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D&rDininkiinngg One of our favorite dishes at Venteux is Eggs Five Ways, a playful take on the omelet, which is one of the most popular French dishes in the United States, second only to French fries. Young tells us that he developed this dish when he was working at Temporis. “I came up with this custard using a French cheese, Delice de Bourgogne,” which he turns into an egg scramble that fills the omelet, then he adds Hollandaise, trout roe, and finally grates a cured egg on top—five ways; count ‘em. This dish is simple and delicious, our favorite kind of food. “One of my favorite things to do,” says Young, “is make traditional French sauces, some of which my kitchen staff had never heard of before, like Rouennaise, which contains duck liver. We serve it with our dry-aged duck breast.” Young’s approach relies, in the manner of traditional French chefs, on the highest-quality locally sourced ingredients. “I got a slap on the wrist from Mary Beth [Liccioni] at Les Nomades for using corn, because it’s not a French ingredient. But I like to stay local and seasonal. Why would we restrict ourselves? We’re all about using ingredients that are great, and then applying French technique. I’m modernizing what I learned at Le Francais, Les Nomades and Henri. Donald Young of Venteux/Photo: Neil Burger “So we’re doing escargots with brioche but with compressed apples, tossed with classic A Little More Fun maître d' butter, Pernod and anchovies, and instead of doing it in a super-buttery sauce, Chef Don Young of Venteux, Les Nomades, Le Francais and… I’m using a Hollandaise to mimic the brioche. JULY 2021 Newcity Culver’s It will be a little lighter and more fun than the straight traditional version.” By David Hammond The name “Roland” [Liccioni] comes up French cuisine has always had a The newest restaurant to continue the Gallic several times in our conversation with powerful influence on Chicago culinary tradition in Chicago is Venteux. Heading up Young, and I asked him about the influence culture. The city's first restaurants, such as the kitchen at Venteux, which opened during of this chef-owner at the long-gone Le the early nineteenth-century Lake House the last days of May, is executive chef-partner Francais, a seminal restaurant often Hotel on Kinzie, offered menus that reflected Don Young. Young and his team turn out considered the place that first put the the French tradition, like Veal Fricandeau distinctly French-influenced dishes, like Chicago area on the international culinary and Galantine of Lamb, and all the wines, escargots, brie en croute, tuna Niçoise, coq map. I had to ask: “You were just a teenager of course, were from France. au vin and steak frites. when you started working at Le Francais, how did you get into that kitchen?” “I was always cooking with my dad, learning how to make eggs, and when I was like eight,” remembers Young. “I wanted an Easy-Bake Oven, and my parents didn’t want to get it for me. Not sure why, but I kept demanding it, so my aunt and uncle bought me a Mr. Peanut 53
French onion soup at Venteux/Photo: David Hammond ONE RECOMMENDATION Newcity JULY 2021 peanut grinder, but when I was a kid, all it was losing my weekends. I was in high school could make was chunky peanut butter, and I at the time, and I never got to see my girlfriend. Windy City Smokeout hated chunky peanut butter. So they returned I wanted to have a life…plus I was also If you’re thinking of sticking your it and got me the Easy-Bake Oven. I tried to working at Culver’s.” toe back into the waters of en make cookies, but then the light bulb burned masse dining, the Windy City out, and that was the end of it.” That’s right, Young was holding down two Smokeout in the United Center jobs, one at a fast-food place—albeit a good parking lot is a good place to As a kid, Young remembers, “My family was one—and the other at what was the most start a tentative reentry into very traditional. All my vegetables came from a highly regarded restaurant in the Midwest. dining—and even festival— can, except maybe corn-on-the-cob, and society. mashed potatoes from a box—Thanksgiving “One day, I told Roland, ‘I don’t feel good. I was the only time we had real mashed want to go home.’ And he said that was fine; The Windy City Smokeout runs potatoes. We did not have the most adventur- it seemed like maybe he didn’t even care. I Thursday, July 8 to Sunday, July ous palates.” had no idea what I was going to do with my 11 . Tickets are on sale at windy- life. I was super-depressed. But my parents citysmokeout.com. According Then Young dropped a comment that blew my guilted me into going back, and something to a release from the city, this mind: “I actually started working with Roland clicked. I started forcing myself to try stuff. barbecue bacchanal will be the before I started liking food.” Even at Culver’s, I started putting everything first get-together to return to the on my hamburger—pickles, lettuce, onions— roster of summer events. “When I was a kid, I was a big metalhead, a and that’s when I started loving food. I’d try a punk,” Young says. “I wore all black and food two or three times before I decided I High-quality Q will be offered chains, big ‘fro. And when I’d go to restau- didn’t like it. I still don’t like raw garlic.” from local vendors like Pearl’s rants, I’d always get only the cheeseburger, Southern Comfort and Chicago ketchup, mustard and French fries. I never Looking back, Young recognizes that Q, and out-of-town Q purveyors wanted to get anything else.” “Roland shaped me to what I am today. include some of the best, such Even Culver’s made an impression: I looked as 17th Street BBQ from So how the hell did you get into Le Francais at the kitchen there, and suddenly it all Murphysboro and Marion, Illinois, with that attitude? made sense.” and Rodney Scott’s BBQ from Birmingham, Alabama. Tunes “I’m not sure why Roland said ‘yes,’” Young The experience at Le Francais made a big will be offered from country says, “It was probably because he trusted the impression on him, and those years inform stylists including Darius Rucker guy who recommended me. Roland was also some of his menu at Venteux, but Young and Dierks Bentley. a very gentle and nice person, and he didn’t says he also would like to serve a dish judge right away. He gave me a chance. So, I inspired by Culver’s. But he’s not ready to started working at Le Francais, but I hated it. I reveal that one. 54
Film hours having drinks and conversation, we went our separate ways,” relates Chicago Underground Film Festival artistic director and Kuma’s Corner manager Bryan Wendorf, who was taken by impulse. “I was making my way home, and I turned and saw ‘Tenet’ on the marquee at the Logan Theatre. I immedi- ately made a beeline and bought a ticket! I haven’t been to another movie since, but I’ve been vaccinated for months and am more than ready.” Deborah Stratman (“Optimism,” “The Illinois Parables”) says her “last cinema-going pre-pan” was Bong Joon-Ho’s “Parasite.” “I’ve not been back to the dark palace,” she relays, “but last night watched Matt Wolf’s doc ‘Spaceship Earth’ projected in our friend’s side yard—Biosphere 2 as viewed from Biosphere 1—and will be outside again for MacKenzie/ Mausert-Mooney’s 'Make a Distinction' at Onion City. I’ve been grateful for all the online festival access this past year, but I’ll take a plush seat with big sound and a massive screen any day over home viewing. Here’s to more of that soon.” Chicago Theatre, 2019/Photo: Ray Pride “The most disappointing aspect of watching films at home for the past year has been the To Screen Or cinema landscape becoming