MAY THIS WEEK CHICAGO READER | MAY | VOLUME NUMBER
IN THIS ISSUE T R the last one Our critics review releases that you - 08 Isaacs | Culture How will FILM can enjoy at home @ COVID aff ect the bottom line for 22 Video Store Remembering the 35 Early Warnings Rescheduled classroom fees? people and fi lms that made Odd concerts and other updated listings Obsession special 35 Gossip Wolf Berta Bigtoe wrote P T B 25 Movies of note Castle in the and recorded their new indiepop E C S K K H Ground is a somber immersion album in one day powerpop C L R H M E P M into the opioid epidemic Fourteen supergroup Sunshine Boys drop their TD K R explores the lifelong friendship sophomore fulllength and producer C E B W between two Brooklynites and Jeremiah Meece releases a warped A E J L S W M D L G Someone Somewhere examines quarantine record D I B J M S CITY LIFE the implications of technology in E A S N L 03 Sightseeing The maverick at connection to modern life G D A H L C S C -J the center of Chicago’s fl u C E B N B response L C M D L C M C 10 Comic An illustration about hard J F S F J H I H C M J FOOD & DRINK tocount populations and the census M K S K 04 Key Ingredient Pandemic 12 Dukmasova | Interview A N D LJ L Pantry Virtue Restaurant’s Erick conversation about racial health M M A M -K J R N J N M O Williams confronts a dusty divebar disparities and what the pandemic M S C S standby pickled eggs has made intolerable ------D D J D ARTS & CULTURE D D C W 14 Relationships Three people spill S M C J G OPINION M P C their thoughts on breaking up in 36 Savage Love Dan Savage off ers Y D isolation MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE advice to a man whose boyfriend SS P 16 Podcast A mother wonders if the 26 Galil | Feature Jabari “Naledge” says he put on a curse on him A T A S EC K K CPD did “a coverup or are they just Evans of Kidz in the Hall talks this damn incompetent?” about his doctoral dissertation CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISING incorporating hiphop into 38 Jobs -- @ C THEATER education the drill scene hacking 38 Apartments & Spaces - @ 17 Video “Shukran Bas” fl ips the the industry and more 38 Marketplace cultural appropriation lens 30 Chicagoans of Note Billy S D P F V P S A M NEWS & POLITICS 18 Streaming Alo Circus Arts and Helmkamp coowner of the Whistler C R M T P 06 Joravsky | Politics The city Actors Gymnasium bring the circus and Sleeping Village S A R unveils a new Michael Reese TIF from their homes to yours 32 Record Reviews A pandemic L M -H L S A R plan to undo the damage caused by can’t stop the fl ow of great music G M F N S C S M W R
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Particularly in communities of color The new HBO series dives even The city’s response in homeless A C R R disproportionately hurt by COVID-19, deeper into the world of the Skate shelters is improving, but still “not R R T ® access to information is critical. Kitchen collective. adequate,” Maya Dukmasova reports.
2 CHICA O READER - MAY ll Dr. John Dill Robertson LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS CITY LIFE
noticed that Welsh teetotalers in one Kansas es. Even Robertson’s critics admitted he had a town were susceptible to malaria, whereas Ger- talent for organization, which was badly need- man residents, who drank bitter, homemade ed in coordinating relief efforts. Surrounded brew, were not. After operating on dog spleens, by scientists and experienced public health Robertson concluded the “bitter principle” in experts on the commission, Robertson couldn’t bile stopped malaria and “other germs.” unilaterally chase get-well-quick schemes. Robertson was a gifted political operator. Even if he had wanted to, Robertson couldn’t Alongside Fred Lundin, a former congressman touch anything related to the war effort. Mayor who’d been a patent medicine salesman, Rob- Thompson was under close federal scrutiny ertson worked on Thompson’s mayoral cam- for his passive-aggressive statements against paign and was effective in getting out the vote. the American war effort. Robertson had to Thompson awarded Robertson the plum job have known that Chicagoans who cared deeply of the head of the Chicago Health Department. about the war or were dependent on high-pay- To the embarrassment of City Hall, Health ing jobs in essential industries at a time of Commissioner Robertson gave homeless men high inflation would not have, in all likelihood, in the city-run lodging homes the option of stood for radical stay-at-home measures. The cleaning up with either cottonseed oil or soap epidemic peaked in Chicago after a packed and water. But the Chicago Health Department parade for war bonds in the Loop. under Robertson made strides in expanding Yet the need to protect the war effort did city sanitation, food inspection, water purifica- strengthen Robertson’s hand in shutting down tion, and vaccinations. theaters, restaurants, and other “nonessential” On the other hand, Robertson quickly made gathering places whose ownership normally an enemy of Dr. Theodore Sachs, the head had significant clout in Chicago. Robertson of the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. threatened landlords who didn’t heat apart- Robertson had not only once claimed that an ments and hospitals that turned away flu pa- sightseeing anti-bathing movement might stop the spread tients. Some of Robertson’s pronouncements, of tuberculosis, he had backed a quack tuber- such as placing a piece of paper over telephone culosis cure peddled by a politically connected receivers, walking home from work instead of The maverick at the center doctor. In contrast, Sachs was president of the taking streetcars, wearing masks, and substi- National Tuberculosis Association, working for tuting handshakes and kisses with saluting, tuberculosis prevention in Chicago slums for may have seemed kooky before COVID-19, but of Chicago’s 1918 fl u response decades. have a certain air of wisdom today. Sachs believed that the new administration Robertson wasn’t shy in claiming his role Meet Dr. John Dill Robertson, the “utterly unqualifi ed” head of the city’s was undermining patient care by making hir- in seeing the city through the epidemic, but it health department ing and contract decisions based on political wasn’t enough to undo his image as a political connections. Thompson and Robertson in turn hack. He resigned as health commissioner in By J N accused Sachs of being financially extrava- 1922 but didn’t leave politics behind. Managed gant, incompetent, and dictatorial. As Sachs by Lundin, Robertson challenged Thompson resigned from the sanitarium he built, Frank for the Republican nomination for mayor in he last great public health emergency in Bathing, Robertson claimed, was a pro- Billings, one of the city’s most respected phy- 1926. Thompson held a deranged “debate” Chicago on the scale of COVID-19 was the foundly unhealthy habit that encouraged infec- sicians, called Robertson “utterly unqualified.” at the Cort Theater, in which he berated two Tinfl uenza epidemic in the autumn of 1918. tious diseases. The problem wasn’t the purity On April 2, 1916, Sachs committed suicide, caged rats named Fred and Doc. Telling the Even though 8,510 Chicagoans died of infl uen- or temperature of water, but the way washing and for reformers and the medical establish- audience that he had given Doc his first bath za and pneumonia over a period of eight weeks, caused “overheating the body,” thus leaving ment, he was a martyr to political corruption. in 20 years, Thompson asked the rat if he Mayor William Hale Thompson made no public “the internal organs without their necessary Still, Robertson refused to step down. remembered “how many people came to me pronouncements about the epidemic. The amount of nourishment.” Robertson concluded Given his checkered past, it’s a wonder more to protest against my appointment of you as city’s response to the crisis was left to Health his speech by telling the story of an Inuit boy, Chicagoans didn’t die of influenza in October health commissioner?” Commissioner John Dill Robertson, a man brought from Greenland to Boston, who died 1918. With 58 reported cases on September 24, Thompson went on to win the general distrusted by Chicago’s medical establishment. of pneumonia after taking a bath. Robertson 1918, Robertson laughed as he told the Chicago election for mayor the following year, with Dr. Robertson was a certain kind of Chicago confirmed to the Chicago Record-Herald that Daily News there was “no cause whatever for Robertson garnering under six percent as a success story. After stints as a telegraph oper- he hadn’t taken more than four or five baths alarm.” Within a week, reality set in. splinter candidate. In March 1931, Robertson ator and train dispatcher, he graduated in 1896 in the last decade. Doctors and newspapermen Because influenza was a threat to the war was knocked unconscious in the Illinois senate from Bennett Eclectic Medical School in Chica- alike portrayed Robertson as a crackpot. “Prof. effort, the Council of National Defense found- during a loud argument over licensing truck go. In December 1903, Dr. Robertson, a surgeon John Dill Robertson Points to Latest Human ed the Illinois Influenza Commission, a task drivers. Never regaining his health, he died at Cook County Hospital and a professor at the Peril, Water,” remarked the Chicago Tribune. force made up of the public health leadership, that October at Dill-Crest, his comfortable Lake American College of Medicine and Surgery, In 1911, he gave a speech to a brewers’ con- including Robertson. With its tragic history of Geneva summer home. v presented a medical paper that garnered inter- vention in Chicago in which he elaborated how epidemics, Chicago had developed a large in- national attention. beer kills the “malaria germ.” Robertson had frastructure for dealing with infectious diseas- @backwards_river ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 3 FOOD & DRINK
KEY INGREDIENT: PANDEMIC PANTRY Virtue Restaurant’s Erick Williams confronts a dusty dive-bar standby He fi nds a classic, simple solution for eggs in a pickle. By M S
ey Ingredient was a multimedia cooking snack. And James Beard Award fi nalist Erick series produced by then-Reader sta er Williams of Hyde Park’s Virtue Restaurant is KJulia Thiel and food writer/filmmaker nobody’s old man. So with the second install- Michael Gebert from 2010-2018 in which ment of Key Ingredient: Pandemic Pantry, he Chicago’s baddest chefs challenged their col- was annoyed enough that Funkenhausen’s leagues to redeem unusual, underappreciated, Mark Steuer challenged him to make some- or often abhorrent ingredients by showcasing thing delicious out of something he’s never them in beautiful plated dishes that might or eaten (though his grandfather probably had). might not have been edible. Williams thinks a high-acidity chicken At the prompting of Funkenhausen chef ovum is the wrong thing to pair with his pre- Mark Steuer, we’re rebooting the series, ferred beverages—beer or wine. He thought a pandemic-cooking-style. pickled quail egg might be a good garnish for a martini or a bloody mary, but those are his The chef: Erick Williams, Virtue Restaurant least favorite things to drink. It was particu- The challenger: Mark Steuer, larly aggravating because eggs take at least a Funkenhausen week (or more) to pickle. Steuer might have a The ingredient: pickled eggs big dusty jar in his basement bar, but Williams sure didn’t. Pickled eggs are an old man’s drinking What to do? 4 CHICA O READER - MAY ll Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants at chicagoreader.com/food. FOOD & DRINK
Pickled Egg Salad ERICK WILLIAMS How do you recapture that revenue?”
“You hard boil them just until the eggs are Pickled Egg Salad set because you want the yolk not green, but Chef Erick Williams, Virtue Restaurant yellow,” Williams says. “And then you’re gonna add heat again through the pickling 4 whole pickled eggs liquid, so they’ll cook a touch more. I was 1 cup olive oil able to achieve yellow the fi rst go around, so ¼ bunch fresh dill, chopped I was really stoked. It’s the little things in life.” ¼ cup capers, drained and chopped Williams peeled them and submerged them ¼ cup red onion, chopped in a standard pickling brine—say three parts salt and pepper, to taste vinegar to one part water, plus salt, aromatics, and herbs—and let them be. Dice the pickled eggs, and place them in a Meanwhile, he had plenty to keep him busy. large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Add Virtue discontinued its curbside pickup and the olive oil, folding it in gently with a rubber delivery business in late April and pivoted to spatula. preparing hot meals for nighttime medical Finish by adding the chopped herbs, capers, residents at the University of Chicago Med- and red onion. Taste and correct seasoning ical Center. Through a combination of the with salt and pepper. restaurant’s initial GoFundMe and a new First Serve with biscuits, smoked salmon, sliced Responder Support Fund (that you’re invited red onion, and pickles. to contribute to), along with renegotiations on the terms of his rent and (most of) his @MikeSula vendor arrangements, Williams has been able to keep 6 to 15 of his employees working, de- pending on the orders of dishes, like roasted maple-glazed chicken with charred lemon broccoli or spaghetti marinara with zucchi- ni and garlic bread, they need to get to the hospital each day. “There’s always some kind of full salad—not just lettuce in a box—and a chocolate chip cookie, or some other kind of sweet,” he says. “The mac and cheese is just warm enough so you don’t have to blow, but you don’t have to search for a microwave.” One less thing to worry about on a busy shift. “You think people in restaurants are trying to fi gure out their next move?” he says. “Imag- ine the health-care workers. We thought, ‘Why don’t we work on their morale?’” Still, with all that going on, Williams rose to the pickled egg challenge. “Pickles thrive in Find hundreds egg salad,” he says. So he cut to the chase with a classic, simple mix of diced pickled egg, olive of Reader- FROM OUR FARM oil, capers, chopped red onion, and dill, which he plated with some smoked salmon, biscuits, recommended and pickled vegetables. restaurants, TO YOUR DOOR Go suck an egg, Steuer. v exclusive video Who’s next: Brian Jupiter of Ina Mae’s VIRTUE, IT’S AT OUR CORE Tavern, whose challenge is redeeming “dry- features, and sign up ass chicken breast.” for weekly news at VIRTUECIDER.COM TO ORDER “That’s a real experience,” says Williams. “In restaurants it’s always some kid that knows chicagoreader.com/ everything who runs away from the stove for food. just a second and he overcooks the money. You ENJOY RESPONSIBLY © 2020 Virtue Cider, Fennville, MI 49408 burn enough shit and you burn all the profi t. ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 5 NEWS & POLITICS
POLITICS Bob Dylan’s ode to Chicago The new Michael Reese TIF plan tries to undo the damage of the old one. By B J
ust when I thought I could take no more de- anchored by a medical research facility run pressing news about COVID-19, or Trump, by Sheba Medical Center, an Israel-based Jor our impending economic collapse, along operation. comes the city with a little happy news to lift me There may be housing, retail, a new Metra from my funk . . . station, a community center, and a park on the It’s another multimillion-dollar TIF deal for site. The key word being may—’cause it’s down the South Loop—at the site of the former Mi- the road. As in, we’ll see. chael Reese Hospital, no less. Construction on the medical center should Oh, happy days—TIF scams to write about. As start next year, once the city and Farpoint work opposed to the end of civilization as we know it. out the details of that TIF deal. Which, I assume, It’s the little things in life, my friends. they’ll eventually get around to sharing with us. OK, for all who have forgotten . . . According to the city, we can thank Mayor Tax increment financing is a program in Rahm for this project—he was the one who got which the city slaps an undisclosed surcharge Sheba Medical Center interested in the location. on your property taxes and diverts the money Now, wait a minute, everyone! Just because into a slush fund the mayor is pretty much free Mayor Rahm had something to do with this to spend as she wants. doesn’t mean it’s automatically as bad as, oh, Earlier this month the city announced it was Lincoln Yards, that stink bomb of a boondoggle thinking of spending up to—well, they haven’t Rahm got the City Council to pass as he left gotten around to revealing precisely how much o ce. TIF money they will spend—redeveloping In fact, at the risk of sounding hopelessly the old Michael Reese site at 31st and Cottage naive, this actually could be a worthwhile TIF Grove. deal. They’re proposing to take city-owned land At the moment, they say they’ll dedicate $31 that nobody knows what to do with and put it million in TIF funds to clean up the waste left back on the tax rolls—creating jobs as we head from an old radium processing plant on the site. into an economic depression. If all goes well, Farpoint Development So, that’s good, right? will oversee a $3.5 billion mixed-use project, Well, it’s too early to tell exactly how good it 6 CHICA O READER - MAY ll When A Great Deal Matters, Shop Rob Paddor’s... NEWS & POLITICS Evanston Subaru in Skokie
