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SUMMER 2019: ARTS & CULTURE THE CITY PASTORAL ART A Myco-Adventure 16 The case for Chicago art Communing in Chicago's Japanese Garden 11 20 29 Falcons, Coyotes, and How to Re-Wild Downtown Chicago 26 DANCE 22 Dance in the Parks puts some Have You Seen A Kirtland’s Warbler? 10 How to Meditate in Public 14 green into the culture 25 34 Painting Outdoors, Like It's 1899 12 Repairing the World 17 DESIGN 18 Sagegreenlife elevates the Saved by the Cottonwood 23 Spokesman for Outdoor Enjoyment 13 art of plant design Summer is a Johnnie’s Italian Beef Sandwich 12 36 22 Take Me to the River Town DINING & DRINKING Ten Songs for Summer CBD in your glass or on your plate The Floater 38 The Summer Parade Begins Update From the River FILM The loss of our past “East Garfield Park Bull Thistle 24 (after Hugh MacDiarmid)” 40 by Roger Bonair-Agard LIT “The Bra I Saw on Michigan Ave” 13 Aleksandar Hemon by Jennifer Karmin on memory and memoir “Chicago is not a good place to fall into the river” 19 43 by Marcy Rae Henry MUSIC “Chicago Wilderness” 15 Cage the Elephant by Robbie Q. Telfer finds its groove again “From Our Porch I Gaze at Our Lush Garden” 21 46 by Jacob Victorine STAGE “Looking at a Tulip with Lydie” 1 1 A changing of JULY 2019 Newcity by Chris Green the guard at Black Box Acting 48 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL Teen Dream about a summer day in the park 50 3
LETTER On Friday, at the press opening of his show at the MCA, Virgil Abloh talks about his early life as a black FROM THE kid in Rockford and his own preconceived notions EDITOR that architects and fashion designers did not look like him. But then he graduates from architecture Newcity JULY 2019 s an editor and publisher, I spend a lot of time school and rapidly rises as a fashion designer from listening, reading and watching—to plays, his own brand into the helm of the storied French films, speeches and interviews of all sorts of luxury brand Louis Vuitton, where he is now artis- creative people. And sometimes there is a magical tic director of their men’s wear collection. Abloh’s serendipity when you receive a message that reso- story would never have been told if he’d let those nates over and over across time and art forms. This preconceived notions hold him back. week, the message was about empathy, about recog- In the interview that Sadaf Ferdowsi has with Sasha nizing the value of each and every person as an in- Hemon in this issue, he talks about his parents’ mi- dividual, rather than forming opinions based on gration from Bosnia. “Even before this Ellis Island preconceived notions or cultural stereotypes. And mythology, refugees and even immigrants in gener- about the power of story to share that empathy and al have been represented as this faceless, zombie-like to ensure that people are not forgotten. mass with no lives, no individuality, no complexity; they are just driven by a hunger to ‘get what we have.’ On Monday, we attend Steppenwolf ’s new play, “Ms. But this is not really the case: Everyone is a person Blakk for President.” It’s a true-life tale of a drag and everyone has a story.” queen from Chicago, who, after running for mayor We’re living in times where empathy is given little of Chicago, decides, in 1992, to run for president on or no value, at least by our national government. And the Queer Nation ticket as in-your-face activism. it’s in these times that story telling that recognizes During the performance, Terence Smith, the real-life the humanity of every single person around us is Ms. Blakk, talks about the power of being remem- more important than ever. bered, and knowing that his life mattered and in hopes that others like him who had been “forgotten” JAN might also now be remembered. HIEGGELKE On Thursday, Alex Kotlowitz, author of “There Are No Children Here” and “An American Summer” is honored at the Harold Washington Literary Award and talks about how listening to people and their stories makes us understand and relate on a human level. He talks about encountering a man in a wheel- chair at the hospital who has been shot in a robbery while at work. Because of what happened, people leap to the assumption that he must be a “bad” guy. As he was about to be wheeled away, he asked Alex, “Don’t forget about me.” He wanted his story told, to be remembered. 4
NOW OPEN Manet and Modern Beauty is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the J. Paul Getty Museum. The lead affiliate sponsor is the Auxiliary Board of the Art Institute of Chicago. Major support is provided by Robert J. Buford, Rande and Cary D. McMillan in honor of Mrs. Cindy Pritzker, the Shure Charitable Trust, Loretta and Allan Kaplan, and Nancy Strubbe Santi and E. Scott Santi. Additional support is made possible by Norman and Virginia Bobins, The Robert Thomas Bobins Foundation; Margot Levin Schiff and the Harold Schiff Foundation; the Rose L. and Sidney N. Shure Endowment; and Jean M. Unsworth. Members of the Exhibitions Trust provide annual leadership support for the museum’s operations, including exhibition development, conservation and collection care, and educational programming. The Exhibitions Trust includes an anonymous donor; Neil Bluhm and the Bluhm Family Charitable Foundation; Jay Franke and David Herro; Kenneth Griffin; Caryn and King Harris, The Harris Family Foundation; Robert M. and Diane v.S. Levy; Ann and Samuel M. Mencoff; Sylvia Neil and Dan Fischel; Anne and Chris Reyes; Cari and Michael J. Sacks; and the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Édouard Manet. Jeanne (Spring) (detail), 1881. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
2,160 fans earned festival swag for particpating in the Rock & Recycle program. FARID MOSHER through our Water Refill Stations, Waste diversion efforts with Sr. Guest Services Manager our fan driven Rock & Recycle program, help of fans, staff and LHSF Canned Water, Carbon Offsets, and Lollapalooza, recipient of the 2017 Eco-Friendly transportation initiatives, ambassadors resulted in Illinois Sustainability Award, has among other programs. Interest seen success through the from festival goers has never been 145.6 TONS implementation and refinement greater, and Lollapalooza provides a of a variety of sustainability tremendous platform to spread the of recycled and/or composted material. programs and initiatives that have message of sustainability. been vital to our festival since the ChainLinks assisted over very beginning. Now, in our 28th year, we continue our committed approach 200 bicyclists to new environmental goals and sustainability programs. with bike maintenance & information on biking around the city Over the years, we have experienced substantial improvements to our positive impact metrics and diversion rates ADVERTISING
#BYOBottle all while registering fans to GET ON THE LIST, 1,119,276 a marrow donor database campaign. In total, and plastic bottles were thanks to our fans, avoided thanks to water Lollapalooza has added over 5,000 potential filling stations. life-saving matches to the database, with 105 matches to date. 639 fans An additional area of focus this year Participation at the is with the expansion of our Divert It! festival has not just volunteered as Love Hope Strength composting program. Our Chow Town been limited to non-profits and cause Foundation Ambassadors, supporting and catering vendors have adhered to a related organizations. Sponsors have strict set of guidelines to help us grow been helping drive programming for sustainability efforts at Water our composting numbers from 5 tons years, and staff and vendors have been Stations and Rock & Recycle. in 2016, when the festival switched to providing the resources necessary for a 4-day format, to 18.34 tons in 2019. everybody to do their part. Lollapalooza As a member of the Sustainable realizes that every person at the Concerts Working Group, Since 2016 Lollapalooza began festival has a role when it comes to Lollapalooza aided in the launch of working with Loyola University sustainability, and that everybody’s musician Jack Johnson’s BYOBottle Chicago’s Institute of Environmental contribution, no matter how small, Campaign around Earth Day, which Sustainability to help fans better can have an immense impact. identified a simple course of action sort organic waste on-site. Students that artists, fans, and festival from the school are engaged in Lollapalooza offset organizers could take to reduce their understanding and responding to footprint and eliminate single-use local and global environmental pounds of C02 emissions. plastic. Through this partnership issues, and administration has looked That’s the work of 200,000 Lollapalooza was able to amplify our at Lollapalooza as an opportunity message of sustainability in advance to prepare students for socially young trees over a year! of the festival this year. We are asking responsible professions and advancing fans and artists to travel to the knowledge of environmental problems. Lolla with their own reusable water bottle, and to share their plastic-free Loyola is just one example of an 865 fans commitment via social media using institution partnering with the #BYOBottle. Lollapalooza also works festival to make an impact. Love Hope registered for the International with Event Water Solutions to provide Strength’s ambassador program has Bone Marrow Registry via free, cool, filtered water at Hydrations seen thousands of patrons earn prizes Stations throughout the park to help through the Festival’s Rock & Recycle Love Hope Strength Foundation’s festival attendees go refillable. Program, and have offered pouring “Get On The List” campaign. services at water refill stations, ADVERTISING
CONTRIBUTORS JOHN MOSS (Writer, “A Myco- ON THE COVER Adventure”) writes proposals for a Design and Illustration: Dan Streeting JR ATKINSON (Writer, “In Plein Fortune 500 company who’s become Sight”) is a proud Chicago native who interested in combing the woods Vol. 34, No. 1393 attends Wesleyan and co-founded for mushrooms. a new campus publication, Midriff PUBLISHERS Magazine, the university’s only RAY PRIDE (Writer, “The Summer Brian & Jan Hieggelke womxn-centered publication. Parade Begins”) is Newcity’s Film Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett editor and a photographer. ROGER BONAIR-AGARD (Writer, EDITORIAL “East Garfield Park Bull Thistle (after CAROL SALLER (Writer, “Urban Editor Brian Hieggelke Hugh MacDiarmid)”), a poet and Odyssey”) is the author of “The Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke performance artist, is a Chicagoan Subversive Copy Editor” and Art Editor Kerry Cardoza born in Trinidad and Tobago. “Eddie’s War.” Dance Editor Sharon Hoyer Design Editor Vasia Rigou EMERSON DAMERON (Writer, CAT STRAIN (Writer, “Saved By the Dining and Drinking Editor “How To Meditate in Public”) performs Cottonwood”) is an editor at the School David Hammond live storytelling shows at night and of the Art Institute’s Fnewsmagazine. Film Editor Ray Pride does various forms of comedy writing. Music Editor Robert Rodi DAN STREETING (Designer and Theater Editor Kevin Greene ZACH FREEMAN (Writer, “Spokesman illustrator, “Summer 2019” cover), Editorial Intern JR Atkinson for Outdoor Enjoyment”) is a computer Newcity’s senior designer, often goes scientist, theater critic and great dad. for long walks as a way to get away ART & DESIGN from the routine of office work. Senior Designers Fletcher Martin, CHRIS GREEN (Writer, “Looking Dan Streeting , Billy Werch at a Tulip with Lydie”) is the author KAYCIE SURRELL (Writer, “Ten Songs Designers Jim Maciukenas, Stephanie Plenner of four books of poetry, including the For Summer” and “Have You Seen a forthcoming “Everywhere West.” Kirtland’s Warbler?”) is a “mostly jaded MARKETING writer and fierce feminist.” Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke DAVID HAMMOND (Writer, “Summer Is a Johnnie’s Italian Beef Sandwich”) ROBBIE Q. TELFER (Writer, “Chicago OPERATIONS is Newcity’s Dining and Drinking editor. Wilderness”) is a touring performance General Manager Jan Hieggelke poet and “habitat restorer.” Distribution Coordinator Matt Russell MARCY RAE HENRY (Writer, Distribution Nick Bachmann, “Chicago Is Not a Good Place To Fall DAVID WITTER (Writer, “The Floater”) Adam Desantis, Preston Klik, into the River”) is “a Latina born… is a photographer, musician and author, Quinn Nicholson resister, a performance artist, a nationally who specializes in Chicago history. and internationally published writer One copy of current issue free at select locations. and a mediocre musician with no social MICHAEL WORKMAN (Writer, Additional copies, including back issues up to one media accounts.” “Repairing the World”) is an art critic, year, may be ordered at Newcity.com/subscribe. journalist and entrepreneur. Copyright 2019, New City Communications, Inc. DAVE HOEKSTRA (Writer, “Take Me All Rights Reserved. To the River Town”) feels that “the beauty JACOB VICTORINE (Writer, “From of baseball is found in the circular soul Our Porch I Gaze at Our Lush Garden”) Newcity assumes no responsibility to return of community.” His book, “The Camper is a multi-genre writer, teacher, artist unsolicited editorial or graphic material. All Book,” is an oral history of the camper and founder of On TAPE Studio. He was rights in letters and unsolicited editorial or van adventure and every stop along born and raised in New York City. graphic material will be treated as unconditionally the way. assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to comment editorially. Nothing may JENNIFER KARMIN (Writer, “The be reprinted in whole or in part without written Bra I Saw on Michigan Avenue”) loves permission from the publisher. to perform, teach and experiment with language all over the world. Newcity is published by Newcity Communications, Inc. MEGAN KIRBY (Writer and Illustrator, 47 West Polk, Suite 100-223, Chicago, IL 60605 “An Update From the River”) hosts Meanwhile and writes zines. Visit NewcityNetwork.com for advertising and editorial information. DUSTIN LOWMAN (Writer, “Urban Ecology”) is a writer, poet and musician. Newcity JULY 2019 8
ON THE COVER JULY 2019 Newcity Design and illustration: Dan Streeting Vol. 34, No. 1393 PUBLISHERS Brian & Jan Hieggelke Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett EDITORIAL Editor Brian Hieggelke Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke Art Editor Elliot Reichert Dance Editor Sharon Hoyer Design Editor Vasia Rigou Dining and Drinking Editor David Hammond Film Editor Ray Pride Lit Editor Toni Nealie Music Editor Robert Rodi Theater Editor Kevin Greene ART & DESIGN Senior Designers Fletcher Martin, Dan Streeting, Billy Werch Designers Jim Maciukenas, Stephanie Plenner MARKETING Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke OPERATIONS General Manager Jan Hieggelke Distribution Coordinator Matt Russell Distribution Nick Bachmann, Adam Desantis, Preston Klik, Quinn Nicholson One copy of current issue free at select locations. Additional copies, including back issues up to one year, may be ordered at Newcity.com/subscribe. Copyright 2019, New City Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Newcity assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial or graphic material. All rights in letters and unsolicited editorial or graphic material will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to comment editorially. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Newcity is published by Newcity Communications, Inc. 47 West Polk, Suite 100-223, Chicago, IL 60605 Visit NewcityNetwork.com for advertising and editorial information. 9
IN PLEIN SIGHT: plein air technique is especially useful for returning to the basics of PAINTING OUTDOORS, painting like interpreting light and shadow. The sky she’s capturing LIKE IT’S 1899 will change within minutes and the challenge lies in deciding which fleeting moments she’ll commit to paper. As she works, an tall spurt by JR Atkinson of water shoots from the top of the fountain. Gaines quickly mobilizes her phone camera to catch the moment, as she’s sure she’ll want to incorporate it into her final piece. Painting urban Chi- It’s around 7:45 on a Friday night cago as opposed to and a handful of tourists circum- something more clas- ambulate Buckingham Fountain, sically agrarian is a stopping occasionally to snap matter of happen- photos of the sunset-lit Chicago stance for Gaines, landmark. A small group of locals whose southwest Mi- are here on a similar mission, al- chigan roots gave her a taste for nature. though their method of docu- Though now a Pilsen mentation is less selfie-stick and resident, a lot of her more old-world romantic. Artists work from outside from Plein Air Painters Chicago Completed oil painting of Buckingham the group has more are out tonight, armed with can- Fountain by Anne Farley Gaines of a flora and fauna vases and brushes, painting what focus. She treasures, they see. This evening it’s the fa- though, the opportu- mous fountain. nity to artistically reckon with places she wouldn’t normal- At its simplest, to paint “en plein air” is to paint outdoors. Popular- ly consider. The group offers location inspiration ranging from the ized by the French Impressionists and artists of the Hudson school Baha’i temple in Wilmette to the Quincy Brown Line station. in the nineteenth century, the technique was developed to break down the rigidity and structure of the classic studio setting. The style Another artist, Kuhn Hong, has chosen a seat dead-on with the foun- has persisted into today’s world, packaged as a learning tool for art tain, facing Columbus drive. Equipped with an easel and oil paints, students or leisure activity for retirees. For Plein Air Painters Chica- he’s anticipating darkness. His sky is a deep midnight blue, contrast- go, the practice simply means packing up a canvas and a couple ing Gaines’ lighter hues. Tonight’s sky is particularly unpredictable, tubes of paint, parking yourself somewhere scenic, and spending a but Hong enjoys the task of adapting his art to the changes. He also couple hours outside. sees Chicago as distinctly suited for plein air painting, citing its lived- in history, architecture and friendly people. The group operates under the umbrella of the Palette & Chisel Acad- emy of Fine Arts, which provides organizational structure and houses PAPC is open to painters at all levels of experience, and the commu- their annual plein air exhibit. A membership includes access to “paint- nity acts as a sounding board for experimentation and artistic growth. outs” from April through October, a chance to sell work during the year, (It also provides an immediate network of collaborators and potential critiques and, of course, camaraderie with other painters. Impromptu clients.) This weekend, a group will head to St. Charles for a wine ex- post-paint lunches and potlucks aim to foster a sense of community change where members can sell their work. among the artists. By the end of the session, around 9pm, tourists have cleared out and Today’s paint-out was scheduled thirty minutes before sunset, one of daylight has almost dissipated. A soft orange glow emanates from with- the group’s occasional nocturne events. It’s cloudy and humid, and in the fountain, and the mood is decidedly soothing. The brightest lights, the chance of rain has warded off some potential painters. Coordina- though, come from the flashing neon of pedicabs and the ever-present tor Mary Longe notes that spotty weather is a natural deterrent to at- red of the Congress Hotel’s neon sign. The artists have added rough tendance, but maintains that the group framework provides encour- outlines of surrounding buildings and are finishing their base colors. agement to get out there despite the conditions. A determined few They will work on these pieces for a few more hours offsite before post- have persisted, and they’re rewarded with warm weather and a peace- ing pictures of the finished product at their Facebook group. ful setting. Newcity JULY 2019 Chicagoans have a talent for realizing the full potential of good weath- Artist Anne Farley Gaines is set up at one of the wooden benches en- er, and the summer season allows for the kind of laidback reverie that circling the fountain. She props her canvas on her knees, securing it plein air painting requires. The practice obviously serves a utilitarian with one hand as she wields her brush with the other. “I didn’t bring purpose for artists, but more broadly offers a special way to interact my easel today,” she says. She usually works in watercolor, but is try- with the city. The very nature of plein air urges you to sit down for at ing oil today, using the paint-out as a nudge toward experimentation. least a couple hours and really behold something, a habit that most The nature of painting outdoors, especially at sunset, makes it difficult city dwellers rarely indulge in. It’s a way to enjoy the outdoors while to see what exact shades you’re putting on the canvas, so there forcing yourself to sit with your surroundings instead of rushing from 10 is some gamble inherent in the process. “The fun is getting back to spot to spot. And if you look hard enough, hidden secrets are bound the studio and seeing what you’ve got,” Gaines adds. She notes that to bubble up.