even more Not To Screen fractured,” says Michael Smith (“Mercury in Retrograde”). “Movies that should have been Chicago Filmmakers Go To The Movies theatrical releases became available only as virtual screenings and failed to capture the By Ray Pride zeitgeist. They became just another audiovisu- al option and it seems like, as a result, Have you been inside a movie theater? says Cine-File managing editor Patrick Friel. everyone has been watching different things. Great movies need to play theatrically in order What did you go see? And if you haven’t been, Friel is getting while the getting is good: “My to truly matter.” are you just not ready? I asked over a hundred first two back have been ‘Playtime’ and “I forgot what it feels like to go to the movies local film people that have appeared in the ‘Days of Heaven’ and I plan to see four more and I don't know if I miss it,” says James Choi (producer, “Saint Frances”). “Access is Film 50 rankings their feelings in mid-June of the 35mm Music Box series. It was very winning over experience for me. The moviego- ing experience outside of special events like about sinking into the dark with strangers. good. Felt nice. A relief. Don't know if there festivals just doesn't feel like a priority. But watching movies and the films being produced will be many screenings on film coming up, now are as exciting as it's ever been.” There’s a consensus: “Very much, yes,” and so, taking advantage now.” “The last movie I saw in a theater was ‘First Cow’ at the Landmark on Clark, well over a “Not quite, no.” “I haven’t been back!” says Northwestern year ago,” says freelance film critic and teacher Jonathan Rosenbaum. “Since then, having “I caught a member's revival screening of ‘Clue’ University associate professor Aymar Jean forsaken cable TV for the more selective JULY 2021 Newcity in the Music Box garden,” says Jim Vendiola Christian. “I have barely done anything pleasures and possibilities of Hulu on my (“Library Hours”). “It felt like a nice, intermedi- indoors and in public for the whole year. I’m laptop, I've also been scouring YouTube and ate stepping stone—the communal cacopho- enjoying the day-and-date releases and the its lesser-known Russian equivalent, ok.ru, flexibility that offers, but I will make an attempt, which often has better prints, even or ny of laughter and shared enjoyment, while especially when it comes to Hollywood oldies. only for the right film. If I hadn’t already seen Firmly believing that capitalism isn't necessarily felkermaskless in the open air.” a victimless crime, I continue to enjoy the free ‘Zola’ at Sundance—it would’ve been that!” “While I considered going to see ‘Godzilla vs. “In September, I met up with someone at Kong’ in the theater—because, uh, Godzil- Longman & Eagle, and after we spent a few la—I ultimately decided to wait for 35mm,” 55
viewing made available by various means, “I'm happy to be returning to screenings with audiences,” says Spencer Parsons (“Bite which compensates somewhat for having been suckered into buying some of the same Radius”). “I’ve seen ‘Rififi’ and ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ and ‘Candyman,' and ‘Candyman’ was movies two or three times—VHS, DVD and Blu-ray, successively,” Rosenbaum confesses. best because of the crowd. I had just seen FILM TOP 5 ‘Candyman’ at home for the umpteenth time to “I've also been discovering the rewards of 1Summer Of Soul (Or, When teach it in a class, but the real-time crowd The Revolution Could Not Be discussing movies on Zoom—not only with Televised). Starting Friday, July 2 in frequenters of the Gene Siskel Film Center, but reactions made it a much richer experience. theaters and on Hulu. Ahmir It’s a movie that gives and gives, or I wouldn't “Questlove” Thompson's feature also, this past spring, with some very smart directorial debut \"Summer of Soul,\" have seen it so many times, but the laughs which took the Grand Jury Prize and film critics in Croatia. And I'm even looking Audience Award at Sundance, and gasps and even the negative comments constructing an account of the forward to theatrical screenings in Bologna, summer 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival at Il Cinema Ritrovato, and in Paris in late July and groans drew my attention to a wider range in Marcus Garvey Park, a hundred of details in the film.” Other people brought it miles south of Woodstock. Concert: and early August.” rocked. Early viewers: rocked. to life. “I've always been devoted to that crowd 2 Roadrunner: A Film About “I just saw Joe Dante's ‘Matinee’ on 35mm at experience, but I was forcefully reminded of Anthony Bourdain. Opens the Music Box,” says Michael Smith, “my first what I take for granted. When I watch a movie Friday, July 16. Morgan Neville (“20 theatrical experience of 2021, and I wept tears at home, I’m a dutiful student. When I see a Feet from Stardom,” “Won't You Be of joy. It's about going to the movies at a time movie in a theater I’m a human being, My Neighbor?,” “They'll Love Me surrounded by other human beings. It’s like When I'm Dead”) packs a life of when the end of the world seems nigh, so it Anthony Bourdain into a feature- that Emerson thing—the difference between length film. couldn't have been more appropriate.” a ‘reader’ and a ‘man reading.’\" 3 The Green Knight. Opens Friday, July 30. A24’s “My first going-back-to-the-theaters experience pandemic-delayed fantasy epic, was taking my ten-year-old to the Music Box “I’m still leery of sitting in a large space with directed by David Lowery and starring to see ‘Godzilla vs. Kong,’” says Kris Rey (“I an unknown and potentially unvaccinated Dev Patel as Sir Gawain in an Used to Go Here”). “It was incredible. The film crowd,” says Laura Harrison (“The Limits Arthurian retelling. With Alicia Vikander, of Vision”), but a return to theatergoing would Joel Edgerton and Sarita Choudhury. was great, but more than that was the be really nice, of course!” “There are still 4 Stillwater. Opens Friday, July 30. experience. I knew being in a movie theater Never count out actor-writer- was something I’d missed, but I didn’t realize many films playing at virtual festivals and director Tom McCarthy (“The Station how badly I had missed it. I’m planning to see cinemas,” says Jiayan \"Jenny\" Shi Agent,” “Up,” “Spotlight”), even if it’s a more movies in the theater in 2021 than I ever (“Finding Yingying”). “I will only go to theaters dramatic thriller with Matt Damon as when we are out of the pandemic mode an Oklahoma oil-rig roughneck who have before. Can’t wait.” relocates to Marseilles to be near an completely.” estranged daughter imprisoned for a murder she says she did not commit “My first in-the-theater-with-an-actual-audi- and to seek her exoneration.. ence-of-strangers experience was ‘Touch of “I had spent the last year telling myself that Evil’ at the Music Box,” says Rebecca Lyon watching movies at home was better,” says 5 Old. Opens Friday, July 23. Sara Chapman (executive director of Media Everything old is “Old” again, or (projectionist, Chicago Film Society, Music new, maybe: any bets on M. Night Burn Archive). “I had a comfy couch, cats, Shyamalan’s latest twist, already Box). “And I actually had feelings while reduced not only to a single word but could pause whenever I wanted. I guess I was also to three letters? watching it, which is more than I can say for just telling myself what I needed to believe. My 56 when I watch stuff at home. It was on film, which always just feels a lot more alive to me. first movie in the theater was ‘Nobody,’ which I saw about a week after becoming fully And big! That's a film where it needs to feel like Orson Welles is going to