Michael Reese Hospital before the boondoggles In 2004 as the old hospital was going bank- began. ERIC ALLIX ROGERS / CC BY NC ND rupt, the site was purchased by Medline, a med- 0% FOR 63 MONTHS ical supply company from the northern suburbs, % % % % is. As, again, the city has not revealed how much for about $24 million. FOR TIF money this thing will cost us. A few years later, Mayor Daley came up with A LIMITED Think of it like buying a car—you don’t know the not-very-bright idea of bidding to host the TIME if you’re getting a good deal until you see the 2016 Olympics. price tag. Needing to show the International Olympic Let me remind you that as a rule of thumb, Committee that we had a sufficient place to it pays to be skeptical about TIF deals—as we build an Olympic Village to house athletes, Daley 00 00 learned from the aforementioned Lincoln Yards paid top dollar to buy the land from Medline. deal. A few details . . . Medline wound up having some $91 million In 2017, Mayor Rahm announced—good news, fall into its lap just before the housing market FORESTER OUTBACK ASCENT IMPREZA Chicago! The city sold its old north-side fleet collapsed with the recession of 2008. And the facility—across the street from the Hideout—to city, of course, didn’t win the Olympic bid. Sterling Bay for about $105 million. As Bob Dylan put it in an old song—“I can’t 9:00AM-8:00PM 9:00AM-6:00PM Then Mayor Rahm paused to let you jump help it if I’m lucky.” By the way, the name of that Monday-Friday Saturday for joy. Man, he must really think you’re stupid, song is “Idiot Wind.” people. Mayor Daley swore up and down that the Two years later that same Mayor Rahm got purchase of Michael Reese would not cost tax- SALES BY APPOINTMENT ONLY the City Council to give Sterling Bay $1.3 billion payers a dime. to develop that abandoned fleet facility—and He said we would make the money back, even many surrounding parcels—into Lincoln Yards. if the Olympics didn’t come to town. EMAIL: [email protected] OR CALL: 847-869-5700 All in all, Mayor Rahm effectively returned He said the land was so valuable that some- We are vigilant in upholding the practices as recommended by the CDC the $105 million—and then some—to Sterling one would eventually swoop in to buy it. Bay. That’s what he told you, people. As the mov- You might say, Sterling Bay got prime, north- ers and shakers of Chicago nodded along. est uto eAlership side real estate for free. Something to think Like I said—it pays to be skeptical about what Voted “B A D ” about the next time any mayor tells us we’re too the powers that be promise when it comes to By CHICAGO Voters’ Poll 2019 broke to pay for school nurses. TIF deals. NEW 2020 SUBARU NEW 2020 SUBARU NEW 2020 SUBARU In defense of Mayor Lightfoot—she brought I don’t think we’ll ever recover the $91 million OUTBACK FORESTER CROSSTREK in a new commissioner to run the Planning we paid Medline for the Michael Reese land, no 0% 0.9% Department. His name is Maurice Cox, and he matter what gets developed there. 0% swears up and down he’ll make sure TIF dollars In the end, Medline, one remarkably lucky are more wisely, prudently, and equitably spent. company, walked away with more TIF money 36 36 36 I’m rooting for you, Mr. Cox. But beware— than many west- and south-side neighborhoods $ MONTH $ MONTH $ MONTH NEW LEASE NEW there are lots of sharks in these waters. will receive in years. And the program is intend- DESIGN * LEASE * DESIGN LEASE * In general, Mayor Lightfoot has promised to ed to eradicate blight in poor communities. 9 5 74 AUTOMATIC,18 Back-up9 Camera Eye- 1 1 AUTOMATIC, Roof Rails, Alloys All-Wheel-Drive, 17’’ Alloy Wheels, never, ever sign onto a boondoggle like Lincoln It’s like Bob Dylan wrote that song about Sight, All-Wheel-Drive EyeSight, All-Wheel-Drive Apple Carplay / Android Auto NO SECURITY DEPOSIT! NO SECURITY DEPOSIT! NO SECURITY DEPOSIT! Yards. We shall see. us. v $2,995 due at signing. LDB-01 #0292 $2,995 due at signing. LFB-02 #0361 $2,995 due at signing. LRA #73012 By the way, Michael Reese is also part of a S boondoggle. @bennyjshow TOP-QUALITY INSPECTED USED CARS & SUV’ IMPORTS & DOMESTICS SUBARU FORESTERS ‘15 Toyota RAV4 Ltd. AWD/Navi...... Auto., Leather, 12K, Grey, 24225A ...... $18,995 ‘17 Forester Ltd...... Automatic Sunroof, Leather, Silver, 24102A ...... $17,995 ‘19 Toyota Corolla Hatchback XSE/Navi...... 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A+ RATED chicagoreader.com/donate EvanstonSubaru.com 3340 OAKTON - SKOKIE • 847-869-5700 *Add tax, title license and $300 doc fee. 0%financing for 63 months. Monthly payment of $15.87 per $1,000 borrowed. Finance on approved We Couldn't Be Free Without You— Support Community Journalism credit score Subject to vehicle insurance and availability. *Lease on approved credit score. Lease, 10k miles per year, 15 cents after. Lessee responsi- ble for excess wear and early termination of lease. End of lease purchase option; Outback $17,806. Crosstrek $13,198, Forster $16,495. Ends 5/31/2020 ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 7 Celebration of Life Ularsee Manar NEWS & POLITICS It is with a heavy heart that I, Alicia Garcia-Abner, President of Trinal, Inc., announce that Mr. Ularsee Manar, my colleague and dear friend, left SEPTEMBER 18, 1935 for his journey Home on, Friday, May 1st. He was a victim of COVID-19. – MAY 1, 2020 I met Ularsee Manar in 1987 when I started work at the City of Chicago Department of Procurement Services. Mr. Manar had a wide and varied professional career. As Assistant to the President for Community I would also like to mention that Mr. Manar was the lead tenor in the Development and Special Programs at Trinal, Inc., Ularsee was responsible singing group the Buddies in the mid-1950s, a playwright, and was an for the firm’s community-related advocacy outreach as well as identifying avid fan of the Chicago Bulls. and cultivating new market opportunities. He was a trusted friend who What I mentioned above was just a tip of the iceberg of Mr. Manar’s supported and provided guidance throughout our company’s 23 years. talents, experience, and tireless efforts to assist those in need. He Mr. Manar formerly served as the Director of Business & Industry would attend sessions at the Cook County Correctional Facility as an Services for Kennedy King College. He was responsible for developing and inspirational speaker. Ularsee Manar was a great influencer and I was implementing comprehensive workforce development training programs truly blessed, as were so many others, to have him in my life. I will miss for Chicago area businesses and financial and industrial sector companies. my dear friend and I ask that you keep him in your prayers along with others as we all go through these most challenging times. As the Director of Outreach Programs for the City of Chicago’s Department of Procurement Services, Mr. Manar was responsible for managing the Ularsee leaves to carry on his legacy and mourn his loss; two devoted City’s Minority and Women Business Enterprise Procurement Program. He sons, Andre Manar (Francine) of Providence, RI, Keith Smitherman developed and directed the City’s outreach efforts throughout the Chicago (DeShong) of Indianapolis, IN; two brothers Edward Manar, Jr. of area with an emphasis on serving as an intermediary between city Los Angeles, CA; Marvin C. Manar (VaNessa) of South Holland, IL. Sisters: vendors, local trade and business associations and the City of Chicago’s Harriet Dorsey (Donald) of Las Vegas, NV; Darnisha Hawkins (Jon) of procurement department. Chicago, IL; and Mamie New of Las Vegas, NV; four grandchildren and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, friends and business associates. Mr. Manar’s additional experience includes: President, Manar & Associates, a small business and human resource development company; A private graveside service was held May 8, 2020, at Oakwood Cemetery. Senior Associate, Center for New Schools; Director, Chicago Urban League Arrangements were entrusted to Kenny Brothers Funeral Directors, Development Corporation; Director, Corporate Planning, Chicago Economic Phone: 708.425.4500. Feel Free to leave a memory and/or condolences Development Corporation; Research Director, Chicago Independent at www.dignitymemorial.com. CULTURE Transportation Survey, Technical Advisor to the Illinois department of In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Ularsee’s name Transportation; and Child & Family Psychotherapist, Children’s Day to Hartzell Memorial United Methodist Church. Hospital School, Rush University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry. Call 312-842-5957 to donate. U of C students petition for tuition cuts How will COVID-19 aff ect the bottom line for classroom fees? By D I
ollege students are not stupid. So, back quickly attracted more than 1,800 student in mid-March, when it became clear that signatures. Cany campus could fl ame into a virus hot On April 13, the University of Chicago spot, and students across the country were announced a one-year freeze on the cost of sent home with instructions not to return tuition, fees, and room and board—which from spring break, it didn’t take long for them UCFT claimed as a victory. But the adminis- MONEY + to wonder why they should continue paying tration stonewalled the student group on its top dollar for a higher education experience request for negotiations, and UCFT raised that was playing out in their childhood bed- the ante, calling for a spring quarter tuition POWER rooms. After a few fascinating hours of online strike. As an April 29 deadline for payment lectures, it occurred to some who’d already approached, UCFT said about 600 students shelled out a full semester’s tuition that they were considering withholding tuition pay- might be entitled to a partial refund. ments, and 200 had defi nitely not paid. And at the University of Chicago, which Tuition at the University of Chicago is was about to launch into a whole new quarter, nearly $58,000 annually (room, board, and some students started to think they shouldn’t fees add another $20,000 or so), which makes have to pay the usual twenty grand. it one of the most expensive colleges in the By the end of March an ad hoc group— country. But it also has one of the most gener- UChicago for Fair Tuition—was campaigning ous fi nancial support programs, bolstered by for a 50 percent cut in tuition for the dura- the announcement two years ago that it will tion of the coronavirus crisis. When UCFT guarantee free tuition for students whose posted a tuition-cut petition that included family income is less than $125,000 annually, Visit ChiUL.org/moneyandpower a few other demands (like a long-term tu- and will throw in free room, board, and fees ition freeze and budget transparency), it for those with family incomes of less than 8 CHICA O READER - MAY ll NEWS & POLITICS
University of Chicago students protest on April not a route that UCFT as an organization is 24 COURTESY UCHICAGO FOR FAIR TUITION pursuing, however. “Although we believe that the issue of not getting what we’re paying for is a problem,” Rubio said, UCFT is more con- $60,000. cerned about “a larger systemic problem of In a May 7 e-mail to the university com- insane tuition prices that hurt marginalized, munity, president Robert Zimmer estimated international, low-income, and fi rst-genera- that COVID-19 will cost UChicago $220 mil- tion students.” lion in this academic year, and warned that Lawsuits against schools like Indiana next year’s loss could be even worse. The University and Purdue claim that, in e ect, university had already instituted spending students have paid for a car, but are getting a cuts along with salary and hiring freezes, but, bicycle. This is the education-as-a-commodi- Zimmer added, “additional cost saving mea- ty argument that academics have historically sures will be required in the coming months.” rejected, and it’s led some schools to the (A university spokesman said UChicago is treacherously in-kind reply that, well, stu- considering whether to accept the $6 million dents are still getting the credits they signed it’s been o ered in federal stimulus funds.) up for. UCFT, pointing to UChicago’s hefty en- But there might be another defense: Asso- dowment ($8.5 billion before the pandemic), ciation of American Colleges and Universities argues that its refusal to provide financial president Lynn Pasquerella told me this relief to the student body in this time of crisis week that “in this case there was a sense of reveals the school’s true priorities. But this urgency with respect to protecting the health week—when push came to shove—the group and safety of students. It was a time of neces- was backing down. “The strike is going to end sity; [the colleges] were forced to move their soon,” UCFT organizer Luis Rubio said Sun- classes online. day, “because if we continue, the university “So I think students will have a much less is able to put holds on our accounts, which likely chance of winning those suits, given means that we wouldn’t be able to register that colleges and universities had to pivot so for classes.” quickly, than they might if institutions decide Looking for someone to talk “We don’t want to do that. We want to pri- to maintain remote learning and charge the oritize students every step of the way,” Rubio same tuition in the fall.” to in quarantine besides your said. “So we’re just looking to negotiate with Is that a possibility? the university, to discuss with them what “Every president I know of is looking at roommate and your parents? options there are, and how they can help us.” three scenarios for fall: face-to-face, a hybrid Find someone new by placing a Similar petitions at Northwestern and UIC model, and completely online,” Pasquerella drew about 5,000 and 8,500 signatures re- said. But she’s not expecting a uniform return FREE Matches ad in next week’s spectively, and class-action lawsuits arguing to the full on-campus experience: “Under edition of the Reader. breach of contract in the substitution of on- these circumstances, it would be very compli- line classes for the campus experience have cated to protect the safety of students.” v now been filed against dozens of colleges chicagoreader.com/matches and universities across the country. That’s @DeannaIsaacs
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the context of COVID data is going to make therapies, but to get to where I’d like for us INTERVIEW it more likely that some kind of racial justice to be, where health equity is a goal, we need remedies are enacted? Why would it be this the entirety of the population to value health crisis that would make us more likely to act? as a primary objective in our society going Will COVID-19 force us to right forward. First, this crisis has dramatically highlighted The only way we can successfully recover is not just the presence of another disparity to have broad subscription to new economic racial health disparities? but the extent of this disparity. COVID-19 has initiatives. We would have to be much more removed the Band-Aid from our health dis- inclusive than ever before by race, by ethnici- A conversation about what the pandemic has made intolerable parities environment and demonstrated how ty, by age, by gender, sex, every categorization By M D deep the wound is. [The] second thing is that you can imagine. If it’s taken all hands on deck the loss of life, the human toll involved here, to respond to the urgency of the COVID-19 is compelling. I believe that in a civil society crisis, it will take all hands on deck to restore s the novel coronavirus pandemic takes and these conversations is actually personal. there’s a pain point beyond which we are un- our economic enterprises. That necessarily an ever-increasing toll on the United comfortable tolerating such disproportionate means we need to be healthy enough to do so. AStates, it’s now widely publicized that In Chicago, where only about a third of the su ering. COVID-19 deaths haven’t been experienced population is Black, more than half of the It sounds like you’re optimistic about the evenly across all segments of the population. people who’ve died of COVID are Black. Has In the JAMA piece you bring up this point possibility that this is one of those threshold Across the country, Black people are dying anything caught your eye about how these about this not being tolerable. What are ex- moments. You don’t think that the fact that from the disease at disproportionately high disparities are playing out here? amples of other major diseases where civil COVID victims are disproportionately Black rates. One of the fi rst researchers to identify society stood up and did something in the will actually make it less likely that there the severity of this trend was Dr. Clyde W. It was the recognition of data from the Illinois face of disproportionate su ering? would be this necessary response? There’s a Yancy, chief of cardiology at Northwestern Department of Public Health that incited the history in this country of treating problems University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. deeper dive that revealed the extent to which Think about other infectious diseases. We seen as Black people’s problems as not that Yancy has studied cardiovascular health these disparities are present. When I first don’t see polio happening anymore because urgent. disparities for decades and hopes the current became aware of the data, I paused because not only did we see scientific discovery [to crisis will be a catalyst for major public policy it could have been spurious, it could have cure it] but as a society we said we cannot have I’m an optimist. I believe in the resilience of the and values shifts in our society. been unique to Chicago or explained by other maimed and injured young adults going into American spirit and we have a history of stand- variables. But as we studied the data more we their most productive years. There was a time ing up and ultimately going in the right direc- Maya Dukmasova: How did you get to look- recognized that it wasn’t spurious, that it was when we had hospitals just for tuberculosis. tion. This disproportionate su ering is not just ing at the disparate impact of COVID-19 on validated in Detroit and New Orleans and New We got to a pain point when we said we can’t experienced by African Americans. When this African Americans? York. We began to realize that it was indicative allow this to be and with scientifi c discovery is all settled it will have touched every family of a very painful aspect of this overall crisis. and also with public health we did things dif- in this country: urban, rural, Black, white. And Clyde W. Yancy: In my 30-year career as an ferently. We got beyond just observing that it would have done so disproportionately, not academic cardiologist, part of my research In your Journal of the American Medical people have an illness to finally getting to a just based on color, but based on economics, focus has been evaluating the dissimilarity in Association article you write that Black peo- point where it exited public health and entered based on access to resources. No person in this cardiovascular diseases and cardiovascular ple in America experience a “higher burden public policy. Someone had to initiate an e ort country will be able to say they haven’t been health as a function of race. Over the years of at-risk comorbidities.” What does that and say it is our will that we won’t live like this. impacted, influenced, touched by COVID-19. we’ve identifi ed a greater burden of cardiovas- mean? I think there’s now a sufficient rationale to So I think there would be many more people cular risk factors in persons who are African execute the same distaste for disproportionate collectively engaged in moving forward than American: hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. In many communities, Chicago included, su ering. those that would be resisting. These health disparities exist independent of race defi nes where home is. That’s important The point of my reference in the JAMA arti- access to health care. The reasons this focus on because home determines your life circum- cle is to say that I am not targeting a utopian Are there some specifi c public health inter- the presence of risk and disease beyond access stances: what’s the housing density, what’s environment. I am suggesting that in times ventions locally that could help right the to care is so important is because there’s noth- the access to high-quality education, what are past we have hit thresholds that have incited racial health disparities, both immediately ing about biology per se that describes this the crime rates, what’s the prevailing socio- change. And I think that very quickly we’ve in the context of the crisis and longer term? disproportionate vulnerability to risk and the economic status, and in particular what is the gotten to the same place with COVID-19. attendant disproportionate consequence of access to healthy foods, particularly fruits and The change that it’s incited is to really look I think that when one reduces an issue that disease. Therefore what we’ve been studying is vegetables. The aggregate of the things that I at why do we have these disproportionate is this complex and has these kinds of con- how the life and living circumstances of di er- just described generates additional risk for exposures to risk and in turn these painful sequences to a bulleted list we run the risk ent groups will lead to greater exposure to risk, the development of cardiovascular disease. and disproportionate burdens of disease? If of being shortsighted and trivial. I think the greater manifestations of disease. I am a lifelong volunteer with the American it does track to this phenomenon of disparate broad focus is the really right place to start, The COVID-19 experience is just another Heart Association and we have a practice now determinants of health, which are largely whether in Chicago or anywhere else. The very example of these evident health disparities, of reminding people that zip code may be your driven by where and how people live, that’s first thing that needs to be done is not just but it may be the most glaring example. At greatest risk factor for cardiovascular disease where opportunity for change happens at the an acknowledgement but a commitment to this point it’s appropriate for me to interject and stroke. public policy level. Persons like me and my health. Ultimately our health is the only real that my heritage and my race is as a Black colleagues who are deeply involved in scien- luxury any of us have and that luxury is shared American. So a big part of these discoveries Do you think that seeing this disparity in tifi c discovery will continue to look for unique by far too few people. What’s most important 12 CHICA O READER - MAY ll NEWS & POLITICS