URBAN ODYSSEY: As I wait, I tuck my earphone wires inside my COMMUNING jacket. On the street I wear black ones on the theory that they’re less visible to muggers. IN CHICAGO’S Less iPhoney. My used iPhone is fairly new JAPANESE GARDEN and I don’t want to lose it. It’s my first one, bought last year because all the cool kids in by Carol Saller my young department had them. Among my contemporaries I guess I’m one of the cool kids. Some don’t even have smartphones. Even so, it occurs to me that I’m not the most likely target for someone aiming to pinch the latest tech. Eyeing the six-lane throughway between me and Safely across Cornell, I navigate around the Looking at a Tulip Wooded Island, I decide to wait at the light. It’s Museum of Science and Industry, where twen- with Lydie out of my way, but the last time I risked crossing ty yellow school buses idle in a whirlpool of mid-block, I was conscious of my older-person carbon monoxide. Staff in yellow vests wave by Chris Green lopsided jog, and I don’t trust Chicago drivers to clipboards and halt pedestrians as one behe- brake for white hair. When you’re young, run- moth at a time lumbers out of the lot. I hold my Enjoying the not yet summer, ning’s like breathing. I think of the gazelles at breath and walk as fast as possible through we cut a tulip from the yard— the gym flying in place on the treadmill. I’m the fumes, contemplating plant life versus tox- “The swizzlestick at the center pretty fit, but it’s different being older. I fear fall- ins, rooting for the plant life team. I breathe is a stamen . . . a penis,” I say. ing. Fractures. deeply once I’m on the bridge to the island. And like the idiot statesman of pollination, I continue— There isn’t a single bike in the rack at the gar- “There are ovaries too, somewhere.” den entrance. Everyone’s at work. That’s Luckily, she does not argue. fine—I like photos without a lot of people in It is a hot day. Everything them. I dismiss a thought that I might not be is quiet and peaceful except now safe in the park. This day is gray and a little there’s the idea of a flower drizzly. What kind of thug comes to the Japa- and a bee . . . doing things. nese Garden in the rain? I grow old watching her in the garden. The garden is stunning, every surface pol- The elements of her mother— ished by the rain. Only one other person is the same hair, there, a man with a vintage single-lens to his the responding beauty in her face. face. We circle around, keeping out of each Can one discuss a young daughter other’s shots. I consider sitting for awhile, with so much misery around? sans podcast. I take out my phone to click Brecht said yes. “pause” and out of habit quickly check email, So, beside our dirty white garage, Twitter, Facebook, Scrabble, my stocks. I we come to a new understanding should get back. I have a writing deadline, my of the lily family. volunteer gig, and a quilting error I’m eager to undo, even though it means taking out hun- 11 dreds of tiny stitches. Still, I’m in nature. I’m retired. I should com- mune. Chicago’s Japanese Garden / Photos: Carol Saller I dutifully sit on a rock, waiting to feel privi- Newcity JULY 2019 leged, awed, inspired. I sniff the damp ground, Anyway, now I’m retired from the day job and the new grass. Rose-blossomed branches I have time to wait at lights and time to wan- frame geese in the lagoon. But it’s when I spot der out into nature, and this morning I’m the green dome of the museum through the headed for the serenity and calm of Jackson trees that my heart finally swells, thinking on Park’s Garden of the Phoenix in pursuit of— happy times with the children, on the build- what else?—something to post on Facebook. ing’s story and meaning for my community. I’m pretty much an indoor girl, but my “friends” This is my privilege, my inspiration, my city in love nature pix, so that’s the agenda. What’s a garden. more, a long walk is a competitive retiree’s dream: I can use it to catch up on audio read- Twenty seconds later, I click “play” and sail ing and rack up some “steps.” home, renewed. Chicago’s Japanese Garden (also known as Garden of the Phoenix or the Osaka Garden) is in Jackson Park, 6401 South Stony Island.
SPOKESMAN FOR OUTDOOR ENJOYMENT On the stoop, at the intersection, end days before summer. The flood “Summer Parade 1” of shoes just happened. I had no idea I would witness the surge of Photo: Ray Pride the fifteen- or twenty-minute procession. There’s a cool breeze in this bright hour before dusk begins, where the night before had been hours of black, bored rain. by Zach Freeman Humidity lies in wait. (A few days yet.) in cheery fresh coats: cherry-red lacquer, Traffic starts and chugs in regular inter- Vamp polish, a turquoise the color of Fi- I’ve never been much of an outdoor person. vals north-south and east-west as I look estaware. Long toes on lime flip-flops. When I was a kid in rural east Texas, my dad down at a text, Instagram. Before I can used to have to make me go outside, to “appre- fall into Twitter, in peripheral vision I rec- The unlikely crushed-velvet slingback ciate” the world. In teenage protest, I once got ognize, looking down, the world is shoes. thong. (The woman’s voice rises in laugh- two extension cords and brought the television ter at what the pair of Doc Martens said.) and VCR with me into the yard, sitting under This time of day, beyond work, toward Shiny teal flats with revealing toe line. a tree and watching “Austin Powers: Interna- play, the sun shines in artful, welcoming tional Man of Mystery” on repeat instead of columns, radiates long spikes along the THE SUMMER looking up into the towering pine trees. Other street and sidewalk. Any frame a photog- PARADE times I just took a book with me, equally remov- rapher could make would gleam. There ing myself from the world around me but a bit are men’s bulky running shoes and leath- BEGINS more pretentiously. er shoes and white-soiled-to-gray fuck- ing Converse, but this wave of foot traffic is mostly women, women who long an- ticipated first opportunity to pair beloved shoes with simple summer. For over a decade—college, marriage, ca- Look up, faces and figures that pass in by Ray Pride reer—blessed with a nonjudgmental wife, I drifts and puddles of late afternoon light was free from anyone reminding me not to resemble the theatrical photo tableaux These shoes have been waiting. These squander my opportunities to be outdoors. by Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Look down, the walkers have anticipated. This day would floor of the urban forest is peopled by the come. The sunset would set, Chicago air Newcity JULY 2019 And now I have two sons of my own, and my fanciful parade. There are, of course, fragrant and not filthy. Walking would be oldest—only three (or already three, depend- bared calves, ankles, Achilles tendons, all joy, part of a larger good mood that could ing on how you see these things)—has taken matter of skin. Style is ecumenical, eclec- last at least until last eyelid flutter. up the mantle of Spokesman for Outdoor En- tic, electric in this moment. Every woman joyment. He longingly looks out the window passerby has found the fancy to match Falling light slants toward set. It’s blinding, early in the morning and asks me when we’re her dance toward summer. really. This small slice of city canvas going to go outside. And despite my own glows. For these fifteen minutes or so, preference to take in nature’s beauty from This is a census of only minutes of time: each passing person seems to have within four walls, I tell him, “Soon.” I tell him, Pristine white clogs, a nurse, a chef? Es- showered not ten minutes earlier, greet- “We have to at least eat breakfast first.” And padrilles, timeworn, maybe pup-gnawed. ing this first bright, warm afternoon after then I slather him in sunscreen and take him A long lemon babouche with fresh ped- rainy days and nights of heavy downpour, into our tiny—by my ingrained rural stan- icure visible on the heel, rudely smooth. putting on cheery, cheeky, happy cos- dards—backyard and watch him enjoy the tumes and footwear. It’s more than ac- hell out of it. Chuck Taylors in black, and yellow, and knowledging the break in weather, it’s black, low-rise white socks peeping, tribute in anticipation of summer, as soon Because they’re right—my dad and my son— Achilles’ tendons in stride. Strapped cork as it arrives, so long as it shall linger: in wedge shoes, catapulting the 1980s onto this summer city of Chicago, I, passerby, as much as I wish they weren’t. When the the modern city sidewalk. Magenta plas- will be as nearly barefoot as I dare. Let’s tic jellies. go places, quickly, and let’s go now! weather even remotely allows it—and in Chi- There is no summertime to waste. Cork Birkenstocks with a slim shiny black cago the allowing can get pretty remote—we patent fork between the toes. Toes, too, 12 should be out there in that weather experi- encing it, without an extension cord.
On a humid Friday morning in late August, I was life- guarding at the Hotel Intercontinental pool. It was the same pool where I had met and spent many days talking to Tennessee Williams, after he swam and before he watched rehearsals at the nearby Goodman Theatre for his final play, “A House Not Meant to Stand.” On this day, however, I was visited by a Chicago beach lifeguard I knew who told me there was going to be a triathlon that weekend. Many of the city guards had left for col- lege and they might need extra guards for the swim- ming portion. It seemed like fun. I told my friend Mar- ilyn about it. She had contemplated training for a triathlon so we agreed to meet up on bikes. She would watch the race while I guarded and then we could hang out later. The Saturday of the race was even THE ish purple. He had cutoff shorts, hotter and more humid. A hazy sun with long threads of fringe hanging occasionally broke through the FLOATER off. He looked like Frankenstein without the bolts. Boston Whaler thick gray clouds, like a flashlight edging through a foggy dawn. The boats carrying more lifeguard su- triathletes swam along the rocks by David Witter pervisors stormed the shore. The from the North Avenue hook to police arrived. Radios crackled, Ohio Street. Not an easy task for “####unidentified adult male### anyone, and the lake was especial- possible drowning####.” Overhead ly rough that day. No contestants needed to be saved, but many of the clouds continued to gather. The body laid underneath the black- them decided to let up and simply paddle the rest of the way. After ening sky for a while until a fire department ambulance pulled up and the race, Marilyn and I headed toward the Fullerton rocks to cool off. parked on the grass above the rocks. Our relationship was flirtatious but platonic, revolving mainly around swimming, bike riding and talking about books. She could knock off Marilyn tossed on a pair of shorts and T-shirt and rode off on her bike. Thick raindrops began to fall. A silent red siren flashed in the dark air a Jane Austen or Ray Bradbury in a week. We spread our towels on and the body was taken away. the rocks just south of Fullerton, in front of the Theater on the Lake. I climbed down the rusty ladder and began swimming east, away from A lifeguard, via the police, told me a few days later that the man had the shore. A storm was coming from the northeast. My face being only jumped off a pier in Evanston. An alleged suicide, he had been in the inches above the waterline made for a cool perspective as I watched water for as long as six days until the storm washed the floater ashore. the dark clouds rolling south from Wisconsin. Marilyn was also treading water, but it was very rough and she kept closer to the theater. I kept The thirty-seventh annual Chicago Triathlon is August 24-25. paddling away from shore, the view of the clouds now resembling a The adult race will begin at 815am on Sunday, August 25 Monet painting. Then I heard a somewhat giggling voice. It was Marilyn. at Monroe Harbor. “Stop it. “Come on, stop.” I turned around and looked. I looked again, and saw a dull, flesh-col- The Bra I Saw on Michigan Ave ored mass in the water. I could make out what looked like a head and hair. In the meantime the force of the waves against the breakwater by Jennifer Karmin was ramming the floating object into Marilyn’s backside or, like a mar- ionette, even moving its arms to “touch” her. “Stop it,” she sighed. “Stop it. I mean it David. Stop it right now! ” But I was treading water twenty feet away. “Marilyn. Don’t look back. Don’t look down. Just swim toward the shore.” At almost the same time there was a series of shrill whistle blasts com- Was just lying around Newcity JULY 2019 ing from the lifeguards. Lying loose on the sidewalk Basking in the sun. 13 “We’ve got a floater!” Marilyn was halfway up the ladder. She turned Straps smiling up around and saw it. Was happy to not be supporting Anyone – “Oh, gross,” she cried out. With amazing calm she simply wrapped her- Lingering lingerie no more. self in a towel and looked away, shivering. In the meantime, a horde Was checking out passers by of lifeguard hierarchy—captains, mates, supervisors—descended upon Feeling free of moody nipples the scene. Using the spine board, they gurneyed the body onto the Glad it’s summertime in the city. flat concrete. The man had short hair plastered to his head. The days in the lake had bloated his body and turned much of his skin a green-
ll homes need mending. Over time, mortar and concrete crack, metal warps, wood lignin dissolves and crumbles away. Pipes split. Paint and stains fade, peel and crack. If you’re not careful, it can all fall apart. Hav- ing worked on houses as a kid, and as an artist in adulthood, I’ve cultivat- ed an appreciation for materials, the thought behind them, the labor it takes to make it do your will. It’s one of the hottest days last summer, for instance, and I’m sanding, then painting and restoring the front patio and facade of a house for Kara and Wilder, the thoughtful and generous lesbian couple who hired me. There’s this lovely moment when we’re standing on their front stoop, and I notice Kara’s wearing these sparkly silver, curled, pointy-toe house slippers, a nearly transcendent moment for me, as I’m almost delirious and dissociative from the heat. It’s in the high upper nineties, my son Tristan’s with me for the day, and we’re sizzling in the direct sun. “Daddy,” he says, wringing out hanks of his back-length blonde hair, watch- ing sweat drip-drip from the tips to darken the concrete below, “Why do you do this kind of work? It’s like torture.” Summer’s the hardest. If you’re a person working with your body, it’s when things get busy repairing houses in upper-in- come North Side neighbor- hoods full of tech security peo- ple, wealthy families and others. And there are lots and lots of them. So, there’s plenty of work to be had. Lincoln Square, Ra- venswood, Albany Park, Irving and Old Irving Park areas, any- thing biking distance. I’m not certified, so I’m up front about the limits of my skill sets and do not risk burning the house down, though sometimes that’s almost bait for people wanting to get more out of you for less money. Either way, you trudge through it. Outdoor work in win- ter, you can wear the gear, but there’s no way to take anything off outside in the Photos: heat. My iPhone Michael Workman today displays a heat alert emer- gency shutdown, REPAIRING There’s also usually an amity and familiarity to this way of mak- goes black. There’s ing a living for me; it almost has a sense of a beat to it. Birds a trade-off that THE WORLD singing, riding my Hill Topper everywhere, a rickety, aban- comes with the doned bike I’ve restored and nicknamed Old Red, we travel tangible and intan- around and get to meet hundreds of people in our neighbor- Newcity JULY 2019 gible things you by Michael Workman hood. Look into their eyes and get to know them. There’s this decide are the trust agreement that comes with working as a handyman who basis of what you’ll walks into people’s homes, welcomed in among their children trade for a living. and partners, into their kitchens and bedrooms, into situations What you give up. For me, it’s getting to choose your hours. I trade my where you get an intimate look into their lives. The overly picky, self-ab- selective labor for time. Time to write, make oil paintings, compose sorbed couples, the overworked people losing their minds and freak- dance choreographies, articulate philosophical tracts, make time for ing out. People with dementia who change their pants in front of you, myself and my life work, my lebenswelt, and that feeling of freedom slowly and unaware. People screaming at each other. I go home those 14 and dignity is worth the trouble: clients, the too-cold and hot days, the days, sailing atop Old Red as cars pass, their tires hosing me down accidents, injuries and toll on my body. with near-frozen slush in winter, wanting it all to be over.