eat you up. And vaccinated. I was unprepared for how great it would be to watch a midnight movie with, if some lady yelled at a guy for being on his not a full cheering crowd, at least like, a dozen phone.” cheering people. Even just sitting in the dark Tom Palazzolo, self-described “emeritus theater and watching trailers was pretty underground sixties filmmaker”: “I'll be overwhelmingly amazing.” returning for the popcorn and to watch Jim Sikora get into fights with audience members “Haven’t been in a theater since March 2020,” at the Siskel. Jim doesn't like to be told to be says Tim Horsburgh (former director of strategy at Kartemquin), “but I can’t wait to be quiet while watching a film.” in a Chicago theater with a huge crowd seeing Filmmaker Shayna Connelly (“A Memory Ashley O’Shay’s ‘Unapologetic,’ and then the Palace of Ghosts,” “Bananas Girl”) says that film’s participants Bella BAHHS and Janaé “movie theaters are one of the places I’ve Bonsu tearing the roof off. Kartemquin missed missed most during the pandemic, but I’m not a whole year of in-person Chicago premieres, so this will be like a homecoming. Also ready to go back yet. Even fully vaccinated, the idea of being captive in an interior space absolutely can’t wait to see my kids enjoy that isn’t my house is overwhelming. That said, ‘Minions’ and ‘Ghostbusters’ in a theater. That’s going to bring so much joy.” ‘A Quiet Place 2’ is calling my name, which means I’ll make a concerted effort to get comfortable enough to go back. I don’t want Alex Thompson (“Saint Frances”) says “I have to see ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ and I will go back Newcity JULY 2021 to watch that one in the living room with my to the theater every chance I can, every day, if kids interrupting me every five minutes.” there's reason to, to see anything. Popcorn, “Things felt sort of tense last summer and they loud noises and air-conditioning is my baseline aren't now,” Rebecca Lyon says of attending joy right now.” shows now at the Music Box. “I've seen a lot of familiar faces, gotten a lot of side hugs from Or, as local filmmaker Eric Marsh put it on Twitter, posting a Music Box lobby marquee as people that don't normally do hugs. I'm proof-of-movie-life, “I just fucking live at the definitely ready to return to theaters where I movies now. Never leaving.” feel comfortable and know the layout.”
Joy as Lit an Act of Resistance The Essential Wisdom of Brenda Myers-Powell By Anne K. Ream I first met my friend Brenda Myers-Powell fifteen years ago, when we served as board members at the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation. Brenda was then, as now, equal parts insightful, profound and profane, a self-described activist, nonprofit founder, prostitution survivor and “bad-ass motherfuck- er” (not necessarily in that order). She wears her identities the way she wears her enviable wig collection—no one rocks a blonde bob quite like Brenda— bringing just the right amount of “watch me” to everything she does. The word I most associate with Brenda is expansive. “They kept telling me to stay in my lane,” she said to me recently, “But my life is a freeway.” One of Brenda’s great gifts is her ability to Playing against survival-memoir type, “Leaving be so tough. Why she was telling me such JULY 2021 Newcity be political, in the truest sense of that word, Breezy Street” is also deeply, genuinely funny. nasty things about the world. But I was a young but never partisan or polemical. She does Whether musing on the proper place for a Black girl, and she wanted me to be ready. not do cliché or movement-speak; she is pimp at the Million Man march, or passing uninterested in spinning her story to appeal on one of her grandmother’s witticisms— They had some style back then. Ma ‘Dea specifically to any one audience. She is “I’m too old a cat to be fucked by a kitten”— wore this fly, zip-up red knit dress. That dress completely, consistently herself. The co- no one knows how to laugh, or to make those caused some trouble! And brothers were founder of the Dreamcatcher Foundation, a of us fortunate enough to know her laugh, wearing the Ivy League look then, sharp as Chicago organization fighting sex trafficking, quite the way Brenda Myers-Powell does. hell. My Uncle Lee ironed his pants after they Brenda understands that there are systems For her, joy is the ultimate act of resistance. came back from the dry cleaners. Do you that are too broken to be rebuilt, and shows Herewith, a sampling of her wisdom, and wit. know how serious that is? up ready for the teardown—something I saw firsthand in a recent meeting with Mayor Growing up on the West Side of Chicago, Like a lot of girls who end up in the sex Lightfoot’s office, focused on the city’s failure I was raised to survive. I didn’t understand trade, I was sexually abused when I was to protect its Black girls. why Ma ’Dea, my grandmother, wanted me to little. I was five, and he was one of my uncle’s Brenda’s new memoir, “Leaving Breezy Street,” is a beautiful, brutal account of her years in the sex trade, her journey out of “the life,” and her second act as a nationally recognized anti-trafficking activist. It’s a book that balances hard truths about growing up poor, Black and female in Chicago with the hope that is inherent in Brenda’s extraordinary life story. 57
But being real here, we’re not so different. When you’re in the life, people say, “why don’t you leave?” But just like some white lady wouldn’t leave her million-dollar home and her good life, that pimp was my million dollar home and my good life. I had to survive. Should it be legal to buy or sell another human being? Never. You can call it work, but your mind is being traumatized, your body is being traumatized, young girls are getting hurt. We can’t make it legal to do that. friends. But that wasn’t the only time. There One of my first real jobs after I got out was a lot of bad people coming through was as a bill collector. I was in my forties, that house. Ma ’Dea was so drunk that she and I would be on the phone, telling someone wouldn’t know who was messin’ with me. they needed to do the right thing and pay their bills. And I would just think to myself, “Brenda, you have finally made it.” Back then, I had a cat named Aretha Franklin. He was a boy, but he was a diva. I loved that cat. I wanted to be a girly-girl, pink, Diana That was around the time that I became an activist. I started volunteering, then LIT TOP 5 Ross-y. But I had to be tough emotionally, sharing my story with politicians in Springfield. 