is the preservation of our health. The second on the side of our health-care workers, in big point here is recognizing that we don’t all particular our physicians and nurses who re- Your partners in health and wellness. share equitably in access to good health and ally have stepped up and provided color-blind, that collectively we now have a commitment to race- and ethnicity-blind, age-blind care to Dr. Mauricio Consalter has been serving medical change. people facing the most desperate challenge to cannabis patients since 2015 and is now expanding his The reason I’m avoiding specifi c steps even their health. here in Chicago is that health is a very local From a public policy position we do know practice to include a wider range of treatment options enterprise. In some communities it may truly that across the country there are certain com- for his patients with intractable chronic pain and be because they’re living in food deserts, in munities where access to coronavirus testing others it may be because there aren’t many has been limited and those communities dis- mental health disorders. opportunities to fi nd gainful employment. It proportionately have aligned with concentra- may be because of housing, it may be because tions of Black populations. That is something If you'd like more information of education. To try to deconstruct this to a that when the smoke settles will need to be list of items oversimplifi es the issue. I think looked at very carefully as we do a thorough about adding medical cannabis the fi rst steps really have to do with the real- review of how we responded to this crisis. But or infusion therapy into your ity of what we’re facing and the importance we have to be careful. We don’t know all the of recalibrating what’s necessary here. Once mitigating reasons why testing was or was wellness plan, contact us today! upon a time we thought that freedom was the not available in certain communities. Telemed Available! primary objective. I think right now we need to recalibrate and say health is the primary In a recent New York Times Magazine objective. article you noted how tragic it was that a traditional Mardi Gras gathering of Black 312-772-2313 Do you think that discrimination against men in New Orleans became a hot spot for Black people in the medical establishment the spread of the virus there. Do you have www.neuromedici.com is becoming more visible as a result of this any thoughts about the way the public dis- crisis? cussion has been happening around these house parties in Chicago that have been pre- The data tells us that the di erences we see are sented as gatherings of young Black people? explained by a variety of factors: factors that Are they being depicted fairly? #TVKUV9TKVGT we’ve discussed already, like life and living cir- cumstances, factors that go beyond access to It continues to pain me that a heritage that I 2GTHQTOGT! care, that deal with how patients receive care. know so well in the deep south, in the heart of 4'#6+8' 1.76+105 (14 There are phenomena of implicit bias that have Louisiana, was so disproportionately impact- % 5 to be navigated. It goes to institutions where ed, even destroyed by COVID-19. This exposure %4'#6+8' 2'12.' patients receive care, clinics where patients happened when there was very little clarity 5WRRQTVKXG #HHKTOKPI CPF )QCN receive care. Many persons we’re talking about and uniformity in the public health messages. &KTGEVGF 2U[EJQVJGTCR[ CPF receive local care, and quality metrics in some Where we’re at today is—regardless of the city, of those hospitals and clinics are not ideal. It is regardless of the participants, regardless of *[RPQVJGTCR[ HQT #FWNVU important to recognize that there are multiple the community—the public health messaging /#: - 5*#2'; .%59 dimensions in these discussions, which do is explicitly clear. We’re still being strongly ad- .QECVGF KP &QYPVQYP 'XCPUVQP involve volition and how people process public vised to practice social distancing, we’re being Providing arts coverage health messages, how people make decisions strongly advised to wear masks. We’re being in Chicago since 1971. about lifestyle and living circumstances. But strongly advised to practice hand hygiene, YYYOCZUJCRG[EQO their ability to make those decisions are great- clean surfaces, and to report at the fi rst sign of OCZUJCRG["CQNEQO ly a ected by their living environments. any symptoms. There’s no one, no one in this NWG TQUU NWG 5JKGNF 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT country that should ignore these public health KIPC 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT www.chicagoreader.com Are you seeing anything specifi c about the messages. The pain I expressed over the loss way that medical care is administered to of these men who were simply exercising their African Americans during this COVID crisis right to congregate and to celebrate a tradition that’s troubling you? that was nearly 100 years old, that pain will be Chicago's revisited if any group of people under any cir- What I’m seeing is the exact opposite. In our cumstances ignores today’s very strong public Free Weekly facilities and the facilities in which I have health messages. If I can end my comments insight, the medical community has been he- with one thought it would be this: People, be Since 1971 roic. They’ve stepped up, they’ve embraced all safe, listen to the public health messages, and patients who have presented with COVID-19, follow those messages accordingly. v We Couldn't Be Free Without You— they’ve cheered for every success and they’ve Support Community Journalism mourned over every loss. So I stand stridently @mdoukmas ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 13 ARTS & CULTURE
ANTHONY TRAN / UNSPLASH
How do I not worry about someone I love? She lives alone, is struggling, how can I be there for her through this extremely precarious time? And do I even want to be?” K says. “Sometimes I feel like I am stuck in the breakup, unable to distance myself from it. Everyone says, ‘Spend time doing things just for you,’ ‘Do things that make you happy,’ but I was already committed to those things before the breakup! I think I would really benefi t from going out and meet- ing new people!” Dr. McGuire says that while breakups are always hard, “to go through that crash on top of not being able to go out and be distracted by the rest of life—family, friends, events—is something few could ever imagine. We know that isolation and loneliness is one of the most detrimental experiences to the human mind and body so right now any negative experience is exacerbated.” According to a study published in The Lancet, quarantine is linked to various psy- chological issues. Emotions like confusion and anger are impacting partnerships and for many people, isolating together or separate has brought to light fears, frustrations, lack of understanding, financial struggles, and RELATIONSHIPS while in isolation. During quarantine, K’s much more. Relationship coach and expert partner came over for a walk and explained Lee Wilson found in a survey that 31 percent of that the relationship wasn’t working for her partnerships su ered under quarantine. Breaking up in isolation anymore. Their break led to a few follow-up But it’s still too early to conduct any real conversations on the phone and ultimately to studies on how COVID-19 is impacting part- Three people spill their post-breakup thoughts. a fi nal permanent breakup. K was completely nerships. An article in Psychology Today says shocked by the news. that after Hurricane Hugo divorces increased, By S N L “I knew she was dealing with some heavy but after the Oklahoma City bombing divorces things, but she never before indicated any decreased. And because COVID-19 can’t be problems in our partnership,” they explain. categorized as either of these (natural disas- t’s tough enough to go through a breakup Dr. Laura McGuire, a sexologist and consul- “She ended the relationship mostly because ter or terrorist attack), it’s difficult to know without being in the midst of a pandemic, tant, says isolation and relationships can be a she needed time to work through things and the effects of the pandemic on partnerships Ibut now partnerships are being tested, strain for partners. “Being in any relationship address her own mental health and happiness. or divorce rates. However, divorce lawyers some are going virtual, and others are even takes time, trust, and communication; adding I imagine stay-at-home gave her a moment are waiting for the impact. Baroness Fiona dissolving. In the time BC (before coronavirus) to that the inherent challenge of not doing day- to breathe and consider things. She was also Shackleton in the UK said that their peak time getting over a breakup may have included to-day things together, limited communication unable to meet my needs as I struggled with for divorce is usually over the holidays, when going out, surrounding yourself with friends, and touch, and you have a true task at hand.” the beginning of quarantine, which I’m sure in- couples are together for long periods of time. distracting your thoughts, or even having a They explain that isolating—separately—is fl uenced her decision to end the relationship.” She is expecting a similar outcome during the one-night stand. Nothing better than getting something couples never signed up for. “For For K, isolation has made dealing with pandemic. In China, divorce rates have spiked, over someone by getting under someone, those who thought they could see each other emotions easier. They explain that destructive which is something we may expect for the rest right? every week or month, the future is completely coping mechanisms are more out of reach and of the world. As we all know, the present moments have unforeseeable. Lack of physical and emotional they can learn about confronting their feelings Krister, 27, and their partner broke up when never been so unique. So folks going through contact is not impossible to overcome but can instead of running from them. “While I think they were in Chicago and their partner was breakups—either accelerated by isolation certainly heap on stress, especially during a isolation has helped improve my relationship outside of the country, right before the shel- or inconveniently occurring during the pan- time when work and living situations are tee- with myself, I think it complicates how I feel ter-in-place order took e ect. “It was a phone demic—are having to find new solutions for tering on a thin line.” about my now ex-partner. The circumstances call, so more or less I started the breakup recovering from heartbreak or simply fi nding K, 26, recently went through a breakup in of our breakup are incredibly sad and then already in isolation. We discussed trying to be closure. isolation after a partnership of eight months, situated within an incredibly difficult time. friends and he suggested we talk more about 14 CHICA O READER - MAY ll POETRY CORNER ARTS & CULTURE Kitihawa it when he returned from his trip,” they say. drawing have all become part of Krister’s daily By Elise Paschen “Unfortunately, COVID-19 struck right after indulgences. “I also tried to journal a bit and that decision was made, so chances of gaining expel some negative thoughts through some “Monday May 10th 1790 Stopt at Point sables more closure were slim.” personal rituals; any form of self-care I could anchord with the cannots & begun to hull Corn & bake Krister and their partner dated for almost think of (including fl irting with strangers) was Bread & arranged everything for next Morning. . . .” a year and their friendly texts checking up on a great escape from the breakup and the im- Hugh Heward’s Journal from Detroit to Illinois: 1790 each other became harder to deal with while in pending pandemic. Animal Crossing has been quarantine. “I made a decision to distance my- a lifesaver!” My relatives guide fur traders between swamp self more because it was becoming too di cult Other than a “happy birthday” text, Krister and bog, down age-old trails, under pine trees to pretend I wasn’t hurting every time we in- and their ex haven’t spoken recently. Damiane, and black oaks, navigating the tributaries, teracted. I asked for more space while I was in 26, is in a similar situation. More than two the sweeps and turns. My husband and I isolation because it was cyclically dominating weeks ago, he and his partner decided to call my mind.” it quits after six months, when they chatted followed the river to its mouth, this spot Being single and dating during a pandemic face-to-face about larger issues in the rela- where the sun and the moon climb above can be a bit tricky, as in-person meet ups are tionship. The two haven’t spoken since their the rimri of lake. I feed the traders hot loaves from our Bakery, milk crocks from our Dairy. not recommended. So being single and going split. He says those concerns were “inflated through the loss of a companion can be espe- by the current circumstances,” and although Silent as fog rising from the marsh, I observe. cially difficult. The future may look bleak to it was tough, the “quarantine brought things The traders barter canoes for our whitewood dugouts. those who can’t plan or think far into the fu- to the surface.” Damiane and his partner were My husband broods at the prow of the long table, ture. With no real end in sight for the pandem- still getting to understand one another. He candles sputtering, reflected between two mirrors. ic, being alone can make things lonelier. Emo- says, “Isolation defi nitely can act as a pressure tions are also heightened. People are feeling cooker, and at times I could feel it breaking Clearing the wooden plates, I question the way they shake hands. collective, overwhelming anxiety. Questions down the sinew of the relationship, but the I see blazing ggreed, our earth parched, my descendants gone. regarding our personal health, our partners’ issues were always present.” health, our friends’ and family’s health, are all For Damiane, he says that having a partner stressors in our minds. during the pandemic is “immensely helpful,” The folks that talked to me for this article so the breakup was bittersweet. While isola- were able to achieve physical distance from tion has compounded sad emotions for Dami- their partners. However, some folks aren’t so ane, it’s also been a good time for refl ection. “It lucky and live with their partners. The stay-at- is always hard to transition from being with a home order has disrupted the standard long- partner, but in this case [isolation] makes it a term breakup. People are sharing kitchens bit easier to create the physical distance that’s Elise Paschen, an enrolled member of the Osage Nation, is the author of The Nightlife, with their exes, some are still sharing beds. necessary for closure.” He says he’s been busy- Bestiary, Infidelities (winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize), and Houses: Coasts. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker and Poetry, among other magazines, Buzzfeed reporter Julia Moser shared her ing himself by watering his plants. “It’s spring and in numerous anthologies; she teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the School of experience of being dumped over Zoom, the and growing season is coming up, so lots of the Art Institute of Chicago. video-conferencing app, in her childhood propagation.” A biweekly series curated by the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation. bedroom during isolation. “The breakup was While isolation is tough, it’s been a reward- This week’s poem was curated by Yvonne Zipter. about as humiliating as you would expect,” she ing time for people to invest in themselves writes. Overall, Moser admits she feels misera- and their self-interests. Whether you’re in a ble but is grateful she wasn’t ghosted or gaslit relationship or not, spending time alone and (something that could very easily be done in refl ecting on what activities make you happy times of isolation). Virtual breakups will defi - can establish growth for future friendships or Free online events with nitely be another awkward and hard reality for relationships. the Poetry Foundation people isolating away from their partners. Dr. McGuire agrees that folks going through In many ways, isolation was exactly what a relationship change should focus their en- Online Poetry Workshops All are welcome to creative writing workshops led by library associate Krister needed. They explain that they needed ergy into things that they love. Right now can Maggie Queeney. Topics include poetry comics, metaphor, epistle, and repetition. to relearn a love for themself outside of anoth- be a good time to look inward. “FaceTiming Sessions throughout May er person. However, that took some time. “Not with someone who makes you laugh, teaching OOnline Book Club having my friends and family around to hear yourself a new skill, spending long stretches Book group discussing Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod me out was hard. All I wanted to do was vent, of time reading, or creating things that allow by Traci Brimhall, moderated by Library staff. May 15 & 22 and it felt like a burden to call or text a novel of you to release emotion are all tools for heal- feelings rather than passively rant over a cup ing,” they say. “Above all, go easy on yourself; Poetry off the Stage: Aimee Nezhukumatahil of co ee or a drink. I luckily have a roommate it is not like you can ask your mom how she Short reading by the poet and editor of Orion Thursday, May 28, 7:00pm and they have been super supportive, espe- survived a quarantine breakup. We are all cially because they exited a relationship a few learning as we go and a wide range of feelings Poetry Foundation months earlier.” and experiences with all of this is normal.” v 61 West Superior Street poetryfoundation.org/events Working on house projects, building furniture, caring for plants, painting, and @snicolelane ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 15 Shapearl Wells speaking with ARTS & CULTURE CPD offi cers COURTESY BILL HEALY
PODCAST One murder, four years, no answers A mother takes to podcasting wondering if CPD did “a cover-up or are they just this damn incompetent?” By M D