Then, there’s Aline, the portrait photographer, and her husband Chicago Wilderness Newcity JULY 2019 who’ve become friends of mine; like my friend Catherine in the EPA; Amy the comix collector; the folks at Baker Miller; Patty, by Robbie Q. Telfer 15 the single mother renovating her basement; Steve, the social- ist archivist who shows me his original Black Panther recruit- Are people still leaving ment posters, enthuses to me about Joffre Stewart, and has Are they still stuck me split a sofa with a circular saw. What are they doing to our schools I realize, to some degree, it’s a choice, that it’s not just, as one Why isn’t my recycling recycled client wryly put it, “nominative determinism,” that as a guy with There was a skunk in my neighborhood a Northwestern degree, bylines in world-class newspapers and last week and I do truly magazines, I could find something else to do. That I have it so love their smell truly I do much better than a lot of people, especially of color, who never It would be wrong to mail human shit get to ask, “Why suffer working manual labor?” But that’s not it. to Trump Tower counterproductive I remember sitting in a Lakeview diner in my early twenties, maybe a Dreamer maybe around 1997, with my friend Mark, now a philosopher would have to clean it up of neuroscience and pragmatism, and we’re discussing suicide. 16 red stars between I was struggling, as I long have, with the idea of sticking around two thin blue lines in such a corrupt, horrible world where so often the bad guys Traffic report tells ostensibly get to run the show, where greed and power and you where the protest is at self-interest dictate so much of society. “I’d never want to do The monarchs still pass through it,” he explains, smiling as he reaches out and picks up the clear en route to Canada and Mexico glass salt shaker, running his pointer finger over its aluminum they’d shit on the wall topper. “Not that I don’t understand despair or hopelessness, If we are to be saved I feel it too. But because then I wouldn’t be able to move this It’ll be by from here—” he says, placing it in the middle of the table. “—to Chance here,” and slides it across to the table’s edge. I grin in recog- The Fort Dearborn Massacre nition and nod, slowly. was ostensibly because the white people destroyed It’s an act of profound and powerful philosophic inquiry to strive their guns on their way out of town after an understanding of the nature of things, the world, our- instead of giving selves in it. Rather than embrace any one profession and the them to the Potawatomi tradeoffs in limited ways of thinking and imagining they require, like they promised for me, that has meant finding a way to clear a space for them. What do you So much is done out of fear, necessity and comfort, there’s call a gift white people hardly any time for thinking. When my plan works the way it promise but never deliver should, there’s a very direct sense of an honest trade, of figur- I can tell you where to find ing things out together with the people who I live among ev- the first wild turkey seen eryday. It’s not perfect. But often, people are willing to enter in the city in decades into a trust with you on working to make the sink stop backing It’s hanging out where up, or caulking a tub with the right sealant. Basic, quotidian Aagje and Jan Ton hid freedom facts become more important than ideal outcomes or person- seekers at their underground al ambitions, facts which you agree upon ahead of time, and railroad farm passing the striving is then toward a discourse of cooperation. Some- through en route to Canada times it isn’t, and you have to own and remediate your fuck- The only flower from Chicago ups. Or the person you’re working for has to (and they don’t and found nowhere else on Earth always, of course). hasn’t been seen in over a century But there’s very little confusion about the thing, what it is you’re only ever seen at 119th and Torrence doing, working by the hour, or the project, and of what the ob- it’s a tiny ghost named Thismia americana jective outcome will be. The sink stops leaking, the tile gets and I know for a fact more grout, you tuckpoint and paint whole rooms, patch the it’s still out there somewhere concrete—it’s an endless list, because everything ages, even hundreds, wild and especially in the sunlight of summer, the icy pale of winter, I know they’re still there and the rainy seasons between. And as I sail atop Old Red underground through some of the most diverse neighborhoods in the nation waiting and in the world, I look around and know that so much here is till we deserve them again. what I have made with my own hands, that I have not only contributed to the health and restoration of so many homes and businesses, but to myself. In that moment, I’m surprised to realize, too, that my work has restored my faith in commu- nity in a way I never thought possible—that perhaps we can help make each other better too. A few names were changed to protect people’s privacy.
surname. Moss identifies as (and more than 10,000 nationally). I and my a plant. Rather, my dad, years girlfriend, a budding enthusiast herself, made ago, competed in the Nation- this 2018 Labor Day weekend foray our first. al Morel Mushroom Hunting We bought tickets for the Union Pacific North Championship, in Boyne City, line, catching the train out of the city toward Michigan. He did not win, but Niles where the hunt was to be held in came home with a peachy Potawatomi Woods. mushroom collecting bag bearing the Lions Club Inter- It was raining that morning. Still, close to national crest framed on twenty-five mycophiles showed up in slickers each side by a morel, that and knee-high rubber boots. We gathered scrumptious, iconic honey- beneath a picnic shelter at the woods’ outer comb-capped if-you-know- edge. One of the IMA officers strolled over only-one, this-is-the-one-to- and introduced herself. Within minutes, we know mushroom. had met many in the group. All outdoors peo- ple, as expected; mostly super-mellow, as suspect- A MYCO- ed. Along with the two of ADVENTURE us, there were several other IMA first-timers. Through pre-foray chit- chat my girlfriend and I by John Moss discovered that only we had no prior actual mush- room-hunting experience. IMA forays take place from (There were also visual clues, I suppose: I was spring through fall—the ar- the only person attired in shorts for an activ- ea’s annual deep freeze isn’t ity focused on combing through flora to dis- hospitable to the pastime. cover the fruiting bodies of fungi.) Destinations have included LaBagh Woods, on the At 10am we set out, equipped with empty egg Photo: John Moss Northwest Side; Maple cartons and a clear plastic compartment tray Grove County Forest Pre- to collect our finds. The group spread out, serve in Downers Grove; St. with many, including us, remaining near the A fallacy regarding mushrooms is that not all Mihiel Woods-east in Tinley Park; and Kanka- forest perimeter. We found our first within mushrooms are edible. After several outings kee River State Park. minutes. Attached to a downed branch that with the Illinois Mycological Association, I have IMA lectures and indoor programming are was blocking our way, the mushroom was tiny, come to appreciate why this is so. There’s an usually held at the Niles Historical and Cul- a pinkish flesh color, part of an irregular oft-repeated joke among mycophiles, a kind of tural Center. Notable past speakers have in- grouping spread out over the bark. We com- legacy joke in the manner of “The Aristocrats” cluded a coauthor of \"Mushrooms of the Mid- memorated the event with a photo, then though much, much cleaner, and it finishes up west\" and the James E. Johnson professor of moved on. More sightings were soon to follow. something like this: All mushrooms are of course Sociology at Northwestern. Events in Chica- Being myco-tyros, we were eager to grab edible. Just some only once. go pop up for the urban mycophile from time them all. We found red-capped toadstools straight out of Super Mario Bros, or off a fresh- to time. Last fall, the IMA scheduled an eve- man dorm blacklight poster; we found some- ning with celebrated mushroom photogra- thing that resembled coral reef algae (al- I’ve been a dues-paying member of the Illi- pher and artist Taylor Lockwood at the NHCC. though not sure whether those were actual nois Mycological Association going on two The event, “The Mushroom Art Universe of mushrooms—we had next to no idea what years. The Illinois Mycological Association, Taylor Lockwood,” generated such interest it anything was). We found some with upturned also known as the IMA, is made up of offi- came to seem as if Toni Morrison had been caps, and some on leaves that looked like rolls cers and volunteers who plan forays (or out- booked to read at The Book Cellar. Lock- of button candy. ings), lectures and general mushroom pro- wood’s slideshow presentation was moved gramming for enthusiasts and the otherwise to a site in Ravenswood to accommodate One of the pleasures of mushroom hunting curious in the Chicago area. From the IMA more people. Make no mistake: mycology is is you don’t have to know what you’re doing constitution: “The purposes of the Associa- alive and well in the Midwest. to achieve a certain level of proficiency. tion shall be to promote mycology as an av- They’re easy to find. Once you start watching Newcity JULY 2019 ocation among its members and the gener- Each year, the IMA stages its biggest event out, you realize mushrooms are everywhere: al public, and to assist in the development at the Chicago Botanic Garden on the Sun- on tree trunks, at the base of trees, where tree of the science of mycology.” day of Labor Day weekend: the Illinois Myco- stumps once were, in grass patches, on rot- logical Association Mushroom Show and ten logs, near mossy clumps. The most help- Before I even knew of the group’s existence, Sale, featuring showcases, speakers and ful tip we received that day was the most ob- I always liked the idea of hunting for mush- fungi tips. The day before, the group hunts for vious: “Don’t forget to look up.” rooms, whether here in Chicago or elsewhere. the mushrooms that will be on display. Ac- An excuse to head out into the woods and cording to the website of the Illinois Depart- We ventured farther away from the hunters 16 poke around in nature. I also have a my- ment of Natural Resources, an estimated clustered near the edge of the woods, hop- co-pedigree, as a matter of fact. No, not the 2,000 species of mushrooms exist in Illinois ing to locate an area unspoiled. Late sum-
mer's full leafage provided cover from the steady As the sun sets on Johnnie’s rain. Eventually it became possible to hear only / Photo: David Hammond the pitter-patter of raindrops above and the crunching of our steps on the leaves and twigs SUMMER IS beneath our feet. In some way, this moment felt rarer than whatever we might find out here on A JOHNNIE’S by David Hammond a log or the side of a tree: finding ourselves out of earshot of traffic. ITALIAN BEEF An Italian beef sand- We spent almost two hours in the woods. Near SANDWICH wich should be eaten noon, the group reconvened at the picnic shelter. where it’s made. If you The specimens were laid out on a long table, like the yield from a triumphant trick-or-treat. The take it away to eat, it amount of mushrooms harvested in all shapes and sizes was staggering. Warm yellows, orang- loses a lot, and if you es and reds coating unusual, imperfect shapes that awed. Dr. Patrick Leacock, the IMA’s scien- order it wet, as I do, it falls apart on the way back to the house and ceases to be a sand- tific advisor, set about classifying them. If there were any apples in the bunch, they probably wich. We’ve tried that, getting our sandwiches dipped in the juice and then bringing came from our sack. them home, and then you have to eat your “sandwich” with a knife and fork, because After admiring the day’s finds, we turned to the post-foray cookout, which of course featured you can’t pick it up. That’s no way to eat a sandwich. mushrooms on the menu: Hungarian mushroom soup and mushrooms foil-wrapped and grilled. Johnnie’s (7500 North Avenue) consid- beef, especially in winter, with the sa- Newcity JULY 2019 Both courses, to our relief, had been procured ered by many to be the best Italian beef vory-smelling smoke pouring out the commercially and prepared in a kitchen, not anywhere, has only outdoor seating, metal chimney on the roof, time spent 17 plucked from tree bark—we feared the one-and- which can be used (comfortably) only in line can seem interminable. done forest specimen even among the IMA en- in warm weather. There’s a stand-up lightened. Earlier, Patrick had explained with clin- counter, running the length of the win- The perfect pairing with the beef is the ical precision how the toxins of a poisonous dows on the North Avenue side. You icy Italian lemonade, and god knows mushroom will work on the central nervous sys- can eat standing up at that counter, but you don’t want to eat that when it’s tem and the kidneys. the space is so tight, with so many cold outside. guys putting in and picking up their or- To balance the dark side of the ‘shroom, we were ders, that there’s not nearly enough A big part of summer, for me, is having treated to light humor. The comment fetching the room to assume the time-honored Ital- a Johnnie’s beef and an ice in the warm biggest laugh involved the insipidity of a giant ian stance. You know what I’m talking evening air under the yellow glow of white puffball mushroom one hunter brought about: elbows on the counter, leaning what I think are anti-mosquito lights, lis- back. People didn't start feasting on it or any- over at a forty-five degree angle, legs tening to cars whooshing by on North thing—that's not how the IMA operates as far as apart, so as to minimize drippage on Avenue and the neighborhood buzz at I saw—but all were familiar with this familiar your shirt and pants or jogging suit. nearby tables (“She’s not married yet? mushroom. The verdict: beefy, yet boring. We Marron’,” “Mom, he’s taking my fries,” opened our ears to more schooling on edible To appreciate your beef, or any food, and so on). More than the hot dog, more types. Mushrooms can be a delicious hobby (or it’s best to be seated, and you can’t than deep-dish pizza, more even than obsession, as the case may be). But conversation do that when it’s so cold outside that a Rainbow Cone or Mr. Frosty, the Ital- went another direction, turning to debate on my- your ass freezes in place. At Johnnie’s, ian beef—dripping, sloppy and deli- co-law in Illinois, specifically the illegality of har- you also usually have to stand in line cious—feels like summer in Chicago. vesting in certain areas (with some in the group outside. When you’re waiting for your Even when you’re in Elmwood Park. arguing this law can be contested on a techni- cality: the definition of a mushroom as a fruiting body). Not much later we called a Lyft to take us back into the city. We did not make it back up for the IMA Mush- room Show and Sale the following day, so our 2018 Labor Day myco-adventure came to an end. Something I’ve noticed after living and working in the city for nearly two decades is that so many of my reveries involve escaping from civilization and out into the country, the wilderness, seeking solid earth time and some quiet space. Which can be good when this leads to a foray with the IMA into Potawatomi Woods, and not so good, as I recently found out, when this leads to a re- mote farmhouse in eastern Iowa during the height of tornado season.
Newcity JULY 2019CLINTON, IOWA—The Midwest offers sum-sit camper van. The park has twenty-seven TAKE ME TO Clinton Elotes’ Sean Reynolds, Demitrius Sims and Connor Scott / Photo: Gierhart mer getaways ranging from bikinis and Speed- pads, all including 30/50 amp electricity THE RIVER TOWN os to the natural beauty of dunes and sparrows. and water. Shower and laundry facilities But every summer I make sure to drive to Clin- are at the marina. ton, Iowa. There is nowhere else in America where, with- in a half-mile radius, you can camp out, watch by Dave Hoekstra a baseball game in a historic stadium and This is summer’s American Trinity: walk to a supper club on the Mississippi River. The historic baseball stadium is on the out- • The Clinton LumberKings play low Class A Clinton (population 25,480) is a two-and-a- skirts of downtown. The Canadian Pacific ball in a tiny 4,800-seat ballpark built in 1937 half-hour drive from Chicago. I try to wind it rails are along the parking lot near the ball- by the WPA. Originally called Riverview Sta- down and take the historic Lincoln Highway, park entrance. Because of river traffic, Clinton dium, the cinderblock and brick jewel is de- which runs out of west suburban Plainfield used to be the nation’s lumber capital. At one tailed with art deco and is one of the fifteen (where it crosses Route 66), through Dixon time there were fifteen lumber mills along the oldest pro ballparks in America. and across the river into Clinton. The highway river through Clinton. No mills are left. is popular with bikers and back-roaders. • The newly named NelsonCorp Field is a The neighboring RV park was filled on Me- five-minute walk from the Mississippi River, I recommend Clinton and it never disappoints. morial Day weekend and included a vintage where you will find the Candlelight Inn sup- blue-and-white school bus called “The Holy per club atop the two-level Clinton Marina. My late friend, Chicago restaurateur Eric Palm, Roller.” A large typewritten sign near the front The Candlelight’s upstairs patio has a ster- always talked about the Clinton ballpark. door read, “Every family has a story… wel- ling view of the river as well as the four-by- I drove into Clinton on Memorial Day weekend come to ours.” seven mile Lake Clinton, the widest part of and thought of Eric as I saw Clinton’s deep blue the entire Mississippi River. The patio can skies accented by peaceful white clouds. Ev- At the ballpark, attendance on a warm, fami- seat up to one-hundred people. Guests sip erything seemed clearer than it did in Chicago. ly-friendly afternoon before Memorial Day on Brandy Old Fashioneds along a twen- was 860. The game was played in a snappy ty-foot clear bar top with lost keys, forgot- Clinton does not have all the traffic of Galena, two-and-a-half hours. In the minor leagues, ten bracelets and bottle caps that resem- Illinois or New Buffalo, Michigan—in fact, it there are no replays, pitch count boards and ble the muddy bottom of the Mississippi. doesn’t have much traffic at all. The sleepy thirty-one manager visits to the mound. The quirky bar was designed by Jan downtown area is anchored by the four-story Catching a LumberKings game on a Sunday Prescott, the late mother of Candlelight John D. Van Allen & Sons building, a Nation- is a can’t-miss excursion. owner Matt Prescott. al Historic Landmark built in 1913-15 and de- signed by architect Louis Sullivan. Originally Every Sunday throughout the summer the • And just north of the stadium there’s the a department store, the terra cotta-accented LumberKings become the Clinton Elotes 18 excellent Riverview Recreational Vehicle Van Allen has been repurposed as an apart- (grilled corn, a popular street food in Mexico) Park. I’ve stayed there with my Ford Tran- ment building. as part of Minor League Baseball’s (MiLB)
second annual Copa de la Diversion (Copa) “The drawbacks of community-owned is Chicago is not a good Newcity JULY 2019Newcity MAY 2019 initiative. By becoming Elotes, Clinton hon- that if you need a big renovation, you have place to fall into the river ors the heritage of the Latino communities to go to the community and get the money,” in Eastern Iowa, Western Illinois and within Turnow says in a post-game interview after by Marcy Rae Henry baseball. Clinton wears colorful Elotes uni- fixing the clubhouse washing machine. forms with angry green ears-of-corn base- “When we did our [$3.6 million] renovation Let's go down to the river and ball caps. As I walked up to the ballpark I in 2006, we had a manager, a hitting and pretend we live on the other side, heard salsa and Tejano music as well as the pitching coach and a trainer. We didn’t have in a big house with a dock and a hits of Santana. a strength and conditioning coach, a video boat. Let's pretend we walk home coordinator. Big league clubs are strict on and never fight again. Let's Tequila seemed to be the only missing ingre- nutrition. They have to have so many pro- pretend the Chicago River is dient. teins and carbohydrates. We didn’t have clean and we walk to it every day that before. There’s no room in the club- in the summer and swim without I met ballpark chef Regina Jimenez, a Cuban house right now. We don’t have a full kitch- drowning. When I moved to transplant from Miami who lives in Clinton. en. We didn’t think of a video room in 2006. Chicago I wanted to live on She made all the themed Elotes food: Cuban I don’t know if it will pan out. We’ve never Sunnyside. Then I wanted to sandwiches ($7), tamales ($3), taquitos made a cash call in my twenty-one years live with you. My street crosses ($1.50), elotes corn ($4) and even shots of here. The years we’ve made money it has Sunnyside and Sunnyside ends at espresso ($2). Jimenez cooks for visiting gone back into the facility in partnership the river. So let's walk through players and she says she is on board be- with the city. the manor at dusk and pretend it cause the LumberKings were unable to find ends at the Seine. Let's pretend a local Latino restaurant to participate in the “The advantages? Oh, my. We have approxi- we speak French and in French Copa program. mately a thousand shareholders and owners. we tell each other: I'm sorry. They go back to 1937, so we’re in the fifth gen- Let's walk down to the Chicago Jimenez found time to run away from her food eration of people that have owned shares. Do River and have a picnic of bread stand to scream at the umpires when they they all live in Clinton, Iowa? No. Do they all and pesto and no calories. ruled a no-catch on a Burlington Bees hit to have an interest in keeping the team here? Chicago is as good a place as any center field which ended a fifth-inning no-hit- Every single one of them. The shareholders to pretend. So let’s make like ter for Elotes ace pitcher Chris Vallimont. run the scoreboard, they take tickets, they winter never happened, like I work the beer committee. So we save money don't fall every January because Appropriately for Regina’s heritage, the Lum- on payroll. It shows complete community spir- I’ve finally conquered the ice and berKings are in the first year of a two-year it, of ‘Hey, we want to keep this place alive.’” my dog's paws have become agreement with the Miami Marlins. The Even the green box seats from the 2006 ren- immune to the salt and I don't LumberKings are the only remaining charter ovation were sourced from Custom-Pak blow miss my desert. Let's walk down member of the Midwest League and are in molding in Clinton. to the Chicago River and pretend their sixty-fourth consecutive season of play. that we don't have to pretend, More than 230 Clinton players have gradu- “There are precious few ballparks that so suc- that we never told each other: ated to the major leagues. cessfully combine the old and the new… and you ruined my life. Let’s get into any community trying to figure out what to our pretend boat and float all the Between 1959 and 1965 the LumberKings do with a historic, old facility should use this way downtown so we can watch were affiliated with the Chicago White Sox. ballpark as a blueprint,” the popular Ballpark the fireworks at the pier and in Future Cy Young Award winner, convicted Digest writes. “It is a scene right out of a each other’s eyes. Then let’s go felon and organ player Denny McLain was Norman Rockwell print.” Indeed, grandstand further south, to where we met a member of the 1962 Clinton C-Sox. He was fans can see the former Ohio River Compa- at the end of the semester. Let’s eighteen years old and had just graduated ny Omar Riverboat (circa 1935) in the Mis- get our story straight this time. from Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago. In sissippi River. She is now used for summer 1962 McLain threw eight complete games stock theater. The original galley area and 19 and struck out ninety-three Midwest League crew’s quarters became the Clinton Area batters over ninety-one innings. McLain will Showboat Theatre. be celebrated at 7pm on August 16 in a bob- blehead giveaway depicting him in his Clin- Turnow says, “This is a must-see stadium. ton uniform. He will be in Clinton to sign au- You can sit five feet from the players. We tographs, pose for pictures and throw out don’t have anything like a jumbotron. Noth- the ceremonial pitch. McLain is touched by ing fancy. It’s just this. We get people from the honor. He was not included in the Detroit Chicago here all the time.” Tigers commemorative bobbleheads that celebrated their 1968 World Championship And why does he stay, summer after summer? team. McLain won thirty-one games in 1968. He looked down at an old grandstand seat The LumberKings are one of a handful of and answered, “My ex-wife asked me that. community-owned teams in minor league And my current wife asked me that. It’s baseball. They are governed by a twen- home. It’s similar to where I grew up in the ty-six-person board of directors. In 1937, a sixties and seventies, Menasha, Wisconsin share in the team’s ownership cost $10. Ted outside of Appleton. To be part of this is a Tornow has been Clinton’s general manager dream come true. This is the crossroads of for twenty-one years. the Midwest.”