1 Jessica Chiarella. The Book mentally, physically. I learned the rules early. Cellar. The Chicago author I learned them very well. But I died a little on That led to me co-founding Dreamcatcher discusses her novel “The Lost Girls” Foundation with my ride-or-die, Stephanie with Rebecca Johns. July 6, 7pm the inside after that abuse was done to me. Daniels. We keep young Chicago girls from 2 Rae Nudson. Women and Children First. The Chicago Today, when I talk to my family about going down the terrible road that I walked. author discusses “All Made Up: The Power and Pitfalls of Beauty what was going on they say, “I don’t There is a lot of racism in human traffick- Culture, from Cleopatra to Kim remember that.” And I’m thinking, Naw, Kardashian” with Taylor Moore. ing. My world has always been diverse. July 8, 7pm you just don’t want to remember that. Dreamcatcher works with all girls, all races, 3 Michael Pollan. Seminary Co-Op. The writer discusses But we had the Staples Singers and the and I haven’t forgotten any of those babies. his new book, “This Is Your Mind on Plants.” July 15, 7pm Temptations, so I guess it wasn’t all bad. But right now, my activism needs to be focused on the Black community. Because 4 Judy Chicago. Women and Children First. The I left home and met my first John when I what we’re seeing… Where is the justice? artist discusses her book, “The was fourteen. I made $400 that night. That Flowering: The Autobiography of much money feels like something when you’ve I only met President Obama once. He was Judy Chicago,” with Kevin Kwan. never had anything. After that, I was sold at a an Illinois State Senator, and I was lobbying for July 18, 1pm series of rest stops across the Midwest. It was a bill. I told him, “We have to pass this bill, sex trafficking, but I didn’t have those words then. Senator Obama, because there’s no way I can 5 Jonathan Foiles. Chicago keep standing out there on the street corner. Public Library. The Chicago writer discusses “(Mis)diagnosed: I spent twenty-five years in the life. My knees don’t work anymore.” And he just How Bias Distorts Our Perception of Mental Health.” July 29, 6pm Different cities, different pimps. Beatings. laughed. But then he goes to the Senate floor 58 A stabbing. Drug addiction. The worst part and says, “We need to pass this bill, because was, I couldn’t care for my babies. Brenda’s knees don’t work anymore.” And everybody else laughed. And the bill passed. I left prostitution after a john tried to kill me. Lying in the hospital after that, I realized That was a good day. two things: I was not ready to die. And if I Today my life is what I never expected it didn’t get out of the life, I was gonna die. to be. I am married to a good man, surround- The thing that saved me was Edwina ed by my family, and loved by my daughters Gately at Genesis House, a home for and grandbabies. And I’ve finally written my Chicago women. Edwina taught me what book. I hope when people read it they say, Newcity JULY 2021 it meant to be strong and female. I got that’s a lot, but if she made it through, maybe counseling. I got trained to find a job. I saw I can, too. a different future, and that changed me. Because I want them to know, if you’re Those ladies from the North Shore would going through some shit you just need come to Genesis House to volunteer and to keep on moving. I’d just say, “Girl, you come on in here.” “Leaving Breezy Street: A Memoir” Because no one ever taught me how to by Brenda Myers-Powell, with April Reynolds dress, how to act at a job interview, that it was good to cross my legs when I sat down. Holt, 288 pages, $26
Music Whitney Locals Right or wrong, Chicago’s music festival vocalist-songwriter Via Rosa (born Lluvia Rosa Take Lolla season returns with a vengeance at the end Vela, formerly of Chicago hi-hop collective of July with Lollapalooza. And although barely THEMPeople) were introduced to each other Chicago Acts Help five percent of the 165 acts on the bill are local, in 2013 by Jean Deaux, and although their Reset the Festival they are worth spotlighting, especially if you partnership began informally, they released want to show the musical tourists flocking to EPs in 2016 and 2018, and their full-length By Craig Bechtel the City of Big Shoulders where to invest their debut, “Dance Without Me,” via Ghostly time and energy and dollars. In the event International in 2020. Listening to DRAMA is you’re going to Lollapalooza, and one hopes, an experience all its own, but it’s easy to also JULY 2021 Newcity not a viral Spreadapalooza, here, in alphabeti- hear trip-hop sounds drip through, with cal order, are the local artists to hear and see. echoes of Tricky, Massive Attack and Portis- head rippling into their estuarine mishmash. DRAMA Serena Isioma It’s usually best to avoid drama, especially with a capital ‘D,’ and MOST ESPECIALLY Assuming Lollapalooza won’t book The Linda when it’s in all caps, as is the case with this Lindas at the last minute, twenty-year-old Chicago electronic dance duo. But if you’re Isioma is the likely youngest artist on the looking for a mellow, atmospheric groove and lineup; she’s definitely the youngest Chicagoan. danceable beat, I wouldn’t avoid this DRAMA. In January the first-generation Nigerian Producer Na’el Shehade (who’s worked with American singer-songwriter was included in hip-hop talents including Chance The Rapper, The Shazam Predictions 2021 playlist, based Kanye West, Chief Keef, Vic Mensa) and largely on her second EP, 2020’s “The Leo 59
Sun Sets,” and is working on her full-length appropriately named “Lift Off” kicks off with debut. She lays a bleeding heart bare on typical bumping electronic beats and introduces tracks like “Why Am I So Toxic,” “Blue Sky,” a riveting electro-clash rhythm as it bounces MUSIC TOP 5 “King” and “Stop Calling The Police On Me.” abruptly to a close. “My Love” bubbles under 1 Steve Dawson. “At the Bottom Comparatively, the single “Meadows In Japan,” in a sinister, cymbal accented synthesis that of a Canyon In the Branches of a Tree.” The singer-songwriter brings in which she breaks up with her partner at culminates in a dance floor soaked in sweat, his deft, incisive songwriting and gorgeously evocative high tenor to the end, seems downright laidback. That’s whereas the concluding cut, “To The Money,” a whole new slate of folk tunes; the first two singles demonstrate a range the dissonant space Isioma occupies: lovely, featuring female vocals (and whistles!) from from traditional folk to high-gloss pop. Available July 16 smooth tunes about devastating heartbreak Flo Milli and 8AE, is a maelstrom of instrumental 2 Shawn Maxwell. and being a victim of racism and classism. denseness propelled by a propulsive beat “Expectation & Experience.” The saxophonist and bandleader Mick Jenkins that refuses to quit. As if Grant Park in teams with a succession of mid-summer could be hotter and sweatier, topflight musicians for an intimate, adventurous and often very affecting Of all the Chicagoans in the lineup, I’ve Nez is here to make sure you’re drenched series of tunes written as an ongoing commentary on the epochal year listened to this hip-hop up-and-comer the in even more hotness and sweatiness. 2020. Available now most over the past seven years, since his Polo G 3 Bryan Away. “Canyons to breakthrough projects “The Water[s]” and Sawdust.” Based on its early singles, this album is as notable for “The Wave[s]” were released in 2014 and Taurus Tremani Bartlett, now known as Polo G, the grandeur of its vision and its studio wizardry, as for its melodic 2015. It warms my heart to see him make comes from Chicago’s Old Town Marshall Field inventiveness. It places Away in the lineage of pop visionaries such it big. Jenkins has come a long way since Garden Apartments with quick-draw rhymes as Brian Wilson and Sufjan Stevens. Available July 9 collaborating with Pivot Gang’s Saba on and dense instrumentation. In May he dropped 4 Brandon James. “Soul “Heaux” in 2012, and Chance The Rapper the single “Gang Gang” with Lil Wayne and Sessions (Live).” The ridiculously gifted R&B singer has and Vic Mensa on the single “Crossroads” released his third studio album, “Hall Of Fame” an astonishing range—not just in terms of vaulting from tailbone- in 2013, and he’s also become a member of on June 11. While he’s not reinventing hip-hop, vibrating depths to a sky-high falsetto; he also pivots effortlessly the collective Free Nation, the other members his compelling flow and sing-song delivery between hushed crooning and arena-worthy power belting. of which include Prop, J-Stock, Burman and begs for head-bobbing, and if you listen past Available now Maine The Saint. It’s not just his six-foot-five his liberal use of obscenities and that word, 5 Lou Heneise. “Trial & Error.” The