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IN THIS ISSUE T R - home and others man the front lines of Joe Mantegna’s teenage garage @ of coronavirus transmission the band the Apocryphals census goes on 35 Early Warnings Rescheduled P T B 10 Dukmasova | Housing A concerts and other updated listings EC S K K H leaked video chat reveals the city’s C L R H M EP M landlords are concerned over staff T D K R “decimation” and the optics of CEB W “stepping” on tenants A EJ L SWM D L G 12 Reid | News The American D I BJ MS Sign Language interpreter for the THEATER E A S N L governor is in the spotlight but he 19 Dance Dancers fi gure out how to G D A H CITY LIFE L C S C -J 03 Sightseeing The deaths of wants us to know more about the create in isolation CE B N B nearly a thousand sailors at Great Chicago Hearing Society’s services L C M DL C M Lakes Naval Training Station C J F S F J FILM H I H C M J in hold lessons for the 22 Small Screen The digital M K S K COVID pandemic television platform OTV is thriving 35 Gossip Wolf Mavis Staples N DL J L 23 Movies of note Never Rarely drops a benefi t single to help M M A M-K JRN JN M Sometimes Always is a slowmoving Chicago seniors survive the O M S C S fi lm but these young women will pandemic Mukqs embarks on ------stay with you long a er the fi lm a weekly series of liverecorded D D J D ends There’s Something in the experimental EPs and more D A C W Water is crucial viewing for anyone S M C J G M P C who cares about the lasting ripple OPINION Y D eff ects of environmental neglect 36 Savage Love Dan Savage off ers S S P advice to someone who wants to A T A S E C K K ARTS & CULTURE MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE send a pervy care package 14 Community Why basement 24 Galil | Feature The saga of ADVERTISING wet bars just won’t do when we’re Punkin’ Donuts How a doughnut -- @ CLASSIFIEDS C FOOD & DRINK sheltering in a collapsed place shop parking lot became a 38 Jobs - @ 05 Feature Join the virtual quest for 16 Visual Art How canceled BFA confl uence of Chicago youth 38 Apartments & Spaces the perfect melon and MFA shows are persisting subculturesand what killed it off 38 Marketplace S D P F V P S A M during the crisis 30 Shows of note A pandemic CR M T P NEWS & POLITICS 18 Podcast A new bilingual show can’t stop the fl ow of great music SA R 07 Joravsky | Politics Somehow puts a microphone to the local Our critics review releases that you O I L M -H L S A R we’ve elected a Joe Exotic as Latinx community can enjoy at home N T F T ’ G M F N S president of the United States 34 The Secret History of C S M WR 08 Count As some hunker down at Chicago Music The untold story N A V M G - - - J L SB ------DC [email protected] A NOTE FROM THE CREATIVE LEAD -- CHICAGO READER LC FIGURING OUT WHAT to put on the cover of this week’s cover, the publisher suggested that part what separate us from an even more B PD R L each Reader issue is one of the most reward- we pay tribute to the essential workers—the horrifying social collapse, I think the term T E R S J S ing and at times most stressful aspects of grocery store clerks, gas station attendants, obfuscates the fact that many of them put A- S V my job. When a cover really comes together, doctors, pharmacists, postal workers, and themselves in harm’s way every day simply C C E B it’s a beautiful thing: I rush into the o ce on others—whose lives have been so gravely because they have no other choice. That a ca------Wednesday morning to see the newly print- impacted by the pandemic. In an e-mail to the shier making $12 an hour could have no choice R ISSN- ed copies, basking in the glow of the final illustrator, Nguyen Tran, I described these but risk their lives every day is indicative of R LC SM S C IL product. workers as “putting their lives on the line,” our profound political failure to protect the -- There’s been no office to rush into for the which Nguyen took as inspiration to depict most vulnerable in this country. We cannot go C ©C R past month—the entire Reader editorial pro- these workers on a literal tightrope walk, the “back to normal” after this crisis has ended, P C IL cess, from pitches to proofs, happens remote- disease roiling beneath them. because the seeds of its cause were embedded A C R R ly. Still, my life is among the least upended I love this cover because it beautifully rep- in “normal” from the beginning. Whatever RR T ® by the coronavirus—I still have an apartment resents the precarity in which these workers comes out of this situation, I can only hope to lounge around in, a paycheck to cover my now fi nd themselves. Many call these workers that it is more equal and more just than what bills, and a paper to design every week. For “heroes,” and while their e orts are in large preceded it. —R H
2 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll CITY LIFE
The station’s openness became its weakness. in the civilian world, the Navy was both willing COURTESY NATIONAL ARCHIVES COLLEGE PARK and able to discipline their charges for the smallest derivations in healthy living. One that the treasure of youth, divine youth at sailor apprentice, Royal Bauer, recorded in the zenith of its physical perfection, glistens his diary how an officer found a recruit with through the close-fitting summer uniforms, a grimy neck. He ordered the company to from lithe sinew and resilient muscle, like an strip and scrub the sailor with hard brushes, incandescent wire blasting through its globe soap, and 50 pails of water. But this epidemic, of glass,” wrote the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. which effortlessly crossed over quarantined The Great Lakes Naval Revue, which in- dorms, was unusually lethal to young men and cluded budding comedian Benjamin Kubelsky women. Ominously, many hospital corpsmen, (later known as Jack Benny), played the mid- even ones wearing gauze masks, became inca- west theatrical circuit to popular acclaim. pacitated while tending to their patients. The The undefeated football team, whose lineup labs at Great Lakes worked futilely to isolate included George Halas, won the Rose Bowl. the “influenza germ” behind the epidemic. Barnstorming across the country, John Philip The training station’s newspaper dubbed Sousa and his Great Lakes Band Battalion influenza “the unwelcome visitor.” Even as raised tens of millions of dollars for war the hospital and sick bays filled with sailors, bonds and war charities, a very handsome the first week of the epidemic did not inspire return on the $40,000 appropriated for band terror. “It begins with high fever. Most get real instruments. weak and collapse,” sailor apprentice Harney These efforts served not only the cause of Stover wrote his parents. “I probably will get naval recruitment, but also the mission of it. I don’t think I will be very sick.” instilling discipline and defusing tension with Reservists who contracted the flu simply the station’s wealthy neighbors. The station went home to recover. After receiving man- was within walking distance of Waukegan, on datory nose sprays, hundreds of sailors left on sightseeing the same train line that served the north shore. weekend passes for the north shore. Stover, In some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in who went on leave after helping sick mates, the midwest, families opened their homes to believed the iodine nose spray protected him The ghosts of Great Lakes sailors, who might have been tempted to visit from infection. “The sailors who have been taverns and brothels in Chicago. During their about Waukegan during the past few days The deaths of nearly a thousand sailors at Great Lakes Naval Training Station two-day leaves, the “clubs, homes, automo- have been sneezing and coughing and buying in 1918 hold lessons for the COVID-19 pandemic. biles and young ladies are at our service,” Leo ‘dope’ for their noses and throats,” comment- Bouton, a sailor apprentice, wrote a pen pal. ed the Waukegan Daily Sun. By J N Hundreds of civilians worked as unpaid volun- Great Lakes Naval Training Station became teers within the station and at naval clubs in the beachhead of the epidemic in Illinois. their communities. Like a number of medical experts at the time, n 1918 less than 40 miles north of Chicago, A native South Carolinian, Moffett rep- The openness of the training station, which the command at Great Lakes maintained that an insidious illness killed twice the number resented a character familiar to Chicago allowed it to thrive as a model city, would be influenza was spread in indoor gatherings and Iof naval personnel in two months than history—the charming out-of-towner turned its great weakness. Influenza was first report- poorly ventilated rooms, but not “in the open.” combat did during the entire First World master insider and big builder. Authorized ed on September 7, 1918, introduced to Great By the time Great Lakes rescinded liberty for War. The so-called Spanish influenza swept to enroll officers as naval reservists, Moffett Lakes by sailors transferring from Boston. enlisted men on September 19, roughly ten through Great Lakes Naval Training Station drew the managerial elites from the north Naval health officers knew that the epidemic percent of the training station had reported ill “like the Black Plague,” recalled Martin shore and Chicago. A crew of 1,200 enlisted would eventually cross the Atlantic, but, as the with influenza. Birkham, a YMCA volunteer at the training men hammered an average of one thousand Navy Surgeon General wrote the distressed In the press, the training station worked station. The hard choices made at Great Lakes pounds of nails a day to build their barracks. health commissioner of Boston, “under war hard to present optimistic news while ap- should haunt us today. From its original 187-acre campus, Great Lakes conditions it would have been futile to at- pealing to the community for badly needed Dedicated as a boot camp for naval recruits expanded to more than 775 buildings spread tempt to quarantine against its introduction material such as bedding. Contrary to his own from across the midwest, Great Lakes Naval over 12,000 acres. into this country.” clinical findings, the station’s chief medical Training Station opened in 1911. After the Moffett was especially gifted at public For any other epidemic, Great Lakes proba- officer, Lt. Owen J. Mink, informed reporters United States declared war against Germany relations. Day-tripping dignitaries, sightse- bly would have been one of the safest places to that 95-98 percent of his influenza cases were in April 1917, the commandant of Great Lakes, ers, and families of recruits routinely visited be. The concern over contagious diseases had mild. Mink admitted that there were 4,500 Captain William A. Moffett, was left with only the station for concerts, sporting events, air led the training station to consult an architect total cases of influenza, with 1,000 serious four officers on his staff. New recruits at Great shows, and enormous displays of precision of tuberculosis sanitariums. The station had at cases and 100 deaths. With the math supplied, Lakes, like those at other training camps, lived drilling. The press fawned over the station. its disposal a state-of-the-art hospital staffed the Tribune concluded that the death rate was in gold rush conditions, sleeping in tents an- “It is not only that faces, throats and arms are with a thousand apprentices enrolled at its “comfortingly low in consideration of the wide chored in muddy fields. tanned to the gleam of precious metal, and Hospital School. Unlike public health officials sweep of the disease.” ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 3 CITY LIFE Important continued from 3 Lakes. The Chicago Evening Post reasoned that There simply was not enough trained med- Great Lakes must have the epidemic under ical staff to go around for sailors. Robert St. control, as it still welcomed visitors. “None John, a 16-year-old Oak Parker who had lied would even think the station is quarantined,” about his age to join the Navy as a means to Reader News Stover wrote to his parents. On September impress girls, found himself struggling for air 21, Chicago lawyer Oscar Miller had dinner for several days. “No one ever took our tem- with an officer at Great Lakes. In his diary, he peratures and I never even saw a doctor,” he Due to business closings and for safety purposes, the detailed lunch menus but made no mention recalled. A friend died next to him. Chicago Reader is going biweekly with a print run to of influenza, despite the fact that 931 sailors Katherine Bacigalupo received notice that 600+ locations, including our box route. On the o were added to the sick list that very day. Only her son had fallen ill at Great Lakes. After at the peak of the epidemic did Great Lakes waiting six hours at the hospital along with weeks (April 9, 23, May 7) the Reader is just being cancel highly popular public review of march- her sister, she begged a passing chaplain for distributed as a free PDF, with a small press run to ing bands and precision drilling. help. He arranged for a four-minute pass, a ful ll subscriber and library mailings. Although newspapers paid homage to in- rare exception given only for men close to dividual sailors who died at Great Lakes, the death. Surrounded by dying sailors, Kather- harrowing climb in the number of deaths due ine’s son was lying in a drill hall. There were We are also making a limited number of copies to pneumonia and other influenza-related bloodstains on his lips, flies crawling on his available for special short-term subscriptions, 12 complications received scant attention. “The face. Returning to the hospital, she demanded weeks for $50, and every week’s issue will be mailed people on the outside don’t get the news and to take her son to Waukegan. The commander happenings as they really are, they don’t of the hospital explained that he would die to your home. publish them as they figure it discourages and in transport and there were no doctors there makes the relatives of the enlisted men here that could help him. Katherine received word Just a few hundred copies will be sold of these very feel uneasy, as no doubt it does,” Leo Bouton, shortly after that her son had died. who had recovered from the flu, confided in a “I started to keep a record of the number of limited souvenir editions of the Reader: letter that slipped through the censor. deaths at which I was present,” one chaplain secure.actblue.com/donate/chicago-reader-print-12 Though Lt. Mink warned that people in cit- wrote, “but found it impossible to continue.” ies should remain at home and avoid crowded “The morgues were packed almost to the indoor facilities other than the workplace, ceiling with bodies stacked one on top on Find the full curated PDF download of the Reader at the scope of the epidemic’s lethality was not another,” Josie Brown recalled. Even in her readily apparent to those communities that sleep she heard the noise of trucks backing up chicagoreader.com/issues had not yet witnessed its effects. “I do not feel to the morgue. In her dreams, she pictured live much alarmed about the Spanish Influenza,” sailors being trapped underneath the stacks of by Wednesday each week. Evanston banker Rufus Dawes wrote to his dead recruits. brother. “It will take its toll on the old and Between September 12 and October 11, 1918, the weak.” Privately, the commander of Great Great Lakes Naval Training Station recorded Lakes Hospital authorized leaves for convales- 9,623 cases of influenza, with 924 deaths. Great cent cases who were “depressed to the point Lakes presented half-truths about the epidem- of loss of interest in all things,” a state in part ic in large part to protect the war effort, which attributed to the “contact of great numbers of demanded full participation by healthy young desperately sick and dying mates.” men. Guided by a tragically incomplete under- Overwhelmed with panicked relatives at its standing of how influenza was transmitted, gates wanting to know about men in quaran- Moffett and his staff chose not to reveal that tine, the command at Great Lakes had reason Great Lakes Naval Training Station had been to fear the true dimensions of the epidemic be- the site of heroic failure and lonely death. coming known. Josie Brown, a recent graduate If you are appalled by what happened at of nursing school, had read about the flu in the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, you should papers on her way to Great Lakes. The young consider how history will judge us, not only for naval nurse was placed in a ward of 42 serious- the lies told in service of a partisan political war, ly ill men, some without beds, some delusional but also our own self-deceptions in the face of with high fevers. Josie worked 18 hours a day. our “unwelcome visitor.” What has not changed In several instances, medical staff “had to be over 102 years is that when hospitals are pushed ordered off duty as it was evident that they beyond their capacity during a catastrophic Thank you, had overworked and would break down under pandemic, patients and medical staff die cruel the physical strain and mental distress that deaths that can easily remain secrets. v they were suffering,” the Department of the The Reader team Navy later noted. Seven nurses died at Great @backwards_river 4 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll FOOD & DRINK
Gabby Luu and Jas Brooks JEFF MARINI FOR CHICAGO READER
FOOD FEATURE Join the virtual quest for the perfect melon The search party will set off in an infi nite fi eld of fruit. By M S
ou’re standing in pure sunlight in a crystal The fictional corporation and marketing pavilion levitating over an infi nite green campaign are the creation of artists Jas Brooks, Ymelon patch. You move into the structure Li Yao, and Gabby Luu (who also supplies the and pedestals rise from a platform, each one voice in your head). They aren’t overearnest supporting a perfectly spherical melon. pseudoscientific corporate drones, but they But is it really a perfect melon? play them in Perfect Melon, a prototype virtual There’s only one way to know. You reach out reality performance installation that has taken and slap it: doink! It sounds like a defl ated bas- on added resonance in the new waking night- ketball hitting the fl oor. Probably not perfect. mare of mass self-isolation. You reach for another, and this one resonates: In the real world, there may not be a more sounding somehow at once dense and hollow, a physically intimate experience than melon melon of sweet substance. You decide that this selection. You eyeball the colors and shapes. could be the one, and with a squeeze of your You lift one and measure its heft. Hold it to your hand, a honeyed, fl oral, fruity liquid squirts into nose and sni . Critically, you give it a thump. your mouth. “But what does it mean for the melon to It’s perfect. sound good?” asks Luu, a Los Angeles-based Meanwhile, a soothing disembodied narrator artist who recently earned a master’s in art congratulates you: “We made this,” she says. history at the University of Chicago. “Everyone “Together.” has a shifting idea of what that is.” That’s one of Welcome to Perfect Melon, a “communi- many absurdities that sprout from this virtual ty-building” marketing campaign from the melon patch whose architecture was inspired Perfect Melon beverage corporation, whose by the Crystal Palace that was home to London’s intention isn’t just to sell a soft drink, but “to Great Exhibition of 1851, a structure that was “a bring people closer to nature.” manifestation of human architectural power ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 5 Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants FOOD & DRINK at chicagoreader.com/food.