URBAN ECOLOGY: chicks, documented in all While still technically an endangered species, FALCONS, COYOTES their fluffball splendor by there are now thirty nesting pairs in Chicago: wildlife photographer Luke “probably full saturation of what could be here,” AND HOW TO Massey. Riddell says. RE-WILD DOWNTOWN DDT posed an existential In addition to constructing residences, muse- CHICAGO threat to peregrines in the ums and office buildings for human beings, ar- mid-twentieth century. The chitects were unwittingly designing a make- insidious pesticide weak- shift canyon for the endangered peregrines—a challenge to the human-exclusive concept of urban space. by Dustin Lowman The peregrine falcon is far from You instinctively identify an the only avian for which Chicago urban landscape by its lack of plays a facilitating role. During the nonhuman life—human-domi- months of May and September, nated spaces, paved over and hundreds of bird species fly up populous, with ecosystems con- from and back down to South sisting only of the single chief America, Central America and the species. It makes sense. Walk- Caribbean, following flyways they ing around, you might see a pi- have been flown for thousands of geon pecking at crumbs, or a years. Among the colorful cadre mouse skittering under train are scarlet tanagers, Baltimore orioles, yellow warblers and black-throated blue warblers. tracks, but little else. Not-So-Lone For Chicago, a city boasting Wolves 275 bird species, sixty-four In mammalian excellence, Chica- fish species and thirty-eight go has the highest concentration mammal species, this instinct of coyotes in the world—4,000 in could not be more wrong. Cook County, according to a Those figures come courtesy “conservative guess” by Stanley of the Chicago Nature and Gehrt, professor of wildlife ecolo- Wildlife Plan, written in 2006 gy at Ohio State University. Ac- and updated in 2011 by the cordingly, wild coyote sightings in Mayor’s Nature and Wildlife Chicago’s urban and suburban Advisory Committee, which areas are common. In one espe- outlines ways to “protect and cially creepy instance, National expand ecosystems for the Geographic revealed in 2016 that benefit of wildlife and people” a coyote lived exclusively in a Chi- in Chicago. cago cemetery, nourished by “When my children were little I chickens that mourners left on used to marvel that everything the graves. I wanted to teach them about Despite their pervasiveness and nature, I could teach them the violent-sounding classifica- right in the city,” says Jill Rid- tion “carnivore,” Riddell maintains dell, host of the podcast “The that we ought not fear. “They have Shape of the World,” and a changed their habits to adjust to member of the Wildlife Advi- urban places. In Chicago, they sory Committee. “There was tend to be nocturnal, and that’s life, there was death, there not normal for coyotes.” As little was birth, there were territorial displays. ened peregrine eggs and wiped out much of as we want to do with them, they want less Fights and conflicts, mating. Everything was their prey, landing the falcons on the Endan- to do with us. Newcity JULY 2019 happening in the city.” gered Species List in 1973. Hoping to restore Flower Box Falconry their numbers, the 1985 Chicago Peregrine Reports of wild coyotes don’t often include Program oversaw the release of forty-six cap- violence—outside of hunting small prey, they Nowhere was this truer than in Dacey Arashi- tive-bred peregrines into the city. tend to be a meditative bunch. Seth Magle, ba’s flower box which, in 2016, played host to director of the Lincoln Park Zoo Urban Wild- the meeting, mating and nesting of a pair of “Peregrines need canyon environments in life Institute, was jogging when, “not fifteen peregrine falcons — Linda and Steve, affec- order to live,” Riddell says in an interview. “So feet from me was this coyote essentially pos- tionately. The flower box, which Arashiba the committee thought, what if they lived in ing in the dawn light, his breath curling 20 hadn’t tended in years, would serve as the downtown cities? Cities look a lot like canyons, around his face. I fumbled for my phone, and twenty-eighth-floor nursery for four falcon and there are a lot of birds for them to eat.” he ran off before I could get a picture.”
The Urban Wildlife Institute monitors a transition to “a city in which natural From Our Porch I Gaze Newcity JULY 2019 Chicago’s wildlife to better under- systems are being welcomed back at Our Lush Garden stand how we can healthily coexist. into the physical fabric, rather than In the course of his work, Magle has mastered and regularized,” as put by by Jacob Victorine noticed people often want to inter- Jonathan Solomon, director of the vene when face-to-face with unusu- School of the Art Institute of Chica- What’s wild and what you’ve planted al wildlife. Rather than approach or go’s Architecture, Interior Architec- with your own two hands: repel, he says, the best course of ac- ture, and Designed Objects depart- eggplant, tomato, and squash not yet risen tion is to live and let live: “When I ment. Downtown buildings now turn parsley that reminds me of family each time I pass it— have people call me and ask, ‘I have off their lights during migration to twelve or twenty of us around my Aunt Trudi’s table a coyote on my block, what do I do?’ prevent birds colliding with glass; dipping bitter herb in saltwater, thankful again they don’t like it when my answer is, green spaces continue to be devel- when you surprise me with Galushka ‘You don’t have to do anything. It be- oped; organizations like the Urban the dumplings your father taught you to shape. longs there, it’s fine.’” Wildlife Institute are geared toward Sometimes I reach for you and you’re not there— healthy cohabitation. each hair on your body tossing through a nightmare. In addition to the erroneous obser- On the phone this morning, my mom tells me vation that urban spaces consist only To view ourselves as separate from my sister-in-law is pregnant, but shh, don’t tell anyone yet. of human beings, people often think the ecosystems in which we live is Yesterday, I vented to my dad for nearly an hour— it should be that way, that unusual also to mischaracterize our own na- all the stress I feel, the pressure to provide. wildlife is a threat to the stability of a ture. Despite efforts to make our- Don’t worry, he said. You don’t have a family. humans-only space. At best, the in- selves exceptional, humans remain But what do we call this stinct is a misunderstanding of the mammals, subject to all the same fresh basil, the wildflower I brought home for you benefits of biodiversity, a high level challenges and conflicts, if on a larg- resting on our windowsill. of which serves all members of an er scale. From this perspective, ecosystem. At worst, it’s an extension human architecture is a cousin of 21 of the colonialist instinct, which re- anthill, beehive and chrysalis con- duces the natural world to fodder for struction: a sophisticated method forward progress. for organizing and protecting the species. Critical theory notwith- Re-Wild standing, urban development is a mere variation on oft-replicated an- In the same interview, Riddell re- imal behavior. counts a conversation with Philip En- quist, longtime architect for Skidmore, That urban spaces feel like pure, ex- Owings, and Merrill, who coined the clusionary humanity is less a reflec- term “re-wild” to describe efforts to tion of what’s before us, and more a make cities more accommodating to reflection of our own tunnel vision. wildlife. Instead of building at the ex- The meteorological miracle that is pense of migrating birds, why not Chicago in the summertime may be adapt to their evolutionary patterns? best used by those who defamiliarize and re-wild this ecologically bustling Due to increasing environmental urban landscape. concerns, Chicago sees itself making
Newcity JULY 2019by Megan KirbyHOW TO MEDITATE your object of focus. You can always IN PUBLIC come back. 22 by Emerson Dameron What should you focus on, though? Here are two basic meditation practices to start with. Meditation is, to quote Allen Iverson, “practice.” It’s a spiritual practice, and it’s practice for “real Mindfulness Practice life.” In most cases, the longterm goal is not to To be mindful is to entertain the question, sit and stare at walls for years on end, but to en- what is happening right now? The goal hance the way you move through the world. of mindfulness practice is to notice what you notice. Over time, formal practice (done on a cush- ion, in solitude) shifts into life practice, Be still. Be aware of anything you experi- which meditation teacher Vincent Horn de- ence. Let go of the stories you tell yourself scribes as “blending and integrating med- about your experience. Just show up for it. itative awareness into all the activities and environments that we find ourselves in.” To start, because it’s an easy one, observe You can expedite this process by trying for- the rising and falling of the breath. When you mal practice in public, surrounded by sirens, notice a thought or you experience a sensa- street vendors and other strange chaos. tion, acknowledge it, call it by its name— there is thinking, there is breathing, or, there Few environments are as conducive to mix- is screaming—and let it pass, as it will. ing formal practice and life practice as Chi- cago in the summertime. It’s an environment When you notice you’re lost in thought, re- full of noise, sound, beauty, distraction, day commit yourself to the practice for its dura- drunks and other delights. When you train tion. Repeat as many times as necessary, yourself to notice different layers of life, you probably at increasingly infrequent intervals. discover a near-infinity of glorious detail. You’re getting this! There is self-congratula- tion. Back to the breath. If you’ve wanted to try meditation but you don’t think you have the space and time, this Suffering doesn’t come from the way things summer affords you an excellent opportunity are. It comes from thinking things ought to to practice in Heritage Green Park or on the be different. You’re learning to navigate the Green Line, at dawn or on your lunch break. space between the things and the thoughts, Meditate in public. Notice what happens. which will help you take more mindful action, when the time comes. How to Meditate in Public 1. Find a place to sit where you’re Heartfulness Practice Heart-based meditation may be referred to somewhat out of the way and as metta or lovingkindness. The purpose of unlikely to be disturbed. heartfulness practice is to incline the mind 2. Sit up straight with your head toward opening the heart. slightly bowed. Close your eyes or soften your gaze. In heartfulness practice, you focus your at- 3. Wear earbuds. You can listen to tention on key phrases—may you be happy, guided meditation recordings (my may you be healthy, may you be safe and teachers Vincent and Emily Horn protected, and may you live with an open share theirs for free online at heart—first for yourself, then for the people heartofinsight.guide), or nothing. closest to you, and slowly expanding out- Either way, they’ll suggest to others ward to include everyone in the city, every- that you want to be left alone. one on the planet, and all sentient entities, 4. Some people will bother you anyway. known and unknown, in the universe— People will talk crap to you and ask literally everything, all the time. you for money. Experience this as a part of your practice. Acknowledge the Start with people you find easiest to care distraction. Handle the situation gently, for and then level up to people you aren’t as needed. Then return to the practice. as fond of, strengthening your compassion 5. Don’t worry about looking like a muscles as you go. If your compassion fails weirdo, a loser or a goofball. One you, have compassion for that. Keep prac- of the many great things about ticing compassion until it radiates into all meditating outdoors in Chicago is areas of your life. that you probably won’t stand out. 6. You’ll get distracted. You’ll get lost in If you don’t get awakened, take it from the thought. Come back. Come back to top. When it’s over, if you don’t get the re- sults you expected, you’ll be eligible for a full refund.
TEN SONGS FOR SUMMER by Kaycie Surrell Illustration by Dan Streeting Come summer, we not only trade our heavy win- ter coats and snow boots for bare legs and breezy caftans, we upgrade our playlists. It’s easy to lean into low, melancholy tunes associated with bun- dling up and winter blues when the tempera- tures are well below freezing, but once the sun starts shining it’s time for something more up- beat. From local favorites to classic crooners, these ten tracks can make even the muggiest Chicago summer seem like a sweet escape. 1. Type O Negative 4. Lili K with Klassik Fame inductees on the perfect summer play- Newcity JULY 2019 “Summer Breeze” “Right Here” list. Know someone with a boat? Amazing. This song is basically begging to be played 23 You don’t have to be a fan of this Brook- Lili K has been making waves in the Chicago on the open water, Old Style in one hand and lyn-based gothic metal band to be familiar music scene since she was the face of Tidal a shot of Malört in the other. with their sludgy-sultry cover of Seals and in 2015. Her self-promoted album “Planet of Crofts’ “Summer Breeze.” But did you know Flowers” is forthcoming, but to give us a taste 8. Imani Coppola the banned version never made it to their of what’s to come she released an EP in May, “Legend of a Cowgirl” 1993 album “Bloody Kisses”? Type O Nega- “Songs with Friends.” “I decided that I needed tive lead singer Peter Steele rewrote the lyrics to create something for FUN,” said Lili. “I Think back to the summer of 1997. “Titanic” to fit the band’s goth aesthetic but didn’t re- needed to create music just for the sake of was in theaters for months, scientists suc- alize he needed permission from the original creating music.” cessfully cloned Dolly the sheep, and Coppo- publisher. The “clean version” made it onto la’s banger of a track was playing on every the final cut of the album, but Steele’s “Sum- 5. JEFF the Brotherhood single radio station everywhere. Another mer Girl” is available on YouTube. “Prairie Song” powerhouse woman preaching indepen- dence, Coppola’s lyrics, “I’m a woman on fire 2. Lizzo This is the ultimate getaway song. It’s all about with huge desire / to be as good as any man,” “Heaven Help Me” foregoing the expectations of others to live are here to encourage you to take what you life the way you want to—away from it all. “I want this summer. Listen, it’s not even a summer playlist if Lizzo lay in the grass and wish the world would isn’t on it. These are just the facts. We all had pass me by,” sings lead singer and guitarist 9. Goth Babe a long, long winter and hey, no judgement Jake Orrall. Just think, if his brother hadn’t “Sunshine” here, but maybe you snuggled up to someone dropped out of Columbia College Chicago to you shouldn’t have to make it through those focus on JEFF the Brotherhood full-time, we Straightforward and sweetly sludgy, “Sun- cold, cruel months. Nobody would blame you. might never have been gifted their other sum- shine” off of the 2016 EP “Wasted Youth” is But, if you’re over it and you’re ready to shout mer bangers, like “Sixpack” and “Mellow Out.” easy and uncomplicated. Just like summer your independence from the easy-breezy love should be. rooftops, Lizzo has a summer anthem for you. 6. Henry Hank “If you think you got me dickmatized, I need to “Love in a Mist” 10. Nick Gilder and Sweeney Todd get you out of my life. Can I get an amen?” “Roxy Roller” The dreamy, ethereal vocals on this track 3. Marvin Gaye from Hank’s 2018 EP “The Weight of Eternal Frontman for glam rockers Sweeney Todd “Got to Give It Up – Pt.1” Self-Love” are what we need right now. The topped the charts in 1977 with the hit single song feels like perfect early morning dew, “Roxy Roller.” It’s one of those quintessential Marvin Gaye released this song in 1977 after mindful meditation, a relaxing nap at your seventies classics, slick with attitude and a request from his label for more disco music. favorite beach. Soak up those rays while you style. It will have you hunting for the perfect Gaye rebuked the idea at first, but he couldn’t can, babes! pair of platform shoes to wear when you go deny disco’s growing popularity. The song dancing this summer. has been featured in favorite summer films, 7. Cheap Trick including “Boogie Nights” and “Charlie’s An- “Southern Girls” Take a listen to the complete thirty- gels” and even stoked a recent controversy four-track playlist on Spotify at when Robin Thicke and Pharrell were forced It would be wrong not to include these Chi- Newcity Summer Playlist. to pay Gaye’s children nearly $7.4 million for cago (okay, Rockford) Rock & Roll Hall of infringing on the original with their 2013 hit, “Blurred Lines.”
