CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY SINCE | JULY
The most colo ul pa ies in the city are Noire
Nick Alder and Rae Chardonnay Taylor of Party Noire get to fun by going through respect, safety, community, and empowerment. By M H 26
Museum of Streetwear Matt Harvey 18 LGBT asylum seekers Justin A relo 10 Pitchfork’s Perfect Consumer J.R. Nelson 30 THIS WEEK CHICAGO READER | JULY | VOLUME NUMBER
IN THIS ISSUE T R - CITY LIFE the stage for the Chicago Magic of Mako Sica bassist Brent @ 03 Street View How to be cool and Lounge Fuscaldo guitarist and sound “have something where you can put 21 Plays of note Ghost Quartet experimenter Mark Shippy and the your phone” at Pitchfork takes four friends on a shape Reader’s Jamie Ludwig P T B 04 Sightseeing Letters home from shi ing journey through time and 34 Shows of note Davila E C S K K H D E K S two WWI soldiers explain the music Teatro ZinZanni serves Weird Al Nilüfer Yanya and more C L SK race riots as well as any history Love Chaos & Dinner and 39 Early Warnings Bilal Kinky D P J R book Steep Theatre’s Pomona plants a Friedman Lilbootycall and more C E AL M E P M FOOD & DRINK dystopian garden of evil justannounced concerts T D K R 13 Restaurant Review A 39 Gossip Wolf City of Djinn A E J L descendant of a New Orleans wed psychedelic drone rock S W D I FILM BJ MS sausage minichain surfaces in 23 Review Once Upon a Time to Arabic tradition Good Kids S W M D L G Logan Square in Hollywood indulges the fantasy Mad City throw a beach party to E A SN L of movie history when it could be commemorate the race riots G D D C S M E B W FEATURE questioning it and more L C S C -J 10 Proof How immigration court is 24 Movies of note Barbara F L C P F especially challenging for LGBTQ Rubin and the Exploding NY C N B OPINION D C L C I asylum seekers Underground is as much a 40 Comic Do Trump supporters G A G KT 15 Photo Woodlawn residents share celebration as it is a documentary have any concept of racism le ? H R H JH their visions of a neighborhood in Carmine Street Guitars is a ride 41 Savage Love Dan Savage off ers J H I H D J M K S K M M NEWS & POLITICS transition down the rabbit hole to singular advice to someone interested in B M Q JRN 06 Joravsky | Politics The life and pleasures and Christmas on Earth anal and faced with a hard pass L P K RBS times of archivist Michael Flug is a paean to sexual exploration D S C S ARTS & CULTURE TTRBEA W 07 Isaacs | Culture Was labor 18 Visual Art The Museum of CLASSIFIEDS ------unrest at the stockyards to blame Streetwear enshrines young MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE 42 Jobs D D J D for the violence that erupted Chicago designers for a weekend 26 Feature The most colorful 42 Apartments & Spaces D P E & P years ago? parties in the city are Noire 42 Marketplace K K O M S A 08 Dukmasova | News In an era THEATER 30 Pitchfork What happens if you A A J G of unprecedented attention to 20 Review Perfect casting in Henry indulge every corporate sponsor Y D O P A genderbased violence Latinx V saves First Folio’s production at the festival? Does the Chase A F A ’ ADVERTISING organizers demand CPS address from a conceptual misstep “Sean Sapphire Lounge have to let you in? -- - @ curriculum shortcomings Masterson’s Timeless Magic” sets 33 In Rotation Musical obsessions C @
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C C EB ‘I love everything Take Action to End Mavis Staples sanctifi ed ------R ISSN- about dancing’ Criminalization, Detention, Friday night at Pitchfork STMR LLC SM SC IL Since losing both legs at the age and Deportations Protest Even when she wasn’t singing -- of 19, Kris Lenzo has dedicated his gospel, her powerful spiritual voice C ©C R life to athleticism, performing, and An estimated 12,000 people could bring together generations. P C IL advocating on behalf of people with marched in downtown Chicago A C R R disabilities. on July 13 to protest the Trump RR T ® administration’s immigration policies. 2 CHICA O READER - JULY ll CITY LIFE
LOOKING STYLISH while faced with extreme heat In her view, it’s all about “utility, and having fun and possible thunderstorms can be tough, but these dressing for the occasion. Right now, maximalism, Pitchfork festivalgoers rose to the challenge. Here’s neon, bold patterns, and colors are really trendy for Street View how. festivals.” —I G “I try to think what’s gonna be the most com- Pitch4k fashion rules fortable,” says Joshua Madrid, le . “But I also like See more street style at the Chicago Looks blog. Be cool and “have something where to stand out a bit.” When the 35-year-old saw that you can put your phone.” Balenciaga made a platform pair of Crocs, “I fell super in love with them” and “bought mine for $30 on sale from a website called YRU” (the originals are $800). From there, “I wanted to wear a little mesh since it is so hot today.” At right, pictured on the le , Sal Yvat, 24, says a good festival outfi t is “all about comfort and hav- ing something where you can put your phone in.” In this case, “I really wanted to wear this skirt (which is actually a dress). I was going for an Afro-chic-boho vibe. I found this wicker hat at a thri store, and I just love yellow right now, so it all worked together.” Her friend Don W., also 24, says, “I wanted to be kinda trendy for the festival, but I also wanted to be very breezy, so I went with the oversize tee with the shorts underneath. The T-shirt has little holes in it, so I put a bikini top underneath, which also gives it a
ISAGIALLORENZO pop of color. The hat was practical, because I want-
ed to cover my hair up in case I sweat it out.” ISAGIALLORENZO
ll JULY - CHICA O READER3 CITY LIFE
Recipients of the Croix de Guerre from the am a northerner or a southerner; whether I am 370th Infantry, 1919 NATIONALARCHIVES COLLEGEPARK a native-born Negro or a foreigner; whether I live among beautiful surroundings or in the squalor of the ‘black belt.’” Once whites were “willing to take off the goggles of race prejudice and to study the Negro with the naked eye of fairness, and to treat him with justice and equity,” Norvell contended, “he will come to the conclusion that the Negro has ‘arrived’ and then voila, you ing its war-ridden condition, an infinitely have the solution to the problem.” The Black more agreeable place for me to live in than man, Norvell argued, “had become tired of my own country.” Norvell subsequently won equal rights. He wants the same rights. He is the Croix de Guerre for commanding a ma- tired of equal accommodations. He wants [the] chine-gun company through a ten-day action same accommodations. He is tired of equal after all its officers were killed or wounded. opportunity. He wants the same opportunity.” When Norvell and his comrades returned By November 1919, Norvell had partially to Chicago on February 19, 1919, they were retreated in his rhetoric. “We need a leader greeted by a thunderous welcome in a massive who will teach us that there is opportunity in parade in the South Loop. every atom of atmosphere, in every grain of There is no record of what Charles L. dust, in every blade of grass,” he wrote Sears, Samson or Stanley B. Norvell did during the Roebuck & Co. president Julius Rosenwald, a Chicago race riots. Given the raw ugliness philanthropist who had given millions to Black of Samson’s letters, it is easy to imagine the educational institutions. “We need a leader lieutenant being one of the hundreds of armed who will teach us how to make money out of whites taking to the streets or, perhaps, being the things that our more fortunate neighbors Sightseeing like the Beverly garage owner who, miles away overlook and discard.” Norvell admitted that from the riot zone, told a light-skinned black when he was almost ready to surrender, his lawyer that the unrest would be over “only thoughts turned to “the many times when on A tale of two soldiers when the whites kill o two or three hundred hard toilsome ‘hikes’ in France when I was of the n----s.” We can’t say where he was, but weak with hunger and suffering with cold a Letters home from two WWI soldiers, one white, one Black, his worldview was shared by the rioters: the dogged spirit of stick-to-it sustained me then explain the 1919 Chicago race riot as well as any history book. end result of the war could not be one in which and that same spirit is sustaining me now.” Black men and women could imagine the same Norvell admitted that he had found it hard By J N rank in society as whites. to return to the life he had left behind in Likewise, it is tempting to think that Nor- Chicago. “Blackening boots, running eleva- f you want to understand race in Chi- worker as I ever encountered.” He believed vell’s experience was similar to that of the tors, waiting table, chau euring and the like cago in the months after the end of the their efficiency could be credited to fellow artist Archibald Motley, who also lived in an seemed rather incongruous to me, and I found First World War, the letters written white o cers who “do not fraternize with the all-white neighborhood in Englewood. Men- the readjustment very difficult indeed,” he by two soldiers from the south side men and hence have no compunction about aced by angry mobs, the Motleys were helped wrote Rosenwald. Stanley B. Norvell subse- are illuminative. Throughout the war, pushing them.” by friendly white neighbors. Archibald guard- quently married and moved from Englewood ILieutenant Charles L. Samson wrote his wife, From the time he was a teenager, Stanley ed the house with a shotgun. However, we can to Bronzeville. He remained at the post o ce, Loula, at 6730 S. Perry multiple times a week. B. Norvell had grown up at 614 W. 61st Place, gather Norvell had been changed, not only by where he had worked before he went to war. In A mechanical engineer, he’d had a close scrape just down the street from the home of Charles the experience of fi ghting on the western front, 1936, he helped cofound a post of the Veterans with death after a German submarine sunk his Deneen, the governor of Illinois between 1905 but also through the direct or indirect expe- of Foreign Wars. Its fi rst commander, Michael troop ship o the Scottish coast. In France, he and 1913. In May 1915, the 26-year-old joined rience of combat in Chicago. “Try to imagine Browning, had survived being shot during the was posted far from the front lines, much to the Eighth Regiment of the Illinois National the smoldering hatred within the breast of race riots. Norvell passed away in April 1966, his disappointment. Guard, whose o cers and enlisted men were an overseas veteran who is set upon and mer- four months after Martin Luther King arrived Six days after Germany signed the armistice all African American. The letters that Corporal cilessly beaten by a gang of young hoodlums in Chicago to support the Chicago Freedom e ectively ending the war, Samson challenged Norvell wrote to the Chicago Defender from simply because he is colored,” he wrote to Vic- Movement. v his wife’s proposed move to a new place, as he training camps in Texas in the summer and fall tor Lawson, the publisher of the Chicago Daily would be forced to ride streetcars “jammed 1916 are, for the most part, lighthearted and News and member of a newly formed commis- The Charles L. Samson Papers can be found with n----s” to get to work. “If I were still at the reassuring. sion to study the causes of the riot. at the Chicago History Museum. Stanley B. Amalgamated plant I would have to ride State Writing from the front lines in the fall of Norvell had returned to a city populated by Norvell’s letters can be found in the Julius Ros- & 35th lines. Both are n---- lines.” 1918, Lieutenant Norvell wrote to the Defender whites who were still unwilling to understand enwald Papers at the University of Chicago, On January 14, 1919, he wrote he was “work- that he could not go into great detail about his Blacks beyond superfi cial impressions. “They Special Collections Research Center. ing one n---- outfit here. It will surprise you experiences due to the military censorship, cannot tell whether I am well o or hard up; when I tell you that they are as good a lot of but that he had “found France, notwithstand- whether I am educated or illiterate; whether I @backwards_river 4 CHICA O READER - JULY ll SHOPPING DRINKS & DINING *Whole Body Kinetics 5301 North Clark, Floor 2 AlleyCat Comics *Jerry’s Sandwiches 773 963 2358 5304 North Clark, Rear 5419 North Clark wholebodykinetics.com 773 907 3404 773 796 3777 jerryssandwiches.com alleycatcomics.com PROFESSIONAL SERVICES *Chicago Dance Supply Ranalli’s of Andersonville A and N Mortgage Services 5301 North Clark, Floor 2 1512 West Berwyn 1945 North Elston 773 728 5344 773 334 1300 773 305 7010 chicagodancesupply.com ranallispizza.com kikicalumet.com
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ll JULY - CHICA O READER5 NEWS & POLITICS
Flug, center, with CPL board member Christopher Valenti and former board member Julia Zhu Throughout the 60s, Flug protested against COURTESYCHICAGOPUBLICLIBRARY various racial injustices as a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the civil rights group. He was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war. “To be a conscientious done, check out the ones she wrote for Russ objector you had to go to court to prove you are Ewing and Al Mampre. Man, I can talk forever nonviolent,” says French. “They assigned him with and about the great Maureen O’Donnell. to two years of alternative service.” In almost every sense of the word, Flug is For what it’s worth, Trump didn’t fight in the antithesis to Trump. the Vietnam war either. But he didn’t bother For 20 years, Flug was the senior archivist filing for conscientious objector status. He at the Carter G. Woodson library at 95th and just found some doctor who said he had bone Halsted. He helped develop and arrange the spurs. Then he spent the 60s partying like voluminous collection of material in the Vivi- a rock star. Funny how the guys who talk the an G. Harsh Research Collection. most about loving America are the ones who We’re talking tens of thousands of articles, are least willing to fi ght for it. books, fi rst drafts of manuscripts, letters, and When Flug retired from Woodson in 2010, other artifacts from literary luminaries like the poet Haki Madhubuti honored him with Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Zora Neale a poem appropriately titled “A Poem for Mi- Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Durham, chael Flug.” and so on. It begins: “books altered the culture of his POLITICS Flug knew the location of everything in life, / a DNA e ect that transported him south- that collection—he was the helpful guy at the west of / wherever he was meant to be”. curator’s desk who led you to and through the And it ends: “you leave prodigious The anti-Trump treasure trove. He helped hundreds of people fi ngerprints.” fi nd the material they needed—from import- Beyond his work as an archivist, Flug had The life and times of archivist Michael Flug ant scholars to lowly Reader writers. wide-ranging tastes. “Michael loved dogs—big I met him in the early 90s when I was doing dogs—he didn’t love little dogs,” says French. By a story that required a deep dive into the “But then we got a cat. He loved that little cat. archives. He also loved music. Opera. Tina Turner. Tim He was a fun-to-talk-to guy with a New York McGraw. He loved Tim McGraw—Southern t’s been a rough few days for race rela- He apparently came to the conclusion that accent and the gift of gab. He seemed to know Voice. He wanted Tim McGraw to run for sena- tions in our country—Donald Trump’s the fastest, surest way to win reelection is to everything about everything. I spent half of tor from Tennessee.” still the president, and Michael Flug fi re up the worst fear, anger, and resentment my time saying, “Man, how do you know all He was also a baseball fan. “He loved the died. that whites have about Blacks. this stu ?” Sox, not the Cubs,” says French. “And he hated I’ll get to Flug—but fi rst, a word or two For the last few weeks he’s been on a ram- Because he ran the archives at a south-side the Dodgers. He never forgave them for mov- Iabout Trump. page—on Twitter and in rallies—against the library primarily dedicated to African-Amer- ing the team out of Brooklyn.” “Squad”—four rookie congresswomen of ican history, many people figured he was a So when the Cubs played the Dodgers for color. light-skinned Black guy. the pennant, who did he root for? #TVKUV9TKVGT Among other things, he told them to “go In fact, he was Jewish. He was born in “Well, in that case, he had to root for the back to the countries” they came from. Even Brooklyn to parents who were New York Cubs.” 2GTHQTOGT! though three of the four were born in the U.S. lefties. “He would not like it if you called him Flug died on July 11 from a cerebral hemor- %4'#6+8' 51.76+105 (14 In fact, Congresswomen Ayana Pressley of a liberal—he was a radical,” says Suzanne rhage. He was 74. %4'#6+8' 2'12.' Massachusetts was born in Cincinnati, was French, Flug’s wife. “He joked that he grew I hope the city fi nds a way to pay him trib- raised right here in Chicago, and graduated up in a family in which he always thought the ute—maybe name a library branch or at least a 5WRRQTVKXG #HHKTOKPI CPF )QCN from Francis W. Parker School on the north two-party system was the Communists and collection for him. &KTGEVGF 2U[EJQVJGTCR[ CPF side. the socialists.” After all, we’ve got that big, ugly Trump *[RPQVJGTCR[ HQT #FWNVU So, if she went back to the country she came I think I know the type. sign on a prominently placed downtown sky- from it would be Clark and Belden. On top of Flug’s family didn’t have much money. His scraper. The least we can do is pay tribute to /#: - 5*#2'; .%59 everything else, the president is geographical- father died when he was nine. He won a schol- one of the good guys in our town. .QECVGF KP &QYPVQYP 'XCPUVQP ly challenged. arship to Columbia University. In the meantime, Flug’s friends and col- It was while reading coverage of Trump’s “When Michael was young, his family leagues will have a memorial service on hate-filled screeds that I came upon Flug’s moved from Brooklyn to Long Island, and he Saturday, August 3, from 10 AM to 1 PM at the YYYOCZUJCRG[EQO obituary, written by the incomparable Mau- faced terrible anti-Semitism from some of the Harold Washington Library Center. OCZUJCRG["CQNEQO reen O’Donnell for the Sun-Times. kids,” says French. “A lot of his friends were Where else but a library—right? Rest in NWG TQUU NWG 5JKGNF 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT Classic O’Donnell, it was more like a short Jews and Blacks. He learned at an early age peace, Michael. v KIPC 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT story or a parable than a newspaper obit. I that so much about what white society wants urge everyone to read it. And then when you’re you to believe about Black society is not true.” @joravben 6 CHICA O READER - JULY ll N B F T B S D /-/: Thu-Fri noon- PM, Sat-Sun AM- Sat /, noon- PM, Washington Square Park, PM, Newberry Library, W. Walton, -- N. Clark, --, newberry.org. F , newberry.org. F NEWS & POLITICS
There is a new LGBTQ+ Studies section to WBEZ’s Natalie Y. Moore and Northwestern peruse at the Newberry Book Fair. ANNERYAN University’s Medill School of Journalism dean Charles Whitaker will lead a public discussion keep the workforce divided and, therefore, of the 1919 race riot at Bughouse Square, which weak. He cites their cynical use of Black work- begins at noon on Saturday in the Newberry’s ers as strikebreakers during a bitter stando “front yard,” Washington Square Park, across in 1904, when the regular workforce was al- the street from the library’s main entrance. most exclusively white, as an example. The book fair runs Thursday through Sun- During the second decade of the 20th cen- day, and is bigger than ever this year, with tury, with the advent of World War I and the 160,000 books and other items—LPs, board Great Migration, Chicago’s Black population games, the odd art object—up for grabs at grew signifi cantly. There were just 67 Blacks prices typically around $3 (half-price on Sun- among stockyards employees in 1910, Bates day). Book fair manager Dan Crawford, who’s says; by 1919, they numbered 12,000. Their been there since the fair began in 1985 (and is union was part of the Chicago Federation of the author of a wry, year-round book fair blog ), Labor, which stood for equal pay and non- says the inventory this year, spread through discriminatory labor practices, and was led five rooms on the library’s main floor and by men who believed (simplistically) that including a new LGBTQ+ category, includes 16 racial problems would disappear if they had a boxes of UFO books mysteriously collected by unifi ed labor force. But, Bates says, the CFL’s a Newberry volunteer; 35 boxes of old science professed ideals were undercut in part by the fi ction paperbacks from an anonymous donor; policies of its parent union, the American Fed- and 85 boxes of books from the estate of for- eration of Labor, which was not particularly mer television and Sun-Times restaurant critic interested in organizing unskilled workers James Ward that contain a sizable collection ON CULTURE and didn’t want to include them in trade-spe- of cowboy art but no cookbooks. Hankering for cifi c skilled labor unions. To get around this, a fi rst-edition Death of a Salesman signed by the CFL organized union workers in the stock- the author? It’s there, at the collectibles table, Another side of the 1919 race riot yards into units based on their residential for $2,500. Upton Sinclair will no doubt be neighborhoods. In rigidly segregated Chicago around as well. Was labor unrest at the stockyards to blame for the violence that erupted 100 that meant that Black and white workers The checkout line, which can get lengthy, years ago? Plus, paradise for bookworms. wound up in separate locals. Unsurprisingly, will queue up in a new exhibition area this the percentage of Blacks among stockyards year, where shoppers can peruse items from By D I union members in 1919 was not robust, and the library’s collection—such as a rare copy the union wound up exacerbating—rather of the Declaration of Independence printed than eliminating—racial tensions. Forty-one days after it was approved by Congress but ou may have heard about the the demise of the even larger (though less percent of the injuries in the riot happened in with the wrong date—while they wait to pay instigating event of the 1919 Chi- esoteric) Brandeis Book Sale in 2006, it’s the the stockyards district. Segregation enforced for their loot. This captive-audience viewing cago race riot. On Sunday, July 27, prime event for book lovers in the Chicago by murder at the beach was the match that experience, says Crawford, is “our version of Eugene Williams, a Black teenager, area and beyond. ignited the riot, but Bates argues that years exit through the gift shop.” v inadvertently floated across an In the run-up to that—and in conjunction of built-up and festering labor-related racial Yinvisible line into the “white section” of the with “Chicago 1919: Confronting the Race suspicions, resentments, injustices, and ani- @DeannaIsaacs water at the 29th Street Beach, where he was Riots,” a National Endowment for the Human- mosities was the fuel that made it burn. stoned by a white man and drowned. A week of ities-sponsored, multiorganization project rioting followed, ending with 38 more people marking this grim anniversary—Bates came dead and more than 500 wounded. to the Newberry last week to talk about his What’s not as well known is the convoluted research. history of Chicago labor tension that led up to In 1919, he said, when Chicago was, in Sand- the riot, says Concordia University professor burg’s phrase, “hog butcher to the world,” the The Newberry Book David Bates, who’s documented that history meatpacking industry was the city’s largest Fair is the prime event in a new book, The Ordeal of the Jungle (a title employer, with 40,000 workers at its sprawl- for book lovers in the he took from Carl Sandburg’s reporting in the ing 400-acre south-side stockyards. But the Chicago area and beyond. Daily News). The 1919 riot will be the subject packing companies were ruthless employers COURTESYNEWBERRYLIBRARY of a Newberry Library presentation at this who’d “deskilled” what had started as a weekend’s Bughouse Square, the legendary skilled-labor job by breaking the butchering soapbox orator showcase held annually in process down into a series of repetitive, single conjunction with the huge Newberry Book steps in factory-style production. Bates says Fair, a benefit sale of donations collected management also had a history of fomenting by the library throughout the year. Since racial tension among employees as a way to ll JULY - CHICA O READER7 NEWS & POLITICS
Leaders of Healing to Action demand improvements to CPS’s sex ed curriculum to help remedy gender-based violence ANDREAMICHELSON