debut EP of height that towers over his fellow Chicago there’s creativity in his autobiographical this singer-songwriter is a hushed, contemplative set that, while rappers; he’s got mad talent and dope flow, descriptions and musical underpinnings. rooted in heartland imagery, still manages an occasional waft of and it stems from his authoritative baritone Rookie both the ethereal and the eternal. and intelligent lyrics that focus on personal Available now growth and finding his place in the world, as Rookie might be Chicago’s best answer to 60 opposed to that obsession that still infects so classic rock since Cooler By The Lake, but much hip-hop: bragging about wealth and given its allegiance to the alt-country label women. Across two full-lengths and multiple Bloodshot, the band would surely prefer to be EPs since 2016, most recently 2020’s “The categorized as roots rock. But a close listen Circus” (Cinematic Music Group), Jenkins, finds the sound at the nexus of late 1970s who got married last year and just turned crunchy power pop and early 1980s so-called thirty, shows remarkable maturation without new wave. If you can imagine The Knack’s losing his patented intensity. “My Sharona” merged with The Cars’ “Dying In Neal Francis Stereo,” you’ll know what to expect from their song “Hold On Tight.” “Sunglasses” channels Neal Francis O’Hara was a piano prodigy The Eagles with pedal steel aplenty, yet the who toured Europe at age eighteen with choice to cover “Head Over Heels” by Tears Muddy Waters’ son and backed up other For Fears reveals the band’s allegiance to the prominent blues artists coast-to-coast. In eighties. As if to dare you to categorize them, 2012, he joined popular instrumental funk all six of these dudes perform in jumpsuits. band The Heard and later assumed the Whitney creative helm; but by 2015 he had been fired from his band, evicted from his apartment, Saturday Night Live alums Fred Armisen and and was close to self-destruction. An alco- Bill Hader collaborated to create “Documenta- hol-induced seizure that year led to a broken ry Now” for IFC, and one of their most hilarious femur, dislocated arm, and finally the realiza- and on-the-nose parodies was of 1970s tion that he needed to get clean (according yacht-rock legends The Blue Jean Committee. to his press materials). “Changes” was The ensemble came replete with songs released in 2020 by Ohio-based Karma Chief, celebrating the “Catalina Breeze” and were an imprint of soul revival label Colemine, and adorned with long hair, mustaches and, it’s a solid set of songs that successfully locate naturally, lots of blue denim. When listening the intersection of Chicago blues and New to Whitney, I get the sense that if you asked Orleans R&B, channeling inspirations like Allen them if this parody poked close to the bone, Toussaint and Leon Russell. Francis pledges they would see it as homage and argue that to tour relentlessly to promote his own music, this mid-seventies sound is what they are going on record to say that “I’m doing this aiming for. Formed by guitarist Max Kakacek Newcity JULY 2021 to fulfill a drive within myself, but also to pay and drummer Julien Ehrlich after their previous tribute to the gifts I’ve been given. And it band, Smith Westerns, broke up in 2014, comes from a place of immense gratitude.” Whitney’s debut album, “Light Upon the Lake,” Nez was released in June 2016, and their 2019 follow-up, “Forever Turned Around,” was Nesbitt “Nez” Wesonga has become such recorded partially at Prairie Sun Recording an establishment in Chicago house music in Studios, a former chicken ranch in California’s the past ten years that the opening cut on his Sonoma wine country. If Whitney doesn’t serenade the Lollapalooza faithful from a yacht new three track EP, “Midnight Music” is a anchored off Grant Park, I’ll be disappointed. collaboration with Felix Da Housecat. The
Opera Theatre St. Louis’ production Stage of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” Filling The Dance Card /Photo: Eric Woolsey Lyric Opera Welcomes New Roommate Joffrey Ballet to Refurbished Opera House By Dennis Polkow “We’re back!” declares Lyric Opera Ironic then, that fall performances at the Lyric permitted as restrictions ease. “It’s really just JULY 2021 Newcity general manager Anthony Freud to are being limited to two-and-a-half hours, to give people a sense of confidence that the scattered members of the media from the “about the length of a Marvel-hero movie,” experience of returning to the opera house will opera house stage. “Who would have thought jokes Freud in an interview in the foyer not involve a half an hour of milling around in a it would be such a momentous moment to afterward. Freud is joined by Lyric’s new crowd in a foyer and extending the length of welcome people back to the opera house?” music director Enrique Mazzola, Joffrey your evening.” artistic director Ashley Wheater and Joffrey Ordinarily, Lyric Opera and the Joffrey Ballet president and CEO Greg Cameron. Wheater says the Joffrey is also taking a announcing their seasons together for the first flexible approach to intermissions, in light of time would have been the main attraction. What Freud has characterized as “no conven- uncertain and shifting restrictions. “We didn’t During a pandemic, however, making such tional intermissions” during the announcement, know what the protocols would be. If we an announcement in person, at the first he put it more bluntly in our interview: “There can have intermissions, we can put them in. gathering at the Lyric Opera House since April won’t be any. If you have to leave and go to If we can’t have them, we don’t need them.” 2020, was attention-getting in and of itself. the restroom, of course. Just as we have late Starting with the 2021-22 season, Lyric seating that is more limited, it will be much less The Lyric Opera season is opening with a new Opera will be the new home for the Joffrey limited to allow people who have to leave an production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” on September Ballet. And a refurbished home, at that. opportunity to get back into the auditorium.” 17; it will be the first opera conducted by Mazzola as Lyric’s new music director and “You should be aware that your posteriors are Standing in the foyer of the Ardis Krainik directed by David McVicar. “We necessarily the first to be implanted in our brand-new Theater—named for the legendary Lyric have to lose something,” says Mazzola, seats!” says Freud. Indeed, every seat at the general manager who was notorious for regarding the two-and-a-half-hour time limit. opera house has been replaced, thanks to starting performances like clockwork, leaving “Small parts of ‘Macbeth,’ some traditional cuts funding from an anonymous donor. Care was lamenting latecomers stranded in the lobby— for ‘L’elisir d’amore.’ But if you go to YouTube taken to reconfigure the main floor so that this sounded like a seismic change. “I am and look for ‘L’elisir d’amore’ from [Vienna seats are staggered, offering improved not saying people can come and go from State Opera], you’ll find a version that works sightlines. The original gold plush seats have and to their seats constantly through the well. And this is a complete version. Of course, been replaced with rose-colored, noticeably performance,” says Freud. “But late seating [the cuts] are something that touches the firmer, though still well-cushioned, seats. There is something that has been introduced for music, but I am not deeply worried about this.” is increased leg room for rows at the front some years now. After the New Year, our plan of the house. Aisles are wider for wheelchair is to make a return to normal intermissions.” I ask if Mazzola was concerned that, of Lyric’s access and easier access in and out for all. six mainstage operas for his inaugural season— “Our new seats are so comfortable,” assures Freud says the Lyric would remain open to down from the usual eight—half are Italian Freud, “you’ll wish the operas were longer!” reintroducing intermissions before 2022 if it’s warhorses. “There are also three contemporary 61