Newcity JULY 2019East Garfield Park Bull Thistle So sudden and brazen they show (after Hugh MacDiarmid) together, I imagine the cicadas and them in brilliant cahoots, by Roger Bonair-Agard the boys drumming their insides nearly loose as the purple crowns You can almost watch them grow, nut forth their cotton heads. Late how swift they come up mid summer summer; another song humming and grind their way towards the sun. from the East and North. The hawk They dare the cutlass come. Believe is coming it says, a warning blast they'll extract their own small gorge even on these last days of MidWest of flesh in return. Bull thistle swelter. And the cicadas answer back thug with it. Come bees, come. in their cuffing season moves, their painted lady butterfly, come. goldfinch desperate abdominal rattling not unlike come. but bull thistle stays the cattle, taunts the post 2AM hour at the club, the man with the machete, grows taut the holler more brash and outlandish and leans toward the crib's front door. than early on when we thought we would Bull thistle rap sheet long. Invasive be young and lovely all night. they say; hardy and armed. Bull thistle sentinel the walkway and watch West Bull thistle answers too. Reaches a tap side streets. The boys draw long steel root into the dirt beneath the contaminated but Bull thistle OG – keep a blade lithosphere. Bull thistle talks tall in its cheek. How it finds and keeps shit now, threatens to reach down even purchase in the leaden soil is its own to the earth's mantle to hold on mystery, but I'll not fuck with its leaves to what it needs to survive the coming brick. or kingly crown though my liver might My locked up brothers say winter is time could use its milled essence for tea, to get back to the trap – to prepare for the months to purify the engine of my body's ahead, to make-ready for another summer, stack eternal longings to magic the brain bills for the eventual get-out; the everyman dream to alchemy into night's most ruthless of not being the one whose face air brushes conspirator. a t-shirt when the days get long. Bull thistle trappin. Bull thistle tappin. Is the too-loud 24 analogy here. Bull thistle bussin wild shots and shouts of white clots and clouts to heiroglyph these blocks and clods of earth it reps. I respect - get down low and fling my blade around its roots let homie grow the season long, and wave its limbs at the bees and birds and streets. This simple sweat I milk from the bitter earth is win enough for me. I heed the thistle, sip my gin and plot my winter work. It's coming. Cicadas ain't whistling for nothing. I bid the purple crown and thorny scepter adieu.
SAVED BY THE were owned by those who wanted to preserve it, this would throw a COTTONWOOD wrench in the gears of any big developer that could potentially swoop AT WOLF ROAD in and buy it. by Cat Strain About five feet up, I could hear the Tri-State Tollway, see the tip of the old schoolhouse, as well as the Dunkin’ Donuts across the street. So gray and odd compared to the soft green and cream field I had been walking through. In its current state, Wolf Road Prairie will be forty-five years old this September, and is considered the largest mesic prairie east of the Mississippi River. This living museum is co-owned by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and the Forest Pre- serve District of Cook County (FPDCC). The first time I went to Wolf Road I was on a school field trip. At 8am, my Less than one one-hundredth of one percent of high-quality original graduate workshop class was unceremoniously loaded into a bus with a wood- prairie remains in Illinois. I attempted to climb a tree in that. I also fell en belt. It had clearly been rented the evening before by a fellow who left his out of that tree and broke my leg. In the prairie. All of my Girl Scout clip-on bowtie on my seat. During the thirty-minute drive west from the instincts kicked in. A peer of mine had been across the sidewalk, saw Loop, my professor passed around granola bars and binoculars to her tired me fall and ran over. I told him I broke my leg and to go get a stick to grad students, and told us about the history of the Wolf Road Prairie. make a splint. I called 911 and had to explain that I was in the middle of Wolf Road Prairie, and no, I did not know the crossroads. The loose dozen of us disembarked in Westchester, Illinois—a city block of prairie that was initially destined to become another Western Thirty minutes later six fire and policemen emerged from the grasses suburb. An eighty-two-acre piece of land that contains mesic prairie, and carried me out of the prairie. mesic savanna and wetland is home to at least 360 native plant spe- cies. As I walked beneath sixteen-foot-high goldenrod, with their spi- I rambled and made promises I couldn’t keep to the Redshift of the ders by the same name, I stumbled upon a crumbling sidewalk that Westchester firemen. I told them about the 1920s sidewalks, and had been laid in the 1920s over half the land. that I was a city girl so they’d have to forgive me for getting excited when I saw the tree. I now have a twelve-inch titanium plate screwed into my fibula, and two hearty pins through the inside of my ankle. The bow tie I found is on the stuffed animal my mother brought me from home. Our professor, Jill Riddell, told us that this piece of land was partially Music. developed, and then abandoned, during the Great Depression of 1929. Dance. Luckily, no sewer or water lines were laid, and only a small grid of con- Movies. crete was left behind. The large, uneven path leads to the heart of Wolf Theater. Road, where evidence of the latest prescribed burning had taken place. Festivals. The burn is purposeful fire set by humans to ward off invasive plant Family Fun. species. A great cottonwood tree stands where the sidewalk ends, her insides black, crackly and charred. Or course, I tried to climb it. Free events, in the parks, all summer. A “living museum,” Wolf Road was preserved thanks to the efforts of a woman by the name of Valerie Spale, one of the founders of the Save Night Out in the Parks brings world-class performances to Chicago’s neighborhood parks! the Prairie Society (STPS). In the early 1970s, a high-school teacher named Jack Shouba and his class began selling plants so they could 2,000 140 77 purchase the first parcel of land at Wolf Road. Somehow, he is the only founder mentioned in any of the literature on STPS. There is little about EVENTS ARTISTS COMMUNITY Valerie Spale online. An article written by Spale herself doesn’t breathe AREAS a word of her work with Wolf Road. View our upcoming Night Out events at The nearest limb of the cottonwood tree was ten feet above me. I na- www.NightOutInTheParks.com or access ively believed that I still had the strength from my monkey-bar years, them in the free My Chi Parks™mobile app. that I could get up there to my own private lookout to sit, read and write in it. Muscles quivering, I reflected on the often invisible work that comes with preserving nature. The best work is when there is no evidence of that work, no interference, letting the environment speak for itself. Riddell told me, “[Spale] modestly mentions nothing of her individual contribution: the many meetings, phone calls, advocacy, contempla- tion, finding ways around the answer ‘no’ that she initiated day in and day out, all while working and also being a mother.” Spale had no for- mal institutional training, nor extra capital beyond her and her hus- band’s wages. Spale had the idea that if the lots of Wolf Road Prairie Lori Lightfoot, Mayor STAY CONNECTED. @ChicagoParks #InTheParks
HAVE YOU SEEN A “When my plane landed in Chicago and I was eighteen and coming KIRTLAND’S WARBLER? from Mumbai (a city with sixteen million people), I was struck by how, even on the highway leading into the city, there were these huge BIRDWATCHING IN CHICAGO stretches of green,” says Rao. “We don’t have those in India, in-be- tween spaces—not a park, not anything. So Chicago has always had by Kaycie Surrell that for me. Birding has transformed Chicago loves birdwatching, and I don’t the most quotidian of tasks, running an just mean staring down the pigeons errand, taking out the trash, into an op- stalking CTA platforms. There’s a healthy portunity to see a bird.” number of bird enthusiasts in the city in- terested not only in scouting and identi- Opportunities to identify birds and con- fying our local fowl, but in preserving nect with nature don’t need to wait for sanctuary spaces dedicated to protecting a connection with the environment to regional and visiting species. be forged. In a partnership led by Openlands and Audubon Great Lakes, classroom-based and volunteer-driven program Birds in My Neighborhood gives local school children the chance to become acquainted with our city’s feathered friends. According to Audubon Great Lakes, the Openland education manager John Great Lakes are a globally significant Cawood admitted to knowing very lit- ecosystem for millions of migratory birds tle about birds when he started with that rely on coastal habitats for much- the organization six years ago, but has needed rest and shelter during their an- sharpened his skills, thanks to the nual trip along the Mississippi Flyway. team of volunteers that he says could (The Mississippi Flyway is the journey train anyone. 325 bird species make each year from their breeding grounds in Canada and “Birds are everywhere! Even in an urban the northern United States to their win- setting where nature seems sparse to tering grounds along the Gulf of Mexico many people. We have found through and in Central and South America.) the program that birds can be an entreé to a lifelong love of nature,” Cawood For local bird lovers, this means that says. “One of our Birds in My Neighbor- bird habitats like in Lincoln Park’s North Photo: Joel Trick, USFWS hood volunteers was accused by kids Pond, the Addison Bird Sanctuary, Jack- of putting birds in their backyards. They son Park, Gompers Park, North Park Vil- had always been there, but the kids lage Nature Center, South Shore Cultural Center and Montrose Point never noticed them until the volunteers came into their class and start- provide an opportunity to identify Chicago’s favorite visitors. Of course, ed a conversation with them about birds.” sanctuaries aren’t the only places to spot these species. According to “Birds of the Windy City” by Audubon of the Chicago Region’s Judy Once you know what to look for, it’s impossible not to see common Pollock, about seven million birds pass through the city every year. species like house sparrows and starlings, but also seasonal visitors like the incredibly rare yellow-throated Kirtland’s warbler that was Former Mayor Richard M. Daley signed the Urban Conservation Trea- nearly extinct fifty years ago. ty for Migratory Birds with former U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Di- rector and current president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, Jamie “A couple weeks ago there was a Kirtland’s warbler hanging out at the Rappaport Clark in 2000. The Urban Bird Treaty program was Lincoln Monument down off of Columbus Drive,” says Cawood. “That launched in 1999—the first in New Orleans and second in Chicago— is the rarest bird I have ever seen, not at all in the setting I was expect- and works with cities and partners to conserve migratory birds through ing to see it in. I love seeing a rainbow of different-colored birds, so acts of preservation and education. it’s fun to go to a place like Montrose or Humboldt Park and see a yel- low warbler, an oriole, an indigo bunting, a scarlet tanager and a These acts include providing sustenance and shelter for birds that help rose-breasted grosbeak, all in one place.” clue scientists in on the state and health of our environment. Chicago’s commitment to protecting birds means birdwatchers are likely to spot The birdwatching community is not limited to ornithologists or envi- the bright blue of an indigo bunting in our open woodlands and a war- ronmental professionals. Chicago has a rich community of bird and Newcity JULY 2019 bler or house wren in our city neighborhoods. Chicago’s official city bird, nature enthusiasts who take to social media to find like-minded ad- the peregrine falcon, can be seen perched on our skyscrapers. mirers. Facebook group Birds and Beers plans annual events to gath- er and chat about birds while they sip on local brews. There’s also the Chicago-based writer Raghav Rao was a fan of birdwatching in India Punk Rock Gardening and Bird Watching group and Chicago Ornitho- and New York City before moving to Chicago, but found his appetite for logical Society, Bird Watching. the outdoors to be a bit more substantial following our winter months. At the end of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s spring 2018 No matter your level of experience, birdwatching is relatively easy and semester, Rao, writing faculty member Jill Riddell, and writing program relaxing to do in and around the city any time of year. Take a look 26 alumnus and author Sophie Lucido Johnson organized a bird walk for around. You never know who might be peeking at you from behind a students at Magic Hedge in the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary. branch or bush.
“The Florida Project” Director Sean Baker presents the debut 35mm print of his 2017 feature at the Chicago Film Society at Music Box Theatre on July 22 rts & CultureAfilmstillfrom“TheFloridaProject\"
Martha Tuttle Admission is always free. All are welcome. JULY 12–AUGUST 16, 2019 June 14–September 22, 2019 1711 WEST CHICAGO AVENUE TARA DONOVAN CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60622 FIELDWORK WWW.RHOFFMANGALLERY.COM Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Tara Donovan, Untitled (Mylar), 2011/2013. Mylar and hot glue. Photo: Mick Vincenz. Courtesy of the artist and Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck. Newcity JULY 2019 James Nares, It’s Raining in Naples, 2003 (detail). Oil on linen. 47.5 × 81 in. Private collection. Image courtesy of Kasmin Gallery. The first retrospective of contemporary artist and mam.org/moves filmmaker James Nares June 14–October 6, 2019 28
Art the infrequent opera performances and almost total disappearance of any major writers or artists. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that the art world in Chicago started to take shape. The Museum of Contemporary Art opened its doors in 1967. The first Hairy Who group exhibition took place at the Hyde Park Art Center in 1966, and artist collective AfriCO- BRA was founded two years later. Artist-run spaces proliferated in the 1970s, thanks in large part to an influx of money from the National Endowment for the Arts. ARC, Artemisia and N.A.M.E Gallery were all founded in 1973, and Randolph Street Gallery opened in 1979. Today it’s hard to throw a stone and not hit an art space of sorts—whether it’s in someone’s garage, apartment or a gallery or a museum proper. But, despite this ever-burgeoning community, Chicago still doesn’t get its due for being a global arts hub. This July, you could visit the MCA and see a solo exhibition by the emerging Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade or the global design wunderkind Virgil Abloh. Meanwhile, the Art Institute has a massive Manet show, and in August will unveil an exhibit showcasing how the Bauhaus inspired weaving across the United States. Meanwhile, just north of the city, the Block Museum showcased the work of medieval African artists in their groundbreaking “Caravans of Gold” exhibition. \"Decade of the Woman,\" 1989, tapestry and applique, 53 x 50 in. (135 x 127 cm), On a smaller scale this summer, domestic Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock Napoleon Jones-Henderson, AFRICOBRA: Nation Time. gallery Chicago Manual of Style, run by EXPO artistic director Stephanie Cristello, staged a The Second small but mighty group installation including JULY 2019 Newcity City is Alright the work of Paris-based artist Antoine Donzeaud, Chicago’s Assaf Evron, and the Making the Case for Chicago as a Global Arts Hub Dutch conceptualist artist Wim van der Linden. The Poetry Foundation is showing By Kerry Cardoza joyful conceptual work by Yoko Ono through August 22. In the western suburbs, the When New Yorker staffer A. J. Liebling temporary home. (He lasted less than a year Elmhurst Art Museum has on view “Luftwerk: moved to Chicago in 1949, he described the before returning to New York.) He found it Parallel Perspectives,” a site-specific city as “beguilingly medieval.” The writer, who ugly and poorly planned, with a lack of fine installation from the Chicago-based, interna- famously turned his derogatory musings into dining and too many strip clubs. But he was tionally known art duo Luftwerk. In September, the book “Chicago: The Second City,” especially troubled by the lack of an arts the new-ish West Town gallery One After 909 discovered much to dislike about his scene, from the scant commercial galleries to will show contemporary art from Russia. Chicago’s influence doesn’t stop here: it reaches far beyond the city’s limits. This year, “AFRICOBRA: Nation Time,” an exhibition curated by Threewalls executive director Jeffreen M. Hayes, was chosen as an official collateral event of the Venice Biennale Arte. This is the first time the work of the historic Black Arts collective has been exhibited and viewed on this scale. Chicago’s growing 29
ART TOP 5 Wim van der Linden, \"Tulips,\" 1966. From \"Saturnine\" at Chicago Manual of Style, 2019. Newcity JULY 2019 1 Eric J. Garcia: The prominence in the art world is also evinced by partnerships Mia Khimm said of the expan- Bald Eagle's Toupee. the announcement earlier this year that the sion: “This year, we are focusing our initiatives DePaul Art Museum. Part of New Art Dealers Alliance is staging their first to support our international exhibitors and the National Veterans Art art fair in the city this September, to coincide programming within the context of expanding Museum's first-ever triennial, with EXPO. Chicago’s global and regional artistic Garcia's immersive installation landscape.” offers a satirical critique of the “This important expansion to Chicago, in an militarization of U.S. culture. ideal venue, will continue our mission to Journalist Eugene Field moved to Chicago in Through August 11 support artists and arts organizations 1883 to write a column for the Chicago internationally,” Rachel Uffner, NADA board Morning News. Field took a stance not unlike 2 Yoko Ono: Poetry, president, said in a statement. NADA the one Liebling would adopt over fifty years Painting, Music, Objects, cancelled their annual New York version of the later, chiding the city for many things, like its Events and Wish Trees. fair earlier this year. While the inaugural obsession with making money. And yet, our Poetry Foundation. Ono brings Chicago event will be a smaller affair, with city must have gotten to him. He famously her wish trees to Chicago, participation from around forty galleries, there remarked that Chicago had civilized him, used staged in tandem with \"Arising\" will be representation from international as he was to “the wilds of Missouri.” Field also at the SAIC library, another names, such as Tokyo’s Misako & Rosen. saw hope in the city’s fledging arts scene. participatory work, which asks \"When Chicago gets going, she'll make culture women to offer testament to Of course, EXPO Chicago has long been hum,\" he wrote. If Field were alive today, with experiences of harm. Through known for drawing an international art crowd artists like Theaster Gates and Kerry James August 22 to the city each fall. But this year, they are Marshall, writers like Eve L. Ewing and José taking that relationship further with the Red Olivarez, and musicians like Jamila Woods 3 Saturnine. Chicago Bull Arts Detroit Global Curatorial Initiative, a and Chance the Rapper—the list could go on Manual of Style. A group program expansion that aims “to bring more and on—in our midst, I think he’d have no exhibition featuring Chicago international curators to the Detroit and choice but to agree that our Second City is artist Assaf Evron, assembling Chicago area.” EXPO director of strategic humming. sculptural elements, painting and video, all of which explore the concept of melancholia. Through July 26 4 Sara Cwynar: Image Model Muse. Milwaukee Art Museum. Cwynar's first solo museum exhibition in the United States includes three recent films and a photo series examining the political and social contexts of color and design. Through August 4 5 Inka Essenhigh: Uchronia. Kavi Gupta. New, otherworldly enamel paintings imagine an idyllic future world for humans. Through August 24 30