Healing to Action’s leaders—mostly low-wage workers who’ve been organizing to address gender-based violence in their communities since 2016—were stunned. Yet the report confi rmed many of their own experiences attempting to address issues of sexual and mental health with their chil- dren, grandchildren, and other kids in their extended family networks. The combination of taboos around speaking of sexual health in their families or cultures and the lack of transparency and support from CPS left them feeling stuck. A handful of concerned parents stood up in front of the gathering on Thursday, and took turns speaking about their frustrations with sexual health education. They called on those in the audience to join them in a campaign to pressure CPS. “The biggest problem we have in our neigh- borhoods is violence, gender violence specif- ically,” Margarita Miranda, one of Healing to Action’s leaders said in Spanish, as an English-language interpreter streamed her words into the headsets of attendees. “We’re joining together and want to demand that NEWS our voices are heard, so sex ed gets taught in every single school in Chicago.” She said neighborhood schools need more counselors Sexual miseducation and parents need help, both from CPS and community organizations, “so they’re pre- In an era of unprecedented attention to gender violence, Latinx organizers pared to talk to their kids. Explain to them demand CPS address shortcomings. what violence is, what sexual abuse is.” Other attendees seemed frustrated by By M D their own inability to discuss sex and rela- tionships with their kids. “Our parents never ast Thursday, a small group of people members, no men showed up. the required minimum of two school staff talked to us about sexuality,” said Esperanza gathered in a sun-drenched store- Last year, CPS released an assessment members who’d completed the district’s sex Emiliano, another group leader with three front on Kedzie Avenue in Irving Park. of its sex ed program. Though the district ed instructor training—meaning one in four daughters who’ve gone through CPS schools. Brought together by the grassroots has a curriculum beginning with lessons schools didn’t. Just 28 percent of schools “We are here in the U.S., but the customs and group Healing to Action, they came on good touch/bad touch in kindergarten taught all the required sex ed minutes at all traditions in our homes [are different]—we Lto discuss their mounting discontent about and continuing through discussions about grade levels (300 minutes at every grade level don’t speak about sexuality. We’re running Chicago Public Schools’ sexual health educa- healthy relationships in 12th grade, by its in K–4, 675 minutes each year in 5th–12th the risk that our kids are getting an educa- tion curriculum. Though the event welcomed own measure, CPS is falling short on imple- grades). Only half of the district’s schools tion out on the street, with bad information.” anyone with kids, grandkids, or other relatives mentation. In the 2017-2018 school year, the send a required note about sex ed instruction Susan Aarup, a disability rights activist, at CPS, and even just interested community report found, only 76 percent of schools had to parents every year. positioned her wheelchair in a circle with 8 CHICA O READER - JULY ll NEWS & POLITICS Less scrolling. Miranda and six others and explained that Bolton didn’t respond to questions about sexual violence, but some of those toxic atti- CPS’s sex ed curriculum is neither tailored how the district plans to remedy problems of tudes that translate over time into abusive to diverse learners nor takes the sexual equal access to sex ed that were identifi ed in behavior.” health and sex lives of people with physical or its own report from last year. The group has already printed red, white, mental disabilities into account. “As if people Healing to Action is now gathering data to and blue postcards outlining their campaign with disabilities—like it doesn’t a ect them, fi gure out exactly which schools are lacking and demands for CPS: “Right now, sex ed is or they don’t have sex,” she said. “The fact sex ed instruction. “Our hunch is that this not equal across all Chicago schools,” the that it’s a nonissue is an issue.” Indeed, the is probably falling along the lines of income card declares on one side. On the other, “We” CPS sex ed curriculum guide available online and race,” Sheerine Alemzadeh, Healing to are introduced as workers from across the doesn’t mention sexual health and sexuality Action’s cofounder, said after the event. The city who’ve experienced gender-based vio- as they pertain to people with disabilities. next steps in community engagement will lence. “We believe a lack of meaningful sex ed Meanwhile, district data indicates that at focus on collecting feedback from students perpetuated the cycle of poverty and violence least 14 percent of the students have special and bringing more men into the conver- in our communities,” the card declares. “We education needs. sation. “A lot of our leaders talked about demand: A voice to make sure that sex ed is The current political environment—both how their kids were either being targeted taught in all Chicago Schools; Funding for at CPS, which has been embroiled in a sex- for or engaging in bullying. They’re seeing equal access to sex ed, regardless of zip code; ual abuse scandal, and in the wider culture this kind of masculine behavior as part of Support for parents to understand sex ed with #MeToo—has created a new urgency the problem that they’re trying to use this and teach kids about healthy relationships at for improved education on sexuality, re- campaign to address,” Alemzadeh said. “If home.” v lationships, and consent. Time and again, you start talking about gender identity and the women gathered said they wished the roles and healthy masculinity and consent Andrea Michelson contributed reporting to More strumming. schools were better partners to their own and healthy relationships, then hopefully you this story. efforts to disrupt harmful ways of viewing can prevent the bullying and prevent some of sex and gender. Some said they haven’t been the stu that’s not just sexual harassment or @mdoukmas able to fi nd CPS’s sex ed materials in Spanish (though the district’s students are now near- ly 47 percent Latinx and represent the largest demographic group in the schools). Others said they suspected that their kids weren’t receiving any sexual health instruction at school. Jennifer, a mom with three kids at a CPS magnet elementary school, said she’d been asking her school’s counselor to provide her with the sex ed curriculum so she could reinforce lessons at home, and never received a response. Sarah Rothschild, an education policy researcher with the Chicago Teachers Union and a member of the Tilden Career Residential and Commercial Community Academy Local School Council, said the school never received a promised Painting, Masonry, Stucco, Cedar Siding, Soffit & Trim social worker after CPS announced a hiring Carpentry & Gutter Replacement spree last summer. Give your digital CPS says it’s working to improve its sex ed life a break. curriculum. “The district has a robust sexual Install Drywall, Plaster & Taping Repair education curriculum which is currently in Connect over the process of being updated to include addi- Hardwood Flooring music, dance & tional content on consent, gender-based vio- lence, personal safety, dating violence, cyber Installation - Sanding - Refinishing - Staining more. bullying, and navigating online and social CHECK OUR WEBSITE TO VIEW OUR WORK media,” district spokeswoman Emily Bolton Anyone can play! wrote in an e-mail. She added that the cur- Licensed & Insured Call for FREE estimate Find your new class at riculum is already available in both English oldtownschool.org and Spanish. “Parents can speak with their schools to access a copy. The full curriculum is not available online to the public in any lan- 708-825-8979 guage, but instructors are trained to engage parents and encouraged to share the content mycolonialpainting.com if they have any questions or concerns.” ll JULY - CHICA O READER9 NEWS & POLITICS
NEWS The burden of proof How immigration court is especially challenging for LGBTQ asylum seekers By J A
wo things immediately come to Alejandra Aranda’s mind when “First, I’m Latina, you can tell I’m indigenous, and asked about her hometown of Iguala, then undocumented and Mexico, in the north-central state transgender,” Aranda says of Guerrero. The first is its scenic of how people see her. “A er that, many doors are Tnature; how El Tehuehue hill serves as a beau- closed.” MICHELLEKANAAR tiful backdrop to this city, home to more than 100,000 people. The second is the relentless bullying she experienced there, much of it National Center for Transgender Equality. lead to death.” Gutierrez is a member of Or- with the women and Aranda with the men. from those closest to her. Nearly 70 countries around the world still ganized Communities Against Deportations Agents never asked how she identifi ed, and Aranda, 48, is a trans woman, and though criminalize LGBTQ people, with punish- (OCAD), a grassroots organization that helps she didn’t think to tell them. Keeping her she transitioned only after leaving Iguala, ments as severe as the death penalty, accord- protect and empower undocumented people gender identity a secret became a tool for she says she always “looked like a girl.” Her ing to the Human Rights Campaign. in Chicago. survival—but it couldn’t fully shield her from femininity made her a target for abuse from In search of safety, LGBTQ asylum seek- Gutierrez says that immigration deten- the trauma she experienced in detention. her peers and family, especially her father, ers are often met with more violence at the tion is inherently inhumane and dangerous The room in the detention center had a who she says was one of her worst bullies, border at the hands of the U.S. immigration for LGBTQ migrants, pointing to the tragic toilet that required the men to use it in front describing their relationship at the time as system—a system that can be dangerous death of Roxana Hernández, a trans woman of one another. Aranda felt so vulnerable and “abusive.” for all migrants, but especially for queer from Honduras who died in ICE custody in uncomfortable in the space she refused to Aranda left Mexico in 1990 shortly after and trans people. According to a report by May 2018. Hernández died just 16 days after go to the restroom. There were no beds, so graduating from high school. She used her the Center for American Progress, LGBTQ entering the U.S. in search of refuge from the everyone had to sleep on the ground. Aranda newfound adulthood and the queerphobia migrants make up just .14 percent of people violence she faced back home. While in ICE says the agents treated them like animals, she faced in Iguala to fuel her journey north. ICE detained in 2017, yet were 12 percent custody, Hernández was denied medical care, often using excessive force and speaking She set her sights on Los Angeles after her of those who reported sexual abuse. This and an independent autopsy revealed that disrespectfully, with no regard for their childhood friend, Tania, who is also a trans sexual violence is often perpetrated by the she was physically abused while in detention. humanity. woman, sent Aranda letters describing the U.S.-employed detention sta as well as other Aranda’s time in immigration detention as “It was something very traumatic for me,” big American city with its vibrant LGBTQ detained migrants. a trans woman underscores that idea. Shortly she says about the three nights she spent in community. In May 2018, 37 Democratic congressional after graduating high school, she tried to detention. “It’s something that I will never “I came to America for a new life, for representatives published a letter to Kirstjen get a student visa through the U.S. embassy forget.” the gay community,” she says. “We all had Nielsen, then the Department of Homeland in Mexico, but was denied when she couldn’t dreams to come here. For a lot of people, it Security secretary, criticizing ICE for its provide all of the necessary paperwork. She he oppression and discrimination mi- was for work, but for me, it was to live my life. “disturbing” treatment of LGBTQ migrants. and her sister Columba then hired a coyote grants face navigating the U.S. immigra- My gay life.” They denounced the agency for placing trans who helped get them into the U.S. They Ttion system don’t just occur in detention. Aranda’s journey in the 90s mirrors what women in detention with cisgender men and were detained and deported three times Bindhu Vijayan has been an immigration many LGBTQ migrants experience today. asked ICE to release all LGBTQ migrants from before successfully making it across through lawyer for over ten years. She is currently Queer and trans migrants are still forced custodial detention into safer alternatives Tijuana. the director of immigrant empowerment and to leave home for reasons similar to other like supervised release or placement with While in detention Aranda was forced to activism at Community Activism Law Alliance migrants, but also because of the violence hosts or sponsors while cases work their way present as masculine and feared discrimi- (CALA), a Chicago-based organization that of- they face as a result of their queer identities. through the courts. nation and violence from those around her. fers legal services to marginalized communi- While exact numbers are unavailable due to For Antonio Gutierrez, 30, the violence Columba knew she was queer and helped pro- ties. Vijayan says there are a plethora of ways fears of persecution at home, an estimated queer and trans migrants face from the U.S. tect her on their journey, she says. However, the immigration court system is challenging 15,000 to 50,000 undocumented transgender immigration apparatus speaks to a dark the sisters were separated each time they for LGBTQ asylum seekers. immigrants live in the U.S. according to the reality where “asking for asylum could also were detained. Columba would be placed In the U.S., a person can seek asylum J 10 CHICA O READER - JULY ll ll JULY - CHICA O READER11 NEWS & POLITICS continued from 10 most significant hurdle queer and trans many LGBTQ migrants may not even reveal herself. Navigating the U.S. as a trans woman in several ways. One of the more common migrants face while navigating the immi- their queerness to a judge due to fear of con- of color and an immigrant has led to its own is through a port of entry. This is where an gration court system because the burden of tinued discrimination. specifi c set of challenges, though—most re- immigrant presents themselves at an o cial proof is so high. “What is this proof?” she “Depending on your country of origin, cently, getting her name changed in her job’s station, then undergoes an interview meant asks. “You’re coming from a country where you may have corrupt judges, corrupt police, computer system. The cash register at work to establish whether they have “credible you maybe never disclosed to anyone [that [and] just general violence, discrimination, used to print receipts with the name she was fear” of harm in their home countries. After you identify as LGBTQ] or you didn’t belong and harassment,” she says. “You may not nec- given at birth, which had placed her in many that they are usually released and allowed to to any particular organization.” essarily want to speak to this intimidating, awkward and sometimes unsafe situations. live in the U.S. until their time in front of an Vijayan also sees the methods many courts uniformed customs and border patrol agent Now, she feels safer because it prints her last immigration judge—though this process has use to determine if a person is LGBTQ or not and disclose ‘by the way, this is what my iden- name instead. been recently upended by the Trump admin- as highly problematic because they often rely tity is.’” Even with all of these challenges, Aranda’s istration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. on stereotypes and cultural biases. She says For Aranda, the intimidation and fear she focus isn’t on what she’s lost or the pain she’s To be granted asylum, someone must migrants are forced to reveal private and felt in the presence of Border Patrol is some- experienced. It’s on the life she’s been able to prove that they are fleeing persecution in intimate details about their lives to meet the thing that has stayed with her nearly three build for herself. A queer life. their home country and that this persecu- burden of proof—from the moment they fi rst decades later. “You saw their power,” she “With all the discrimination and every- tion is based on race, religion, nationality, realized they were queer and/or trans to how says. “It’s like a movie, to tell you the truth.” thing I’ve lived through,” she says, “I’m a political opinion, or membership in what is many partners they’ve had. Aranda now lives on Chicago’s north side, super person now.” v called a “particular social group.” LGBTQ An individual judge’s cultural biases have and CALA is helping her apply for asylum— people have been considered members of a considerable impact on whether or not an something she didn’t know she qualifi ed for Editor’s note: Alejandra Aranda’s interview the “particular social group” category since LGBTQ migrant will be granted asylum. If until recently. Like many asylum seekers was translated from Spanish to English by 1994. So in order for LGBTQ migrants to be a migrant does not “fit the bill” for what a before her, she will also have to meet a high Ashley Reyes. granted asylum, they must prove to an im- specifi c adjudicator believes a queer or trans burden of proof in order to be granted refuge migration judge that they are queer and/or person looks like, Vijayan says, they will like- in immigration court. This story was reported as a part of 90 Days, trans. ly be denied asylum and deported back to the She speaks fondly of the freedom she says 90 Voices’ Asylum City series on immigration Vijayan sees this material proof to be the violence they’ve fl ed. Vijayan also notes that she gained in Los Angeles, allowing her to be and sanctuary in Chicago.
TALK, LISTEN,
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12 CHICA O READER - JULY ll Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants—and add your own review—at chicagoreader.com/food. FOOD & DRINK
ast month, on the day Chance the Snapper went MIA, I was eating an alligator sausage on a toasted bun squirted with guacamole and sprin- kled with pico de gallo. This was the LSwamp Dog served at Doggone’s Chicago, a new sausage shop with Louisiana DNA that opened a month and a half before people start- ed spotting the alligator in the Humboldt Park Lagoon. The sausage stayed in the back of my mind for two long days when nobody reported seeing the wayward reptile, a mental place- holder reminding me that misadventures can occur when you’re alone and far from home. Doggone’s was introduced to Logan Square in late May by one Skip Murray, a sausage impresario who spent a few decades in the UK introducing Brits to American hot dog culture before opening a small gourmet sausage shop in New Orleans—a city with its own proudly entrenched hot dog traditions—and garnering cultlike adherents the way Hot Doug’s once did here. Going forward, it will forever be the fate of each sausage disruptor who hangs a shingle in Chicago to be compared, for better or worse, to Doug Sohn, who steadfastly refused to ex- pand. And while he’s had his imitators locally (Franks ’N’ Dawgs, Hot “G” Dog), none ever seemed to capture the magic. Like Hot Doug’s, Murray’s Dat Dog featured top-loaded encased meats ground from a vari- ety of animals that so enthralled the Crescent City that adherents lined up and waited for them. Dat Dog multiplied itself, opening sev- eral Louisiana locations and one in Texas J
RESTAURANT REVIEW Whither the gator dog at Doggone’s? A descendant of a New Orleans minichain surfaces in Logan Square. By M S
Clockwise from front: Nola Dog, Swamp Dog, Murray Dog, Louisiana Smoke Dog ALEXANDERGOULETAS
ll JULY - CHICA O READER13 D ’ C | W. Armitage -- doggone.dog FOOD & DRINK before Murray stepped away and started eye- ing Logan Square. Last month while the lagoon baked, the cli- mate in Doggone’s long, narrow corner space felt somewhat subtropical itself, as sausages as vividly bedecked as the fl ag-draped ceiling were handed over the counter in checkered baskets, smothered in sauces and streaked with condiments. The Nola Dog, positioned as a signature, is a crayfi sh sausage hidden under a surge of etou ee with diced tomato and onion and zig- zags of mustard and sour cream. Somewhere there’s a sausage beneath. Altogether, it’s a balanced if messy composition that swells the boundary of its bun, but it’s the richness of the smother that takes up most of the attention. Other sausages are just as assertively though not as abundantly dressed, which highlights the overcapacity of the buns, too large for what they carry. Flaws in the sausag- es themselves seem to stand out even more. Nearly each one I tried was visibly reduced, wrinkled and withdrawn, any former snappi- ness reduced to a leathery crackle, as if they’d basked in the sun too long. The Louisiana Smoked Dog features wiz- ened tips of smoked beef and sausage peeking out from under lashings of mustard, ketchup (Quick! Call 911!), cheese, and tomatoes. The Andouille sauce fries ALEXANDER GOULETAS Murray Dog is a pork sausage made with Guin- ness and covered in sweet blackberry sauce and creole mustard, diced onion and bacon, and unmelted, shredded cheddar. A special duck sausage featured much of the same. One does have choices. There are some two dozen toppings to customize any sausage, including three di erent vegan options and a “C-Dog”—actually battered and baked cod on a bun. There’s no choice about fries, which are also baked, not fried. You can pretend they’re not by ordering them topped with etoufee; chili and cheese; bacon, cheddar, and ranch; or an onslaught of thick andouille sauce, chunky with sausage and loaded with its own savory Doggone’s long, narrow space in Logan Square can at times feel burn—one thing I tried at Doggone’s that, subtropical. along with the etouffee, could stand on its ALEXANDERGOULETAS own, maybe in a bowl with a spoon. Chance the Snapper stuck his head above the water two days after I ate Doggone’s Swamp Dog, and as we know, he’s since been retired to Florida. It’s a bittersweet ending for all of us who want—but know we can’t keep— an alligator, an animal, no matter what form it takes, that deserves better treatment. v
@MikeSula 14 CHICA O READER - JULY ll ‘This is my home’
Woodlawn residents share their visions of a neighborhood in transition. By S C M H
Aaron “Haroon” Garel stands at Huckleberry Park, where there used to be a basketball court he says was a frequent gathering place for the Woodlawn community. He lived in the apartment building across the street for several years. MAX HERMAN
aron “Haroon” Garel, 39, re- in Woodlawn before her parents moved to counts fond memories of grow- the suburbs during her teenage years. She re- ing up in his vibrant south-side turned to the neighborhood as an adult. “It felt neighborhood, Woodlawn, like I was walking in a space where people saw during the 1980s. Block club me and saw that I belonged there. And they Aparties were “on and poppin,’” treating neigh- knew that I was a part of the fabric.” Wood- borhood children to an abundance of candy lawn runs from the lake west to King Drive, and a free petting zoo. Stores and restaurants and from 60th Street south to 67th. The neigh- lined 63rd Street, and at the corner of Kimbark borhood contains a portion of the University Avenue, the original three-story branch of of Chicago campus and Jackson Park, future the neighborhood public library doubled as a site of the Obama Presidential Center (OPC). community center and theater that held talent Neighborhood landmarks that residents shows and dance practices. like Taylor and Garel fondly recall, including “Woodlawn was the place to be,” says Garel. basketball courts and family-owned grocery Longtime residents of Woodlawn character- stores, are now gone. ize the community they remember as family During the 1990s and 2000s, the neighbor- oriented, a neighborhood where “everybody hood experienced signifi cant population and knew everybody.” infrastructure loss. Residents attribute the
“It felt familiar and it felt homey,” says decline to a rise in drugs, crime, racial tension, Longtime Woodlawn businesses along 63rd, just east of Cottage Grove MAXHERMAN Jazmyn Taylor, 26. Tayor spent her childhood and a lack of follow-through on promised J ll JULY - CHICA O READER15 Kids in the Summer Blast program at Sunshine Gospel Ministries on 61st Street gather around team leader Jeremiah Holmes, in character as “Beach Kid Brandon.” Holmes grew up coming to Sunshine’s a er-school programs and now is on staff at this organization in West Woodlawn. MAXHERMAN
Reverend Al Pitcher, opened the Covenant small businesses and community centers. Community of University Church in an apart- “They got those tracks tore down and built ment complex at the corner of 61st and Wood- those houses [east of Woodlawn Avenue], and lawn. From her rooftop, she can see the tower- that was the end of any shopping or commer- ing dormitories being built by the University cial development up and down 63rd,” says of Chicago, blocking the view she once had of Garel. “It became a desert.” the Midway Plaisance Park. The OPC, which is cleared to be built in Jack- “I don’t necessarily consider them a great son Park, is another large institution that has neighbor,” says Pitcher, who has helped cul- many residents worried about their future in a tivate an intentionally integrated community historically a ordable neighborhood. that holds regular resident meetings and pot- “It’s going to definitely change the com- lucks where decisions are made collectively. munity—raise the economic base of who can The Apostolic Church of God, a megachurch a ord to live here. And when you think about led by Pastor Byron Brazier that owns several all that, you can love Obama . . . but that’s not properties in the neighborhood, was integral enough to make what it’s defi nitely going to in the removal of a portion of the CTA Green change worth it for me,” says Taylor. Line in 1997, as reported by J.W. Mason in the These changes have pushed many residents Reader. The transit line once ran all the way to to action—sparking the launch of community Stony Island Avenue above an assortment of organization, 1Woodlawn, and prompting J Sara Pitcher sits on the balcony of her co-op apartment at Woodlawn and 61st with University of Chicago construction dominating her view to the north. Pitcher is the last original resident of these apartments, cofounded and rehabbed by her late husband, Reverend Al Pitcher, and the Covenant Community of University Church more than 40 years ago. MAXHERMAN
continued from 15 a 48,000-square-foot Jewel-Osco grocery store Longtime Woodlawn resident and jazz redevelopment. The negative stigma that and new homes selling for more than $700,000. enthusiast Abdul clouded the neighborhood’s reputation de- In the near future Woodlawn will see the arriv- Karim stands on the layed any potential population gains, leaving al of a mixed-use medical center, massive Uni- grounds where the Pershing Hotel and behind numerous vacant lots and minimal versity of Chicago dorms, and the renovation Budland nightclub investment. of a church into a community theater. used to be at Cottage Today, though, Woodlawn has become an Much of the change is institutionally in- Grove and 64th. Karim recalls the attractive location for those looking to cap- fluenced. In 1964, the University of Chicago days in the 1960s italize on these vacancies. In a January 2017 agreed not to develop beyond 61st Street, but when he would soak Curbed Chicago article, Woodlawn was named in recent years it has expanded southward, in the sounds of local 2016 Neighborhood of the Year. shifting racial and economic demographics. and out-of-town jazz players in numerous Just this year, new developments have Sara Pitcher has lived in Woodlawn for more clubs along Cottage sprung up across the neighborhood, including than 40 years, ever since her late husband, Grove. MAXHERMAN 16 CHICA O READER - JULY ll “It may be close to the Obama Presidential Center, but I want it to be a beacon of liht. Like a corridor where youn people and elderly can travel from Enlewood, South Shore, or Woodlawn, and it becomes a center for learnin, enjoyment, and appreciatin nature.” - Artist William Hill on the botanic garden he helped create next to Hyde Park Academy at 63rd and Stony Island.