STAGE TOP 5 operas,” he responds. “And one of the three productions and the fourth is rehearsed. We is the first Spanish-language opera ever were two weeks away from the premiere. 1 ABT Across America. Pritzker performed here [Catán’s ‘Florencia en el Before we actually program it, we need to Pavilion. Presented by the Amazonas’] so this is a beautiful representation understand that people have the appetite to Auditorium Theatre, iconic American of how we are projecting into the future. come to a six-hour opera. I believe they will. Ballet Theatre makes the Chicago I would say that for Lyric Opera of Chicago, The time will come when Lyric and the ‘Ring’ stop of their cross-country tour live it’s a very brave choice. But of course, also will meet again. But we just have to be patient.” in Millennium Park with a free, well balanced with ‘Tosca,’ absolutely great one-hour program. July 8 repertoire, and ‘The Magic Flute.’ Even if you Freud says he was keen to bring “Fire Shut think, it is ‘Magic Flute’ again [last presented Up In My Bones” to the Lyric as soon as he 2 I Hate It Here. Goodman at Lyric in 2016-17], but how we show it saw it, “but it looked as though it would take Theatre Live Streaming. through this very costly production actually is a long time to be able to actually program it. Ike Holter teams up with director a step in the future. It’s a very modern, very One of the opportunities of the chaos over Lili-Anne Brown for the premiere unique way of representing this opera. We the last fifteen months was that the Met and of his new work that reflects on a are going to show something that is represen- Lyric could co-produce it.” really lousy start to the new decade. tative of different styles.” July 15-18 As for the Lyric-Joffrey partnership, Freud is One of the contemporary works Mazzola candid about the financial rationale. “If you 3 LEGACY: Phoenix^5. Online. mentioned will not be a mainstage production. were to press the rewind button and go back Joel Hall Dancers & Center pay Outgoing Chicago Symphony Orchestra fifteen years when we were selling out on tribute to their founder’s legacy and composer-in-residence Missy Mazzoli’s subscriptions, this could not have worked. the company’s collective resilience “Proving Up” will be conducted by Mazzola But, in common with the rest of the world, through trials, including the loss offsite in January at the Goodman’s Owen we were reducing performance numbers and of their studio to a fire in 1993. Theatre. Terrence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up we were working harder and harder to bring Proceeds go toward construction of In My Bones,” a co-production with the a whole range of different entertainment into the company’s studio on Montrose. Metropolitan Opera, will open the Met and the opera house from James Beard Founda- July 8-15 close the Lyric seasons. tion Awards to rock concerts.” 4 Ride Share. Online. Writers Both the Joffrey and Lyric 2021-22 seasons “I remember at the end of that first meeting,” Theatre streams a filmed recalls Cameron, “I said to Anthony and thrill-ride by Black Lives, Black Words are quite different from what was planned co-founders Reginald Edmund and Andrew [Davis, outgoing Lyric music director], Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway that follows for 2020-21, when the Lyric-Joffrey partner- newlywed Marcus, forced to take up ship was set to begin. “We had an enormous ‘Well, we can have a second date if we can driving Uber after being laid off have “The Nutcracker” in December.’ We mid-honeymoon. July 23-25 program coming into the Lyric last year,” said anything else, we are willing to reinvent 5 Titanic (Scenes From admits Wheater. “And it’s not that those the British Wreck and rethink our whole season model.” Commissioner’s Inquiry, 1912). works won’t come to be. I think as Greg Online. Court Theatre’s new digital production, written by Owen [Cameron] said onstage, when your only Cameron says the partnership with the Lyric McCafferty, looks at the famous disaster through verbatim testimonies source of revenue coming in the door are offers the Joffrey a more suitable longterm from court records. Through July 11 contributions, you have to really rethink. home. “We had a wonderful relationship with 62 We’ve tried to be careful and smart about the Auditorium Theatre, but the Auditorium our expenses coming in for a first season not is—and I don’t say this in a negative way— knowing what the revenue source is going to a presenter. The Lyric creates new work. be. But we’re optimistic, that’s for sure.” We create new work. We don’t have a The Joffrey season opens October 13 with performance home. They have a performance “Home: A Celebration.” “Every piece on the home. We didn’t leave the Auditorium because program has been created for the Joffrey Ballet,” they did anything wrong, we left because we says Wheater. “To see these come to this stage needed a bigger stage. Productions that would not fit on the stage of the Auditorium, will be very, very exciting. ‘Don Quixote’ is a we can finally do here. One of our goals is to huge production and needs a lot of space.” make cross-fertilization between the audiences The annual production of “The Nutcracker,” and build a stronger, healthier audience base created for the company by Christopher here. And that’s something we could have Wheeldon and designed for the Auditorium never done at the Auditorium. We would Theatre stage, will be reconfigured for the perform at the Auditorium and then there Lyric. “We are remapping a lot of the digital was a National Geographic show coming in.” content for ‘The Nutcracker,’” observes Wheater. “But also the sheer technical ability “Our intention,” notes Freud, “is that this is not a time-limited partnership. This is a partnership of the Lyric stage allows us to rethink how which we hope will have an indefinite future. we hang ‘The Nutcracker’ and what it For this house to be able to offer the city a means for the overall experience.” regular diet of opera and ballet changes Lyric has carried over two of eight titles the feel of what the opera house represents Newcity JULY 2021 from the lost 2020-21 season and Freud is and how the city can perceive it. If you look clear that the lost operas “are back on our at Covent Garden, if you look at the Paris list of titles that we will want to do. Opera, if you look at La Scala, those great houses have regular alternating programs of “I think we have to wait until we understand opera and ballet. So, to me, this is a triple win: the realities of the post-COVID world before for the Joffrey, for Lyric and for the city.” we even write the ‘Ring’ down on a piece of For more on Lyric Opera of Chicago paper. On the other hand, I would love us to do ‘Götterdämmerung’ as a standalone title. and Joffrey Ballet 2021-22 seasons, visit lyricopera.org and joffrey.org. We performed the first of three of the new
JULY 2021 Newcity 63 eviews Installation view, “Reproductive: Health, Fertility, and Agency,” Museum of Contemporary Photography 2021. Orkideh Torabi, “Peach House’s 5 Bucks Morning Special,” 2020. Courtesy of the artist/Photo: Farid Memar