continued from 5 that modulate our sense of smell and taste.” was to test and tweak over the summer and go perfect melon. The lab where Brooks worked [attempting] to perfect nature,” according to The group researched and did a lot of tasting— live in September with the three artists don- had been shut down, but they’d brought home Yao, who earned his MFA in art and technology MSG, salt, citric acid, sugar, caffeine—“in an ning lab coats and guiding players through the a distillation unit and a VR headset and were at the School of the Art Institute and is design- attempt to isolate di erent tastes,” says Luu, game, staged on a carpet of artifi cial grass. continuing to work on the taste display. But, ing the virtual universe of the melon patch. eventually graduating to a variety of Asian mel- But they had a lot more work to do before they say, “the reality is, people are not gonna Brooks is the artist constructing the very on-fl avored soft drinks such as Binggrae Melon, they were ready to invite an audience to crowd- be as open to interacting with this very strange, real backpack that will contain a “taste display” Melon Ramune, and Suika Watermelon Soda. source the perfect melon. For one thing they intimate interface.” that pumps randomized liquid fl avor combina- “We focused on the melon as an image be- still needed more synthetic fl avors, which, as it If anything, the pandemic underscored tions into the mouths of players each time one cause of the Japanese food culture of cultivat- turns out, aren’t simple to get ahold of. many of the themes Perfect Melon was meant to approves of a melon’s sound and elects to taste. ing perfect foods as gifts,” says Luu, referring Another challenge loomed: “We’re starting address: isolation, community, and “our thesis “The basic idea is you enter a virtual melon to the country’s appetite for obsessively nur- to develop a full sanitization protocol,” says about how reality is constructed by corpora- patch that is infinite, which is absurd,” says tured and fetishized hand-massaged fruit. Brooks. They were imagining interchangeable tions,” Yao says. Brooks. “You’re given a task—which makes no For the last year and a half, much of the nar- metal straws that could be swapped out each With Starbucks giving out free co ee to fi rst sense—where you’re supposed to fi nd a perfect rative, virtual, and mechanical work on Perfect time a new player donned the backpack and responders, and Louis Vuitton pivoting from melon: what you believe a melon should taste Melon has taken place at the University of headset, and sterilizing the used ones with perfume to hand sanitizer, “it really hearkens like. So you’re put on this infi nite quest in VR, Chicago’s Media Arts, Data, and Design Center. ultrasonic baths and UV light. back to corporate mobilization during wartime basically picking up melons and interacting That’s where Yao fitted me with a tetchy VR All of this would require funding. Grant ap- efforts,” says Brooks, something that ought with them in ways that are deemed natural but headset to get a look at an infi nity of melons, plications were in the works. not to be entirely trusted. “An opportunity for mean nothing.” and I took whiffs from the bottles of ethyl A month later, after the university shut down future profi t.” The people of Perfect Melon got together in butyrate, ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, and ethyl the campus, we all spoke on the phone. Luu was “In this moment it’s really highlighting the 2018 during an ad hoc gathering of artists, stu- formate that are the first compounds Brooks sheltering in place in LA but looking for work. way corporations see themselves as com- dents, and researchers that met on Saturdays secured for the pump-straw mechanism. Yao was applying for an online teaching gig in munity members,” says Luu. “It’s not a great at the MCA. “We wanted to see if we could make “One of our goals is to be able to stream all of Shanghai after emerging from self-quarantine; situation to be in, but it’s unfolding before our a group of people that were interested in fl avor the information of what players choose as their a colleague’s wife was potentially exposed to eyes. These are things to continue thinking as a medium,” says Brooks, who is working to- perfect melon,” says Luu. “Then mix those and COVID-19 but eventually tested negative. about.” v ward a PhD in computer science at the Univer- create an average fl avor for the perfect melon The trio didn’t seem to think that the pan- sity of Chicago, focusing on “wearable devices that people can then taste.” The ultimate goal demic meant the end of the infi nite quest for the @MikeSula
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6 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll NEWS & POLITICS
For starters, both Joe Exotic and Donald Trump he’s played around on every wife he’s ever have catastrophic hair. TIGER KING had—Melania included. And say this about Joe—no one’s ever insincere, and sanctimonious glory. accused him of rape. As far as I know. There Of the two, I must confess I like Joe more are 23 women who have accused Trump of than Carole. Though in the real world of everything from sexual assault to rape—not politics, I voted for Hillary—and would do so that the MAGA-hat crowd seems to care. again. Politically speaking, Trump and Joe are It’s just that Joe seems a little less fright- raging egomaniacs who have settled on a ening than Carole. Which is odd, as he’s the probusiness, anti-government, lower-taxes, one serving a 22-year sentence for hiring a hit guns-for-all ideology largely because it’s a man to kill her. Not the other way around. pitch they know their audience wants to hear. Like Trump and Hillary, Joe and Carole Who knows what they really believe in. have their followers. Though here the roles Joe ran for o ce twice. In 2016, he ran for are reversed. If Carole reminds me of Hillary, president as a Libertarian. John Oliver had a her followers behave like straight-up MAGA fi eld day making fun of his campaign antics. hatters. But then the media made fun of Trump Not that any of them literally wears the when he launched his campaign. Back in 2015, hat. Just that they’re awestruck devotees the Huffington Post announced it was only who gobble up any old bullshit Carole feeds going to cover his presidential campaign in them. And she feeds them a lot. the entertainment section. Remember how Trump bragged, “I could For years, David Letterman and Howard stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot Stern were Trump’s enablers, inviting him somebody and I wouldn’t lose any votes”? on their shows so he could build his brand in Well, there’s reason to suspect that Carole front of millions. killed one of her husbands (she’s had three). Letterman and Stern were laughing at And still her fans volunteer their time to her Trump—just like Oliver laughed at Joe. And POLITICS Big Cat Rescue park. then, Trump was president—and the joke was She’s selling them something they really on them. want to buy—in this case, the notion that In 2018, Joe ran for governor of Oklahoma. President Tiger King they’re saving the big cats they actually keep He fi nished third in a three-man race, winning in cages. 19 percent of the vote. Somehow we’ve elected a Joe Exotic as president of the United States. Joe’s followers are a little more cynical, To be clear, that’s 19 percent of the vote in more pragmatic. Think of the Democratic op- the Libertarian primary. So it’s not as impres- By B J eratives who worked for Michael Bloomberg’s sive as it looks when the fi lmmakers fl ash it ill-fated presidential campaign. I doubt they on the screen. All told, he got 664 votes. really believed in Bloomberg—but his money But before you laugh at those 664 yahoos in was too good to turn down. Oklahoma, remember this: in 2018, a neo-Na- OK, so Joe’s followers aren’t making any- zi named Art Jones won more than 57,000 thing resembling Bloomberg cash. He gave votes running as a Republican for Congress in hen I started watching Tiger King— is a parable for politics in the age of Trump. them little more than pocket change, a place the Third District of Illinois, which runs from the hit Netfl ix series—I was like the Don’t laugh too much at these characters, to crash, and food—albeit old meat discarded Bridgeport to the southwest suburbs. Wrest of you, hooting and howling at folks. They’re not really all that different by Walmart. You could argue that, in contrast, Oklaho- the show’s weird and wacky characters. from the people you’ve been voting for. Not They took it because they had no choice— ma’s voters showed more restraint. I’m still laughing at them. I mean, the show much di erent than you and me. many had just gotten out of prison or rehab. The point is—we’ve entered an age where is funny. And the characters are weird. No, OK, if you haven’t seen the show, be They certainly had no illusion that Joe was the abnormal is the normal. Any lunatic can they’re insane. That’s the word that fi ts. It’s a warned: spoiler alert! anything other than a shameless, self-pro- aspire to any o ce, including the highest in nuthouse of colorfully kooky characters who Even if you haven’t seen it, you probably moting con man. the land. shamelessly pose for the camera, oblivious to know—it’s a seven-part documentary about Shamelessness, self-promotion, and con Is Joe more insane than Trump? Hard to how ridiculous they seem. people who love big cats (lions, tigers, and jobs are just some of the things Joe and say. Though last I heard, Joe had been put in It’s like they think they’re TV stars but they man-made hybrids like ligers) just a little too Trump have in common. These two are so isolation after another prisoner tested posi- don’t realize we’re really laughing at them. much. similar, it’s like they were separated at birth. tive for COVID-19. Like they’re not in on the joke—they don’t get If the show has a protagonist, it’s Joe Ex- They both have bad hair. They’ve each been Laugh all you want at Joe Exotic, but it that we’re superior to them. otic. In the Tiger King universe, he’s Donald through wretched marriages. At one point in at least he knows the pandemic is not a But having seen the fi nal episode I realize Trump—a bu oonish charismatic caricature the series, Joe, who’s gay, is married to two hoax. v that directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaik- of himself. The Hillary Clinton of Tiger King men who are not. It’s a long story. lin were on to something greater. Tiger King is Carole Baskin, Joe’s nemesis, in all her oily, OK, so at least Trump’s no polygamist. But @joravben ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 7 NEWS & POLITICS
roads, hospitals, schools, and fi re stations. Disaster response in the decades to come isn’t the only thing that could potentially be significantly impacted by a lower response rate on the 2020 census. So could our repre- sentation in Congress. Illinois is one of four The fi rst phase states which has seen its population decline of census survey since the 2010 census and is one of ten states completion that is projected to lose at least one seat in began as the virus was congressional representation as a result of the declared a 2020 census. “And if we don’t bring it, if we pandemic. don’t get all of our historically undercounted MARTIN SANCHEZ / populations counted in the next few months, UNSPLASH there’s a very real fear that we could lose that second seat and the federal dollars we rely on,” says Banerji. Illinois is currently ranked ninth in the country for census self-response, with more than 37.6 percent of our households counted. But Cook County has a lower rate of response than nearly all other counties in Illinois, ri- valed only by a few tracts on the southern and western edges of the state. As of April 6, 44.8 percent of Cook County residents had sent in CENSUS their self-responses by mail, phone, or online, Paulson, advocacy manager at Mujeres Latinas as compared to the 66.1 percent fi nal self-re- en Acción. “In the last week we’ve made over sponse rate in Cook County in 2010. How to count in a pandemic 1,400 calls.” In response to the spread of the coronavirus, Rather than putting census e orts on hold the United States Census Bureau has extended As some hunker down at home and others man the front lines of coronavirus as the city shuts down, community organi- the self-response period by 14 days, to August transmission, the census goes on. zations are doubling down as some residents 14, and has modifi ed and delayed many of its plan to spend the next few weeks socially planned survey e orts, as well as suspended By K M distanced in their homes and many of the all fi eld operations for now. city’s most vulnerable man the front lines of Organizations aren’t taking for granted that coronavirus transmission as delivery drivers, the census bureau’s measures will be enough ensus self-response opened on March 12. Illinois, had been coordinating a series of cen- warehouse workers, or grocery employees. For to get out the count in and of themselves. The next day, “we were in the full throttles sus ads with the Illinois Farm Bureau to air on many, this moment adds a new sense of urgen- “We’re working to ensure there are fl yers, Cof the health pandemic,” Anita Banerji radio when the city started to shut down. “But cy to the census issue. palm cards, and materials at grocery stores, of Forefront, a civic organization that coordi- what is their reach going to be now?” Scales “There are a lot of organizations that are community centers, clinics, and other essen- nates grantmakers and community nonprofi ts, asks. “People aren’t, you know, listening to the working double, triple time to make sure that tial locations that are likely to remain open,” recounts. radio on their way to work. There are census we get an accurate count,” says Inhe Choi, ex- says Patrick Laughlin from the Illinois Depart- On the 13th, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker ads on Michigan and Monroe and State and ecutive director of the HANA Center. “We see ment of Human Services. “And with so many announced statewide school closures through Monroe, but no one’s out. How do you see in the news how, as a state, we’re not receiving residents staying at home to slow the spread the end of the month, casinos and churches that?” even a percentage of materials that we’ve been of COVID-19, people are online more than ever. alike shuttered, and the Circuit Court of Cook At Pilsen’s Mujeres Latinas en Acción, plans asking for from the federal government for We are launching a robust marketing and mes- County declared a moratorium on evictions for census outreach were well underway when COVID. And so this is so, so important.” Be- saging campaign on social media platforms and foreclosures. the virus hit: weekly education efforts that cause this count will not truly be over until the like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Self-response is the first phase of census regularly reached hundreds at the Mexican end of this calendar year, current relief e orts Snapchat, and running commercials on in- survey completion, in which households mail consulate, Saturday morning canvassing trips will not be impacted by the upcoming census home streaming networks to reach hard-to- back their own census forms or voluntarily where promotoras (census outreach workers) count. But Choi is thinking ahead. “This infor- count populations at home.” complete the census by phone or e-mail. The and volunteers regularly knocked on over 700 mation will a ect us in the next epidemic or Others like Forefront and the Pilsen Neigh- census bureau then attempts to count all doors in a single morning, and one-on-one con- pandemic, our disaster response in the next bors Community Council are also choosing remaining households through a round of versations with community members. These ten years. It just feels extra heightened now, to distribute literature in lieu of face-to-face in-person outreach following the self-response have all been put on hold indefi nitely. more than it ever has been.” contact and are turning to virtual public deadline. During this period, there is a risk “We are still receiving a positive response According to the Illinois Department of forums like Facebook Live, digital town halls, and fear that many may be miscounted or through phone banking, but the lack of direct Human Services, even a 1 percent undercount and webinars. “There are a lot of people that missed altogether. contact and communication makes it chal- would result in the state losing $35 million in are watching TV more now than they ever have Lili Scales, advocacy director at CHANGE lenging to truly connect,” explains Monica federal funding for critical public services like before. So how do we get national ads? How do 8 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll #TVKUV9TKVGT NEWS & POLITICS 2GTHQTOGT! %4'#6+8' 51.76+105 (14 we get local ads onto streaming sites? How do homes rather than having to travel to distant %4'#6+8' 2'12.' we do more videos that we can share with our areas to knock on doors in the cold doesn’t 5WRRQTVKXG #HHKTOKPI CPF )QCN family and friends via texting?” asks Banerji. hurt either. Many volunteers feel calling about At Mujeres Latinas en Acción, census pro- the census helps them feel proactive in the &KTGEVGF 2U[EJQVJGTCR[ CPF motoras are starting at home, calling their face of ever-increasing uncertainty about the *[RPQVJGTCR[ HQT #FWNVU friends and family to spread the word about future and the inaccessibility of many other the census; the organization’s direct service volunteer opportunities in times of social /#: - 5*#2'; .%59 sta manning the organization’s hotline and distancing. .QECVGF KP &QYPVQYP 'XCPUVQP providing telecounseling to community mem- The new reality could also unexpectedly bers are also encouraging callers to fi ll out the benefit census response as younger people APR. 16 @ The Lincoln Lodge YYYOCZUJCRG[EQO THU census. are home from school and college and can help Late Night 5 But having these conversations can be hard family members for whom English is a second OCZUJCRG["CQNEQO when members of Chicago’s hard-to-count language or understanding of the census is NWG TQUU NWG 5JKGNF 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT KIPC 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT communities have already been thrust into low to fi ll out the survey. @ The Lincoln Lodge FRI APR. 17 instability as the virus spreads, with many But virtual communication can’t supplant Late Night 5 non-census concerns on their mind. Korean every instance of in-person gathering. Many Americans served by the HANA Center have organizations had planned to bring news of Chicago's Free Weekly APR. 19 @ District Brew Yards been impacted by the coronavirus already, as the census to church services or use libraries SUN many work cash-based jobs, are losing clean- as a way to promote online census completion Since 1971 Cheers with Beers Cupcake Class ing shifts, or are working overtime at grocers. to Chicago residents who do not have access “We can call to then just remind them that or- to WiFi, computers, and the Internet in their APR. 20 @ North Bar ganizations like United Way and the Chicago homes. That won’t be possible anymore. As a MON Monday Night Munchies: Community Trust are providing us with relief result, neighborhoods in which households A 420 Comedy Show funds for our communities, then remind them don’t have broadband access like West Engle- about the census. But it’s hard to push them in wood, Riverdale, Auburn Gresham, and South @ North Bar WED APR. 29 this moment, you know, when they are wor- Shore could be uniquely at risk of an under- Rich Vos ried about day-to-day,” says Choi. count this year. THE But she feels the HANA Center is positioned Additionally, many organizations working u @ Laugh Factory well to reach those who are least likely to be with vulnerable populations, like those expe- MAY 9 SAT Head Talks with Shane Mauss counted because of its dual role as a social riencing homelessness, are already working & Sophia Rokhlin service provider and community organizing overtime to provide their constituents with nonprofi t. This allowed them to utilize years basic services in response to the virus and @ North Bar of acquired organizing strategies, a robust have little time or manpower left over to de- SAT MAY 9 Marcella Arguello - Early Show infrastructure of organizers and a volunteer vote to census outreach. base, and multiple levels of leadership to “I think the assumption is people are home quickly organize a phone bank when door-to- and people don’t have anything to do, so it’s MAY 9 @ North Bar door canvassing became infeasible. a good time to call them and it’s a good time SAT Marcella Arguello - Late Show So far, the center has had success phone for them to fill out the census. I think that banking, where engagement has far surpassed is a tricky assumption because it relies on the usual cold-call conversation rate of 6–7 if they’re able to work from home, are they JUNE 6 @ Naperville Settlement SAT percent, doubling and tripling to reach closer essential, nonessential workers?” explains Naperville Soulfest 2020 to 20–21 percent. “The conversation rate that Scales. we’ve been having over the phone has been Even for those at home, it may not be possi- @ The Law Office Pub & Music Hall on par or higher than what we’ve been having ble to set the time aside to fi ll out the census THU JUNE 25 when we were engaging with people through when taking care of children who are home Mike & the Moonpies / Tim Gleason the door,” says Yujin Maeng, civic engagement due to school cancellations, trying to keep and data manager at the HANA Center. “And food on the table while practicing social dis- JULY 5 @ The Law Office Pub & Music Hall our phone banking conversations go longer, tancing, and adjusting to a new onslaught of SUN Esther Rose from my own experience talking to commu- webinars and conference calls throughout the nity members about the census. I definitely day. think part of it is that people are engaging Banerji is hopeful that people of all back- specifi cally with those they have already iden- grounds can come together to fill out the
tifi ed as the trusted messenger.” survey. “This is the one issue in Illinois that we in partnership with Phone banking volunteers have also in- rise and fall together as a state,” she says. “For chicagoreader.com/donate creased, as callers may have more fl exibility many of us, it is hard to look past today. But we We Couldn't Be Free Without You— with their own time as employers turn to need to look to tomorrow.” v Support Community Journalism to add your event to TIXREADER COM, work-from-home arrangements. The fact that email [email protected] callers can canvass from the comfort of their @kiranamisra ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 9 NEWS & POLITICS
Among the people on the Zoom call: representatives of corporate landlords, mom- and-pop operators, Realtor lobbyists, and former alderman Joe Moore. ZOOM landlording influencer Brandon Turner at biggerpockets.com. Turner’s fi ve-point plan advises landlords to have a plan, empathize with tenants, explain that rent is still due, inform them about their options (such as fi ling unemployment claims or paying with a credit card), and if all else fails to institute an “emergency rent deferral program,” allowing tenants to pay whatever they can and agree- ing to repay the rest in installments over sev- eral months. Turner cautioned, however, that tenants shouldn’t be told about the program as an option before the landlord is totally sure that they can’t come up with full rent. As the fi rst of the month approached, and more than 130,000 Illinoisans filed unem- ployment claims, tenants across Chicago began to receive notices from landlords and property management companies that seemed to be following Turner’s suggestions. Some reminded tenants that their rents make buildings habitable: “Our building [sic] must continue to be fully functional and provide essential services for the residents. This requires a dependable stream of rent,” wrote sometimes this virus hits in clusters and if it Cagan Management in an e-mail to tenants. HOUSING hits one person in your staff and you’re not Others, like TLC Management Company, protected it could hit the rest of your sta¢ and reminded tenants that property management then you’re talking about decimation of your workers’ livelihoods depend on these rents: Landlords Zoom, tenants strike business. We all know that good help is hard “The people at your community are dedicated to fi nd, so all of a sudden you lose a couple of to serving you and your building,” the compa- A leaked video chat reveals the city’s landlords are concerned over staff people on your sta¢ —it could really put you ny wrote in an e-mail to tenants. “Any delay “decimation” and the optics of “stepping” on tenants. back in a very critical time.” or non-paying of your rent will cause great Another landlord on the call, Sandeep hardship to them, which we all do not want.” By M D Sood of Nautilus Property Management, said “It is tempting, in moments of panic, to he’d instituted safety protocols for workers adopt a ‘get mine’ fi rst strategy, and let others at his buildings. “We scaled back nonemer- fend for themselves,” wrote Mac Properties in mong the thousands, perhaps millions, tion, and Chicagoland Apartment Association gency work orders. Instead we’re working on an e-mail as its tenants in Hyde Park report- of Zoom video-chat meetings that trans- shared their concerns and strategies to deal maintenance and health and safety repairs,” edly contemplated a rent strike. “We have Apired across the locked-down country on with rent losses. he said. “I split up my sta¢ so people aren’t developed a procedure for residents unable to March 26, one was convened for Chicago land- “I would not prepare for this to be over in working together as much. I prohibited group pay rent due to extreme situations such as job lords. Some 150 participants tuned in through- a week or two,” said Eiran Feldman of InSite lunches which they typically like to do.” Sood loss or business closure to contact us. We will out the session, including corporate property Realty, a multifamily landlord with proper- added that it’s been impossible to stock up on work with each resident individually, accord- managers, mom-and-pop operators, and even ties mostly in South Shore who moderated the masks, gloves, and surface cleaners. ing to personal circumstance.” former 49th Ward alderman Joe Moore. Two meeting over the video-chat service. “Man- The landlords also discussed how to com- Some landlords offered suggestions for local groups representing landlords, the South agement companies and property owners municate with tenants in an empathetic man- tenants for fi nding needed funds. “Please look Side Community Investors Association and are on the front line of what’s going on and ner, even as they faced potential rent losses. into unemployment or parents or relatives the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance, we’re an essential service. So I think it’s very “Now it’s even more critical to make sure the to help make ends meet,” A. Saccone & Sons called the meeting for south-side landlords in critical to educate ourselves on what are the tenants don’t feel that you’re just stepping wrote to tenants in an e-mail. “We ask that particular to discuss the impact of the novel dos and don’ts and make sure to keep our sta¢ on them,” Feldman said. “I can tell you we’re you all explore all options available such coronavirus pandemic. In a recording of the safe and also our families.” doing wellness calls and just going around as unemployment insurance, the hopeful- meeting obtained by the Reader, investors, Feldman also highlighted the potential and calling a batch of tenants every day to ly-to-come federal payments as well as alter- property managers, and representatives from effect of the virus on building management make sure everybody’s OK.” native employment in ‘Essential Business and groups such as the Chicago Association of workers. “We want to make sure our staff He encouraged the others to do the same, Operation’. Some major companies have put Realtors, Community Investment Corpora- doesn’t get wiped out,” he said. “You see how as well as consider suggestions published by out calls for employees. Amazon and Walmart 10 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll NEWS & POLITICS