MONGERSON JULY 2019 Newcity GALLERY 31 2251 WEST GRAND AVE. PHONE: 312.943.2354 MONGERSONGALLERY.COM Pictured: Rober t Longo, Eric, lit hograph, no. 18/50, 1995
EXHIBITIONS THE ARTS CLUB OF CHICAGO LOGAN CENTER EXHIBITIONS 201 East Ontario Street At the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts 312 787 3997 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 [email protected] / www.artsclubchicago.org 773 702 2787 Tues–Fri 11-6, Sat 11-3 [email protected] / arts.uchicago.edu/logan/gallery Through August 3 Amy Sillman: The Nervous System Tues–Sat 9-9, Sun 11-9, Mon closed Please contact gallery for information THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY At Northwestern University 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL 451 N. Paulina Street 847 491 4000 312 243 2129 [email protected] / www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu [email protected] / www.moniquemeloche.com Tues, Sat–Sun 10-5, Wed–Fri 10-8, Mon closed Tues–Sat 11-6 Through July 21 Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: June 6–August 17 Cheryl Pope: BASKING NEVER HURT NO ONE June 6–August 17 Brittney Leeanne Williams, Jake Troyli, Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa Bianca Nemelc: Show Me Yours CARL HAMMER GALLERY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY 740 N. Wells Street PHOTOGRAPHY 312 266 8512 [email protected] / www.carlhammergallery.com At Columbia College Chicago Tues–Sat 11-5:30 600 S. Michigan Avenue Closed August 18–September 6 312 663 5554 May 17–August 17 LEGENDARY: Traylor, Yoakum, Darger, Paschke, [email protected] / www.mocp.org Mon–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5 Rosofsky, S.L. Jones, Sigler, Sparrow, others Through July 7 Birmingham, Alabama, 1963: DEPAUL ART MUSEUM Dawoud Bey/Black Star Through July 7 Chicago Stories: Carlos Javier Ortiz At DePaul University 935 W. Fullerton Avenue and David Schalliol 773 325 7506 July 18–September 29 Go Down Moses [email protected] / artmuseum.depaul.edu Mon–Tues closed, Wed–Thurs 11-7, Fri–Sun 11-5 Through August 11 New Age, New Age: Strategies for Survival Through August 11 Eric J. Garcia: The Bald Eagle’s Toupee
THE NEUBAUER COLLEGIUM SCHINGOETHE CENTER FOR CULTURE AND SOCIETY of Aurora University At the University of Chicago 1315 Prairie Street, Aurora, IL 5701 South Woodlawn Avenue 630 844 7843 773 795 2329 [email protected] / www.aurora.edu/museum [email protected] / neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu Mon, Wed–Fri 10-4, Tues 10-7 Mon–Fri 10-5 The Museum is Closed May 1–September 23, 2019 Through September 6 HUTOPIA: Alec Finlay, Patrick Lakey, September 24–December 13 Threads: A Line from There to Here Goshka Macuga, Guy Moreton, John Preus, Ewan Telford SMART MUSEUM OF ART POETRY FOUNDATION At the University of Chicago 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue 61 W. Superior Street 773 702 0200 312 787 7070 [email protected] / www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu [email protected] / www.poetryfoundation.org Tues–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sun 10-5 Mon–Fri 11-4 Through September 22 Tara Donovan: Fieldwork Through August 22 Yoko Ono: Poetry, Painting, Music, July 11–August 18 Cross Currents/Intercambio Cultural Objects, Events, and Wish Trees ZHOU B ART CENTER THE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY 1029 W. 35th Street 773 523 0200 At the University of Chicago [email protected] / www.zhoubartcenter.com 5811 S. Ellis Ave., Cobb Hall, 4th Floor Mon–Sat 10-5 773 702 8670 May 17–July 12 Secondary Meanings: Figural Diptychs [email protected] / www.renaissancesociety.org July 19–September 13 SYNERGY: From Manila to Acapulco Gallery Closed June 24–September 13 September 14–December 1 LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Last Cruze RHONA HOFFMAN GALLERY 1711 W. Chicago Avenue 312 455 1990 [email protected] / www.rhoffmangallery.com Tues–Fri 10-5:30, Sat 11-5:30 May 31–July 6 Derrick Adams: The Ins and Outs: Figures in the Urban Landscape July 12–August 16 Martha Tuttle
Dance “Duree” by Paige Caldarella. Dancers: Django Allegreti, Irina Goldman, Craig V. Miller, Jesse Hoisington, Maxwell Perkins, Miranda Borkan, Natalie Tursi/Photo: Topher Alexander Newcity JULY 2019 Green Space, while they could see us; it took away that Dance Space idea that dance has to be a formal event.” Dance in the Parks Brings Professional and The expansive Chicago Park District and the Youth Performances to Your Backyard off-season for Chicago’s large, diverse dance community inspired her to organize a similar By Sharon Hoyer series in her new home. When Katie McCann moved to Chicago phone interview. “People showed up with McCann took a little time to get grounded, in 2004, she brought with her the kernel of an kids, dogs, picnics, it was a well-established sought out meetings with the Park District, idea from Lexington, Kentucky, where she tradition. And it was sweaty and humid and and by 2009 she had created a small had performed with a ballet company that hot, but really fun. The way the audience summer-season company that, in year one, staged free shows outdoors in the parks each interacted—even with classical ballet—was scheduled four performances in parks around summer. “It was so fun,” McCann says in a so different. I loved that. We could see them the city (only one of which got rained out). “We begged friends to choreograph and dance,” she says. “We paid, like, a penny. It’s grown since then and it’s something dancers look forward to.” 34
DANCE TOP 5 1Dance in the Parks. Park District locations. This seasonal company tours neighborhood parks throughout the month, offering free outdoor performances and showcasing hyper-local youth dancers. July 9-27 “Brassy” by Rebecca Lemme. Dancers: Jesse Hoisington, Katy Fedrigon, Maxwell Perkins. Photo: Topher Alexander. 2 Rhythm World. multiple venues. Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s twenty-ninth annual festival of tap and percussive dance features showcases, workshops and performances by the greatest living hoofers from around the globe. July 22-28 Now in its eleventh season, Dance in the The program features seven dancers with two 3 SummerDance. Spirit of Parks has grown into a staple of the Park apprentices, performing original pieces Music Garden in Grant Park. District’s free cultural programming, alongside commissioned by eight choreographers. The Free series of social dances from beloved series like Movies in the Parks, Night company works fast and with high intensity swing and blues, to bachata and Out in the Parks and Shakespeare in the over a couple short months; at the time of bomba, all accompanied by live Parks—high-caliber, everybody-friendly writing, about five weeks out from the first music, is a summer highlight, events that make the long-awaited Chicago show, the dancers had just started to drawing Chicagoans from every fair weather all the sweeter. And with the loss rehearse. The roughly hourlong performance corner of the city to the dance of the Chicago Dancing Festival in 2016—a by the Dance in the Parks company is the floor in Grant Park. June free summer series of world-class dance that same at each location, but programs vary. 27-August 24 ran in downtown venues the last week of Each includes performances by youth August for a decade—Dance in the Parks is companies from the neighborhood—Pi- 4 ROOT: mwanzo wa mwili helping fill a void of professional-level dance otrowski Park Dance Team will perform in La ni roho. Dovetail Studios. shows that everyone can afford to see. And in Villita Park in South Lawndale; Ayodele Drum Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre terms of accessibility, Dance in the Parks & Dance and Praize Productions will perform invites conversation around the does one better, bringing performances to in Sherman Park in Newcity; Yin He Dance next iteration of a longterm Chicagoan’s back yards. will perform in Ping Tom Memorial Park in collaboration between Chinatown; and Hyde Park School of Dance composer and company This year, Dance in the Parks will perform free will perform in Kenwood Community Park. co-founder Joe Cerqua and concerts in fourteen neighborhoods, touching Attendees not only get to see free perfor- choreographer Monique Haley parks on the far reaches of the city grid, from mances by a professional company, but about the African-American Calumet to Jefferson. Looking at a map of equally important, dance happening in their experience. July 11 July events, it’s clear that, for a local outfit, own neighborhoods, in youth training Dance in the Parks really is a touring programs across styles and cultures. And at 5 DanceChance. Lou JULY 2019 Newcity company. When I asked how locations are each performance, Dance in the Parks gives Conte Dance Studio. selected, McCann says it’s a mix of reaching away tickets to fall season shows donated by Three choreographers chosen new neighborhoods, returning to ones dozens of Chicago companies, from the at random have fifteen minutes they’ve visited and logistical considerations. Joffrey, Hubbard Street and Giordano, to to show work in progress in “Some places have been more successful and smaller groups like Chicago Tap Theater. an informal setting, with we try to go back there. The District has moderated discussion in this parks that have asked for dance program- McCann is pleased with the success and open-mic inspired series. ming. We look at where we haven’t been and growth of Dance in the Parks. “People now July 26 where can we fit the logistics of our show. We look for us,” she says. “I’m so proud of the use the Park District’s stage and sound fact we’re going to new audiences, but system and some of the little parks don’t people also come find us. I feel like we’re allow for the set-up. We look if there’s dance reaching the people we’re trying to reach.” in that community, but a lot of time profes- sional dance doesn’t take place. Most At multiple Park District locations. July 9-27, professional dance winds up being downtown all performances at 6:30pm. Free. Full or on the North Side.” schedule at danceintheparks.org. 35
Design Photo: Sagegreenlife Bringing Walls to Life to mimic nature, but to infuse it into all of his designs. “I had this passion and started Sagegreenlife Elevates the Art of Plant Design building rooftop gardens with intricate irrigation and bamboo and getting more involved in the By Kaycie Surrell horticulture world and it became more than a passion,” Beckner says. \"I followed that path Newcity JULY 2019 Whether it’s the lush swaths of chartreuse carefully placing pallets of Philodendron and drive and studied what worked and what greens and deep purples that make up the cordatum against Dracena compacta, he was didn’t work with our harsher climate. The living wall in Tishman Speyer or the intricate photographing celebrities like Jennifer Hudson. people here at Sage brought me on to design pattern outside the Advocate Illinois Masonic and I became part of the horticulture team and Medical Center, you’ve seen the work of When Beckner outgrew fashion photography, it was all very serendipitous.” biophilic design and lifestyle company he turned to the roses that permeated his life Sagegreenlife. West Loop-based Sagegreen- and his fascination with horticulture blossomed The Sagegreenlife office is as lush and life lead horticulturist and plant design into a career. From roses to living wall spaces, comforting as a place that specializes in manager Nathan Beckner comes by his eye for he’s traded Variegata di Bologna and Chapeau designing living walls should be. The open floor plant design by way of his grandmother, a de Napoléon for Monstera Deliciosa, a plant plan means everyone is chatting and sharing talented rosarian, and a twenty-year back- the “Swiss cheese leaves” of which are ideas with one another and, like they say at ground in fashion photography. Before he was famous in their own right. The goal isn’t simply Sagegreenlife, it’s hard not to smile when you’re surrounded by plants all day. Especially during those harsh winters when you need a little green. 36
DESIGN TOP 5 1 Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech. Museum of Contemporary Art. The much- anticipated exhibition on the Louis Vuitton Men’s artistic director, whose influence and creativity rises beyond media, merging visual arts, music, fashion, graphic design and architecture. Through September 22 Photo: Sagegreenlife 2 Setting the Stage: Objects of Chicago Theatre. Design Museum of Chicago. Celebrating the Year of Chicago Theatre with a showcase of design objects including costumes, lights, sound, props and sets, on loan from local theater companies. Through January 2020 Varieties of their indoor and outdoor Their custom wall kits like those in their 3 Mies van der Rohe: structures are placed throughout the office Verdanta Collection are portable and Chicago Blues and so potential clients can see what might work self-irrigating. They feature built-in LED grow Beyond. Matthew Rachman best in specific industries. Different plants lights and plug into the wall. The wall systems Gallery. A collection of original thrive in different environments. Leading work, thanks to Biotiles that use a layered rock blueprints, artifacts and furniture furniture manufacturer Steelcase has fiber, rockwool, which distributes water, by pioneer of modernist partnered with Sagegreenlife to rep the oxygen and nutrients and doesn’t decay or architecture Mies van der Rohe self-contained, freestanding walls and break down over time. Because rockwool explores the legacy of the movable partitions. Among other consider- doesn’t degrade, it can be reused and legendary architect and designer ations, the plants that fill them are chosen recycled and won’t change size, regardless of in Chicago and beyond. based upon client preference and durability. being wet or dry, hot or cold. With control over Through July 21 water, oxygen, lighting and nutrients, plants Horticulturists like Beckner know that and herbs like French lavender that would 4 Silver Screen to Schefflera arboricola paired with Philoden- usually require sharp drainage can thrive in Mainstream: American dron cordatum with variegation and bright living wall systems that never become too wet Fashion in the 1930s and chartreuse and neon leaves look better than or too saturated. Pelargonium (scented Forties. Chicago History a dark wall of green without variety. “The geranium) and Rosemary Prostratus, which is Museum. Artifacts from the challenge was finding a plant that worked a trailing variety, survive and thrive in the living Chicago History Museum's well in any space and was durable so with walls and don’t suffer the powdery mildew that famed costume collection these I was able to get a look that was lush can plague indoor herb gardens. highlight the ways the glamour and dense in an office space where there of the silver screen influenced are passersby or people running into things,” Of course, the walls aren’t just beautiful. and shaped American fashion. Beckner says. “Dark green varieties of They’re also good for you. Sagegreenlife Through January 2020 plants can suck up a lot of light and look studies show increased productivity and heavy, and I wanted to keep everything a mental and physical health benefits from being 5 Luftwerk: Parallel JULY 2019 Newcity little brighter but maintain that durability.” around plants. “It’s not just about air purifica- Perspectives. Elmhurst tion, there’s a variable that isn’t quite Art Museum. Petra Bachmaier Sagegreenlife takes all of the guesswork understood about the way people interact with and Sean Gallero play with light, out of designing and maintaining a living plants and biophilic movement that makes color and perception at a wall by carefully plotting digital designs of people healthier and happier,” Beckner says. site-specific installation within the structures and filling them in with the “It changes your perception just being next to McCormick House. Through ideal plant varieties. Maintenance is a them and smelling the earthiness and feeling it. August 25 breeze, thanks to technician teams that It’s a great thing.” check on the walls every two weeks to replenish water reservoirs and take care of Sagegreenlife living walls can be seen in over grooming. They also check and make any twenty cities. Their goal isn’t to mimic nature necessary adjustments on the special but to infuse it naturally into all of their designs Kessil LED lights built into their ongoing by incorporating natural elements into people’s plant-care program. lives and homes, just as nature intended. 37
&DiDnirningking 700 Club at Entente, photo DLM Photography & Design We’ve enjoyed excellent zero-proof cocktails at many Chicago bars and Newcity JULY 2019 Coffee, Tea or CBD restaurants. Even at their best, many no-alc cocktails can leave you longing for a shot of Cannabis Derivatives on Chicago Menus bourbon or gin or one of the many other spirits we’ve come to anticipate as part of By David Hammond our evening drinking ritual. We don’t want to fall off the wagon, but we do want If you’re going spirit-free, your options (1639 South Wabash), where skillful something special. are no longer limited to coffee, tea, water or bartenders can match your no-alcohol soft drinks. There’s a new wave of beverage with Ryan McCaskey’s changing Enter CBD. zero-proof cocktails in Chicago, at places tasting menu. Roka Akor (456 North Clark) like Julia Momose’s instantly legendary also has a fine selection of no-alcohol CBD is becoming a special, and sometimes Kumiko (630 West Lake) and other options, made from multiple ingredients and off-menu, ingredient at Chicago bars and higher-end local restaurants like Acadia with layers of flavor. restaurants. 38 CBD is derived from the cannabis plant, but has none of the psychotropic impacts of THC-based oils and tinctures. CBD has the purported benefit of providing relaxation, pain relief and a host of other benefits, most of which await scientific verification through double-blind, randomized, placebo-con- trolled trials. We may have to wait some time for such validation, as Big Pharma would likely not get behind a pharmaceuti- cal that you or I could grow in our gardens. One intangible benefit of adding CBD to a cocktail is that it makes those who are alcohol-free feel as though they’re having something more than a substitute for a “real” cocktail. Of course, at several Chicago locations, you can add the CBD to a real cocktail. At the Godfrey Hotel (127 West Huron), Grant Gedemer, food and beverage director, tells us that “CBD can be therapeutic and naturally calming. Adding it to cocktails is a way for guests to become introduced to it, and we’re selling a lot of drinks with the CBD add-on. There is a little bit of mystery in it since it is relatively new to the market. For people who already use it and love it, it’s a new way to enjoy cocktails.” Beau Kelly-Fontano at Entente (700 North Sedgwick) tells us his CBD-laced 700 Club is his “bestselling spirit-free cocktail and our second bestselling cocktail on the menu.” The 700 is a beautiful cocktail, opalescent on the bottom three-quarters, deep purple on the top, with cucumber mint lemonade and citrus flavors. Kelly-Fontano says, “It feels like a cocktail. A chef was in here the other day enjoying a 700 Club, and I told him, ‘You know, that’s a spirit-free cocktail,’ and he said, ‘No fucking way.’”
