Newcity Chicago February 2018

FEBRUARY 2018RETHINKING THE FUTURENewcity makes a movieTreating crime like a disease1871 is pushing us toward 2071

2018 Schedule Logan Center Family Saturdays Sat, Jan 6, 2-4:30pm Visions of Peace: Past, Join us for fabulous and fun family programs on the first Saturday of each month Present and Future October 2017–June 2018! Sat, Feb 3, 2-4:30pmSouthside Legends: Untold Stories Explore your child’s artistic curiosity with hands- Sat, Mar 3, 2-4:30pm on art workshops designed to stimulate creativity Animation and Imagination and play. Workshops designed around engaging Sat, Apr 7, 2-4:30pm themes are led by local artists, art organizations, and Kidpreneurs: Children Making Creativity into Business UChicago students. Sat, May 5, 2-4:30pm These interdisciplinary workshops are exciting for Sweet Home UChicago the entire family, offering activities from music to Sat, Jun 2, 2-4:30pm Going Global: Exploring arts and crafts for youth ages 2-12. Come learn something new and bring friends! Creative Traditions Appropriate for families with children ages 2-12. *Themes may be subject to change. Registration is encouraged at tickets.uchicago.edu MORE INFORMATION Call the Logan Center Box Office at 773.702.ARTS or visit arts.uchicago.edu/loganfamilysaturdays. Free admission and free parking in the lot on 60th and Drexel.LOGAN CENTER 915 E 60TH ST AT DREXEL AVE Logan Center Family Saturdays programming is made possible through the support of the Reva and David Logan Foundation, Michael and Patricia Klowden, and friends of the Logan Center, as well as partnerships with local and national arts organizations and performing artists.

NewcityFebruary 2018ContentsThe Conversation Arts & CultureHoward Tullman sees thefuture of business Art7 The MCA’s common touch 27Diagnosis: MurderThe case for treating gun Danceviolence like a medical Dancing with pedestriansepidemic gets stronger 3213 DesignWelcome to the Movie Business Dancing about architectureNotes from the making of 35Newcity’s movie17 Dining & Drinking Why are there Italian-American steakhouses everywhere? 37 FEBRUARY 2018 Newcity Film Re-reading Dave Kehr 39 Lit Charles Finch and his Victorian fancy 42 Music Mavis Staples still takes us there 45 Stage Tony Santiago’s crusade to keep art accessible 48 Life Is Beautiful Hearts break for Valentine’s Day 50 3

Editor’s Letter I am Jan Hieggelke, the publisher of Newcity It came into clear, sharp focus when we and a woman. endeavored to start Chicago Film Project and make “Signature Move.” (Brian writes about I’m one of the founders of Newcity and have the making of the film in this issue.) I was been running it, along with Brian Hieggelke deeply involved, along with a huge team of and others, for more than thirty years. I am, in people, in making that movie. Yes, I am a fact, the only person who’s been in the office woman, who made a movie about women, virtually every day since day one, grinding out but I got shut out of the conversation on the deadlines. many occasions. I know that most recognized my role and valued my presence, but since What I’m not is loud, in a public sense. On the I’m new to the film industry, I was shocked at occasion of Newcity’s anniversary and the how often that wasn’t the case. All the conversation about Newcity Chicago Film national dialogue about empowering women Project’s role in “Signature Move,” I figured it in Hollywood had led me to believe that was a good time for me to get a word in. things were changing. While I may not be the face of Newcity As a woman running a media company, it is known to much of the outside world, I critical that I speak out to remind everyone certainly am vital to making it work. Brian that behind many important endeavors, tells people that all the time. (They listen to women quietly keep the wheels turning. him, he’s a guy). We’re here.Newcity FEBRUARY 2018 I’ve been lucky in my media career that my I may not be the one holding the mic in partner has, for the most part, treated me as public, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t make an equal. I know that doesn’t often happen things happen. And I know plenty of other for women. To the outside world, I’m often women in the same position. For every man disregarded—the casual assumption that my or woman who assumes otherwise, they role in all of this is lesser than my partner’s. It perpetuate the systemic problem. I hope that has happened throughout my career at this cultural moment of change allows us to Newcity and nearly every time that I attend a stop diminishing women who work behind professional or social event—“Oh, you work at the scenes and start to value the important Newcity too”; or “this is Brian’s wife,” which role that we play. I hope that it means life though technically true reduces me and my gets better for all women.   accomplishments to a marital status. I’ve often shrugged off the usual misogyny of We have a lot of work to do if we’re going to men. But I get so disappointed when I eradicate misogyny from our culture, both encounter misogyny from other women. Most internally and externally.  I’m sure that I’ve disappointing and extremely offensive is what been guilty of it too—in the cultural context, one woman wrote on Facebook last year, it’s easy to do. So let’s get to it. We’re all in “Newcity is run by a pack of white males.”If this together. that’s the case, what have I been doing all these years? It’s nice to meet you. Jan Hieggelke4

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Contributors LEE ANN NORMAN (“Poppin’ Bottles”) ON THE COVER is a freelance writer, editor and Photo: Rachel Goldberg TYRA BOSNIC and ERIC BRADACH communications specialist interested in Cover design: Fletcher Martin (“Diagnosis: Murder”) Tyra is the cultivating spaces that allow people to opinions editor for the Columbia learn about each other and themselves Vol. 33, No. 1376 Chronicle, Columbia College Chicago’s through the arts. weekly newspaper, and is a senior PUBLISHERS multimedia journalism student at the CRAIG BECHTEL (“Taking Us There”) is Brian & Jan Hieggelke college. Eric is currently the managing assistant music director for CHIRP Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett editor at The Columbia Chronicle, and a Radio, 107.1 FM. As DJ Craig Reptile, you senior journalism student at Columbia can hear him play music on the FM dial EDITORIAL College Chicago. or at chirpradio.org most Sunday nights Editor Brian Hieggelke from 6pm to 9pm. He also fancies Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke MONICA KASS ROGERS (Photos, “The himself an armchair herpetologist, and Art Editor Elliot Reichert Conversation”) is a Chicago-based has a day gecko and a veiled Dance Editor Sharon Hoyer writer and photographer and artist with chameleon in his collection. Dining and Drinking Editor a passion for letterpress printing. She David Hammond runs the food-memories blog, Lost EMMA COULING (“One For Art and Art Film Editor Ray Pride Recipes Found. For All”) is a Chicago-based theater Lit Editor Toni Nealie director, theater critic and non-profit Music Editor Robert Rodi BRIAN HIEGGELKE (“The Conversation” administrator. She spends her days Theater Editor Kevin Greene and “Welcome to the Movie Business”) working as the office manager for Contributing Writers Isa Giallorenzo, is Newcity’s co-founder and one of the Lakeview Pantry—Chicago’s largest Aaron Hunt, Alex Huntsberger, Hugh Iglarsh, producers of the film “Signature Move.” food pantry fighting food insecurity on Chris Miller, Dennis Polkow, Vasia Rigou, the Northside. She is a host and Loy Webb, Michael Workman moderator of conversations surrounding feminism and anti-racism.  ART & DESIGN Senior Designers Kady Dennell, “RICK BARTOW: Things You Know MJ Hieggelke, Fletcher Martin Designers Sean Leary, Jim Maciukenas, But Cannot Explain” Stephanie Plenner, Dan Streeting, Billy WerchNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 A major retrospective of one of the MARKETING nation’s most prominent contemporary Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke Native American artists presented by the Schingoethe Center of Aurora University. OPERATIONS General Manager Jan Hieggelke EXHIBIT DATES: January 23–April 13, 2018 Smithsonian A liate Distribution Nick Bachmann, Schingoethe Center | 1315 Prairie St., Aurora Adam Desantis, Preston Klik, Monday–Friday 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | Tuesday until 7 p.m. Quinn Nicholson, Matt Russell Organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) For more information, visit aurora.edu/museum. at the University of Oregon. One copy of current issue free. Additional copies, SchingoetheCenterAU | (630) 844-7843 including back issues up to one year, may be ordered. Copyright 2018, 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.6

TheConversation:HowardTullman,Chicago’sEntrepreneur-in-ChiefBY BRIAN HIEGGELKEPHOTOS: MONICA KASS ROGERSHoward Tullman is stepping down asCEO of 1871 in a few months, and eventhough he’s in his early seventies andhas a lifetime of entrepreneurialachievements behind him, ourconversation spent no time on theretirement motifs of golf, annuities orrecreational travel. Tullman isunderstandably noncommittal on whatcomes next, other than continuingwith his venture investment funds,advising 1871 and teaching, but youcan expect there’s a “next.” He’s notretiring, but instead sticking to hislifelong tendency to move on to thenext gig every five years or so. Sincehe took the helm at 1871, the hub forChicago’s “technology andentrepreneurial ecosystem,” it’s growndramatically and he’s ready to passthe baton. “When I got here, it wasabout one-hundred companies,” hesays. “Maybe it started with fiftycompanies. Now it’s 500 companies,2,000 people a day, 170,000 squarefeet of space. It started with 50,000.And it’s a highly profitable business,and it’s sustainable, because it’s notdependent on the city or the state orreally anything.”Tullman’s a classic serial entrepreneur,but he did not start out on that path.

The St. Louis native moved to Chicago everything but digital. He’s in the And what I always say about this is, as a to attend Northwestern, followed by basement’,” Tullman recalls. “So I said, lawyer, I was just dealing with money. Northwestern Law School. He well, we’ll build a two-year, high-end, What I can’t understand is how any practiced law for ten years before he vocational school. Just as Kendall was. doctor keeps from killing themselves, realized that his calling was business. Kendall was a two-year, high-end when some clerk in Omaha says to some He took his frustration with the state vocational school in culinary and doctor, “I’m not paying for these three of data-based research offerings, then hospitality. And these were people diagnostic tests. Wing it.” It’s like, “What? mostly available in periodically getting jobs. And that was the design Somebody’s life is on the line here, and published, weighty and expensive of Flashpoint.” some asshole clerk in the middle of tomes, and started a database nowhere is saying, ‘Well, we don’t cover business around the idea of real-time He then sold both to Laureate that.’” I just didn’t want to be in a place information, called CCC Information International Universities, getting out where I didn’t think that I could do the Services. Forty years, thousands of for-profit education just before absolute best job that I could do. If it was of employees and billions of dollars of political pressure knocked the wind time that I was willing to spend, and if it economic value later, that company out of the business. At that point, the was effort, it was energy, it was lack of remains in business in the location high-profile 1871 was ready for him. sleep, whatever it was—that’s my ethic.   where Tullman started it, the same Merchandise Mart that also Before 1871, Tullman was as well The serial nature of it has been that houses 1871. known for an art collection featuring they’ve all been technology-based, and provocative paintings as he was for his the technologies have pulled me forward. “The sort of interesting anecdote of the business enterprises. In person, Look, we’re in the seventh iteration now CCC story was the first venture fund Tullman has a certain aging-rocker of this technology thing. The mainframe that invested in CCC was called at the presence, soft-spoken with longish was one, the PC was two, the web was time Golder Thoma,” Tullman says. hair and a casual wardrobe. But when three, the [mobile] phone was four, social “The youngest guy on the file was he speaks, he’s all business. What was five, AR [augmented reality] is six, Bruce Rauner. He was the bag boy. He follows is a transcript of our and seven is really going to be was the guy walking around, and he’s conversation, edited for length blockchain. now the governor, right?” and clarity. That will be the singly most revolutionaryNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 After CCC, Tullman immersed himself Read a more extensive version of the thing; that every kind of transaction that in a succession of technology-based interview at design.newcity.com. we used to understand was paper and businesses, from Imagination Pilots, a pencil will now be digital. And just to give CD-ROM company where he made The first thing on your Wikipedia page you an idea, JPMorgan Chase just Hollywood connections when he is “serial entrepreneur.” When did eliminated 350,000 hours of legal review licensed popular movies to become you realize that was what you were? of standard contracts, because now, you games, to JamTV (which became don’t need it anymore. It’s a contract Tunes.com and later, eMusic), an early When I determined that when you’re a that’s locked. There’s no way—nobody is entry in the digital music universe. lawyer, a litigator, it’s a no-win going to fiddle around with it. You don’t From there, a series of web-based proposition. The defendant hates their have to have some lawyer at 900 bucks business, including Xceed, where he life from day one, because they’ve been an hour poring over it to make sure the found himself and his team locked in sued by somebody, so they’re just paying typist didn’t screw something up. New York hotel rooms secretly bills. And the plaintiff usually has some building the web site for the “Survivor” enthusiasm early on, and then also gets That’s just the beginning. These are TV show when 9/11 took down the sick of paying the bills. And so if you’re hundreds if not thousands of jobs, in all World Trade Center just blocks from the lawyer on either side, you’re kinds of industries. Consider the oil-rig his Woolworth Building offices. constantly dealing with a client who says, business—the price of oil went way down, “Why do I have to pay that?” Or, “Why is it 400,000 people lost their jobs. A lot of Back in Chicago, he took over ailing costing me?” It got frustrating to feel that the rigs were put on mothballs. The rigs Kendall College and moved it from nobody wanted to pay you to do the kind have come back now. The jobs haven’t Evanston into the city, then launched of job that you would be proud of. To do come back. There’s only about 200,000 Experienca, an educational center the right research, the right preparation. jobs. Because in the meantime, the designed to teach entrepreneurship to technology became so advanced that kids and, finally, Tribeca Flashpoint. five guys control a rig now instead of twenty-five guys. “It grew out of repeated instances of parents saying, ‘My kid doesn’t want to go to a regular college. He hates8