William Hill MAXHERMAN
Jazmyn Taylor stands in Jackson Park, where she grew up visiting to ride bikes and barbecue with her family. The track seen behind her, once used by her grandmother, is slated to be relocated farther south once the Obama Presidential Center is complete. MAXHERMAN A group with the Army Corps of Engineers sets a prescribed burn in Jackson Park on April 16, 2019, just east of the Obama Presidential Center construction site. This four-year restoration project aims to bring back native species like the Michigan lily and the butterfl y weed that would be specifi cally in sight of the OPC specifi cally. MAXHERMAN At the botanic garden he helped create, William Hill gets assistance moving mulch from Hyde Park Academy student Darius Triplett as part of a day of volunteer work for seniors at the high school on April 22, 2019. MAXHERMAN ll JULY - CHICA O READER17 continued from 17 ARTS & CULTURE a cohort that supports a community benefi ts agreement surrounding the OPC. The preservation of a family-oriented cul- Lookbook photos from Hooligan Brand. ture remains a concern. JORDANESPARZAANDDEREKMACHAK “I don’t want the family aspect and the people here to change. That’s what makes Woodlawn what it is,” says Jeremiah Holmes, 22, whose childhood apartment at 61st and Cottage Grove has now been replaced by the Jewel-Osco. However, some residents see the neighbor- hood change as a positive sign. “Look, nothing stays the same,” says Abdul Karim, 78, whose family moved to Woodlawn from Mississippi in 1957. “Either you can be a part of the progress or a part of the regress. . . . Gentrifi cation can go both ways. Either you are going to control your area or you are going to let someone do it to you.” Little remains from many longtime resi- dents’ memories of the community. The jazz clubs on Cottage Grove from Karim’s youth have been demolished, local store favorites on 63rd are gone, and the historic Washington Park National Bank will soon become a dual of- fi ce-retail center. Regardless, many residents FASHION express a commitment to being included in Woodlawn’s transition and a refusal to suc- cumb to the wave of displacement impacting We do fashion di erent here gentrifying communities across the city. William Hill does so by turning vacant space The Museum of Streetwear enshrines young Chicago designers into public community gardens. He is often (for a weekend). found developing one at the intersection of 63rd and Stony Island, next to the Hyde Park By M H Academy High School, which he attended more than 50 years ago. treetwear in Chicago” evokes comparison to other major fashion markets, Harth is a native of the Pullman neighbor- “It may be close to the Obama Presidential such names as Leaders 1354, Harth believes that Chicago is unique in that hood. Her desire to pursue fashion led her to Center, but I want it to be a beacon of light,” Jugrnaut, Joe Freshgoods way. “[Chicago’s] a much more practical mar- the Illinois Institute of Art; she graduated in says Hill. “A corridor where young people of Fat Tiger Workshop, and ket,” she says. “Chicago lacks a lot of glamour, 2010. “I was trying to start my own brand and I and elderly can travel from Englewood, South Virgil Abloh. These brands and that’s not a bad thing. Here it’s like, ‘We’ve realized I didn’t really know how to run a busi- Shore, or Woodlawn, and it becomes a center “Sand individuals carry the torch internationally got work to do,’ so it requires something more ness,” she says. “I began interning, fi rst with for learning, enjoyment, and appreciating for Chicago streetwear, but while the titans casual.” my uncle, who is a designer.” Harth’s uncle, nature.” are making their waves, there is a bubbling un- That need for “something more casual” is Elhadji “Haj” Gueye, a renowned tailor and These residents have their own ideas for dercurrent of designers whose creative work why streetwear thrives in Chicago. Originally owner of Maison de Haj, a tailor shop located the community and what they hope to see pre- brings definition to the city’s fashion scene. an outgrowth of the NYC hip-hop and LA near the corner of Van Buren and Michigan, served. Most importantly, they share why they It is in that undercurrent that Amanda Harth, skateboarding subcultures in the mid-70s, has designed suits for Bernie Mac as well as choose to stay. founder of the online fashion resource Run- streetwear is characterized by an emphasis for TV shows and fi lms shot in Chicago. “I went “This is my home,” says Pitcher. “I can’t wayaddicts, stumbled upon the inspiration for on comfort over formality, an unbuttoned look back to working in the retail business, learning imagine living anywhere else.” v the Museum of Streetwear. that combines baggy clothing; graphic tees hands on how to market, how to promote, how The Museum of Streetwear, a two-day pop- with creative designs, characters, and logos; to do payroll, etc. I became a sponge around Sierra_Alyse up in East Garfi eld Park, is a fi rst-of-its-kind sturdy sneakers; and a rejection of the old- people in the branding world of, like, Leo MaxHermanPhoto exhibition that aims to bring attention to a guard fashion brands. “Streetwear brands in Burnett.” Chicago streetwear scene that is teeming with a traditional sense are independent ones, like Realizing she was sitting on a mountain of This story was produced with support from creative designs and ideas. “I’ve always been Leaders and Fat Tiger,” says Harth. “Early on, untapped knowledge about the fashion in- City Bureau, a civic journalism lab based in drawn more towards exhibitions and pre- brands like Nike and Adidas were key in the dustry, Harth started Runwayaddicts in 2012. Woodlawn. If you are a longtime Woodlawn sentations as opposed to traditional runway foundation of streetwear as well.” Now the “First it was a platform for independent and resident who wants to share your ideas and shows,” Harth says. “I don’t think a [fashion] movement also includes the young Chicago emerging designers to promote their work,” vision for the neighborhood, learn more about market here needs runway shows or a fashion designers who will be featured in the Museum she says. “Then we were very events focused how you can get involved at citybureau.org/ week. They need something that allows them of Streetwear, such as We All We Got, PerryCo for about a year. Now we’re a fashion media woodlawn. to interact and lets them explore things.” In Shoes, and Little High, Little Low. company created for designers to use as a 18 CHICA O READER - JULY ll T M S Sat /-Sun /, AM- PM, Lab on Lake, W. Lake, runwayaddicts.co, $-$ day pass, $-$ VIP weekend all-access pass. ARTS & CULTURE
Hand dyed and distressed jackets by Chicago designer Ron Louis DEREKMACHAK/USUALLYTAKINGPHOTOS
resource to get connected with the resources 1354, and a discussion on women in streetwear hometown designers have been invited to Since April, Harth and her team have been that they need to thrive. [It’s] pretty much led by blogger Taylor Justin and featuring collaborate with nationally recognized brands busy connecting the dots to make the Museum something that I felt like would’ve helped me Brittney Perry of the creative agency and and create capsules for the occasion—like of Streetwear come together as quickly as pos- when I tried to start my own brand.” streetwear project Her Notoriety. Joe Freshgoods teaming up with west-coast sible: booking a venue, getting sponsors, and The idea for a museum dedicated to street- Rico Acoff Jr. is one of the 13 featured streetwear brand the Hundreds. Acoff and connecting with brands she hoped to feature. wear came in a most unlikely way, as Harth designers Harth invited to be a voice in this Harth both expressed major concern for what “Now it’s all about sharing this with as many tells it: in April she was nearing the end of conversation. Acoff is the founder of Hooli- will happen to this sudden creative boom in people as possible,” she says. “With this event, a self-expression and leadership course at gan Brand, a streetwear company he started the wake of ComplexCon. “I call it the ‘Wakan- I just feel like Runwayaddicts is doing what it’s the Landmark Forum—a personal and pro- in 2015. “I was really in need of a job around da E ect,’” Harth says. “When people fi rst saw supposed to be doing.” fessional growth, training, and development the time I started in fashion, and I couldn’t Black Panther, everyone wanted to go out and A few years down the line Harth hopes to program—and she was required to come up fi nd one,” he says. “Then my mother told me, do amazing things for their community, then build a permanent space on the south side with a final community project. “We had to ‘If you can’t fi nd a job then make one.’” Aco two weeks after they were just back to their that’s dedicated to streetwear, one that won’t come up with projects by the end of the day for had been an avid consumer of local streetwear same old ways. All of these people are coming just include an interactive museum but also this program, and I just made it up on the spot. brands. “Starting a clothing brand was a from around the world to see [ComplexCon], work spaces for designers to create in. For Everyone thought it sounded cool, and I was way to express my creativity and my love for but what happens when they leave?” now, though, the Museum of Streetwear is all just like, ‘All right, we’ll see how cool it really streetwear,” he says. But Ron Louis, a designer and founder of about building the community up. “Fashion is is,’” she says. “I’m creating this with the goal Aco sees the Museum of Streetwear as an Phera brand and another featured artist in a trillion-dollar industry, and the fact that Chi- of connecting communities that are fashion opportunity for budding designers to become the Museum of Streetwear, sees both events cago hasn’t been able to capitalize on it is ri- focused and creatively focused in Chicago. I more connected. “It’s building a light for peo- as just symptoms of a positive growth in the diculous. Designers are constantly overlooked want us to come together to talk about build- ple that are up-and-coming in this industry,” creative community. “I think it’s more so a here, and they feel like they have to leave to ing something here. For this weekend, I want Aco says. “We’ll get to meet and communi- reflection of what we’ve already been doing become successful,” she says. “I just really to get as many people in fashion in one space cate and share ideas within this community. here in the city for years,” he says. “I think want for people in Chicago to start investing in to start that conversation.” This kind of thing is fundamental for the that events like the Museum of Streetwear and the designers that they have here.” v That includes a panel about owning your growth of the creative community.” ComplexCon are going to inspire creatives to own business featuring Diego Ross of Leaders With ComplexCon in Chicago this year, go harder.” @Matthemajor ll JULY - CHICA O READER19 “S M ’ T ” R Through /: Wed : PM, Chicago Magic Lounge, N. Clark, --, chicagomagiclounge.com, $ main floor, $ THEATER front row, + (+ to ticketed shows with a legal guardian).
Henry V TOMMCGRATH Exposition, aka the Chicago World’s Fair. Masterson’s narrative through line involves a mysterious coin and his attempt to fi nd its or- igin. The search is a gentle, mostly fascinating crash course in late-19th-century magicians, especially those known to have worked the REVIEW 1893 fair. H V Masterson’s illusions are more intriguing R Through /: Wed-Sun : PM, First Magical mystery tour than eye-popping. Scarves fly and float like Folio Theatre, Mayslake “Sean Masterson’s Timeless Magic” tiny birds; playing cards, silver coins, and little Peabody Estate, sets the stage for the Chicago round balls vanish and materialize via what st St., Oak Brook, --, firstfolio. Magic Lounge. seem like telekinesis and telepathy; a ghost org, $-$, $-$ puppet tells hilariously awful jokes. Master- students and seniors, $ By C S son is a genial host, accompanying his sleight kids and under. of hand with tales of Houdini and Blackstone, Howard Thurston, and “Chung Ling Soo”—the last a white man who donned “yellowface” in order to beguile audiences with stereotypical exoticism. ou’ve heard of going through the looking Masterson isn’t the only magician at work REVIEW vice: Rice takes the character of Chorus (who glass? The Chicago Magic Lounge takes in the lounge. Before he takes the stage, an introduces each act of the play) and turns Yyou through the laundromat. That’s in-house company of ten wandering conjur- The king stays her into a docent in modern-day England where you’re headed if you seek the wonders ers works the tables. While overwhelmingly leading a gaggle of gawking tourists through of prestidigitation in store behind the bank of male—there’s one woman among them— the the king “significant” historical sites. This concept washer-dryers stacked fl oor to ceiling in the company of magicians seems to be conscious- Diana Coates’s commanding breaks up the flow of the story, and trans- Uptown venue. As cover-ups go, it’s not quite ly avoiding the most hackneyed cliches of performance dominates First forms Shakespeare’s intentionally elevated as convincing as the industrial dry-cleaning magic’s historically macho world: no scantily Folio’s Henry V. language, meant to tell us we are watching machinery fronting the meth lab in Breaking clad female assistants are sawed in half, levi- B J H important events in the life of Henry V and Bad. But it’s a good introduction to the sur- tated, or disappeared. England (it is not for nothing that Derek prises in store. It’s all about the eye contact in the lounge. Jacobi played Chorus in Kenneth Branagh’s The Magic Lounge launched in 2018 as a It’s a place where the artists make you believe hakespeare’s Henry V is very much a 1989 movie version of this play), into mere multistage temple to the old-school charmers (or at least want to believe) in magic. Come play of words not action, this despite tour-guide chatter. I blame Rice’s concept of the pre-David Copperfield world, conjur- skeptical, and you’ll leave at least considering Sbeing a play about war (specifically for Lydia Berger Gray’s uninspired delivery ers such as Matt Schulien, who helped make the possibility of the impossible. v Henry V’s battles in France during the of lines that should stir the blood and set Chicago a hotbed of up-close magic. In Magic Hundred Years’ War, including England’s the stage for some of the most important Lounge lore, Schulien led the charge to take @CateySullivan remarkable victory in the Battle of Agin- moments in Henry’s reign. magic “from the stage to the spectator’s court). Yes, the play includes a couple of fi ght None of these fl aws really matter, though, table.” scenes. And a good designer with a decent because at the center of the production That’s certainly the aesthetic at the Magic budget could wow an audience with an array is Diana Coates, an actor so strong and so Lounge, where customers are asked to ques- of battle uniforms and sumptuous court perfectly cast as Henry that she makes up for tion reality before they lay eyes on so much as costumes. (This does not happen in this the production’s missteps. From the moment a card trick: some of those washer-dryer units production; Stefanie Johnsen’s costumes are she enters the play, she dominates, standing are not like the others. Find the secret door serviceable but not amazing.) But really, the with regal bearing, stalking the stage like a among them, and you’ll soon be in a surpris- success of Henry V hinges on whether you true warrior-king, confi dent of her strength, ingly spacious 34-guest-capacity bar steeped have an ensemble that knows how to deliver always poised for action. And when she in art deco elegance, where bartenders serve the Bard’s words with confi dence and power. speaks, she reveals in every word and pause craft cocktails with names such as “How Hou- In this department, First Folio’s current the full power and poetry in Shakespeare’s dini Died” and “Smoke and Mirrors.” Beyond revival, directed by Hayley Rice, is a mixed lines. This is the second time Coates has the bar, there’s a library where packs of cards bag. Some of Rice’s actors deliver their lines played Henry; she was the lead in a version float in midair and ancient, priceless tomes tolerably well, but others only get the sound of the play performed by Babes with Blades on the history and practice of magic sit like of the words, not the feeling behind them. in 2017 (also directed by Rice), and I hope it sacred idols in lighted glass cases. And others mar their delivery with awful is not her last. But it is my greater hope that And beyond those cases, “Sean Master- attempts at accents (particularly French some wise director will cast her in another son’s Timeless Magic” headlines the lounge’s accents so bad they would make Pepé Le Pew Shakespeare play, and another, and another. 120-seat Harry Blackstone Cabaret through blush). She’d be a great Hamlet. She would kill as October 2. (Additional acts play the 43-seat It doesn’t help that Rice complicates her Macbeth. And Lear. Oh, I would pay good 654 Club.) Masterson’s show is rooted in local TITIAYANGADE
production with an annoying framing de- money to see her do Lear. v history—specifically, the 1893 Columbian 20 CHICA O READER - JULY ll R READERRECOMMENDEDb ALLAGESF THEATER
OPENING
Dinosaur Durang and friendship. In a brisk 90 minutes presenting more Eclipse Theatre Company’s cast can’t save this than 24 numbers introduced as tracks on four “sides” 80s relic. (like a double LP), this utterly absorbing show (directed by Ed Rutherford) manages to name-check Edgar Allan Eclipse Theatre Company presents Christopher Poe, Thelonious Monk, Little Red Riding Hood, the Durang’s badly dated 1981 farce about a mismatched Arabian Nights, and untold other poetics of the human couple’s therapy-aided quest for love. When Prudence Ghost Quartet condition while hardly breaking a sweat. (Devi Reisenfeld) answers Bruce’s (Nick Freed) MICHAELBROSILOW Amanda Raquel Martinez and Rachel Guth ably personals ad, they meet at a nondescript restaurant carry most of the lead vocal duties, while T.J. Anderson and have an awkward fi rst date, highlighted by a and Alex Ellsworth hold their own on a variety of instru- volley of inappropriate comments back and forth. ments and provide complementary backup singing. But She storms out hoping never to see him again. all four performers are constantly required to shi gears But neither she, nor the audience, will be so lucky. without breaking the momentum of the songs, which Bruce’s amnesiac therapist, Charlotte (Lynne Baker), pile up at a dizzying clip. It’s an o en astonishing tight- convinces him to place another ad. However, because of rope walk that manages to be heartfelt, hilarious, and her condition, the advice is actually meant for another deceptively resonant for our overstimulated ADD age. patient. Prudence’s shrink, Stuart (Joe McCauley), The combination of Jeremy Hollis’s curio-shop set doesn’t bother counseling her at all, but just wants and G. “Max” Maxin IV’s cheeky, o en charmingly out- to get back into her pants. She improbably continues dated video projections lend an odd retro/out-of-time to come to him a er their disastrous aff air. This is all backdrop, but it would all fall fl at if Malloy’s songs didn’t played for laughs, though it’s never clear to what end. the way it tweaks sexual mores might’ve seemed daring, measure up. Fortunately, his pastiches of jazz, folk, and Bruce’s live-in lover Bob (Siddartha Rajan) is but in 2019 it comes off as ugly and unnecessary. The Songs in the key of loss show tunes perfectly meld the tones and textures that understandably upset about Bruce’s new romance. Bob’s uniformly talented cast does its level best to breathe R Ghost Quartet takes four friends on a give these four time-skipping apparitions fl ight. You reaction is the only aspect of Durang’s play that rings life into this dinosaur, but some species are better shape-shi ing journey through time and music. don’t have to believe in ghosts to be utterly moved by true. Every other character is a collection of tics rather relegated to the boneyard. Rachel Lambert directed. their plight, and a half dozen of the catchier refrains will than an actual human being. From the appropriately —D S B T Through Black Button Eyes Productions presents the Chicago haunt even the most jaded materialist long a er they’ve hideous early 80s decor to the cringeworthy epithets 8/18: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Athenaeum premiere of Dave Malloy’s 2014 song cycle, which le the theater. —D S GQ that rain down throughout, there’s a grotesque Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-935-6875, gleefully compels four friends to shape-shi through Through 8/17: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Stage 773, 1225 incongruousness to this play. Perhaps when it debuted, eclipsetheatre.com, $30, $20 students and seniors. centuries of haunted evocations of love, longing, loss, W. Belmont, 773-327-5252, blackbuttoneyes.com, $30.
