FREEANDFREAKYSINCE | APRIL On house arrest with Mohawk Johnson CPD has tried to turn the rapper and comedian into a cautionary example to social justice protesters. He has other plans. By LG| from to Money Special Section PRISONER Smart in this issue 3/27-4/11 Turn to page 18 KIDS VISIT Week PRESIDENT FREE $ THIS WEEK CHICAGOREADER | APRIL | VOLUME NUMBER IN THIS ISSUE TR - 13 Isaacs|CultureAnewexhibit 37 RecordsofNoteThisweekthe @ attheMuseumofContemporary Readerreviewscurrentreleases Photographyraisesquestions byJoannaConnorGenghisTron PPTB PECKH aboutthefutureofreproductive JulienBakerRylerWalkerSunny ECS K rights Warandmore PMKW 40 EarlyWarningsRescheduled GDAH MEP M concertsandotherupdatedlistings TDEKR 40 GossipWolfTheEmptyBottle CEBW hasanimportantcatupdateDan AEJL FILM SWMD LG 28 DocumentationSo Cage Whitaker&theShinebenders DI BJ MS CITYLIFE Filmsaimstocapturesocialjustice returntothepatiostageand LCSC-J 04 Masterbespoke movements Lumedropalbumthreevianew SJR LearnLocal F AM R tailorEricWStilessharesthetricks 30 ReviewSitintheanxietyof labelandcollectiveOhmstead ofhistrade EmmaSeligman’sShivaBaby 41 ChicagoansofNoteMonique ---------------------------------------------------------------- 31 MoviesofNoteGodzillavs GoldingvocalistforMosaicSoul DDJ D Kongisanexcellentmonster andtheBlackMonumentEnsemble SMCJ G EBAT 14 Rhodes|HousingTenyears smashathonTinacapturesthe A a erthelastCabriniGreenhigh iconicsinger’striumphandpain OPINION risecamedownformerresidents andNetfl ix’sChristianmusicalA 44 SavageLoveDanSavageoff ers SI D M N lookbackatthecommunitythat WeekAwayisastonishinglybad adviceonsnoopingonalovedone’s D DCW shapedthem browserhistory MPCY D E ASL K ARTS&CULTURE CLASSIFIEDS MPD 20 LitAnexcerptfromOldStylean 45 Jobs A A C illustratedbooksetinChicagobars 45 Apartments&Spaces SE CK K FOOD&DRINK 22 UntoldStoriesTheChicago 45 Marketplace ADVERTISING 06 Sula|ReviewGiongGiong Women’sHistoryCentereducates -- @ meansthefl avorsofVietnamand fromadistance C - @ Guatemalaarekinda“samesame” THEATER VPSA M NEWS&POLITICS 24 ReviewTrapDoorTheatreoff ers O P I SDAN T PVJ SAR 08 Joravsky|PoliticsRepublicans afragmentedjourneythrough MUSIC&NIGHTLIFE L FT P’ L M-H TP arewagingaphony“fi ght”against MateiVişniec’simagination 32 Galil|FeatureCPDhastriedto WR L S L’ cancelculture 25 Reid|TimeCapsule Intothe turnrapperandcomedianMohawk @_I NA 10 Dukmasova|ExplainerAdeep Mist’svirtualspeakeasybrings Johnsonintoacautionaryexample VMG- - - ­­ diveintoIllinois’ssweepingnew tolife tosocialjusticeprotestersHehas criminaljusticereformlaw otherplans JLSB ---------------------------------------------------------------- DC [email protected] THIS WEEK ON CHICAGOREADER.COM -- CHICAGO READER LC BPD R L TE R A-S V READER INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY JOURNALISM INC C E R TCB DA CV F KL HJK-P D R LSV ---------------------------------------------------------------- RISSN­-­ RLC S M SC IL­­­ -- C ©C R Thommy’s Toddy Shop How a theater survives The solidarity economy P C IL A Superkhana International On the resilience of Rogers Park’s How mutual aid organizations A C RR line cook’s side hustle has your New 400 Theater are picking up the government’s RR T ® Malayali condiment fi x. slack this pandemic. 2 CHICAOREADER - APRIL ll Client: ComEd Bleed: Region: US Campaign: Financial Assistance Print 2021 Trim: 4.7917” x 9.875” Language: English Agency Job #: B1241-022477-00 Live: Notes: None AD #/AD ID: QEXL1094000 Date Modified: February 8, 2021 1:03 PM Keyline Scale: 100% CR: Output at: AD Round: Page: NOT TO BE USED FOR COLOR APPROVAL ACD: A. Del Valle CD: G. Apfelbach CW: A. Walentin P: C. Capola AM: L. Mitchell BM: E. Schmidt SPRING BREAK CURRENT EXHIBITIONS AT ILLINOIS HOLOCAUST MUSEUM TOGETHER, WE CAN POWER THROUGH ANYTHING. ABE & IDA COOPER SURVIVOR STORIES EXPERIENCE Interactive 3D Survivor holograms. Abe & Ida Cooper Survivor Stories Experience features Dimensions in He changed the world from a jail cell. Testimony, developed by USC Shoah Foundation in partnership with Illinois Holocaust Museum. Presenting Sponsors: Mandela: Struggle for Freedom was developed by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (Winnipeg, Canada) in partnership with the Apartheid Museum (Johannesburg, South Africa). Tour management services provided by Lord Cultural Resources. Developed by: International Tour Supporters: Pick it up DON'T until it’s gone! STOP THE PRESSES If you could use help with LAGER your energy bill, there’s a way. To learn about financial A brighter now available at assistance call 800-EDISON1 future Haymarket Brewing, or visit ComEd.com/Support 737 W. Randolph St.! today. Proceeds from this beer go to support: 1 ll APRIL - CHICAOREADER 3 104581_QEXL1094000_V1 Leo Burnett February 8, 2021 1:03 PM GM EWSSA N. Oak Park, Ste. , Oak Park, - -, ewsacademy.org, Eric W. Stiles on CITY LIFE YouTube. Learn local was that by controlling his mind he wouldn’t allow himself to sweat. And then he moved on. The many styles of Mr. He’s always moving on, in class and in life too. Stiles seemed predestined to work in