I’m not concerned about the kids.What I’m concerned about are,first, people fifty and up -- if wedon’t upskill them, they’re fucked.So the serial thing was just that the how to remove the stigma from high-end Big changes. And I don’t really know the FEBRUARY 2018 Newcitytechnologies represented ways that I vocational training. Because those are answer. I don’t think anybody knows thecould envision new kinds of solutions. the jobs that aren’t going to be exported. answer. I think another tsunami that isAnd each time they came along, and Those are the jobs that are going to be a coming, that we’re not remotely equippedeach time I reached a certain point in my path to a realistic middle-class income for, is what are we going to do with thecareer, I’ve been lucky enough to for people that can be trained to do that. general aging population in this country?construct or think of or design new kinds They’re not going to go—there are notof systems. And what’s so funny is, to me The truth is that the trades are one path enough senior citizen homes, even if thatit has been entirely consistent. Other for reasonable employment. The other was the way to do it. So, you’re going topeople look around and say, “Well, how truth is that—to give you some idea of the have to have a world of aging-in-place,did you go from being a lawyer to making statistics, in 1990, the big three which means even if mom and dadmovies?” And I’m like, “Well, you don’t automakers employed 1.2 million would like to get out of the house, it’sunderstand. I was using a database to employees to generate about $250 billion actually much better living than living inmake these movies.” of revenue. Today, the analogue is the top some shithole senior housing thing. three tech companies. Same number,Let’s talk about the loss of jobs that probably more. Probably $300 billion. But we have to figure out how to providecomes from the efficiency effect of 135,000 employees. Ten to one. We have care for them, and how to providetechnology and innovation. What to figure out a solution for those people. support for them, and feed them, and allhappens to what was once these kinds of things. But every one ofconsidered the middle class? In the hospitality business, if you look at those things represents astonishing Marriott and Hilton and Airbnb from a opportunities.My answer is really sort of a dual answer market-cap standpoint, Hilton is aboutthat has to do with both ends of the $20 billion, Marriott is about $40 billion. Talk about what 1871 does inspectrum. I’m not concerned about the Marriott has 220,000 employees. Hilton a general sense.kids. We’re the immigrants. The kids are has 160,000 employees. So 400,000digital natives. They get this stuff. You see employees. Airbnb has 3,600 employees, We have on our plate twenty differenta five-year-old or six-year-old swiping, and a $31 billion market cap. business ideas, and every one of them isand you know they’re going to be OK. astonishing. I’m trying to figure out how Why? Because they invented something. do I populate these with teams, becauseWhat I’m concerned about are, first, They invented this economy. They that’s another part of what’s going on.people fifty and up—if we don’t upskill invented this connection. They invented We have ideas where we’re looking forthem, they’re fucked. And, they’re not and have relied on “the trust economy.” entrepreneurs, and then we havegoing to do us the courtesy of dying In what world would we have believed companies coming to us and saying,when they’re sixty. They’re going to be that we were going to let complete “Can you help us be innovative?” Andaround a long time. strangers live in a bedroom in our house, truthfully, that’s the real gain here. 1871 or get into a car with complete strangers, was not built necessarily to build startups.And to the issue of the middle class, what or send our kids to school in a car that It was built to do economic development.I’ve done at Kendall, what I did at we didn’t have any clue who the person And the economic development isFlashpoint, what I’m trying to do with the was showing up or driving? changing the way Allstate does business,kids at Dyett [Dyett High School for the not the way that Joe Blow and his startupArts, where he teaches], is all of a piece, with three people does business.and the piece is we’d better figure out 9

Newcity FEBRUARY 2018 And we’ve done that. Allstate now uses pictures, we’ll adjust that loss. We’ll do 1871 was not one of our phone apps to do collision twenty a day instead of two a day. We’ll built necessarily estimating. It’s such a sea change that adjust it in three hours instead of three to build startups. two years ago when I first showed this to weeks. And there isn’t an insurance them—because these were all my company in the world that isn’t going to It was built to customers in my CCC days—they do that now. There may be three or four do economic laughed. We said, “No, you don’t companies providing that technology to development. understand. Six out of ten times, we can them, but we were first. do with a phone what you’re sending somebody halfway across the city to do.” And I think ultimately there won’t be. It’s a winner-take-all thing, so I think And two years goes by, and they eventually these companies will give up announced two months ago, they’re the ghost to try to invent their own. closing all the drive-ins, firing 500 Because what’s interesting about the adjusters. Guess what they’re doing? platform economics is we can invest They’re using the phone. Why? Because millions, because we’re doing it for forty when you take pictures—and it’s not the insurance companies. And let Allstate try adjuster, it’s you at home—you take ten to keep pace with that.10

We have on ourplate twentydifferentbusiness ideas, it, but he didn’t have the has been trying to jam his business into passion. He wasn’t Salesforce or Quicken or QuickBooks.and every one entrepreneurial. Now he’s here with two kids, and it’s Here, you start with people hard to tell who’s more excited. Andof them is who are entrepreneurial, but they’re building an app and he knowsastonishing. everybody understands that exactly what it should do. He’s got plenty the desire plus the idea still of money. But the biggest thing he has is, takes a whole lot. And so if it works for him, he’s got 399 other members of his ophthalmology that’s what I say. And when association, and they’ll all buy it in two seconds. And then we’ll take that these big companies come to platform, and we’ll go to dermatologists and a zillion other people. us, they say five things. They And that’s the model. And that creates aYou said, “I’ve got twenty ideas here, say it so consistently it’s tremendous amount of value to the companies, to the participants. We’veand we’re looking for entrepreneurs astonishing. “We’re not inventing enough really grown from simply serving the entrepreneurial community to reallyfor them.” That does not sound like new ideas internally”; “The people who trying to figure out what’s a model for building real economic development forthe classic model of “I have the idea built it won’t break it”; “We can’t hire the whole city—moving the needle for big companies, helping big companies injectand I bring it to you the investor and these young technology people”; “We’re this technology and sort of thissell you on it.” doing things in years that we need to be methodology. That’s all part of what goes on here. doing in months.” And, “We’re scared to What does 1871 look like in ten years?Here’s what happens that’s different. We death that all the domain expertise can’t I don’t know that there will be an 1871 intake about seven out of ten people into be transferred to these next generations. ten years. I think that companies, in order to survive in the global economy,1871 who come to the front door. And for We don’t have a strategy for doing that.” companies are going to have to get over this reluctance that they have toa few, we say, “No.” We’re a B2B thing, so So we help them do that. internalize true innovation and to really do this stuff. What happened in the lastif you’re building a dating site for pets, we fifteen years is that they went to sleep on R&D. They didn’t spend a dime on R&D,don’t care. You know? If you’re the Here there are four groups of people. because that hit the P&L. They’re trying to make it up now, through M&A—they’refour-thousandth provider of some kind of Everybody thinks 1871 is all complexion- desperate—but they don’t know how toice cream, we don’t care, right? Number challenged fifteen-year-old white guys. do it.one, show me how you’re going to save You know, little entrepreneurs. We have Right now, we’re the enabler. We bring the startups to these big companies. Butme time, money, make me more serial entrepreneurs who are really smart, over a period of time, they have to take this expertise inside. And then 1871 willproductive, help me make better and who are like, “You know what? I’m be a different entity or whatever it is. I think if 1871 lasts a decade, a decade anddecisions—those kinds of things. But not going to invest in an office lease until a half, that would be extraordinary.even when you get in here, a bunch of I see that the dog eats the dog food thistimes, your idea doesn’t get traction. time around.” You’ve got guys who areSomebody else has got a better version, forty and fifty years old sitting next towhatever. people who are fifteen years old, in essence.So we do a lot of moving of this talentaround. We have two full-time recruiters. Serial entrepreneurs, youngWe have schools here where we train entrepreneurs, career changers. Youthese people, and then they go work for know, “I spent my twenty years, now Iour companies as well. I have this huge want to go do my passion. I want to gotalent pool that’s fairly mobile, and this is do something I love.” And then the lasthow they want to spend their lives. one is really what you said, and that is people with domain expertise, who areIt’s a little different, because when the really smart, and know everything aboutVCs tried to do this, they failed one- their business, and don’t know the FEBRUARY 2018 Newcityhundred percent of the time. The VCs technology at all.tried to do rollups. You know, let’s go hirethe number-three guy at waste We’ve got an ophthalmologist here. Formanagement, and do a garbage business. twenty years, he has dreamed of aAnd the number-three guy, he would take practice-management system, and he 11

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S Diagnosis: MurderIf gun violence is an epidemic, FEBRUARY 2018 Newcitywhy don’t we treat it like one? BY TYRA BOSNIC AND ERIC BRADACH Data & Diagram: Papachristos, Hureau, & Braga 2012 13

What would happen if Chicago’s gun violence were treated like an infectious disease? In 2016, gun violence in Chicago dramatically exploded with no apparent cause. Homicides increased by fifty-eight percent and nonfatal shootings went up forty-three percent. “Gun Violence in Chicago 2016,” a January 2017 publication by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, asserted that the wave couldn’t be explained by the weather, changes in money allocated to social services, or by police activity. And the surge was concentrated in the city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods on the South and West Side. The figures dropped in 2017—Chicago had 650 citywide homicides down from 771 the previous year. Shootings also declined between years, from 3,550 to 2,785. Still, even with the declines, the numbers aren’t rosy. While drops are encouraging, the numbers remain high enough that gun violence in Chicago is readily considered an “epidemic.” Andrew V. Papachristos, Ph.D., a social networks and infects areas as a Those injured by gun violence greatly professor of sociology at Northwestern social contagion. “It has certain rules,” outnumber those who are killed. Nick University (and faculty fellow of the Papachristos says. “It follows certain LoGalbo, a basketball coach at Lane Institute for Policy Research), is one patterns.” Tech High School in Roscoe Village, observer who embraces that label, and recalls a phone call one October 2014 the approach to violence that it suggests. evening that his cousin, Darrin The research by Papachristos convinced A widespread infection Hollingshead, eighteen, was in critical him that gun violence indeed follows the condition. Hollingshead was walking to a traits of infectious disease. When an epidemic displays a pattern, it party with friends when he was struck in becomes easier to predict its next victims, the head and spine in a a drive-by A criminal justice approach would and to institute preventative measures. shooting. “It was the worst night of my suggest that the answer to Chicago’s That didn’t happen in time for Sharonda life,” LoGalbo says. “I remember being high rate of gun violence is stronger gun Tutson in the Garfield Ridge mad at society, and being mad at the regulation, or an increased police neighborhood on the Southwest Side on world, and just being furious that my little presence. Some experts who study May 28, 2016. From her bedroom, she cousin can’t go and have the same violence and who work in violence heard her mother shout, “Someone killed experience every eighteen-year-old has prevention concur with Papachristos’ ‘Little Garvin!’” to just go to a party with friends.” perspective: Treat gun violence like the epidemic it presents itself as. As city Tutson’s older brother, Garvin Whitmore, Two neighborhoods, two sides of the city: officials scramble for a resolution through twenty-seven, had been sitting in a car same epidemic. Papachristos says the legislation, others see an opportunity to with his fiancée, Ashley Harrison, entire city is made up of social networks seek a cure by tackling socioeconomic twenty-six, in Fuller Park on Chicago’s that spread violence, although some problems and racism, alongside South Side. A gunman, who remains neighborhoods have a higher or lower providing additional funding to violence unidentified, walked up to the car and density of such networks. The entire city prevention programs. fired, striking Whitmore in the head. He of Chicago is infected.Newcity FEBRUARY 2018 was just one of sixty-nine people shot “When we talk about gun violence in and six people killed in Chicago that Contributing factors Chicago, more often than not it is Memorial Day weekend. [through] a criminal justice lens,” says As a prosecutor in the Cook County Papachristos, adding that such an “My brother always said, ‘I’m going to be State’s Attorney’s Office, Inge Fryklund, approach is not appropriate for a public famous one day,’” says Tutson, twenty, a J.D., Ph.D., watched countless people health crisis. The most recent study he student at Columbia College. “[But] I cycle through the county’s courtrooms in co-authored, published in JAMA Internal never thought he was going to be famous the 1980s. “It was like we were locked in Medicine in March 2017, found that like this.” a dance,” Fryklund says, recalling how violence in Chicago spreads through often she saw the same people appear in14 court on the same charges.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK OF GUN VIOLENCE IN THREE CITIES Each dot represents a person; the red dots indicate a victim of gunshot injury or fatality. The lines between the dots indicate the connections within the network. BostonnPapachristos, Hureau, & Braga 2012 BOSTON NEWARK CHICAGO The network of one neighborhood in Boston Newark Data & Diagram: Papachristos, Braga, Piza, & Grossman 2015 represents 6% of the neighborhood’s population Boston Data & Diagram: Papachristos, Hureau, & Braga 2012 The network represents 6% of Chicago’s population, and 85% of all gunshot injuries Chicago Data & Diagram: Papachristos, Wildeman, & Roberto 2014 40% of the arrested population and 70% of all shootings Andrew V. Papachristos, Ph.D. were further cemented in illegal business Racial and socioeconomic segregation FEBRUARY 2018 Newcity and the violence that follows. exacerbate the problem by furtherFryklund realized that defendants with Fryklund blames the war on drugs of the denying people opportunities to escapelengthy arrest records would never past four decades for the never-ending communities afflicted by drugs and crime.escape the drug economy. “Whatever cycle of offenders in courtrooms “The Cost of Segregation,” a  2017 reportproblem we thought we were solving by nationwide. Under President Richard by the Metropolitan Planning Council,arresting people for drugs, we weren’t,” Nixon, Congress passed the found that if Chicago had been lessshe says. “We were just digging a deeper Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention segregated in 2016, the city’s homicidehole.” With each sentencing, their lives and Control Act in 1970. The law’s rate could have been thirty percent lower. promoters said they intended to reduce drug-related crimes and deaths and This segregation was, in turn, inflamed by minimize violence. However, Fryklund a history of redlining in Chicago—a says the war on drugs triggered more practice of refusing to rent, sell homes or violence because it encouraged a deadly provide mortgages to African Americans black market. in certain neighborhoods. This practice, which began in the 1930s and only ended “When you have a commodity that people with the 1968 Fair Housing Act, left the are determined to get, but it’s been city divided by race and class. (A declared illegal, they’re going to turn to September 2017 report from the Federal an illegal market,” Fryklund says. “An Reserve Bank of Chicago concludes that illegal market is necessarily violent the city has yet to recover from the because they can’t avail themselves with redlining practices of the 1930s through any of the normal channels for dispute 1960s.) resolution.” 15