e’ve heard both versions of the story the community where the violence happened. too often, tragic trajectories that begin The podcast was produced by Invisible Insti- Wwith being a young Black man in Chi- tute reporter (and sometimes Reader writer) cago and end in murder, either by police or by Alison Flowers and StoryCorps producer Bill somebody else. In March 2016, as the city was Healy, but it’s unique in the true crime genre for reeling from the Laquan McDonald scandal and Wells’s involvement and centrality to the story. authority being challenged than solving the force in their neighborhoods,” Flowers says. entering what would be its bloodiest year in She’s the host and narrator of the show, and she murder. What’s more, the attitude of the police “But in this case, what the detectives told us two decades, 22-year-old Courtney Copeland has led the investigative work that should have doesn’t change even when another person is was ‘We tried and people in the neighborhood wound up with a bullet in his back in front of been done by police. murdered in a BMW in the same area more than just aren’t talking.’ And we found the opposite. the 25th District police station in the Belmont Wells says she contacted the Invisible In- two years later, likely by the same people. All of this could have been known within days. Cragin neighborhood, on the northwest side. stitute for help after reaching a dead end with “What I learned is that the reason why Chica- The people who gave us this evidence were He was shot as he was driving his BMW late her own e orts. She wasn’t able to get answers go’s murder solve rate is so abysmal is because willing to talk to police . . . Everything that [the at night to see his girlfriend. He spent his last from detectives, no arrests had been made, and there’s not a lot of e ort done in fi nding the kill- police] did was incredibly superfi cial, there was moments trying to get help from the cops at the given the circumstances of the murder, Wells ers that are out here plaguing our community,” sloppy follow-up, and ultimately just a really station, who handcu ed him and treated him suspected a cop might have killed her son. Wells says. “I felt that because I was doing their shallow investigation.” like a suspect, leading to precious minutes lost “I was at my wit’s end, I had exhausted all my job for them they felt o ended during my inter- No one’s been charged with Copeland’s mur- in getting him potentially lifesaving medical options and I knew I needed to enlist some help actions with them. But I shouldn’t have to do der to this day. CPD has reclassifi ed the murder care. It took his mother four years and a col- in order to dig deeper,” says Wells. “I felt that what they’re getting paid thousands of dollars as a “cold case” and still advertises it on their laboration with journalists to fi gure out what having someone else to add pressure to CPD to do, that’s their job. If you’re not investigating social media—citing the wrong neighborhood happened that night—a story that police were would defi nitely increase my chances of getting these cases, what are you doing?” and cross streets for the incident. Wells still in a position to put together within days of the to the bottom of what happened.” CPD’s murder clearance rate is among the wants justice, but she knows it likely won’t murder. The podcast producers ultimately fi led about lowest in the nation, and it’s even worse if the come through the courts. She hopes that the Somebody is a new podcast about what Co- 100 FOIAs, obtaining video, documents, and victim is Black. Between January 2018 and July podcast will, at the very least, impact protocols peland’s mother, Shapearl Wells, had to endure police records that CPD had told Wells didn’t 2019, for example, the police solved 47 percent and operations among Chicago’s emergency to get answers from the Chicago Police Depart- exist. They interviewed dozens of witnesses, of murders with white victims, and just 22 per- responders (such as handcu ng a person who’s ment. It’s a series that not only establishes including people who’d never heard from the cent of those with Black victims, according to been shot), so that victims of violence don’t narrative justice for her son—who she felt was cops even after reporting relevant information. data reported by WBEZ. Usually, o cials blame wind up being treated like they’re nobody. misrepresented in scant prior media cover- They identifi ed the location of the shooting and investigators’ failure to solve cases on lack of Somebody is available on all podcast plat- age—but o ers a close look at the carelessness three suspects. The podcast includes record- community collaboration. Somebody tells a forms. The fi nal episode drops on Tuesday, May and incompetence with which this murder ings of Wells’s conversations with detectives starkly di erent story. 12. v investigation was handled and how the depart- that reveal o cers who are dismissive and de- “Certainly there is a lack of trust and a lot of ment treated the loved ones of the victim and fensive, seemingly more concerned with their Black people feel that the police is an occupying @mdoukmas CHICAGO READER MASKS
CHICAGOREADER.THREADLESS.COM
16 CHICA O READER - MAY ll THEATER
Still from “Shukran Bas” COURTESY ARTI ISHAK white student and tosses it to Petrelli, who is of Palestinian heritage. This scarf is usually and out of love with industries either refusing worn as an act of resistance, and Salem’s small or unequipped to hire their whole selves. act of reclamation defi es its appropriation as a Like the plentiful Easter eggs present in cutely patterned accessory. Snippets of racist Grande’s “Thank U, Next,” “Shukran Bas” in- Hollywood imagery about MENA people and cludes its own treasures, ones that are more cultures are spliced in throughout. robust, endowed with deep cultural meaning. In an interview, Petrelli says, “Collaborating The music video opens mirroring the confes- on writing these lyrics was a dream. All of the sional style found in Mean Girls, wherein char- scenes of our not-so-imagined Brown and acters are sharing hot goss and rumors around blended future are really special to me. We Regina George. In “Shukran Bas,” these opening weren’t just staging a table read with a room moments shout out MENA politicians, celebri- of our community—we are manifesting it. We ties, and activists who’ve rejected brownface or aren’t just doing dabke with our friends—we stepped up as activists. are inviting our communities and allies to join “I saw Rashida Tlaib run for public o ce, so hands and learn from one another.” I ran for public o ce.” (Sidenote that the U.S. Similarly, this music video created oppor- CULTURE JAMMING representative “liked” the video.) tunities for young artists to experiment with “I heard Rami Malek refused to play a terror- new roles in production. Zebari was brought ist, so I refused to play a terrorist.” on as a cowriter but found more joy in assistant ‘Shukran Bas’ fl ips the Lines like these are heartening examples that directing. (Lowell Thomas II served as cinema- seemingly small actions set big precedents. In tographer and editor.) “I had no experience as interviews with cowriters Ishak, Gloria Imseih an assistant director before, let alone one for appropriation lens Petrelli, and Martin Zebari, they recall the birth a music video. Step by step, we figured out a of the concept this past November and the luck- rhythm, did what we felt was right and invited MENA artists critique stereotypes in a send-up of “Thank U, Next.” iness of a pre-COVID-19 wrap in February. exactly the right people who helped make this According to Ishak, “‘Shukran Bas’ was not dream a reality.” B Y Z M a random occurrence. It was a culmination Of course this labor of love involved a ton of of a series of events that our Middle Eastern labor. Means of Productions is a company based theater community, affectionately referred in New York with a small and mighty arm in ut down the brownie batter hum- Ariana Grande aesthetic proved an effective to as #TeamHabibi, planned for the start of Chicago. Ishak had prior experience with them mus and slowly step away from the way into the issues of misrepresentation and 2020.” From a reading of Omer Abbas Salem’s and found Means of Productions stellar col- “Pculture.” erasure that MENA artists battle with about new play Mosque4Mosque (which changed laborators in making space for people of color. This command welcomes us into the pointed every project they sign on to. Ishak notes, “Ar- venues three times as it oversold) to a MENASA Interestingly enough, some of the critiques and poignant community-produced music iana Grande is one of the white women most MidWest forum at the Steppenwolf Garage, this made in “Shukran Bas” reared their head in this video (Means of Productions) that is “Shukran famous for appropriating Black and Latinx community has been organizing, as Ishak notes, part of the process. The music video includes a Bas,” a parody of Ariana Grande’s breakup an- culture for profi t and it just felt right to steal to “problem solve and cultivate solutions with scene on casting with the auditors all being pre- them “Thank U, Next.” In this fi ve-minute mas- something back while making a critique about the aim of seeking more accurate and nuanced dominantly white-passing men. With Means of terpiece, we fi nd much that is salty and sweet, brownface. I mean, I hate the original message representation.” Productions also being a majority white com- just like the aforementioned hummus snack. but you gotta admit that song is a bop.” When the bop kicks, Salem embodies Regina, pany, they raised the question if they were the The music video dropped on Wednesday, With Grande’s original music video for lounging lavishly and donning pearls in a bed- right team for this project. Ishak notes, “It was April 29, after much anticipation. Director “Thank U, Next,” she mashed up four major room of deep pinks and reds. He’s accompanied an opportunity for [Means of Productions] to and creator Arti Ishak assembled a fi erce team fi lms including Mean Girls, Bring It On, 13 Going by his pup Moudi, showing much solidarity as examine their own structures and how to move of collaborators to create opportunities “for on 30, and Legally Blonde. What these films Salem fl ips through the iconic Burn Book. He forward making sure the right voice steered.” younger artists to grow, try things they haven’t have in common include reclaiming of femme lip-syncs: This music video not only called for more in- been given the chance to, and prove they are power, solidarity between friends, and coming- “Thought I’d end up in fi lm, but it wasn’t a tentionality in process, but manifested it in the brilliant and capable of pushing the needle of-age narratives. When looking at “Shukran match. Got my hopes up with theater, and now making of the project. forward.” Bas” (which loosely translates from Arabic to I watch it and laugh. Even tried to do TV. Home- Too often Middle Eastern representation is This needle points towards widening the “thank you, stop” or “thank you, but” depend- land got canceled.” erased from conversations centering equity scope of Middle Eastern and North African rep- ing on context), it’s clear similar sentiments Ishak pointed out that this scene includes and visibility. But with “Shukran Bas,” MENA resentation in media. All too often, roles for our are evoked when applied to the MENA media an homage to The Arabian Street Artists, who artists are demanding not only to be a part of community of Brown artists consist of racist landscape at large. were hired to graffiti “certain phrases on the the discourse but also viewed as leaders active- caricatures and hastily written cultural stereo- “The movies [Grande] emulates [. . .] are also walls to add authenticity but actually tagged ly working to better the fi eld. types. With this artistic endeavor, Ishak and her famous coming-of-age romantic comedies that the set of the show’s series fi nale with gra ti in “My tongue’s been held, till you called it team take up a troubled legacy and advocate for people of color were excluded from or used as Arabic that read ‘Homeland is racist.’” diversity.” Middle Eastern artists will not be authenticity and space-making through Ariana props in,” Ishak notes. In a sense, “Shukran Beats later, Salem struts in a fur coat down sitting on the sidelines. v Grande’s own problematic lens. Bas” is a means for Middle Eastern artists to a high school hallway flanked by Petrelli and As an avid cultural appropriator herself, the come into their own power as they’ve fallen in actor Sahar Dika. He snags a keffiyeh from a @yasminzacaria ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 17 THEATER
PERFORMANCE
Circus in quarantine GO’S FREE WEEKL H C R A M | E C N I S LY K E E W E E R F S ’ O AG C I H C Alo Circus Arts and Actors Gymnasium take their shows online. Don’t By K R
lying high and fearlessly in front of awe- Aloft’s home—a former church in Logan Square struck spectators is what circus is all whose high ceilings are ideal for trapeze and Fabout, right? So what happens when your other aerial arts—fi nally received the coveted miss show is grounded, so to speak, by COVID-19? Performing Arts Venue license, or PAV, from the On Saturday, two longtime Chicago circus arts city. And then the coronavirus arrived. training and performance centers show how they’ve adapted their art for the new normal, STAY AT HOME where we all feel like we’re working without a I Sat / and / , : PM, facebook. net. com/ActorsGymCircus; free, but an Aloft Circus Arts o ers Sanctuary in Place! donations welcome Volume 4, in which an eclectic array of perform- ers—some from the Aloft ensemble, some from S P !V Sat / , : PM, facebook.com/ out of town—perform live from their homes aloftcircusarts; for a pay-what-you-can for a “Zoom-enabled circus show”—as the title donation, patrons will receive an invite issue implies, the fourth such online offering Aloft to stream the live show. has produced since the shutdown. And Actors Gymnasium has transformed their planned live “The timing was a little rough,” says Swan- Get the Next 12 Weeks of the Chicago Reader show for their annual Spring Youth Circus into son. “We worked for a long time, and it was Delivered to Your Home Isolated, rehearsed online and recorded by the really expensive, and we did one show and it 28-member ensemble from their homes and was over. It’s so crazy. You know, we could have then edited into streaming video. not gotten it and kept having shows for under chicagoreader.com/support For Shayna Swanson, who founded Aloft a hundred people for a donation, right? And in 2005, these virtual shows have an ironic now as we hear about what things will look like backdrop. After a long and expensive process, as they start to open back up—‘you’ll be able to 18 CHICA O READER - MAY ll THEATER
Alo Circus Arts COURTESY ALOFT available on a donation basis, Swanson says with the youth ensemble on the show. She says, of paper in the mail or something. But then Aloft has made enough to pay performers the “I have to tell you, I am not a big fan of watching halfway through she realizes that it’s all just an have gatherings with 50 people’—I think ‘we same rate they would receive for the live show. stu online and rehearsing online and staring illusion and we can work as hard as we want, could have just done that.’” For the 25-year-old Actors Gymnasium, at a screen all day.” But she and Foster both but it’s never accomplishing what we think. It Sanctuary, a cross between a punk cabaret housed in Evanston’s Noyes Cultural Arts note that they and the ensemble leaned into the was just super Zen.” and circus, has been a staple showcase with Center, going online was a way to celebrate “glitchiness” of working with Zoom and the in- Both Aloft and Actors Gymnasium are o er- Aloft for a while, so taking the show online the achievements of their youth ensemble. evitable lag times and technical di culties that ing online circus arts classes during the shut- made sense to Swanson. But that doesn’t mean But the focus of Isolated changed once the come along with it. down as well, and both groups say that even there hasn’t been a learning curve. “We’re not shutdown happened. Director Kasey Foster Says Hernandez-DiStasi, “I think that what once they can go back to teaching and perform- technological people really by nature. We’re says, “The original idea was to show how much art is about is being creative and making things ing live and in public, the online components very tactile. We spend our time training our being on our devices can take away from the happen and being flexible.” She also notes, will remain. Swanson says that one of the ad- bodies to do hard things and we don’t spend world in front of us or the world around us.” “The apparatus is fun, but the fundamentals vantages for the virtual Sanctuary show is “we a lot of time on computers. We’ve put in more Now, of course, she has an ensemble of middle of knowing how to use your body is something can have performers from all over the world, time tech rehearsing this show than we do re- school and high school students who are more that gets glossed over because the kids get so and we have.” Both she and Hernandez-DiStasi hearsing a regular show,” she says. tethered than ever to their screens for online anxious to fly through the air, which is what also note that going online has reconnected The aim is for all the segments to go out live learning. everybody wants to do.” them with past members of their ensembles. in real time. The only exceptions, Swanson The show includes monologues about isola- Foster notes that not all the material in Iso- And by going online, Aloft and Actors Gym- notes, would be if bad weather prevented a live tion as well as a variety of circus acts. Of neces- lated is melancholy, though the students in the nasium keep the ghost light for circus arts outdoor act from happening. And she doesn’t sity, many of these acts had to change from the show, like students everywhere, are mourning burning until they can all meet again under the really curate ahead of time. “I don’t actually aerial arts to other skills, such as acrobatics, the loss of rituals such as graduation and prom, silks and trapezes. Says Hernandez-DiStasi, know what people are going to do until the juggling, or unicycle. Foster notes, “I keep tell- and just being able to see their friends every “If art goes, everything goes. So it’s really im- show is happening. I don’t ask them to send me ing this cast that 99 percent of the population day. She mentions one monologue by a mem- portant to keep it going and keep supporting it. what they’re going to do beforehand. I like to doesn’t know how to do any of the things that ber of the ensemble that “started with she’s It really is what is getting people through this be surprised. I am picking people I know make you know how to do with your bodies.” so angry and frustrated. All this time, all these time.” v quality work, so I’m trusting what the output’s Actors Gymnasium founder and artistic years she’s put in at trying to be the best she going to be.” And though the online show is director Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi also worked can be and it comes to nothing, just a little piece @kerryreid
SCHOOL GIRLS; NOW ONLINE! OR, THE AFRICAN Extended by popular demand through May 31
MEAN GIRLS PLAY Stream this “first-class production of a first-class play, performed by an ensemble By Jocelyn Bioh, Directed by Lili-Anne Brown of women actors that I can’t imagine being bettered” (Wall Street Journal).