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Director Larsen’s staging for Now & Then Produc- B Four-course circus tions is earnest and candid but feels underprepared, R Teatro ZinZanni serves Love, Chaos & and the multiple Gregs and Daniels lack discernible Dinner chemistry. —J H N T Through 8/11: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun Teatro ZinZanni’s Chicago premiere of Love, Chaos 3 and 7 PM, Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, & Dinner is a delightfully schizophrenic extravaganza. nowandthenmusical.com, $35-$50. Occupying an entire fl oor of the Cambria Hotel with a giant big-top tent that glitters with mirrors and chande- The waste land liers, this show is three hours of madcap high jinks and R Steep Theatre’s Pomona plants a stunning feats of awe. Guests are guided through the dystopian garden of evil. pandemonium by two cohosts. Cabaret star Rizo (aka Amelia Zirin-Brown), a Lady Gagaesque diva with a big A woman’s search for her missing sister becomes a twisted voice and commanding presence, enters on the shoul- fable of money, violence, sex, death, and Dungeons and ders of men, draped in marabou, and treats the audience Dragons in Alistair McDowall’s creepy Pomona. Once to an audacious cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing.” a Victorian rural retreat lush with apple orchards and Frank Ferrante is Caesar the Chef, a master improviser wildfl owers that was developed into the Royal Pomona who pokes fun at the audience with frenetic character Palace—a concert hall four times the size of London’s work, corny jokes, and some old-school pop cultural Royal Albert Hall, surrounded by magnifi cent gardens— references, from Redd Foxx to Mary Tyler Moore. the island of Pomona declined a er an 1887 factory work, really land. But some performances cut through, Pomona LEEMILLER The sizzling and versatile band, headed by musical explosion into a wasteland of ruins, weeds, and deserted like a eulogy from a veteran industry manager (Kelli director Hans Teuber, leads the cast through a songbook docks in the Manchester Ship Canal. On this island, once Walker) pleading for guidance on how to better help that includes classic cabaret songs like “Don’t Touch the site of anthropological shows of “human souvenirs” those under her wing. My Tomatoes” and modern hits. This true variety show alongside its other entertainments, McDowall envisions At the concept level, there are some legitimate includes outstanding acts of opera, juggling, comedy, a place where a city tucks away its appetites and ills. laughs in Wood’s one-act, like a performer unironically PM, Sun 2:30 PM; also Wed 8/14, 2:30 and 7:30 PM; and multiple astounding trapeze and tumbling features, Steep Theatre’s production, directed by Robin Witt, plugging his podcast in front of his friend’s casket, no performance Sat 8/17, 7:30 PM, Stage 773, 1225 including one jaw-dropping act by Duo Rose that I can opens with the fl ick of a switchblade, quick and sharp and a mortician—having only met the roastee as a W. Belmont, 773-654-3103, americanbluestheater. only describe as a death-defying sexy aerial dance— as a match striking, on a long, narrow slot of a stage corpse—resorting to insulting material inspired solely com, $29-$39. some of the best work you’ll see outside of Cirque du minimally set with pieces made of industrial waste by his body on a slab. But much of what does work here Soleil. (designed by Joe Schermoly). Ollie (Amber Sallis) is steamrolled by magnifi ed performances that iron out Weatherproof Bard Comedy by Joe De Paul and Tim Tyler keeps the is in a car with Zeppo (Peter Moore). In the back any interesting wrinkles of subtlety the premise would R Midsommer Flight’s The Tempest mood mirthful and goofy, and even the four-course seat, a masked fi gure (Phoebe Moore) broods over seem to call for. —D J R Through 8/18: provides an ingratiating (and free!) al fresco dinner (created by Debbie Sharpe of the Goddess and D&D dice. Ollie’s sister has vanished, but Zeppo Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Greenhouse Theater Cen- romance with gender twists. Grocer) becomes part of the show, served by a cast refuses to get involved. “I just own everything,” he ter, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, the-comrades. of roving comedians who deliver tableside comedy. says. “It’s not good to get involved in everything.” com, $25, $10 industry. A weekend marked by extreme heat and storms makes Stay home if you don’t like fun. As for me, I would go Told in disordered shards, the story that unfolds toggles the cataclysm at the outset of The Tempest hit home. a second time. —S F L C between dystopian horror and mundane exchanges, Corn in Gilead But even without that assist from nature, Midsommer &D Through 9/29: Wed-Fri 7 PM, Sat-Sun presenting a disturbing vision of a world where no one The Spitfi re Grill is fueled by Capraesque Flight’s free outdoor touring production of Shake- noon and 7 PM, Hotel Cambria, 32 W. Randolph, is involved but everyone is aff ected. The cast is spot- implausibilities. speare’s late romance, directed by Beth Wolf, has plenty 312-488-0900, zinzanni.com, $99-$189 (includes a on, with especially eff ective work by Brandon Rivera of resonant moments, thanks in part to the cross-gender four-course meal). as the disarmingly awkward security guard/dungeon Boy, oh boy, the residents of tiny Gilead, Wisconsin, casting of Stephanie Monday and Julie Proudfoot as master Charlie and Ashlyn Lozano as the gutsy sex need some hope. Good thing they’re living in a musical. Prospero and Alonso. The idea of powerful women Somewhere in time worker Fay. —I H P Through You see, greedy loggers swooped in a while back and being cheated of their place in public life—or even hav- Murky chronology lowers the stakes in Now and 8/24: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Steep Theatre, 1115 cleared out all the mature trees in the local forest. Then ing their lives threatened—by callow, grasping men like Then. W. Berwyn, 773-649-3186, steeptheatre.com, $38 the quarry where many residents worked shut down. Antonio (Dylan S. Roberts) and Sebastian (Scott Myers) advance reserved seats, $27 general admission, But since dramatizing the eff ects of a sweeping regional feels mighty relevant. Three versions of lovers Daniel and Greg—in their 20s, $10 “access” tickets based on availability. economic downturn is patently beyond the reach of this Wolf’s compact staging comes in at a tidy 90 min- 30s, and “50s and older”—occupy the stage in this quaint 2001 musical’s creators (music and book by James utes, but nothing feels rushed here. In addition to Mon- original musical by Dennis Manning (songs) and Ronnie Valcq, lyrics and book by Fred Alley), they pin the town’s day’s powerful sorceress, there are strong performances Larsen (book). The pair meet in college, maybe around Dying, then laughing crippling despair on the disappearance of the town’s from Richard J. Eisloeff el as Caliban (more brooding 2000, a fact gleaned from tossed-in pop culture refer- An a er-death insult fest takes center stage in favorite son during the Vietnam war a couple decades Lost Boy than malevolent “mooncalf”) and from Kat ences: John Denver’s dead, Beyoncé is famous. Thus the Roast. back. Now along comes tough-but-vulnerable young Moraros and Tom McGrath as Trinculo and Stephano, oldest iteration of the couple, who’ve weathered 40-plus ex-con Percy, released to the care of Gilead’s sheriff for the drunken servants who join forces with Caliban to years, is living in the 2040s at the earliest, which here In lieu of a traditional funeral service, a young comedian reasons that never make much sense. She starts waiting try to overthrow Prospero. Elizabeth Rentfro’s music, looks identical to the present day. More puzzling, Greg asks for a livestreamed, no-holds-barred roast of honor tables at the title diner, run by tough-but-vulnerable performed by Elana Weiner-Kaplow’s Ariel and her mentions the toy he most wanted as a boy—an Easy-Bake to be performed by his colleagues and family at his old Hannah (Catherine Smitko), and through a series fl ower-children band of sprites, brings a folk-pop bounc- Oven—was a “crazy new thing” when he was 12. It was wake. Complicating what could otherwise be a cathartic of Capraesque implausibilities, which also involve the iness that contrasts with the more somber musings brought to market in 1963. act of irreverence is the fact that the entire lineup is bit- town’s preternaturally unliberated housewife Shelby of Monday’s Prospero on mortality and redemption. Perhaps it’s nitpicking to dwell on the show’s mud- terly estranged, and his cause of death—suicide—makes (Dara Cameron), everyone fi nds civic pride. Despite some ambient neighborhood noise, the text dled chronology when its creators want audiences to it unclear if honoring wishes he made during an acute How all the newly planted fl ower boxes and freshly comes through clearly. At the performance I attended, focus on the trials, tribulations, and sassyish banter of mental crisis is really healthy for anyone involved. painted house fronts will pay anyone’s bills is le the line “the watchdogs bark” was greeted by a howl a long-term gay relationship. But given that the play’s Harry Wood’s debut play, presented by director unanswered, thanks to the dramaturgical expediency from an actual pooch. That sort of felicitous coincidence central conceit puts past, present, and future simulta- Derek Bertelsen and the Comrades, makes real a fairly typical of the American musical. Setting fundamental can’t be guaranteed every time, but the possibility neously onstage for most of the show, the time line is universal dark fantasy that taps into the comedian id tri- credulity aside, the show is tight, tuneful, and, under adds a fi llip of extra enjoyment to a show that wears its in essence its spine. More importantly, the creators give fecta of self-fl agellation, self-indulgence, and tonal irony. Tammy Mader’s direction for American Blues Theater, ingratiating charms with a light but sure-handed touch. us little else to mull on for two hours, as nothing much Though not explicitly inspired by real headlines, it’s impressively multidimensional. Best of all, Jacquelyne —K R T T Through 8/25: Sat 6 develops in the men’s relationship except intermittent impossible not to be reminded of the spate of stand-up Jones as Percy never hits a false note in a role riven PM, Sun 2 PM (except Sat 8/10, 11 AM); 7/27-7/28 dustups resolved by singing a love song or three. And industry deaths in recent years, and how Wood handles with cliches. Her exquisite vocal control lets her convey and 8/17-8/18, Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina; 8/3- since the oldest version of the couple has settled into that fraught dramatic and comedic territory here is moments of delicate intimacy and full-throttle outrage 8/11, Chicago Women’s Park and Gardens, 1801 relative comfort and contentment, little is at stake along mixed; few of the broadest gags, like prerecorded ad with equal clarity. —J H T S S. Indiana; 8/24-8/25, Lincoln Park, 2045 Lincoln the way. bits and a cartoonishly stiff funeral director’s emcee G Through 8/17: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 Park West, midsommerflight.com, free v
22 CHICA O READER - JULY ll O U T H ss Directed by Quentin Tarantino. R, min. In wide release. FILM THIS WEEK AT THE LOGAN
Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood 2646 N. MILWAUKEE AVE | CHICAGO, IL | THELOGANTHEATRE.COM | 773.342.5555
REVIEW Quentin Tarantino’s bedtime story Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood indulges the fantasy of movie history when it could be questioning it. Ricky By B S
consider Quentin Tarantino’s finest a narrative movie, his or her project is ground- film to date to be Inglourious Basterds ed in make-believe. Narrative cinema conjures (2009), in large part because of how it its own reality that plays on viewers’ desires, Gervais questions cinema’s tenuous relationship whether through the charisma of performers, to history. Less a movie about World War filmmaking technique, or the progression of III than a movie about World War II movies, the story. Ultimately these things have noth- SuperNature Basterds famously (or infamously, depending ing to do with history, as much as most histori- on who you ask) climaxed with the image of cal dramas try to pretend otherwise. gung-ho American soldiers assassinating Since Basterds, Tarantino has been spin- Adolf Hitler in a movie theater—a brazenly ning out variations on the insights of that fi lm, fictional innovation that drew attention not mixing the facts of different historical eras MAY 11, 2020 only to its own artifi ce, but to that of any his- with the flights of his imagination. Django torical drama. In breaking the unspoken rule Unchained (2012) took place in the antebellum that narratives set in the past must respect south and followed the vengeful exploits of a TICKTS ON SALE FRIDAY JULY 26 AT 10AM the actual historical narrative, Tarantino ac- runaway slave, while the The Hateful Eight msg.com knowledged that any time a fi lmmaker makes (2015) took place after the Civil War and J The Chicago Theatre provides disabled accommodations and sells tickets to disabled individuals through our Disabled Services department, which may be reached at 888-609-7599 any weekday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Ticketmaster orders are subject to service charges. ssssEXCELLENTsssGOODssAVERAGEsPOOR• WORTHLESS ll JULY - CHICA O READER23 R READERRECOMMENDEDb ALLAGESN NEWF
FILM Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies. continued from 23 yet he too has his demons, having possibly played fast and loose with America’s societal murdered his wife in a highly gossiped-about tensions at that time. (Perhaps Tarantino’s incident that Rick is careful not discuss. The most topical fi lm, Hateful Eight presaged the fi lm only reveals Cli ’s troubled past when the 2016 election in its portrait of Americans with stunt coordinator on another TV western (on competing, antagonistic views forced to share which Rick is appearing as a guest star) refus- the same space.) Now Tarantino has delivered es to work with Cli because of his history. In Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood, a movie one of the fi lm’s more a ecting moments, Rick set in Los Angeles in 1969 that touches upon defends his friend and convinces the stunt the film and television industry of the late coordinator to change his mind. 60s, the Manson family, and other aspects of Tarantino interweaves this fictional American culture in the Vietnam era. If this portrait of Rick and Cliff’s friendship and fi lm feels less satisfying than Tarantino’s last professional obligations with scenes from three, it’s likely because the writer-director the life of the not-fictional model-actress has exhausted whatever he has to say about Sharon Tate (Robbie), who’s presented as a the relationship between movies and history sort of magical sprite floating through the and is simply spinning his wheels. Hollywood party scene and whom Tarantino That’s not to say that Hollywood is with- imagines living (with her husband, Roman out its pleasures. From moment to moment, Polanski) next door to Rick’s mansion. Also Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground Tarantino remains one of the most impressive drifting through the narrative are several of stylists currently working in American cin- the wayward young women who belong to ema, and the film contains a trove of enter- Charles Manson’s cult (which was based on taining crane shots, cutaway gags, and stray a ranch outside Hollywood) and are often NOW PLAYING pal and Wilco bandmate Jeff Tweedy; jazz innovator Bill Frisell; Patti Smith’s veteran sideman Lenny Kaye; visual details. He also remains an impressive seen hitchhiking around the city. Because the NBarbara Rubin and the Lou Reed’s buddy Stewart Hurwood; urbane Captain director of actors: Hollywood features two fi lm is so relaxed, it never develops a sense R Exploding NY Underground Kirk Douglas of The Tonight Show’s hip-hop house band marvelous performances from Leonardo Di- of dread from its crosscutting between Tate the Roots; Bob Dylan band member and session artist Caprio and Brad Pitt, and the supporting cast and the Manson girls—who would intersect As much a celebration as it is a documentary, this profi le Charlie Sexton; and the charismatic, multifaceted Marc (which features Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, horrifically in real life—nor does it achieve of experimental fi lmmaker and legendary scenester Ribot. Producer-director and pop culture enthusiast Ron Barbara Rubin persuasively argues that the avant-garde Mann, the Canadian director whose close observation, Kurt Russell, and Lena Dunham) is seldom the summative, poignant quality it’s after movies made in New York City in the 1960s comprise gentle humor, and wide-ranging curiosity distinguish less than enjoyable. Yet despite its epic length, in associating Rick’s professional downfall one of the most important movements in cinema history. such nonfi ction fi lms as Comic Book Confi dential (1988) Hollywood doesn’t feel as much like a grand (meant to refl ect the decline of the Hollywood Director Chuck Smith touches on such major fi gures as and Grass (1999), credits Jim Jarmusch as the movie’s statement as it does an accumulation of studio system) with the rise of Manson’s Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas, and Shirley Clarke; not only “instigator,” and Jarmusch obligingly pops up, looking does he pithily explain their signifi cance to American every inch his hipster self. Toronto rock ’n’ rollers the pleasant moments, as if Tarantino had simply zeitgeist-ending community. Rather, it’s in art, but he conveys the excitement of their work through Sadies provide additional music for the fi lm’s seductive assembled everything he liked about late-60s the smaller, less grandstanding moments a combination of carefully selected clips and a poetic soundtrack. —A G 80 min. Fri 7/26, 2 and California (both real and imagined) and decid- that Hollywood thrives: Cli ’s lonely evening editing style that refl ects a thorough understanding 6:30 PM; Sat 7/27, 7:45 PM; Sun 7/28, 1 PM; Mon 7/29, 6 ed to play with his collection. The fi lm doesn’t in a trailer with his dog, Rick’s discussion of of their fi lmmaking. The fi lm characterizes Rubin as a PM; Tue 7/30, 8:30 PM; Wed 7/31, 8:30 PM; and Thu 8/1, zealous champion of avant-garde cinema and a crucial 8:15 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center wear out its welcome until its fi nal half hour, a western novel with a little girl he meets on connector within the experimental community, having when Tarantino scrambles to bring his various a TV shoot, Sharon’s childlike appreciation introduced Warhol to both Bob Dylan and the Velvet NChristmas on Earth ideas and fetishes to a slam-bang conclusion of her own performance in the Dean Martin Underground. It also paints her as something of an R Barbara Rubin was just 18 years old when she comparable to that of Basterds, but when it vehicle The Wrecking Crew at a downtown enigma when it considers the fi nal decade of her life, made this classic of experimental cinema (1963), a paean when she turned her back on the art scene to become to sexual exploration comparable to Kenneth Anger’s does, the overall thinness of the project be- movie palace. a devout Orthodox Jew. —B S 79 min. Smith Fireworks and Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures. The comes all too clear. Though Tarantino mixes fi ction and histor- attends the Friday 8:30 PM screening. Showing with fi lm consists of two separate 16-millimeter projections, Hollywood begins in black and white, show- ical fact cleverly and confi dently, I’m not sure Rubin’s 1963 fi lm Christmas on Earth (see separate with one intended to be overlaid upon the other; Rubin ing scenes from a fi ctional, early 60s TV west- what he wanted to achieve with the mix this listing). Fri 7/26, 3:45 and 8:30 PM; Sat 7/27, 5:15 PM; Sun also devised instructions for the projectionist to create ern called Bounty Law. Tarantino soon reveals time, and I’m not sure if he knew either. Some 7/28, 5:30 PM; Mon 7/29, 6 PM; and Wed 7/31, 8:15 PM. his or her own soundtrack by playing whatever he or Gene Siskel Film Center she encountered on the radio. The content features that the lead actor on the show, Rick Dalton of the combinations feel silly and uninspired, close-ups of female genitalia and explicit footage of (DiCaprio), is a 50s movie star who’s spent like when Cli fi ghts Bruce Lee on a TV backlot NCarmine Street Guitars two men having sex, yet the fi lm never feels salacious; the 60s working in television. Rick’s fall from or when Steve McQueen turns up to ponder R Experiencing this documentary without rather, it invokes a sense of innocent sexual discovery stardom has dovetailed with a descent into Sharon’s love life. Passages like these (and encountering any advance hype is like stumbling into that complements the formal discoveries happening the cozy Greenwich Village shop of the title: it’s a ride with the sound and image. (The playful title hints at the the fi lm contains many of them) suggest that alcoholism. When the story begins, he needs down the rabbit hole to a world of unexpected and sin- feelings of exuberance communicated by the work as to be driven everywhere by his stuntman cum Tarantino is doing little more than indulging gular pleasures. Rick Kelly is the rock-steady proprietor a whole.) Please note that this screening will be of a personal assistant, Cli Booth (Pitt), since his his fandom of Hollywood lore, playing around and artisan who handcra s guitars from reclaimed old recent digital restoration of Christmas on Earth, which license has been revoked after too many DUIs. in the past rather than questioning it. Perhaps wood (much of it from demolished Manhattan buildings can only approximate the experimentation of a live erected during the late 19th century); his punk platinum projection of the work. —B S 30 min. Showing Much of Hollywood’s narrative concerns the the film’s title is meant to be a clue to its blond apprentice Cindy Hulej decorates the instruments with Chuck Smith’s 2018 documentary Barbara Rubin and touching friendship between Rick and Cliff, mission: this is a bedtime story Tarantino is with intricate calligraphic designs; and his nonagenarian the Exploding NY Underground (see separate listing). which is rooted in honesty, affection, and telling to himself. v computer-savvy mother, Dorothy, runs the offi ce. Musi- Fri 7/26, 3:45 and 8:30 PM; Sat 7/27, 5:15 PM; Sun 7/28, mutual need. Cli may be more easygoing and cians who drop in, swap stories, and play some tunes 5:30 PM; Mon 7/29, 6 PM; and Wed 7/31, 8:15 PM. Gene cocksure than the anxious, self-doubting Rick, @1bsachs include Nels Cline, looking for a birthday gi for his Siskel Film Center 24 CHICA O READER - JULY ll FILM