Deadlines are the assets for filmmakers is the depth and breadth of its acting pool, and you can immovable force, make a great film with a Chicago cast. If it’s truly great, it will find an audience. and everything This does not mean famous actors are not worth anything; they are. But making else in our lives the work should come first, and if you can’t get someone famous, or can’t afford bends around them, find someone else who can play the role and make your movie. They may them. I thought we turn out to have been the best choice of all. At least that’s my philosophy. could the same It will take much more money discipline to than you planned, and infinitely more time. filmmaking, and Raising the money for “Signature Move” was concerned was far easier than expected. Why? The project—the story of a Pakistani Muslim that the absence woman who meets and falls for a Mexican-American woman—was PHOTO: RACHEL GOLDBERG of a firm deadline relatable and particularly timely (and to would lead to our chagrin, would become even more timely with the results of the 2016 more talking about election). Plus, I’d spent a career building to this, and it was the first time in almost Lesson learned? Making a film is making a movie twenty years I’d asked anyone to invest in the choreography of dozens of than making a movie. So we said, no anything. And, finally, movies remain our dancers doing their own thing, matter what amount of money we’d raise, but all moving in the same we were going to make a movie in the PHOTO: RACHEL GOLDBERG direction: precise choreography summer of 2016, about a year after that has to make way for getting involved. And we did. culture’s magical medium, and being a improvisation at a moment’s part of one holds cachet far greater than notice. Many of even the greatest movies made investing in almost anything else. Or since the end of the studio system took maybe it was the wrestling. Making our first feature was a whirlwind forever to see the light of screens, which We originally hoped to make a film for education, one far from finished as I write. is little-recognized outside the $100,000 or so, but had no real basis for “Signature Move” is, briefly, the story of a industry.  It’s typical to meet filmmakers that number. We quickly raised our goal closeted Pakistani-American lawyer, and producers whose projects took them to $200,000 as we gained a better sense Zaynab (Fawzia Mirza), who is living in years and years to get made (if ever). The of what we were dealing with, as well as Chicago with her recently widowed greatest recurrent obstacle is when the scope of our ambitions. For example, mother, Parveen (Shabana Azmi), who projects get hung up on perpetual when we met with Christian Litke to hopes to find her daughter a husband. chicken-and-egg discuss the pro wrestling elements, he Meanwhile, Zaynab meets and falls for game of “attaching” came prepared to outline our stunt needs. Alma (Sari Sanchez), a Mexican- talent in hopes of Wait, we needed stunt actors? We’d American bookseller who has a very seducing those naively figured Fawzia would do her own different relationship with her own who could finance wrestling until Christian pointed out the mother Rosa (Charin Alvarez), a former your dream. The effect on the production if she broke an luchadora. (Professional-style wrestling game goes arm. An early version of the script had a drives the action in “Signature Move.”) something like this: X as writes a The Los Angeles theatrical engagement great screenplay begins February 9, synchronized with our and a producer launch for rental or purchase on iTunes, friend agrees to Amazon, Google Play and help get it made. FandangoNOW. Four days later, we With stars in their debut on DVD and at the end of the eyes, they try to month, we stream on Amazon Prime. get someone And we have not even tackled considered famous, at varying levels of international distribution. But here is our celebrity and currency, interested in the story so far, right up to this moment, in project. Not fully committed, but the form of lessons learned. interested enough tell people that Mr. Famous is attached in hopes of getting financing to move forward. One in aNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 We approached the project like million times, it all comes together. Most “Deadline USA.” Too many of the time it turns into that vicious circle, would-be filmmakers are talking about making movies, not making “Waiting for Godot.” them. Meanwhile, we march steadily toward the grave…. When I met Fawzia and Eugene Sun Great movies can be made without stars, Park, the producer who brought the and iconic films are often filled with script to us, and we committed to the unknowns when they were produced. project in June of 2015, I half-jokingly Who had heard of Jennifer Lawrence asked if we could shoot that August. In before “Winter’s Bone”? Who hadn’t, our business of publishing, we’re used to after she did? One of Chicago’s greatest the constant presence of deadlines.18

PHOTO: LISA DONATO“MWOEVLCIEOBMUESTINOETSHS”EPHOTO: LISA DONATO Loef sOsuorns(FLiersatr)nFeidlmin, StihgenMataukrienMg ove BY BRIAN HIEGGELKE “Jan, did you hear the bad news?” Indian cinema and our only movie star. person scenes that Azmi is in with the Now we’d have to do it again. But we camera only on Fawzia Mirza, who was Very, very early on an August morning, were running out of options at our playing her daughter. In some cases, a Jan Hieggelke got a call from Ketki Humboldt Park location, a home where shoulder double from the crew was used Parikh: “Shabanaji contracted Azmi was shooting most of her scenes. for over-the-shoulder shots. (Fortuitously, conjunctivitis and they would not let her The plan for the producers and director Azmi’s eye cleared up quickly and did not board the plane in Dubai! She convinced to go to Ketki’s house, where Azmi was affect shooting, with the exception of a them to let her fly but she won’t be ready staying, for an introductory dinner on falling out with a makeup artist and the to shoot on Sunday.” We had rearranged Saturday night was scrapped, replaced slight remaining redness works in the our entire production schedule of with a Sunday morning brunch at the film’s favor in one of the most moving “Signature Move” due to the nightmarish home of executive producer Nabeela scenes, when her character discovers peculiarities of U.S. Immigration, and Rasheed, which would precede a rush to the watch of her recently-deceased already lost a day of shooting with the set by producers and director husband in a bedroom drawer.) Shabana Azmi, the legendary actress of afterwards, where we’d shoot two-PHOTO: RACHEL GOLDBERG FEBRUARY 2018 Newcity 17

Deadlines are the assets for filmmakers is the depth and breadth of its acting pool, and you can immovable force, make a great film with a Chicago cast. If it’s truly great, it will find an audience. and everything This does not mean famous actors are not worth anything; they are. But making else in our lives the work should come first, and if you can’t get someone famous, or can’t afford bends around them, find someone else who can play the role and make your movie. They may them. I thought we turn out to have been the best choice of all. At least that’s my philosophy. could the same It will take much more money discipline to than you planned, and infinitely more time. filmmaking, and Raising the money for “Signature Move” was concerned was far easier than expected. Why? The project—the story of a Pakistani Muslim that the absence woman who meets and falls for a Mexican-American woman—was PHOTO: RACHEL GOLDBERG of a firm deadline relatable and particularly timely (and to would lead to our chagrin, would become even more timely with the results of the 2016 more talking about election). Plus, I’d spent a career building to this, and it was the first time in almost Lesson learned? Making a film is making a movie twenty years I’d asked anyone to invest in the choreography of dozens of than making a movie. So we said, no anything. And, finally, movies remain our dancers doing their own thing, matter what amount of money we’d raise, but all moving in the same we were going to make a movie in the PHOTO: RACHEL GOLDBERG direction: precise choreography summer of 2016, about a year after that has to make way for getting involved. And we did. culture’s magical medium, and being a improvisation at a moment’s part of one holds cachet far greater than notice. Many of even the greatest movies made investing in almost anything else. Or since the end of the studio system took maybe it was the wrestling. Making our first feature was a whirlwind forever to see the light of screens, which We originally hoped to make a film for education, one far from finished as I write. is little-recognized outside the $100,000 or so, but had no real basis for “Signature Move” is, briefly, the story of a industry.  It’s typical to meet filmmakers that number. We quickly raised our goal closeted Pakistani-American lawyer, and producers whose projects took them to $200,000 as we gained a better sense Zaynab (Fawzia Mirza), who is living in years and years to get made (if ever). The of what we were dealing with, as well as Chicago with her recently widowed greatest recurrent obstacle is when the scope of our ambitions. For example, mother, Parveen (Shabana Azmi), who projects get hung up on perpetual when we met with Christian Litke to hopes to find her daughter a husband. chicken-and-egg discuss the pro wrestling elements, he Meanwhile, Zaynab meets and falls for game of “attaching” came prepared to outline our stunt needs. Alma (Sari Sanchez), a Mexican- talent in hopes of Wait, we needed stunt actors? We’d American bookseller who has a very seducing those naively figured Fawzia would do her own different relationship with her own who could finance wrestling until Christian pointed out the mother Rosa (Charin Alvarez), a former your dream. The effect on the production if she broke an luchadora. (Professional-style wrestling game goes arm. An early version of the script had a drives the action in “Signature Move.”) something like this: X as writes a The Los Angeles theatrical engagement great screenplay begins February 9, synchronized with our and a producer launch for rental or purchase on iTunes, friend agrees to Amazon, Google Play and help get it made. FandangoNOW. Four days later, we With stars in their debut on DVD and at the end of the eyes, they try to month, we stream on Amazon Prime. get someone And we have not even tackled considered famous, at varying levels of international distribution. But here is our celebrity and currency, interested in the story so far, right up to this moment, in project. Not fully committed, but the form of lessons learned. interested enough tell people that Mr. Famous is attached in hopes of getting financing to move forward. One in aNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 We approached the project like million times, it all comes together. Most “Deadline USA.” Too many of the time it turns into that vicious circle, would-be filmmakers are talking about making movies, not making “Waiting for Godot.” them. Meanwhile, we march steadily toward the grave…. When I met Fawzia and Eugene Sun Great movies can be made without stars, Park, the producer who brought the and iconic films are often filled with script to us, and we committed to the unknowns when they were produced. project in June of 2015, I half-jokingly Who had heard of Jennifer Lawrence asked if we could shoot that August. In before “Winter’s Bone”? Who hadn’t, our business of publishing, we’re used to after she did? One of Chicago’s greatest the constant presence of deadlines.18

night scene with the two main characters clients bring, so most are not mentally or epitomize the best of Chicago theater: crossing Lake Shore Drive on foot while structurally equipped for indie work. the kind of guy who can become a dodging traffic. Stunt drivers. So famous movie star while remaining Christian, a professional stuntman, came And then there was music licensing. committed to a home theater company, on board as our stunt coordinator and as he is with A Red Orchid, where he stunt doubles were sourced for the cast A music supervisor was not among comes back to act in a show every other members who were expected to wrestle. anyone’s existing contacts, so I set out to season in spite of his insanely in-demandThe Lake Shore Drive scene was soon find one, Chicago-based. To my pleasant status as a movie star. (He directed their scrapped entirely for now-obvious surprise, my web search turned up current show, “Traitor,” and comes back budget reasons. Groove Garden, not only Chicago (and to act on their tiny stage this summer.) Brooklyn)-based, but started by women! I wanted to share our plans for the Filmmaking has its own byzantine And our experience with them was Chicago Film Project with him, and our budgeting process, with a central focus superlative. The soundtrack to the movie goal to truly champion Chicago actors on on getting the movie shot. We had is one of its many highlights, and they screen. I thought he was the kind of guy eighteen days total. The budget is divided, guided us through the challenging waters who could be an informal advisor to the archaically and somewhat arbitrarily, into of rights and licensing with patience and project, or an ambassador of sorts from“above-the-line” and “below-the-line,” finesse. But because we were first-timers, with above-the-line supposedly referring the only time to time. So we had breakfast and I to the “creative” expenses, even though licensing told him about it. To my surprise, he many creative elements, such as opportunity offered to invest in “Signature Move” and production design, reside below the line. offered to us became one of our executive producers.Added to this is that most productions was a Since then, he seems to be in every use an industry-specific budgeting one-year substantial movie that comes out. We program called Movie Magic, which festival keep missing with his schedule and have integrates with its scheduling software license not gotten him out to see the film. Not at but has an extraordinarily archaic and which, our world premiere in Austin. Not in our clunky interface, and does not integrate according to New York premiere at BAM, near his at all with accounting programs like conventional Brooklyn residence. Not in Chicago. QuickBooks. wisdom, was Here’s hoping for L.A.… all we Movies typically have a “line producer” needed to Chicago actors are just as great who is primarily charged with creating worry about. on film as they are on stage. the production’s budget and then being That would on set and assuring that it stays on prove to be a Since we were casting Chicago actors course. Our line producer was Angie mistake, only (except for Shabana Azmi), we went Gaffney, the founding executive director which I will deep into the local theater scene. The of Stage 18, a film and television explain proof is on the screen: the acting in incubator at Cinespace. Her approach momentarily. “Signature Move” is outstanding. was to ascertain what funds we had in the bank and craft the budget for the The final PHOTO: LISA DONATO shoot within those limits. And we did shoot the film within the money we had number for in the bank. The problem is that line producers—not singling Angie out here “Signature as my sense is that this is not atypical— are focus mostly on production and don’t Move” is just under $300,000. Any further have the experience to see the film through post-production and other expenses will come out of revenues. And expenses that follow the shoot. So while our budget did include funds for post- the amount of time we’ve invested, in production, and we’d thankfully won a large post-production grant at exchange for a miniscule producer’s fee Labodigital in Mexico City so that our color correction, sound mix and and a glimmer of potential for back-end deliverables were all covered, we were still woefully short of reality. Micro- return, approaches infinity, or so it seems. budget and ultra-low-budget indie films are built upon a mountain of favors, of One metric: My “Signature Move” email professionals helping out in their downtime, of compromise, compromise, folder contains 17,255 messages. And compromise. The problem is that this is not a viable, sustainable approach. At the that does not include hundreds of texts other end of the spectrum, the city is full of post-production houses addicted to and Slack messages. And phone calls resources that big corporate advertising and meetings that add up to weeks of time alone. Just count it as reasonable tuition in the in the College of FEBRUARY 2018 Newcity Filmmaking. It’s easier to get money from Michael Shannon than time. I met two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon a few years back when I profiled him for Newcity. He seemed to 19