city enact a rent freeze and activists have (some of whom have also lost their income) called on Governor J.B. Pritzker to use his they sent a letter to their landlord “to say, executive authority to repeal the 1997 Rent here’s our situation: we ask that you waive Control Preemption Act, reminding him that April 1 rent, freeze all late fees, pledge not to he voiced support for lifting this ban while file any evictions, and a guaranteed option campaigning in 2018. to renew our lease.” The last demand was “There’s currently in state law a morato- made to protect tenants from having to move rium on rent control so that’s not something during the pandemic, they explained. that under an executive order I can overturn,” The landlord’s response “was not good,” Ja- Pritzker said in his daily press conference on zeera said. “He went for the divide-and-con- March 31. Lifting the ban would still require quer approach: everyone’s situation is di er- legislative action in both houses of the Illinois ent, everyone talk to me individually, but rent General Assembly, which is currently not in is still due.” Jazeera said the neighbors intend session. The governor did remind landlords to continue negotiating with the landlord as a that they could expect lawsuits for trying group. to evict health-care workers at this time. There have been reports of smaller land- During her press conference on April 1, Chi- lords offering rent breaks to their tenants cago Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked landlords to and it’s not clear how many rent strikes are show “grace” and forgive April rents “if at all being attempted around Chicago. It will take possible.” a few days before court records about new The tone of landlords’ messages, as well as eviction fi lings become available. Some of the the assumption that tenants can easily get landlords in the March 26 Zoom meeting were other jobs or have relatives whom they can already anticipating organizing efforts like ask for help, has riled up many renters around Rome and Jazeera’s. the city. “The advocates that are more on the fringe “A lot of landlords are e-mailing us the of the usual rent control discussions that we same things,” said Kal Jazeera, a comedian monitor on a daily basis as part of our SHAPE and teaching artist who recently lost all the Illinois campaign are calling for rent strikes,” freelance gigs they rely on for income and is Tom Benedetto, a lobbyist for the Chicago- co-organizing a rent strike in Edgewater with land Apartment Association, said during the filmmaker Jordan Rome, who’s now unem- meeting. Though he dismissed the potential ployed after being laid o from an Old Town popularity of this idea, he advised the group restaurant. “Our landlords are acting like this to “be on the lookout for that kind of messag- is easy money, but I’ve been on unemployment ing and send me an e-mail if you’re hearing before and it took like three weeks just for my anything from your tenants in particular
Flyers calling for a rent strike began appearing around Edgewater at the end of March. MAYA DUKMASOVA application to be processed, let alone for me to about those rent strikes or rent abatements.” get a check.” Jazeera added that currently the As the meeting concluded, Kris Anderson state is so overwhelmed with claims that the of the Chicago Association of Realtors re- are two examples,” Evanston-based Newgard minor compared to homelessness. Illinois Department of Employment Securi- minded the landlords that optics are more Partners wrote in a letter to tenants. In the waning days of March, signs calling ty’s website keeps crashing and it’s nearly im- important than ever at this time. “We’re The $2 trillion stimulus package passed by on tenants not to pay their rent appeared on possible to get through to the agency on the concerned about calls for rent strikes and the federal government includes aid targeting deserted streets and on social media. “Ten- phone. Landlords’ expectations are “pretty rent abatement,” he said. “Depending on one property owners, such as interest-free mort- ants keep your rent, Landlords keep your unrealistic,” they said. “Like someone who’s or two bad apples or a Block Club article about gage payment forbearance (which won’t hurt distance,” some declared, depicting a person clearly never had to apply for government one guy that’s hardhanded with his tenants, borrowers’ credit histories) and foreclosure with a face mask inscribed with the words assistance.” this might get traction. There’s discussions moratoriums. There are eviction protections “Rent Strike.” Online tool kits began to circu- Rome said she’s unable to pay rent for April at the city level about things such as tenant for tenants, too, but all of these measures late to help people organize tenant councils in and is willing to risk an eviction fi ling on her protections and that includes giving people apply only to properties financed by feder- their buildings and formally request reduc- record because she has no other choice. “At more than their standard 30 days to move out ally backed loans or to federally subsidized tions or suspensions of rent charges. A vir- this point I don’t have time to worry about and maybe extending that to 60 or 90 days. housing. Direct cash assistance from the tual town hall convened by the Autonomous that,” she said. “Despite any federal relief that That would include things like relocation fees. government could still take weeks to arrive. Tenants Union drew more than 6,000 views may be coming or that the city is providing, None of this is in writing, none of this is cod- Though no eviction court proceedings or en- and four hours of testimonials from renters it’s still not sustainable. People’s studio or ified, none of this is introduced as of today, forcement will occur in Cook County through who’ve lost income due to government-man- one-bedroom is $800–$900, plus any bills, but when you talk to your fellow landlords tell at least May 18, landlords can still fi le eviction dated isolation. any food, all those expenses are going to put them: you do not want to be the poster child cases. Even if cases are ultimately dismissed, The years-long campaign to lift the people in a really tough position.” for this legislation moving forward. Show these fi lings can hurt tenants’ future ability statewide ban on rent control has attracted Jazeera lives in a four-fl at and has a land- compassion in these circumstances.” v to rent and show up on their credit histories. renewed attention, too. More than 16,000 lord whose identity they didn’t want to dis- For many renters, however, these risks seem people have signed a petition demanding the close. After organizing with their neighbors @mdoukmas ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 11 VINCENT NEWS & POLITICS RESTAURANT | ANDERSONVILLE, CHICAGO COMIDA! Packaged meals available for FREE for pick-up Suggested donation to benefit industry workers
1475 W. BALMORAL AVE. NEWS Visit vincentchicago.com or find Vincent Restaurant on Facebook for schedules, menus, and other details Signer of the times Michael Albert’s in the spotlight, but he wants us to know more about Chicago Hearing Society’s services. By K R
andemic celebrity is a weird thing—any- Lydia Callis, who interpreted for then-Mayor one who isn’t a raging sociopath doesn’t Michael Bloomberg when New York City was ANDERSONVILLE UPDATES Prelish the idea of becoming famous under siege from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and subsequently became the subject of a SUPPORTING OUR BUSINESS COMMUNITY for doing their job in the midst of a global catastrophe. But for Michael Albert, the last Saturday Night Live sketch starring Cecily IN THE WEEKS TO COME couple of weeks have brought a tsunami of Strong as Callis. Marlee Matlin, the deaf media attention. As the American Sign Lan- actor who won an Oscar for her performance andersonville.org/updates guage interpreter for Governor J.B. Pritzker in 1986’s Children of a Lesser God, took ex- and Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s press conferences ception to the sketch on Twitter. “Millions of on the COVID-19 crisis, Albert caught the eye deaf people use sign. Why poke fun/fake it? of everyone from Tribune columnist Heidi Ste- Poke fun at ME but not the language. Would vens to WGN Radio’s John Williams to WBBM they do that to Spanish or Chinese? FAIL,” Newsradio. (There is a video of him signing she wrote. “coronavirus” on the WBBM website.) He also And there are also, as Albert tells me, became a hot topic of conversation on social “interpreters who aren’t really interpreters media, and I’m willing to bet that if Halloween who achieve notoriety because they’re doing actually happens this year, somebody will go so poorly.” Example: Thamsanqa Jantjie, the as Albert. interpreter who signed while standing next I know Albert socially—we have a mutual to President Obama and other dignitaries friend who hosts a fabulous Labor Day bar- at the 2013 funeral of former South African becue and a New Year’s Day open house every president Nelson Mandela. His work was year. (Turns out, we also both did some act- dismissed by (among many others) Wilma ing with Andy Dick in our college days; me at Newhoudt-Druchen, the fi rst deaf woman to Columbia College Chicago, Albert at the Uni- be elected to the South African parliament, versity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where as “rubbish.” he fi rst studied ASL.) As he has been careful to point out in all the As he pointed out to Stevens, interpreters interviews he’s done, Albert reminds me that don’t often take the spotlight; an exception is he is himself not deaf, and the attention paid 12 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll “STANDS AT THE UNICORN-RARE INTERSECTION NEWS & POLITICS OF MESMERIZING AND INDISPENSABLE” – Chicago Reader
Michael Albert at a press conference for cussions.” Those can take an emotional toll. WATCH FROM HOME! Governor Pritzker. FOX “My father had died about a year before,” says Albert, recalling one such discussion. “I REMOTE VIEWING to him “gets problematic. And the reason it remember leaving that room and calling my PERFORMANCES gets problematic is because this language is brother and crying.” NOW AVAILABLE not our language, the interpreter’s language. As for the attention that interpreters get It is the language of the Deaf community.” for their own perceived emotionality while LIMITED AVAILABILITY (Albert notes that “people who are members working, Albert says, “It’s always our goal NOW – APRIL 19 of what we consider Deaf culture prefer it be as an interpreter to match our speaker in spelled with a capital ‘D.’”) a ect in addition to active interpretation of Albert has worked as an ASL interpreter content.” For Lightfoot, Albert describes her with the Chicago Hearing Society for over 20 style as “very matter of fact. What you see years. CHS was founded in 1916, and accord- is what you get with her. So yeah, I think we ing to its website, its original mission was try to embody something of the speaker in CHICAGO PREMIERE “promotion of social intercourse among its our interpretation to the extent that we can. members” along with providing “assistance The information at these press conferences for the deaf and hard of hearing in the matter involves factual kinds of stuff for the most of procuring and retaining employment,” part, although Governor Pritzker has become and “promotion of an interest in lip-reading.” emotional in his anger at the president and in by JAMES IJAMES directed by WARDELL JULIUS CLARK Michelle Mendiola, manager of community his anger at the federal government’s lack of outreach and advocacy for CHS, notes that response.” the current mission for the organization is Albert also says, “I think the media, the spread among three groups: the audiology visual media, has become much more aware 773.281.8463 TIMELINETHEATRE.COM services department; interpreter services, than I’ve ever seen before through this crisis. where Albert works; and her department, The interpreters need to be in the frame the which encompasses everything from assis- entire time. Usually what happens is the TV tance with taxes to helping deaf and hard [camera] will pan out and show the interpret- of hearing people who have been victims of er, but then they’ll focus again on the speaker, domestic violence and identity theft. They they’ll come out again for a minute, and then also o er youth programs and assistance for go back in. And in this crisis, they’ve been parents of children with hearing loss. staying on the interpreter the entire time.” The COVID-19 shutdown has a ected how That commitment to full and e ective com- CHS provides those services, but they are munication with the deaf and hard of hearing still assisting clients; for example, clients should always be present, but the current who use hearing aids can still drop them o pandemic raises the stakes. Mendiola notes for repair through the audiology department, that it’s important for service providers to and audiologists are still available through know what their clients who are deaf or hard appointment. Mendiola adds, “Our COA sta of hearing require ahead of time, whether it’s transitioned to virtual communication [with an ASL interpreter or extra time to make sure clients] through e-mail, videophone, texting, that the client has received all the informa- FaceTime, Google Duo, as much as possible. If tion they need. it requires, for example, [going to] court, we “We do, for example, get a lot of complaints will meet the client in person.” that [health-care facilities] don’t provide Providing interpreters for medical ap- interpreters for COVID-19, and it’s kind of pointments is also one of the services CHS sticky,” says Mendiola. “We do have some offers. Mendiola says, “We have one client interpreters who are willing to be on standby who was impacted by COVID-19. They had if needed. But it’s important that the hearing not tested for whether they had it or not, be- people—the doctors, the health-care provid- cause they were not high risk. But the client ers, social providers—meet the deaf commu- is very concerned, and we gave them all the nication needs.” v information in American Sign Language and explained what they need to do to stay To request an interpreter or to inquire about quarantined.” other services available through CHS, call 773- Although Albert has not yet interpreted 248-9121 or 773-904-0154 (videophone), or for any families facing decisions around visit chicagohearingsociety.org. COVID-19, he says that he has been present for “things like funerals and end-of-life dis- @kerryreid ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 13 ARTS & CULTURE
COMMUNITY Sheltering in a collapsed place Or, why basement wet bars just won’t do. By B S
s Chicagoans grapple with the new re- Fox-News-viewing “It’s just the flu!” true and how it works, has shattered. ago, places seem out of joint. ality of the COVID-19 pandemic and the believers, we fear that the virus will sicken, This fragmentation might be especially true My mantra for analyzing place comes from Aradical restrictions which public health or kill, us, our loved ones, our families, and in regards to food and drink: hot dog stands, Yi-Fu Tuan, a geographer/philosopher, who requirements have put on the places in which friends. Government orders that everyone ex- taquerias, cafes, diners, restaurants, and bars wrote: “What begins as undifferentiated we live, work, and play, it makes sense to step cept essential workers stay home and shelter are all either closed or limited to to-go and space becomes place as we get to know it back and ponder some aspects of what makes in place has transformed the interlocking mo- delivery orders. The food might be the same, better and endow it with values.” Or, to reduce the situation such an emotional and psycho- saic of private, semipublic, and public places and the drink to go too; but it feels di¢ erent it to a shorthand equation, space plus values logical challenge. that define Chicago, from our homes to our (and it is di¢ erent) to pay with proper social equals place. S + V = P. Just in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re all restaurants to our lakefront parks. distance and eat your meal at home. Haunted Thanks to COVID-19, the values that de- more than a bit freaked out. Except for the Our sense of place, and where we fi t into it by the social conviviality of just a few weeks fine our places (perhaps especially places 14 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll ARTS & CULTURE
CORNELIA LI with low standards for entry (you usually do gotta spend some money, but not necessarily a lot). There are established communities like restaurants and bars), and distinctions (regulars) who are open to new people joining between different sorts of places have been their group. Third Places provide literal and obliterated. Our accustomed habits of moving metaphysical sustenance, food for the body every day through places that have di erent and nourishment for the socializing soul. sets of values (emotional, financial, and In COVID-19 Chicago, we are locked out of WE ARE ONE. psychological) are done for the foreseeable the Third Place. future. This situation creates cognitive dissonance, ONE COMMUNITY, ONE CITY. The other key thinker to bring in here is so- as demonstrated by lots of the things people ciologist Ray Oldenburg. To oversimplify the are doing to cope and sharing on social media. argument of his classic The Great Good Place, Setting up a cute little desk in your house or we divide the urban world into three kinds of apartment that’s designated your Work Space For now, we embrace shelter-in-place. place, each of which (back to Tuan) emphasiz- just draws an imaginary line distinguishing a But we’ll dance together again soon. es a di erent set of values. Second Place within the First Place. Home is the First Place. It’s private, and That distinction might function adequate- where our relationships with other people ly, but it’s much tougher to recreate Third In our studios and far beyond. are defi ned by family ties: even for the many Places: we can Zoom a happy hour drink with When the time is right. people who live alone, our sense of a home is friends, but it’s planned and fundamentally emotionally defi ned by parents and children, different. Any Zoom meeting is a singular AND THE CITY HAS WON. or larger extended families, or lovers. Home conversation: one person talking, the rest is the place we start our days, and where we listening or waiting to talk. Put six people at (usually) end them. It’s where we keep all our the end of a bar, and you might have three Be well, stu . We shape our First Places to refl ect who di erent one-on-one conversations running The Joffrey Ballet Community we are. at once, or one four-person conversation, In the world of late capitalism, of course, we one guy doing the crossword, and a third just spend more time in our Second Place: work. In staring meditatively into the middle distance. those mostly semipublic spaces, relationships Virtual bars necessarily lack many of the joys between people exist primarily in economic of actual Third Places: running into an old pal terms. No matter how much you might love unexpectedly, or having some random person your job, it’s still someplace you have to go, to turn out to be pretty insightful about sports, make the money our system demands of you theater, or politics. Virtual connections along (to pay for your First Place and all the stu in established lines don’t allow for new connec- it). We shape our homes; our jobs shape us. tions to spontaneously grow. Right now, our stay-at-home/work-from- In effect, our access to Third Places has home (unless you’re essential) reality oblit- been reduced to that saddest of First Place erates this distinction between First and renovations, the basement wet bar. It might Second Places. The values of home (solitude, physically resemble a real tavern, with a pol- intimacy, relaxation, rest, connecting with ished bartop, a genuine brass footrail, solid loved ones) now must accommodate the barstools, coasters boosted from local bars, contradictory values of work (groups, hier- shiny restaurant-supply-house accoutre- archies, professional distance, tasks to be ments and glassware, framed sports memora- completed). bilia, and even a neon or two. But even worse, our current crisis prevents But it’s still in your home and so private us from accessing the vital Third Places that rather than public, part of your First Place in so many ways make life in a big city worth rather than a Third Place. And during the living. COVID-19 Stay-Home-Save-Lives world, it’s Third Places are where you go and form your Second Place too. communities based not on familial or eco- Right now, Chicago feels like a shoddily nomic relationships, but on some common constructed three-story concrete-and-brick interest, usually with people you don’t work building that has pancaked in an earthquake. with and aren’t related to. Cafes, diners, We’re all confi ned to the basement, trying to restaurants, and bars are all places where we function under the rubble as though we still embrace a psychological and physical frame- had access to all three fl oors. v work, a set of values, distinct from those at Joffrey Artist Jeraldine Mendoza and ensemble. Photo by Cheryl Mann. work or home. They are semipublic spaces, @RogersParkMan ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 15 ARTS & CULTURE
“Disintegration/The Cure” COURTESY MARY GRING
than each student reaching out independent- ly,” Cook says. Social Distance Gallery is a one-person project. “There has been a steady stream of submissions,” says Cook, “but I have it under control now.” It’s difficult for some artists to even know if their show will go on or not. “Some students’ shows are not scheduled for a few weeks. I expect things to pick up soon. There have been a number of people reach out and offer help if things get overwhelming.” And given Chicago’s shelter-in-place order, Cook may have his hands full soon. Mary Gring, originally from South Bend, In- diana, is currently pursuing an interdisciplin- ary art and media MFA from Columbia College Chicago where her oeuvre in performance, video, projection, and sculpture focuses on health, illness, and self-care. She and her cohort of six other artists at Columbia make a wide range of work: paper, books, digital illustrations, design, performance, and rituals. They all entered graduate school together in September 2017. For now, the group is slated to still graduate in May. Their thesis exhibition was scheduled to be on display at Columbia College’s Glass Curtain Gallery in the last week of April. “Everything is uncertain right now, and I think my cohort is in disbelief; this is cer- VIS ARTS tainly not how we pictured our last semester of graduate school, an already stressful and draining few years,” Gring says. The cohort Social Distance Gallery highlights student artists feels even more anxious about postgraduate plans as the pandemic has contributed to How canceled BFA and MFA shows are persisting during the COVID crisis. closures, layo¢ s, and artists feeling lost. But Gring says that she understands the circum- By S N L stances. “Though these delays and cancella- tions are inconvenient and disappointing, the only thing we can and should do is prioritize the health and safety of ourselves and our t’s been more than a week since the shelter- that is COVID living. professor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati neighbors. If that means our thesis show and in-place order. But even before the order Museums like the Art Institute of Chicago where all shows have been subsequently can- graduation are postponed or canceled, so be Iwas given, art galleries and museums had are offering interactive features for objects celed. Other schools have either completely it.” been connecting virtually with viewers for like this West African headdress for dance and canceled or rescheduled, or have limited their After a near-fatal car accident in 2016 left upwards of two weeks. Most went on hiatus this carousel horse. People are getting cre- access. Artists are depleted, having spent a Gring in a wheelchair for four months—and and began canceling events in order to pro- ative fi guring out how to stay connected and, year—or years—working toward a show that has subsequently played a major role in her tect those tempted to gather in large crowds ultimately, how to entertain and serve the iso- won’t come to fruition. life contributing to chronic pain and fatigue— (and as we have learned, Chicagoans are very lated country. Gallery Victor Armendariz has How does an online-only gallery like Cook’s her creative practice reflects her experience tempted). This unfortunately includes a large introduced a virtual program to bring artists work? With more than 16,000 followers, pro- with mental illness and her disability. Gring’s number of students who were planning to to your inbox. fessors submit the work for their students via thesis project, “Disintegration/The Cure,” is a present their thesis work in exhibitions. Grad- Benjamin Cook, a painter based in Coving- a website in the bio of the gallery’s Instagram multimedia installation that looks at self-care uating during a pandemic probably wasn’t in ton, Kentucky, started @SocialDistanceGal- account. Students can also decide to submit on through creative methods. She fi lmed herself their adult-life plan, and their employment, lery around three weeks ago as a response behalf of their class. “Because I [have] such a taking a shower through an endoscope cam- living situations, and well-being are at risk as to the BFA and MFA thesis exhibitions being high level of response, I am asking that schools era, which she encased within a bar of soap, in they propel themselves into the new reality canceled around the globe. Cook is an adjunct submit their entire shows as a group rather order to explore her compulsive behaviors. She 16 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll ARTS & CULTURE NOW ONLINE! Through April 26 only
utilized dye, mica, and glitter to create 2,000 a feeling of solidarity which I am enjoying. I bars of soap, which are displayed with the fi lm set up a Slack channel for the grad students to and a scented sculptural installation. Gring hang out and talk (about non-school related says the piece “invites viewers to confront the stu ) [sic] which has been nice too.” intimate, honest realities of illness, coping, Martinez’s program isn’t solely focused on and physicality in a way that could seemingly the precariousness of their thesis show, how- swallow them whole. Who knew making 2,000 ever. Instead, the issue lies in critique week, bars of soap would be so relevant?” where in-person studio visits with faculty Gring’s professors and administrators at are conducted to evaluate the students’ prog- Columbia have been reaching out to students, ress. “Most communication is done through reassuring them, and encouraging them in e-mails, although I’ve spoken on the phone/ SCHOOL GIRLS; positive ways—an imperative part of society video chatted with some advisors/mentors right now. Courses are still being discussed to and the professor that I am a TA for.” OR, THE AFRICAN be moved online but much of the planning has Universities and colleges have been dras- been di cult, especially in a school for art stu- tically disrupted, with thousands of students MEAN GIRLS PLAY dents, who take studio-based courses. Gring’s forced to evacuate campuses, and are at a By Jocelyn Bioh, Directed by Lili-Anne Brown professors are learning how to cope, too. They loss for how to continue classes. Graduation, are reaching out to artists all over the country future plans, and housing have all become Stream this “nasty-teen comedy, wonderfully refreshed and through Facebook (specifi cally a group called serious concerns alongside safety, health, and deepened” (The New York Times) from the comfort of your home! Online Art & Design Studio Instruction in the well-being. Age of “Social Distancing”) and are learning Gring says her mental illness and physical GoodmanTheatre.org/StreamSchoolGirls how to work remotely. disability already make life di cult and that Yvonne Martinez, a fi ber and material stud- the pandemic has affected her anxiety and ies student, was slated to graduate from SAIC pain. Nevertheless, she’s hopeful as she con- Major Corporate Sponsor Corporate Sponsor Partners with her MFA this spring. Martinez owns most tinues to make work at home during self-iso- of her equipment and has been able to work lation. “If school has taught me anything, it’s remotely in a makeshift studio in her room in that making art will never be more important Logan Square. Martinez has been taking her than my own well-being. And that’s okay.” work to Twitch, where she is livestreaming “Everyone is going through a similar thing,” Chicago's Free Weekly Since 1971 herself with her physical fi ber materials. For Cook says. “Self-isolation has been strange. Martinez’s original idea for the MFA thesis The lack of information and clear messaging show, she was going to present large knitted has made things a bit scary. We are in the early THE pieces with an accompanying performance stages of this and the long-term e ects are yet u during the opening. “I use a hacked knitting to be seen. I am just taking things one day at machine to generate large pieces of fabric with a time. I am trying to stay informed, working screenshots and images from my computer on this project, and rewriting my syllabi to re- desktop on them,” she says. In self-isolation, fl ect a new, remote teaching schedule.” On the she says, “I’m developing a web application positive side, Cook’s family is healthy and he’s where the audience of the performance would been able to spend more time with his partner be able to submit text/imagery in real time to and two dogs. me and watch as I print the images out using “If you feel like you can’t make work, it’s my knitting machine. I would be streaming okay to rest,” advises Martinez. “Take a bath, the whole thing on Twitch at the same time, so do some yoga, go for a walk, call a friend/fami- my online audience could participate as well.” ly member, eat some ice cream. We should take Martinez’s interests lie in blending the digital time to do things that make us feel good and experience with the physical world, which not feel guilty about it.” makes her practice in isolation continue with Right now many MFA and BFA students ease. “While most of this can and does exist have their hands tied. They aren’t sure wheth- online, the audience participation and transla- er they will graduate or if their thesis shows tion into the physical world is important, and will go on as planned. Like the rest of the I don’t want that to be missing from my thesis world, it’s a game of wait and see. All plans will show.” be uncertain for the foreseeable future, which For Martinez, it’s difficult to keep up with means accounts like Social Distance Gallery the onslaught of news from the school’s will become more prevalent as artists contin- chicagoreader.com/donate administration and students. Every day ue to create in the comfort of their homes and that passes may mark a new decision for the look for virtual outlets. v We Couldn't Be Free Without You— school. “I hope the conversation remains open and [as] compassionate as it has been. There’s @snicolelane Support Community Journalism ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 17 ARTS & CULTURE