NEastland: Chicago’s Christmas on Earth Resident Evil Though based on a popular video game, this 2002 fi lm’s Deadliest Day heaviest infl uences are the works of George Romero One of Chicago’s best-kept secrets takes center stage and John Carpenter. A team of commandos descend in Chuck Coppola and Harvey Moshman’s documentary. into a secret underground lab where, unbeknownst to The year is 1915, and thousands of Western Electric them, a zombie-making virus has been released. Milla factory workers, most of whom are eastern-European Jovovich is a scantily clad amnesiac, Michelle Rodriguez immigrants, board the SS Eastland on the Chicago is a tough soldier, and everyone else is zombie food. As River to sail to neighboring Michigan City, Indiana, for in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, a vague social message a rare vacation day with their families. Unfortunately is buried in the gore—corporations are bad. And like no one on the ship makes it to their destination that Carpenter’s Halloween and The Thing, Resident hits the day—and for many years restricted access to footage ground running and never looks back. But a er an hour from the wreck le Chicagoans without a clue why. The of propulsive pacing the shock value wears off , and all documentary’s producers delve into details behind the that’s le is pop-up carnage. Paul Anderson (Event Hori- disaster through the lens of survivors, their families, fi rst zon) directed and wrote the screenplay. —H S responders, and newly discovered footage. The docu- become so tightly knotted? Naishtat shows where these his teenage son; and Stephen Henderson as his work R, 100 min. Tue 7/30-Thu 8/1, 11 PM. Logan v mentary seamlessly weaves the Eastland into the family threads meet and twist, but leaves it up to the viewer buddy, who sees a diff erent side of him and tries not to trees of descendants of those involved in the wreck; it to disentangle them. In Spanish with subtitles. —L look. The fi lm (2016) was shot on location in Pittsburgh’s also gives a fresh perspective on how the capsized ship P 109 min. Fri 7/26, 8:15 PM; Sat 7/27, 3 PM; Sun Hill District, but the action is so insistently theatrical the aff ected immigrant communities, who made up half of 7/28, 5:30 PM; Mon 7/29, 8 PM; Tue 7/30, 8:15 PM; Wed frame might as well have a proscenium arch built around Chicago residents at the time. While at surface level 7/31, 6 PM; and Thu 8/1, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center it. In the end that doesn’t matter because Wilson’s play the fi lm can seem like a sensationalized recounting of is such an extraordinary social statement, its bitter a catastrophe, the heart of it shows how the debacle patriarch rivaling Willy Loman in the greatness of his brought Chicagoans together in a united front against ALSO PLAYING smallness. With Mykelti Williamson and Jovan Adepo. greed and immorality. —J G 83 min. Airing —JR J PG-13, 139 min. Outdoor screening. Tue Thu 8/25, 8 PM, on WTTW-Channel 11. Bringing Up Baby 7/30, 6:30 PM. Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park F R Though it’s almost impossible, try to sit back NThe Lion King sometime and enjoy this 1938 Howard Hawks master- The Grand Budapest Hotel Where has Rafi ki gone? The beloved mandrill voiced by piece not only for its gags, but for the grace of its con- Wes Anderson’s fanciful comedy is set in the mythical Robert Guillaume in the fi rst Lion King (1994) barely has struction, the assurance of its style, and the richness of former Republic of Zubrowka, where an elderly hotel a role in the 2019 reboot. The new movie suff ers from its themes. Cary Grant’s adventures with Katharine Hep- owner (F. Murray Abraham) entertains a visiting writer the lack of his deranged, whimsical magic. The spectac- burn lead from day into night, tameness into wildness, (Jude Law) with the story of his boyhood at the hotel ular use of CGI makes the animals look very real, but order into chaos; needless to say, it’s a deeply pessimis- in the 1930s and its dapper concierge (Ralph Fiennes). emotions are hard to pick up on at times; this feels like tic fi lm, though it draws its grim conclusions in a sear- —JR J R, 99 min. Fri 7/26-Mon 7/29, 11 PM. Logan an Animal Planet Africa special with an all-star cast. Seth ingly bright and chipper way. Amazingly, the fi lm was a Rogen as a body-positive singing warthog works well, failure when fi rst released (during Hepburn’s “box-offi ce Killer of Sheep and Billy Eichner steals the show as a meerkat with some poison” period), but time has revealed its brilliance, as R The fi rst feature (1978) of the highly talented funny one-liners, but Beyoncé’s voice on the soundtrack well as the apparent impossibility of its like ever being Black fi lmmaker Charles Burnett, who set most of his as lions run around the plains is probably the emotional seen again (What’s Up, Doc? notwithstanding). With May early fi lms in Watts (including My Brother’s Wedding highlight of the fi lm. Watch this Lion King for the tech- Robson, Charlie Ruggles, and Barry Fitzgerald. —D and To Sleep With Anger); this one deals episodically nical achievement and musical numbers, and then watch K 102 min. 35 mm. Fri 7/26, 4:30 PM; Sat 7/27, 3 PM; with the life of a slaughterhouse worker. Shot on a year’s the original to feel satisfi ed. —T P PG, 118 min. and Thu 8/1, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center worth of weekends for under $10,000, this remarkable ArcLight, Block 37, Cicero 14, City North 14, Ford City, work is conceivably the single best feature about ghetto Galewood Crossings 14, Harper Theater, Lake Theatre, The Clock life. It was selected for preservation by the National Film Navy Pier IMAX, River East 21, Showplace ICON, Studio Vincente Minnelli’s fi rst nonmusical (1945) is a charming Registry as one of the key works in American cinema— Movie Grill—Chatham, 600 N. Michigan, Webster Place and stylish if somewhat sentimental love story about a ironic and belated recognition of a fi lm that, for years, soldier (Robert Walker) on a two-day leave in New York had virtually no distribution. It shouldn’t be missed. With NRojo who meets and marries an offi ce worker (Judy Garland). Henry Gayle Sanders. —J R 87 min. Many works of art foreground the victims of corruption; Filmed on a studio soundstage with enough expertise to 35 mm. Burnett attends the screening. Fri 7/26, 7 PM. fewer investigate the hearts and minds of those who make it seem like a location shoot, the fi lm is appealing Univ. of Chicago Doc Films turn their backs. This elegant example, set in a hushed largely for its performances and the innocence it proj- Argentine province in 1975, follows a local lawyer (Darío ects. (Similar qualities can be found, at a half-century Penguin Highway Grandinetti) who performs the bidding of the country’s remove, in Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise.) In addi- R In this irresistible Japanese anime, a solemn tyrannical regime in exchange for money, status, and tion to Walker and Garland, Keenan Wynn and Moyna fourth-grade science wiz with an intense curiosity about the ability to maintain a haughty, hypocritical remove Macgill are well used. Screenwriters Robert Nathan and the world in general—and his busty dental hygienist in from other citizens who oppose his way of life. “Victim” Joseph Schrank adapted a story by Paul and Pauline particular—is thrown together with her over the summer is a dirty word to him, until he starts to feel the reper- Gallico. —J R 91 min. 35 mm. Wed when large fl ocks of cute penguins suddenly invade cussions of his actions himself. It’s inside this yawning 7/31, 7:30 PM. Northeastern Illinois University his quiet inland town. The mystery of their appearance empathy gap that writer-director Benjamín Naishtat deepens when he learns it’s she who’s summoning them, fashions his third feature, though it’s more of a treat for Fences although she can’t explain how. Making his feature cinephiles than political history buff s. Mixing elements R August Wilson wouldn’t entrust the movies with debut, 30-year-old director Hiroyasu Ishida confi dently of neo noirs and spaghetti westerns with a distinctly 70s his Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences (1983) unless it adapts Tomihiko Morimi’s best-selling coming-of-age shooting style, Naishtat and cinematographer Pedro was given to a Black director; he’s gotten his wish with novel, gracefully segueing from the hero’s prepubescent Sotero ensure that each dissolve and crash zoom Denzel Washington, though Washington doesn’t really urges to refl ections on nature and impermanence, ratchets up, rather than distracts from, the intricate direct the story so much as get out of its way. Adapted and illustrating brief digressions on the space-time human drama. What’s more, the combination of the fi lm’s from a 2010 Broadway revival, this is primarily an actors’ continuum and Einstein’s general theory of relativity period-authentic production design and earthy color showcase for him as the deeply fl awed hero, a former with panache. It’s a heady brew, gorgeous to behold, palette with surreal narrative turns and visual fl ourishes Negro League ballplayer scraping by as a garbage and wise about children and the places in their hearts. generates a destabilizing eff ect. It seems to ask: How collector in late-50s Pittsburgh; Viola Davis as the man’s In Japanese with subtitles. —A G 118 can one uncouple truth from lies when the two have loyal wife, who wants a better relationship for him and min. Sat 7/27, 7 and 9:30 PM. Univ. of Chicago Doc Films ll JULY - CHICA O READER25 three-foot-deep rainbow-colored ball pit at the entrance to a show was a first for me—I had no idea that by the end of the night I’d end up juggling them, circled by spectators. I was at Renaissance One, a Pride- themed showcase put on by Party Noire at the Promontory on Thursday, June 27, and that kind of spontaneity animated the night. The glowing dance fl oor changed colors underfoot, glitter-fi lled beach balls bounced around the room, and iridescent streamers fl uttered from the ceiling. The equally spectacular crowd, full of queer and trans people of color, kept the energy high with death drops, duck walks, and dance-o s—and the artists would sometimes hop o the stage to join them. I hadn’t come to Renaissance One expecting that kind of splen- dor, but for many of the people in attendance, it’s the norm—to them, that’s just what a Party Noire event looks like. Nickecia “Nick” Alder and Rae Chardonnay Taylor—aka DJ Rae Chardonnay—founded the Chicago-based event-planning company Party Noire in 2015. According to their web- site, Party Noire “creates experiences that celebrate Black femmes, queer women of color, and Black womynhood along the gender spectrum.” Renaissance One, a collaboration with Red Bull Presents, included performanc- es from Chattanooga’s BbyMutha and Balti- more’s TT the Artist, as well as homegrown DJs and musicians Kidd Kenn, Blu Bone, Pro- fessor Wrecks, and Hijo Pródigo. “Our goal with Renaissance One was to ac- tivate a safe space for Black women and Black girls,” says Alder. “With this event we wanted The most to continue doing what we’ve been doing to celebrate Pride: making a cool-ass dance party on the south side.” Alder and Taylor, both 31, are queer- colo ul identifying women, but neither had much if any experience with Chicago Pride celebra- tions prior to Party Noire. Taylor didn’t even go to one till 2013. “I hadn’t been until a friend pa ies in the of mine visiting from Florida asked to go,” she says. “After I went I was like, ‘OK, cool, I don’t have to do this again.’ I just wasn’t thrilled or moved to continue to go.” Party Noire founders Nick Alder and city are Noire Experiences like Taylor’s inspired the mis- Rae Chardonnay Taylor at Renaissance sion of Party Noire. In contrast to what she One on June 27 ALLYALMORE found in Boystown—an unfamiliar north-side Nick Alder and Rae Chardonnay neighborhood and mostly white crowd, nei- Taylor of Party Noire get to fun ther of which helped her feel comfortable cele- by going through respect, safety, brating—she and Alder aim to throw functions community, and empowerment. that energize their audience to return again and again. A major part of that is aesthetic. By M H Taylor and Alder create the concepts, but they credit collaborators such as VAM Studio co-
26 CHICA O READER - JULY ll Le : Attendees strike a pose against the Promontory’s record wall during Renaissance One, a Party Noire event created in collaboration with Red Bull Presents.
Above: Dancers at Party Noire’s Deep n’ Buck IV, held at the Promontory on May 27 ALLYALMORE
full-service video-production company, VAM going to a club, and you’re expected to wear also specializes in set design. Party Noire has certain things and behave a certain way,” collaborated with Martell’s company in the Alder says. “With Party Noire I still feel like past, but this time it was Red Bull that hired people are performing, but they’re performing him. The dazzling environment at Renaissance for them-damn-selves.” One was VAM’s handiwork. Party Noire is dedicated to creating empow- The vibrant dance floor was a stage for ering spaces for Black queer folk, of course, founder Vincent Martell with conjuring up the the twerkers, headbangers, duck walkers, but their other main foundation is collabora- P & P N environments where their ideas come to life. and death droppers. At the same time, the tions like the one with Martell. Even Alder and P A “Vincent was key to how we got in touch glowing bar, colorful couches, and outdoor Taylor’s own relationship is the result of culti- O C An all-day event at Northalsted with Red Bull in the fi rst place—he introduced deck provided a refuge for the settled-down vating connections in the city’s creative scene. Market Days featuring art us to someone who was a part of their culture- drink sippers—and the whole scene created “We had known each other through commu- installations, vendors, dancers, curation team,” says Taylor. an unrivaled backdrop for the selfie takers. nity,” Alder says. “People had been telling me and live music, including DJ Rae Chardonnay, DJ Alder especially likes the way VAM can The feeling of freedom in the room backed about Rae, people had been telling Rae about Bonita Appleblunt, DJ [X]P, and help audiences get on board with Party up everything that Taylor and Alder talk me. We exchanged a chain of e-mails, and Cut-Cuz. Sun /, noon- PM, Noire’s ideas and match the energy of their about—an absence of the wariness and self- fi nally we met up for tea downtown.” During Northalsted Market Days stage at Belmont and Halsted, $ events. “In terms of our intention of bringing consciousness that queer people of color feel that three-hour meeting at Teavana, they laid suggested donation, all ages people along with us, I think that Vincent’s when they’re “othered” or put on display. the groundwork for Party Noire. organization truly embodies that with the “I would often find that in many spaces, “At first the plan was to just have me be work that they do,” she says. A Chicago-based there felt like an expectation to perform. Like the DJ,” Taylor says. “Then in our second J
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4CAST—4:30PM � JEFFERSON STARSHIP 6PM LOVERBOY—8:30PM ll JULY - CHICA O READER27 N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG . . Guests at Party Noire’s “We’ve collaborated with some great or- third-anniversary celebration in ganizations for events based in Boystown, JUST ADDED ON SALE THIS FRIDAY! September 2018 ALLY ALMORE but the demographic that comes out always Robben Ford refl ects the location,” Taylor says. Rosie Flores Tracy Grammer Party Noire consider staying true to their Amy Speace identity and ideals essential, so much so that The Accidentals they’re often wary of media coverage of their FOR TICKETS, VISIT OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG events. “Sometimes it can work in your favor, but sometimes it can start to diminish your SATURDAY, JULY PM SUNDAY, JULY PM brand. We don’t want the people attending our shows to feel like they’re becoming spec- Jake Shimabukuro tacles,” Taylor says. “It’s considered a safe space for a multitude of reasons—one is that FRIDAY, AUGUST PM you won’t have to always worry about ending Mandolin Orange up on camera.” and I'm With Her Party Noire were featured in the Tribune presented by SPACE and Old Town School only months after their first event, and that of Folk Music • Central St, Evanston, had some side e ects. “After we had that piece Canal Shores Golf Course in the Tribune, we defi nitely saw an increase in white people at a few of our events,” Alder WEDNESDAY, AUGUST :PM says. “But I think we’ve had the right amount of coverage to ensure that we’re not exposing OKAN Women-led Afro-Cuban Roots & Jazz • World Music Wednesday continued from 27 how to be a good manager and how to run my the brand to people who we aren’t necessarily face-to-face meeting, we decided that it made own thing were useful skills that I carried with looking to talk to.” SATURDAY, AUGUST PM sense for me to help with formulating the en- me from that experience and have been helpful Alder and Taylor recognize that they need to tire thing.” It was in that second meeting that in running things for Party Noire.” be protective of their community: the people Tribute to they came up with the name. In September 2015, Party Noire hosted their they aim to empower and uplift have histori- Mercedes Sosa Each of the two women is a force of her own. first event, a day party called Black to the cally been vilifi ed and endangered because of by Mario Gonzavarg • In Szold Hall Alder is a PhD candidate and the entrepreneur Future. For nearly a year, day parties made their identities. A 2012 study by the Williams behind the online community Black Girl Fly up the entirety of their programming. At the Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of FRIDAY, AUGUST PM Mag. Taylor is not only an arts administrator foundation of Party Noire, the team had a third Law, shows that the incarceration rate for Robben Ford and organizer of the Black Eutopia forums but member of the team, Lauren Ash, but accord- queer people is three times the average for also an internationally traveled DJ—she was ing to Alder and Taylor, in October 2017 she general population, and the Inter-American SUNDAY, AUGUST PM voted the best in the city in the Reader’s 2016 left to pursue writing a book full-time. Today Commission on Human Rights reported in Best of Chicago poll. Ash runs a holistic wellness and beauty web- 2014 that life expectancy for transgender In Szold Hall Rosie Flores “Black Eutopia started from me wanting to site called Black Girl in Om. women in the Americas is 30 to 35 years. In 2016 Party Noire took their show on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER PM have this festival of the ideal,” Taylor says. That said, Party Noire are enthusiastic Black Eutopia’s fi rst event was a 2014 barber- the road for the first time, visiting Alder’s about allyship. “You don’t have to attend the Sun Kil Moon shop conversation hosted at Carter’s in North hometown of NYC. “I remember when we fi rst events to be an ally to us,” Alder says. “John Lawndale, which asked the question, “Why is booked the event and Nick was like, ‘People in Kosmo, a former employee of Red Bull, for SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER PM a barbershop like an art gallery?” “The plan New York don’t dance at parties,’” Taylor says. example, is an ally who has never stepped is to ignite Black people to think about what “I was just like, ‘Oh? Well, we about to make foot inside one of our events. He has given us Phil Ochs Song Night their utopia would be like,” she says. “Now them dance.’” resources and opportunities to grow early on.” featuring Greg Greenway, Pat Wictor, Reggie we organize smaller workshops throughout Since then, Party Noire have been back to They encourage people to support Party Noire Harris, and Tom Prasada-Rao • In Szold Hall the city.” As Rae Chardonnay, Taylor has DJed New York five times for events, to Detroit in other ways, including helping to secure SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER PM for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Infi niti, three times, and to Miami once. “Chicago is event spaces or donating money to support Soho House, Nike, and many others. She has a unique city overall, so it’s always di erent the grant portion of their annual Femme Delbert McClinton also been a featured DJ at Red Bull events, everywhere we go,” Taylor says. “One of the Noir Award for Black women in the creative with special guest Gerald Dowd including Renaissance One. biggest di erences is just noticing how much industry. Alder is a New York City native who came more integrated queer communities in these “There was one time when a white woman SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER PM to Chicago in 2013 to attend grad school at other cities are in terms of race.” who lives on the north side reached out to Crash Test Dummies Loyola University, where she’s currently Chicago has long been one of the most offer to be a designated driver, in order to with special guest Port Cities pursuing a doctorate in psychology. She de- racially segregated cities in the country, bring the Black girls who wanted to attend veloped Black Girl Fly Mag in 2013 to tailor and queerness doesn’t bridge that divide. from up north to our event out south,” Taylor THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER PM editorial and social media content for Black For Black and Brown queer people from the says. “We didn’t take her up on the o er, but it Jonathan Wilson women. “When we started Party Noire, we south and west sides, the north side’s queer was the thought that counts.” didn’t really have any followers on social community can often feel inaccessible or un- Running Party Noire presents too many media, so the platform I’d created with Black welcoming, even with good intentions on all challenges for Alder and Taylor to handle OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG Girl Fly Mag was instrumental in helping us sides. It’s why bringing queer festivities south alone and keep their sanity. They’ve hired a promote our events,” Alder says. “Learning of Roosevelt is one of Party Noire’s core goals. team of three part-time employees. “We were 28 CHICA O READER - JULY ll THALIA HALL A pair of partiers at Deep n’ Buck IV ALLYALMORE AUG AUG AUGWED/THU 1 7 9
art director Karlie Thornton, administrative assistant Vel Brown, and social-media director Janaya Greene (who also works as an adminis- trative assistant for the Reader). LOLLAPALOOZA PINBACK By creating events that explicitly welcome SIGRID FRUIT BATS Black femme-identifying people, Party Noire AUG AUG AUG help sustain and support the thriving queer 16 18 19 community of color in Chicago. “There is a spirit of resistance in what we do,” says Alder. “It isn’t our main mission, but it is a side e ect of centering Black women and Black queer folk.”
Both Taylor and Alder find the work that TRAE CROWDER HANDSOMEAVI KAPLAN STRANGERS DRAB MAJESTY Party Noire does as rewarding as it is essen- tial. “We get a lot of joy from seeing people be JUL AUG AUG their authentic selves. It’s even allowed more 26 THE MARÍAS 10 MYKELE DEVILLE22 THE HOLD STEADY room for me to be able to see myself and my JUL AUG SUN•DAY SERVICE: CORINNE BAILEY RAE AUG ANDREW SCHULZ wholeness,” Taylor says. “It’s present in the 28 11 YE VS THE WORLD 23 way they show up to Party Noire. The commu- JUL LOLLAPALOOZA AFTERSHOW AUG TUXEDO AUG THE HOLD STEADY lucky enough to have interns who love what nity has taught us that you are whole just as 31 KING PRINCESS 13 24 we do and love how we do it,” Alder says. you are.” v AUG LOLLAPALOOZA AFTERSHOW AUG AUG BY WAY OF TAPS: 02 17 NEUROSIS 25 “Eventually we were able to give them oppor- JUDAH &THE LION A J DILLA TRIBUTE tunities as employees.” That team consists of @MattheMajor AUG FRUIT BATS AUG THE MUSIC OF THE AUG 09 18 BEATLES FOR KIDS 29 ORANGE GOBLIN THALIA HALL | 1807 S. ALLPORT ST. PILSEN CHICAGO | THALIAHALLCHICAGO.COM a
JUL AUG AUG 31 01 DEVIN07 THE DUDE
MIDNIGHT KOOL KEITH FRANK MCCOMB SUN BAND AUG AUG SEP 08 14 13
J. HOLIDAY JAMISON ROSS BRIAN COURTNEY UNDERRATED TOUR HANDSOME STRANGERS WILSON
jul WAYBACK jul A DIFFERENT jul WAYBACK 24 WEDNESDAYS 27 VIBE 31 WEDNESDAYS
jul jul SHAKE SUMTHIN’: LIL THE SET: A R&B HOT GRL SZN aug 26 28 BOOTIES MATTER 02 EXPERIENCE jul jul aug TEAM B.A.D PRESENTS SUMMERTINGZ 28 BODY CARIBBEAN FETE DAY 27 03 PARTY THE OFFICIAL MUNCH’S TAKE FLIGHT jul 2019 GHANAFEST jul aug BLACK DAHLIA IN ALL WHITE PART 111 27 AFTERPARTY 29 03
BODY, EVERY SUNDAY the promontory | 5311 s. lake park w. drive chicago | promontorychicago.com ll JULY - CHICA O READER29 MUSIC
Attempting to vogue while recording a “music video” in Acuvue’s on-site studio at Pitchfork TIMNAGLE
past. Sadly, the VIP experience at Pitchfork consists largely of endlessly scanning an enclosed swath of park perhaps 500 feet on a side and feeling a needling sense of disap- pointment that so many people you respect (and quite a few you don’t) perform similarly unimportant tasks but are obviously far better compensated for it than you. In past years, my typical response has been to sate this melancholy with Kind bars and tiny artisanal tacos. Now, my plan is to fl ee this nest of vipers for a wonderland whose exis- tence I discovered only yesterday—the Chase Sapphire Lounge. Rumors abound: Blue macarons in clear boxes. A tower of antipasto that brushes the clouds. Folding fans, like the kind you see old ladies snapping and waving in Baptist churches, free for the taking. And jugs of iced tea! I must enter this realm of riches, but I have heard that the gatekeepers are merciless.