Major Corporate Sponsor Corporate Sponsor Partners GoodmanTheatre.org/StreamSchoolGirls ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 19 FILM
Odd Obsession’s fi nal storefront COURTESY JOSH BROWN
named the store after a wacky widescreen comedy about voyeurism made by renowned Japanese auteur Kon Ichikawa in 1959; he also liked fi gures like Ken Russell, Brian De Palma, and Andrzej Żuławski, directors who obliterated distinctions between respectful and disrespectful art. I liked swapping movie recommendations with Brian, who was and still is a top-notch conversationalist. Indeed many of my favorite memories of Odd Ob- session—which announced last week it was shutting down after 16 years—involve talking with Brian and a few strangers, typically about movies and always with enthusiasm. I admired Brian’s dedication and ambition right away. Here was someone not much older than me whose curiosity about cinema drove him to amass thousands of videocas- settes and DVDs, then to open a rental store where he could share this collection with others. (Later on, Brian would bring a similar autodidactic zeal to being a reggae DJ and selling Ghanaian movie posters.) His appetite for movies was infectious. Within months of opening the store in 2004, Brian had attract- ed customers who, like me, liked being there so much they just started shelving DVD cases and ringing up customers. The stable of vol- unteers that formed at Odd Obsession shared in its mission to spread the love of movies; in exchange for a few hours of easy clerical work, we got to share our tastes with cus- tomers and learn from them and each other. We also impacted the store’s development in ESSAY other ways, such as recommending titles to add to the collection or naming a section in the rental area. A fond farewell to Odd Obsession One particular volunteer expanded my curiosity about fi lm history to areas I never Remembering the people and fi lms that made the video store special. thought I’d go. I met Joe Rubin around the time I started volunteering. Joe was still in By B S his teens, but he’d already attracted national attention for his knowledge of exploitation and hard-core movies of the late-60s through the mid-80s. He was instrumental in building hen I started volunteering at Odd of watching: video works by Jean-Luc Godard browsing the collection. the store’s collection; with his input Odd Obsession Movies as a 23-year-old never released on Region 1 DVD, features As I became a regular customer, I got to Obsession cultivated a trove of rare drive-in Win early 2006, the store was in its by lesser-known directors of the Japanese know the store’s founder, Brian Chankin. (He horror movies, juvenile delinquent dramas, first location on Halsted Street, sitting New Wave, hard-to-find cult classics like was almost always there in those days, as ambitious hard-core features, and the occa- snugly in a basement storefront opposite Stephanie Rothman’s The Velvet Vampire the Halsted location doubled as his home.) sional fi lms that managed to combine several the Steppenwolf Theatre. I discovered the (1971) and John Byrum’s Inserts (1975), and We found we had similar tastes. Neither of of these subgenres. Joe appreciated all of this store by accident before going to a play one experimental fi lms by the likes of Andy War- us gravitated towards mainstream cinema, with a seriousness I’d previously reserved for evening, and after that, I began stopping in hol, Pat O’Neill, and Rob Tregenza. And then though we both liked lowbrow as well as art cinema alone; his infl uence could be felt about once a week. I couldn’t resist the lure there were all the movies I hadn’t even heard highbrow films, and we were especially in Odd Obsession’s layout. Have there been of movies that, until then, I’d only dreamed of; I wanted to spend hours in the store just drawn to movies that fused the two. Brian had any other video stores that organized their 22 CHICA O READER - MAY ll BE COUNTED. 2020 CENSUS
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ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 23 FILM
continued from 22 though Brian never contributed, I feel like he Brian moved Odd Obsession to Bucktown and fi nal location. Other volunteers came and porn fi lms by director? Joe taught me to rec- infl uenced the site’s policy of not publishing in the late 2000s, fi rst to a spot next to Up- went, other friendships formed. I continued ognize the creative visions of people working negative reviews. The attitude fostered by rise Skateshop, then to a slightly smaller to stop in often after I began to write for with the least reputable material, people like Odd Obsession was inclusive—André Bazin’s storefront a few doors north on Milwaukee the Reader full-time; there was always some Chuck Vincent and Doris Wishman. Joe now dictum “All films are created equal” could Avenue. The clientele became less seedy, but movie I needed to watch for research that I runs the DVD label Vinegar Syndrome, which have served as the store’s motto. the store remained colorful. The 1822 N. Mil- couldn’t fi nd anywhere else. I also kept up the restores and rereleases vintage exploitation Instead the words hanging in the door- waukee location had high ceilings, and Brian habit when I entered grad school and then my fare; it’s a bit like everyone can sample Odd way at the Halsted location were “This is hung art and movie posters all over the plen- current career as a special education teacher; Obsession’s exploitation section now. not a porn store.” Odd Obsession attracted tiful wall space. One of Brian’s cats, Precious, by that point, Odd Obsession was simply a I made other great friends through the cinephiles, but it attracted plenty of weirdos began to live in the store; her curmudgeonly hub in my personal route of the city, a place store, whether customers or fellow volun- as well. On one of my first days behind the attitude endeared her to customers, even where I could catch up with a friend or fi nd teers. The list would be too long to present counter, a middle-aged man walked in and though she hissed at babies and occasionally something interesting to watch after a long in full here, but deserving special mention asked if he could find “any porn, but, like, shat in the aisles. At some point the merry week at work. I’m sad that I won’t get to visit is Darnell Witt, who started a free cine club with Frankenstein.” After Brian answered video makers from Everything Is Terrible! it again after our current period of quarantine at his loft showing rare movies, many rented that he could (the movie was The Erotic Rites started using the front of the store as a work- ends. Other people have expounded on what from Odd Obsession, around the time I start- of Frankenstein, directed by Jess Franco in space, while the large garage-cum-storage we lose when we lose video stores—namely, ed volunteering at the store. In 2007 several 1972), the customer followed up by asking space in the back got used as the set of at the pleasure of browsing a physical collection people who attended these screenings start- whether there was “any porn, but, like, with least a few amateur short fi lms, one of them and the interpersonal connection that comes ed the website Cine-File.info (now CineFile. vampires and they’re all lesbians.” (The lucky being a music video for my old band. When with swapping movie recommendations—so info), where I fi rst started writing about mov- customer also left that day with Vampyros Brian began selling hand-painted movie I don’t need to do so again. But something ies and where I continue to contribute today. Lesbos, directed by Jess Franco in 1971.) You posters from Ghana, he’d always display distinct seems to be leaving Chicago with the A lot of the writing that appeared on the site never knew who would come in to Odd Obses- some around the rentals. closure of Odd Obsession Movies, a certain in its early days feels like it grew out of con- sion, which was an added bonus of volunteer- I stopped volunteering regularly a couple omnivorous aestheticism that brings people versations that happened at the store; even ing there. years before Odd Obsession moved to its third together. v
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24 CHICA O READER - MAY 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
SAT MAY 16 @ Online Sophia Lucia’s Freak Show Cabaret (EVENT REPEATS WEEKLY)
Fourteen SAT MAY 16 @ Online, Make & Muddle Summer Slushies: NOW PLAYING Much like Olivier Assayas’s Non-Fiction (2018), this latest Frozen boozy slushies romantic comedy from French writer-director Cédric Castle in the Ground Klapisch examines the implications of technology in R Castle in the Ground is a somber if not sober connection to modern life. Unlike Assayas, however, SUN MAY 17 look at America that immerses viewers into the bleak Klapisch has seemingly little to say beyond worn-out @ Online reality of the opioid epidemic. A er the untimely death aphorisms. The fi lm follows Remy (François Civil) and of his mother, Rebecca (Neve Campbell), Henry (Alex Mélanie (Ana Giradot), two hapless Parisians who live in Virtual Boozy (GREEN) Brunch Wolff ) befriends his charming but unsettled neighbor adjacent buildings and whose lives unwittingly intersect with Belinda and Matt Ana (Imogen Poots). Poots imbues Ana with an appeal until a predictable conclusion brings them together. anyone would be hard-pressed to ignore, let alone the Remy is a disaff ected warehouse worker grappling with younger, guilt-ridden and grief-stricken Henry. Soon, loneliness and guilt as a result of childhood trauma; THU MAY 21 stressful situations abound due to the pair’s shared Mélanie, a self-conscious research assistant, contends @ Online, Changing Worlds drug dependency. While Henry’s is fl edgling, Ana always with post-break-up heartache and tension within her seems to be one use away from her last, creating the family. Both characters start to see therapists, who are Changing Worlds Annual Benefit 2020 same sustained tension that scouring the neighbor- also shown to be connected. The conceit of following hood for your next fi x might. Poots’s ability to transfi x two discrete characters might have been interesting, but paired with Wolff ’s aff ecting performance makes it here it seems merely a gimmick—and one rendered as impossible to opt out before a conclusion. But, much tweely as possible, no less. Klapisch presents the char- MAY 23 SAT like the similarly themed Ben Is Back, the mood remains acters’ alienation as the result of society’s dependence @ Online, Make & Muddle melancholy, and viewers are le in the dark about the on social media and dating apps, a tenuous argument protagonists’ ultimate fates. —B J 105 min. In that adds little to the sentimental plot. In French with Tiki Talk wide release on VOD starting 5/15 subtitles. —K S 110 min. 5/15-5/21, Gene Siskel Film Center From Your Sofa Fourteen R The fi h feature by critic-turned-fi lmmaker Dan A White, White Day JUNE 6 Sallitt explores the lifelong friendship between two This simmering Icelandic drama opens with a car acci- SAT @ Naperville Settlement fl edgling Brooklynites, Mara (Tallie Medel from the dent that leaves brusque, off -duty police chief Ingimun- director’s previous fi lm, The Unspeakable Act) and Jo dur (Ingvar Sigurðsson) a widower. The plot thickens Naperville Soulfest 2020 (Norma Kuhling). Mara, a teacher’s aide, writes on the when, going through his late wife’s possessions, he dis- side, while Jo, a social worker, has diffi culty keeping a covers that she had been having an aff air. Despite having job; both date several men over the fi lm’s unspecifi ed close relationships with his remaining family members— timeline. Eventually Mara gets pregnant and has a child, specifi cally his young granddaughter, Salka (Ida Mekkin JUNE 6 while Jo’s life devolves due to her substance abuse and Hlynsdottir), whose presence provides much-needed SAT mental health issues. Where French auteur Eric Rohmer levity for both Ingimundur and the audience—the chief @ Online, Eboni Montsho Ignites was the primary point of reference for Sallitt’s earlier becomes obsessed with discovering the truth about his Purpose & Passion Tour 2020 fi lms, here one feels the infl uence of another French wife and exacting revenge on her aff air partner. As a auteur, Maurice Pialat, in the use of ellipses to move study of grief, writer-director Hlynur Pálmason’s sopho- the story, and thus the characters’ lives, forward. Sallitt more feature lacks any signifi cant insight, but there’s still once remarked that “[f]ilming two people sitting in a something about it that intrigues. It’s slow, but genuinely Providing arts coverage room talking is the ultimate in cinema.” This fi lm fi nds so, not in any frustratingly self-aware way. It also looks Sallitt moving around perhaps more than ever, tracking amazing, its eastern Icelandic setting—complete with in Chicago since 1971. his characters across the screen as well as over the picturesque mountains, a placid sea, and, in fi tting with years, but the sentiment continues to resonate. Sallitt’s the fi lm’s title, lots of cloud-like white fog—a sight to in partnership with clipped dialogue and his direction of actors also remain behold. Furthermore, Pálmason elevates what might strong. —K S 94 min. Music Box Theatre otherwise have been rote art house fare with some Virtual Cinema earnestly realized nonnarrative techniques. In Icelandic with subtitles. —K S 109 min. 5/15-5/28, www.chicagoreader.com to add your event to TIXREADER COM, Someone, Somewhere Facets Virtual Cinema email [email protected] ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 25 MUSIC
Jabari “Naledge” Evans of Kidz in the Hall talks about his doctoral dissertation, incorporating hip-hop into education, the drill scene hacking the industry, and more. By L G
abari “Naledge” Evans expected to have been free agents, and in 2017 they self- of Communication, where he’s also a research uation, I was like, ‘I’m never doing this ever spend April in a Chicago recording stu- released Free Nights & Weekends. fellow with the Center on Media and Human again,’” he says. “‘I’m gonna be famous at the dio with Michael “Double-O” Aguilar, Evans and Aguilar have been working on a Development. end of this.’” his partner in hip-hop duo Kidz in the follow-up where and when they can—before Once Kidz in the Hall got famous, unscru- By the time Occasion came out in 2011, Hall. They met in 2000 while studying the pandemic, they’d recorded five songs in pulous commentators weaponized their Ivy though, enough time had passed for Evans to Jat the University of Pennsylvania and formed New York and fi ve in Los Angeles, where Agui- League origin story to suggest the group were have a change of heart about higher education. the group in 2004. Their 2006 debut album, lar lives. Their schedules have complicated somehow “inauthentic.” It hasn’t helped that He enrolled at the University of Southern School Was My Hustle, came out on respected in-person collaboration, which Evans prefers their feel-good style has relegated them to the California in 2012, and two years later he com- indie label Rawkus Records shortly before its to trading fi les by e-mail. Aguilar DJs for Lupe stereotypically brainy subgenre of “conscious pleted a master’s in social work. In Chicago, he demise; the duo’s next three albums, ending Fiasco, and Evans is a PhD student and lec- hip-hop.” But when Evans finished at UPenn got involved in youth-mentorship programs, with 2011’s Occasion, were issued by Duck turer at Northwestern University; in 2016 he in 2004, years before the duo broke out, he’d volunteering at the Little Black Pearl Art & Down Records. Since then Kidz in the Hall enrolled in the doctoral program at the School had his fi ll of school. “As we got closer to grad- Design Academy in 2013 and working as a 26 CHICA O READER - MAY ll MUSIC Order your copy today!