DINING & DRINKING TOP 5 Summer Smash at Godfrey Hotel, photo Kailley Lindman 1 Family Meal Mondays. Spilt Milk. Kitchen teams Beverage director Tim Ryll at 20 East (20 lot of compelling scientific research from Good Fortune, Superkhana JULY 2019 Newcity East Delaware Place) says that CBD “is a emerging in support of CBD as a health International, Good Measure, cool, fun add-on to a cocktail. If you can supplement,” Conlon says. “Like taking your Pacific Standard Time and steal a little relaxation out of a cocktail along daily vitamins!” Quiote come by to cook with the usual buzz, we are here for you. signature dishes, and for twenty We use an unflavored CBD so it wouldn’t Nick Jirasek, Young American’s director of bucks, you get your pick. interfere with the intended profile of the food, is slowly introducing CBD to food, and Mondays in July cocktail. There are, however, many flavor feels that the CBD he uses provides flavor options for CBD oil and tincture.” dimensions to a preparation. Currently, the 2 Taste of Chicago. only CBD-containing food on the menu are Grant Park. What? You Young American (2545 North Kedzie) in the Calmonds. “Full Spectrum CBD is rich think you’re too good for Taste? Logan Square has been in the vanguard of in herbaceous terpenes and adds a Grab a Buona beef and a CBD additives in food and drink. Beverage complex, almost piney note to the Goose Island brew and get over director Aubry Robinson says that “Many Calmonds. We play into the natural verdant yourself. It’s about Chicago people choose to abstain from alcohol but flavor of the hemp plant by adding fresh food and drink!. July 10-14 still want to have fun in a bar environment. rosemary and thyme.” We offer a wide array of spirit-free cocktails 3 Windy City Smokeout. with the option to add CBD so that guests Adding CBD to a regular alcohol-containing United Center. Rocking can have a special experience regardless of cocktail is a point of some debate. Young music from fifteen live what they choose to order. The CBD isolate American’s general manager Matt Zavala performances and magnificent we use is relatively unflavored, so we don’t says “Putting CBD and alcohol together meat from twenty of the have to factor that into the flavor profiles of seems like a bad idea” if for no other reason country’s top pit masters. each drink.” than that the alcohol could “overwhelm” the July 12-14 faint flavors of the CBD. At Fat Rice (2957 West Diversey), Abe 4 Taste of River North. Conlon and crew give diners the choice of Ryll counsels, “we recommend respecting Kingsbury and Erie. CBD dosages. To any drink or cocktail or CBD the same as alcohol. Be reasonable Food from places like Bounce egg tarts, you can have the kitchen add .25 with consumption, know your limit, and of and Pink Taco, music from mL ($3) or .50mL ($6) of CBD oil. “There’s a course, do not drive.” groups like Too White Crew and One Moment from Glory, it will be a very River North kind of weekend. July 19-21 5 Art-Inspired Tour and Dinner. Travelle at The Langham. A concierge-guided tour of artworks at The Langham accompanied by food and drinks from Travelle inspired by the art. July 25 39
Film “Shelfie” / Photo: Ray Pride Newcity JULY 2019 Restoration I built the wall. And the wall took nearly property from decades past still must cover Tragedy twenty years. costs for library owners, leasing to multiple channels and services, for limited-time Keeping Up With the Past Blu-rays, consumer DVDs, preview screener licensing. It’s a mirage to imagine an economy DVDs, they furnish tall bookcases in my home that provides any given viewer every film, By Ray Pride office: the wall facing west holds a chunky everywhere, all the time. Take the time to read mass of treasures of the past century of the EULA (end-user license agreement) that 40 movies (and particularly the last fifty years) governs the “purchase” of a digital copy of that describe the possibilities, the narrative a movie: boiling it down to simplest terms? and lyrical potential of the feature-film form as You don’t own it. And you can’t transfer it, the I’ve studied it. The exposed brick wall, built in way I hand along three movies by a relatively 1913, peeps above the all-but-filled shelves, esoteric filmmaker that an impressionable with two more cases on the east side of the friend down the block just discovered. Plus, writing room. It’s not the display that collectors reminding them there’s more where that came of vinyl will always find room for, and then from if they just get them back in a reasonable more room for. But the amount of media time. (This is why it’s an archive, not a hoard.) that can stand in that space is substantial— substantial enough I haven’t counted the Screenwriter-producer-novelist-comics number of titles, won’t count. writer-compulsive, the skull-thunderingly productive Warren Ellis, sends out a Sunday I stand in the middle of the space looking at newsletter, Orbital Operations, with bulletins the past. Why does this array seem like the on his output and linking to work he’s found future for anyone who’s film-fixated? A few inspiring or diverting. (Along with amusingly reasons, among them that streaming is not brittle woe-is-me plaints about mortality and what many consumers take it for. Intellectual art and eternity and deadline after deadline.)
Ellis has been on a jag against streaming a movie by Altman, Almodóvar, P. Anderson, and for physical media. “I am re-building my W. Anderson, Antonioni, Assayas and FILM TOP 5 personal media library, which involves finding through B and beyond—is more cheering CDs and DVDs that have been scattered to than that diminishing number of releases 1 The Florida Project. the four corners of my house over the years,” from the shrunken studios. Chicago Film Society at Music Box. Sean Baker Ellis writes, “and buying new CDs and DVDs presents the debut 35mm because I can’t keep relying on the internet Spring and summer urban apartment moves print of the best American (and a solid connection) or digital storage for fill neighboring alleys with two kinds of feature of 2017. Monday, physical media. Not uncommon is what a July 22 this shit. Clearly I have problems.” friend dubbed “The Gentleman’s Selection,” 2 Escape From New York. Music Box. Another problem for films proper: Movies a frighteningly finite range of choices, no Snake Plissken returns in a 4K restoration, supervised only a few decades old are in danger not more than two dozen common titles: by the hardly idle elder John Carpenter. Opens Friday, only of being withheld, but disappearing “Reservoir Dogs,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Snatch,” July 5 altogether. And the movies that don’t “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” 3 Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood. make the preservation cut are either a “Black Hawk Down,” a “Spider-Man” or two, Quentin Tarantino’s three- hour re-creation of Hollywood restoration tragedy or pirating waiting to maybe “Edward Scissorhands” and certainly dreams of winter and summer 1969 mingles happen. YouTube has become a repository “Fight Club.” (Look for these titles at a pop culture, a candy-store Reckless Records location; they’re usually window’s worth of women’s of American rarities from the 1930s and dirty bare feet and the 1940s and national cinemas from around the less than two dollars.) Manson family murders. planet even as Netflix ignores older movies. The other recurring vision is pavement Opens Friday, July 26 The steady stream of rereleases and covered with a slick of cracked, empty 4 Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Music restorations of older movies continues this cases, crushed underfoot and under truck Box. John Cameron and car. Someone’s done their civilized thing, Mitchell’s 2001 filming of summer, work that embarrasses far too his song cycle returns in a it would appear: the discs proper slipped 4K digital remaster. Opens many Friday openings. They’re genuine Friday, July 19 into slim loose-leaf binders. (There are about gems, ones that stood the test of time but 5 Midsommar. Ari forty of those in my office, too, off to the side, Aster follows the also the gauntlet of restoration finance nighttime terrors of in a closet.) The rest of it? Ephemera be “Hereditary” with a sunny required to make them “new” again. Hal sojourn to Scandinavia by a gone! Clutter no more! No sentimentality! couple to a summer festival. Hartley worked his way through his 1990s Opens Wednesday, July 3 comedies in Blu-ray editions, augmented Ellis plainly disagrees, and I guess I do, too. by Kickstarter and Japanese collectors. “I have developed a new hobby/habit,” he The Music Box hosts John Cameron elaborates in another missive, “rebuilding Mitchell’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” my media collection. CDs and DVDs and (2001) this month, less than twenty years Blu-rays. I’ve mentioned why before—some on, as well as a 4K restoration of John Carpenter’s “Escape from New York” (1981). things, you can’t find on streaming, or they The materials that films shot on celluloid are disappear from streaming, and storage solutions for downloads fail, and one day made from are fragile, and let’s not start Bandcamp will die just as eMusic did. In on the vast expense of preserving material that was born digitally. (And the end result, the course of obtaining physical copies of things I only had on digital that I feel like of course, is an upgraded version of the I need physical copies of, I fell into the restoration’s physical media for those who collector’s-mania k-hole that is Discogs. must, must have it.) So I may need to pick up more work just July attractions from the indefatigable to stave off bankruptcy.” But while clinging Chicago Film Society include a fine oddity: to the bulwark of image and sounds to consult at will, Ellis shares his clear-headed a “restoration” of a thing that never was— variation on “does it bring joy?” “I’m also until now—the debut of a freshly-struck 35mm print of the best feature film of 2017, filling bags with things I don’t want any more, to take to charity shops. This is important. Sean Baker’s “The Florida Project.” (Baker Because when I was young and poor, most will present the show.) Shot on film by of my books and music came from charity master cinematographer Alexis Zabe, it shops, and you have to pay that back and was released theatrically in the now-stan- dard DCP (digital cinema package) format. keep that going.” (CFS also was instrumental in striking new That’s a different but no less integral aspect 35mm prints of Hartley’s “Trust,” which of the furthering of personal taste: that of the they showed in June.) artists of the present and future, poor and It’s warming to know that I have to step hungry, not quite destitute, eager to pay only a few steps toward that alphabetized next to nothing for unlikely top finds at a physicality. (It’s tempting to pause, stand in junk store or pawnshop, such as a Canadian first-issue DVD of Lynne Ramsay’s out-of- front of the Bs, and slip into the exuberant print psycho-surrealist marvel, “Morvern ending of “The Florida Project.”) I’m pretty JULY 2019 Newcity sure I have at least thirty of any given day’s Callar,” two bucks plain. You don’t get to lick list of fifty favorite films. That’s a lot of pretty emulsion, but you can touch as well as see and hear a movie. Yes, there’s also Facets pictures, all in their sleeves and cases. It’s and Odd Obsession, as well as the public dispiriting, too, this still-modest archive of features and shorts and documentaries that library, but sometimes, it’s good to hold a would take years to watch or watch again. thing, an object, an artifact of experience. Yet reaching toward a familiar streak of great- The carefully marshaled home médiathèque ness, if only to watch a scene, an ending— can be a refuge, a wall of dreams instead the end of “Stalker”? Any twenty minutes of of physical boundaries. 41
164 NORTH STATE STREET • BETWEEN LAKE & RANDOLPH 1,600 SCREENINGS MORE THAN 200 FILMMAKER & GUEST APPEARANCES 5 SHOW THIS ANNUAL AT THE BOX OFFICE FOR FILM A $7 TICKET FESTIVALS $12 GENERAL | $7 STUDENTS | $6 MEMBERS W W W. S I S K E L F I L M C E N T E R . O R G
Lit The Logics Sasha Hemon /Photo: Velibor Bozovic of Literature as the Logics of Democracy Speaking with Aleksandar (Sasha) Hemon By S. Ferdowsi Often credited as a multi- multiplying contexts such as So there is this negotiation when existence. I’ve always dealt with JULY 2019 Newcity genre writer, Aleksandar Eastern European history, converting something into a that, as I’m sure many immigrant Hemon’s repertoire includes psychology and narratology. lasting object and losing some- writers do. I wanted to provide as short stories, novels, nonfiction thing when doing so. much information as possible but and screenplays. Yet even so, After living in Chicago for most of at the same time I didn’t want it to Hemon resists, redefines and his literary career, Sasha Hemon What do you lose? be dry: so I had to straddle those liberates his prose from genre took a position at Princeton last two considerations. labels by incorporating multiple year and left for New Jersey; This sense of remembering as forms and styles throughout each we conducted this interview via an internal experience. The text You invoke the image of work. For Hemon, as a writer and Skype. This interview has been remembers, but I don’t. concentric circles to describe professor, it is not about what a edited for length and clarity. your father’s identity because piece of writing “is” in a categori- “This Does Not Belong to You” of his family’s migration and cal sense, but rather how to Can you describe the process feels stark (without sacrificing how the same piece of land employ the possibilities of of writing these two books? on detail), whereas “My was at different times called language to construct complex Parents” is more text-heavy Vucijak, Yugoslavia, Bosnia narrative spaces. “My Parents: As I was writing “My Parents,” all and includes footnotes. What and Ukraine. Do you think this An Introduction” and “This Does these memories of my childhood is the relationship between same idea of concentrism can Not Belong to You,” the two and family life began bubbling up. the text and the footnotes? be applied to genre? volumes that constitute Hemon’s There were quite a few memories latest work, are no exception. I could never quite forget, and I The thing with writing about my Genre is a way to conceptualize the could never quite understand life and the lives of my parents complexity of narrative situations. “This Does Not Belong to You” why they were so persistent and in the United States is that Memoirs, essays, novels, none of is composed of discrete indelible, why I was so stuck on Americans may not have that those terms fit exactly; it’s only memories from childhood to remembering them and what they historical background, so you when you pile them on that they young adulthood. Although they meant. I started writing them have to explain yourself from begin to describe what I am trying can be read as standalone pieces, down in one-hundred, 200, 300 scratch and footnote your whole to do. I don’t think I’m the only the book as a whole can be words without any ambition or interpreted as a case study on plan to publish. When I had memory. We see a writer intent around one hundred of them, on the preservation of his I brought them to my publisher memory—not only with what and my agent and they were happened but also how memory surprised—and so was I— moves in the body and the mind. because I am two books behind on my original contract. “My Parents: An Introduction” is also concerned with Hemon’s There’s a running motif of past, but incorporates a wider destruction and deconstruc- domain of historical analysis, tion in “This Does Not Belong sociopolitical inquiry and narrative to You.” Do you believe by terrains. The book revolves writing down a memory, you around his and his parents’ destroy it or deconstruct it immigration from Bosnia to into something else? North America due to the political upheaval and genocide in the There’s a certain amount of loss 1990s. But for Hemon to do so in writing down a memory, but it requires engagement across also ensures the memory lasts. 43
LIT TOP 5 one doing it, but I think the reduction to You make allusions to “Make X-Land one genre misses the target. Great Again.” How has the Trump 1 Deborah Shapiro. Women administration impacted this book? and Children First/The Book The lives of my parents were never, not for a Table. The Chicago-based moment, outside of history; so, you cannot Some parts of “My Parents” were written magazine writer discusses her talk about their lives without talking about before Trump was elected. But the second novel, “The Summer history, which is itself concentric circles: beginning of it all was the refugee crisis Demands,” with Kathleen you have local history, the history of the city, and how it was represented in Europe Rooney (WCF) and Lindsay the history of the country, the history of the and the United States. Hunter (TBT). July 11 & 16 bigger country, the history of the region, the history of Europe, the history of the world. Western culture has treated them as empty 2 Kalisha Buckhanon. nobodies who have no life, no history, no 57th Street Books. The You mention Bosnian does not have past, but they do. There’s a whole universe Chicago-based author of the separate terms for fiction and nonfic- in each person and I obviously cannot talk National Book Foundation tion; instead, it’s about using the about all those people individually, but I Literature for Justice title, possibilities of language to produce know my parents and I wanted to show a “Upstate,” discusses her newest, as they are produced by rich narrative life of these ordinary people living through “Speaking of Summer.” July 30 spaces (or narrative architecture). extraordinary circumstances. How does the essayistic voice play 3 Layne Fargo. Women a role in this understanding? You describe your father’s identity & Children First. The as possessing plural “interconnected Chicago-based co-creator of An essay is an exercise in thinking in and interdependent” ones, and I’m the podcast “Unlikeable Female language—and I wouldn’t call it “voice,” but wondering how you think that idea Characters” discusses her debut rather, the “consciousness” that is thinking plays out on the level of the state? novel, “Tempo,” with actor and and operating in language, but you can fight choreographer Christina code your own thoughts and dialogical You can think of identity politics as reductive, Gorman. July 2 discussions in a novel through the plot, that it is pinning an identity on a person characters, or the internal logic of that genre. and ensuring that the person abides by 4 Adam Waytz. Seminary the demands of that particular identity. Co-op. The Northwestern But with the essayistic form, the writer is in And of course society puts pressure on prof discusses his new book some ways more direct and less determined some identities more than others. What and manifesto for our time, by a genre’s conventions. The predictability bigotrydoes is assign and reduce you “The Power of Human: How Our factor is in some ways different—I don’t to an identity so that it becomes a Shared Humanity Can Help Us know if it’s lower or higher—but it’s different. dismissible one. And that, of course, Create a Better World.” July 11 creates a hierarchy where at the top is If the essay is consciousness on white, heterosexual, Anglo-Saxon men. 5 Kristine Hansen. the page, do you think it opens up For them, that simplification works. The Book Cellar. The more opportunities for unpredictability Milwaukee-based food writer and surprise? The more aspects or facets of identity that discusses her new book, one can express and live in, the more one “Wisconsin Cheese Cookbook: I think part or even most of the pleasure in all is free. But to have a full expression of one’s Creamy, Cheesy, Sweet and writing and all literature is related to a sense multi-identity, of one’s potentiality, you need Savory Recipes from the State’s of discovery, a sense of acquiring knowledge democracy. It ensures the maximum amount Best Creameries.” July 11 that is not available otherwise. But the modes of freedom for everyone regardless of the of acquisition in the novel and the essay combination of their identities. 44 are different. A novel’s mode is not directly conveyed as a thought or as a thesis. But in You write, “Home is a place where the essay, the proposition is “I am going to there is a void when you’re not there; think before you and then you engage in that home is what your body fills out. thinking and see where we get from there.” Nowadays we live elsewhere and otherwise, but there is still nobody in A theme that both books share is our place when we are not there…” nostalgia. How has thinking about How has your relationship to Chicago nostalgia shaped you? changed after being away for a year? Newcity JULY 2019 Nostalgia is a narrative operation, it’s the I miss Chicago, but I’m not suffering at kind of retroactive utopia no matter how Princeton. I visited Chicago and it was the you bend it. There’s individual, personal, first time I ever stayed in a hotel, which reflective nostalgia. It’s a narrative engage- was strange. I have a similar relationship to ment, it’s a recollection that is never Sarajevo. When I go there, I’m both at home completed, and so there’s some beauty and coming from my home. I see people, to it, of course, but it’s nonproductive. I hang out, I know where I want to eat and dance and wherever else, but then I go Conversely, there’s a collective, nationalist back home. It is possible to multiply homes. nostalgia for some imaginary place or country that was pure until the foreigners, Aleksandar Hemon will be in conversation traitors, feminists fucked it all up. It posits, with Nami Mun at Women and Children First “Oh, there was a time where it was all good on June 27 at 7pm. for us…” The tricky thing about nationalism is that it looks local and unique, but a “My Parents: An Introduction” / “This Does collective, restorative and nationalist Not Belong to You” by Aleksandar Hemon, nostalgia is a prime symptom of fascism. MCD x FSG Books, 368 pages