Review Art same, yet other influences devalued it evokes emotion or thought. This the inside of the store, which is now means of viewing can leave little room Taking Inventory elevated to high art. The viewer is also to consider how the process of art- A Review of Theaster Gates challenged to think about what is art, making itself serves as an important at Gray Warehouse and how art occupies space. We must catalyst for the healing and or reflection ask ourselves how big art can be? of the artist and therefore for the viewer Theaster Gates pays homage to Can a hardware store be art? But to as well. Intuit’s most recent exhibition, hardware stores through his latest take that a step further: where do we “Trauma and Loss, Reflection and Hope: show at Richard Gray Gallery, “How get the materials for art from? Selections from the Collection,” grants to Sell Hardware.” The exhibition is viewers the opportunity to process centered around a family-owned True The immersive aspect of “How to Sell individual experiences of pain and hope Value store on the South Side of the Hardware” builds on Gates’ practice through the vision of outsider artists city, which Gates acquired in 2014. of the importance of physical building whose work lies outside the boundaries The work on view highlights the idea of in urban spaces. “Circle,” 2021 takes of the conventional art world. The artists in “Trauma and Loss, Reflection and Hope” come from vastly different backgrounds, but each makes their work, as the show’s statement notes, out of “personal necessity.” Together, these works blur the bound- ary between loss and hope as often as they speak of them as separate experiences. Purvis Young’s painting “Untitled (prisoner with birds)” captures this balance delicately, framing a shackled prisoner with a border of faded flowers and warm tones of blush and peach. Lonnie Holley’s mixed- media sculpture “You Alley Thing” repurposes scraps of fabric and wire into a structure that seems furtive and purposeful at the same time. Exterior of the hardware store/Photo: Sara Pooley. The category of “outsider art” covers © Theaster Gates. Courtesy Gray Chicago/New York so many unique types of artists that it can become a limitation on understand- community, through a primarily negative the architectural tone of True Value ing the work itself, acting more as a material through the steel pegs in a blanket term than as an accurate perspective, while thinking about the descriptor of the artists’ motivations significance of brick-and-mortar stores, less utilitarian way. Through “Circle,” and practices. This exhibition, however, explored in a photographic tour through the viewer is able to rework how they uses the broadness of the category to value household items that come the art’s strength rather than to its different neighborhoods. detriment. Each artist’s work is fiercely together to create a piece of work that individual and speaks to the exhibition’s themes separately. Found objects and “How to Sell Hardware” takes a look exists outside of retail value. Gates is layered paint bring together nostalgia and chaos in Kevin Sampson’s messy, at Gates’ practice concerning the subjecting the viewer to question how layered sculpture “Port Wine Stains,” while Martín Ramírez’s untitled graphite relevance of urban landscape. The they understand the use of objects that drawing shows a quiet, poised moment of apprehension between a horse and pandemic forced many of us to turn to we often interact with on a daily basis. rider. Two works by Malcah Zeldis bring the themes of the exhibition into the online services to get our necessities, present. Her paintings “The Assassina- but Gates provokes us to think about Gates forces us to think about the value tion of Martin Luther King, Jr.” and of everyday objects in a new way that “Amadou Diallo” surround the violent the physical space that possesses assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. exists in a contrasting space than what and the 1999 police killing of Amadou cultural significance, specifically in Diallo, a twenty-three-year-old Guinean Chicago’s South Side. The golden age we are used to. His continuing interest immigrant who was shot at forty-one of the South Side, the 1970s and 1980s in urban renewal, while questioning our times by police, respectively, with when Black excellence was at its peak, interpretation of everyday objects, is everyday happenings: cars on the was echoed in the life of the True Value, displayed in “ How to Sell Hardware.” street, a setting sun and characters (Caira Moreira Brown) going about their lives as if nothing then a staple in the community. With unusual were occurring. the decline of economic prosperity in Together, the distinct works of the exhibition tell us more about trauma, the area and the proliferation of big-box “How to Sell Hardware” is loss and hope than they would apart. These works make it clear that the stores, this True Value, like many other on view at Gray Warehouse, cries against violence and the desire Newcity JULY 2021 family-owned establishments, took a hit. 2044 West Carroll, through July 31. The physical space of the gallery and The Important what occupies that space is redefined Complexity of Hope via the repurposing of the remaining A Review of Trauma and Loss, inventory of the store. Gates challenges Reflection and Hope at Intuit the viewer to understand the value of that inventory. The value of the items A conventional approach to viewing in True Value didn’t change. The art focuses on how well the piece physical use of the items remains the displays its intentions or how accurately 64
for justice are not singular the world of modern painting. Celebrate Chicago’s Performing Arts but are constructed with As he puts it: “It’s only in many materials and told from painting that you can do Upcoming performances: disparate perspectives. Each everything you want.” Ander- artist’s attempt to process and son is endlessly fascinated by Arts + Public Life: July 8 wrestle with their trauma or the tension between depth High Concept Labs: July 22 loss gives viewers the opportu- and surface, setting grids and nity to confront their own. As rectangles against splashes, a collective, they challenge the drips and areas of color. He current world and call out for establishes a strong emotive necessary hope and change. presence in the lush foliage (Josepha Natzke) and simple buildings of a residential Jamaican neighbor- “Trauma and Loss, hood. The views feel too Reflection and Hope,” much like modern painting to through October 31 at Intuit, be escapist calendar art, but 756 North Milwaukee. they make even me nostalgic for a Caribbean setting, and Anywhere/Nowhere I’ve only been there once. Is a Good Place To Be A Review of Hurvin Exhibition text suggests that Anderson at The Arts the artist wished to counteract Club of Chicago these touristic effects with something political in the Before looking at these largest and most recent piece paintings, try listening to in the exhibition: the thirty- “Anywhere but Nowhere,” foot-long “No One Remem- the 1973 reggae hit that bers.” It transforms a gallery inspired the title of the wall into the small buildings exhibition. The lyrics are and fences that line a Jamai- about teenage romance, can street. A flag pattern www.chicagotakes10.org Virtual with The Book Cellar Installation view, “Trauma and Loss, Reflection and Hope,” Jessica Chiarella Sharelle Klaus presents (2021), Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art “The Lost Girls” “The Guide to Zero but with K.C. White’s sweet overwhelms a building in the in conversation with Rebecca Johns Proof Cocktails” vocal and the steady beat of center, while at the far right a July 6, 7pm CST July 22, 7pm CST