fash- Stiles ion—and not just because of his name. His in- Master bespoke tailor Eric W. Stiles terest in the fi eld started when he was 11 after shares the tricks of his trade. seeing a tailor making alterations at his uncle’s cleaners. At the time, despite being so young, By IG Stiles found a way of watching a sewing class at a local high school. After learning more of the trade, he started making alterations him- self. His big break came in 1975, when he got hired by a company called Brittany, Ltd., “an know too much stu not to pass it on to Italian tailor,” Stiles says. “And I ended up pro- people who would love to learn it,” says gressing from there and becoming the head “I Eric W. Stiles, a 66-year-old master tailor later for Polo/Ralph Lauren, Giorgio bespoke tailor who’s always had a penchant Armani and then Brioni.” At Brioni—a luxury for education. After working in tailoring for menswear boutique—Stiles was responsible more than 50 years—many of those dedicated for the alterations that were sent to him from to teaching—Stiles decided to make his knowl- all over the country. When working 50- to edge freely available on his YouTube channel. 60-hour weeks became too strenuous, Stiles “I put out usually two videos a week—all turned back to a passion of his: teaching. He of them from intermediate to advanced started teaching in 1989 at Kennedy-King Col- work,” he says. Themes range from “Create lege, and from there took jobs at 12 additional the perfect jean pant pattern” to “Draping a colleges. Later on he expanded his clientele by skirt” to “Create a shirt pattern from an old o ering courses online, which ended up at 60 shirt.” Stiles says beginners should take his colleges in the U.S. and two in Canada. But, as classes, either online or in his Oak Park studio, Stiles puts it, it was “a heck of a lot of adminis- EWS Sewing Academy, which he opened two trative work,” and he decided to move on. years ago. In his courses, Stiles teaches the Now an empty nester (he has five grown basics of sewing and pattern drafting, and children and eight grandchildren), he turned students learn to create their own patterns one of his bedrooms into a YouTube studio: from scratch by using formulas I myself tried “I’ve been pumping those videos out very to master more than a decade ago. Yes, I used well,” he says. “I get to edit everything here, to be Mr. Stiles’s student back when his school put it together, put it online, and have fun.” He was in Evergreen Park. I did master the formu- does value his time a lot more, and therefore las, and I also learned how to sew some kind won’t overcommit. He also teaches two class- of pocket. But what I’ll always remember from es a week in his Oak Park studio (socially dis- those classes was the fun banter provided tanced with seven students per group max). by Mr. Stiles. He conducts his lessons in an And that seems to be more than enough. orderly way, going from student to student to Stiles picked Oak Park as a new location support them with their tasks, but at the same for his studio because he’d enjoyed a school time he drops the most entertaining stories he’d opened there in the early 90s, but closed at the slightest hint of a subject. When I last it “for a particular reason.” That reason? The saw him, to take photos for this article, he building had no AC and everyone was melting was reminiscing about how hot one of his fi rst in there—even though he personally refused ISAGIALLORENZO classrooms used to be. His take on the subject to sweat. v 4 CHICAOREADER - APRIL ll BULL HO N PHOTOCOURTESYWONKIM Thinking outside the box ’m getting tired of giving Corona so much turn into: How do we reach more people and help credit this past year. I get that this virus has our immediate community in need? Ibeen the cause of much sadness, death, tur- This is how Community Kitchen was born. moil, disagreement, and civil unrest. We’ve had Marzweski came up with the idea of helping the many social media scientists and experts weigh- elderly in Bridgeport and funding it through his ing in on solutions and theories as they sit in their nonprofit PMI. The idea was simple: hire out- underwear and fluy slippers getting ready for a of-work industry workers and give them a lot of zoom meeting like a full body mullet—business money to actually care about making food to feed up top, party down below. the elderly and immediate neighbors. This all Our government at the time had no backup went swimmingly well and as winter was fast ap- plan, no solutions, no answers, and this is how proaching—with more closings and still no solu- we went into this plague: with relief in the form tions or answers from our government—we had of $1800 dollars in aid to pay for a year’s worth no choice but to shutter. Again. Trying to forecast of rent, food, goods, utilities, toiletries, gas— survival in the winter was tough enough, but now you get it. In times of uncertainty, the last place with a deadly virus floating around? you would look for life aid is your local artist or The only for-sure thing we enjoyed doing creative.