SATURDAY PM Such ambitions call for a drink or two. Luckily, the Pitchfork quest I have set myself—to engage with as many corporate sponsors as humanly possible in one day—in- cludes sallying forth to purveyors of alcohol. Away from the shade of VIP, among the masses who are watching bands and dancing, the day The quest to be Pitchfork’s perfect consumer is scalding hot. Friends have cautioned me that booze can foul up the body’s natural re- What happens if you indulge every corporate sponsor at the festival? Does the Chase Sapphire Lounge sponse to overheating, and I’m out of practice have to let you in? when it comes to evaluating the seriousness By JR N of such warnings—despite partying through my 20s and early 30s like I had a death wish, I now very rarely partake of the devil’s amber. But the gent minding the kiosk for Singleton SATURDAY PM Call me Happy Meal®. As devoted friends, and the warnings of Mother And so, I’ve come out of the rain to seek a Single Malt Scotch Whisky wears no judgment sudden late afternoon rains swirl and eddy Nature herself. I’ve tried to give away child- child’s hastily prepared boxed dinner. on his face, gifting me a branded pair of sun- overhead, we’ve been evacuated from Union ish things but been embarrassed by a temper Perhaps I should start at the beginning. glasses and a bag of Swedish Fish to go along Park, and the dozens of us gathered at the tantrum. I’ve tried to engage with a new with my vaguely watermelon- flavored cock- McDonald’s on Lake Street have the shivery, sense of vision for my life and thus undergo SATURDAY PM I remember an interview tail. I pretend I’m getting another Singleton put-upon look common to dogs given an un- a great transition, but only danced like a fool. in which Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker talked about Scottish Cooler for a friend, and double fi st for welcome bath. The plebes are all wet. To approach an inner peace that ruthlessly the conundrum of the VIP section: after social bravery. For me, though, this Saturday at the Pitch- eludes me, I have invited skilled practitioners climbing through level after level after level, fork Music Festival has been a failure in ways of alternative medicine to put crystals in my ultimate victory means finding yourself in a SATURDAY PM I’ve reached my most de- unrelated to the weather. In seeking perfect ears and massage me with precious oils, yet brightly lit closet eating cake o a paper plate sired destination, the Chase Sapphire Lounge, corporate hospitality, partaking eagerly of my nerves still jangle. I have taken to drink. with Simon LeBon. where a personable young lady with an iPad every sponsored shenanigan on the grounds, But most appallingly, the glistening Chase Like many journalists, I’ve gotten my fi lthy informs me that I can’t, in fact, come in. I I’ve ignored the live music all around me, my Sapphire Lounge is still beyond my reach! mitts on VIP passes for music festivals in the must have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. 30 CHICA O READER - JULY ll MUSIC
I had second thoughts while recycling this T-shirt. TIMNAGLE It was more diffi cult than I imagined to persuade the Acuvue people to put contact lenses in my eyes themselves. TIMNAGLE
most disposable fi ve from my vast collection, wholesome smell of apples is undercut by my but after I hand over the first three, my old drink, which tastes more like an appalling punk soul recoils. I tangle with the Marine Honeycrisp nougat. I slam it and buy anoth- Layer collection guy over an Iceage shirt, but er—I think my taste buds are failing, but I he wins out. Into the bin it goes. In anguish, want to make sure. I bury my face in my beloved Screaming Fe- males tee. SATURDAY PM My vision has been suffering in middle age, and in the past half SATURDAY PM It’s almost time to make hour or so it’s gotten suddenly much more another run at the Sapphire gatekeeper, but on blurry. Thankfully, the folks representing the way I spot a giant, Airstream-trailer-size Acuvue (specifi cally, their Oasys lenses with Svedka Vodka bottle on its side, filled with Transition Light Intelligent Technology) seem people drinking pink, boozy slushies. The to think they can help. They ask if I have an slushies aren’t cheap, but I buy two and slam optometrist. I ask if they can put their contact them. lenses on me, since I’m too afraid to touch my own eyes. They politely refuse, and instead SATURDAY PM Tim humors me with an o er me the chance to make a music video in idea. Perhaps the Chase Sapphire Lounge will their semiprofessional studio. I dance wildly, let him take some photos? He’s more charming borrowing what choreography I can remem-
Outside the coveted Chase Sapphire Lounge TIMNAGLE than I am, I admit, but he gets nowhere. I tell ber from Madonna’s “Vogue,” and because the young lady with the iPad that I used to there is no actual music playing, I hear Tim caddy for Chase CEO Jamie Dimon when I was taking photos and laughing. I don’t care. After- I have a Chase Freedom Unlimited® Card, and SATURDAY PM Tim Nagle, the photog- in high school (I’m lying, but my actual high ward, an Acuvue sta member helps me e-mail I’ve maintained an account with Chase since rapher assigned to document my quest, is school experience was su ciently strange that the video to myself. its merger with Bank One, which if I recall plainly embarrassed for me. At the Marine I don’t feel like I am). She stands fi rm, though, correctly was sometime during the Nixon Layer trailer, I’m supposed to be trading in fi ve and points to a swinging bench outside the SATURDAY PM I’m back in the VIP sec- administration—but this lounge is exclusively old T-shirts for cash toward a new one. Marine lounge, o ering me a seat. tion, visiting the Equinox Luxury Fitness Club for bearers of the Sapphire Preferred® Card. Layer shirts are great, with stylish designs and Tent. An acupuncturist has already glued jew- Before retreating, I stand on tippy-toes to look fi nely woven cotton, and my old band T-shirts SATURDAY PM I mosey over to the Virtue els on the pressure points in my ears to relieve past the iPad woman and see what might very are not great—their fl orid yellow pit stains are Cider Farmhouse, near the festival entrance, stress, but I’ve come for a massage. Everyone well be a tower of sweaty, delicious salami. almost painterly in their abstract intensity. which is smaller and looks more portable than here has suspiciously good posture and really Last week I spent hours carefully selecting the most real farmhouses I’ve seen. The delicious, tight abs. I comment to one of Equinox’s help- ll JULY - CHICA O READER31 MUSIC
THE POLITICAL INSIGHTS YOUʼVE Victory! Sort of! TIMNAGLE
BEEN WAITING FOR. continued from 31 ins and outs of product tie-ins and free swag ful associates about this, and as she drapes a all day, very few seem interested in claiming cold eucalyptus towel over my neck, she asks any for themselves. Generation Z apparently Catch the LIVE show Tuesdays – Fridays if I’ve thought about improving my own core regards corporate gibberish as deeply out of from 1-3 p.m. on chicagoreader.com/joravsky and strength. I explain that when it comes to core style. I ask Jesus if he’s made it into the Chase strength, my mascot is Twinkie the Kid (and Sapphire Lounge, and what wonders it might suntimes.com/joravsky. Subscribe to the podcast now. we both look good in a cowboy hat). contain. He laughs and replies, “No way, man. I ask her if she’s tried Bulleit Bourbon’s But can’t you get in with your press pass?” Learn More Kentucky Mule, which as far as I can recall consists of rye, ginger beer, and lime juice. SATURDAY PM Finally, I am safely en- CHICAGOREADER.COM/JORAVSKY It’s sublime! In the strictest confidence, I sconced in the Chase Sapphire Lounge. Jesus whisper that I’ve had three of them today. was right, and my press pass has indeed She looks at me with sympathy. Naturally, ten worked like magic. I don’t know why I didn’t minutes later, during the fi rst professionally try that before. I’ve heard via Twitter that the administered massage of my adult life, the Chase Sapphire Lounge didn’t even let people park is evacuated due to a dangerous storm. in during the nasty weather, but now that LISTEN TO THE BEST OF BEN ON FRIDAYS AT NOON the skies have cleared, here I am, my Baptist ON LUMPEN RADIO, 105.5FM. SATURDAY PM Union Park has finally church fan and intricately boxed macarons in reopened, and I see a young man drifting along hand. I’m at peace. I’ve already sampled the on a Onewheel, which looks like a skateboard cheese and salami cubes, and they taste like presented by with one giant wheel sticking up through the victory. The ceiling in here looks like some- middle. I wonder how he got into the festival thing out of a Bing Crosby-Bob Hope road with such a device, but he looks like Jesus— movie, where they’re hanging out in an oasis that is, both the Lamb of God and the character under the canopy of a luxurious tent. Home on The Walking Dead—so I assume he has sweet home! Tim snaps a photo or two of me with support from our sponsors special privileges. Maybe I shouldn’t have had and leaves, on to more interesting subjects. that last CBD soda from Bangers & Lace on Over my shoulder, I hear the Isley Brothers fi re my way back from the portable toilets? Jesus up a set of state-fair classics, and I bounce my seems to be glowing. head along to “Twist and Shout.” Until they I’ve been seeing fresh-faced Gen Z types decide to kick me out, this definitely seems riding around on Onewheels for months, and like the place to be. v a thought occurs to me: that while young peo- ple have been deftly guiding me through the @JR1Nelson 32 CHICA O READER - JULY ll Est.Est.1954 1954 Celebrating over A Reader staff er shares three musical obsessions, then asks 6165 years of service service to Chicago! someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn. 1800 W. DIVISION IN ROTATION (773) 486-9862 Come enjoy one of Chicago’s finest beer gardens! FEBRUARYSEPTEMBERJAJULYNUARY 25 11...... 20 23 ...... MIKEDA THEVID QUINNLAY-DOWN FLABBY FELTEN HOFFMAN RAMBLERS SHOW 8PM J L B F M S SEPTEMBERJA NUARY 12...... 21 .....WAGNER DARTFORD AMERICAN& MORSE STATION DRAFT FEBRUARYSEPTEMBERJULY 26 22 24 .....THE ..... FIRSTDADYRKNAMOS WARDROOM PROBLEMS MEN Reader associate editor Bassist and vocalist in Mako Sica Guitarist and sound experimentalist JAJULYNUARY 27 13...... RONNIE DJ AND SKID THE LICIOUS NASTYS SEPTEMBERJA NUARY 14...... 23 ....WHOLESOMERADIO OBLIQUEWHITEWOLFSONICPRINCESSTONY STRATEGIES DO DJRO NIGHTSARIO GROUP JULY 28 MURPHY WHOLESOMERADIOMOJO THOMPSON 49 9:30PM DJ NIGHT JAJULYNUARY 31 17...... MIKE NUCLEAR FELTENJAMIE JAZZWA GNERQUARKTET & FRIENDS 7PM Various artists, String of Pearls: Internation- Michael Small, theme to The Parallax View JAAUGUSTNUARY 18...... 1 AMERICAN MIKE TROUBADOUR FELTON NIGHT FEBRUARYAUGUST 2 25 .....WHOLESOMERADIOTHE SMILIN’ RON AND BOBBY RACHEL AND SHOW THE DJ CLEMTONES NIGHT al 78s A 2009 collection of rare 78s by the fi ne (1974) Michael Small composed the themes SEPTEMBERJAAUGUSTNUARY 19...... 3 24 .....RC TARRINGTON BIG BAND SITU 7PMATION DAVID AUGUST 5 BIRDGANGS CHICAGOMAXLIELLIAM 9:30PM SKYLINERS ANNA BIG BAND 7PM folks at Mississippi and Canary Records , span- for many classic 1970s paranoid thrillers, FEBRUARY 26 .....RC PROSPECT BIG BA FOURND 7PM 9:30PM JAAUGUSTNUARY 20...... 7 TITTY MORSE CITTY FIRST & WAGNERWARD PROBLEMS5:30PM ning the 1920s through the ’50s. It includes including those for The Stepford Wives, Mar- FEBRUARYJA NUARY 21...... 28 .....PETER DUDE ANDREW SAMETO CASANONY D HUBER DO ROVASARIOQUARTET GROUP 8PM SEPTEMBERJAAUGUSTNUARY 22...... 8 26 .....PETER FLABBY CASANOVA RC HOFFMAN BIG QUARTETBAND SHOW 7PM 8PM fl amenco singer La Niña de los Peines, whose athon Man, and The China Syndrome. His AUGUST 10 MESSENGER FEST MARCHSEPTEMBERJA NUARY 1...... SMILIN’ 24...... 27 .....DORIAN B29 SUPERFORTRESSTA PETERJ BO CASONOBBY ANDVA THEQUARTET CLEMTONES powerful voice disappeared from the limelight use of the unnerving flatted fifth conveys SEPTEMBERJA NUARY 25...... 28 ..... TO THEURS SUBURBANISTS THE WICK MARCH 2...... ICE BULLY HOME PULPITBO ENTERTAINMENTX AND BIG HOUSE BAND around the Spanish Civil War. The liner notes suspense and drama in a very direct man- JA NUARY 26...... THE CLOUD THE HEPKATS CORPORATION MARCHSEPTEMBERAUGUST 3...... CHIDITAROD 11 29 .....SOMEBODY’S HEISENBERGSKIPPIN’ SINS UNCERTAINTY ANDROCKTARRINGTON PLAYERS 10PM 7PM tell a powerful story about another track: Sho- ner; there’s an urgency like the calm before a AUGUST 12 FEATURING RC BIG BAND JOE LANASA 7PM SEPTEMBERJA NUARY 27...... 30 .....OFF JON THE RARICK VINE THE 4:30PM STRAY NONETBOLT 9:30PMS lom Katz from Romania was digging his own storm. This theme is always a strange pleasure MARCHJAAUGUSTNUARY 7...... 28...... 13 NUCLEAR FLABBYJAMIE WHOLESOMERADIO JAZZ WAHOFFMAN QUARKTETGNER &SHOW 7:30PM FRIENDS 8PM DJ NIGHT grave in Auschwitz, along with thousands of to come back to—it’s inspired various open EVERY TUESDAY (EXCEPT 2ND) AT 8PM OPEN EVERYMIC ON TUESD TUESDAYAY (EXCEPT EVENINGS 2ND) (EXCEPTAT 8PM 2ND) other prisoners, and when his captors heard tunings I use on my instruments too. OPEN MIC HOSTED BY JIMIJON AMERICA his rich baritone singing they were so moved that they spared him from death. Bus 711, Carbridge Toro BYD Electric Bus (audio) Along with mysterious shortwave Cantor Sholom Katz appears on radio emanations and ambient noise from the the compilation String of Pearls: ether, I’m inspired by odd machine sounds. I International 78s. LESTERKRAUSS had the good fortune of having a record store in my hometown whose back-room vault held A customized version of Art Garfunkel’s all sorts of series of fi eld recordings, includ- Scissors Cut LP, collected in Greg Wooten’s ing locomotive engines and switches. I’ve book Marred for Life! COURTESYOFJ&LBOOKS also always been drawn to music that sounds like trains and to many songs about trains or Föllakzoid, I Formed a decade ago in Santi- traveling by train (like Vashti Bunyan’s “Train ago, Chile, Föllakzoid expand the language Song”). Now that I’ve heard this recording, I’m of psychedelia with influences from ancient thinking of writing a new “folk song” for the Andean culture, using modern instruments electric bus. and electronics to create silky, hypnotic music that can transport heady rockers and dance- Ellen Arkbro, For Organ and Brass (2017) club fanatics alike. Föllakzoid typically record This piece builds so perfectly; it has an uneasy their albums live in a single take, but the four peacefulness that can also be found in spec- pieces on the upcoming I consist of dozens tral music and the whirr of rotor-stator gen- of vocal and instrumental stems recorded in erators. Like many Morton Feldman works, isolation and then reorganized by producer it gets you anticipating “something” . . . but Atom TM. I’m already looking forward to see- you’re not sure what. It resonates nicely in the ing how they re-create this vibe onstage. mind; its sonic environment is easy to recall, even when you aren’t listening to it, and helps Greg Wooten, Marred for Life! Los Angeles Cocteau Twins, The Box Set This group hasn’t block out the detritus when needed. v record collector Greg Wooten has been seek- le my rotation since high school. Recently at ing out LPs with scribbles, notes, collages, Reckless I found this out-of-print 1991 box set and artwork added by previous owners, and featuring ten CD singles, complete with origi- he recently released more than 250 favorites nal artwork by Vaughan Oliver of 23 Envelope. in a book edited by Jason Fulford. For every Liz Fraser’s vocals are sculpted masterpiec- blacked-out tooth, Hitler ’stache, or cartoon es, and Robin Guthrie’s textured production penis, there’s a more inventive defacement, swells and dips like the ocean. The introspec- including some that raise hard questions: tive “Quisquose” off Aikea-Guinea threads a Who melted Judy Collins’s face? And what shadowy piano backbone with a chorus that would John Denver sound like if he were the blooms like a colorful orchid. kind of guy to wear googly-eye glasses? Harold Budd, The Pavilion of Dreams I dis- Drahla, Useless Coordinates British art-rock covered composer Harold Budd through his trio Drahla have only been making music 1986 project The Moon and the Melodies with together for a few years, but they’ve already members of Cocteau Twins. The 1978 release made some impressive fans: last year Rob- The Pavilion of Dreams has an all-star cast ert Smith handpicked them to play London’s that includes Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno Carbridge Toro BYD Electric Bus Meltdown festival. Their latest release, Use- (who also produced). Opening track “Bismilla- number 711, from Canberra, Australia less Coordinates, is a fresh, immersive post- hi ’Rrahman ’Rrahim” (Arabic for “In the name YOUTUBEUSERCATBUS punk adventure that touches on identity, of God, the benefi cent, the merciful”) features self-expression, and modern life, made more the gorgeous harp of Maggie Thomas and the riveting by skronky sax. serene saxophone of Marion Brown. ll JULY - CHICA O READER33 Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of July 25
MUSIC b ALLAGESF
cast of east-coasters until Greene linked up with PICK OF THE WEEK THURSDAY25 regular bassist (and avowed heavy head) Rick Omonte. The band adopted a slightly more folk- Davila 666 See Pick of the Week at le . psych vibe for 2010’s Apple Mountain, and by Puerto Rican punks Davila 666 Running opens. 9:30 PM, Sleeping Village, 3734 the 2015 album Death Magic the Mountain Mov- W. Belmont, $18. 21+ ers had filled out a stable lineup with drummer are back from the dead Ross Menze and guitar shredder Kryssi Battal- ine (who leads the tripped-out Headroom, with whom Omonte frequently collaborates). They FRIDAY26 also changed musical direction again, writing new tunes that spiraled into elongated impro- Alma Afrobeat Ensemble Ésso and Seres visational jams. This new sonic plan crystallized de Luz open. 9 PM, Martyrs’, 3855 N. Lincoln, on the 2016 cassingle “Sunday Drive” b/w “No $15. 21+ Plans,” where the Mountain Movers spread out into long-form Germanic motorik territory in For the fourth year in a row, Barcelona-based two excursions that lasted more than eight min- guitarist Aaron Feder brings his Alma Afrobeat utes apiece. For their self-titled 2017 release, this Ensemble on a U.S. tour. The group, which Feder crew of cosmonauts signed to local label Trouble founded in Champaign-Urbana in 2003, consists in Mind and headed further into the heart of the of members from several nations, and as is cus- sun—bookending the LP with two expansive tracks tomary when they travel in the States, they’re that run past the ten-minute mark. On last year’s joined by their American touring musicians—Mat- Pink Skies the Mountain Movers make completely thew Engel on keys and backing vocals, Cody Jen- fresh- sounding jam rock that also recalls the best sen on percussion, Joshua Thomson on alto sax, aspects of discordant 90s noise-rock bands from Eddie Quiroga on trombone, and Dr. Adrian Bar- the east coast (Dustdevils, Vermonster, Luxurious nett on tenor sax. This year’s configuration also Bags) and New Zealand (Trash, Scorched Earth features lead vocalist Marga Mbande, a powerful, Policy). At the same time, they maintain a dynamic, velvet-voiced singer who was born in Barcelona psyched-out 60s west-coast fl avor—and an East- to parents from the Kombe people of Equatori- ern vibe not unlike Anatolian rock stars Bunalim or al Guinea; she sings in English, Spanish, Catalán, Erkin Koray. Though written-out tunes remain at and Kombe. Alma Afrobeat’s current tour show- the core of the Mountain Movers’ music, onstage cases material from their fourth studio album, they head into uncharted realms that are best felt the recent Monkey See, Monkey Do (Slow Walk), in the moment—if you head out to this gig, in other whose grooves build upon the pioneering sounds words, smoke ’em if you got ’em. —S K of Fela Kuti and Tony Allen and take them in sur- prising, eclectic directions. They occasionally add touches of hip-hop, blues, and reggae as well as Resavoir Yadda Yadda and Lake James open. instruments not typically used in Afrobeat, includ- 9:30 PM, Sleeping Village, 3734 W. Belmont, QUIQUECABANILLAS ing bassoon, Dobro, and banjo. Despite these sty- $12. 21+ D R listic departures, Monkey See, Monkey Do hews to Thu 7/25, 9:30 PM, Sleeping Village, 3734 W. Belmont, $18. 21+ Afrobeat’s foundations in its response to the need Over the past few years, trumpeter Will Miller has for social change: in a 2018 conversation with the beavered away on a bedroom jazz project called website Nuvo, Feder explained that the album’s Resavoir while juggling other gigs, most notably title and many of its tunes refer to the risks of in popular country-soul group Whitney. About blindly following leaders rather than one’s own a year ago Miller fi nally brought Resavoir to life, conscience. And onstage Alma Afrobeat Ensem- tapping into his network of talented Chicago UNTIL LAST MONTH, Puerto Rican six-piece Davila 666 had been quiet since 2011. The riotous ble stay true to another Afrobeat principle: their friends to form a full-fl edged band: saxophonist heavily horn- and percussion-driven tunes keep Irvin Pierce, bassist Lane Beckstrom, drummers outfi t had earned a reputation as one of the best live bands in the world, fusing stripped-down, everyone busting out their best moves on the Peter Manheim and Jeremy Cunningham, and hard-hitting punk with psych ambience and garage-rock melodies: each sweaty set was a nonstop dance fl oor. —C M J keyboardist- vocalist Akenya Seymour. Some of high-energy barrage of beyond-catchy tunes, with every member of the band screaming out the these collaborators have, like Miller, made their names outside jazz; Beckstrom played in genre- words over the top. When the Davilas went their separate ways (like the Ramones before them, Mountain MOvers Junegrass, Traysh, and splicing indie band Kids These Days, and Sey- they all share the same last name), some stayed the course while others explored new musical DJ Eye Vybes open. 9:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. mour served as bandleader for rapper Noname identities: bassist AJ Davila went on to front a Davila 666-fl avored punk band called Terror Amor, Wabansia, $8. 21+ (that doesn’t even get into guests such as indie- pop wizard Knox Fortune and rapper, singer, and while lead vocalist Charles Davila went a completely di erent route with the hip-hop trio Fuete The Mountain Movers are among my current multi- instrumentalist Sen Morimoto). On their Billete. Earlier this year, the band played a couple of reunion shows in their native Santurce, a faves, because they know how to freak the fuck recent self-titled debut, released by Chicago’s district of San Juan, and they soon decided it was time to dive back in all over again. Davila 666’s out. Formed in the mid-2000s, the Connecticut cutting-edge International Anthem label, Resav- band started as a showcase for the songs of New oir display a sure grasp of jazz and an advanced fi rst single out of retirement, “Huesos Viejos,” is a midtempo stomper that lays out all the band’s Haven indie rocker Dan Greene, and since then gift for performing as a unit. Together they fill greatness again, including their fuzzed-out guitars and layered vocal arrangements. They’ve also their cosmic trajectory has been eerily similar to the album’s lush, compact tracks with energy, fi nished a new LP, Que Viva el Veneno (due later this year on In the Red), which they began work- that of many mid-60s rock groups who started finding ways to punch up even its most animat- out playing fairly straightforward pop but ven- ed moments—Pierce’s limber solo on the supple, ing on before their hiatus in 2011. Opening tonight’s show are local noise punks Running, a band tured into blistering psychedelia by the end of retro- tinged “Taking Flight,” for example, gets that like Davilla 666 have spent the past few years in a semifunctioning state, creeping out of the the decade. The Mountain Movers put out their more and more ornate as it progresses. Interna- woodwork right when you need them the most. —L C debut LP, We’ve Walked in Hell and There Is Life tional Anthem focuses on jazz that bleeds into A er Death, in 2005 and then rotated through a contemporary pop, and it’s already shaping the