reggae, it could also suggest billboard broadcasts the title a bittersweet resignation to of the piece. It’s accompanied Christina Baker Kline Laura Vena Stock the alienation of displace- by portrait heads of the (and guests!!!) presents ment—as might apply to a eight activists whom no “My Mom…The Best Mom Ever!” diaspora like Caribbeans living one remembers. But is the “The Exiles” book signing in London. Steve McQueen painting itself actually political? July 7, 6pm CST July 24, 10:30am CST dramatized their experience The flag, the cause and the in his BBC-Amazon series, obliterated faces of the Book Cellar Book Club Old St. Pat’s Book Group “Small Axe.” Hurvin Anderson activists are all unidentifiable. shares it in his paintings. Instead, the painting offers the July 7, 7pm CST July 26, 7pm CST kind of authentic local color Or does he? Despite his that a tourist might enjoy. And Robin Hahnel Salon: A Classics Book Club family’s Jamaican background what’s wrong with appealing and the alienation suggested to tourists, anyway? They “Democratic Economic Planning” July 26, 7:30pm CST by the title, his paintings show enjoy themselves, they spend in conversation with that he relates well to the money, they harm no one (one Mitchell Szczepanczyk Maegan Poland place he has chosen to live: hopes). Just like art lovers. July 8, 7pm CST “What Makes You Afterwords Book Group Think You’re Awake?” July 28, 7pm CST July 12, 5:30pm and 7pm CST Never Too Old: A YA Book Marisel Vera Club for Adults and her daughter Alyssa Ramos July 28, 7:30pm CST celebrate the paperback launch of “Taste of Sugar” JULY 2021 Newcity July 21, 7pm CST Go to our website for virtual event details, book clubs and more! Your Independent Book Store in Lincoln Square! 4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago 773.293.2665 • bookcellarinc.com 65
Review Installation view, “Hurvin Anderson: Anywhere but Nowhere,” The Arts Club of Chicago 2021/Photo: Michael Tropea Newcity JULY 2021 The exhibition also includes a large of male characters in a traditional piece, “Peach House,” plays on young piece from the artist’s “Barbershop” cultural context at several times larger women being considered attractive series from 2008. Again, the jazzy than life-size. while at the same time being disregard- manipulation of pictorial space with ed in Persian folk culture. In Orkideh lines and colored rectangles makes Torabi has for many years created Torabi’s feminist world, the erasure of the piece dance with energy. The unique artworks inspired by the women from the scene and their being ambience is just as exciting and traditional elements and scene- replaced by male characters turns Afrocentric as Kerry Marshall’s “School setting concepts of Persian miniature. into a sarcastic depiction of prevalent of Beauty,” yet it does so without She uses techniques of Persian power structures. Influenced by a single human figure. It affirms miniature that enable her to show Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Torabi the importance of a community as both the interior and exterior spaces believes that society has ingrained in us well as the importance of modern simultaneously. This allows her to a culture full of wrong categorizations abstract painting. become a set of eyes positioned and separations of men and women. outside, as if on a rooftop, directing Modern landscape painting, as their gaze inside, into the bathhouse. In Torabi’s works, women are not introduced by Cezanne and Van Gogh, The exterior backgrounds feature painted as victims, and there is no puts a chosen locale inside the viewer, clouds, skies and mountains similar surface-level bitterness or darkness. rather than the other way around. to Persian miniature, while the interior Instead, her cartoonish style is aimed Anderson’s paintings also deliver a space is filled with a range of blue at challenging social structures of pleasant exhaustion. No matter where hues and shapes inspired by mosaics gender segregation. you look, effort has been made to and geometrical forms of Persian balance left-to-right, top-to-bottom: architecture and painting. The larger One of the works deeply informing the inevitable issues of landscape or frame is divided into several smaller Torabi’s style is “Aja’ib al-Makhluqat cityscape subject matter. Ultimately two-dimensional rectangles encom- wa Ghara’ib al-Mawjudat” (The each painting surrenders into a gentle, passing the figures. Wonders of Creation and Oddities of downward flow, with foliage bending a Creatures), a book dating back to the branch, water dripping down a wall or Benefiting from a painting style thirteenth century A.D., which is full just a downward pull of design. Hurvin long popular in the Persian culture– of lithographs of Persian-style illustra- Anderson’s anywhere/nowhere is a as seen in the noted painting “Harun tions. This has led to her working with good place to be. (Chris Miller) al-Rashid in the Bathhouse,” by various print techniques, including the Persian painter Kamal ud-Din gelatin, batik, silk and monoprint. “Hurvin Anderson: Anywhere but Behzad—she uses humor to show Nowhere” at The Arts Club of Chicago, her figures while they are occupied “Peach House’s 5 Bucks Morning 201 East Ontario, through August 7. with different bathing rituals, including Special” follows the traditional elements massaging one another. of Persian painting and is in conversa- Poking Fun at the Patriarchy tion with Persian folklore literature. A Review of Orkideh Torabi Semi-naked male figures, covering Filled with social humor and sarcasm, at the MCA themselves with the traditional long the piece looks like a comic strip cloth, are depicted as adults and with no text, a modern version of The Museum of Contemporary Art kids, always with masculine features, “Aja’ib al-Makhluqat” come to life based Chicago continues its Atrium Project beards and mustaches and body hair. off of a masculine utopia and an series with work by the Iranian-born, They look like cartoon characters, implied feminism. (Afsaneh Akhoondi) Chicago-based artist Orkideh Torabi, sometimes lying around and relaxing, entitled “Peach House’s 5 Bucks other times chatting with others or “Peach House’s 5 Bucks Morning Special.” It uses dye on carrying one another. In the details, Morning Special” is on view cotton fabric, which is then transferred we see a cat, legs soaking in a bucket at the Museum of Contemporary to vinyl. The piece depicts a men-only of water, as well as framed portraits Art Chicago, 220 East Chicago, public bathhouse, a representation of men on the walls. The title of the through January 2, 2022. 66
REDISCOVER CHICAGO AS THE CENTER OF THE COMICS UNIVERSE Anders Nilsen, Anatomy of a Vacant Lot, 2010–11. Ink on board, 23 × 35 in. Image courtesy of the artist. JUN 19–OCT 3 CHICAGO COMICS: 1960s TO NOW
NOW ON VIEW CLOSING SOON: SUMMER TUESDAYS CHICAGO COMICS: 1960s CAROLINA CAYCEDO: FROM Shop fresh produce from TO NOW THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER local farmers and vendors THROUGH OCT 3, 2021 THROUGH AUG 8, 2021 every Tuesday from 7 am Explore the comics and This ten-year survey of to 2 pm at the SOAR Farmers’ stories of more than forty multidisciplinary artist Carolina Market on the MCA Plaza. Chicago cartoonists, whose Caycedo’s work explores her Illinois residents also enjoy work spans six decades process on the front lines of free museum admission of visual storytelling. Reserve social and environmental justice. on Tuesdays—reserve your tickets in advance. ticket in advance! MUSEUM OF MCA CONTEMPORARY ART #MCAMadeYouLook CHICAGO mcachicago.org/Look mcachicago.org/look
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