keting and social media after graduating from Columbia College in 2018. Moreno, who also graduated from Columbia with a degree in graphic design in 2018, says the experience was frustrating, but it pushed the two millennials to brainstorm ways to get their project o the ground on their own terms. It has allowed her to continue design- ing when she’s not working as a community health worker at Mujeres Latinas en Acción, a nonprofi t serving Latinas. Originally a magazine called Aspiring Latinas, Moreno says, the project was transformed into a podcast—with the name change—because it seemed like a more inclu- sive, fun, and dynamic platform to engage its subjects and audience. Editorial content still Emily Santos and Jocelyn Moreno COURTESY THE ARTISTS lives online, the founders say, where they post pictures, quotes, and transcriptions of their PODCAST podcast episodes for those who cannot speak both languages. Breaking the stereotypical Latino storyline “If we were to have the name how it was, A new bilingual podcast puts a microphone to the local Latinx community. we would be taking away that part of every person to tell their own identity and you never By A P -A want to strip that away from anyone,” Moreno says. “Let someone say who they are before you even say it for them because as Latinos, veryone has a podcast. Even your dog as more of an umbrella term but is also one of we are constantly told who we are.” has a podcast. But when it comes to di- debate among Latinos; the show tackles this Santos and Moreno are both first-gener- Eversity, it’s no surprise that white people di cult conversation to educate Latinos and ation college graduates, a big deal for them dominate the platform. According to 2018 non-Latinos alike. She wants to highlight the and their families. But without aspiring role data from Edison Research, 59 percent of U.S. ethnic diversity and represent how language models in their community, both founders say podcast listeners were white—only 12 percent plays a role in identity—or how it doesn’t. it wasn’t until college that they found their were Black and 11 percent were Latinx. While “[Being Latinx] doesn’t mean that you need confidence and passions. For Santos, that is podcasting continues to rapidly grow, its di- to be fl uent. It doesn’t mean that you need to the underlying inspiration for Aspiring Latinx. versity and accessibility are slowly catching be born in your country,” she says. “There’s “I really do believe if you don’t see any of that up. so many di erent meanings and takes to what representation, it’s really hard to envision Aspiring Latinx, a new Chicago bilingual being a Latino is. And so that’s where we want- what you can be,” she says. podcast officially debuting May 1 (its intro ed to go and just have real conversations about Reflecting on the yearlong hard work, the episode dropped last week), aims to combat what it actually is to be a person in this time.” founders say they are in it for the long haul. those low numbers and give the local Latinx The six episodes bounce between English, They plan to expand the podcast through other community a seat at the podcast table. Meant Spanish, and Spanglish, depending on the avenues and assured me there will be a season to “break the stereotypical storyline,” Aspir- language that is most comfortable for their in- two. For now, they are happy to revel in season ing Latinx tells the stories of everyday Latinx terviewees and the topics. Guests like commu- one and hope to bring diversity and change to Chicagoans from different perspectives, nity and political organizers, health workers, the Latinx community by reaching people who industries, and identities to build community, and artists discuss race, ethnicity, colorism, might not usually listen to podcasts. empower one another, and accurately repre- identity in the workplace, and the importance “It’s not gonna happen one day to another, sent the community in the media. of being a role model to younger generations. but I think just bringing in as many people “The goal is to have a platform that brings Aspiring Latinx was born after a disap- who are usually not part of projects like this Providing arts coverage together the Latinx community because I feel pointing internship experience that squashed will get people to start listening,” Moreno like there’s such a disconnect with Latinx in creative expectations for Santos and her says. “We want to create a platform where we in Chicago since 1971. terms of generations,” says Emily Santos, co- cofounder and cohost Jocelyn Moreno—one have this connection with people and we invite founder and cohost of the podcast. where they were treated poorly because of people to always connect with us. If there’s Santos wants to make sure the podcast is in- their ethnicity. “We were more of a second anything they want to hear, or if they want us clusive for people who do not identify simply thought, and there more for administration to put certain people on, we really want this as Latino or Latina, an identity which she says and cleaning duties versus me being the social project to be as close to home as possible.” v www.chicagoreader.com is confusing within the community itself due media person and Jocelyn being a graphic to a lack of understanding. “Latinx” is seen designer,” says Santos, who now works in mar- @ArielParrella 18 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll THEATER
DANCING ONLINE Pe Modelski A veteran dancer since her fi rst contract job in Terence Marling the Royal Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty at the age Among those teaching online today is Chicago of six, Pe¢ Modelski moved seamlessly from native Terence Marling, who trained at Ruth Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway to teaching Page Center for the Arts and performed at six or seven days a week at STEPS on Broad- Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Nationaltheater way. “I’ve been teaching for over 45 years,” Mannheim in Germany before returning to she says of a career that has allowed her to dance with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, impart a technique designed to prevent injury where he has also worked as rehearsal direc- and build somatic awareness to generations tor and director for Hubbard Street 2. Last of professional dancers, choreographers, and fall, Marling launched Common Conservatory directors. Now 74, Modelski, who has taught at the Menomonee Club for Boys and Girls, in Chicago for the past 12 years, is another which he describes as “a dojo for dance, for pioneer in online dance instruction. young dancers seeking their way in the pro- “People who had trained with me said, ‘I fessional world.” want to hear your voice. I need your class.’ “I have been in a dance studio every day for When somebody asks me for help, I never 34 years,” says Marling, “actually longer—I say no,” she says. But the technology posed a used to watch my mom [dancer Clare Car- challenge to Modelski, who relies on eye con- michael, who founded Chicago Ballet Arts] tact and touch to connect with her students. in class from the age of two.” Today Marling “I did an awful lot of learning in three days. I continues the tradition from his living room, watched about twelve hours of instructional where he streams a ballet warm-up over In- videos. Finally, two dancers I’ve known for stagram Live (@common.conservatory) six 40-something years got online and walked me days a week at 11 AM. “I thought, ‘You know through until I was able. I used to do that with what, I’ve got to do a barre every day, and ev- them, so it was wonderful to make a 40-year eryone’s got to do a barre!’ So I decided to put Möbius loop like that.” it out there, because what’s stopping us from Of her experience teaching over Facebook Peff Modelski COURTESY OF THE ARTIST doing at least that much?” Live, she says, “I was talking to an empty Uncertain of what teaching to a screen room for an hour—I’m either an actress or a would feel like or who would participate, Mar- madwoman! But being able to connect with so ling launched his experiment on March 16. To many people and receive their feedback was DANCE his surprise, over 60 dancers tuned in the fi rst wonderful.” day. “I thought, OK, if there are going to be 60 “This version of the world is temporary,” people here, and they’re doing some tendus, she continues. “It requires an enormous Dancing alone together this actually feels important.” The numbers amount of inconvenient maturity from many shot up as the week progressed, far more people, including me. When we are again Chicago dancers fi gure out how to create in isolation. than would fi t into a studio—60 to 90 to 150 to in a position when we can gather together, 200—dancers not only from Chicago but from the same thing will happen that happened By I H around the world seeking regular practice. two days after 9/11: the studio is going to be “As dancers, we need movement,” Marling packed. But for now, take a deep breath, have ances are made in time and space, a min- and living rooms. Dancers are dancing with says. “It’s not something we do because we a good lunch, learn a new platform.” ute or an hour in a dancer’s life never to cats and children running through the room. want to—we have to. Especially at this time, Dbe seen again. Dances do not last—they Dancers are teaching classes to hundreds, when anxiety is so high, it’s important to Nick Pupillo have to be made new each time and evaporate even thousands of distant viewers, over on- move your body every day. One of the only “People need to dance,” says Nick Pupillo, as they are appearing. Today, small free- line platforms. Dancers are migrants, and the ways we can emotionally support each other founder and director of Visceral Dance Center doms—moving, gathering, and connecting— dance community is small. Now it is smaller is by developing these places to meet and and Visceral Dance Chicago. “This is not just have been restricted to limit the movement and bigger than ever. holding ourselves accountable by being there, something we do. It’s part of our lives. It’s of a virus that, whether we want to admit it or Dance was once an art that had to be done by trying every day. I’m astounded by the more than just a practice—it’s our passion.” not, is showing us just how connected we are. face-to-face, in your face, feet on the ground number of people who have made it their daily Visceral Dance Center is usually open year- The same situation is playing out with where will and gravity placed them. Now, in ritual.” round, including most holidays, and o¢ ers 95 dancers worldwide: projects, galas, gigs, a virtual world where time, space, and place “We have to get through this, until we get to youth, adult, and professional classes weekly, shows, and even seasons abruptly wiped from don’t matter, what remains is energy, and the time we can gather again, and I can open as well as workshops and master classes. the calendars. It is not surprising that an art that energy can travel faster than ever before. Common back up. I really can’t wait for that Pupillo’s normal work week is about 55 hours form defined by movement has sprung to Dancers dance. day.” in seven days, teaching, coaching, choreo- action. Dancers are dancing in their kitchens graphing, and managing the company, youth ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 19 THEATER
the situation will pass,” she says. “When Yin need some respite.” Through May, the Dance He fi rst started in 2016, we had two classes of Center has therefore made its recordings of two students each for the first few months, complete performances available to the pub- and we regularly performed for fewer than lic. “The Dance Center is unusual in its range ten people, which was not much better than of programming. My hope is that people will what we’re going through now. It’s all uphill see this work, a lot of which is not available from here.” otherwise, and realize these companies also need some support.” coping creatively Refl ect (a sidebar) Cristal Sabbagh “We are doing rehearsals via Skype, and a “Our current government is not a place I can friend in Sri Lanka was able to join for the fi nd truth or comfort. There are so many lies sessions. But overall, I feel very bombarded being told and so much corruption. I need with all the social media online classes. I felt to try to lean on my friends and see what we the pressure to jump and present something can do as an o ering,” says multidisciplinary online right away—but I didn’t teach a regular artist Cristal Sabbagh, who teaches art at class before, so why now? I need some time to Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire. With absorb and process and look into myself be- friends scattered as far as Japan, Sabbagh has fore jumping in.” —Kinnari Vora, cofounder been exploring dance in an online community of Ishti Dance of improvisers weekly. Organized under the hashtag #promptresponsegroup, the friends dancing alone use single-word prompts to generate danc- Nejla Yatkin ENKI ANDREWS es—recently including “wonder,” “center,” “Dance is not the body that creates the “resonate,” “ground,” and “water.” movement. Dance is the movement,” asserts “I try to keep it positive and use simple Christopher Knowlton, a choreographer and symbols to spread love,” she says. “My faith biomechanics researcher who manages the is with artists: they are problem solvers and motion analysis laboratory at Rush Universi- continued from page 19 is, who has money coming in right now? So creative thinkers trying to make connec- ty. “With motion capture, you’re abstracting company, and school. The hubbub came to a many people are out of work—all these danc- tions, making the most out of something the motion from the body that created it, and screeching halt on March 16, when Visceral ers—every artist—can’t get paid right now.” horrendous.” that opens up so many possibilities. The body closed its doors for COVID-19. carries so many signifi ers and so many social “How does the world just stop? I have danc- Angela Tam Jane Jerardi cues of identity, but to be able to pick apart the ers who need to get paid, faculty who need Although Chicago o cially went under lock- Caught midprocess, Jane Jerardi faces un- markers of identity that are in the movement, to get paid. How can we keep going when we down on March 21, some studios and compa- certainty about future performances. “My not the physical form of the person, is so in- don’t have any money coming in?” he won- nies have been feeling the pinch longer—per- mentors at the SAIC would say, ‘You make teresting to me. Puppetry gives us insight into ders. Though initially skeptical about teach- haps none more so than Yin He Dance, a Chi- in the time constraints that you have.’ For that: we can move a piece of trash and have ing online (“I don’t want to teach to a screen! natown-based company and studio in Chicago now, we’re continuing [virtually] to keep a a totally emotional response to that. Dance I need the energy of the class and the people that performs classical and contemporary normalcy, joy, and stability to our week, with doesn’t necessitate a body. Using motion cap- around me”), Pupillo has experimented with Chinese dance. “COVID-19 has been a ecting the sense that [the lockdown] is another thing ture and digital media avatars and augmented livestreaming from the studio over Facebook, us since January,” says cofounder and direc- that is going to inform the project. A lot of our reality is a way to strip away some of that for Instagram, and Zoom. tor Angela Tam. “We have been operating in choice making is limited, so how do we make me. Can we look at the movement and not look “I thought it might make people feel better defi cit since the beginning of the year due to this new constraint part of what we’re mak- at the bodies doing the movement?” just seeing the space,” he says. “And seeing lower attendance rates, especially among our ing? It could be impossible, especially if one For the past several months, Knowlton has people of so many different levels and ages youngest students.” of us gets sick.” The title of Jerardi’s yearlong been developing an augmented reality plat- made me feel like I was part of their lives Noting lower attendance at Lunar New Year project, on the theme of desire, is eerily pre- form that o ers a di erent view on dancing. like I usually am when I teach. Visceral is a performances at venues such as Navy Pier, scient: Delicate Hold. Viewed through a smart mobile device, like community. But there were also friends who where the company performs annually, Tam In addition to her independent work, Jerar- Snapchat filters and Pokémon Go, the pro- have probably never seen a dance class before says, “I think the situation was scarier for di works as faculty and technical coordinator gram displays a virtual layer over what the watching. This might be a way to expose the many in Chinatown because many know peo- at the Dance Center of Columbia College, camera sees. “The performance is virtual, and arts to a new community, which I had never ple in China and/or follow online media about where she produces video documentation of your access to the performance is through the thought about before.” how the virus progressed in China. Many New the Presenting Series as well as student and device,” Knowlton explains. “Technology can “I’m paying my sta right now, paying my Year–themed banquets where we perform faculty performances. be a prosthetic to allow audience members to dancers, paying the teachers—but I don’t were also canceled.” Since the shutdown, the “The Dance Center has an archive that dates become more active viewers.” know how long I can do that. If we keep going company has been rehearsing once a week from the 1980s to the present,” says Jerardi. The performance he envisions, under the for three weeks with no revenue coming in, I over Facebook Messenger. “We’ve had to postpone our shows, but we working title Extended Play, takes place on don’t know. But what I think a ects me most Tam takes a calm view of the future. “I know were thinking audiences in Chicago might the rotating surface of a vinyl record. Knowl- 20 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll THEATER
ton is developing code that would allow with Enki Andrews, documents this work, a smart device to recognize record labels and Yatkin has recently been rereleasing seg- and display a dancing avatar on the record, ments over social media. “like a traditional music box with a ballerina “I did this project to show that we are these sculpture that spins or a zoetrope. And once separate countries but in essence we are a you get into digital media, anything goes. You global human network,” says Yatkin. “When don’t have to obey the laws of physics. You can we have met our basic needs, we all like com- create a whole scene, it doesn’t have to be one munity, we like to exchange with others, we avatar, it can be a whole cast. There’s a lot of like to collaborate. I didn’t go to showcase creative freedom.” Viewers could personalize each country’s dance but to give improvisa- their experiences by watching from di erent tion prompts and to see how people move angles and would have the opportunity to see together. In many places it was similar—there the same performance repeated di erently— are di erences in energy, but most of us have and they could do it all at home: “You don’t the same two arms, fi ve fi ngers, two legs. How have to show up at the theater at a certain far can you go with that? By showing that, I time. You don’t have to sit in the audience. was hoping people would come together, and I like this idea of sitting with a record and countries would feel more connected to each listening to an album. It’s intentional and not other. performative, not like showing up to a theater “With the 2016 election, the country went with friends and being seen but experiencing the other way. Instead of connecting with the it for yourself. I like that sense of isolation and global community, we separated ourselves intimacy.” more and more. Now our problems are bigger The process has also been isolated. “Right than our country. Climate change needs to now, the movement originates in my body,” be tackled globally or else we’re not going to explains Knowlton. “It’s something I measure survive as a human tribe. This virus is a global and record, and right now, it’s being put into issue. We have to collaborate.” an avatar that’s a mini-me. I don’t know many The prompts Yatkin used to connect with dancers or media artists who are doing this, her dancers were abstract: “lines, curves, so I haven’t had many colleagues. I haven’t meeting each other, the spaces in between been at the point when I can invite another people, how we connect, and how we go apart. dancer in my process yet—it’s just been me in Where does your self start and where does the studio teaching how to do things myself.” the other begin? Geometry is so universal, using those forms in movement also leads to Dance around the world more universality than my telling them how to move or what to do.” The results of Yatkin’s For two years, choreographer Nejla Yatkin project showed her that “we can work togeth- traveled to 20 cities around the world creat- er around the world. Hopefully we’ll get back ing site-specifi c dances in public spaces with to that place.” v local dancers. Dancing Around the World, an award-winning short film in collaboration @IreneCHsiao
ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 21 FILM
Elijah McKinnon and Aymar Jean Christian ingful ways of connecting with the audience JUSTIN BARBIN and creatives. The initial programming premiering on ley, and The T, and for its fi fth cycle, OTV is fo- April 7 includes work from Detroit, Johannes- cusing on producing more pilots, short fi lms, burg, and Berlin, ranging from stories about and experimental works, including projects Black trans women navigating life (Femme from outside Chicago for the fi rst time. In the Queen Chronicles) to the lessons we can past OTV has premiered each season and then learn from an octopus (Seven of Tentacles). continued to screen o erings with a series of Throughout the year OTV will also be releasing live events at the Museum of Contemporary plenty of locally made series as well, including Art, featuring pilot screenings, live perfor- Karan Sunil’s coming-of-age dramedy, Code- mances, and a chance to connect with other Switched; Sohib Boundaoui’s drama about the creatives. This year, all #OTVtonight gather- FBI’s surveillance of Bridgeview, Arabica; and ings will be digital, starting with the premiere Good Enough, McKinnon’s story about a Black on April 7 and continuing with several lives- queer family, which was commissioned by a treams in May. While other networks and arts group of researchers to incentivize young peo- organizations are struggling with the pivot to ple to take PrEP to prevent HIV. All the series online, it’s an art OTV has been perfecting for fall into the unique category of high-quality, years. thought-provoking, underrepresented story- SMALL SCREEN “We’re in a special position of being a telling on which OTV was built. nimble, native-digital organization with little Even though their live events needed to be overhead so we’ve been able to keep working restructured, both Christian and McKinnon OTV thrives online and serving our community,” says OTV found- are taking sheltering in place in stride. “To er Aymar Jean Christian. “Streaming, both on be honest, I am thriving!” McKinnon says. The digital television platform introduces its fi h cycle of programming demand and live, has increased 50–70 percent “I’m a Black, queer, nonbinary baddie so any without missing a beat. on most platforms in the past two weeks, and opportunity to cultivate stillness and space the whole team is excited to o er something to breathe easy is a true gift that I value im- By B W no one else is o ering: artistic, specifi c, and mensely.” And they have guidance for other groundbreaking original narratives for Black, artists trying to navigate the unknown waters lijah McKinnon sees the future of tele- “I came back feeling not only inspired by Brown, queer, femme-identified, and other of isolation. “The media landscape can be vision as revolutionary, fearless, and our resilience but our commitment to building people for whom new content is relatively an incredibly noisy place, especially during Edivine. As the executive director of the long-lasting platforms for people of all iden- scarce.” times of crisis, so I believe it is imperative that inclusive online platform Open Television tities to plug into,” McKinnon says. “I’m very Along with its established online presence, creatives are mindful of their contribution to (OTV), they’ve had exclusive insight into the excited about our e orts to intentionally man- OTV is using this time to elevate local artists that frequency. My advice to creatives shifting groundbreaking work of Chicago fi lmmakers. ifest a global cohort of creatives, storytellers, and healers on Instagram, giving them a their e orts online is to be mindful of acces- And after spending the past six months trav- and filmmakers that are ready to infiltrate place to share self-care tips and what they’re sibility, create opportunities for moments of eling to places like Berlin and Johannesburg media with content that has the power to working on in isolation. Creating more op- wonder, operate from a place of clarity, and to produce OTV’s fi rst international projects, change the world.” portunities for interactions is key—Christian don’t lose sight of your end goal.” v McKinnon is ready to prove that they’re cor- The platform is well known for launching plans on experimenting with the #OTVtonight rect about where the medium can go. webseries like Brown Girls, Just Call Me Rip- livestreams to include games and other mean- @BriannaWellen
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22 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll FILM A NOTE FROM THE LOGAN
-19, . .