You usually cast people to play Alma’s mother. And so the story Newcity is producing that film this the roles you’ve written but transformed into a look at the summer. And at that same pitch, sometimes the casting process relationships of daughters to the mothers filmmaker Hugh Schulze committed to convinces you to rewrite roles to as much as it is a romantic comedy. invest in “Signature Move.” We’re fit the actor. producing Hugh’s second feature, A few examples from “Signature Move”: “Dreaming Grand Avenue” this spring. (A Jayde, the wrestling coach, was written Don’t assume someone you want fruitful day!) Through the process, which to work with is not within reach. included practice sessions, we got to as a large, muscle-bound woman. Until know her better. So we asked her if she’d we saw Audrey Francis audition, we Just as some projects stall because their consider it. Reeder said yes without could no longer imagine anyone else in creators have outsized expectations for hesitation.   the role. Alma was not half-Mexican, cast and budget, it’s equally tempting to half-Jewish until we cast Sari Sanchez, forgo choices because you think Second was the casting of Shabana who is half Jewish, in the role of the someone is unattainable. If you believe Azmi. Though we’d mandated drawing Mexican love interest. And, most something will make your movie better, exclusively from Chicago’s talent pool, significantly, Rosa was written to be more successful, then go for it. If you get Fawzia made the compelling case that, Alma’s grandmother, but Charin Alvarez a no, the worst you do is end up in the as a South Asian actor based in Chicago, was simply too good not to cast, even place you’d be if you had never asked. she knew her peers, and there was not though she’s too young to be a grandma. an actor of that age, with fluency in Urdu So we rewrote the role for her to be Two examples from “Signature Move.” and English, who could play her mother. First, Jennifer Reeder, our director. We We’d have to go to Los Angeles or New wanted a woman to York While I could not argue with the direct this women’s film conclusion, I was committed to fight the and we wanted someone gravitational pull of L.A. that is a constant from Chicago. The list of temptation with filmmakers. After all, that possibles was, alas, was the essence of our project, to make short. Fawzia brought up something great that was soup-to-nuts Reeder multiple times. I Chicago. Based on the adage that good had met her a few times roles diminish as a woman ages, even for on Newcity photoshoots, movie stars, I suggested we instead go to as she was one of only a Bollywood, thinking that it also could few Leaders of Chicago help the film sell internationally. Of Culture two-listers. course, I knew nothing about Indian Reeder had been cinema or its stars, but Fawzia did. And selected to our Art 50 she knew exactly who our number-one and Film 50 in the same choice would be, Shabana Azmi. Azmi, year, but I believed that who we came to shorthand as the “Meryl her work was too Streep of India,” is the most acclaimed experimental, based on actor in their cinematic history, ranging what turned out to be from their most important independent the earlier work that cinematic movements to big Bollywood; fueled her Art 50 she’s won more of the nation’s Best inclusion when she was Actress awards than anyone in history. making films for the Not only was her stature unparalleled, galleries and museums. but she’d starred in the seminal film, But after I’d seen her “Fire,” the country’s first mainstream fantastic recent short depiction of a lesbian relationship, and films, including the one that generated critical acclaim and Sundance-programmed public and political controversy upon its “A Million Miles Away,” I release in India. Further, she’s a major believed she was likely international activist on women’s issues too committed to her and on poverty. She was our dream but own narratives, stories how were we going to even ask her? It she’d written for herself, turns out, Ketki Parikh, the co-founder ofNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 to have any interest in the Chicago South Asian Film Festival doing this. When we had worked closely with her over the landed in a pitch years and they were friends. Fawzia, of competition co- course, knew Ketki. Azmi was coming to presented by the the Chicago area on a Bollywood stars Chicago International tour. Could Ketki help make an Film Festival and IFP introduction? Before long, the script was Chicago, Reeder was in Azmi’s hands, and Fawzia and her there with her own girlfriend Nabeela Rasheed had a PHOTO: RACHEL GOLDBERG project, “As With Knives personal audience when the tour brought20 and Skin.” As a coda, her to the Chicago area. After a spirited,

probing conversation, Azmi was of visual material (that is, images without makeup a priority. But we discovered that,interested. She was not interested in dialogue). Our script kept getting longer, once you delegate hiring to a linemoney, but her character: she wanted reaching at least 110 pages as we producer or a production designer, thatFawzia to rewrite her to make her more approached production. person will tend to hire people they know,three-dimensional, more nuanced as a people they’ve worked with or peoplehuman being. And she shared her Our director Jennifer Reeder was in they went to college with. If that personavailable dates. It took a couple of Germany shooting her short film “All is white, it’s likely that most if not all ofmonths to complete the courtship, but Small Bodies” and was not yet engaged their network is, too. And the more theyshe made the film, and in making it, with the screenplay. When she got back, work with their network, the moreelevated everything about it. days before we started shooting, she and comfortable they are in doing so again. This is why it is so important to push this issue all the way through the hiring chain, to force people to rethink the entire process, rather just doing what is comfortable. If you produce movies, you might gain weight on set. And then get your picture taken. A lot. PHOTO: RACHEL GOLDBERG Filmmaking has a culture of not only providing free breakfast and lunch (andThe screenplay is everything. producer Eugene took a chainsaw to it, sometimes dinner), but also of keeping a FEBRUARY 2018 NewcityAnd nothing. And everything. bringing it down to seventy-three pages craft services table stocked with junk in a week. Reeder rewrote parts of it food like potato chips and candy. Since 21 When we were looking for a project that every day as we shot. The finished movie producers often stand around talking to would be the ideal “Chicago film project,” retains much of the DNA of that first others, problem solving, planning, and so we read a lot of scripts. We even pursued script, but only some. Its final form on, much of that junk food might end up one or two only to hit walls built by reflects the evolutionary vision of the in your stomach. I gained ten pounds on lawyers rather than writers. But when screenwriters, plus the imprint of the set in less than a month.“Signature Move” came in, I fell right away. director, as well as all those situational Not so much for the story itself, but for improvisations made in the heat of And then, you get your picture taken. On the characters—a Pakistani Muslim production. And it’s better for all of that. set, in behind-the-scenes photos. And family and a Mexican family, all here in then at festivals and premieres, where Chicago. I liked the accessibility of the Diversity behind the step-and-repeat backdrops and story, which had the potential to reach a camera is harder to achieve photographers are part and parcel of the wider audience. And Jan (for she had the than in front of it. process. All the while, you’re thinking, “I ultimate greenlight authority as she had wish I was ten pounds lighter.” to want to do anything as much as I did) Recent Hollywood conversation has and I both were charmed by Fawzia focused on leading roles for people of No matter how well you prepare, Mirza’s presence in the web series and color, reacting to the lack thereof things will go wrong on set. short films that Eugene had sent along (remember #OscarsSoWhite?), it’s not with the script. We believed Fawzia hard once you decide that an onscreen Although the issues around getting would become a big star. role could be, or should be, someone Shabana Azmi to set were the most who is not white to work with a casting stressful and dramatic, there were other Fawzia had written the script with Lisa agent to achieve it. But it takes constant moments of truth. Most notable was the Donato; when it was submitted to us at focus to do the same with many of the loss of our most challenging location, the Chicago Film Project, it was eighty-seven crew roles. (And this applies to women set for our “underground women’s pages. As we pushed along, as well as POC; there is a dearth of wrestling club.” For this, we needed a brainstorming on the story, Fawzia and female gaffers, for example.) On warehouse-type environment with high Lisa kept revising. And lengthening the “Signature Move,” where our fellow ceilings: the wrestling ring took up space script. It’s a rule of thumb that one producers were Eugene Sun Park, an in all three dimensions. We’d looked into printed page of script equals one minute Asian-American man, and Fawzia Mirza, all kinds of places, from arts-oriented of screen time, but that’s based on a Pakistani Muslim lesbian, we warehouse spaces to rock clubs like The traditional dialogue-driven movies of the unambiguously made inclusive crew Bottom Lounge, which already hosted a studio system. It’s even less if there’s a lot regular wrestling program. Adding to the challenge was that, as a small indie film, we didn’t have money for locations. So I worked my relationships around town. Eventually we settled on Mana Contemporary, a colossal former ComEd facility on the Near South Side. We’d

have to build an entire imaginary Knox could not have been a better place norms were indeed wasteful. Fortunately, environment there, and bring in as many to shoot. We even went back there when on an ultra-low-budget indie, you’re extras as we could muster. This would be the film was finished to throw the talking about dollars in the hundreds, not the most challenging scenes to create opening-night party. millions. and film. And then, on August 9, with filming already underway at another Generosity is a Chicago trait. The old model for indie film is location, I got an apologetic text from my broken. contact there. They were not able to do it The city is filled with people like the folks after all. We had ten days to lock in at Fort Knox. People like Carmen Noriega, Over the last twenty years or so, a model another place. who had been renovating a two-flat in for independent filmmaking developed Humboldt Park for more than a year, was and went something like this: raise the I’d met Kent Nielsen, the co-owner of the finishing up and ready to move in. She money, make your film, finish it to the Fort Knox music studio and incubator instead allowed us to use both point of being “festival ready.” Get into space a year earlier, at a Lollapalooza apartments for our film, and pushed her the best festival possible, and sell it to a event where Tony Fitzpatrick introduced move-in and rental of the second distributor. Or shelve it (i.e. get an us. In my role as Newcity editor, I try to apartment back a month. Or like the aggregator to throw it onto iTunes for check out as many things like this in the numerous local businesses who opened you) and move on to the next one. If you arts world, with no specific agenda or themselves up to us and the great had name cast, you might be able to story planned, with the belief that you inconvenience of working around a film pre-sell it in foreign territories before you can never know when it might be helpful. crew. Or the numerous extras who even shoot it, and lock in recoupment of So I accepted Kent’s invitation to visit showed up and volunteered their time your investment. And so on. Fort Knox and check it out. I then canceled on him twice, when more pressing issues surfaced. Finally, I decided I could not in good conscience cancel again, even though July, a month before we started our movie, was not a good time. I was amazed at what I saw on my tour. PHOTO: REBECCA CIPRIUS Fort Knox was a musician’s dream, with nicely appointed, secure practice spaces for rent, recording studios, an incubator called 2112 in the process of rolling out and a big warehouse space for production of music videos and events called The Hangar. I mentally filed it away and went back to business as usual. This serendipitous visit could not have been better timed when Mana fell through. I sent Kent a text to see if they and sometimes special skills, like our Although the multimillion-dollar sales at Sundance, like “The Big Sick” and “Call would be up for us shooting there and he friend Carol Saller, who’d played a skater Me By Your Name,” get most of the attention, the truth is that the vast said come on over. We scheduled a site in The New Colony’s production of majority of films, if they get distribution offers at all, are given low or no minimum visit before the next day’s filming and “Down and Derby” and came out when guarantee (MG) of return and no consumer marketing commitment (P&A, headed over. We met Rob Tovar, The we needed roller-skating vendors at our short for “prints and advertising” in industry parlance), meaning they’re Hangar’s director, and he showed us make-believe nightclub. glorified DIY deals that exchange a substantial share of the movie’s lifetime around. He mentioned that it would be a revenue for routine mechanical things like getting digital files ready and out bit more complicated because they’d just If someone says, “That’s how it’s onto platforms. suffered a fire and a subsequent flood done in the film business” or that week that had gutted the incubator some such thing, protect your With “Signature Move,” we were always and done a fair bit of damage. In spite of wallet. prepared to DIY it if the big-sale-at- this, they were still up for hosting our festival scenario didn’t work out. We did not get into Sundance, but did get intoNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 shoot. SXSW, one of the top four North American film festivals. We got A recurring motif in the making of distribution offers, but most did not It turned out to be much better than “Signature Move”: We’d question expected. We liked shooting there so something unusual, usually something much that we extended our stay and excessively wasteful or financially canceled another location that was unaccountable, and someone barely presenting its own scheduling challenges, more experienced in filmmaking would converting the other side of the colossal respond, “Welcome to the movie space into the wrestling gym where our business” or “That’s how it’s done in the main character trains. Our misfortune film business.” In every case, our initial22 turned out to be our good fortune. Fort instincts were right, and the accepted

PHOTO: RACHEL GOLDBERG that they do have some special needs. Unlike the rest of us, every move they make is vulnerable to the frightening familiarity of strangers. Privacy is precious and scarce. Nothing illuminated this for me more than Shabana Azmi’s appearance at our theatrical run at the Music Box. A hundred people had spent a hundred dollars each to see the film and then go to a small private reception where they could take a picture with her. In her presence, many of these affluent professionals lost their composure, pushing their way into photos, shoving mobile phones in front of others waiting in line, and generally making a powerful case for aggressive crowd control around celebrities. Eventually, it got to be too much and she left the event.include even MGs, and those that did option alone cost us $35,000 or so to In spite of Netflix, the theatricalincluded neither a theatrical commitment exercise, that consumed all the Amazon experience is still special.nor any P&A, and they seemed especially money and some of our festival exhibitionunattractive in the light of the blanket fees. (After SXSW we’d turned the film Coming out of SXSW, the best offer weoffer Amazon made to stream on their over to the nonprofit The Film turned down, from Gravitas, included anplatform exclusively for two years for a Collaborative to handle further festival MG but no plan for theatrical. They didcash bonus and a larger payout of the distribution. They booked us into more not see “Signature Move” as a theatricalstreaming royalties. We’d lucked out, as than a hundred festivals and generated film. They were happy to let us do itAmazon Video Direct launched this new revenues in the low five figures for us, a ourselves, but cautioned we’d have toprogram at Sundance in 2017. Its second welcome and unexpected revenue spend close to $100,000 on marketingiteration took place at the SXSW festival stream.) and four-walling (theater rental) to do it. Ia few months later where we had our love my Peak TV like everyone else, but apremiere. The other and more critical mistake was movie is not a movie if it does not play in that we’d not budgeted for any theaters. It’s a special and differentWe took the Amazon deal, which meant consumer-facing marketing. The reality is experience than even the finest home-we retain all theatrical, transactional VOD that when you hear about a classic entertainment system. And from arights (like iTunes) in the US and Canada, Sundance fiscal legend like “Napoleon business standpoint, our culture still doesand all rights in the rest of the world. We Dynamite” being made in 2004 for not pay attention to movies that don’thad much more control over our own $400,000 and generating nearly $45 play in theaters. Publications like this onedestiny. (And correspondingly, much million box office (not to mention tons rarely review them, fewer awards aremore work to do.) more on DVD, streaming, etc.), a available to them, and marketing distributor has put up as much as ten becomes one-hundred-percent paidThis meant turning Newcity into a film times the budget for P&A—for marketing. versus “earned.” (Netflix is learning thisdistributor as well as a producer, two Nothing you can do if you make a bad with releases like “Mudbound,” highlymajor transformations rather than the film, but a good film, like ours, can be regarded but hardly recognized byone we’d planned, but I’m much more handcuffed by a lack of adequate awards groups.)comfortable controlling our future in an marketing support.industry in a state of disruption rather I believed that we could do a successfulthan handing it off to a glorified service Movie stars are people too, even theatrical run. We would not four-wallprovider who would almost certainly lock if they scare the hell out of you. anywhere, which meant  that theatersin a loss for our investors. would have to book us in partnership or, in rare cases, pay us an exhibition fee. IThis, though, meant we’d made two major After you’ve been in the business for a went to work on a booking in New York FEBRUARY 2018 Newcitymistakes in our planning. One, in getting minute, you hear stories. “So-and-so City, and reached out to the Music Boxthe film festival-ready, we’d only secured celebrity is crazy and almost destroyed Theatre, Chicago’s premier house to play 23music rights for a year. The Amazon deal, the movie”; “Such-and-such is so much a film like ours. After weeks of beating myor anything else for that matter, meant more a diva than you’d expect, our head against the New York City wall, Iwe’d need to lock them in for perpetuity. budget for cappuccino makers in her came up with a new strategy. We’d focusThough we’d thankfully negotiated this trailer and on set almost broke us.” The all our energies on Chicago, and see if weoption up front, we’d done so with the reality is that they’re just people; some could do enough business our openingassumption that some distributor MG are assholes, some are mensches, just weekend to at least get noticed by thewould cover the tariff; instead, when the like the rest of us. The only difference is national trade outlets that report on the