Jabari “Naledge” Evans COURTESY THE ARTIST Leor Galil: Why did you want to pursue a PhD? teaching artist for music-education nonprofi t Foundations of Music in 2015. That year he Jabari “Naledge” Evans: I started seeing also launched his own music-focused non- the utility as I started working with youth. profi t, the Brainiac Project. I started going to these meetings where I The more Evans worked with kids, the more was interacting with people to try to secure questions he had. How could schools incor- grants; I ended up being in rooms with a lot of porate specifically hip-hop-related music- researchers for these situations, and I ended making programming into their curricula? up speaking at a lot of schools. People would How could that encourage students to find say that to me: “You might benefi t from a PhD, creative voices they can carry outside of insti- when this is all said and done.” The questions tutional environments? How can technology I was asking were things they figured could help them in that process? be solved at that level of study. Exploring those questions through a PhD I had a realer conversation with a profes- program looked more and more appealing, sor that’s at Northwestern, Aymar Jean “AJ” and Evans applied to three Chicago schools. Christian. He broke it down to me: There’s His time at Foundations of Music has informed not enough artists in academia. There’s a lot his Northwestern dissertation, which is still of people who speak about art, there’s a lot in progress—it unpacks how young people of people who research those worlds, and of color engage with subcultures and how even people who have semi-access—there’s https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ that a ects their world outside music, with a a ton of journalists that get into PhD work, strong emphasis on the role of technology. and then they’re able to enter into spaces leor-galil?refcode=20200508_WEB_prpage Evans is also working on a book for DIO because they have relationships from their Press called Learn Like a Rapper and building former jobs. But the perspective of an artist on a separate study of drill and technology is diff erent. that he began last summer, while interning I didn’t realize what he meant until I got for Microsoft Research New England’s Social into pursuing a PhD. I have a diff erent voice Media Collective. Anyone following drill since and a diff erent viewpoint that I think isn’t in Chief Keef’s emergence in 2012 could’ve pre- academia. He was like, “The fact that you dicted it would end up the focus of academic went to Penn in undergrad and the fact that interest, and Evans is hardly the only person you have all this life experience, you’re actual- to examine the culture through such a lens. ly a perfect candidate to be in our program.” Ballad of the Bullet, a new book on drill, All of my research—all of it—is driven by real- technology, and gangs by Stanford University life situations and conversations with people sociology professor Forrest Stuart, is being in fields that I wouldn’t even have relation- published by Princeton University Press this ships with if I wasn’t in the trenches. week. Evans has already crossed paths with Seeing how our industry has changed, rap- Stuart in his research, but their approaches idly, I’m almost like an alien. I’m immersed in are vastly di erent. a world that I was raised into, but hip-hop I met with Evans in the fall because he changes every week. I’m realizing that when wanted to interview me about drill, and our I talk to teenagers about what they’re doing Make every mile matter! conversation also touched on his studies to fi nd audiences—what they’re doing to fi nd and his experience making music in Chicago. out about themselves and forge friendships is I’ve been curious about how his work has light-years beyond what I was doing. progressed since then—he’s still on track to Both my parents are PhDs. If you asked my graduate as early as 2021—and about how the elementary school classmates or high school emergence of COVID-19 might have a ected classmates, this was more the logical route Sign up to run the 2020 Bank of America Chicago Marathon his projects. Last month, I called Evans for than the idea of becoming an artist—I think a wide-ranging talk about his return to aca- that surprised people. I kinda took the long with Chicago Run! In the current climate, your support will demia, his study of an art form he still creates, way home. be especially vital in ensuring that Chicago Run continues the nexus of technology and hip-hop, and to advance the health and wellness of over 15,000 Chicago more. Our conversation has been edited for If this is a long road back to academia, with length and clarity. your music career being kind of a sabbatical, youth through inclusive running and fitness programs. how did that help you figure out what you www.chicagorun.org/teamchicagorun wanted to do as a PhD student? ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 27 MUSIC
continued from 27 You wanted to focus on Chicago—but why structure that’s building through the Inter- lege who were doing a documentary—they I fi gured out real quickly that the whole point media, technology, and society? net, more so than in other urban enclaves. I’m gave me some access to interviews with peo- of the PhD is to have some type of question thinking about how DJs during this time of ple like Young Chop, Spenzo, Big Homie Doe, that can only be answered with a dissertation. The youth I was interacting with—what they COVID-19 have been innovators in relation- and King Louie. These people were around Right before—I would say 2013, 2014—I started were doing is using the Internet. The more al labor, and what does that tell us about the me, but because the music they were making doing mentorship work with youth that want- I realized a lot of the things they were able future of work? And what could small startups was so different from mine, I wasn’t under- ed to get into the music industry. I started to do with super-duper constraints . . . I had learn from how hip-hop artists bootstrap, time standing their genius. working with a lot of arts not-for-profi ts, one to save money to go to a real studio; a lot of and time again, and innovate time and time That’s another project I’ve been thinking of which was Foundations of Music. They had these youth are fi guring out ways to put stu- again? about. How the aesthetics of drill—the whole brought me in to be a guest speaker—some- dios in their crib, to do beats on their phone. I don’t think I was even ready for this type violent nature of it, and the way it’s tied to body who was in the industry could observe They’re utilizing these platforms that keep of rigor, academically, when I was 23. I was the criminal activity that goes on here in Chi- the curriculum and go in and basically be like, changing. When I was breaking in, it was smart, but I wasn’t mature enough—I didn’t cago—have branded drill. When really, the “Yo, is this thing that we’re trying to do,” which My Space; now we’re seeing the emergence of have the life experience. I pursued a dream I branding of drill should be around the fact is hip-hop-based education in CPS schools, “is TikTok. had that drove my passion. that these kids from marginalized communi- it corny? Is what we’re doing correct?” I was like, “The questions that I’m now Kidz in the Hall gained traction at a weird ties found ways to use cell phones to hack the Seeing how, for lack of better terms, I was thinking about have to involve technology.” I time, where the Internet was really the wild industry. That’s the story, and that’s the story I a nerd, I was always the kid who kind of had also wanted to be able to enter spaces where wild west. I was just talking to Andrew Barber want to tell. to be quiet about some of his intellect. There I could hear what people who create these about that: “Yo, there was a point where we was nothing in the school off erings that drew technologies were doing. I did a talk at Spo- would do such impactful things that were get- How does studying media as an academ- out of me confi dence—things I could use my tify in Boston this summer. Ten years ago, they ting views that no one was monetizing.” Labels ic—and being in spaces with youth who are creative mind with to combine with my intel- would’ve been placating me as an artist. Now, didn’t really understand, like, “How does that shaping the way new technology is used— lect. Those are things I found, generally, in I’m more coming in with questions about soci- translate to sales,” which is laughable now. infl uence you and your art? sports. But then I had this other side of me ety, not necessarily industry. I’m still asking I used to tell Vic Mensa, and I think I told that was very intellectual and very inquisitive. questions about how youth create careers— all the guys that I interacted with that were On a very superficial level, it just keeps me Growing up in South Shore—it sounds crazy, I’m still doing that—and I’m also asking about younger than me, when they were on their knowing what’s current, and then how I fit but to intellectually fl ex, it was taboo. the utility of the technology itself, and where way up—I sat with all of them and told them within that. That’s been helpful to know. If Working with Foundations of Music, they they see it going. they had it, and I told them things that I made you were a regular guy my age, the only way were putting programs in elementary level One of my mentors from undergrad, Dr. mistakes with. I had hunches that they all were you would fi gure out what’s current is to talk that would have been a dream to a kid like James Peterson, he’s a hip-hop scholar who gonna be big on some level, and I think that’s a to your child, or to be where children are, me. Having been somebody that’s actually studied under Dr. Michael Eric Dyson—who’s part of my legacy too. It’s a reason why I think and that’s not normal—unless you’re a school- went through the process of getting a record the real godfather of all of this. He was tell- mentorship on all levels and having a good ear teacher, unless you’re a DJ, unless . . . I have deal, my fi rst experience with hip-hop music ing me, “You can have some of the same ideas; for music is always gonna be a part of my lega- homies like Joe Freshgoods, who owns a was, like, being 12 in a room full of blunts and you just have to fl esh it out and translate it to cy. As I got older, I realized it was up to people streetwear shop—he’s interacting with youth 40-ounces, in spaces that were super sketchy, academic-speak. Once you do that—once you like me, Mikkey Halsted, GLC, Rhymefest, the all the time. He’s driving what they think, but and lying to my parents about where I was get that validation of those three letters a er Cool Kids—it was up to us to work in tandem he also is hearing what’s on the undercurrent going. It’s crazy thinking about the level of your name—when you enter into the room, the with guys like DJ RTC and Andrew Barber to all the time. That’s kind of the position that danger and stupidity that was involved in fi nd- access opens up diff erent. There’s a journey build what now has structure. research is giving me. I’ve been in CPS class- ing my cra . What if you had the ability to just for you a erwards that I think will be exciting The program at Northwestern was fi tting, rooms seeing what youth are interested in. go to school, and there was a part of the day for you.” because it was interdisciplinary yet broad— There’s the unicorns of the hip-hop space, that you could do that? Being an academic, you’ve got to always broad enough, yet allowed me to find my like, the Chance the Rappers and the Drakes, There’s people all over the globe doing this be curious, and that’s something that is relat- focus. Northwestern is like being on Def Jam who are able to enter anybody’s conversation, work. Hip-hop-based ed is a hashtag that’s able. As an MC, you’ve gotta always be curi- as a rapper. It’s basically giving me a ton of be themselves, and people accept it. But then been used long before me. It’s been interest- ous, because you can’t sit in the same spot. I resources and the ability to walk into a room there’s people like me, Little Brother, and Talib ing doing this stuff retroactively, reading all can’t be “School Is My Hustle” Naledge no and say, “This is where I’m studying,” and peo- Kweli—we step outside of those conversations of what I missed while I was a touring artist. more. I’m 35 now, I’ve got a child, I’m sitting ple respect it. that people are used to from us, and it gets There were people in ’94 and ’95 who were here thinking about marriage, but at the same Going through the tenure track, I might not awkward. So we have to fi gure out new ways doing super dope, interesting work on hip- time I’m struggling with “How do I leave this be able to stay in Chicago. But I’ll never not to reinvent ourselves that are palatable—that’s hop ed. Here in Chicago, you’ve got people old life behind that made me Naledge?” That’s have ties to Chicago. The research that I’m what’s been interesting to me. like David Stovall, who’s at UIC—he’s one of what my music is about now, so there’s an doing, I have so much access here because the major people in the fi eld—and people like evolution. of my ties—that’s something that’s gonna get The way we have to use technology during Decoteau Irby, who’s also at UIC. Chris Emdin, The questions that I came into the program me a nice jump-start thinking about this fi rst the pandemic is so radically diff erent. How who’s at Columbia in New York, he’s consid- asking had to do with hip-hop-based educa- book. And then also thinking about this sec- has that aff ected your day-to-day, and aff ect- ered the godfather of hip-hop ed. But I think tion, its utility, and how do we bring the infor- ond project that has emerged from doing ed how you think about your dissertation? even the ways they look at it is diff erent from mal into formal settings. Through this study interviews with artists—it started off thinking me. To reel that back in, my work in Founda- it’s pivoted, and I’m now thinking about “How about the drill scene. Now, with everyone having to go remote, I’m tions of Music led to me wanting to help with do drill artists get big off YouTube?” I’m think- I talked to people like David Drake, Andrew doing just as much education on the technol- their curriculum and do more intensive work. ing about why, in Chicago, there’s an infra- Barber, and some people at Columbia Col- ogy itself. I’m teaching a class right now in 28 CHICA O READER - MAY ll MUSIC
Northwestern’s School of Professional Stud- And I’m like, “I don’t know.” This thing is never hip-hop space, and so we collaborated on a way diff erent than what somebody who even ies, which is adult learners continuing their done. The writing of the dissertation has been paper that led to me thinking about drill. But remotely has an interest in hip-hop would ask. education. So now I’m dealing with, like, the about 14 months, but technically I’ve been if I hadn’t had that internship, I wouldn’t have I learned how to frame my work during that mother of three who works at the hospital, doing this project for four years. I’ve been sit- had the time to think about it. summer. It’s like a taxi conversation—if some- who is pursuing a degree, and has never used ting in solitude, writing and reading. I also got to interact with a professor body asks you, “What do you do?” Now I think Zoom before. named Forrest Stuart. He’d done a couple I fi gured out how to explain that. It’s like these Scheduling has become diff erent; the uni- You’ve been working on your dissertation of public-facing things—he’d had an article youths, who were marginalized, have been versity sent people home, so some people for 14 months, and you’ve already come up in Chicago magazine. He studies drill more able to become walking startups, so to speak. aren’t in Chicago. So now we have time sched- with a follow-up, which is the drill study . . . from a criminology standpoint and surveil- How does a startup that bootstraps itself and uling that is diff erent, in dealing with under- lance, thinking about how these online inter- is working on a lean budget compete with grads at least. You become more than a teach- The only reason I was able to do that was actions spill into the street, what that means, conglomerates? And these youth fi gured that er. You become somebody who has to create ’cause I got an internship with Microso last and how police surveil that. He found some out. energy as well, because people are in a state summer. I was in Cambridge—they have a of the same things I found—like the ingenuity All my work has dealt with the implications where they’re unable to necessarily focus on group called the Social Media Collective. All with the technology—even though I’m focused of technology on race, access, and learning the task at hand, and that’s been different they do is think about research; they have this more on the industry, because that’s just more and workplace development. So when I’m and diffi cult. When you’re in a classroom, you internship program, and the only rule for the who I am and my background. But the ability talking to an economist, and I’m talking about can sense your audience. Part of the whole summer internship is you do something that’s to collaborate with tenured professors when what artists like Keef and Durk do for Chica- lecture process is being able to feed off the completely unrelated to your dissertation. So I’m a student is super cool. go’s economy, that’s how it’s palatable to them. energy of the people that are in the room, it forced me to fi nd another project. One thing that that experience gave me is I love getting in front of people, finding and so that becomes detached and weird; it I collaborated with a scholar there that I I had to get up in front of machine-learning out about their life, immersing myself in their feels like you’re just talking to yourself. looked up to, basically; I was working with people, economists—people who were doing world, and trying to translate that. It’s not a They say writing a dissertation is already a lady by the name of Nancy Baym, and her vastly different things than anything I was feeling that can equal making a song, but I’ve social distancing. I was already annoying my expertise is on online fandom and the ways studying—and explain to them why what I’m found that it’s a close second. v girl, ’cause I sit for hours in front of a com- in which artists relate to audiences through studying is important. That was very valuable, puter, writing, and she’s like, “Are you done?” digital means. She knew nothing about the because the questions they’re gonna ask are @imLeor
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ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 29 Important MUSIC Reader News
Due to business closings and for safety purposes, the Chicago Reader is going biweekly with a print run to 600+ locations, including our box route. On the o weeks (April 9, 23, May 7) the Reader is just being distributed as a free PDF, with a small press run to ful ll subscriber and library mailings.
We are also making a limited number of copies available for special short-term subscriptions, 12 weeks for $50, and every week’s issue will be mailed to your home.