! @ .
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
NOW STREAMING who have been on the front lines of the movement for centuries. There’s Something in the Water acknowledges 2646 N. MILWAUKEE AVE | CHICAGO, IL | THELOGANTHEATRE.COM | 773.342.5555 Never Rarely Sometimes this history, specifi cally in the Canadian province of R Always Nova Scotia, where these marginalized communities Nowhere in the world is safe for a teenage girl. It’s have faced the brunt of environmental racism, unsafe a lesson viewers learn quickly—and one our protago- drinking water, and a government that continues to fail nist already knows—in Eliza Hittman’s all-too-realistic them. By highlighting the perseverance of those in the Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Faced with an tireless fi ght for basic human rights and putting a face unexpected pregnancy and an unsupportive family, to the ramifi cations of corporate greed, fi lmmakers Ellen Pennsylvania teenager Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) Page and Ian Daniel establish themselves as some of the and her cousin (Talia Ryder) travel across state lines most important and empathetic documentarians work- for an abortion. Whether it’s a boss at the local gro- ing right now. There’s Something in the Water is crucial cery store, a man on the subway, a seemingly nice viewing for anyone who cares about the lasting ripple passenger, or her own father, the men in Autumn’s eff ects of environmental neglect. —C C 73 life are a nuisance at best and a danger at worst. min. Netflix While the subject matter is powerful on its own, COmedy Flanigan and Ryder’s performances take the fi lm to ALSO STREAMING the next level, portraying a relationship where words are rarely needed. One particularly heartbreaking Bacurau from Your scene reveals the fi lm’s title when Autumn responds A er the death of the village matriarch, sinister forces to a questionnaire from a Planned Parenthood plauge the town seemingly trying to pick off the resi- nurse about her relationship history, a wave of dents one by one. Streaming as part of Music Box emotions silently cracking through her careful com- Theatre’s Virtual Cinema, musicboxtheatre.com posure with each probing question. Never Rarely cOUCh Sometimes Always is a slow-moving fi lm, but these Saint Frances young women will stay with the viewer long a er Kelly O’Sullivan writes and stars in this dramedy about a the fi lm ends. —N DL PG-13, 101 min. 30-something who forms an unlikely friendship with the Streaming on VOD six-year-old she nannies. Streaming as part of Music Box Theatre’s Virtual Cinema, musicboxtheatre.com There’s Something in the Connect, Laugh, Create with People R Water The Wild Goose Lake If you were recently radicalized about the imminent This neo-noir mystery from Diao Yinan (Black Coal, Thin Around the World Through Virtual Classes! threat of climate change, it’s likely due to the popu- Ice) follows a small-time mob leader who is on the run IMPROV • STAND-UP • WRITING • & MORE! larization of activist Greta Thunberg. But this surge a er killing a cop. In Mandarin with English subtitles. in exposure and action, while vital, o en leaves Streaming 4/10-4/16 as part of Film Center From SECONDCITYONLINE.COM • 312-337-3992 out the indigenous and Black and Brown activists Your Sofa, siskelfilmcenter.com v ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 23 How a doughnut-shop parking lot became a confluence of Chicago youth subcultures— and what killed it off BY LEOR GALIL
n 1987, Ben Hollis and John Davies pitched spot, not somewhere else? And what was the believe TV show,” he explained to a middle- them brought the tape to WTTW senior vice Chicago PBS station WTTW on a program appeal? aged Black cop inside the doughnut shop. “Just president Pat Denny, who was in charge of pro- that would capture the city’s obscure Around midnight on a Saturday in August, trying to fi gure out if you’ve got any good ideas duction for the station’s regular programs. “He corners, unusual characters, and fringe Davies and Hollis brought their gear to the about what brings these kids together out here. said, ‘Yeah, there’s magic here,’” Hollis says. Iphenomena. To show the station what they Dunkin’ Donuts. They’d decided to call their Why do they come here?” “‘Let’s make a real pilot.’” had in mind, they’d shot a “guerilla demo” at a show Wild Chicago, and Hollis dressed like an “For a good time,” the cop responded. Wild Chicago debuted in January 1989, its spot Hollis already knew: the Dunkin’ Donuts intrepid wilderness explorer: he wore a pith Hollis and Davies’s footage from that night weekly episodes each half an hour long. Once on the corner of Belmont and Clark in Lake- helmet and a short-sleeved khaki shirt, with includes a couple teenagers freestyle skate- it was no longer make-believe, Hollis wanted view. He’d often driven past it late at night and binoculars around his neck. While Davies ran boarding, crowds of enthusiastic kids dressed to do a proper shoot at the Dunkin’ Donuts that seen groups of young people hanging out in the the camera, Hollis pointed a dinky microphone all in black and smiling for the camera, and a had gotten the show off the ground. “Some- parking lot, and he fi gured it’d be worth investi- at just about any bystander who would talk. Dunkin’ employee who said some of the teens thing that alive, organic, and chaotic is rare—it gating. What were they doing there? Why that “I’m Ben Hollis with Wild Chicago, a make- were “straight-up sugar fiends.” The two of did stand out,” he says. In August 1990, when he 24 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll FRANK OKAY attracted lots of other folks from outside the it,” he says. “That was it.” Shelton turned three a leather jacket on, and the leather jacket had mainstream: house-music fanatics, antiracist stories of the building into Medusa’s, which porcelain teacups in the shoulder straps, which arrived with a station cameraman, Hollis im- skinheads, trans women, skaters, drag queens, opened in October 1983. made it all the more surreal. He looks at me and mediately saw that the crowd in the parking lot industrial-music fans, goths, runaways. In the Veteran DJ Val Scheinpflug went to Medu- he goes, ‘What the fuck is going on?’” had ballooned in size since his previous visit. 1980s, the intersection of Clark and Belmont sa’s its opening weekend and quickly became Admission was usually restricted to people “It was on the cusp of dangerous,” he says. was one of the busiest in Lakeview, an easy a member—she says her membership card, 18 and up, but at the behest of promoter Jonas “It was an excited crowd, and everybody was walk from a constellation of music venues and which got her in at a discount, is number 20. “I Lowrance, Shelton launched teen dance nights jumping around. It was so chaotic. Everybody clubs as well as from Boystown’s booming felt so at home,” Scheinpfl ug says. “I instantly in 1986; kids under 18 could get the Medusa’s wanted to stick their face in the camera and say Halsted Street scene. The Dunkin’ Donuts loved everything about it. The decor, the experience, initially on Saturdays from 7 to something.” operated 24/7 in those days, and because it ad- darkness of it, the music, the size of the dance 10 PM. Punkin’ Donuts regular Fred Ingram Both times Hollis visited the Dunkin’ Donuts mitted people under 21 (unlike most bars and fl oor, the fact that that’s what it’s about—the was 15 when he fi rst went to Medusa’s in the on camera, he called it “Punk Rock Park.” “I clubs), anyone could hang out there, without moment you walked through the two double mid-80s. “The fact that I was able to get into maybe saw a guy with a Mohawk or something regard to whether more conventional nightlife doors, there was nothing else to do there but a nightclub was really exciting,” he says. “It and just fi gured, ‘Oh, it must be punk rock-y,’” attractions were even open. dance. It was just a giant dance fl oor.” didn’t matter who you are, or what you are, or he says. But the young people who hung out “Punkin’ Donuts was kind of a landmark In 1983, juice bars weren’t required to close what you wanted to be—it was allowed, accept- there had another name for it: Punkin’ Donuts. more than anything else,” says punk lifer Marc when bars did, because they couldn’t sell alco- ed, and actually encouraged.” Ruvolo. “You would get to that area and you’d hol. This freed Shelton to create the after- hours Scheinpflug had been a Medusa’s regular didn’t move to Chicago till 2009, more than a be, like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna walk by Punkin’ Do- club of his dreams. “We would open at mid- from the start, and after she began to spin decade after Punkin’ Donuts had ceased to be nuts and see who’s there.’” night and go to 10 AM,” he says. That schedule records herself in the mid-80s as DJ Psycho- Ia subcultural epicenter, but I’ve been curious Ruvolo formed local punk band No Empathy drew wee-hours crowds from across the metro- Bitch, she played a couple of the club’s teen about it for as long as I’ve known it existed. In in 1983 and fronted it till it split up in 1997—a politan area, who converged on Medusa’s when nights. “Some of my DJ peers would give me a the years after Wild Chicago aired its “Punk span that overlaps signifi cantly with the hey- other clubs closed. “All the partiers in Cicero, hard time: ‘Oh, you’re working for the kiddies,’” Rock Park” episode, the spot’s notoriety seeped day of Punkin’ Donuts. In 1989, he cofounded all the partiers in the ’burbs, all the partiers she says. “What they failed to realize is, that’s into the mainstream. By the early 2000s, the crucial Johann’s Face Records label, which on Rush Street—they wanted to still hang out, our future. Those kids, when they turned 21, Fodor’s and Frommer’s had both mentioned in the ’90s would release music by the Smoking so they would come to us after hours,” Shelton believe me, they looked for me and came where Punkin’ Donuts in several editions of their Popes and Alkaline Trio. In the 80s, Ruvolo explains. Sean Du¨ y, who’d founded production I was playing. That was my future, and that’s annual Chicago guides, though by that point says, most local punk shows were small—they company Last Rites in ’83 and started booking what kept me going—that had a lot to do with few punks still gathered there—the latter sug- might draw a hundred fans if they were lucky. punk bands at Exit the following year, used to why I’m still DJing now.” gested, somewhat glibly, that it had earned the Punks didn’t have many places to congregate travel two miles north to Shelton’s club after The teen dance nights also helped Medusa’s name due to “rebellious kids on tour from their in large numbers. “Punkin’ Donuts, I would say, Exit packed it in for the night—and in 1987 he stay afloat after a City Council ordinance in homes in the ’burbs.” I’ve sometimes seen Pun- became a beacon,” Ruvolo says. “A place where started bringing live music to Medusa’s too. 1987 forced juice bars to follow regular bar kin’ Donuts invoked as a sort of synecdoche for you could go and fi nd like-minded people. And Medusa’s didn’t just cater to dancers. Shel- hours. Alderman Bernie Hansen, who from 1983 the culture of Lakeview in the 1980s and early really, in Chicago, it was di¤ cult. It was di¤ cult ton invited local artists to build installations, till 2002 oversaw the 44th Ward (where Medu- ’90s, when the neighborhood was seedier and in the midwest.” and a team of video jockeys experimented with sa’s was located), cosponsored the proposal. more rambunctious—for instance, that’s how it Punkin’ Donuts became a phenomenon visuals on the venue’s third fl oor. As Chicago According to a 1986 Tribune story, Hansen had came up in a Sun-Times review of the new punk because of the places it was near, and though scene historian Jacob Arnold wrote in a 2013 introduced the proposal because juice bars at- musical Verböten. those places have left a more traceable imprint retrospective for Resident Advisor, the pri- tracted boisterous crowds that upset residents; Even in 2015, when local real estate company on Chicago’s culture, the scene at Punkin’ mary DJs during the early years of Medusa’s, among those who addressed the City Council BlitzLake Partners advanced plans to build con- Donuts supported them. At its peak in the late Mark Stephens and Neo regular Bud Sweet, in opposition were Scheinpfl ug and Wax Trax! dos and a Target store at Belmont and Clark, 1980s, Punkin’ Donuts developed an almost introduced the club’s patrons (and each other) cofounder Jim Nash. DNAinfo repeatedly referred to the endangered symbiotic relationship with two Lakeview des- to an eclectic variety of dance styles. Their sets In October 1986, Tribune reporters Barbara doughnut shop as “Punkin’ Donuts.” Despite tinations: juice bar Medusa’s, a hub for punk, featured house, industrial, new wave, Hi-NRG, Mahany and Steve Johnson visited Medusa’s to how long it’d been since kids had fl ocked to its house, and industrial music, and punk empori- funk, electro, and more, which helped draw a document its burgeoning teen dance scene. At parking lot, the name had stuck. um the Alley. diverse crowd open to all sorts of subcultures. curfew, which their story says was at 10:30 PM I’ve always wanted to know more about “Medusa’s was the fi rst place where everyone that night, they followed a crowd of teens out- the relationship between Punkin’ Donuts and hicago promoter Dave “Medusa” Shelton could be themselves,” Shelton says. “It wasn’t side and took a fi ve-minute walk southeast— Chicago’s alternative subcultures. In big scene threw his first party in 1979 at storied all about jocks and cheerleaders—freaks ruled and at its destination, they wrote, “The exodus retrospectives, it comes up rarely, and then Cdance club the Warehouse, and he booked the roost there.” turns the asphalt lot beneath an orange-and- usually as a curiosity. Punkin’ Donuts didn’t Warehouse regular Frankie Knuckles to DJ. In 1984, Medusa’s began bringing in live pink Dunkin’ Donuts sign into a playground of help incubate a scene with a distinctive sound, “Frankie and I were best friends,” Shelton says. music, hosting many of the same industrial acts punk.” a recognizable fashion sense, or a cast of char- The following year, Knuckles started spinning that were the bread and butter of scene corner- acters well-known to outsiders, unlike some at parties Shelton threw at 161 West, a club stone Wax Trax! Records—including Belgian efore Punkin’ Donuts, punks gathered of the city’s clubs and record shops. Nobody named after its address on Harrison Street. EBM pioneers Front 242, making their U.S. about a mile away, in a sliver of a park owned it or organized the gatherings there. The Shelton is a white man, but in those early days debut. Red Hot Chili Peppers played Medusa’s Bowned by Aetna Bank at the intersection of closest thing it had to authority fi gures were he threw parties for primarily queer Black in November of that year, and Ruvolo recalls Halsted, Fullerton, and Lincoln. The Wax Trax! the Dunkin’ Donuts employees, who mostly crowds. seeing local art collective Family Plan open the record store, just northwest at 2449 N. Lin- tolerated the teens loitering outside—even the While he was building up his name in the show, performing experimental music behind coln, was a big draw, so the few Chicago punks ones who never came in to buy anything. scene in the early 1980s, Shelton happened a chicken-wire fence. “They were up there around in the early 80s reliably ended up at the Its nickname notwithstanding, Punkin’ Do- to walk past a former Independent Order of and they were chopping the heads off of live Aetna park. “That was infamous for punks to nuts wasn’t just a place for punks. While you Vikings lodge at Sheffield and School. “This chickens and letting them run around behind meet,” says Gustav Roman, a founding member could reliably fi nd kids in leather jackets, punk guy had put a handwritten note on the door, the chicken wire,” he says. “Standing beside me of 1980s hardcore band Lost Cause. “That’s T-shirts, and Mohawks there, the shop also ‘For rent,’ and I walked in there and I rented was Anthony Kiedis—he was shirtless, he had where people met who were di¨ erent—you’d ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 25 continued from 25 Punkin’ Donuts was a haven for Riverdale see goth people, older rockers, and all sorts of native Scary Larry, who’s fronted psychobilly other walks of life. That was somewhere that band the Gravetones since 1997. In the mid-80s, you can hang out and not get chased by the when he discovered Punkin’ Donuts, he had cops.” a bright red Mohawk, and he’d already found Sean Du y’s girlfriend at the time worked at the south suburbs inhospitable to his efforts Wax Trax!, so he was around to see the punks to start a punk scene. “I would walk down the gathering in the Aetna park—and he noticed street, on my block, and people would grab when they eventually moved on to Punkin’ their kids and bring them in the house,” he Donuts. “They used to drink all the time and says. He remembers townies chasing him in a left trash, and that was their downfall,” he says. pickup truck, screaming homophobic slurs. For “A block away you had houses that were worth Larry, Punkin’ Donuts was home. a ton of money—nowadays they’re worth The sheer size of the young crowd at Punkin’ millions of dollars—and those people carried Donuts made it important even to older punks influence with the alderman and the cops. I who didn’t share a need for that social space. think when they fi nally shut that down, I want “Some nights we’d go by there to fl yer on week- to say a lot of those people started gravitating ends,” Du y says. “I was thinking, ‘Shit, if I can towards Belmont and Clark.” get all these kids to come to my shows’—there Punkin’ Donuts didn’t just attract folks from must’ve been 100, 150 people—‘I would really the Aetna park and Medusa’s. Many regulars do well.’” Some of the teens did show up for spilled out of other nearby venues: Tuts, a small Du y’s gigs, and a few even ended up behind rock club at 959 W. Belmont, had hosted an up- the scenes—he’d hire them to work security or and-coming Bruce Springsteen, and in 1987 it load in gear. was replaced by the Avalon. Queer cabaret-in- Medusa’s video jockey Leroy Fields befriend- spired “video bar” Berlin opened in 1983 across ed some young regulars who also frequented the street from Tuts at 954 W. Belmont. Less Punkin’ Donuts. “I’d go there and they’d be than a mile north, you could see punk shows in hanging out, and I’d sit there and talk to them,” the early 80s at Cubby Bear and Metro, some of Fields says. “I got to know them pretty well— them booked by Du y. Punkin’ Donuts pulled in they all seemed to be pretty interesting young characters from all those places, creating what people. I enjoyed talking to them, listening to Roman calls “a weird mix of family and fun.” them, and seeing what was on their minds and Teenagers dominated the Punkin’ Donuts what was going on with the youth of the day.” parking lot because they had so few other He got to know Ingram well enough that he’d places they could go at night besides Medusa’s sometimes ask him to bring back coffee and teen parties and the occasional all-ages show. doughnuts during the break between the club’s Plus many of them couldn’t have a orded to go teen night and its adult hours. club-hopping even if it’d been an option. “I had Fields had good reason to care what punk an o -again, on-again relationship with money kids thought. He’d established connections in my teenage years—that was one of the driv- with record label promotions people, who pro- ing forces of the decision-making as to what vided him with giveaways for Medusa’s young might happen on any given night,” says Joliet attendees (music, concert tickets) and new tattoo artist Adam Leavitt, who hung out at videos to play for them. He’d gauge their tastes Punkin’ Donuts regularly in the late 80s. “There with new material, fi guring out what they liked were nights where collectively we’d get enough so he could better cater to them or challenge money together between six or seven people to them. “We would play a lot of bands that kids get a case or two of beer and walk straight up liked—PiL, Siouxsie & the Banshees, the Cure, Belmont Avenue to the lake, and sit at the lake New Order,” he says. “Pixies, which is a band I and drink until three in the morning.” made them like.” Leavitt says he didn’t have a steady group Teens looking for somewhere to go before at Punkin’ Donuts, but he spent a lot of time or after Medusa’s would spread out across the there with a few friends, including Fred Ingram area between the club and Punkin’ Donuts. The and Adrian Padron. He’d known Padron (who elevated CTA tracks a half block east of Medu- he’s pretty sure introduced him to Punkin’ Do- sa’s, from School south to Belmont, provided nuts) since they were little, and his old buddy some cover for underage drinking, though certainly looked the part. “I was really into hanging out there wasn’t as safe as sticking punk rock at the time—I had a green Mohawk, to the parking lot. “It put you in an actionable piercings, wore a lot of leather,” Padron says. position because that was trespassing on CTA “People used to call me Astroturf when my property, and a train would come through oc- ’hawk was shorter, ’cause it was dyed fl uores- casionally,” Leavitt says. “That was a spot that cent green.” frequently—especially right behind Medusa’s, the skinheads would meet and drink. That FRANK OKAY was a point at which they had four different