weekend’s box office. Maybe then I could pedigree with our SXSW launch and Sometimes magic happens. lock down a New York City (and L.A.) highly positive reviews from two major theatrical run. Our entire team poured newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and At least it seems kind of magical now. everything we could into our Chicago run, the Chicago Sun-Times. And now we Then, not so much. Our final day of around which we structured special were the number-one film in the country. shooting was one of our longest and events. On Thursday night, Shabana It would be journalistically irresponsible busiest with three locations, culminating Azmi would be in town via the South to ignore us. And I’m a journalist! in a night scene of our two leads making Asian Film Festival and would be out on the lakefront, a scene that takes available to us, so we’d build a screening They ignored us, and the lack of attention place on their first date in the movie. around her, along with a VIP meet-and- killed us in New York, at least compared We’d secured permission to shoot on the greet, targeting Chicago’s South Asian to our Chicago run. Fortunately, Laemmle peninsula that connects Adler community. Friday would be our big red Theatres in Los Angeles is giving us a Planetarium to the Shedd Aquarium, one carpet theatrical premiere—Thursday chance, and we open our final theatrical of the great views of the city, if not the was officially only a preview— with an run at their Music Hall in Beverly Hills on greatest. And since we’d be shooting on imaginative and elaborate after-party. We February 9. Los Angeles media is in the a Sunday night after 9pm, we expected it had two events on Saturday, and then midst of a well-publicized state of chaos, to be nice and quiet, a perfectly pastoral two others, on Monday and on Tuesday. but at least they can’t blame enough lead place to shoot an intimate scene, and a time. And we’re going to do everything sweet spot to finish shooting the film. We sold out Music Box’s 700-plus-seat we can to make L.A. a version of our theater on Friday and did great numbers Chicago experience. So after a smooth day of shooting in all weekend. By Saturday, our Little Village, we loaded up our opening weekend box office was PHOTO: MARY JACOBSEN trucks and piled into cars and already surpassed $18,000, which I headed for the lakefront. When we knew would place us near the top arrived, we discovered the opposite when the trades came out. I made of pastoral. The access road going sure our numbers were reported out toward the planetarium was and went to bed Saturday night, bumper-to-bumper, with cars barely looking forward to Sunday’s reports moving. What the heck was going and the call to action they would on? Swarms of people were instigate. everywhere; it must be some huge event, like a concert on the scale of On Sunday, Deadline.com’s the massive eclipse gathering that specialty box office report came out would take place there the following and we were nowhere to be found. summer. Eventually, we arrived at This in spite of the fact that our our designated spot along the $18,873+ handily beat their planetarium’s south side and anointed winner “Take Every Wave” managed, thanks to producers and at $13,819. Indiewire made the same PAs standing in parking spaces, to mistake. I mobilized in a different get our trucks situated. We asked way, tracking down the reporters some of the crowd what was and pointing out their mistake. I happening. Pokemon Go. A special don’t know how they missed us, but event around the mobile game, before long they’d corrected the which was then at the peak of its reports and put us on top: we were seemingly nonsensical public the number-one movie in America our obsession? No, it seems that the Adler opening weekend on a per-theater In the end, the art is a very small was just some kind of hot spot, an average. part of filmmaking. It’s mostly elevated get. These were just routine running a small business. game players. The strategy worked. On Monday, I reached out to all my New York contacts Fortunately we were able to find a with the news, and Village East in reasonably quiet spot along the lakefront Manhattan’s East Village offered us a Making a film is glorious fun. It’s a huge and, equally fortunately, we had no week, but it was less than two weeks collaborative undertaking, and being on dialogue in the scene and were not away. set is a whirlwind. But the whole thing is recording sound. We got our final shots,Newcity FEBRUARY 2018 a business and the art is only the product and discreetly poured out champagne for This was a concern but, as a journalist, I design and prototype manufacturing part the cast and crew (police cars were all was confident we’d get reviewed. Though of the process. There’s financing, over the place, thanks to the crowds). critics ae overtaxed by the number of budgeting, hiring, contracting (oh, the When you see the movie, you’ll see a openings, especially in New York City, legal fees and paperwork!), marketing beautiful romantic quiet scene with city and would have to make a special effort, and distribution. And so on. The future of lights glowing in the foreground, with no how could they practice good journalism indie film is going to rely on a breed of idea whatsoever that a world of insanity and not do so? After all, we were not only producers able to manage the whole is taking place right behind it. a woman-directed film about Muslims process. and Mexicans in the time of Trump, but24 we had already garnered a strong

The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design rts & CultureAt the Driehaus Museum. February 10-August 12Designed and manufactured by Vivian Beer (b. 1977), Penland, NC. “Current,” 2004. / Photo: Douglas J. Eng

26 Newcity FEBRUARY

ArtEdra Soto, Installation view of \"Open 24 Hours\" at the MCA Commons, Winter 2017-18 Poppin' Bottles museum goers to view, handle or, if they want, decorate them during regular workshops with The MCA Opens Up for the Common Good the artist. Housing the bottles in these structures turns lowbrow detritus of the urban ByLee Ann Norman poor into highbrow museum art. Playing on the connotations of public access, public Museums have long grappled with the Classes, workshops, lectures, talks, gatherings boulevards and late-night stops at the corner FEBRUARY vagaries of visitor engagement. In a diverse— and other public events are now centered store, “Open 24 Hours” brings attention to and indeed, divided—city like Chicago, there is visibly at the building's core, so that the casual themes of equity and access, joy and despair, no one-size- ts-all exhibition nor a magic museumgoer or visitor to the new, adjacent civic responsibility, neighborliness, and social formula for creating programs that everyone will cafe-restaurant Marisol might be enticed to perception in a downtown setting more want to see.The Museum of Contemporary participate in the action. Aptly, Chicago’s Edra accustomed to concealing these contrasts Art’s new social space, dubbed “The Com- Soto has inaugurated the curatorial element of than highlighting them. mons,” offers a compelling vision for what’s the Commons with a showing of her ongoing possible when resources and resolve are put to project, called “Open 24 Hours,” part-installa- Soto developed the installation after realizing opening up the museum. tion, part-workshop, part-mixtape. how much litter she collected each day on walks in her neighborhood, picking up from two In the last ve years, the MCA has extended its For the installation, Soto shelved glass bottles to fteen empty liquor bottles each time. Newcity reach into spaces beyond the museum’s in custom-made cabinets bearing her signature Chicago’s predominantly black and Latino West physical footprint as a way to rethink engage- \"graft\" constructions, which use Latin American Side communities have historically been neglect- ment, but with its site redesign and expansion, rejas patterns in differing con gurations. Green, ed, from inconsistent city services like public the focus has returned to considering the brown and clear, the natural hues of the glass trash pickup and street cleaning, to a scarcity of museum as the hub of creative and communal synecdochically recall their sources, picked off grocery stores lled by corner stores, known space. Designed by the Mexican design team the ground by Soto over the course of two colloquially as the “Food and Liquor.” Soto’s Pedro y Juana, the Commons seeks to years in her neighborhood of East Gar eld Park. focus on the care and attention given to public integrate the museum’s art, dining, public and Once vessels for beer and liquor, the now-pris- space that can be accessed at any time—such educational programming into a single area. tine bottles sit in groupings on shelves, allowing as the green space dividing her boulevard— highlight the neglect poor neighborhoods face. 27

ART TOP 5 Performance for Edra Soto's \"Open 24 Hours\" at the MCA Commons, Winter 2017-18Newcity FEBRUARY 2018 1 In This House. Soto’s fascination first manifested as photo own Puerto Rican heritage, the island’s African Elmhurst Art Museum. documentation. She cleaned the bottles and diaspora and the legacy of American colonial A collaborative group show scrubbed them of their identifying labels, then presence. Her programs have brought together curated by Michelle Grabner arranged them as still lifes. Through research, heavy metal and Puerto Rican bomba music; in the museum's iconic she learned that cognac was introduced into slam poetry and theater, as well as drinkers Mies-designed McCormick American black communities during the and nondrinkers alike, with artists such as House. World Wars when soldiers were stationed in Damon Locks, Sadie Woods, Chin-Ting Huang, France, a nation that had long been more Susan Snodgrass and Alberto Aguilar. Felicia 2  David Schalliol and welcoming of black people and culture, in Holman shared her experiences with alcohol, Justine Pluvinage. stark contrast to the social and political her fondness for cognac, our discard culture Hyde Park Art Center. Two environment at home. Jazz music and black and notions of community, while Mykele Deville artists debut works made performers were embraced and celebrated, and Jeffrey Michael Austin developed poetry during a residency exchange and black soldiers received a warm reception and performance that directly incorporate with France's Centre Régional by extension. In turn, they embraced visitor contributions. February’s programs de la Photographie. elements of French culture, including a habit include a discussion and performance by for cognac. Since the 1990s, the liquor has Jefferson Pinder examining violence in Chicago 3 Paint the Eyes seen a resurgence in black communities, and the idea of the museum as a safe space, Softer: Mummy emerging again in popular culture through and Alexandria Eregbu reinterpreting Louis Portraits from Roman Egypt. references in hip-hop and rap lyrics. Armstrong and Ralph Ellison. Culturally, alcohol Block Museum of Art. is used not only as a social lubricant but also Don't miss this rare glimpse of When the bottles are cleaned, stripped of their as a form of self-medication or escape, and ancient funerary portraits from branded labels and displayed in the cabinets Soto’s programming provides an effective Egypt's Roman era. lining the periphery of the Commons, Soto also platform for reflection on questions about our strips their social stigma. They are no longer relationship to these impulses. 4 Jeffrey Grauel. signs of addiction, low-class taste, dereliction Chicago Artists Coalition. or despair. Their connotations are redefined Remaining responsive and nimble is a great New works by Grauel feature further when workshop participants decorate challenge for today’s contemporary art shag rugs and wooden them. During the workshops, volunteers young museums. If the institution is unable or sculptures on the theme of the and not-so-young create clay seashells from unwilling to create a space that hosts the \"public school.\" ceramic tabletop molds—a product of Soto’s cultural richness of the artists in its community, residency at Sheboygan's John Michael Kohler the rest doesn’t matter; engagement is not 5 Outside the Practice. Arts Center this summer—to adorn the bottles. possible. Bringing colonial legacies, cognac Bridgeport Art Center. Before participating, visitors are asked to sign a and rejas, and conversations about neglected Chicago architects and contract that outlines the requirements for public spaces into the museum create an designers, freed from participation: to be respectful of the materials, opportunity for visitors to examine precon- constraints of their professional to engage with the artist and her assistant, and ceived notions about people who are treated practices. either return to pick up the bottle they as less important, and places that they may not decorated at the end of the exhibition or agree believe are open to them. With “Open 24 28 to donate it to another visitor. Volunteers are Hours,” Soto has opened a space where also encouraged to answer questions about complexity can be held and the two might their experience of the exhibition, and meet. It’s not a magic bullet, but it is an responses reveal that feelings about home, approach the museum should continue to community and difference are complicated. explore as it works to become a site for the entire community. In addition to weekend workshops, Soto has curated programs and events that acknowl- Edra Soto’s “Open 24 Hours” is open until edge the social histories of black communities February 24 at the Museum of Contemporary in Chicago, as well as make connections to her Art, 220 East Chicago Avenue.