Live at The Book Cellar Storytime with Miss Jamie! Bianca Marais July 5, 11am “If You Want to Make God Laugh” David Barsamian July 18, 7pm on the legacy of Edward Said, John Corbett “Culture and Resistance” July 5, 7pm “Pick Up the Pieces” July 19, 7pm Tarot Meetup Poetry Night July 10, 7pm featuring Sara Matson, Kristine Hansen Jacob Saenz, Olivia Cronk and Philip Sorenson “Wisconsin Cheese Cookbook” July 24, 7pm July 11, 7pm Linda Godfrey The Kates!! “I Know What I Saw” July 12 and July 27, 7pm July 25, 7pm Essay Fiesta! Tom Miller July 15, 7pm “The Philosopher’s War” July 26, 7pm Local Author Night Samuel Taylor featuring Mary Ann Presman, David Bell, Mark Caro “Blueprints for a and Savy Leiser Shakespeare Cult” July 17, 7pm July 29, 7pm Go to our website for event details, book clubs and more! Your Independent Book Store in Lincoln Square! 4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago 773.293.2665 • bookcellarinc.com THIS SUMMER AT THE POETRY FOUNDATION Exhibition Yoko Ono: Poetry, Painting, Music, Objects, Events, and Wish Trees Friday, May 10–Thursday, August 22 Poetry off the Shelf Chicago Modernism with Daniel Borzutzky and Rachel Galvin Friday, July 12, 7:00 PM Join us in Pilsen Chicago Poetry Block Party Saturday, July 27, National Museum of Mexican Art Poetry and Music Howard Frazin, Keith Phares & Linda Osborn Thursday, August 15, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street poetryfoundation.org/events
Music StohGaproeo-SvehiTftoing The band’s radio-friendly breakout single, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” was ubiquitous when it dropped in June of that year. Inspired by a Cage the Elephant Finds Its Rhythm (Again) friend of the band who sold drugs to get by, the song wears its heart on its sleeve, siding with the underclass and sympathetic to the sellers By Anne K. Ream & R. Clifton Spargo of sex and drugs forced to use what social capital they’ve got to make their way in the world. As protest music, it’s lyrically predictable— even politically tame. But there’s an aching sincerity in all that wrong- side-of-the-tracks sentiment that makes you like the band. The real promise in Cage’s debut effort existed in a pair of rough- er-souled tunes that never made the cultural mark that “Wicked” did. “James Brown” and “Back Against the Wall” mash up honky-tonk piano, soul bass lines and straight-up American guitar in three-and-half-minute catchy melodies designed to blow the fuse box (if not the entire house). How, exactly, did they get here from there? This is hick-funk with more edge in it than anything The Black Keys ever daydreamed. When the lyrics weren’t trying too hard to be meaningful— When Cage the Elephant, the Nashville-based indie band (who play and they very often were—the earliest Cage songs carried a class-con- the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island on July 31), first burst scious edge that felt both of the moment and timeless. The band’s best onto the rock ‘n’ roll scene in 2008, their music and mythology seemed tracks scorned playing on the safe side yet feared the fate of the middle tailor-made for the post-financial-crisis era. The band’s de facto leaders, Americans they saw sent to for-profit prisons and drug treatment brothers Matt and Brad Shultz, had grown up “on the wrong side of the centers—“Some sunny day they’re going to come for you.” This was tracks” in Bowling Green, Kentucky, dumpster-diving for their first drum rock as prescient as it was powerful, a harbinger of things to come. Newcity JULY 2019 kit and enduring the slings and arrows ever reserved for the poorer Cage’s sophomore album in 2011 was a derivative honorable mention. kids in town. No true Pixies fan can fault the band for “Thank You, Happy Birthday”: On their self-titled first album, Cage spoke to the economic and social the record was ambitious and fun, the best of the 1990s everywhere on display. But there is nothing particularly original about its production despair they knew all too well, during a moment when a growing values or the songs themselves. There are standout tracks on the number of Americans—particularly middle Americans—were coming record, most notably fan favorite “Shake Me Down.” This is a good to know it, too. The band did this with a mixture of country blues and track that gets even better when you see it performed live, the refrain straight-up funk that made their brand of garage rock versatile yet a sudden burst of much-needed optimism—“I keep my eyes fixed on slightly schizophrenic, coloring outside the musical lines enough to the sun”—made to be sung by a crowd. catch the attention of the critics and an ardent indie fan base. 46
In the end what made the band a comer shades of a croony Alex Turner. And, of was the influences early Cage welcomed— course, Beck, as influencer, collaborator and vocalist on the album’s radio-friendly The Pixies, of course, but also Iggy Pop, MUSIC TOP 5 Lou Reed, The Strokes, Nick Cave and the “Still Running.” Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan—coupled with That musical confusion ends up being part the frantic, antic, stage-diving brilliance of their live shows. For a while, Cage seemed of the album’s uneven brilliance. “Social Cues” plays as well from beginning to 1 Heart Bones. Lincoln Hall. destined to be a live act putting out studio The teaming of Har Mar albums to justify the frenzied joy of their jams. end—which is to say, as a genuine Superstar and Sabrina Ellis long-player—as any Cage album not called sparks the kind of pure pop exhilaration that recalls classic And then came 2013’s “Melaphobia.” “Melaphobia.” But there’s darkness here, duos like Ashford & Simpson and Lee Hazlewood and Nancy too. This is a death-haunted album, focused Sinatra. July 10 What made this so brilliant a breakout on the end of Matt Shultz’s marriage and album is Cage’s invention of a completely the loss of several of the band family new garage melancholic vibe perfectly members and close friends. None of this suited to Matt Shultz’s plaintive voice. should be dance material, but there’s a Throughout “Melaphobia,” he shifts effort- macabre, groovable minor-key vibe to lessly from a growl to a whisper to a wail, “Social Cues” that is both disconcerting and absolutely original. often in a single song, as in the hit single, “Come a Little Closer,” and the too-bombas- tic, slightly bawdy, still-it-kinda-works “It’s “Ready To Let Go,” the album’s first single, is as sexy a breakup song as you’re likely to 2 Renee Fleming & Just Forever.“ This is an album of many Emerson String Quartet. themes—regret, isolation, anger, longing— encounter. It takes its origin from a trip Matt Ravinia. The gold-standard Shultz took with his then-wife to the ruins of soprano and renowned revved up, punked out, and performed ensemble perform the Chicago Pompeii, the great Roman city swallowed premiere of the late André in studio with the reckless abandon once Previn’s “monodrama,” up by volcanic overflow in A.D. 79. Listeners “Penelope.” July 28 reserved for Cage’s live shows. might complain about the self-grandiosity of With “Melaphobia,” Cage crafted one of interpreting a falling-apart marriage vis-à-vis a the truly essential rock ’n’ roll records of natural disaster of epic proportions. But there’s the past decade—maybe the past quarter- hope in this narrative, too: their relationship doesn’t survive that visit to the ruins, but century. From such triumph follows the they do, in some broken, altered form. inevitable question: What next? “I always told people we were gonna be successful,” The lyrics themselves barely get out alive— Matt Shultz said in an early interview. Shultz compares himself to a frozen statue, “I don’t know if I knew what that meant. 3 “Weird Al” Yankovic. I was always like ‘yeah, we’re gonna do it— wonders if he and his lover are just a puff of Ravinia. Time to give the smoke, even speaks from underneath a bed man his due: Al has outlasted we’re gonna go out there, this is gonna most of the acts he’s satirized, of ashes. That’s a lot of overbearing allegory and more than earned the full happen.’” “Melaphobia” was one version orchestra backing him on this for a single song. But this, of course, is the tour. July 28 of what the band’s success looked like. brilliant thing about rock ’n’ roll: a dope A second, more commercial version came bass, a seductive groove, and one good in the form of their next album, the late 2015 lyric among a dozen or so over-the-top lines can redeem the entire effort, sometimes release, “Tell Me I’m Pretty.” What’s good brilliantly: “Ima strike these matches / I’m about that record feels like a continuation of all that made “Melaphobia” great, with an ready to let go.” Sometimes you embrace the falling apart because that’s the only homage to early garage band The Troggs thrown in for good measure. Produced by move you have left. 4 John Mayall. SPACE. the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, critics called Despite its myriad of influences and The venerable British bluesman, who turned “Pretty” “more mature” than “Melaphobia,” momentary lapses, Cage has created eighty-five this year, hits town to promote his new and still which is not necessarily a good thing. something new and not at all derivative with remarkably piercing album, “Nobody Told Me.” July 31 Still, it landed Cage a Best Rock Album win “Social Cues.” There’s a splash of cynicism at the fifty-ninth Grammy Awards ceremony, where there used to be ache and urging. cementing the band’s status as an industry There’s something mysterious and seductive powerhouse, even as a series of transcen- where there once was familiar funk. Broken- dent live shows assured early fans that the heartedness now tempers youthful possibili- ty. Yet somewhere, perhaps far in the band’s stage-diving, crowd-surfing ways distance, there remains a glimmer of the survived mass-market adulation. band’s trademark hope. “One thing that Which brings us to “Social Cues,” Cage’s stood out to me,” Matt Shultz has said 5 Son Volt. SPACE. Jay Farrar’s genre-bending esoteric, uneven yet oddly potent new about the making of the album, “is the band plays two club dates to support its politically charged album, produced by John Hill (Florence + presence of joy within sadness and grief.” new album, “Union”—and squeezes in a Square Roots the Machine, Portugal the Man). Plagued festival appearance while in JULY 2019 Newcity at times by conventional lyrics and a mus- Cage has always been a band in tune with town. July 11 and 13 that quintessential rock ‘n’ roll longing to be ical jumble that keeps us guessing (and in a better and different place. This is a wondering if the band even knows) where this ambitious effort is headed, its influences longing that is uniquely American—perhaps particularly middle American. Like the best are manifest. Listen to the album not at all artists, especially those with a deep sense closely and you’ll hear early eighties-era of the environs that they hail from and all Bowie, experimentation in reggae dub, a nod to the forgotten British aughts band that it took to leave, Cage has mined that longing to yet again make itself new. Travis, a dose of funked-out Strokes, and 47
Stage Newcity JULY 2019 Amanda Fink, Andrew Cutler, Eric Gerard of Black Box Acting /Photo: McLaren Photography Enough “Have we talked about the Vegas Line?” famous of phrases, “What happens in Vegas, Is Enough stays in Vegas.” We had yet to talk about the “Vegas Line.” Andrew Cutler, Amanda Fink But about forty-five minutes into my hour-plus “That’s the first thing we say on the first day and Eric Gerard Take the Reigns conversation with Andrew Cutler, Amanda Fink of class, so that you are free to do the work at Black Box Acting and Eric Gerard, the new owners of Black you need to do. It’s a place where you are Box Acting, I was enthralled to be given a few empowered to speak to [everything] that you By Ben Kaye pointers on terminology used by the teachers need, but that you also can get out of your and students of the now-decade-old training comfort zone, and should, and can, because 48 institution for Chicago’s acting community. you owe that to the people who get to watch you live with no consequences.” Amanda points behind me to the spike tape crossing the width of the studio we’re set up This phrase, alongside the majority of Black in, asking me to imagine that the line of tape is Box’s methodology and curriculum, stems literally “the Vegas line,” continuing to fill me in from co-founders Audrey Francis and Laura on a Black Box term derived from that most Hooper, who, back in 2009, founded Black
Box Acting to make space for actors to hyper-aware of the unintentional marginal- “Work Hard and Be Fearless.” Operating out ization of people of color that a majority- STAGE TOP 5 of their own studio space on North Avenue white-led, high-priced acting studio was since 2013, Black Box developed a unique creating. Gerard says that upon taking 1 Uncharted Festival. training method designed to provide actors over ownership of the company, “One of The New Colony. Founded with a process to ground their work and to the most important things to me was in recognition of Chicago’s sharing that same gift with people that passion for creating and teach themselves that most essential of producing new American plays, looked like me. Having the opportunity to this two week festival aims to mantras: “You Are Enough.” connect audiences with today’s give a group of people of color the gift of stories and tomorrow’s playwrights. July 11-20 This process is what brought Cutler, Fink understanding that you are enough.” 2 Strange Heart Beating. and Gerard back again and again in the Cloudgate Theatre. early days of the Studio, back when classes Thus, “Melanin & Meisner” was created, A darkly fantastical look at labeled as an introduction to the Black Box the rural Midwest, the murky operated out of the Den Theatre. After nature of justice and the Method, specifically geared at fostering prejudices that lie just beneath rising through the ranks of the Academy the surface. Opens July 13 “an experience of bravery in the classroom and becoming teachers at the studio in 3 20/20. About Face in which artists of color can see themselves Theatre Youth Ensemble. December of 2018, Francis and Cooper Immersed in a timeless club offered them the chance to take ownership reflected in their ensemble.” Gerard was atmosphere, this collective definitely concerned that, at face value, work explores the resilience of their artistic home. It was a no-brainer of chosen families, the for the team. Fink succinctly sums up why the Method would be construed as “some generational impact of AIDS, Black Box means so much to her: “The fact white-people shit,” but the reaction from and the evolution of gender. that we start with this core principle that you the first session of attendees proved him are enough, and that guides everything we wrong in the best way possible. Opens July 13 do, and that you have a responsibility as 4 Kiss. Haven Theatre. the teacher in the room to uphold that and After this session, one lesson Gerard took Monty Cole directs and to live that and to show that that can really from the experience harkened back to that performs in a bold theatrical resonate in you and affect the way you live guiding principle of working to be enough. experience that asks, “If art is “We’re all just looking for home. Whether a tool for empathy, what are your life, not just who you are on stage, the limits?” Opens July 23 that’s feeling heard or seen, we all just is a massive responsibility, but also the 5 Still/Here. Free Street want to matter to somebody. There’s a Theater. Free Street’s most worthwhile one.” multigenerational, multicultural reason that you exist, and to be able to ensemble dives deeper into communities across Chicago Between the three, their specific tasks see that reflected back in my community to reveal what survival has looked like over time. Opens and responsibilities have been laid out meant more than anything.” Gerard and his July 28 perfectly: Cutler handles financials and team agree that “Melanin & Meisner” will day-to-day operations of the space; Fink continue to be offered through Black Box as handles all marketing and student-facing a doorway to the rest of the training offered, materials; Gerard works with teachers and opening up a path to a community that has been neglected or missing in the past. the specific curriculum that goes into the Black Box Method. The team as a whole know that it’s still Black Box Acting is split up into two early days, but the future holds many specific levels of programming: the Studio, possibilities. “As we’re coming into our own as a team,” Cutler says, “we’re trying a five-week program where you learn the basic tenets of the Black Box Method, and to honor the legacy of what Audrey and the Academy, a five-month intensive based Laura built. But we’re also excited about around honing the method and applying it continuing to experiment and push our throughout multiple performance mediums curriculum and our teachers forward, (theater, television, film). The method itself serving them in a way that’s meeting them where they are.” is a combination of Meisner, Viewpoints and some extra magic Francis and Hooper cooked up in the early days of the program. A few weeks after our interview, I saw Amanda Fink perform in First Floor Theater’s For this team, the method has been imper- production of “I’m Gonna Pray For You So ative to crafting their specific performances Hard.” Housed in the intimate 2B Theater over the last decade. Cutler has applied the on the second floor of the Den, “Pray For You” follows a late-night conversation method of scene analysis developed at between Ella, played by Fink, and her father, Black Box to every single scene he’s David, an acclaimed playwright whose worked on for the past eight years. “It’s what grounds me when I’m nervous. I have relationship with Ella grows more twisted and dire as the hours (and drinks) go by. a whole codified methodology that I can go back to and say ‘Okay, I can adjust David is Ella’s only onstage scene partner this.’ It makes taking notes exciting.” Fink for the entire show, with Ella mostly silent agrees, noting the long-lasting effects the for the first hour of the play. But behind training has had on her career. “You will JULY 2019 Newcity leave with something you can apply to an Amanda’s eyes, you can see the wheels audition tomorrow. You will feel invincible.” turning, the thoughts running through her head, the detailed machinations of what One of the newest additions to the Ella, and Amanda, has brought into this programming came from Gerard. As one scene and what she needs to get out of it. of the first instructors of color at Black With few words spoken, an entire process Box, Gerard knew about the gift of is laid bare onstage, thrillingly and daringly vulnerability that had been granted to him contained in a little black box. through working with the studio, but was 49
Newcity JULY 2019 Life is BeautifulBy David Alvarado 50
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