26 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll avenues of escape, if the cops were to come up.” reational use of alkyl nitrites, Thomas shifted Police weren’t much of a deterrent, accord- his inventory away from typical head-shop fare ing to Dwayne Thomas, a Black antiracist skin- toward punk clothing lines and merchandise— head who hung out in the Belmont corridor. he wanted to avoid anything that even looked “Friday night, at Dunkin’ Donuts, that was the like drug paraphernalia. A Michigan-based landmark,” he says. “People would be skating screen printer who’d been selling T-shirts to around, or we’d go get 40s and stand in that the Alley dissolved his business, liquidating a parking lot and drink until we got kicked out punk store he owned—and Thomas saw an op- of there or the cops came and said, ‘You guys portunity. “He was selling Boy of London, Black gotta go.’” No matter how many times they got Rose, and all these di erent brands that I knew cleared out, Dwayne and the Punkin’ crowd nothing about,” Thomas says. “So I bought the always came back. “We didn’t care,” he says. store, and that gave me all the sources. I started Scary Larry sometimes stayed out so late bringing all the merchandise into the Alley.” around Belmont and Clark that he’d just fi nd an Thomas’s shift toward punk occurred as unoccupied building to sleep in, somewhere in AIDS ravaged Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community, the neighborhood. “Around that time, a lot of which a ected the Alley too. “Gross sales had those houses were being redone, a lot of those fallen 40 or 50 percent in six months,” he says. three-flats—so sometimes we’d go to one of In 1986, after closing the Woodfi eld Mall loca- those places and hang out there,” he says. “I tion, Thomas was forced to vacate the Alley’s crashed out in a few of them back in the day.” Broadway store. He’d had his eye on the Clark Punkin’ Donuts attracted homeless teen- and Belmont intersection, and the teens who agers too. In the late 1980s, Padron ran away hung out at Punkin’ Donuts were a big part of from home and lived on the street for a year. “I the draw. The space he found was a garage that spent most of my time around there,” he says. opened onto a cobblestone alley, rumored to “There was a broken-down van a little bit west be a favorite spot for addicts looking to shoot of She eld and Belmont that kids would rotate up. In some ways, though, the location was sleeping in, so I knew a lot of people around perfect—it was o 858 W. Belmont, near Pun- there just from living in that area.” kin’ Donuts. “My gross sales quadrupled over- https://www.gofundme.com/f/chop-shop-virtual-beats-amp-eats Ingram describes the group at Punkin’ night,” Thomas says. In the Alley’s fi rst year in Donuts as a family. He grew up with a single an actual alley, it made close to $1 million. mom who struggled to make ends meet, and Thomas worked with Punkin’ Donuts teens to his friends at Clark and Belmont helped him drum up business. “I would hire three or four of navigate his teenage years. “I fi t right in,” he the wildest kids with the biggest purple, pink, says. “We looked out for each other. If you were yellow, green Mohawks,” he says. “I would say, hungry, you were fed. If you needed a place to ‘Hey, want to make ten bucks tonight? Stand crash, it was provided. If you needed protec- right there at the head of the alley and hand out tion, so to speak, from outsiders that were fl yers.’” giving you a hard time, you could fi nd it there. Ingram became an employee at the Belmont It was a place where we were able to learn location within a couple years of its opening. certain values that otherwise might not have “Working at the Alley at the time, it was a good presented themselves in such a way that we way to get chicks,” he says. “It’s like, ‘That guy had support, social support, around us.” works at the Alley.’ ‘Oh really? Oh wow.’ It was The family would change in 1986 with the a big deal to other people.” At Medusa’s teen arrival of the Alley. parties, Alley shopping bags became as ubiq- uitous as bags from the Wax Trax! store. Fields ark Thomas and the Alley go hand in remembers teens at the club asking him to keep hand, but he didn’t found it. The original an eye on them while they danced. Mowner opened it in 1974 as a head shop Thomas began to cultivate the nickname in Woodfi eld Mall and bought lots of merchan- “the Mayor of Belmont.” He’d hang out at the dise from Thomas, who then earned a living Punkin’ Donuts parking lot in the hearse he’d making jewelry and tchotchkes. When the Alley bought to haul merchandise for his shop. He couldn’t afford to pay Thomas for his goods, took it upon himself to monitor the crowds in he took half ownership of the store. In 1976, he an e ort to ensure that his potential clientele opened up a second location on Broadway and stayed out of trouble. “I was a 350-pound mon- Surf, about half a mile from what would become ster of a man, and if I walked up to you, grabbed Punkin’ Donuts. At the time the Boystown area you by the scru of your neck, and said, ‘You was still known as New Town, and it played gotta go,’ ‘You’re going to jail,’ or ‘I’m gonna host to a blossoming counterculture that had beat your ass,’ you did what I told you to do,” migrated north from Old Town. “We had six or he says. “I kept the lid on the corner of Belmont BIT.LY/GOOSEDELIVERS eight remarkable years there,” Thomas says. and Clark.” Back then the Alley sold poppers, but as Alderman Hansen noticed, and asked authorities stepped up crackdowns on the rec- Thomas to keep an eye on the neighborhood ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 27 continued from 27 other). He remembers 99th Floor owner Mick somebody jumps you, that shit’s not going. So “Punkin’ Donuts was a place we knew to go only around the intersection. Thomas says they Levine as having the better selection. “He had we would go and hunt those guys down. They if we wanted a fi ght.” would meet early in the morning a few times all kinds of Docs—he had every style,” Dwayne hunted us down? We went right back and hunt- per week to talk shop; Hansen would ask his says. “He would get the rare Docs that people ed them down.” he crowds at Punkin’ Donuts were almost aide, future congressman Mike Quigley, to were looking for. Flag Docs and checkerboard These skinhead clashes spilled over into always peaceful, though, whether the get Thomas coffee and a bagel from Punkin’ Docs—skins, punk rockers, everyone came to Punkin’ Donuts at least once. Dwayne ran into Tpeople coming and going were in the Donuts. that place to buy their Doc Martens, so you met two female racist skinheads with a pit bull, neighborhood to shop or just to hang out. “It In 1988, Thomas began planting offshoot people and networked.” which he says made a move for him—and be- was such a touchstone for so many people of shops in empty storefronts nearby. Architec- The original 1960s skinhead subculture in cause he was walking with a cane, having torn my generation, and even the following gener- tural Revolution, a furniture and decor shop the UK had welcomed Blacks and whites, but his left ACL, he couldn’t run. “I was like, ‘This ation,” De Grazia says. “How many kids from for folks with tastes that ran toward punk and organized racist skinheads had existed since dog is gonna bite the hell out of me,’” Dwayne Chicago, the midwest, and beyond hung out goth, opened at 3226 N. Clark; a lingerie and the late ’70s—and by the mid-1980s, they’d says. “I whacked this dog and knocked the dog at or passed through that lot during certain sex-toy store called Taboo Tabou opened at infi ltrated punk scenes in many U.S. cities. In out.” According to a 1989 Reader story about phases of their lives? Tens of thousands? Hun- 854 W. Belmont. During its 90s peak, Thomas’s Chicago, a young neo-Nazi named Clark Mar- skinheads by Bill Wyman, the confrontation dreds of thousands?” Lakeview empire included six shops, counting tell began pushing his racist cause in 1984. His touched o¨ a brawl that nearly killed a friend of Punkin’ Donuts could also open up young the fl agship Alley location. He also formalized collective, Chicago Area Skinheads (CASH), the racist skins. (Author and Columbia College people to unforeseen new experiences. DJ his role as neighborhood caretaker in 1992, sometimes called themselves Romantic Vio- professor Don De Grazia references it in his Duane Powell first traveled to the area from when he cofounded the Central Lakeview Mer- lence, which was also the name of a mail-order 1998 coming-of-age novel, American Skin.) By Roseland to go to Medusa’s, but he got hooked chants Association. business they used to disseminate music and the late 80s, Dwayne had achieved minor local on the whole neighborhood—including Punkin’ By the mid-90s, the Alley was a symbol of paraphernalia—it was the first U.S. distribu- fame as an antiracist skinhead. When Oprah Donuts. “I had never really been in a situation Lakeview’s counterculture, though by then the tor for notorious UK white nationalist band Winfrey brought white-power skins on her that was outside my community, my people, grunge boom had mainstreamed punk to the Skrewdriver, and became a valuable recruiting show in 1988, he was there to rail against them. my race,” Powell says. “Then I’m up here, it was point where it was only barely counterculture. tool. By 1985, Martell’s exploits had made it In fall 1988, a southern skinhead named culture shock and it was education for me.” As the neighborhood gentrifi ed, so did punk. into the Chicago scene report in Maximum Scott Gravatt stopped by 99th Floor looking For people like punk drummer Brian Czarnik, RocknRoll: “The only hope we have to keep for a place to crash, and Dwayne initially who first stopped by Punkin’ Donuts in 1989, hen Punkin’ Donuts was at its peak in our scene together is to isolate the members obliged. Then he and his friends learned more the place provided an entree to the scene at the mid- to late 1980s, Lakeview had a and supporters (especially Clark Martell) of about Gravatt, who was also known as “Whit- large. “That year, the word ‘punk rock’ to me Wrough reputation. “It was still kind of Romantic Violence and reject every piece and ey Powers.” That night, they attacked him: was still a little scary,” he says. “But I’m sure hairy,” says Dwayne Thomas, a Cabrini-Green line of racist, sexist, and violent trash they try they stuffed his Nazi armband in his mouth, we walked in there and everything was fine. native. “People were like, ‘Ooh, that area is to push our way.” hog-tied him, and dropped him in front of the Then the next few years, whenever we went to kind of crazy.’ It was, like, gangbangers, drug In 1987, Martell and fi ve CASH cronies made Holocaust memorial in Skokie. Dwayne and his the Alley and that, we’d always swing in there.” dealers, hookers, transgender people. It was a national news for brutally assaulting a woman friends were arrested in Lincolnwood. He’d frequently stop in the Dunkin’ Donuts to huge melting pot.” In the punk crowd around who’d left the group. The Southern Poverty “That was the kind of thing you faced if you buy doughnuts as a cheap lunch—saving the Belmont and Clark, antiracist skinheads rolled Law Center credits Martell with propagating came around to the neighborhood and you rest of his money for band merch. Czarnik says deep. “That was our area—we felt normal in U.S. racist skinhead culture in the 1980s. Before were a Nazi, that was the danger you ran,” he’d sometimes still feel like an outsider, but in that area,” Dwayne says. “People in my neigh- CASH, the SPLC estimated the number of racist Dwayne says. “We would be out in the street, the 90s his bands Oblivion and the Bollweevils borhood didn’t dress like that and didn’t listen skinheads at 200; by 1989, that number had and you were not going home—you were gonna put out music through Johann’s Face and other to that type of music. I saw people who dressed exploded to 3,000. go to jail or go to the hospital, we just didn’t local punk labels, including Underdog and and believed in the same things I believed The antipathy between racist and antiracist care.” Harmless. in—they had the same type of convictions. We skinheads often expressed itself in physical Christian Picciolini, one of Martell’s recruits, Harmless Records founder Scott Thomson fought the same kind of causes.” violence, though as Dwayne tells it, CASH skins renounced his neo-Nazi beliefs in 1996 and remembers a night when a pair of cops picked Medusa’s employed skinheads to work se- were usually the ones to start the fi ghts. “They has since dedicated himself to combating ex- him up after a Medusa’s show for violating curity, and skins hung out at Punkin’ Donuts. knew the faces of the kids who were really ac- tremism—he’s cofounder of the nonprofi t Life curfew with a handful of other teens—he was Dwayne briefly worked at Halsted Street tive, and they would drive around and look for After Hate. But in the late 80s, he says, when he 15, and it was probably 1989 or ’90, since he’s boutique 99th Floor, one of two area shops those kids, and they would jump these kids,” he was still with CASH, he had to visit Lakeview 45 now. The cops had previously cleared some licensed to sell the skinheads’ footwear of says. “Me being who I was, and the things I did, clandestinely if he wanted to shop at the Alley kids out of the Punkin’ Donuts parking lot, and choice, Dr. Martens boots (the Alley was the I would always be willing to go out and help—if or 99th Floor. He knew what areas to avoid: they chastised Thomson and the others for
28 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll loitering too late. But then the o cers couldn’t Also in 1994, Green Day broke into the dent at the Clark and Belmont Dunkin’ Donuts.) heard in early 2015 that the Dunkin’ Donuts fi nd the curfew slips they needed, so they drove mainstream, exposing punk to new crops of Dwayne’s job was to keep Alley customers from would soon be demolished, he organized a back to Punkin’ Donuts so the teens could call young people who fl ocked to the Alley. Punkin’ getting towed by making sure they didn’t use small farewell that February. Thomas attended. their parents and the cops could call somebody Donuts was no longer an accidental crossroads the wrong part of the lot. “He paid me 15 dollars In a DNAinfo story about the shop’s demolition who had slips. for several subcultures—it had become a more an hour to stand in the parking lot,” he says. in August of that year, Thomas said, “Belmont “They called in another unit,” Thomson monolithic expression of the mainstreaming In 1995, Thomas had a six-foot fence put up gave me the greatest life in the world.” says. “And then they called in another unit. At of “alternative” culture. Many of the people around the lot to deter loitering. “Mark Thom- In January 2016, the Alley shuttered its shop this point, we’re starting to attract a crowd, who’d been regulars in the 1980s had grown out as was very notorious in not wanting the very at 3228 N. Clark. It’s reopened twice since then: so suddenly the parking lot at Dunkin’ Donuts of wanting to hang out in the parking lot of a people who made him who he was in the area once in August 2017 at 3221 N. Clark, where it had three cop cars in it and these little kids doughnut shop. anymore,” Dwayne says. “Which didn’t make lasted a little more than 14 months, and then standing around. They fi nally called in a watch Mark Thomas continued expanding what he any sense to me.” again at 843 W. Belmont last year. commander. We got the guy in a white uniform, called his Alternative Shopping District, and in Also in January 2016, Chicago indie-rock and he’s like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ They the early 90s he bought a second-fl oor Chinese homas knows that his success helped kick- band Scotland Yard Gospel Choir released a fi nally give us the curfew slips. Our parents fi - restaurant near Punkin’ Donuts that gave him start the gentrification that transformed single called “Clark & Belmont.” Front man Elia nally take us home, and they’re livid at the cops rights to part of its parking lot. “He bought that TLakeview, and ironically the subsequent Einhorn sings, “When we were young punks / for wasting everybody’s time.” block and shut us down,” Dwayne says. “He’s rise of chain stores in the area hurt his busi- Sittin’ out front of the Dunkin’ Donuts / Taking Turns out Punkin’ Donuts could be a place going, ‘You guys can’t be here, blah blah, I don’t nesses. In 2014, he consolidated his offshoot shit from the grown-ups / We never thought for the police to get together too. want you hanging out in my parking lot.’ We’re stores into the Alley’s main shop, then located we’d be their age someday / We thought that going, ‘Fuck you.’ We would always argue with at 3228 N. Clark. He opposed opening the it was our time and that our time was here to eople continued to hang out at Punkin’ him, but he owned the parking lot, so what neighborhood to Target or other big boxes, and stay.” Donuts well into the 1990s, and Scary Larry could we do but not be on his property. Every he brought the fi ght to 44th Ward incumbent The Target that now occupies the site Psays he kept going there till 2000. The time we’d hang out, he would basically call the Tom Tunney, challenging him in a protracted opened the following summer. scene had changed, though. Medusa’s closed in cops or have us arrested.” campaign that ended with Thomas losing the Shelton now runs Medusa’s as a teen club in June 1992. Later that year, Shelton began run- In the mid-90s, Thomas hired Dwayne for aldermanic election in February 2015. “I was Elgin, its home since 1997. Ingram and Padron ning a transplanted version of Medusa’s at the odd jobs. Among his tasks was to watch the upset at the direction Tom Tunney was taking live nearby, and they still talk about Punkin’ Congress Theater (Ingram tended bar there). Punkin’ Donuts lot for trucks from Lincoln Lakeview in,” Thomas says. Donuts. “There will never be any place like The punk scene mostly moved to Wicker Park Towing, whose drivers notoriously cased the In 2013, BlitzLake Partners had purchased it anywhere,” Padron says. “I never found and Ukrainian Village, and then to Logan place. (As part of his long public fi ght with the the land under Punkin’ Donuts (including another.” v Square in 1994 after the Fireside Bowl began infamous towing company, Mike Royko wrote Thomas’s part of the parking lot) for $5.5 mil- hosting all-ages shows. a 1988 Tribune column that focused on an inci- lion. After Reader contributor John Greenfi eld @imLeor
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PICK OF THE WEEK Anna Calvi, Hunted Domino Roscoe Mitchell reconciles improvisational sources annacalvi.com When British guitarist and vocalist Anna Calvi and orchestral means released her self-titled debut album in 2011, it felt like she’d emerged as a fully formed icon. Draw- ing from rock, punk, opera, and flamenco guitar, Calvi combined talent, eclecticism, and swagger in a way that had less in common with indie song- writers of her generation than with the likes of Annie Lennox, Prince, and Nick Cave. A er putting out her third full-length, 2018’s Hunter, she wrote music for season five of Peaky Blinders, and inso- far as that job asked her to delve into the mind of crime boss Tommy Shelby, it might’ve inspired her to look at her recent work with fresh eyes. On the new Hunted, Calvi has stripped down seven songs R M from Hunter, with help from guests such as Julia O B Holter and Courtney Barnett. Though some of the D R T material on Hunter was fairly minimalist to begin Wide Hive with—on “Away,” Calvi’s voice floats over guitar widehive.com/roscoe-mitchell- strumming and a hushed backdrop of shimmering distant-radio-transmission strings—on the new versions she does away with all window dressing to zero in on stark, raw emotion. On the updated “Eden,” a tale of hiding away with a lover during a rainstorm, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s whispers commingle with Calvi’s angelic croons to conjure an atmosphere even dreamier and more intimate than that of the original. But not every song is so rose-colored or escapist. Anchored by a driving guitar riff , the Hunter version of “Wish” feels powerful and determined, but the Hunted version (which features Idles vocalist Joe Talbot) pushes COURTESY WIDE HIVE RECORDS past the original’s bright, warm surfaces to some- thing unhinged—it even gets a little maniacal when WHENTHEARTENSEMBLEOFCHICAGO reinvented itself as an for orchestra. As performed by 31-piece Czech ensemble Ostravská Calvi unleashes an operatic wail. That fi erce mood continues through Hunted closer “Indies or Para- orchestra for its 50th-anniversary recording, last year’s We Are Banda (joined by Mitchell’s trio), the piece has been expanded from dise” (the song appears midway through Hunter), on the Edge, the idea didn’t come out of thin air. It refl ected a use a series of telegraphic exchanges of sonic information into a pro- where she mixes banshee cries with hushed of the classical methods and sounds that the ensemble’s lone sur- gression of rich textures charged by interjections from Mitchell’s incantations and trades the original’s chic grooves for blistering guitar rhythms. Making a great record viving founder, woodwind and percussion player Roscoe Mitchell, stabbing sopranino saxophone and the absurdist syllable salad of is hard enough, but making one in two distinct and has been pursuing in his own work since the 1980s. The new album vocalist Thomas Buckner. Mitchell doesn’t play on the rest of the equally enjoyable versions is a humbling accom- Distant Radio Transmission consists of four completely notated record. “Nonaah Trio” and “Cutouts for Woodwind Quintet” trans- plishment. —J L works, three of which are derived from Mitchell’s improvisational form material Mitchell fi rst developed in the 1970s and 1980s into practice. “Distant Radio Transmission” began life as a free impro- sharp-angled, cubist chamber music, while “8.8.88” is a dizzyingly Dool, Summerland visation by Mitchell, keyboardist Craig Taborn, and percussionist complex work for Disklavier, a sort of computer-operated player Prophecy Productions dool-nl.bandcamp.com/album/summerland Kikanju Baku, and was subsequently transcribed and rearranged piano. —B M
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ELASTIC MUSIC
G Herbo HALEY SCOTT
Helmed by charismatic vocalist and guitarist Ryanne G Herbo, PTSD van Dorst, Dool combine pop hooks with heady lyr- Epic / Machine Entertainment Group ics and complex songwriting that draws from the soundcloud.com/gherbo underbelly of metal, psych, doom, occult rock, and more. Formed in Rotterdam in 2015 by members of I wish the right-wing miscreants in the federal gov- Dutch rock outfi ts Elle Bandita, the Devil’s Blood, ernment were as dependable as Chicago rapper G and Gold, the band (whose name translates to Herbo. For close to a decade, he’s released albums Because of the pandemic, our doors “Wandering”) have yet to tour the States, but they and mixtapes of rapid-fi re drill with reassuring fre- made waves in the heavy-music world with their quency, and even his most run-of-the-mill offer- 2017 debut, Here Now, There Then. On their brand- ings benefi t from his pragmatic empathy and lucid were forced to close until May. The new second album, Summerland (Prophecy Pro- descriptions—he brings a distinctive emotional grav- ductions), Dool lean into the arena-friendly side of ity to his detailed lyrics about the harshness of the their sound without compromising their aesthetic. city’s impoverished Black enclaves. Born Herbert livelihoods of our box office The album’s name nods to a pagan concept of the Wright, Herbo grew up in a part of South Shore a erlife—an idyllic place the soul can visit between so besieged by violence it became known as Ter- workers, security, stagehands, techs, incarnations or settle in a er reaching a fi nal ascen- ror Town, and in his music he captures both the sion—and songs such as the title track and album up-close-and-personal feeling of mortal fear and closer “Dust & Shadow” are enhanced by other- a large-scale view of the structural inequality that and bar servers have been directly worldly, majestic atmospheres. But Dool aren’t con- created the circumstances of his life. That baked- cerned solely with what happens a er we leave this in injustice continues to affect him: ever since his plane, but also with the road traveled and personal arrest for aggravated unlawful use of a loaded affected by this decision. evolution along the way. To that end, they’re more weapon in February 2018, for instance, Herbo has earthbound on tracks such as “Ode to the Future,” had to deal with local venues canceling his shows. anchored by a rich strummed guitar rhythm remi- But he’s also used his prominent position to ben- We want them to know how much niscent of Patti Smith classic “Dancing Barefoot.” efit those in need—most notably, as he explained Van Dorst’s vivid lyrics often address themes of in his episode of the TRiiBE’s Block Beat series in self-questioning and strife, and when they’re inter- September 2018, he’s part of the team that bought we appreciate their hard work woven into rock epics such as “The Well’s Run Dry” Anthony Overton Elementary School (which Rahm (which features a spoken-word passage from Bölzer Emanuel closed in 2013) to turn it into a hub for front man Okoi Jones), no challenge seems insur- job training and youth afterschool programs. On and help support them mountable. It’s easy to imagine radio-ready album the February album PTSD (Epic/Machine Enter- single “Wolf Moon” and rock rager “Be Your Sins” tainment Group), Herbo contemplates the lasting during this trying time. (with a fi ery Hammond organ solo by Swedish metal effects of growing up in a community where vio- keyboardist Per Wiberg) as gateway drugs for main- lence took so many of his friends—it may not be lit- stream rock and metal listeners who are primed erally around the corner for him today, but it’s still to discover more esoteric sounds. Dool deliver on playing out in his life, even now that he’s a genuine that front as well: “God Particle” features a Mid- star (PTSD debuted at number seven on the Bill- dle Eastern-inspired intro, a dynamic flow, and an board 200). He fi lls his raps to overfl owing with anx- PLEASE DONATE: intensity enriched by the album’s backing vocalist, iety, grief, and compassion, and he delivers his lines former Devil’s Blood and current Molasses front with enough force to convince you he can over- woman Farida Lemouchi. —J L come anything. On tracks such as “Gangbangin,” jamusa.com/helpourstaff “Lawyer Fees” (featuring Polo G), and “PTSD” (with Juice Wrld, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Uzi Vert), Herbo transmutes his trauma into euphoria without ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 31 Find more music listings at Stay Home. Stay Positive. MUSIC chicagoreader.com/soundboard. Stay Connected.