FEBRUARY 2018 Newcity 29

EXHIBITIONSANDREW BAE GALLERY DEPAUL ART MUSEUM300 W. Superior Street At DePaul University312 335 8601 935 W. Fullerton [email protected] / www.andrewbaegallery.com 773 325 7506Tues-Sat 10-6 [email protected] / museums.depaul.eduJanuary 3–February 28 Winter Exhibition: Permanent Gallery Artists Mon-Tues closed, Wed–Thurs 11-7, Fri–Sun 11-5 January 11–March 25 Barbara Jones-Hogu: Resist, Relate,BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART Unite 1968-1975At Northwestern University January 11–March 25 Jose Guerrero, Presente: A Memorial40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL847 291 4000 Print [email protected] / www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu January 11–March 25 Rock, Paper, Image: Lithographs byTues, Sat–Sun 10-5, Wed–Fri 10-8, Mon closedJanuary 13–June 24 Experiments in Form: Sam Gilliam, Alan Shields, Clinton Adams and June Wayne from the Belverd and Marian Needles Collection Frank StellaJanuary 13–April 22 Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits LINDA WARREN PROJECTS from Roman Egypt 327 N. Aberdeen, Ste. 151Through March 11 William Blake and The Age of Aquarius 312 432 9500 [email protected] / www.lindawarrenprojects.comCARL HAMMER GALLERY Tues–Sat 11-5 or by private appointment January 20–March 3 Gallery Y - Eric Finzi: Various Contrivances740 N. Wells Street January 20–March 3 Gallery X & O - Philip J. Capuano:312 266 [email protected] / www.carlhammergallery.com Ceramic PerspectiveTues–Fri 11-6, Sat 11-5Through February 24 New Work/Familiar Faces: Group Show LOGAN CENTER EXHIBITIONSMarch 2–May 5 Mary Lou Zelazny - VIVARIUM: New Paintings At the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 773 702 2787 [email protected] / www.arts.uchicago.edu Tues–Sat 9-9, Sun 11-9, Mon closed January 26–March 11 Mike Cloud: The Myth of Education

MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY RICHARD GRAY GALLERY2154 W. Division Street Richard Gray Gallery, Hancock: 875 N. Michigan Avenue, 38th Floor773 252 0299 Mon–Fri 10-5:30, Sat [email protected] / www.moniquemeloche.com Gray Warehouse: 2044 W. Carroll AvenueTues–Sat 11-6 Wed–Sat By appointment onlyJanuary 20–February 24 Winter Experiment: Dan Gunn, 312 642 8877 [email protected] / www.richardgraygallery.com Kate Levant, Ebony G. Patterson, Cheryl Pope, December 2017–March 2018 Gallery Selections and Karen Reimer (Richard Gray Gallery, Hancock)THE MUSEUM OFCONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY SCHINGOETHE CENTERAt Columbia College Chicago of Aurora University600 S. Michigan Avenue 1315 Prairie Street, Aurora, IL312 663 5554 630 844 [email protected] / www.mocp.org [email protected] / www.aurora.edu/museumMon–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5 Mon 10-4, Tues 10-7, Wed–Fri 10-4January 18–April 1 Traversing the Past: Adam Golfer, January 23–April 5 RICK BARTOW: Things You Know But Diana Matar, Hrvoje Slovenc Cannot ExplainTHE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY SMART MUSEUM OF ARTAt the University of Chicago At the University of Chicago5811 S. Ellis Ave., Cobb Hall, 4th Floor 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue773 702 8670 773 702 [email protected] / www.renaissancesociety.org [email protected] / www.smartmuseum.uchicago.eduTues–Fri 10-5, Sat–Sun 12-5 Tues–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sun 10-5February 3–4 Intermissions: Gordon Hall (please visit website for times) Through April 22 The History of PerceptionFebruary 17–April 8 Unthought Environments Through Spring Emmanuel Pratt: Radical [Re]Constructions

DanceNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 The Dancer In DANCE TOP 5 Doug Varone and Dancers in \"Boats Leaving\" at Jacob's Pillow. Photo: Hayim Heron.Every Pedestrian 1 American Ballet Theatre. Doug Varone and Dancers return to Chicago after Seventeen Years Harris Theater. The preeminent ballet company of these United By Sharon Hoyer States performs two programs, for the rst time, at the Harris Theater. \"Humanity\" is a term popularly used to weaned on MGM musicals so I’m a huge fan of February 22-25 describe the work of choreographer Doug Fred Astaire and the extraordinary way he Varone. Varone is an internationally acclaimed moved in and out of being an amazing dancer 2 Brodsky/Baryshnikov. director of dance and opera and his New and a human soul that could walk down the Harris Theater. The legendary York-based company, Doug Varone and street with great ease. I think as a young child dancer's one-man testament to the Dancers, marks its thirtieth anniversary this that stayed with me, and has infused my work of his friend and Russian year with a tour that includes the Dance Center vocabulary from day one, this idea that we can Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky. of Columbia College—their rst visit to be great dancers with pedigree and infuse it February 3-4 Chicago since 2001. The program includes a with the human beings that we are. The solo rare performance by Varone in a companion from 1987 was the rst time I felt I could 3 Doug Varone and Dancers. piece to a solo he danced in 1987, and the achieve that in movement vocabulary and it’s Dance Center of Columbia moving ensemble piece \"Boats Leaving.\" something I’ve mined for the past thirty years. College. Includes a rare onstage \"Boats\" was crafted from a collage of images When Jacob’s Pillow asked me to create a appearance by Varone in celebration Varone gathered from newspaper photographs, new solo I thought it was the perfect opportu- of his New York-based company's and became a compassionate and timeless nity to revisit a Chopin nocturne as an artist thirtieth anniversary. February 8-10 portrait of the compassion and resiliency of whose vocabulary has solidi ed and whose community. We spoke with Varone about the approach to musicality has changed greatly. 4 The Way You Look (at me) program via phone. The juxtaposition between the two solos—the Tonight. MCA Stage. A rst which feels very broad in scope and the collaboration between Could you tell me a little about the new second which feels immensely detailed—is disability culture activist Claire solo you'll be performing? really extraordinary. The rst is much harder to Cunningham and choreographer In 1987 I was just starting out (and I had hair) dance though there’s less movement in it; the Jess Curtis explores how we and I started a progress of building a vocabulary second, because it percolates in my body in perceive others, through dance, text for myself. My vocabulary is built on the idea what I can do as a dancer now, feels much and original music. February 8-11 that there’s a dancer in every pedestrian. I was more at home. 5 Joffrey Ballet. Auditorium Theatre. A repertory program of works by modern and contemporary masters, from Balanchine to Blanc. February 7-1832

What does that say, do you think? they are on stage instead of something else. I over the course of having a company forPersonally, and about your approach to encourage it; very often it’s about directionless thirty years is that every company membermovement with the company? directing, being able to cultivate community on needs to have a place within the community,I de nitely feel as I’ve matured as a choreogra- stage that’s as real as the community of artists so I encourage individuality in all of mypher. My sense of detail, of form, of structure, who created the work, so there’s a truth in dancers. I allow them to live in the work as ifof musicality have all become more re ned. I how they present themselves and in turn it was created on them, to make choices thattry, with a greater sense of purpose, to look for there’s a truth to how they present the work. feel as if they are right in the moment and arewhat’s within a movement instead of what’s on right for them, then direct them in terms oftop of it. I think that’s true in the group work That sense of community is a central what the original choreography is so there’s aand the solo work I do. I think it’s also theme in “Boats Leaving.” In the short meeting point. They have ownership over thesomething that comes with being an artist at documentary about the making of the roles they step into, but t into the frameworksixty versus being an artist at thirty. The things work, dancers talk about the communal of the choreography. Which I think is maybe athat de ne us are life experience and the spirit and deep emotional connection they little unique. I don’t press steps into existencethings I’ve gone through in the last thirty years had to that piece. for people.have in uenced the choices that I make. It stayed in our repertory for a while, but in the last year or so a lot of presenters have asked And what a lovely way to preserve repertoryA lot of reviews speak of the humanity in for it. There’s a beautiful sense of timelessness and yet have authenticity in performance.your performances—and your mission and healing in terms of what we’re going It’s one of the things I love about the art form.statement refers to this as well. One thing through in the world right now. In our darkest And it can also destroy a work. But what Ithat strikes me is the feeling that the moments we can rise together. love about it is that every time they step onmovement comes from a very sincere and the stage it’s a new piece; it lives a differentaffectless place. How do you cultivate The story of the source material and life. I don’t know if you get that in any otherthat sense of openness and presence in how you built it is fascinating. And in it art form. I love going back to works weyour dancers? is the idea of communities growing and created in the past and recreate them in newI think it’s directed by non-direction. I’ve changing—people entering and leaving. company members and have those piecesalways been averse to performative dance and I’m curious; how do you teach this to live new—as the artist I am today and theI really believe in the honesty of being on new dancers who didn’t go through the dancers they are today.stage—the word “being” being key. If there’s a process of creating the piece fromcharacter to imbue that it is at the very heart of scratch? At the Dance Center of Columbia College,the performer as opposed to something Very often the dancer who is leaving the com- 1306 South Michigan, (312)369-8330.placed on top of the movement. It’s a hard pany teaches the role and passes the Thursday-Saturday, February 8-10. $30.thing for dancers sometimes, to become who information on. One of the things I’ve learned Tickets: colum.edu/dancecenterpresents. February 13-July 10, 2018 A monthly dance workshop series • Second Tuesdays • 6:30-8:00pm February 13: Kizomba Embodying Diaspora is a workshop series FEBRUARY 2018 Newcity March 13: Rumba that centers on Afro-diasporic movement April 10: Orisha traditions, led by Artist-in-Residence Arif May 8: Rueda de Casino Smith and guests. June 12: Bomba July 10: Eskista Smith’s residency prioritizes embodiment and co-presence as strategies for exploring Arts Incubator linkages between various coordinates in 301 E Garfield Blvd the Black Atlantic. Chicago, IL 60637 Free and open to the public. All skill levels are welcome. Please wear comfortable clothes. For more information, please contact Nikki Patin at [email protected]. 33APL-Embodying-NewCity-Feb2018-HalfPgAd.indd 1 1/18/18 4:06 PM

It’s time to register for Spring programs with the Chicago Park District! “Many choreographers Online registration begins: can create interesting Monday, February 26 at 9AM movement; few can for parks WEST of California Ave. (2800 W.) make it mean so much.” Tuesday, February 27 at 9AM Chicago Tribune for parks EAST of California Ave. (2800 W.) Doug Varone and Dancers In-Person registration begins: Saturday, March 3 for most parks. Repertory including Nocturne(s), Boats Leaving, Some parks begin Monday, March 5 Folded (a duet from in the shelter in the Fold) and Lux February 8, 9, and 10, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. For more information visit: Single tickets $30 Regular / $24 Seniors / $10 Students Activities start the week of April 2 for most programs. Subscribe and save 25% Please note: registration dates vary for gymnastics centers as colum.edu/dancecenterpresents well as Morgan Park Sports Center & McFetridge Sports Center. Find us on MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL STAY CONNECTE D. Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners Michael P. Kelly, General Superintendent & CEONewcity FEBRUARY 2018 The Sleeping Beauty (La Belle) MARCH 3–4, 2018 SAVE $10* WHEN YOU USE CODE: NEWCITY :: AuditoriumTheatre.org :: 312.341.2300 DENISE International Dance Sponsor THE THEATRE FOR THE PEOPLE 50 E Congress Pkwy | Chicago, IL LITTLEFIELD SOBEL Presenting Sponsor *Available in price levels 1 through 4. Subject to availability and not available on previous purchased tickets. | Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo in La Belle, photo by Alice Blangero.34

DesignPain, Pleasure DESIGN TOP 5and Desire 1 The Art of Seating: 200“The Master and Form” at the Graham Foundation Years of American Design. Driehaus Museum Thirty-sevenBy Philip Berger state-of-the-art American chairs created between 1810 and 2010View of \"Brendan Fernandes: The Master and Form,\" in development, 2017, Graham Foundation, Chicago. highlight history, hand-craftsman-Dancer: Leah Upchurch / Photo and rendering: Norman Kelley ship and ornamentation of eras past. Opens February 10When Sarah Herda, executive director of personal. Yet more than anything, it presentsthe Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies another instance of the Graham Foundation’s 2 Design Dialogues:in the Fine Arts, irreverently refers to the support for work that promotes the interaction Building Up Bronzeville.institution as the “home for the dif cult arts,” of architecture and design with a host of other Chicago Architecture Foundation.she’s clearly joking. So although \"The Master visual and performing arts. “Not every The heart of Chicago’s legendaryand Form,\" which the foundation is hosting at important idea about architecture has to come “Black Metropolis,” is in the midstits Burton Place location through March, might from an architect,” says Herda. of an energetic revitalization.strike some observers as “dif cult,” other February 13descriptors—complex, cerebral, provocative— Currently artist-in-residence and faculty atseem more apt. Northwestern University in the Department of 3“The Chicago 7”: Chicago’s Art Theory and Practice, Fernandes is Most EndangeredIs it overly simplistic to suggest that most prodigiously productive. He’s got a huge CV Buildings List 2018 Edition.contemporary artwork is, at its core, about the and an impressive portfolio of exhibitions, Chicago Architecture Foundation.life of the artist? The most successful artists performance works and publications on his Preservation Chicago unveils its listare able to take those personal experiences website (brendanfernandes.ca). that identi es architecturallyand express them in a way that is accessible signi cant structures thatto others. \"The Master and Form\"—a He’s also kind of a one-man diversity initiative. preservationists hope to save frommulti-platform exhibition conceived and Born in Kenya to a family that traced its roots the wrecking ball. February 28executed by Brendan Fernandes in connection to Goa [the port city-state, formerly awith his tenure at the Graham’s most recent Portuguese colony, on the west coast of India], 4 Disoriented Objects.performance residency —is certainly mined his parents moved to British Columbia when Graham Foundation. Architectfrom the thirty-eight-year-old artist’s own life, he was nine. [Yes, he says “project” with a Jaffer Kolb, guest editor of Graham-re ecting his experience as a ballet dancer and long ‘“o”]. As would be t someone of such funded “Log 41,” discussesits impact on his perceptions of pain, pleasure varied background, his earliest work was “Working Queer.” February 1and desire. It’s very speci c and deeply mostly about racial, ethnic and national identity. 5 Indie Wed Chicago 2018. Ravenswood Event Center. The longest-running independent wedding show in the country brings together unique, eco-conscious, handcrafted, LGBT-friendly wedding artisans and professionals. February 3