Just a few hundred copies will be sold of these very limited souvenir editions of the Reader: secure.actblue.com/donate/chicago-reader-print-12 CHICAGOANS OF NOTE
Find the full curated PDF download of the Reader at Billy Helmkamp, co-owner of the chicagoreader.com/issues Whistler and Sleeping Village by Wednesday each week. “This is gonna devastate our industry. We were the fi rst to close; we’re gonna be the last to reopen. A lot of venues aren’t gonna make it.” As told to P M
Billy Helmkamp, 43, co-owns the Whistler e took a bit of a funny path with the (which he opened in 2008 with Rob Brenner) Whistler. I lived in New York from and Sleeping Village (opened in 2018 with Bren- W’97 till basically Christmas 2001, and ner and former Whistler bartender Eric Henry). one of my fi rst and closest friends out there He’s been a major player in the Logan Square was my now partner at the Whistler and Arts Festival for most of its history and serves Sleeping Village, Rob Brenner. He came out to on the board of I Am Logan Square, which or- Chicago a couple years before I did. I worked ganizes it. (If this summer’s fest happens, it’ll in television, postproduction; he worked in be as smaller events, on a scale deemed safe by commercial photography. And on the side we’d public-health authorities.) Helmkamp is also book and produce concerts, we’d shoot music on the board of directors at the Chicago Inde- videos, we’d make concert posters. Thank you, pendent Venue League (CIVL), founded in 2018, Eventually he moved into the building that and wears two hats at the brand-new National the Whistler’s in. That was 2005, about three Independent Venue Association (NIVA): he’s years before the Whistler actually opened. We The Reader team one of two Illinois precinct captains and sits on had a long list of things we wanted to do in the national lobbying committee. that space—artists’ studios, a recording stu- 30 CHICA O READER - MAY ll MUSIC
talking to our landlord about pausing rent. PHOTO COURTESY OF BILLY HELMKAMP We have monthly expenses with our POS sys- dio, a record store. They all revolved around tem provider, our ice-machine company, our being able to throw shows at night. Really, we glass-washer rental company—these are all thought it was just gonna be an all-ages music people we’re reaching out to and getting our venue, and we put together a business plan and services either paused or reduced. quickly realized we’d be out of business before Right now NIVA has a very narrow focus. we ever started if we didn’t sell beer or drinks. We’re really trying to reach the big four in Neither of us had any bar experience, but Congress—Pelosi, McConnell, McCarthy, and Tim and Katie Tuten from the Hideout were Schumer—and we’re all obviously reaching extremely helpful. I came to them with more out to other elected o cials that represent us. dumb questions than I can remember, and they But we need revisions to the PPP loan program. were just happy to answer them every time. We’re looking to increase the loan cap to at The Chicago Independent Venue League least eight times the monthly average cost of all started with a call from Katie: “Hey, can you the qualifi ed uses of the loan. Currently it’s only come by the Hideout? I’ve gotta talk to you 2.5 months. We’re looking for a little bit more about something.” She filled me in on what flexibility for loan forgiveness—PPP funds we were looking at with the Lincoln Yards aren’t gonna do any good for covering rent development, and what we were hearing Live because it needs to be 75 percent toward pay- Nation’s role in that was going to be. roll, at least for any kind of forgivable portion. When it became obvious what all of us were And we want to be able to extend that program looking at with coronavirus and mandated until we can resume normal operations. A lot of shutdowns, Katie and I were talking to Rev. venues, just due to the nature of how booking Moose from [New York music-marketing fi rm] works and tour routing and promotion works, Marauder, who was heading up Independent they’re not gonna be going again for another six Venue Week. “Hey, we already have this orga- to nine months after they get the OK. A 1,000- nization in Chicago that represents a number cap room can’t book a show for tomorrow. of independent venues. You’ve got this huge We’re asking the government—you need to mailing list, you’ve got organizational skills— put more money toward increased testing and we really need to start connecting all of these contact tracing and treatment and a vaccine. venues.” Because none of us think we’re gonna be back Within the next week, we hear from them: to business as usual until there’s a vaccine. “Hey, we’re forming the National Independent We need to make more noise. We’re im- Venue Association. We have fi ve committees: portant culturally and economically, and we we’ve got governance, funding, research, lob- need to remind our representatives about bying, and marketing. We’ve got committee those two facts. NIVA has a section on their heads, we have a board of directors. We are website where we outline what the public gonna start getting venues to sign up for this, can do to help raise awareness. If people go to and we really need to go to D.C. for help.” nivassoc.org, there’s a “take action” section. Because this is gonna devastate our indus- Beyond that, buy your favorite band’s record. try. We were the fi rst to close; we’re gonna be Buy their merch, get a shirt, get a hoodie. Mu- the last to reopen. And when we’re allowed to sicians aren’t making their living right now. reopen, we’re gonna be doing so at a very di- Katie pointed out that we keep saying, minished capacity. The writing’s on the wall—a “We’ve got our hand up right now, not our lot of venues aren’t gonna make it through this. hand out.” If you wanna look at how important When the CIVL members came on board, venues are, look at our GoFundMe campaigns. there were 30-something venues in NIVA. She said that just between the Chicago venues, And at this point we’re looking at over 1,200 last she checked they’d raised over $300,000 venues. I’m on the lobbying committee, which for sta . is being led by Dayna Frank, the CEO of First We’ve seen some testimonials of people Avenue up in Minneapolis. And she is just a who got Chicago Resiliency funds and PPP powerhouse. I’m on the board of directors for funds, who were like, “Oh, thank God I got CIVL; for NIVA, another guy named Chris Bau- this—my revenue’s down 20 percent because man and I are co-precinct captains for Illinois of this crisis!” And we’re all sitting here, like, and overseeing the midwest lobbying e orts. “Twenty percent is just a bad month! Lose 100 The average person thinks venues are percent.” v making money hand over fist, but our profit margins are pretty razor-thin. So we’re @pmontoro ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 31 Recommended and notable reviews and critics’ insights for the week of May 14
MUSIC b ALLAGESF
Danzig, Sings Elvis PICK OF THE WEEK Cleopatra danzigsingselvis.bandcamp.com/album/danzig- Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith creates a mosaic of electricity sings-elvis For Glenn Danzig, the past 15 years have been espe- on The Mosaic of Transformation cially weird. Starting with the infamous 2004 back- stage TKO punch delivered by North Side Kings singer Danny Marianino, the Misfi ts mastermind—in his heyday one of the most enigmatic and distinc- tive vocalists in punk history—has been on a down- ward spiral of unintentional self-parody and appar- ent madness. Every bit of news about Danzig to emerge since then has been strange and hilarious: the onstage meltdowns, the viral shopping- for-cat- litter photo, the bizarre assortment of Looney Tunes collectibles and other pop-culture memorabilia le behind for whoever purchased his former Los Ange- les home in 2018. And this spring we can fi nally bear witness to Danzig’s peak “OK boomer” moment: his brand-new collection of limp, half-hearted Elvis Presley covers, Sings Elvis. Did we need this? Did we want this? Absolutely not. But here we are. On paper, the idea makes sense. Part of what made Danzig so great—in the Misfi ts, in Samhain, and in his eponymous metal band—was his Presley-fl avored croon. But Danzig no longer has those vocal chops. Even worse, he also lacks the energy he once pos- sessed; he seems like he’s about to fall asleep on every single one of these 14 tracks. The strangest part of the whole affair might be the production choices. Danzig performs all the instruments him- self, and they sound tiny and tired—they’re incredi- bly low in the mix, while his voice dominates every- thing. This is an incredibly confusing listening expe- rience. I don’t think Danzig could’ve pulled off a set of Elvis covers in his late-70s prime, and he defi nite- ly can’t now. —L C
Kassel Jaeger & Jim O’Rourke, In Cobalt Aura Sleeps Editions Mego CHANTALANDERSON kasseljaegerjimorourke.bandcamp.com/album/ in-cobalt-aura-sleeps In 2017, Paris-based electroacoustic composer Kas- sel Jaeger (born François Bonnet) and Chicago- born Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, The Mosaic of Transformation multi-instrumentalist Jim O’Rourke joined forces for Ghostly Wakes on Cerulean, a kaleidoscopic duo record- kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com/album/the-mosaic-of-transformation ing filled with shape-shifting electronics and field recordings. On their brand-new second collabora- tive album, In Cobalt Aura Sleeps (Editions Mego), they aim to convey a similarly rapturous experience, but the piece they deliver develops in an even more striking and engaging manner. The recording begins IT’SASTRUGGLETODEFINE the purpose of most music—the answer in 2014) seems aimed at the spiritual, and The Mosaic of Transforma- with the serene, soothing sounds of waves, insects, is perpetually changing, based on time, place, and innumerable other tion suggests something more physical by including photos of Smith and birds, before a spurt of electronics makes evi- dent the artists’ presence. Queasy tones introduce factors. But Los Angeles-based synthesist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith in its packaging, contorting herself into various poses that explore a cryptic atmosphere, and the mood changes again seems to have homed in on something specific on her new album, movement and the limits of her body. (Maybe she means to hint at the as swirling, sparkling synths take on an astral sheen The Mosaic of Transformation (Ghostly). The joyous, drifting melo- patch-cord gymnastics necessary to operate modular synths, plug- that transports you into space. Thankfully, In Cobalt Aura Sleeps never becomes garishly epic; though it dy of “Remembering,” the album’s second track, can be heard as an ging in and withdrawing cables to funnel electricity and sound in per- mutates into something larger, it does so patiently, elemental distillation of contemporary synthesis. “Be kind to one fect sync.) But not all of Smith’s music reaches for empyrean heights: before receding into a vortex of sputtering noise. another,” Smith sings, a reminder for the aberrant lives we’re all lead- “A Kid,” from 2017’s The Kid, moves into beat-music territory, and on The most aff ecting passage comes last: a meditative tapestry of electronics weaves through the sound of ing now; her sparkling composition evokes colors and mimics fl utes, Mosaic, she exhibits some singer-songwriter tendencies. Those ele- rushing water, perhaps sampled from a creek, whose creating a sense of calm that’s too often hard to come by. Purposely ments are just passing glances, though, moments that display Smith’s constant bubbling gives you a surprisingly squea- or not, her entire practice exudes something similar. Her 2018 record versatility as she continues to explore the nexus of woolgathering, mish feeling. It’s as if you’ve been transported to the ancient Earth and le simmering in primordial soup. Tides: Music for Meditation and Yoga (released as a digital-only a air sound, and movement. —D C —J MK 32 CHICA O READER - MAY ll MUSIC
Paradise Lost COURTESYTHEARTIST BIT.LY/GOOSEDELIVERS
Melenas, Dias Raros Aaron Aedy, and bassist Stephen Edmondson— Trouble in Mind has remained intact since the band’s founding in melenas.bandcamp.com/album/dias-raros 1988. Their longevity may arise in part from their chameleon-like ability to transform their sound; Pamplona, Spain, is probably best known for the they can deliver a crushing guitar-driven epic fit festival of San Fermín, when thrill seekers run with for leading a battalion of medieval warriors into bulls through the streets—which usually ends much battle, or a synth-heavy, noirish pop track that worse for the animals than the humans. The four could make the most forlorn mall goth smile. Par- women in Melenas may not pull as big a crowd as adise Lost have had ups and downs, but late- that globally famous event, but on their new sec- ly they’ve veered back toward their roots: 2017’s ond album, Dias Raros (Trouble in Mind), they Medusa is a master class in achingly heavy doom. offer 11 better reasons to remember their home- True to form, they’ve changed course again on town’s name. The band’s sound adheres to a tem- their new 16th album, Obsidian. While Medusa plate established by garage-rock combos in the is single-minded in its vision, Obsidian embrac- 1960s and productively renewed by acts such as es electicsm, pacing its shi s in tone so well that Yo La Tengo, Stereolab, and the late, very great even the most fervent shuffl e-button addicts might New Zealand group Look Blue, Go Purple. Mele- see the point of the album format. “Darker Forms” nas lay trebly, reverberant guitar and alternately kicks off the album with a twinkling melody, then drony and punchy keyboard licks over simple, pro- opens up into dark symphonic rock that climaxes pulsive rock beats, and draw you in with simple, with Mackintosh’s heaven-bound guitar solo. On catchy vocal hooks. Since the songs are all in Span- the third track, “Ghosts,” Paradise Lost break out ish (the lyrics are printed, but not translated, on a death-rock sound custom-made for the grimi- Summit the album’s inner sleeve), listeners not conversant est subterranean dance fl oors, and on the super- in the language might not be able to tell that gui- sized gothic anthem “Forsaken,” they create a tarist Oihana and bassist Leire are singing about more empowering feel than its title would sug- internal dialogues. But you don’t need to under- gest. The album’s genre looseness notwithstand- Chicago stand a word to catch the happy-sad vibe that ing, it doesn’t lack for cavernous metal to sink your spikes Melenas’ graceful melodies. —B M teeth into, most notably on “The Devil’s Embrace” “I take great pride in being the owner of Summit and closing track “Ravenghast.” Thirty-two years Chicago for over 22 years. The Summit pioneered into their career, Paradise Lost have nothing le the dedicated urban meeting environment and Paradise Lost, Obsidian to prove except to themselves—and with Obsidian Nuclear Blast they demonstrate what a great place that is for a now it is the largest growing sector in the meetings paradiselostoffi cial.bandcamp.com band to reach. —J L industry. Leading the Summit has afforded me the opportunity to build, nurture, and support my team British fi ve-piece Paradise Lost had already helped pioneer death-doom by the time they put out their Retirement Party, Runaway Dog and our clients.” second album, 1991’s Gothic, and laid groundwork Counter Intuitive Louise Silberman, Owner for subsequent generations of bands that com- counterintuitiverecords.bandcamp.com/album/ bined metal’s harshness with dark, romantic tex- retirement-party-runaway-dog 312.938.2000 | [email protected] tures. They’ve since gone through nearly as many drummers as Spinal Tap, but the rest of the line- Chicago emo acts helped raise the national pro- 205 N. Michigan Ave. 10th Floor up—vocalist Nick Holmes, lead guitarist and key- file of the fourth-wave scene in the early 2010s, Chicago, IL 60601 boardist Gregor Mackintosh, rhythm guitarist but most of them had gone on hiatus or broken www.summitchicago.com ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 33 Find more music reviews at MUSIC chicagoreader.com/soundboard.
Chicago Reader
Ric Wilson BETAWAVE
continued from 33 deluxe version called Pyrot3k (SS)—he focuses on up by the time Retirement Party dropped their blissful melodies and antsy samples. On “Gang,” debut EP, 2017’s Strictly Speaking. Retirement for example, he loops a snippet of JackBoys’ “Gang Party not only fi lled a void in the city but also man- Gang” into a hypnotic koan at a speed that makes ifested new energy with subtly retooled combi- the original sound like it’s stuck in the mud. Several nations of familiar emo, pop-punk, and indie-rock of Taye’s friends, including Teklife members DJ Earl tropes—on their 2018 full-length debut, Some- and Heavee, join in on the fun, and I’m especially what Literate, their workmanlike rhythm sec- partial to his collaboration with Night Slugs label tion heats up the languid guitars till they smol- owner James Connolly, aka L-Vis 1990. On “Parade der. Singer-guitarist Avery Springer wrote all the Float,” the two producers whimsically intertwine material for the band’s previous releases by her- Morse code beeps and battering-ram gabber-style self, but for Retirement Party’s brand-new Run- kick drum to manifest a cartoonish energy that away Dog (Counter Intuitive), she collaborated seems to gather itself and balloon outward during on the music with drummer James Ringness and the song’s tiny silences. —L G bassist-guitarist Eddy Rodriguez. Working as a trio, they subdue the nerviness of their early days chicagoreader.com/puzzle and reinvigorate their sound with a heavier style. Ric Wilson, They Call Me Disco The coarse bass line, skipping drums, and gliding Free Disco/Sounds of Crenshaw/Empire guitars of “No Tide” rub against Springer’s non- ricwilsonisme.bandcamp.com chalant vocals to create the tension that propels the track toward its brilliant crescendo. Its upbeat Chicago rapper and prison abolitionist Ric Wil- melody and fl eeting, wistful highs make it a con- son knows the joy of combing through history tender for song of the summer: “I hope I’ll make it for jewels of knowledge that enrich his connec- through June,” Springer sings, “a little better off .” tion to his hometown’s multifaceted Black com- —L G munities. He also understands how to incorpo- Do Not Touch Puzzle rate sounds from the past into contemporary Piece together the first of our iconic music. Last year he found a kindred spirit in Ter- DJ Taye, Pyrot3k race Martin, a Los Angeles jazz sideman and hip- Stay Home cover series. Self-released hop producer who’s worked with some of the most djtaye.bandcamp.com/album/pyrot3k important west-coast rappers of all time, including Snoop Dogg, DJ Quik, and Kendrick Lamar. Mar- This is a 432-piece, 18” x 24” puzzle. The Pop music moves fast: new instructional-dance tin brings a glimmer of California sunshine and a songs, new Drake songs, and new instructional- light touch of funk to the duo’s new collaborative cost of this puzzle is $60 + $10 for shipping. dance songs by Drake can bombard the zeitgeist record, They Call Me Disco (Free Disco/Sounds (U.S. orders only) one week and all but evaporate the next. Foot- of Crenshaw/Empire). Wilson’s voluble verses work, the lightning-fast Chicago-born house sub- saunter over minimal funk guitars, mellow soul genre, is well suited to capture that frenetic pace. synths, and hip-shaking percussion, which Mar- Young footwork master and Teklife member DJ tin tastefully combines in layers like a landscape Taye instinctively understands how to combine painter zeroing in on the perfect color for a sun- footwork’s adrenaline rush with the pop’s euphor- set. The EP is as much a testament to Wilson’s ic glee to build tracks with a distinctive ener- love for disco, soul, and funk as it is an argument gy. Last month he self-released Pyrot3k, the third that these great art forms can still be crucial con- entry in the Pyrotek mixtape series he launched in duits for messages about contemporary Black life. October. On the latest volume—also available in a —L Gv 34 CHICA O READER - MAY ll CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME
b ALL AGES F EARLY WARNINGS WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK Hall, canceled Never miss Fauvely 5/28, 9 PM, Emporium a show again. Wicker Park, canceled Flamenco Americana with Sign up for the Kati Golenko & Miguel newsletter at Reyes 12/2, 8:30 PM, Szold chicagoreader. GOSSIP Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, rescheduled F b com/early Fleetmac Wood presents WOLF Rumours Rave with DJ Rox- anne Roll, DJ Smooth Sailing Shoff y 7/22, 8 PM, Schubas, A furry ear to the ground of 12/12, 9 PM, Chop Shop, canceled rescheduled Jill Sobule 6/9, 7:30 PM, the local music scene Flora Cash 7/25, 7:30 PM, Lin- SPACE, Evanston, canceled coln Hall, postponed until a Split Single 5/30, 8 PM, GOSSIP WOLF IS still digging through date to be determined b SPACE, Evanston, postponed Ezra Furman 5/30, 9:30 PM, until a date to be determined the heap of new Chicago music that came Empty Bottle, canceled b out on May 1, when Bandcamp waived its Vance Gilbert 6/7, 2 PM, Harrison Storm 5/27, 8 PM, revenue share on all sales for 24 hours, SPACE, Evanston, canceled Schubas, canceled but so far Berta Bigtoe is right at the top Glenn Underground 8/27, TV Girl 7/11, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 10 PM, Smart Bar, resched- postponed until a date to be of the favorites list. The band’s cofound- uled F determined, 18+ ers and sole members, Ben Astrachan and Hala 5/28, 9 PM, Schubas, Velvet Caravan 10/15, 7:30 PM, Austin Koenigstein, made Berta Bigtoe postponed until a date to be Tack Room, rescheduled Haley Reinhart HEATHER KOEPP Publicity Stunt as a lark. They decided to determined, 18+ Wonder Years 7/13, 5 PM, Con- Halsey 6/26/21, 7 PM, Holly- cord Music Hall, canceled write and record an entire album on May 1, Owen 11/6, 10 PM, Sleeping Hall, Old Town School of Folk wood Casino Amphitheatre, Joe Wong & Nite Creatures specifically to post on Bandcamp then NEW Village Music, postponed until a date Tinley Park, rescheduled b 10/16, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, (though they spent much of that 24-hour Paris Chansons 7/31, 8 PM, to be determined F b Jazz Hoofi ng Quartet 5/25/21, rescheduled; tickets pur- period working on it). The sweet, joyous Tatsu Aoki’s Miyumi Project SPACE, Evanston b Yemi Alade 7/1, 8 PM, Bottom 8 PM, the Promontory, chased for original date will 7/31, 8:30 PM, Constellation, Pegboy, Bollweevils, Abso- Lounge, canceled rescheduled b be honored, 18+ indie pop on Berta Bigtoe Publicity Stunt 18+ lutely Not 10/3, 8 PM, Beat Bayside 5/30, 7 PM, Concord Elton John 6/19-6/20, 8 PM, Wood Brothers 11/21, 8 PM, feels effortless but clearly takes a lot of Bad Bad Hats 8/23, 7:30 PM, Kitchen Music Hall, canceled United Center, postponed Riviera Theatre, rescheduled; skill to pull off—especially in less than a Schubas, 18+ Pegboy, Bosley Jr. 10/2, 8 PM, Billy Joel 6/26/21, 8 PM, Notre until a date to be deter- tickets purchased for original day. Berta Bigtoe moved to Chicago from Blanks 11/12, 7:30 PM, Schubas Beat Kitchen Dame Stadium, rescheduled; mined; tickets purchased date will be honored, 18+ b Haley Reinhart 8/1, 8 PM, tickets purchased for the for the original dates will be Boston last year, and this wolf is already Aaron Carter 8/28, 8:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b original date will be honored honored b looking forward to one day seeing them Wire, Berwyn Rock and Roll Playhouse b Last Free Exit to the Inner UPCOMING play a show in their new hometown. CHIRP Radio Showcase fea- presents the music of Bob Bowling for Soup 8/27, 8 PM, Soular Sis-tem: a Sun Ra/ Sunshine Boys’ debut full-length, Blue turing Bringers, God Awful Marley for Kids 7/26, 11:30 Bottom Lounge, canceled Juneteenth Celebration fea- Acid Mothers Temple & the Small Aff airs, Flamingo AM, Thalia Hall b Brent Faiyaz 9/16, 9 PM, Con- turing Lisa E. Harris 5/28, Melting Paraiso U.F.O. Music, was one of Gossip Wolf’s most- Rodeo 11/12, 8 PM, GMan Rock and Roll Playhouse cord Music Hall, canceled 8 PM, the Promontory, 2/26/21, 8 PM, Subterranean, loved indie-rock albums of 2018, and this Tavern presents the Music of the Brook & the Bluff 5/29, 9 PM, canceled rescheduled; tickets pur- local trio (guitarist Dag Juhlin, drummer Cimafunk 9/6, 8:30 PM, Thalia Grateful Dead for Kids 6/14, Lincoln Hall, postponed until Hamilton Leithauser 8/3, chased for original date will Freda Love Smith, and bassist Jackie Hall, 17+ 11:30 AM, Thalia Hall b a date to be determined, 18+ 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, resched- be honored Leo Dan 8/21, 8 PM, Thalia Rod Tuff curls & the Bench Russell E.L. Butler 6/20, uled, 17+ Algiers, Ganser 12/4, 10 PM, Schimmel) played such a killer set open- Hall, 17+ Press 7/4, 9 PM, House of 10 PM, Smart Bar, resched- Little River Band 11/8, 7:30 PM, Empty Bottle ing for Juliana Hatfi eld at SPACE in Jan- Dragonforce 3/23/21, 6 PM, Blues, 17+ uled Genesee Theatre, Waukegan, Gary Allan 9/25, 7:30 PM, uary that the band couldn’t release new House of Blues b Samul-nori in Chicago 7/24, Clipping 5/22, 9 PM, Bottom rescheduled; tickets pur- Genesee Theatre, Waukegan, jams soon enough! After a successful Emo Nite LA 7/3, 9 PM, Sub- 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Lounge, postponed until a chased for the original date rescheduled; tickets pur- terranean, 17+ Boz Scaggs 7/20, 7:30 PM, date to be determined, 17+ will be honored b chased for the original date Indie gogo campaign earlier this year, Sun- Endless Field, Sun Speak 6/25, North Shore Center for the Colette’s Birthday and Apt’s Loote 7/15, 8 PM, Schubas, will be honored b shine Boys dropped a scrumptious soph- 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Performing Arts, Skokie b 15th anniversary featuring canceled Shamarr Allen & the Under- omore album, Work and Love, on Friday, Flux Pavilion 10/29, 7 PM, Con- Tina Schlieske 7/30, 7:30 PM, DJ Dan, Colette 5/30, 9 PM, Lowest Pair 6/3, 8 PM, SPACE, dawgs 10/7, 8 PM, SPACE, May 1. It’s fi lled to the brim with jangling cord Music Hall, 18+ SPACE, Evanston b Smart Bar, postponed until a Evanston, canceled Evanston b Freestyle Forever: Diva Caroline Spence, Dori Free- date to be determined Magnetic Fields 1/17-1/20/21, Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing power pop, and standout singles “Infin- Edition 3 featuring Cynthia, man 7/29, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Joan Collaso 5/27, 7:30 PM, 8 PM, City Winery, resched- 12/6-12/7, 8:30 PM, Thalia ity Girl” and “Summertime Kids” sound Rockell, Sweet Sensation, Evanston b the Promontory, canceled uled b Hall, 17+ like instant classics. Naturally, the band Judy Torres, Laura, Shana, Unlikely Candidates 6/10, Danileigh 6/1, 6:30 PM, House Milky Chance 11/5, 7:30 PM, Caribou, Kaitlyn Aurelia were forced to cancel an April 30 record- Lisette Melendez, C-Bank, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ of Blues, postponed until a Riviera Theatre, rescheduled Smith 10/22, 7:30 PM, Riviera DJ Richie Rich, DJ Poundd, Watkins Family Hour, Court- date to be determined b b Theatre, rescheduled; tickets release show at SPACE due to the pan- DJ Destiny, DJ Cross, JV ney Hartman 11/8, 3 and 7 Steve Dawson & Funeral Mya, 702 8/23, 8 PM, Thalia purchased for original date demic, but this wolf strongly recommends Kidd, Cool Carlos 11/14, 9 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town Bonsai Wedding 9/20, Hall, rescheduled will be honored, 18+ going whenever it’s rescheduled! PM, Concord Music Hall School of Folk Music b 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old 99 Neighbors 6/26, 8 PM, Dakhabrakha 9/25, 8 PM, Patio When Gossip Wolf last checked in with Greer 12/14, 7:30 PM, Schubas Yam Haus 6/13, 8 PM, Beat Town School of Folk Music, Schubas, postponed until a Theater b b Kitchen, 17+ rescheduled b date to be determined b Dirty Knobs 10/9, 8 PM, Park producer Jeremiah Meece , he was fin- Harley Poe, Homeless Gospel The Dip 3/25/21, 8 PM, Thalia Pitchfork Music Festival 7/17- West, 18+ ishing a Halloween-centric album called Choir 11/5, 8 PM, Wire, Ber- Hall, rescheduled; tickets 7/19, Union Park, canceled; Ekali 10/3, 8 PM, Concord Mutant Future. Earlier this month, he wyn, 18+ UPDATED purchased for original date refunds will be issued by Music Hall, 18+ self-released a full-length of material he’s Heaven 17 1/28/21, 7:30 PM, will be honored b point of purchase Melissa Etheridge 9/26, Park West, 18+ NOTE: This is a selection of Eden 5/22, 8 PM, House of Propagandhi 6/20, 8 PM, 7:30 PM, Genesee Theatre, made during self-isolation—it’s called Suf- Knuckle Puck 11/20, 8 PM, concerts that were canceled, Blues, canceled Metro, canceled; refunds Waukegan b fering, but these warped pop tracks won’t Subterranean, 17+ rescheduled, or postponed Elephant Stone 3/24/21, will be issued by point of Gogo Penguin 2/12-2/13/21, make you suffer unless you miss them! Lovesexy Prince tribute dance in light of ongoing concerns 9:30 PM, Sleeping Village, purchase 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ —J R NLG party featuring DJ Salah about COVID-19. rescheduled Ruby Haunt 6/7, 9:15 PM, Sophie B. Hawkins 10/13, 8 PM, Ananse, Kwest On 7/31, Eve 6 5/24, 8 PM, Bottom Empty Bottle, postponed City Winery b 10 PM, the Promontory Adult 11/13, 10 PM, Empty Bot- Lounge, postponed until a until a date to be determined Judas Priest 9/26, 8 PM, Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail Mmmonika 6/16, 8 PM, Beat tle, rescheduled date to be determined, 17+ San Cisco 7/1, 8:30 PM, Lincoln Rosemont Theatre, Rosemont [email protected]. Kitchen, 17+ Akello 6/3, 8:30 PM, Szold Failure 7/9-7/11, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, canceled bv ll MAY - CHICAOREADER 35 the cannabis platform a Reader resource for the canna curious OPINION
Thursdays on CannabisSAVAGE LOVE Chicago’s friendliest ConversationsMy boyfriend says I put a curse on him cannabis shop chicagoreader.com/joravskyPlus: How to be honest with your hot friends (even during a pandemic) By DS Cannabis Conversations : It’s taken a lot to do tially dangerous drug addict asymptomatic. This is going this, but here goes. I am a with mental health issues chicagoreader.com/ to cause a huge problem 38-year-old gay male. I have who refuses to get help between us. He has a lot of nuMed.com | 1308 W. North Ave joravsky been dating this guy for packed his bags and walked anger issues and he could one year and ten months. out of your life. Yahtzee, use this as blackmail. I’m It’s been a lot of work. He DFA, you win. It was his legitimately scared. —H cheated on me numerous presence in your life (and ER P Your partners in health and wellness. times and he lives with your apartment) that was Find out today if medical cannabis or infusion therapy is me and doesn’t work and the problem and your boy- A: Letting a former sex right for you. Telemed available! I’ve been taking care of friend—your ex-boyfriend— partner know you may have Serving medical cannabis patients since 2015. www.neuromedici.com 312-772-2313 him for seven months now. just solved it for you. Block exposed them to an STI—or He always accuses me of his number, change your that they may have exposed cheating or fi nds something locks, and pray he forgets you to an STI—is the decent, to blame me for. What I am your address. responsible, courteous, and angry about now is how for You might wanna seek kind thing to do. Not just the past four months he has some professional help your- for their health and safety, been accusing me of playing self. You need to get to the HERP, but for the health and games by conspiring with bottom of why you wasted safety of their future sex people to make him hear nearly two years on this ass- partners. But people who voices. If I look up at the hole. Being alone can’t be are unkind, scary, and violent ceiling or look around he worse than being with some- have no one but themselves says I am communicating one who cheats on you and to blame when a former sex with “them.” I keep telling then accuses you of cheat- partner/girlfriend/boyfriend/ him I do not hear or see ing—to say nothing of some- enbyfriend is too afraid for anything but he insists that I one who abuses drugs, hears their own safety to make that am lying. He also says I put a voices, and makes other irra- disclosure. Provided your curse on him. One day I got tional/delusional accusations. fears are legitimate, HERP, up and he packed his bags He wasn’t just a danger to and you’re not infl ating them and said he had enough and himself, DFA, he was a dan- to avoid an awkward or The Reader 420 Companion is fi lled with walked out. He said I was ger to you. He’s out of your unpleasant conversation, you great recipes, activities not being loyal. This is a man apartment—now you need to don’t owe your ex a call. and coloring pages. GET INVOLVED! who has been doing coke get him out of your head. Your purchase supports the Reader. 15% of the proceeds will be since the age of 14 and he is : I’m a bi guy, living alone. donated to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. now 43 years old. He does : About a month ago I At the start of the year, this chicagoreader.com/420book meth and whatever else. He broke up with my boyfriend new guy moved into the said that until I come clean a er I found out he was house where I live—we share about hearing the voices cheating on me. Long before communal areas but have and admit I cast some sort of we broke up, I freaked out private rooms—and he’s a An Essential Calm. spell on him, he won’t talk to about a rash and looking bit of a slacker but holy shit Day or Night. me or see me. Mental illness back I think it was probably is he hot. I’ve had regular runs in his family and one herpes all along. I found fantasies about him. And sibling already committed out for sure three days ago now with the quarantine, Whole-plant hemp suicide. He didn’t want and I’m honestly thinking those fantasies have formulations for peace professional help because, about not telling him. He increased along with the of mind and body. he says, “I am too smart for doesn’t show any symptoms number of times I see him that.” I’m hurt and angry and he’s the type of guy in a day. I’ve been feeling and want some advice. ANY who will call me a slut if the urge to ask him if he’s ADVICE. Please. I tell him. He’ll blame me interested in anything, but —D F A for his wrongdoing and my friends have advised me mineralhealth.co just keep going and going. to “not shit where I eat.” A: I don’t see the problem. I honestly don’t know if I But due to the quarantine, To advertise, call 312-392-2934 or email [email protected] advertise, call 312-392-2934 To A delusional and poten- should tell him, since he’s the only other option I
36 CHICA O READER - MAY ll OPINION 21+
have is masturbating and bondage buddies but that’s doesn’t feel the same about that’s not doing the trick. obviously on hold right now. me. How can I tell if she’s Should I take the plunge (I’ve reached out to both joking about it because she and ask him? —H my FWBs to let them know fi nds the idea ridiculous or if E L P I’m thinking about them she’s joking about it because and that I care about them, she actually wants to? Once A: Health authorities have Dan, like you’ve been urging everything goes back to advised us to shit where people to do on your show.) normal COVID-wise, what we eat for the time being. The issue is I still really should I do?—G I The New York City Health need to get tied up and my R L Department recommends boyfriend is willing, but he’s masturbation, HELP, because so bad at it that I don’t want A: The ability to ask you are and always have to bother. He knows how someone a direct question— been your safest sex partner. much I need it and he’s hurt particularly someone you’re The Reader 420 Companion is But your next safest partner that I’d rather go without interested in romantically during this pandemic is it than let him put me in and/or sexually—is an filled with great recipes, activities someone with whom you live. bondage that isn’t really important skill, GIRL, and NYC Health has advised us bondage because I can getting some practice now, and coloring pages. all to “avoid close contact— easily get out. We used to when stakes are relatively including sex—with anyone fi ght because I wanted him low, will benefi t you all your outside your household.” to tie me up and he didn’t life. So get your friend on Details may be found at That doesn’t mean everyone want to do it and now we’re the phone and ask her this: inside your household is fi ghting because he wants “Are you serious about chicagoreader.com/420book fair game, of course; some to tie me up and I won’t let wanting to have sex with people are quarantining him do it. Any advice for a me? It’s fi ne if you don’t with their parents. But if fan? —T I ’E want to, but I’m actually there was ever a time when D attracted to you. Please say you could approach a non- no if the answer’s no.” If the related adult with whom A: If people can teach answer is yes, you can make you live to see if they might yoga, give concerts, and a date to get together once wanna fuck around, now’s conduct fi rst dates via online circumstances/pandemics the time. Apologize to the streaming services, then one allow. But if the answer is no, hot slacker in advance for of your bondage buddies GIRL, then you can get some potentially making things can—if they’re into the practice making declarative awkward and invite him idea—give your boyfriend statements: “I don’t want to say no. (“If you’re not a few bondage tutorials you to make those jokes interested, please say no and online. I’m glad to hear anymore. They’re hurtful to I promise not to bring it up you already reached out me.” And if she continues again.”) But if the answer is to your bondage buddies, to make jokes about having Chicago's Free Weekly Since 1971 yes, HELP, send video. TIED, since now you’ll be sex with you a er you’ve asking them to do you and made it clear she’s hurting : I’m a gay bondage your boyfriend a favor. But your feelings, then she’s bottom. My boyfriend of I imagine it’s a favor they’ll just being cruel and doesn’t four years is 100 percent enjoy doing. deserve your time, attention, vanilla and we solved the or friendship. v “problem” of my need to : I’m a teenage girl with get tied up—and it’s a real a female friend who keeps Send letters to mail@ need—by outsourcing it. joking about having sex savagelove.net. Download (Can you tell we’re longtime with me. We’re both into the Savage Lovecast at readers and listeners?) I was girls and sex, but while I fi nd savagelovecast.com. seeing two regular FWBs/ her really hot, she probably @fakedansavage (242-8669)
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