Human Impact JAMMI YORK
continued from 31 Igorrr, Spirituality and Distortion dismissing or oversimplifying the profound emo- Metal Blade We can’t wait to get back to making music and tions that inspire his music. —L G igorrr.bandcamp.com/album/spirituality-and- dancing together at the Old Town School! distortion Human Impact, Human impact In the tradition of heavy-music genre splicers such Ipecac as Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, and Estradasphere, In the meantime, many of our classes are humanimpact.bandcamp.com French act Igorrr hybridizes industrial death metal, breakcore, chiptune, and other genres using a diz- currently running online, and we are actively If you haven’t already heard Human Impact, you zying array of seemingly unrelated styles and instru- could be forgiven for wondering whether the New ments. Songwriter, DJ, and guitarist Gautier Serre working on more ways to keep you making York four-piece were soothsayers who’d prophe- weaves Baroque music, Balkan folk, Eastern motifs, music and learning new things with us, from sied humankind’s current struggle with an invisible operatic vocals, and death growls into a fabric made threat. On “Respirator,” from the group’s new self- from sludgy midtempo riffs, breakneck drum fills, home, in the near future. titled debut, vocalist and guitarist Chris Spencer and all manner of digital manipulation. Originally (formerly of Unsane) laments, “We’ve made a mis- a solo digital project, Igorrr expanded to include take / Problems that can’t be undone / I see what guest musicians in the early 2010s, and the 2017 this will bring / I see, respirator to breathe.” And album Savage Sinusoid expanded the lineup to a We are so thankful to be part of the wonderful on “Protestor,” which kicks off with plodding bass full band with a bevy of guests, including vocal- and supportive arts community in Chicago and and off -kilter keys, Spencer delivers an eerily pre- ist Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation), accordionist scient opening line: “A virus we can’t control.” But Adam Stacey (Secret Chiefs 3), and nearly a dozen are especially thankful for all our dedicated this band of noise-rock luminaries—Spencer, bass- classically trained instrumentalists. Following a tour ist Chris Pravdica (Swans, Xiu Xiu), keyboardist Jim around Europe and the States (on which Serre was students and teaching artists persevering with Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop), and drummer Phil Puleo joined by a live drummer and two vocalists), Igorrr is (Cop Shoot Cop, Swans)—are so well-versed in dark, back with Spirituality and Distortion (Metal Blade), us during this time. apocalyptic, and political themes that it was practi- the group’s fourth full-length and its second con- cally inevitable that some of their lyrics would reso- secutive album devoid of samples. The most nota- nate with our increasingly terrible reality. The long- ble addition to the already jam-packed combo of For updates, rescheduled concert info, ways to time friends formed Human Impact in 2018, then genres is Middle Eastern folk, which widens the spent much of 2019 writing material before making music’s timbral palette and increases the occur- help support our staff & more please visit their live debut in New York last August. It’ll be a rence of meditative moments and dancing oppor- while before the rest of the country gets to experi- tunities. “Downgrade Desert” and “Camel Dance- oldtownschool.org/alert ence the band onstage, but the new album should fl oor” are the most obvious examples, thanks to the mollify curious fans (though it might also make the extended oud intro and distinctive melodic scale wait for a live show even more difficult). Human in the former and the infectious groove in the lat- Stay safe, sane, and keep on playing from all of Impact aren’t reinventing the wheel—these guys ter. “Nervous Waltz” borrows more from Western know what they’re good at, and they’re sticking to classical; it begins with a beautiful triple-feel string us at Old Town School of Folk Music! it, crafting masterful songs whose cacophonous quartet with IDM rhythms and harmonized oper- noise, gritty playing, and inescapable hooks sum- atic singing before blastbeats and a quick-twitch mon an atmosphere of despair, dissatisfaction, and piano melody segue into a chuggy breakdown. On isolation. The eff ect is uncomfortable, for sure, but “Parpaing,” Cannibal Corpse front man George it’s also cathartic—sometimes the only way to fi nd “Corpsegrinder” Fisher lends his guttural vocals to oldtownschool.org hope is to dive through the muck. —J L a digital deathfest interrupted by aggro bitcore. A Frenchy accordion lead pairs with grind and black metal on “Musette Maximum,” and the übercatchy “Polyphonic Rust” uses interludes by what sounds 32 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll MUSIC GREEN art cofounded Machine Wash a er he had an unsat- isfying experience putting out his 2008 album, The Unlikely Hero, through Molemen Records—he want- ed a more mutual artist-label relationship. “The pro- e l e m e n t cess wasn’t the same and I didn’t enjoy making that record as much,” Stewart told Voyage Chicago in 2018. “I went back to my friends and felt we need- ed to help artist [sic] realize their dream without RESALE taking their control.” Machine Wash doesn’t even have a dozen releases yet, but on the new compila- tion Machine, the label rolls deep, documenting the www.big-medicine.org many current dimensions of underground Chicago hip-hop. Machine features savvy youngsters (Def- cee, Green Sllime), long-grinding veterans (Encyclo- pedia Brown, Stewart’s alter ego Decay, the Llama), producers from the arty beat scene (Lanzo, Uncle El), and an MC who helped build the foundation for the local scene (Ang13). The comp reframes hip-hop The cover of the compilation Whispers: Lounge with a peculiar new slant, even when the big-footed beats and rubbery wordplay carry a whiff of tradi- Originals COURTESY NUMERO GROUP We’re all in tion—and even the cuts that defy convention some- times feel like long-lost classics. On “Rats,” rapper- vaguely like an Eastern European women’s choir producer Green Sllime attacks a bleary instru- to color some of the best head-banging material mental with glorious non sequiturs like he’s slicing on the entire album. Spirituality and Distortion can through underbrush with a machete. Few artists change styles or moods on a dime, and it match- sound like Sllime, and I wish more would take notes. this together! es its technical and melodic excellence with its —L G boundary-defying imagination. —S M
Various Artists, Whispers: Lounge RXM Reality, Blood Blood Blood Originals Blood Numero Group Hausu Mountain numerogroup.com/products/whispers-lounge- hausumountain.bandcamp.com/album/blood- originals blood-blood-blood A couple years ago, Chicago archival label Numero Enforced mass social isolation can really make you Group launched Cabinet of Curiosities, a compila- crave constant stimuli. As each day feels longer tion series focused on fringe private-press releas- than the one before, the slow crawl of hours makes es of yore. A lot of the strange music they’ve reis- the frenetic dance music on Blood Blood Blood sued under this banner intensely evokes the eras Blood—the latest howler from Chicago-based pro- in which its creators lived, and Cabinet of Curios- ducer RXM Reality, aka Mike Meegan—sound like ities comps are unifi ed less by genre than by spir- a salve. It’s Meegan’s sixth album under that name it. The 1980s electronic sounds on 2018’s Escape and his most tightly crafted yet, brimming with From Synth City, for example, include glacial new ideas. “Exhale” evolves from glossy synth arpeg- age (“Konya” by Al Gromer Khan), chintzy boo- gios to cryptic, fumbling beats, then employs an gie (“Intellectual Thinking” by New World Music), angelic vocal sample. On “Deaths, Resurrections, and progressive house (“Whirr” by Reader con- and Ascensions” Meegan plays a similar trick: a er tributor Frank Youngwerth); the LP sleeve looks creating an airy, dizzying vortex of electronics, he like a classic NES cartridge, a theme that Nume- injects it with glistening blips and an almost wistful ro took further by creating an Escape From Synth atmosphere. The tracks mutate freely, shaped with City side-scrolling video game. The songs on the the type of confi dence that makes for a gripping lis- new Whispers: Lounge Originals ooze the laid- ten; the constant chaos rarely gives you a moment back essence of 1960s hotel bars, martini glasses, to catch your breath. Despite their superfi cial frag- and Pat Boone, but the artists push the concept mentation, though, Meegan’s jittery productions of lounge music to its outer edges. “Kids,” a lo-fi, feel fully formed—like mini worlds unto themselves. bittersweet shot of blue-eyed soul from Minneso- This is the key to the success of Blood: no single ta singer-songwriter Chuck Senrick, rubs shoulders moment feels more important than any other. Every with “These Moments Now,” a bizarre intergalactic second contains another explosion of fractured psych-rock romp by North Dakota act Justen sonics, and they all jell together due to the album’s O’Brien & Jake. Lounge music generally doesn’t try inspired restlessness. —J M K to draw much attention to itself, but the odd, twist- ed, and boldly beautiful songs on Whispers defi nite- ly deserve it. And this time the LP sleeve looks like a Various Artists, Machine matchbook, naturally. —L G v Machine Wash Music machinewashmusic.bandcamp.com/album/ machine BIT.LY/GOOSEDELIVERS Chicago has many independent hip-hop labels, but few maintain rosters as multigenerational as that of please recycle Machine Wash Music. Rapper Daryl “Decay” Stew- this paper ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 33 MUSIC
was a little too far ahead of his time for Chica- go. “We just thought of ourselves as a rock ’n’ roll band, not a glam band,” Mantegna says. “We’re thinking, ‘What, this is nuts!’ But then bands like the Beau Brummels came along and did stu like that.” Mantegna got a real bass at a pawn shop, and when Stout and Johnson left the Apoc- ryphals, the band brought aboard drummer Tom Massari and guitarist Chris Montagna. Leckel asked the group to write a song for a school play, so Mantegna and Sordelli came up with “Bernardine”—which in 1965 became the A side of the Apocryphals’ fi rst small-press 45 (Leckel chose the B side, “Gloomy Sunday,” aka “the Hungarian Suicide Song,” made famous in See you on the the States by a Billie Holiday cover in ’41). The band did mostly R&B covers, gigging other side, Chicago. at north-side clubs such as the Cheetah, the Holiday Ballroom, and My Sister’s Place. They ended up playing with several notable locals, including the Missing Links (three members of which would help form the Chicago Transit Authority in 1968) and a very green Ides of March (whose front man, future superstar chicagodancesupply.com The untold story of Joe Mantegna’s teenage Jim “Eye of the Tiger” Peterik, got his first studio experience playing tambourine with garage band the Apocryphals). They eventually secured Maybe you know that the Apocryphals existed, but we’re willing to bet you management with Joe Sugarman, who in the haven’t heard all this. 90s would strike it rich as the creator of Blu- Blocker sunglasses. In the late 60s he brought By S K the Apocryphals to the Mad label, founded by bar-walking sax honker Tommy Jones, and Rattleback it released three of the band’s five singles. RECORDS f you didn’t know that actor Joe Mantegna Neal Sordelli decided it’d be hilarious to make Sugarman also helped the Apocryphals land played in a garage band called the Apocry- their project a Beatles tribute band (it was opening slots for bigger national acts, among ANDERSONVILLE'S FULL Iphals in high school and college, you’re not 1963, after all), so they christened themselves them Paul Revere & the Raiders and Sam the SERVICE RECORD STORE alone. I had the privilege of getting the story the Weasels and donned Beatles wigs. They Sham & the Pharaohs. In April 1968, they from the man himself, and as far as I’m aware, couldn’t be the Fab Four with only three kids, warmed up for Neil Diamond the night after WE WANT TO WISH YOU ALL what you’re about to read is the most detailed though, and they needed somebody to play Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. HEALTH & PEACE DURING THESE account of the group’s history published bass and sing. Mantegna could carry a tune Mantegna began studies at the Goodman CHALLENGING TIMES anywhere. but couldn’t play an instrument, so they got School of Drama at DePaul in 1967, and until Mantegna was born in Chicago to Italian him a regular guitar that he learned his way ’69 he was able to keep playing in the band. WHILE OUR SHOP immigrants on November 13, 1947, and as a kid around well enough to get by, sticking to the But as soon as he made his professional acting IS TEMPORARILY he regularly attended his older brother’s ac- lowest four strings as though it were a bass. debut—a role in a 1969 production of Hair CLOSED cordion recitals. He didn’t initially have much The Weasels were an instant hit, and suddenly that required him to do eight shows per week, interest in making music himself—he got an started getting invites to play local sock hops spread over six days—the writing was on the WE’RE HAPPY TO earlier start as an actor, playing a dog and a and teen dances—which convinced the band wall. The rest of the band had been wanting to SHIP YOU ANY pixie in hospital shows while being treated for there was actually money to be made. move in a heavier direction (you can hear hints rheumatic fever at age eight. Mantegna does They got encouragement from Mantegna’s of it on the psychedelic Sordelli original “Im- MUSIC YOU’RE remember entertaining his family by doing mentor and drama teacher at Morton East, ages”), so the Apocryphals called it a day. The LOOKING FOR! an impression of popular singer Johnnie Ray, Jack Leckel, who also ran the theater depart- other three members added some players and though, specifi cally his 1951 tune “The Little ments at Morton West in Berwyn and a nearby carried on as the horn band Rajah, with Man- White Cloud That Cried.” junior college. Leckel came up with the name tegna occasionally fi lling in on vocals until he During Mantegna’s junior year at Morton “the Apocryphals” (the band didn’t even know got another role in Godspell. Massari, Sordelli, East High School in Cicero, his English class what it meant at first) and helped them buy and Mantegna remain friends to this day—and www.rattlebackrecords.com was assigned a project on British culture. their fi rst sound equipment. He also suggested Mantegna is also close with the founders of His classmates Art Stout, Ricky Johnson, and they wear frills, pearls, and one glove, but he Chicago he met through the Missing Links. v 34 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME
b ALL AGES F EARLY WARNINGS WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK Year of the Knife, Never End- Never miss ing Game, Choice to Make, a show again. Answer 5/9, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Sign up for the newsletter at GOSSIP UPDATED chicagoreader. NOTE: This is a selection of com/early the many concerts have been WOLF canceled or postponed in light of ongoing concerns Bottle, rescheduled; tickets A furry ear to the ground of about COVID-19. We suggest purchased for original date that you contact the point of will be honored the local music scene purchase if you need Loote 7/15, 8 PM, Schubas, information about refunds, rescheduled b DURING HER rousing afternoon set at ticket exchanges, or Ludo 7/25, 6:30 PM, House of postponed concert dates Blues, rescheduled; tickets last summer’s Pitchfork Music Festival, purchased for original date Chicago soul and gospel legend Mavis Acid Mothers Temple & the will be honored b Staples claimed she was thinking of run- Melting Paraiso U.F.O. Taj Mahal Quartet 9/28, 6 and ning for president to help get rid of “the 2/26/21, 8 PM, Subterranean, 9 PM, City Winery, resched- rescheduled; tickets pur- uled b orange face up in the office.” Let’s be chased for original date will Stephen Marley 7/19, 8 PM, frank—she wouldn’t even have to ask for be honored SPACE, Evanston, resched- Gossip Wolf’s vote! On Friday, Staples Alkaline Trio, Bad Religion uled; tickets purchased for Dakhabrakha ANDRIY PETRYNA dropped “All in It Together,” a slippery, 4/18, 8 PM, Radius Chicago, original date will be honored postponed until a date to be b Stones-y new single she wrote with long- determined, 17+ John McCutcheon 10/16, 5 PM, time collaborator Jeff Tweedy that ben- NEW Damien Escobar 11/7, 6 and 9 featuring Haymaker, Doug & Antibalas 9/17, 9 PM, Sleeping Szold Hall, Old Town School efi ts the Senior Viral Response program PM, City Winery b the Slugz, Reapers, Divided, Village, rescheduled; tickets of Folk Music, rescheduled b of Chicago nonprofi t My Block My Hood Algiers, Ganser, Pirate Twin Flesh Panthers, Bobby Lees, King Cans, Suede Razors 9/5, purchased for original date The Necks 8/4-8/5, 8:30 PM, DJs 12/4, 10 PM, Empty Bottle Furr 5/22, 10 PM, Schubas, 18+ 5 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ will be honored Constellation, rescheduled, My City , which aims to get hand sanitizer, Gary Allan 6/4, 7:30 PM, Gen- Foghat, Hi Infi delity 9/26, Midwest Live & Loud day Blackwater Holylight, Lume 18+ groceries, and other necessities to isolat- esee Theatre, Waukegan, on 8 PM, Arcada Theatre, Saint three featuring Mephiskaph- 7/8, 9 PM, Sleeping Village, Gilbert O’Sullivan 4/16/21, ed members of the city’s aging popula- sale Fri 4/10, 10 AM b Charles b eles, Hub City Stompers, rescheduled 8 PM, City Winery, resched- tion during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s Shamarr Allen & the Under- Foreign Air, J Ember 6/9, Crombies, Boomtown United Bowling for Soup, Guardrail, uled b dawgs 10/7, 8 PM, SPACE, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ 9/6, 4 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Run Around 8/27, 8 PM, Bot- Ruby the Hatchet 5/27, worth buying just for the cause, but you Evanston b Furious Bongos 11/4, 7:30 PM, Andy Milne & Unison 5/14, tom Lounge, rescheduled, 17+ 