With \"The Master and Form,\" he’s graduated goes into ballet,” he says. He’s trying to show with the work of the rm Norman Kelley from to work that he says is even more personal, “how movement techniques are recalled in the its contribution to the 2015 Chicago Architec- drawing on his own background as a dancer body via muscle memory.” ture Biennial, suggested Fernandes work with them on the design aspects of the show. Firm and its relation to power, pain and pleasure. Fernandes is exploring the ballet world’s principal Thomas Kelley worked with Fernandes not only to design the devices, but When he entered York University in Toronto, xation with the human body generally—the also the installation framework installed within the gallery spaces and the overall spatial Fernandes was intent on a career as a dancer, idealized perfection—but more speci cally the concepts of the installation. despite the fact “they never liked my feet,\" he feet, which are sometimes literally stretched says. A serious dance-related injury forced him beyond their limits. (Take a look at his piece, \"The Madlener House became a supporting \"Standing Leg,\" to get an idea of where he’s character to the overall design development,\" to give up that dream and he refocused on Kelley says. \"We designed the devices not only visual arts and performance, eventually earning coming from.) But \"The Master and Form\" is in reference to the dancers’ bodies, but also to his MFA from the University of Western Ontario much more than a simple static display of details and proportions of the house.” movement apparatus. At various scheduled Fernandes says that, by themselves, i.e. while in addition to his BFA from York. His career not in use by the dancers—the devices will times during the run of the exhibition, dancers take on a different quality in the installation thrived in Canada and he lived in New York spaces, like a “sculptural garden within the will work on the devices as elements of house.\" before arriving in Chicago last year for his performance pieces that Fernandes has On a more conceptual level, says Fernandes, position at Northwestern. \"The Master and Form\" is about power. It choreographed. depicts what he admits is a somewhat clichéd depiction of the relationship between the ballet In \"The Master and Form,\" Fernandes draws One issue raised by nearly every exhibition master and his or her dancers—often cruel and tyrannical, with connotations of indenture on his training and experience in ballet, (if not outright slavery) and in icted pain. These focusing on its rigors, precision and formalism, mounted at the Graham Foundation is its are universal themes of master and servant. relation to the architecture of the building that Yet Fernandes says he intends the work to in distinction from modern dance. “Ballet convey the beauty and pleasures of ballet is the foundation’s home—a sumptuous dancing as well as its painful aspects. “It’s like dancers can’t improvise,” says Fernandes, evil juxtaposed with the ethereal, romantic Prairie-style mansion built in 1902, designed nature of ballet.” \"because they’re too xated on an ideal by architects Richard E. Schmidt and Hugh M. performance.\" G. Garden. Its rich materials, grand propor- The show features objects that Fernandes tions and ne decoration pose substantial refers to generally as “devices.” They are appa- challenges to mounting such a show, in a space that is so architecturally distinctive. ratus that help ballet dancers to achieve elements of that ideal performance: physical The foundation’s performance residency stances and positions that the speci c program invites practitioners working in a wide choreographies of ballet require but that range of disciplines to expand architectural perhaps their own bodies can’t achieve discourse and work directly with the physical unassisted. “I’m interested in showing the spaces of Madlener House. Herda, familiar athleticism and the grueling hard work thatNewcity FEBRUARY 201836

&DiDnirningkingTheItalian-AmericanSteakhouse How a Clerical Mistake Led to a Grand American Tradition By David Hammond Gene & Georgetti's familiar sign, photo Gene & GeorgettiImmigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century were Locally, you don’t have to look far to see that Italian-Americans and FEBRUARY 2018 Newcitymostly German, Irish, Scandinavian and British. But in the early part of steakhouses go together. In 2017, Torali Italian-Steak opened in thethe twentieth century, it was mostly Italians. Between 1900 and 1915, Ritz-Carlton and Gibson’s Italia went up in a swank tri-level near thethree million Italians immigrated to America, the largest nationality to Chicago River. Before that, there were many restaurants in Chicagocome to this country at the time. They brought their recipes with them. serving Italian and Italian-American dishes alongside the great American steak: Gene & Georgetti comes to mind, and even Harry Caray, theWith growing Italian communities in lower Manhattan and the Near South voice of Chicago White Sox and Cubs, gave his name to Harry Caray’sSide of Chicago, there was a yearning among immigrants for the foods of Italian Steakhouse. Italian food was likely a favorite of Harry’s, who wastheir homeland. Italian restaurants likely opened initially to serve born with the last name Carabina (his father was Italian).immigrants who knew the food. Inexpensive and tasty spaghetti andpizza soon caught on with a larger population. There are gustatory and historical reasons why there are so many Italian-American steakhouses and fewer, if any, German, Irish, Scandina-Italian food remains the most popular “ethnic” food in the United States, vian or British steakhouses.a country with a penchant for big cuts of red meat. It was just a matter oftime before the food of Italy and all-American beef came together. At the Italian Village Restaurant, where La Cantina specializes in steaks to complement the regular Italian chow, general manager Joseph DeiningerIn 1926, two Italian immigrants—Pio Bozzi and John Ganzi—wanted to believes “Germans are known for their pastries and sausage, while theopen a restaurant named after their hometown of Parma. The registry Irish specialize in grains and stews. Pork and meatballs are a specialty foroffice in New York City misunderstood their pronunciation, and so the Scandinavians, while seafood and meat-pies are staples in England.place was accidentally called The Palm. In the early days, the story Steak does not complement any of these food types, which may have togoes that whenever a customer ordered a steak, Bozzi or Ganzi would do with the lack of these types of steakhouses.”have to run out to buy one and quickly cook it up. Because customerskept asking for the meat, steak became a regular dish on the menu. Undeniably, meat and potatoes go together beautifully: the rich meatThe current menu at The Palm includes Italianate appetizers like and relatively bland starch balance each other well. Similarly, Italian food,calamari fritti and clams oreganata, and there’s a whole “Classic Italian” like pasta and sauce (or do you call it “gravy”?), pair perfectly with redside of the menu that serves chicken Parm, linguini and clams, and so meat. The red sauce provides bright acidity to cut through the fat of aon. The Palm was the prototype for Italian-American steakhouses in good steak. Add some cheese and you’ve upped the umami ante ofNew York as well as Chicago. your steak dinner. 37

DINING & DRINKING “In the United States, Italian cuisine is the most including rigatoni alla vodka, spaghetti and TOP 5 popular dining-out choice.\" n the opinion of meatballs, linguini and clams. The showstop- David “The Food Dude” Lissner, owner of per, however, is the eight-finger cavatelli. 1 Grand Chefs Experience. Chicago-based BestSteakRestaurant.com, and Cavatelli means “little caves” in Italian, and the Field Museum. Cystic a guy who knows something about steak. \"That pasta looks like little hotdog buns folded by fibrosis, a most worthy cause, makes pasta among the most popular side human hands (which, as you probably know, continues to get support from dishes. Our country was also blessed with an possess eight fingers). As at many Ital- Chicago chefs, who custom- abundant and inexpensive supply of quality ian-American steakhouses, the steak is curate food and drink for this beef, which may explain why we eat more beef primary, but the pasta runs a close second. annual black-tie-optional event. than any other country in the world.” February 2 192 East WaltonNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 2 Chicago Whiskey Historically, restaurateurs like the two Italians Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse, named Festival. Old Crow who started The Palm were responding to the best steakhouse in Chicago in the Chicago Smokehouse River North. market pressures: their American customers Tribune dining poll, serves Midwestern beef, It’s not easy pairing wines wanted steak, so The Palm stocked the meat to USDA prime, aged twenty-eight days. with barbeque, so go with the keep customers happy. It’s business, but also Alongside the big meats are some classic, and hard stuff—lots of it—including reflective of the impulse to assimilate that drove some not commonly seen dishes of Italian bourbon and Scotch. Italian Americans to serve the American public origin—at least in steakhouses—like the Italian February 3 whatever they wanted and to be, themselves, wedding soup, arancini, and classic antipasto as American as they could possibly be. platter. As a further nod to Italian heritage, the 3 Chinese Lunar New Year. restaurant is housed in the former mansion of Chinatown. Celebrate Chicago’s Union Stockyards may also have Frank Nitti, Capone enforcer. 33 West Kinzie the Year of the Dog by had something to do with the rise of Ital- watching the dragon parade ian-American steakhouses in Chicago. “Back Italian Village is a mainstay of Chicago’s and then gorge on a superb in the early 1900s,” Deininger says, \"Chicago Italian restaurant community. At La Cantina, selection of regional Chinese was a top beef supplier. The city also had the there are all steaks and chops that go so well cuisine, value-priced, at local third-largest population of Italian immigrants in with Italian chow. The chops are dressed with restaurants. February 25 the United States. As many Italians opened a distinctly Italianate flourish, including a their restaurants, focusing on steak made Vesuvio, oreganato and gorgonzola crust 4 World’s Largest Mardi sense as it was high-quality, easy to come by (blue-type cheeses seem to go particularly well Gras Bar Crawl. and affordable.” with beef and veal). With that, you’re going to Rush & Division district. want a side of pasta. 71 West Monroe TBeads, boas, booze, babes, There were market and cultural forces behind bros, Bud Light. You get the the growth of the Italian-American steakhouse, RPM Italian, produced in part by the Lettuce idea. February 25 but the main reason you often find steakhous- Entertain You empire, goes all-out on the es, even non-Italian-type steakhouses, serving pastas, featuring over a dozen house-made 5 Dark Beer Festival. Italian food with their red meat, is simple: the varieties, as well as fifteen cuts of steak. Among Emporium Arcade Bar. two taste good together. those cuts is bistecca Fiorentina, from the Come over to the Darkside to famous Chianina cattle, the legendary Tuscan sample and explore craft dark Some Outstanding Chicago Italian white breed, and one of the few kinds of beef beers. You may never drink Steakhouses you might want to order rare rather than Guinness again. February 25 medium rare, which is how pretty much Gene & Georgetti, opened in 1941, is the everyone except our chief executive, seems to 38 oldest steakhouse in Chicago. The place order their steak prepared. There are also has a presence unlike any other Italian Wagyu and Kobe varieties that you’d have a red-meat joint in the city. It’s a vibe you can’t hard time finding elsewhere in Chicago. The just design or buy into, one that comes with menu has worked so well they've opened RPM age, the countless famous and infamous Steak nearby at 66 West Kinzie. 52 West Illinois patrons who’ve passed through its doors, and time-tested servers who trot out the Gibson’s Italia is another overt declaration of beautiful meat (try the veal!). This iconic a steakhouse’s Italian affiliation, with the dishes Chicago restaurant also serves classic to back up the claim: zuppa di pesce, fresh Chicago dishes like Shrimp De Jonghe and ricotta and an Italian grain bowl are on the Chicken Vesuvio. On the regular menu, menu, and the red meat offerings include Italian dishes, in fact, outnumber steaks. Piedmontese beef with shaved Grana Padano There’s now a Gene & Georgetti location in cheese. But even at other Gibson’s locations Rosemont; it’s nice, but it ain’t the same as that do not call out “Italia” in the name, there the original. 500 North Franklin are dishes of Italian heritage including Chicken Milanese, giant white beans and Caprese Mirabella Italian Cuisine & Bar was started salad. 233 North Canal by a guy who once worked at Gene & Georgetti. This smaller Italian steakhouse, a Torali Italian-Steak is one a new addition to neighborhood favorite, located in a building Chicago Italian steakhouses, and its very that used to house a German restaurant name states the unabashed conjunction of the (Mirabell) is going all-out on Italian dishes, with Italian tradition and red meat. Inside it’s all starters like minestrone and lots of Italianate Italian leather and marble, sleek and modern. chicken dishes including Marsala, piccata, The pasta is house-made, and it’s served in Parmesan and Vesuvio. Of course, there’s Italian-American classics including three- much red meat. 3454 West Addison cheese tortelloni and spaghetti with meatball— that’s right, one meatball, seven ounces of it, Rosebud Steakhouse is the place my Italian which is way more Italian-American than aunts used to go. There’s a lot of pasta, European-Italian. 160 East Pearson

FILM TOP 5 Film Handle with Kehr1 Loveless. Andrey Zvya- gintsev’s latest permafrost Reading “Movies That Mattered” portrait of contemporary Russia is savage, engrossing and as By Ray Pride troubling as any recent work of art that contains a disappeared child. Face down in the street, newsprint What’s this guy trying to do? What are the Opens February 23 muddles, letterforms muddied, words animating tensions behind this thing? Is it2 Underground. Siskel. Emir blurred into something only slightly more asking a question or answering it?”) Kusturica’s long-neglected crazed carnivalesque of the history than nothing. Those pieces came and came again from of former Yugoslavia across fifty years after World War II returns in a Seeing pages from 1990s issues of Newcity 1975 and into the eighties, taken for granted digital restoration. February 3, 5, 7 melting away, my byline part of the street filth, weekly as part of Chicago’s vital sea of cinephilia. Taken for granted so much so3 Golden Exits. Alex Ross that image became essential to thinking of Perry’s latest pitched drama transient journalism; words, written, edited, that while Kehr’s shorter capsules are part of pits two familie in Brooklyn, with the Reader online database, the long pieces Emily Browning, Adam Horovitz, Mary-Louise Parker, Jason sat in piles of newsprint, kept from light of Schwartzman, Chloë Sevigny and Analeigh Tipton caught in day and readers’ eyes. Of the freedom he the equation and inevitable conflagrations. Opens February knew as a writer in those days, Kehr says,4 Bob le flambeur. Siskel. “The theory was that readers would pick up Romantic melancholy and killer storytelling clockwork the free papers anyway—if only for the crackle in Jean-Pierre Melville’s1955 masterpiece, in a new 4K music listings and the classified ads—so it restoration. February 23-25, 28, March 1 didn’t much matter if the cover story was a5 The Party. Siskel. Sally 50,000-word piece on beekeeping or if the Potter’s coolly choreo- graphed, hot-to-the-touch movie critic took a dim view of the latest dinner-party comedy is black- hearted farce eaten alive by Hollywood blockbuster.” Patricia Clarkson, Kristin ScottThomas, Bruno Ganz, Cherry published, stripped and striped into the That storehouse of phantom essays was FEBRUARY 2018 NewcityJones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian urban landscape: Roger Ebert writing for the tapped for 2011’s “When Movies Mattered,” Murphy and Timothy Spall. Sun-Times or Dave Kehr, and later, Jonathan and now in “Movies That Mattered,” Kehr’s Rosenbaum in the Reader, their bylines second assemblage of pieces from the Opens February 23 would sometimes streak past in a sudden Chicago Reader between 1974 and 1986 gust or get mashed flatter by passing traffic. (and latterly in Chicago magazine). Clarity is the abiding virtue. On the handsomely Dave Kehr, who began his critical career in designed page, there is no smudge or blur. the 1970s, wrote extended, considered What had been neglected occasional pieces pieces, often of a few thousand words, about now stand to be savored. Those pages how movies move, how essential elements of lost to wind and rain are now tucked inside directorial and design craft conveyed not only a tidy 200-page paperback that grows an author’s voice in the classical American weighty as a physical object, much as studio system, but also a reflection of a larger physical media reassures many longtime culture, and even the world at large. (In a movie followers. Streaming content, unstable 2011 interview in the Village Voice, Kehr digital archives, are not tactile and lack described the questions he asked himself of context in the physical world. a film on view: “How is this movie working? The first volume rang with praise for better, lasting work rather than the cool disavowals of which Kehr was capable. He writes vivid appreciations of Paul Schrader’s “Blue Collar,” Robert Aldrich’s “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” and Stanley Donen’s “Movie Movie,” as well as films by personal favorites like Robert Zemeckis (“Used Cars”) and Clint Eastwood (“Pale Rider”) as well as the left-field amour that he demonstrated time and again for movies like Peter Bogdanovich’s “Saint Jack” or Martha Coolidge’s “Valley Girl.” (“The tone is pitched in the seldom-explored realm between satire and romance; Coolidge’s control of that tone is remarkably accurate, and her medium of control is the acting.”) 39