34 CHICA O READER - JULY ll MUSIC 3730 N. CLARK ST METROCHICAGO.COM @ METROCHICAGO
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Alma Afrobeat Ensemble MARTABOSCHVILARRUBIAS
sounds of the future—a project that Resavoir fits where she performs solo and uses a loop pedal to into neatly. I’d defi nitely welcome more pop music re- create melodies, chords, and percussion tracks. that sounds like “Escalator,” which pairs Morimoto’s It’s an economical approach that doesn’t sacrifice tight, rapid raps with blinking synths, snaking horns, her poppy wholesomeness or her life-affi rming mes- and peripatetic percussion. —L G sages. —I Y
Jawbox See also Sunday. The Pauses open. SATURDAY27 7:30 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, sold out. b Sidney Gish Another Michael opens. 9:30 PM, It’s a cliche to describe rock as “angular,” but it’s Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $13. 17+ shorter than saying “influenced by a handful of important D.C. posthardcore bands, including Few emerging songwriters have captivated me in Jawbox.” Formed in 1989 by vocalist and guitarist quite the same way as Boston’s Sidney Gish. On J. Robbins, bassist Kim Colletta, and drummer Adam her breakout album, 2017’s No Dogs Allowed, she Wade, Jawbox fi nessed the anthemic sound of D.C. confronts her life experience with wit and fun, punk into their own idiosyncratic style, which was SMARTBARCHICAGO.COM using self-aware lyrics and refined layers of gui- both rhythmically adventurous and sweetly melodic. tars, vocals, and drums. The record—whose goofy, Jawbox soon recruited second guitarist and vocal- 3730 N CLARK ST | 21+ surrealistic cover prominently displays the Mic- ist Bill Barbot, then reached their fi nal form in 1992 rosoft Paint toolbar—comes following Gish’s 2016 a er the departure of Wade, who joined art punks debut full-length, Ed Buys Houses, plus an EP and Shudder to Think and was replaced by Zach Baro- Lollapalooza Weekend 10PM two compilations she describes as “dump albums” cas. In 1993, Jawbox signed to Atlantic and became 21 & Over (that is, she used them to share rough material she one of two bands ever to leave the unimpeachably didn’t want to develop formally). As she writes in independent label Dischord for a major (the other MOON BOOTS the Bandcamp description for her second collec- being Shudder to Think). The move was controver-
tion, 2016’s Dummy Parade, “Even if you make shitty sial among Jawbox’s anticorporate fans and peers, GARRETT DAVID 08.03.19 scrappy music, you’re still making music, and if you but despite the intrascene tensions the band stirred make some album art and haphazardly glue all those up, Jawbox produced two of their best albums with T. MIXWELL songs together, it’s legit. Go out and make art.” On Atlantic (coreleased by DeSoto, the indie label first listen, Gish’s observations about herself, par- Coletta has run since 1991). The 1994 release For ticularly about how she interacts with others, can Your Own Special Sweetheart is their masterpiece, fl oat benignly by, but deeper attention reveals an and it contains their best-known song, “Savory”— emotional maturity that might move listeners to which they played at their fi rst gig since breaking reflect on their own behaviors and relationships— up in 1997, a one-off reunion in 2009 on Late Night and her straightforward delivery provides the per- With Jimmy Fallon. Jawbox’s self-titled 1996 swan fect vehicle for this process. Gish brings the vibe song didn’t get quite as much recognition, but of her recordings to her stripped-down live shows, I’ve got a so spot for it, especially the nervy J TICKETS AVAILABLE VIA METRO + SMARTBAR WEBSITES + METRO BOX OFFICE. NO SERVICE FEES AT BOX OFFICE! ll JULY - CHICA O READER35 ® MUSIC
continued from 35 “Won’t Come Off ,” where Robbins and Barbot show off their rich vocal harmonies. Jawbox are closing out a 12-date reunion jaunt with two shows at Metro, though their fans are still so devoted that the tour could’ve kept going for months. The deliberate brevity of this trip suggests that the time to catch Friday, August 9 the band is now. —L G Riviera Theatre SMash Mouth Part of RidgeFest. Smash Mouth headline; Eric Chesser, Dreams, and Dancing Noodles open. 10:30 PM (gates at 5:30 PM), Freedom Park, 6252 Birmingham, Chicago Ridge, $10. b Friday I’m sure you’re expecting a takedown here, since at some point in the past two decades it appar- August 9 ently became unforgivable for a band to record a phoned-in cover of “I’m a Believer” for a fami- Vic ly movie starring an animated green ogre. I don’t Theatre blame anyone who sees Smash Mouth as a joke, since they’ve squandered much of their early prom- Peter Frampton AUSTINLORD ise, but I do wish more people could remember the band’s ingenuity. Formed in San Jose, Califor- nia, in 1994, Smash Mouth started life by cutting SUNDAY28 an unusual path through ska’s third wave, showing how much fun they could have by dialing back the Peter FRampton Jason Bonham’s Led hardcore aggression and mixing in smooth, straight- Zeppelin Evening opens. 7:30 PM, Huntington forward pop melodies. Their 1997 debut, Fush Yu Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, 1300 S. Linn Mang (Interscope), has Warped Tour brattiness to White, $49.50-$159.50. b Leslie Jones spare but also a spark of original personality; their breakthrough single, “Walkin’ on the Sun,” still gives Peter Frampton’s got a right to sing the blues. The off an eff ervescent cool thanks to the fuzzy guitar versatile guitarist recently revealed he has a degen- Thursday, August 15 • Vic Theatre hooks of songwriter Greg Camp. Smash Mouth erative muscle disorder called inclusion body myo- departed even more dramatically from the scene sitis, which means his fi ngers might eventually stop that birthed them with 1999’s Astro Lounge, a pop- letting him play his treasured instruments, including focused stylistic jumble with plenty of shoulda-been his iconic Les Paul. The diagnosis is a cruel blow for hits and one massive single: “All Star.” At the time, Frampton, who while still a teenager played in sev- the band’s style of alternative rock was as common- eral 60s British rock bands, joining the Herd and place as elevator music, but “All Star” transcended cofounding Humble Pie, and then launched his solo genre, blending nasty rock ’tude and goofy radio- career in 1971; at age 69, he’s still writing music and pop euphoria into a Jock Jam for nerds. Camp envi- touring. Despite his decades in the business, Framp- sioned it as an anthem anyone could find inspir- ton is arguably best known for the 1976 live dou- ing—or at least find catchy enough to sing along ble album Frampton Comes Alive! (A&M), which to. Its lyrics read like cleverly cra ed slogans, o en remains one of the best-selling concert albums in tongue-in-cheek and earnest at once: the feeling of rock history, documenting his melody-driven songs powerlessness about climate change, for instance, and guitar chops as well as the vibe at his shows—he coexists with a joke about how to live through it keeps up a playful back-and-forth with his audience, (“My world’s on fi re, how about yours? / That’s the whose energy explodes when he uses his signature way I like it and I never get bored”). Front man talk box. Since his diagnosis, Frampton has been Steve Harwell provides the fi nal piece of the puz- recording furiously in his Nashville studio, and the zle, delivering Camp’s words with the exact right products of that labor include the material on last amount of self-aware bombast to keep the song month’s All Blues (UMe), an album of covers such permanently stuck in America’s hippocampus. So as B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” and Hoagy Car- many teens, tweens, and other adolescents are still michael’s “Georgia on My Mind.” The album, which making Smash Mouth memes that in February—a full debuted at number one on the Billboard blues 20 years a er “All Star” came out—the song became chart, isn’t Frampton’s fi rst foray into the genre; not a hit all over again, reaching number four on the only did he play bluesy tunes with Humble Pie back Billboard Rock Streaming Songs chart. I hope these in the day, but he’s also jammed with King and other younger listeners also take time to give Smash blues legends. The tunes on All Blues let Frampton’s Mouth’s newer material a listen. The group’s most virtuoso guitar work sing: He brings in Kim Wilson recent album, 2012’s Magic (429), is certainly no of the Fabulous Thunderbirds to play harmonica on Astro Lounge, but Smash Mouth can still write good the album’s fi rst track, the Willie Dixon classic “I Just hooks—and despite its “Old Man Yells at Cloud” Want to Make Love to You,” and performs a version vibe, the song “Justin Bieber” off ers some real pop that’s more reminiscent of Muddy Waters’s original joy. than Foghat’s hit hard-rock version. For “The Thrill BUY —L G TICKETS Is Gone,” slide guitarist Sonny Landreth accom- AT panies Frampton and his band, and the nearly six- minute track paints a picture of heartbreak that a
36 CHICA O READER - JULY ll Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard. MUSIC
lesser guitarist couldn’t pull off. Frampton kicked a legit rock instrument rather than as a space fi ller off his farewell tour last month, and one dollar from a la Bob Dylan: it’s right up front in the mix on the each ticket purchase will benefi t the Peter Framp- Shack Shakers’ albums, the most recent of which is ton Myositis Research Fund. During these emotion- 2017’s A er You’ve Gone (Last Chance), and the way al, career-spanning shows, Frampton will play cuts Wilkes’s playing complements the music echoes the from All Blues, work his legendary talk box, and best harp-driven blues bands. While the albums throw in some covers of the Beatles and Sound- are defi nitely worth getting, the Shack Shakers’ live garden. —K L show is no joke: expect a hillbilly Iggy Pop with a harmonica mike in his hand, plus a few other things you hadn’t bargained on. These guys came to shake Jawbox See Saturday. The Life and Times open. the shack, not shrink. —J P 7:30 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $28. b Nilüfer Yanya MOLLYDANIELS “Weird Al” Yankovic with the Ravinia Legendary Shack Shakers The Krank Festival Orchestra 8:30 PM, Ravinia, 418 Daddies and Curio open. 7 PM, Reggies’ Music Sheridan, Highland Park, $48-$90. b Joint, 2105 S. State, $15. 21+ “Weird Al” Yankovic . . . with a symphony? That’s Led by charismatic vocalist and harmonica play- right—the paragon of parody has added orchestral er J.D. Wilkes, the Legendary Shack Shakers pres- accompaniment for his current Strings Attached ent an interesting take on the psychobilly theme. tour. At each stop, local musicians will juxtapose Formed in Kentucky and now based in Nash- their symphonic grandeur with Yankovic’s musi- ville, this group has been blending roots, country, cal goofi ness. It’s particularly apt for the highbrow rock ’n’ roll, and punk for more than two decades. vibes of Ravinia, but longtime Al fans shouldn’t fret; While many of their contemporaries’ styles seem his set promises to include the nonsensical costume to start and end with the Cramps and the Rever- changes, props, and video projections that make end Horton Heat, the Shack Shakers have a defi- his live show such a blast. Five years removed from nite prewar-country influence buried underneath his most recent album, Mandatory Fun (RCA), Yan- their foot stomping, distortion, and punk intensity. kovic has built a set list refl ective of his career, full Extra props go to Wilkes for using the harmonica as of big hits and fan favorites. Classic parodies J
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The Women of Clare Bowen Slum Village gloria gaynor Mister Kelly’s with Imogen Clark ll JULY - CHICA O READER37 MUSIC 1035 N WESTERN AVE CHICAGO IL 773.276.3600 WWW.EMPTYBOTTLE.COM Resavoir FREE VIBE.DIGITAL PRESENTS MON RECORD TIMNAGLE THU SUPERKNOVA ( RELEASE ) 7/25 PLASTICIAN 7/29 THE JUST LUCKIES • YOMÍ • BEV RAGE & THE DRINKS KLASEY JONES TUE PART TIME • GARY WILSON HARD COUNTRY HONKY TONK WITH 7/30 5PM-FREE THE HOYLE BROTHERS BRENT HEYL (DJ SET) FRI 7/26 BANDITOS WONDER & SKEPTICISM FLESH PANTHERS • DAVID QUINN WED 6PM-FREE ‘LET THE [ANTI-] BODIES HIT THE FLOOR’ 7/31 HONEYSUCKLE 6PM-FREE ‘MIRRORED’ SERIES EMILY NOTT • DJ DUCKETT ( OF CHICAGO HONKY TONK) SAT EMPTY BOTTLE’S FINAL EP $5 W/ RSVP 7/27 THU ( ) WINDY CITY SOUL CLUB 8/1 AWEFUL RELEASE FEAT. MOTOR CITY SOUL CLUB DJs TOUCHED BY GHOUL • BOYBRAIN • DJ ANDY RYAN
11AM-FREE BLEAK BRUNCH WITH DJ MIKE VALLERA FRI OFFICIAL LOLLAPALOOZA AFTERSHOW FEAT. EMPTY BOTTLE BOOK CLUB DISCUSSES 8/2 ‘WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN’ MAGIC CITY HIPPIES SUN BY LIONEL SHRIVER 7/28 3PM-FREE OFFICIAL LOLLAPALOOZA AFTERSHOW FEAT. RECORD SAT continued from 37 CITY OF DJINN ( RELEASE ) 8/3 (SANDY) ALEX G such as “Amish Paradise” and “White & Nerdy” sit MYKEL BOYD + DREKKA • SWIM IGNORANT FIRE • NAXÖ THE FUNS alongside Yankovic originals such as “The Biggest FESTIVALS Ball of Twine in Minnesota” and “Harvey the Won- 8/4: HESH & THE HELLFIRE (2PM-FREE), 8/4: THINK NO THINK, 8/5: SPUN OUT (FREE), 8/6: DESERT LIMINAL, 8/7: SURFBORT, 8/8: der Hamster.” But this time around, the show will Celebrate diversity, food, THROWAWAY, 8/9: MIDWEST ACTION SHOWCASE, 8/10: 2ND ANNUAL SUMMER EUCHRE TOURNAMENT (11AM), 8/10: YAKUZA, 8/11: THE HOLY also have a special cinematic fl air, including movie CIRCLE, 8/12: KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW, 8/13: BEDON, 8/15: CHERUBS, 8/16: ALLAH-LAHS, 8/17 @ HALF ACRE - BALMORAL themes (during an orchestral warm-up) and a tribute and live music at three BREWERY: HALF ACRE BEER COMPANY’S THE BIG NORTH IV (4PM), 8/18: GIRL K (SINGLE RELEASE), 8/19: BLACK TAFFY (FREE), 8/23: THE HOLD to Star Wars (to close the night). Fans of Yankovic’s STEADY, 8/24: HIDE (RECORD RELEASE), 8/25: THE FIELD, 8/26: HOVVDY • LOMELDA, 8/28: TERRIERS, 8/30-8/31: SCORCHED TUNRA XI 1989 cult-classic movie UHF also will get a kick out neighborhood festivals NEW ON SALE: 9/1: LOONA DAE, 9/4: BRAIN TENTACLES • CHILD BITE, 9/5: THE APPLESEED CAST, 9/10: GIUDA, of Stanley Spadowski’s “Fun Zone,” which starts the 9/19: WOLF EYES, 10/3: EARTHLESS, 10/4: SIR BABYGIRL, 10/21: PENELOPE ISLES, 11/1-11/2: VIVIAN GIRLS main program. You may not get a better chance this Bantu Festival summer to see something so totally epic and wick- The fifth edition of this fest celebrating edly funny—and with Ravinia breaking out its lawn CAJUN DANCE PARTY FEAT. diversity and cultural exchange features THE MID-CITY ACES video screen, folks in the cheap seats won’t miss out on a moment of the fun. —S M food, dance, and vendors representing 30 24 lumpenradio.com countries. Entertainment includes kids’ 7 coprosperity.org activities and live music from Syleena WEDNESDAY31 Johnson, Dee Alexander, D’Lux, and more. Sat 7/27 and Sun 7/28, 10 AM-10PM, Midway Nilüfer Yanya Pixx opens. 9 PM, Sleeping Plaisance, 60th and Ellis, $5-$10. b Village, 3734 W. Belmont, sold out. 21+
On the new double album Miss Universe (ATO), Brit- Taste of Lincoln Avenue ish singer Nilüfer Yanya straddles the line between This neighborhood festival combines live indie rock and pop. It’s catchy, hip, and radio ready, music and family-friendly activities with with a perfect production sheen that helps the tastings of whiskey, wine, and chocolate. music’s disparate infl uences slide smoothly one into The music bookings include cover bands another. “In Your Hand” sounds like it came from the new wave era of the 80s, with crunchy guitars (Bruce in the USA, Sixteen Candles), Lucky and Yanya singing with clipped robotic precision— Boys Confusion, and Horseshoes & Hand and occasionally breaking into an equally robotic Grenades. Sat 7/27 and Sun 7/28, noon-10 PM, falsetto yodel. “Paradise” is chill-out trip-hop, com- Lincoln between Wrightwood and Fullerton, plete with lounge sax and bubbling electronic beat. “Monsters Under the Bed” is based on the type of $10 for adults, kids admitted free to the Kids stripped-down acoustic-guitar number favored by Area. b the likes of Cat Power, with Yanya moving into her upper register to warble like Sinead O’Connor. And Wicker Park Fest “Safety Net” is a full-on pop song, with a ridiculous- ly big anthem chorus (“I’ll never be a safety net / It Arguably the mother of all Chicago street doesn’t matter what you get”) that’ll get jammed fests (at least for music geeks), Wicker in your head for days. Even when Yanya shoots for Park Fest features three stages of live the stadium seats, she keeps her individual touch— music, with punk, electronic, hip-hop, during an odd break in “Safety Net,” most of the instrumentation drops out and Yanya repeated- indie rock, roots, and much more. We’d list ly moans “instead” against a sparse, echoey back- all our faves if we had the space, but this ground. The title Miss Universe suggests both beau- year’s highlights include Open Mike Eagle, ty pageants and cosmic conquest; it’s Yanya’s bid for Superchunk, Future Rootz, and Screaming Music, Shows, WLPN 105.5 ON pop stardom and for validation as an eclectic artis- Females. Fri 8/26, 5-10 PM, Sat 7/27 and Sun tic, and so far, she’s been remarkably successful at Art Events LP FM AIR both. —N B v 7/28, noon-10 PM, Milwaukee between Paulina and Damen, $10 suggested donation. b
38 CHICA O READER - JULY ll CHICAGOSHOWSYOUSHOULDKNOWABOUTINTHEWEEKSTOCOME