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, also get to hear an amazing ensemble that Apocalyptica, Lacuna Coil Reggies’ Rock Club, 17+ 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Anna Burch, Long Beard canceled includes Tweedy’s Wilco bandmate Glenn 2/17/21, 8 PM, House of Blues, Paul Giallorenzo Trio 5/2, Buff alo Nichols 5/22, 7 PM, 8/30, 9 PM, Sleeping Village, Sheila E. & the E-Train 9/13, Kotche, singer Akenya Seymour, and the 17+ 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Hideout rescheduled 5 and 8 PM, City Winery, Asking Alexandria, Falling in Harold Green & Flowers for Johnny Rivers 8/23, 7 PM, Brandy Clark, Kelsey Waldon rescheduled b terrifi c honky-tonk piano of Scott Ligon. Reverse, Wage War, Hyro the Living 5/8, 7:15 PM, the Arcada Theatre, Saint 8/22, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, Squarepusher, Hieroglyphic The song is selling via Bandcamp for $1 or the Hero 5/29-5/30, 6:30 PM, Promontory b Charles b rescheduled b Being 12/3, 9 PM, Metro, more, so use that “more” option if you can! House of Blues b Noah Gundersen 10/9-10/10, Eric Roberson 7/1-7/2, 8 PM, Clem Snide 7/17, 8:30 PM, rescheduled; tickets pur- For three weeks now, experimental Bad Bad Hats 5/3, 7:30 PM, 9:30 PM, Hideout City Winery b FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, chased for original date will Schubas, 18+ Steve Hauschildt 5/29, 10 PM, Phoebe Ryan, Ezi 6/10, rescheduled be honored, 18+ musician Mukqs, aka Hausu Mountain Birthday Bands BBQ featuring Sleeping Village 8:30 PM, Sleeping Village Elrow 5/2, 8 PM, Radius Chica- Steepwater Band, Angela Per- cofounder Maxwell Allison, has released Star Vehicle, Man’s Body, Martin Hayes Quartet, Martin Shabaka & the Ancestors 6/13, go, postponed until a date to ley 8/29, 8:30 PM, FitzGer- a new weekly EP, recorded live with no Kim, John Greenfi eld’s Rock Hayes & Dennis Cahill duo 8:30 and 10:30 PM, Constel- be determined, 18+ ald’s, Berwyn, rescheduled overdubs, straight to Bandcamp. He Band 6/7, 2 PM, Hideout 11/13, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old lation, 18+ Flor de Toloache 11/12, 9 PM, Stereolab, Deradoorian 5/10, Bloodbath, Necrot, Cardiac Town School of Folk Music b Adam Shead’s Finding Home, Sleeping Village, rescheduled 7:30 PM, the Vic, postponed began March 20 with the glitchy, glassy Arrest, Tragedy of Mine 5/28, Illegal Crowns 6/19, 8:30 PM, Jake Wark & Angelo Hart Sue Foley 8/9, 7:30 PM, SPACE, until a date to be determined, Anaglyph, made by running old record- 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Constellation, 18+ 5/4, 9 PM, Elastic b Evanston, rescheduled b 18+ ings through a sampler and loop pedals. Blunts & Blondes, Subdocta, Jazz Hoofi ng Quartet featur- Damon Short Quintet, Paul Fu Manchu 3/24/21, 9 PM, Bot- Al Stewart, Empty Pockets He followed it up March 27 with the whim- Bawldy, Smokahauntas 7/17, ing Jumaane Taylor 5/22, Hartsaw Trio 6/22, 9 PM, tom Lounge, rescheduled, 17+ 5/7, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ 8 PM, the Promontory b Elastic b GBH, M.D.C. 5/9, 7 PM, Reg- rescheduled b sical Specular, and on April 2 he dropped Michael Bolton 8/26, Melvin Knight, Nate Barks- Ricky Skaggs 11/1, 5 PM, Arcada gies’ Rock Club, canceled, 17+ TC Superstar, Uma Bloo, Nor- the anxious, warped Choronzon. He 7:30 PM, Arcada Theatre, dale, Stnfxce 5/14, 9 PM, Theatre, Saint Charles b A Giant Dog 5/14, 9:15 PM, dista Freeze, Nick DeLau- intends to keep going for the foreseeable Saint Charles b Tonic Room Southern Culture on the Skids Empty Bottle, canceled rentis 4/23, 9 PM, Sleeping future—thanks to Mukqs for something to Brent Cobb, Maddie Medley Legions of Metal Fest featur- 10/14, 8 PM, FitzGerald’s, Justin Hayward, Mike Dawes Village, postponed until a 6/16, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston ing Stygian Crown, Rods, Berwyn 11/1-11/2, 8 PM, City Winery, date to be determined look forward to while we’re stuck at home! b Exciter, Midas, Beretta, Steeldrivers 10/4, 8 PM, City rescheduled b Tennyson 4/25, 9 PM, Sleeping Gossip Wolf caught wind of rising Joan Collaso 5/27, 7:30 PM, the Slough Feg, Vain, Ritualizer, Winery b Heartsfi eld 7/25, 8:30 PM, Village, postponed until a local soul man Nate Barksdale after he Promontory b War Cloud, Antichrist, Mo Troper, Magic Ian, Jackson FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, date to be determined dropped the sophisticated EP Neon Soul Crossroads Quintet, Dustin Cerebus, By Fire & Sword, Davis, Rusty Gorts 9/21, 7 PM, rescheduled Tokimonsta 2/13/21, 7 PM, Laurenzi (solo) 5/11, 9 PM, Greyhawk, Silver Talon, Reggies’ Music Joint Illegal Smile, Ryan Schultz Trio Metro, rescheduled; tickets in September, and he’s since self-released Elastic b Intruder, Voltage, Prelude to Warning, Junkbunny 10/23, 4/22, 9 PM, Hungry Brain, purchased for original date three more. On the latest EP, last month’s Dakhabrakha 9/25, 8 PM, Patio Ruin, Sanhedrin, Refl exicon, 7 PM, Subterranean b canceled will be honored, 18+ Spiritual, Barksdale colors his luxurious Theater b and more 9/4, 5 PM; 9/5, David Wilcox 10/24, 8 PM, Gregory Alan Isakov, Leif Happy Traum 9/20, 2 PM, Szold melodies with touches of funk and hip- Danileigh 6/1, 6:30 PM, House 3 PM, Reggies’ Rock Club Szold Hall, Old Town School Vollebekk 6/10-6/11, 8 PM, Hall, Old Town School of Folk of Blues b Lúnasa 9/19, 5 and 8 PM, Maur- of Folk Music b Fourth Presbyterian Church Music, rescheduled b hop that bring out the earthiness in his Elder, Bask, Flesh of the Stars er Hall, Old Town School of Jess Williamson 6/11, 9 PM, of Chicago, canceled b Vagabon, Angelica Garcia sensual voice. He’s still on the Tonic Room 11/28, 7 PM, Reggies’ Rock Folk Music b Sleeping Village Kevin Krauter, Sports Boy- 11/12, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old schedule for May 14, but we’ll see how that Club, 17+ Midwest Live & Loud day one WNUR’s Power Pop Shoppe friend, Deals 7/28, 8 PM, Town School of Folk Music, goes! —JRNLG Elephant Stone, Al Lover, featuring Forced Reality, presents Lovepunch, Annie Schubas, rescheduled; tickets rescheduled b Tinkerbelles 5/9, 9:30 PM, Vis Vires, Take, Fear City, & the Orphans, Dry Look purchased for the original Kurt Vile, Cate Le Bon 9/8-9/9, Sleeping Village Besmerchers, Ultra Sect 9 /4 , 5/15, 9 PM, Hungry Brain date will be honored, 18+ 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, resched- Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail Eradicator 10/10, 7 PM, Reg- 2 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Derek Worthington’s Lossy Liturgy, Leya, Anatomy of uled and show added, 9/8 [email protected]. gies’ Music Joint Midwest Live & Loud day two Codecs 5/7, 9 PM, Elastic b Habit 8/21, 10 PM, Empty sold out, 17+ v ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 35 the cannabis platform OPINION a Reader resource for the canna curious ILLINOIS CANNABIS CONVENTION NEW DATES: October 9-10, Chicago Hilton necann.com
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: My boyfriend and I live in risk of spreading the virus who handled your care Your partners in health and wellness. San Francisco where we’ve around by doing this? I’m package—think the UPS Find out today if medical Chicago’s friendliest cannabis or infusion therapy is been sheltering in place. We currently in good health but guy who dropped it on his cannabis shop right for you. Telemed available! are unfortunately unable I know that people can be porch—had COVID-19, your Serving medical cannabis patients since 2015. to shelter together, which infected but asymptomatic boyfriend could wind up www.neuromedici.com 312-772-2313 means that we cannot have and we’re being really exposing himself by touching physical contact, especially careful to keep both of the box and then his face since he lives with a parent our households as safe as before washing his hands. who’s at heightened risk. possible. Can the virus be But I think you should send (It’s not an option for spread via pussy juice? him that package—but wear him to stay with me for —V A G gloves while you pack it, the duration.) We’re as don’t send it overnight (your frustrated about having to : COVID-19 hasn’t been scent will keep for a couple nuMed.com | 1308 W. North Ave A abruptly end the physical detected in vaginal fl uids, of days), and make sure aspect of our relationship VAG, so your pussy juice by your boyfriend immediately An Essential Calm. as you might expect. We go itself doesn’t constitute a washes his hands a er Day or Night. for (distanced) walks during threat. But the virus, which is opening and discarding the the week, we talk everyday, usually transmitted through package. and we jerk off in front the air (by people with the of webcams together but virus coughing, sneezing, or : I have a kink/fetish Whole-plant hemp that only goes so far. I was even exhaling), can survive that’s been giving me a formulations for peace thinking about giving him for hours or days on diff erent lot of anxiety over the last of mind and body. some of my worn panties for kinds of surfaces, including few years. I inadvertently him to do whatever he wants clothes. The virus can live for discovered that I’m turned with. My question is this: If I up to 24 hours on cardboard, on by big bellies, weight were to wash my hands and VAG, which means it’s the gain, and stuffi ng. It’s be cautious while putting package, not the panties, actually been there since mineralhealth.co together a pervy care that are potentially a danger I was a little kid, though I To advertise, call 312-392-2934 or email [email protected] advertise, call 312-392-2934 To package, is there much of a here. If the last person didn’t understand it until
36 CHICA O READER - APRIL ll OPINION
PATRICK KOOL / UNSPLASH everyone’s kinks—are realistic option. hardwired. “Nobody knows That said, some doctors now. If it’s relevant, I’m a why some people are more have prescribed selective female in my mid-20s, in a prone to developing unusual serotonin reuptake inhibi- heterosexual monogamous patterns of attraction than tors (SSRIs), aka antidepres- relationship. My problem others,” Bering said. “But sants, to people who were is that I have a lot of whether it’s a penchant for uncomfortable with their trouble getting off without Pokémon, feet, underwear, kinks. Those drugs don’t looking at pictures or at or spiders, the best available selectively eradicate kinks, least thinking about my evidence suggests that some BBW, they crater a person’s GetYour Swag! kink. I believe the common people—mostly males—have libido. Taking SSRIs would www.chicagoreader.com/shop guidance is, “If it’s not a genetic predisposition for mean sacrificing the vanilla hurting anyone, it’s fi ne.” being ‘sexually imprinted’ sex you enjoy with your part- But I feel super gross during development.” ner on the same altar with and ashamed. Neither my And once our erotic imagi- the kink that stresses you partner nor myself is large nations have seized on some- out. I can’t imagine you want and we both value our health thing, once we’ve imprinted to go down either of these and fi tness. I have absolutely on Pokémon characters or routes, BBW, which brings us no desire to participate big bellies or wrestling sin- back to embracing your kink in this activity with a glets, there’s not much we and coming clean with your real person. Every time I can do about it. Before we’re partner. fi nish masturbating, I feel adults—before we hit puber- The risk you run telling a embarrassed and disgusted ty—our kinks, as Bering put it, partner about your kink is no with myself. Some part of are “pretty much fixed, like doubt the forefront of your my brain obviously craves it or not.” mind, BBW, because the con- the kink, but the rest of my For all we know, the teen- sequences could be immedi- brain HATES it. I keep telling age boy with the Pokémon ate, i.e. he might dump you. myself I will stop, but I have fetish was completely com- But not telling your partner such a hard time getting off fortable with his own niche about your kink—and leaving with other porn (or without sexual interests. The dad him to wonder why you can’t porn) that I always return to wrote in, after all, not the get off with him but have no it. I genuinely enjoy having kid. (But if you’re a 23-year- trouble getting off alone— vanilla sex with my partner. old Pokémon fetishist and isn’t risk free either. If he I feel turned on and I have your dad routinely invad- feels inadequate, if he feels fun. But I’m o en not able to ed your privacy when you like you’re hiding something come. It sometimes makes were a teenager and heaped from him, if he feels like he him think he isn’t doing a shame on you about your can’t satisfy you . . . he might good job, when in reality kinks, please write in with dump you. he’s doing great and I’m just an update!) But I have heard So share your kink with frustrated with my body. from people who, like you, your boyfriend, BBW, and So I guess I’m wondering: weren’t comfortable with kinks should always be pre- Does continuing to watch their own kinks, BBW, and sented as crazy and endear- belly porn reinforce the kink desperately wanted to know ing—and potentially really in my brain? Should I stop what could be done. Most fun—quirks, not as tragedies. watching it and force myself sex scientists and research- You have a thing for big bel- to fi nd other ways to come? ers agree with Bering: lies, BBW, you don’t have leu- Should I somehow fi nd a there’s really nothing you kemia. And you can explore way to embrace the kink can do and masturbating your kinks without gaining STAY HEALTHY. STAY SAFE. THE MAGIC WILL BE BACK. instead? —B B W to the porn that turns you weight or stuffing your part- chicagomagiclounge.com on doesn’t “reinforce” your ner until he does. A little big A: Six years ago I roped Dr. kinks. You can’t starve out belly dirty talk could help Jesse Bering, author of Perv: your kinks by refusing to you get off with your partner, The Sexual Deviant in All of think (or wank) about them, BBW, and even the fittest Us, into answering a question BBW, and you can’t pray your person can push their tummy from a dad who was worried kinks away anymore than out and create the illusion about his teenage son’s I could pray my gay away. of a rounded belly. Have sexual interest in Pokémon. Embracing your kinks and fun! v (Yes, Pokémon.) Dad wanted exploring them with other to know if there was anything consenting adults—or if your Send letters to mail@ that could be done about kinks can’t be realized for savagelove.net. Download his son’s “pathetic” sexual ethical reasons, enjoy them the Savage Lovecast at obsession. Bering explained through solo or partnered savagelovecast.com that his kid’s kinks—that fantasy play only—is the only @fakedansavage ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 37 This letter is to notify that JOBS LEGAL on April 25, 2020 at 9:30 NOTICES a.m. an auction will be ADMINISTRATIVE held at Aaron Bros. Self- Storage, Inc., located at SALES & This letter is to notify that 4034 S. Michigan Ave, MARKETING on April 25, 2020 at 9:30 Chicago, IL 60653, to sell a.m. an auction will be the following articles held FOOD & DRINK held at 83rd & Halsted within said storage units Self Storage, Inc., located to enforce a lien existing SPAS & SALONS at 8316 S. Birkhoff Ave, under the laws of the Chicago, IL 60620, to sell state of Illinois. BIKE JOBS the following articles held within said storage units 544 Brian McCoy GENERAL to enforce a lien existing 318 Janice Wilson under the laws of the 117 Brian McCoy state of Illinois. 415 Krika Douglass 617 Reggie Adkins REAL 1247 Lisa Moore 335 Diannah Minefee 459 Michelle Camphor 304 Dianna Murray ESTATE 584 Brian Frazier 312 Elliott Krick RENTALS This letter is to notify that on April 25, 2020 at 9:30 FOR SALE a.m. an auction will be held at Hyde Park Self NON-RESIDENTIAL Storage, Inc., located at MARKET 5155 S. Cottage Grove ROOMATES Ave, Chicago, IL 60615, PLACE to sell the following ADULT SERVICES articles held within said storage units to enforce Danielle’s Lip Service, MARKET- a lien existing under Erotic Phone Chat. 24/7. the laws of the state of Must be 21+. Credit/ PLACE Illinois. Debit Cards Accepted. All Fetishes and Fantasies GOODS 205 Kathy Webb Are Welcomed. Personal, 10152 Nicole Burgest Private and Discrete. SERVICES 773-935-4995 HEALTH & This letter is to notify that CLASSIFIEDS on April 25, 2020 at 9:30 WELLNESS a.m. an auction will be INSTRUCTION held at South Shore Self Storage, Inc., located at MUSIC & ARTS 7843 S. Exchange Ave, Chicago, IL 60649, to sell NOTICES the following articles held within said storage units MESSAGES to enforce a lien existing sexy senior searcher under the laws of the Although there’s some LEGAL NOTICES state of Illinois. snow on the roof, this active 60+ still has a fi re ADULT SERVICES 314 Donald Haughton down below...seeking S025 Adrina Hull a lady who enjoys life. 106 Cortez Glen Attitude important... N008 Nicole Watson appearance not. WANT TO ADD A LISTING TO 111 Whitney Thompson [email protected] 550 Randy Anderson OUR CLASSIFIEDS? 526 Phillips Smart Free Matches ads are not E-mail classifi ed-ads@chicagoreader. 461 Larissa Johnson guaranteed and will run in print 263 Orita S.D.P.C. and online on a space-available com with details basis. 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Ragnar Benson Construction Company, an quirements into smaller activities or quantities, Equal Opportunity Employer, Chicago, IL 60606 which will permit maximum participation where is seeking certified DBE for subcontracting feasible. Please contact RAGNAR BENSON and vendor opportunities for the CTA Project attention Kasia Popa at - estimating@rbic. MC-024 Dan Ryan Line - Inverters and com or at 312-764-6600 to discuss subcon- Batteries Project located in Chicago, tracting opportunities and to obtain plans, spec- IL to work on the following areas: Demolition, ifications, Q&A Clarifications. Please submit all Structural & Misc. Steel, Carpentry, Painting and bids no later than April 29th, 2020 at 12PM. Electrical. Subcontracts will be awarded based The bid will be publicly opened by CTA on May on price and ability to perform work. The utmost 1st, 2020 at 3:00PM. consideration will be given to dividing total re-
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