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7:30 PM, Schubas, 18+ Never miss Edwin McCain 11/7, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Fri 7/26, a show again. noon b Sign up for the Mersiv, Supertask 10/11, 9 PM, newsletter at GOSSIP Bottom Lounge, 17+ Chrisette Michele 9/27, 8 PM, chicagoreader. Patio Theater com/early WOLF Mondo Cozmo, Liily 8/2, 11 PM, Subterranean, 17+ A furry ear to the ground of Moonchild 10/4, 9 PM, Bottom Jimmy Webb, Robin Spielberg Lounge, on sale Fri 7/26, 11/17, 8 PM, City Winery, on the local music scene 10 AM, 17+ sale Fri 7/26, noon b Pentagram, Howling Giant, WGCI Summer Jam with MARWAN KAMEL and Micah Bezold, Black Road 9/1, 7 PM, Reg- Gucci Mane, Yo Gotti, Teyana gies’ Rock Club, 17+ Taylor, Queen Naija, Polo G aka local duo City of Djinn, have been Lawrence Peters Outfi t 8/23, 8/24, 7 PM, Wintrust Arena b playing together for more than ten years, 6 PM, Hideout Winchesters, Friends of the including a stretch in underrated doom- C.J. Ramone, Dog Party, Blind Bog, Ultra Violet Fever 9/30, crust band Al-Thawra that produced sev- Adam & the Federal League 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ 8/18, 8 PM, Chop Shop, 18+ With Confi dence, Seaway, eral excellent recordings. They met jam- Rasputina, Charming Disaster Between You & Me, Doll ming a er hours with North African musi- 10/26, 8 PM, Subterranean Skin 11/30, 6 PM, Bottom cians at a Tunisian restaurant where Kamel Tim Reynolds TR3 12/20, 8 PM, Lounge b worked and Bezold was a regular. Kamel Bilal KAWAIMATTHEWS SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri Worthy, Gene Farris 8/17, 7/26, 10 AM b 2 PM, Electric Hotel describes City of Djinn as “post-tarab,” Sacha Robotti 11/9, 4 PM, Elec- and their long-form psychedelic drone NEW Snuff ed 8/27, 9:30 PM, Sleep- Theatre, on sale Fri 7/26, tric Hotel UPDATED rock draws from experimental music as Accidentals 10/4, 8 PM, Szold ing Village 10 AM, 18+ Taylor Rogers, Meagan Hick- Robbie Fulks 8/9, 6 and well as traditional Arabic maqam. In 2015, Hall, Old Town School of Chicago Westside Music Tracy Grammer 9/14, 8 PM, man, Lucy Little 9/14, 7 PM, 9:30 PM, Hideout, 6 PM Folk Music, on sale Fri 7/26, Festival with Faith Evans, Szold Hall, Old Town School Subterranean, 17+ porch show added the duo dropped the sublime Ether and 9 AM b Monifah, Da Brat, Crucial of Folk Music, on sale Fri 7/26, Roosevelt (DJ set) 10/5, Dean Lewis with James TW Red Sulphur via downstate label Somnim- Allah-Las 11/27, 10 PM, Thalia Confl ict 8/17, 2 PM, Douglas 9 AM b 2 PM, Cerise Roo op at Vir- 8/3, 11 PM, Thalia Hall, can- age, and on Friday, July 26, they’re fi nally Hall, on sale Fri 7/26, 10 AM, Park F b Greyhounds 9/25, 8 PM, Fitz- gin Hotels Chicago celed; refunds available at following it up (on the same label) with a 17+ Claudettes, Kid Bear 9/5, Gerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri Chris Shifl ett, Cordovas 9 /4 , point of purchase Robert Armani, K-Alexi, John 8 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, 7/26, 11 AM 8 PM, Schubas Mamby on the Beach festival self-titled album full of dazzling cuts that Simmons 8/16, 10 PM, Smart on sale Fri 7/26, 11 AM High on Fire, Power Trip, Devil Skizzy Mars 11/11, 7 PM, Metro, 8/23-8/24, noon, Montrose meander languidly around complex, beau- Bar Dave B 8/9, 9 PM, Subterra- Master, Creeping Death 11/27, on sale Fri 7/26, 10 AM b Beach, canceled; refunds tiful melodies. On Sunday, July 28, City of Avenues, Divided Heaven, nean, 17+ 7 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 7/26, Sasha Sloan 11/9, 8 PM, Chop available at point of purchase Djinn celebrate at the Empty Bottle with Nora Marks 9/29, 8 PM, Devotchka 10/5, 8 PM, SPACE, 10 AM, 18+ Shop, on sale Fri 7/26, Overstreet, Hudson Thames, GMan Tavern Evanston, on sale Fri 7/26, Hildegard: An Unfi nished 10 AM b Mokita 8/23, 7 PM, Cobra openers Naxö, Swim Ignorant Fire, and Bad Gyal 10/5, 9 PM, Sleeping 10 AM b Revolution live album record- Solicitor, Wraith, Feral Vision Lounge, canceled; refunds Mikel Boyd & Drekka. Village Early November, Have Mercy, ing 12/8, 7:30 PM, Sleeping 8/6, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ available at point of purchase Last year, Chicago students of color The Band Perry, Phangs 10/25, Owel 10/9, 8 PM, Bottom Village Songhoy Blues 10/19, 9 PM, Valee, Qari 12/28, 8:30 PM, formed antiviolence organization Good 8 PM, the Vic b Lounge 17+ Kelly Hogan, Scott Ligon, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Thalia Hall, rescheduled; Batushka 12/10, 8 PM, Metro, Emotional Oranges, Chiiild Nora O’Connor 9/20, 6 PM, South Shore Summer Festival contact point of purchase for Kids Mad City a er the school shooting in on sale Fri 7/26, 1 PM, 18+ 10/5, 8:30 PM, Metro, on sale Hideout with Robin Thicke, Dante exchange or refund for tickets Parkland, Florida. GKMC’s goals include Beautifulish, Mega Laverne Fri 7/26, 10 AM b Brendan James 11/16, 7 PM, Hall, Johari Noelle, Eli purchased for 7/18, 17+ providing activities for urban youth, and and Shirley, Three Hands Faint, Ritual Howls, Closeness SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri Ramsey, Queen Jlyn, and Rachael Yamagata 9/5, 8 PM, on Saturday, July 27, it’s throwing a Peace Clapping 8/4, 8:30 PM, Con- 8/9, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ 7/26, 10 AM b more 8/18, 2 PM, South Shore SPACE, Evanston, new on sale stellation, 18+ Fit for an Autopsy 11/21, 6 PM, Angela James and friends 9/6, Cultural Center F b date Fri 7/26, 10 AM b Beach Party to honor recent victims of Bedon, Big Syn, Fernando Reggies’ Rock Club, 17+ 6 PM, Hideout Spaff ord 10/18, 9 PM, Thalia gun violence and the Black Chicagoans House 8/13, 8:30 PM, Empty Rosie Flores 8/25, 7 PM, Szold Mason Jennings 11/30, 8 PM, Hall, on sale Fri 7/26, 10 AM, UPCOMING who died in the Red Summer race riots of Bottle Hall, Old Town School of SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 17+ Abhi the Nomad, Dave B 10/30, 1919. The music lineup includes superstar- Bilal 10/13, 5 and 8 PM, City Folk Music, on sale Fri 7/26, 7/26, 10 AM b Amy Speace 9/21, 8 PM, Szold 7:30 PM, Schubas b Winery, on sale Fri 7/26, 9 AM b Joybird 8/30, 6 PM, Hideout Hall, Old Town School of American Aquarium, 8/23, in-waiting Queen Key and unimpeachable noon b Kinky Friedman 11/16, 10 PM, Judah & the Lion 11/2, 7:30 PM, Folk Music, on sale Fri 7/26, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ rapper-producer Tree, and the party runs Brant Bjork, Ecstatic Vision SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri Aragon Ballroom b 9 AM b Cavetown 10/6, 6:30 PM, from 4 to 9 PM at 31st Street Beach. Reg- 9/27, 8 PM, Reggies’ Rock 7/26, 10 AM b Joe Kay 9/6, 9 PM, Bottom Spektral Quartet & LJ White Metro b istration is free at bit.ly/gkmc_bp. Club, 17+ Robbie Fulks 10/18, 8 PM, Lounge, 17+ play the Shaggs 8/14, Griz, 10/5, 5 PM, Navy Pier, 18+ Black Lips 9/27, 9:30 PM, City Winery, on sale Fri 7/26, Kid Quill 9/19, 7 PM, Subterra- 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Japanese House 10/22, On Tuesday, July 30, the Hideout hosts Sleeping Village noon b nean, 17+ Jon Spencer & the Hitmakers 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ a fund-raiser and launch party for Pussy- Black Road, Lucid Furs, Count G-Rex & Zeke Beats 12/5, Kris Kristoff erson & the 8/30, 9 PM, Schubas Jaymes Young 11/16, 8 PM, pedia, a volunteer-run encyclopedia of the 8/9, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ 8:30 PM, Chop Shop, 18+ Strangers 11/15, 8 PM, Chica- Starcrawler 10/17, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge b vagina assembled by more than 200 peo- Brad Stank 10/6, 7 PM, Schubas Galactic . Anjelika Jelly go Theatre, on sale Fri 7/26, Lincoln Hall b Anders Osborne 8/17, 8 PM, Brain Tentacles, Child Bite 9 /4 , Joseph, Star Kitchen 10/18, 10 AM b Steve ’n’ Seagulls, Cluster- SPACE, Evanston b ple on three continents. Cofounder Zoe 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle 9 PM, Park West, on sale Fri Charlotte Lawrence, Goody pluck 9/1, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen Radiator Hospital, Izzy True, Mendelson will demo the site, and the Brokeback, Chris Brokaw, 7/26, 10 AM, 18+ Grace 11/9, 8 PM, Subterra- Tegan and Sara 10/15, 8 PM, Outer Spaces 8/8, 9:30 PM, festivities also feature a covers set from Mark Charles Morgan 8/11, Gianni & Kyle 9/8, 7 PM, Sub- nean, on sale Fri 7/26, Cahn Auditorium, Northwest- Sleeping Village Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart of 8:30 PM, Hideout terranean, on sale Wed 7/24, 10 AM b ern University, Evanston, on Surabhi Ensemble 8/21, 8 PM, Toronzo Cannon 10/1, 7 PM, noon b Gordon Lightfoot 9/27, 8 PM, sale Fri 7/26, 10 AM b City Winery b Ohmme , comedy from Sarah Squirm , and FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Goblin, Gigan, Lion’s Daughter Copernicus Center b Tobi Lou, Liltrxptendo, Fem- Sur ort 8/7, 8:30 PM, Empty a DJ set by Cqqchifruit. The party starts Fri 7/26, 11 AM 11/7, 8 PM, Reggies’ Rock Lilbootycall 9/3, 7 PM, Subter- dot 10/20, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, Bottle at 8 PM, and admission is a $10 suggested Craig Cardiff 10/27, 8 PM, Club, 18+ ranean b on sale Fri 7/26, 10 AM b Spencer Sutherland 8/17, 6 PM, donation. —JR N L G Schubas, 18+ Golden Features 9/6, 8:30 PM, Chris Lorenzo 10/25, 10 PM, Frank Turner & the Sleeping Beat Kitchen b Ceremony, Choir Boy 9/3, Chop Shop, on sale Thu 7/25, Spy Bar Souls 10/17, 7 PM, Athenaeum Toad the Wet Sprocket 8/31, 7 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Wed 10 AM, 18+ Bill MacKay & Nathan Bowles Theatre b 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail 7/24, 10 AM b Julia Govor 10/4, 9 PM, Cerise 9/13, 6 PM, Hideout Vivian Girls 11/1, 9 PM; 11/2, Toko Telo 9/10, 8:30 PM, Con- [email protected]. C.H.E.W., Ribbonhead, Gov’t Mule 9/27, 8 PM, Riviera Matthew Mayfi eld 12/8, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle stellation, 18+ v ll JULY - CHICA O READER39 40 CHICA O READER - JULY ll OPINION
SAVAGE LOVE Interested in anal and faced with a hard pass Is there any way around this absolute no? Plus: tough love for an FWB By D S
: I’m a 36-year-old straight question: I’ve brought part- A: If there were any legit guy, happily married for nered prostate play up with studies out there that more than ten years, and a my wife, and it’s a hard pass documented the health longtime reader. My wife for her. Hygiene is an issue, benefi ts of regular prostate and I are monogamous. but that’s easy to take care massage, PPPP, Richard We’re good communicators, of (shower, enema, gloves, Wassersug, PhD, would well matched in terms of towels on the bed, etc). The know about it. Wassersug libido, and slightly kinky other part deals with our is a research scientist at (light bondage, Dom/sub power dynamics. Typically, the University of British play in the bedroom). For I’m the Dom, and, based on Columbia, where he studies the last few months, I’ve the limited conversations ways to help prostate cancer been thinking about trying we’ve had about this, there is patients manage the side prostate play, and I have a something about penetrat- eff ects of their treatments. couple of questions. A lot of ing me that she finds deeply “I’d like to believe that bloggers and other writers uncomfortable. What should I’m knowledgeable on this in the sex-advice complex I do? How do I frame this topic,” Wassersug said, “[but] tout the health benefi ts of conversation in a way that I checked PubMed to see regular prostate massage, may make her more comfort- if I’d missed anything in the but I haven’t found any able and gets her finger(s) relevant and recent peer-re- academic research to back in my ass? We’ve shared so viewed medical literature. up some of the lo y claims much—she’s an incredible As I expected, there are no that are being made. Does partner who has helped me objective data supporting the prostate massage reduce the realize so many of my fanta- claim that ‘regular prostate risk of prostate cancer and sies, and I’d like her to be a massage’ reduces the risk of prostatitis? part of this one too. —P - prostate cancer and prostati- Now the relationship P P P tis. [And while] prostate mas- sage can be used to express prostatic fluid for diagnostic purposes, that’s not the same as using it for the treatment of any prostatic diseases.” But that doesn’t mean that prostate massage isn’t ben- eficial; absence of evidence, as they say, isn’t evidence of absence. “We [just] don’t know,” said Wassersug, and finding out “would, in fact, take a very REAL PEOPLE large sample and many years REAL DESIRE to collect enough data to REAL FUN. provide a definitive answer.” But there definitely is J Try FREE: 773-867-1235 More Local Numbers: 1-800-926-6000
Ahora español Livelinks.com 18+ ll JULY - CHICA O READER41 & w/ the use of Asia-based individuals with disabilities JOBS reinsurers. Trvl reqd 10% to are encouraged to apply. 15% of the time. To apply, The University of Illinois GENERAL please visit https://careers. may conduct background willistowerswatson.com/ checks on all job candidates Telephone Sales (07/25) upon acceptance of a OPINION Experienced/aggressive contingent off er. Background closers needed now Software Development checks will be performed to sell ad space for Engineer Test III (Foot in compliance with the Fair Chicago’s oldest and Locker Retail, Inc.)(Chicago, Credit Reporting Act. (07/25) largest newspaper rep fi rm. IL): Resp for code quality Immediate openings in Loop assrnce, sys’ testg to eval offi ce. Salary + commission. lvls of security & reqd 312-368-4884 (07/25) upgrades/maintnce incl fi xg trblshootg probs & ensurg REAL continued from 41 to call him “daddy,” and I get align with yours. So instead Relativity (Chicago, the highest lvls of availability, something you can do right fucked in mind-blowing ways. of disappearing on him, IL) seeks Sr. Software optimzatn, & customer srvc ESTATE Engineer to architect, for existing sftwr sys. Reqs RENTALS now to decrease your risk In the beginning, I expressed you can simply respond to design, implement and a Bachelor’s degree or test cloud native software foreign equiv in Comp Sci, of prostate cancer, PPPP: interest in dating (with more his “thinking of you” texts consistently applying Electronic Engnrg, or a reltd STUDIO Two large studies found that emotional investment), with short, thoughtful, best practice software field & 5 yrs of prgrssvly Large studio apartment engineering. Must pass resp exp in sftwr engnrng, near the red line. 6326 N. men who ejaculate frequent- and he said he didn’t have compassionate texts of your HackerRank Code Challenge or in a rltd position. Exp Wayne. Hardwood floors. pre-interview screening must incl: designg of test Laundry in building. Dogs ly—more than 21 times per the mental space for it but own. (“Thinking of you, too, test. To apply, please email plan & test cases, automatg OK. Heat included. Available month—are roughly 35 per- he’d be interested in trying especially at this diffi cult your resume to Recruiting@ test scripts, & executg lge 9/1. $850/month. (773)761- relativity.com. Please scale apps; database testg 4318. www.lakefrontmgt. cent less likely to develop to develop something time.”) The odds that he’ll reference “JOB ID: 19-9015” incl designg & manipulatg com (07/25) in the subject line to be test data on MySQL, SQL prostate cancer than men eventually. So we’ve played want to meet up in the considered. (07/25) Srvr, Mongo & Cassandra; Large studio apartment who blow fewer loads. So if and had fun, and I’m next few months seem slim, perfrmg object-oriented near Loyola Park. 1337 W. Computer/IT: Kraft Foods design; eCommerce testg, Estes. Hardwood floors. sticking things up your butt starting to get feels for and you can always claim Group Brands LLC websrvcs & API testg. Send Cats OK. Heat included. seeks Head of Business res to Foot Locker, Inc., Attn: Laundry in building. Available makes you come more often, this guy . . . buuuuut . . . he’s a scheduling confl ict if he Intelligence and Data M. Grund, Global Mobility & 8/1. $865/month. (773)761- then science says stick- given me no indication should ask to get together. Engineering to work in Compensation Coordinator, 4318. www.lakefrontmgt. Chicago, IL & be responsible Code BOEIICHI, 330 W 34th com (07/25) ing things up your butt will he’s interested in anything Being friendly is the trick for leading US Business St, NY, NY 10001. (07/25) Intelligence engineering & reduce your risk of prostate beyond our current to remaining friends after a Data Engineering teams The Office of the Vice BEDROOM cancer. arrangement. I’ve said, casual sexual arrangement to build out all front-end Chancellor for Research One bedroom apartment analytics tools/models (OVCR) at the University of near Warren Park and Researchers don’t know “Hey, let’s schedule a date,” ends. Kindly acknowledging & build/maintain data Illinois at Chicago, located Metra. 6802 N. Wolcott. warehouse for all US in a large metropolitan Hardwood fl oors, Laundry in exactly why coming a lot may something like dinner, someone’s texts—or greeting business units. Degree area, is seeking a full-time building. $995/month, Heat & commensurate exp. Information Technology included. Cats OK. Available reduce a man’s risk for pros- coff ee, a walk around the someone in public—doesn’t req’d. Apply online: CLASSIFIEDS Technical Associate (IT 7/1. (773)761-4318. www. tate cancer. There’s no data fucking block, but he just obligate you to sleep with (or kraftheinzcompany.com/ Development) to assist the lakefrontmgt.com (07/25) applyNA.html at # R-19815 department by providing to support one frequently wants to fuck, no talking. submit to) them again. And (07/25) technical leadership in Large one bedroom mentioned theory—that ejac- What he wants isn’t what I’m while in most cases I would the analysis, design, and apartment near Loyola Park. Trader Analyst, Technical implementation of software 1335 W. Estes. Hardwood ulation may flush out “irritat- looking for, so I decided to advise a person to be direct, Specialist needed by design solutions, as well floors. Cats OK, Laundry Peak6 Group LLC in as manage all phases of in building. $1025/month. ing or harmful substances” take my business elsewhere in this case, I think you should Chicago, IL to review, software development Heat included. Available 7/1 that could be gathering in and focus my energy on my simply step back. Calling him JOBS analyze, dev. & implement life-cycle including design, & Larger unit available 8/1 feature prioritization & implementation, deployment, for $1050/month. (773)761- the prostate along with the other relationships. Well, to say, “Hey, I know your mom resources allocation. Reqs development, testing 4318. www.lakefrontinet. ADMINISTRATIVE Bachelor’s, or foreign and maintenance. Gather com (07/25) fluids that make up roughly his mom just got diagnosed has cancer and is dying, but equiv, in Finance, Stats, or business requirements from 30 percent of a man’s sem- with cancer and has a I needed to tell you I’m not SALES & related field, & 2 yrs. exp. stakeholders and technical SUBLET WANTED: Looking MARKETING as Option Trader or Trading groups to map operational to share a drug-free (alcohol inal fluids—so, again, more couple months to live. He’s interested in fucking around Assoc. Exp. must include needs, participate in product ok) apartment in or within dev’t of automated trading design and planning, and 30 minutes of Hyde Park. research is needed. And until devastated. What are the anymore, OK?” will make you FOOD & DRINK strategies within Python, evaluate new technologies Looking for a 3-6 month those studies are done, men ethics of breaking up here? seem self-involved, thought- Asset Performance & risk and software products. long sublet, available on or SPAS & SALONS analysis, data visualization, Utilize Asp.net, C#, Oracle, around August 15th. and other prostate-having I dislike just ghosting, but less, and uncaring—you know, & the application of PL-SQL for developing I am a fl exible, open-minded BIKE JOBS statistical model & machine applications; develop and considerate 27 y.o. people should err on the he’s got other friends and not the kind of person some- learning techniques to and maintain a business UChicago alum looking for side of ejaculating as often lovers to support him. He one wants to remain friends GENERAL volatility surface generation continuity and disaster a compatible roommate(s). & strategy. To apply, mail recovery plan; and utilize I have furniture (if needed), as (safely and consensually) doesn’t really need me. But with after a casual sexual resume to: K. Hilgart, Peak6 SQL Server Report, Crystal kitchen appliances and Group LLC, 141 W. Jackson Reports and other tools to utensils, fishing rods, possible. he does on occasion send arrangement ends. Blvd, Ste. 500, Chicago, IL create complex reports. speakers and a large flat As for convincing your little “thinking of you” texts. Now, if you were this man’s REAL 60604 (07/25) Supervise and train one (1) IT screen. I like music, plants, Technical Associate (Jr. .Net biking, cooking, reading, otherwise submissive wife So am I able to ghost him? primary partner, GHOSTS, ESTATE Landscape General Developer). Requirements other considerate people, Labor. (Bolingbrook, IL) are a Bachelor’s degree Scrabble and roller coasters. to finger your ass, PPPP, you Do I owe him a conversation and you’d been thinking Landscaper looking for labor or its foreign equivalent Please email Sarah at could search for “power bot- about wants and needs? I’d about ending the relation- RENTALS help, several positions open. in Computer Science, [email protected] Heavy lifting and manual Information Management, (07/25) toms” on the gay section of like to be friends—I am part ship before he got the news FOR SALE labor required. Starting or related field of study, salary $15.59 p/h. Employer: plus 5 years of professional Pornhub—assuming your wife of a small kinky community, about his mother, I would NON-RESIDENTIAL Home Landscape Materials IT Development experience BEDROOM enjoys gay porn—and famil- I’m friends with some of his encourage you to wait a few Inc. (07/25) which includes developing Beautiful Eckert Park 2-Flat and/or modifying new Lovely 1,000 sq ft Eckert iarize her with the concept of fuck buddies, and I’m going months and love and support ROOMATES Willis Re, Inc. seeks an and existing applications, Park apartment around the Assistant Vice President including requirement corner from Chicago Ave dominant penetratees. You to run into him again—but him through this process. (Facultative Reinsurance) analysis, design, code, test, bus; 2 bedrooms, living could also add female con- this isn’t a time in his life (Unless the relationship was in Chicago, IL to manage debug, implementation room, dining room, kitchen, MARKET- strategies prepared for and maintenance. Travel bath, air, appliances, washer doms to your list of hygiene when he should be worrying abusive, of course, which this construction & property is not required. For fullest & dryer. Quiet second fl oor reinsurance policy placemt consideration, please includes use of planted hacks—put one of these about the feelings of a now- one wasn’t.) But you’re just a PLACE & brokg activities. Prep submit a CV, cover letter, deck and patio. $1,600 plus trash-can liners in your ass, and-then spanking partner. FWB—a “friend with bruises,” & negotiate facultative and 3 references to the utilities. References required. reinsurance contracts & attention of the Search Contact Brian Boyer and the only thing your wife —G H O in your case—and this man GOODS endorsemts. Perform risk Coordinator via email at 312/371-6227 boyertv@ placemt w/ domestic & Asian [email protected], or via sbcglobal.net (07/25) will get on her fingers is lube. S T S has other friends and lovers SERVICES carriers. Reqmts: Must have mail at University of Illinois But if anal play is a hard no around him, people whose 10 yrs of exp in the job off rd at Chicago, OVCR, 1737 W Bucktown: 1922 N Wilmot, HEALTH & or a reltd position, perfrmg Polk St, M/C 672, Chicago, 1st Floor, 4 RMS, 2BR, 1 Blk for the wife, you’ll have to A: You’ve constructed a false support he can rely on during reinsurance activities. Must IL 60612. The University from “Blue Line L.” Modern WELLNESS have 4 yrs of exp managing of Illinois is an Equal kitchen & bath. Hardwood enjoy anal play solo. choice for yourself, GHOSTS: this difficult time. v the tools, resrcs & individuals Opportunity, Affirmative fl oors. $1300 + security. Avail either initiate a conversation INSTRUCTION used to efficiently execute Action employer. Minorities, Immed. No Pets. Call (773) reinsurance placemt strategy women, veterans and 612-3112 (08/01) : I am a poly nonbinary about your wants and needs Send letters to mail@ MUSIC & ARTS person, and I’ve been seeing or ghost him. But there’s no savagelove.net. Download NOTICES this guy in a BDSM context need for a wants-and-needs the Savage Lovecast every MESSAGES for about six months. About convo, as you’ve already Tuesday at savagelovecast. WANT TO ADD A LISTING TO OUR CLASSIFIEDS? two times a month, he canes had that conversation (more com. LEGAL NOTICES E-mail [email protected] with details me and destroys my ass, I get than once) and his don’t @fakedansavage ADULT SERVICES or call (312) 392-2970 42 CHICA O READER - JULYTK_MONTH ll BEDROOM Assumed Business Name of Large 3 bedroom, 2 bath CLUTTERLESS CLOSETS You know what you need ... apartment near Wrigley with the business located at: Field. 3820 N. Fremont. 4417 S INDIANA AVE APT Hardwood fl oors. Cats 3N, CHICAGO, IL 60653. WIN OK. 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