There is a section of greatest hates this time mujer fantástica) could be brute tragedy, 24 Frames around, called “Autopsies/Minority Reports,” instead of a volatile, sometimes fantasticated The late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami elaborated often on the notions of an incom- in which individual films allow him to sound his portrait of resilience and dignity in the face plete film, a movie with pieces missing, where disdain for their filmmakers’ larger enterprise. of hostility, even malice from authorities and the viewer could fit himself or herself as they On Robert Altman, reviewing “A Wedding”: Orlando’s family. “Fantastic Woman” exists watched (or dreamt) along with his wandering “It would be much simpler for everyone in the same zone as “Gloria,” similar streets, concerned (myself particularly) if ‘A Wedding’ similar desires, borne by characters who insist characters. Fittingly, he left his final feature on their dignity, as Lelio does, that they are as literally unfinished in 2016, a project he had could be quietly written off as a complete ordinary, as decent, as human as anyone else. begun to insert computer-generated elements disaster… [Altman’s] ambiguity is only of nature in familiar and less-familiar masterpiec- skin-deep; beneath the rhetorical tricks lies a “I like to think that the film, like Marina,” Lelio has written, “is not afraid of pleasure and like es of painting. (His son Ahmad, also a filmmaker, set of rules—rules that are hard, narrow and completed post-production.) “I always wonder oppressive rules that guide our impressions her, has a striking and shiny surface. It tries to what extent the artist aims to depict the to a single, and singularly bleak, conclusion.” to combine the narrative and the visual pleasure in games of appearances that want reality of a scene. Painters capture only one frame of reality and nothing before or after it. Francis Coppola: “‘Apocalypse Now’ suggests to captivate. A sort of Trojan horse loaded For ‘24 Frames’ I started with a famous painting that Coppola’s great talent may lie in hiring with humanity.” See me for myself; see me but then switched to photos I had taken talented people: he’s a better producer than as I see myself. See me as I shall become. director… But no amount of craft can disguise (The bold, bright flights of fancy are splendid through the years,” he writes at the opening of his quiet experiment. With still photography the film’s essential inertness, its lack of moral and necessary.) Grief is a motherfucker; as elegant as his filmmaking, Kiarostami tension and risk, its substitution of scale and Marina confronts it head on. Vega, herself trans, defiant, resilient, faces all, creating that understands frame and re-framing, as well spectacle for solid thought and feeling.” as emptying or filling the most fundamental fantastic woman as we observe, transfixed. geometrical components of the projected And Kehr’s bête noire, Stanley Kubrick, on 104m. (Ray Pride) rectangle. Kiarostami’s elemental evanescence the occasion of “The Shining”: “God is a big, is a precise but also aleatory stroll through black slab from outer space, and the devil “A Fantastic Woman” opens Friday, the field of his vision, and all twenty-four of is a bartender named Lloyd… Kubrick loves February 9 at the Music Box. these fragments. The final shot is a glorious, his set more than he loves his characters; frame-filled eternity. And the song chosen to above all, he loves the tracking shots he can The Party accompany the ending may be the film’s most lay through it… ‘The Shining’ is plainly a bad Sally Potter is a prodigious, protean chame- leon, a truly independent spirit and filmmaker radical gesture of all. 120m. (Ray Pride) film; on a deeper level, it may also be an objectionable film—cold, hermetic, misan- whose small, precious body of work dazzles thropic. But it is to Kubrick’s credit that with both elegant finery and elemental emotion. “24 Frames” plays February 9-15 at Siskel. he continues to use film as a medium of Potter is appreciated, but not as much as Bob le flambeur personal expression, no matter how repellant she could be. Spoken of mostly in terms of the low-budget phantasmagorical centu- “Isn’t beauty always mysterious?” In Jean-Luc that personality may be… It’s a movie to be Godard’s “Breathless” (1960), Jean-Pierre reckoned with, argued with, confronted; it ries-and-gender traipsing “Orlando” (1992), Melville’s lovingly louche portrait of 1950’s sticks in the mind in uncomfortable ways.” which brought Derek Jarman’s friend and icon Tilda Swinton to a larger sphere, Potter’s Paris nightlife, “Bob the flambeur,” gets a joke reference, and the director appears as a Here’s a grand example of keen and clear filmography has been both esthetically and pretentious novelist whose ambition, he says, description that’s haunted me since it fiscally elastic, primal yet lovingly detailed, is to become immortal, then die. Melville pulls appeared in the pages of Chicago, Kehr containing sly, minimalist teenage girlhood down his sunglasses and the warm, huge at his best, the conclusion of his review of stories like “Ginger & Rosa” (2012) and the pools of his eyes fix on Jean Seberg. Cut Robert Bresson’s “L’argent,” describing its no-budget, shot-for-internet, pocket-sized back to 1956: A steel-haired, middle-aged, ending. “Immediately after the murders, Yvon fashion “Rage” (2009). With the splendid world-weary gambler (Roger Duchesne) confesses to two policemen standing at the drawing-room black comedy “The Party,” calculates the grandest con of his day in his bar of a country inn. As they lead him to the shot at the run-up to the nihilist Brexit insomniac circuit cruising the nightspots door, a crowd gathers to watch. Bresson holds referendum, Potter finds a medium of satire and fleshpots of dreamy, creamy backstreet the shot—his final one—for a few seconds and belly laughs in seventy swift minutes, Montmartre. (There are many French women after Yvon and the policemen have passed; shot in black-and-white, etched in vitriol, and many melancholy men in the most the crowd remains frozen in place outside the shot in the confines of her own longtime trenchant of trenchcoats.) Bob’s moment of inn, staring, at apparently nothing at all. And London townhouse in under two weeks. shattering melancholy comes from a single then we realize what has transfixed them: The agile, lovingly choreographed camera gaze upon the bare back of a young girl he’s the door is still open, letting a warm light out accompanies deliciously measured perfor- sheltered as she sleeps with his callow protégé. into the night. No one moves to close it.” mances by Patricia Clarkson, Kristin Scott Shot on location in 1954 in gambling dens that Thomas, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily were soon demolished for housing develop- Kehr is now a curator in the Department Mortimer, Cillian Murphy and Timothy Spall, ments “Bob le flambeur” is, among other of Film of the Museum of Modern Art. As avoiding any reek of undigested theatricality. things, a variation on John Huston’s “Asphalt he writes in his afterword, “In critical jargon, Like Mike Leigh’s immortal “Abigail’s Party” (1977), “The Party” takes the jewel setting of a Jungle.” Melville, an avid admirer and collector this is what is technically known as a dinner and thrives on the terrifying splendor of of Americana and American crime movies, ‘happy ending.’” took much from the gangsters and brooding tough guys in Hollywood pictures of the 1930sNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 Reviews the darkest reaches of the characters’ hearts and hopes of retaining social standing. (Cue and 1940s. Melville and his characters were also Mr. Albee and Sr. Buñuel.) Champagne and red wine and name-calling and backbiting wont to mutter sour-sweet epigrams about A Fantastic Woman trust and loyalty, like “If there are two of you, and multiple bombshells and a conspicuous In modern-day Santiago, all is good for one will betray.” But that’s nothing until you Chekhov-worthy gun move toward pleasing Marina (Daniela Vega), a lounge singer and farcical complication. Music played as proper grasp the ending. Nobody’s perfect; this waitress who is a trans woman, until she bourgeois dinner-party accompaniment, on curtain line is. The lasting beauty is plain suddenly loses Orlando, her older boyfriend, vinyl, include Bo Diddley, John Coltrane and to see. Digital 4K restoration. 98m. (Ray Pride) and the world around her turns, and turns Albert Ayler. 71m. (Ray Pride) on her, closing her off. If not for the poised vitality of Marina (and Vega), Chilean director “Bob le flambeur” plays February 23-25, 28 Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” (Una “The Party” opens Friday, February 23. and March 1 at Siskel.40

164 North State Street • Between Lake & Randolph Part of the 28th Annual Festival of Films from Iran 24 FRAMES FEBRUARY 9 - 15 ABBAS KIAROSTAMI'S FINAL FILM “A stunning and majestic Kiarostami statement about love, cinema, death, technology, censorship, and the 21st century.” — VarietyThe AnimationShow of Shows MARCH 2 - 8 A new program of 16 films from 8 nations! “An exceptional program that starts off strong and only gets better...” — Hollywood Reporter BUY TICKETS NOW at www.siskelfilmcenter.org

Lit Seeking LIT TOP 5 Refuge in Victorian 1 Mai Der Vang. Poetry Foundation. Mai Der Vang’s “Afterland” about Mystery the Hmong exodus from Laos won the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy Charles Finch Discusses of American Poets. February 13, 7pm His Popular Series 2 On Madeleine L’Engle. By Toni Nealie American Writers Museum. Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Léna RoyNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 A woman is found dead in a dripping Often the most popular protagonists in present “Becoming Madeleine: A wet naval trunk on an islet in the mystery series have real flaws, or old Biography of the Author of ‘A Wrinkle Thames River in Victorian London. secrets or some mix of the two—from in Time’ by Her Granddaughters,” in “The Woman in the Water,” the eleventh Sherlock Holmes to Lisbeth Salander. time for Ava DuVernay’s widescreen book in Charles Finch’s Agatha- and Lenox doesn’t. I think that fits with the film adaptation of “A Wrinkle in Time.” Nero-award-nominated Charles Lenox world he inhabits, which is just a little series, presents the beginning of Lenox’s bit touched by magic. He has plenty of February 11, 2pm career—an unlikely choice for a baronet’s money, good friends, a conscience, a lot son. Finch, who also reviews books for of loyalties. It’s realistic to the period, but 3 What Happens When Nothing USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and the in a faintly dreamlike way. When I started Happens? StoryStudio Chicago. New York Times, talked to Newcity about writing the series, everything was CSI and Sarah Manguso, the author of seven his internationally successful series. blood and guts, and I wanted to write books including “300 Arguments,” something quieter and maybe more “Ongoingness,” “The Guardians” and There seems to be quite an appetite innocent. People responded to Lenox’s “The Two Kinds of Decay,” teaches for British mysteries, Victoriana and essential decency right from the start. a master class addressing the auto- tales of toffs. Americans are entranced biographer’s problems of scant plot by shows such as “Downton Abbey” Why a prequel? and dull documentation. and “The Crown.” Why the fascination I was ready to experiment with something with aristocracy or a feudal order— new. I’d written ten mysteries about this February 21, 6:30pm especially in a republic? universe of characters surrounding an I can only tell you my own experience, amateur Victorian detective, Charles Lenox, 4 “You Can’t Fire the Bad Ones!” which is that at an early age—twelve, and while it’s been wonderful fun, writing a Seminary Co-op Bookstore. thirteen—I fell hard for P.G. Wodehouse series like that gets tricky. It’s a long voyage Educators William Ayers and Crystal and then in the next few years Jane Austen, at close quarters. So I had to decide Laura discuss “You Can’t Fire the George Eliot, Anthony Trollope. They were whether to stop writing the series or try to Bad Ones!” debunking misconceptions mainly writing about the gentry and there do something new with it—and I had all this about teachers, unions, school choice, was a serenity to those worlds, even if the material about Lenox as a young man (at standardized tests and charter schools. characters struggled. The long shadows the start of the series he’s nearing forty) on green lawns, the afternoon tea service, and the idea got me excited in a new way. February 10, 3pm all of that, felt like a refuge when I was an angst-filled teenager. I’ve struggled in my What are your readers like and why 5 “Apocalypse, Darling.” Women series with that lie—that Victorian England are they reading this sort of mystery? and Children First Bookstore. was a refuge. Because it wasn’t. Finally, Is there a great need to escape into Barrie Jean Borich, author of “Body Geo- I realized that people need that. Especially another time? graphic” and “My Lesbian Husband,” in our present moment, alas. Women are the majority of readers across launches “Apocalypse, Darling,” set in every single kind of genre. Military history the steel mill region of Chicago and Charles Lenox is an exceptionally might be fifty-fifty, but everything else is Indiana. February 28, 7:30pm mild-mannered protagonist. There seventy-thirty, eighty-twenty. If women are no fights, no gore, no sex, little stopped reading the publishing industry bad language. Why has he struck a would collapse in a day. My readers are chord with readers? often female. With that said I don’t know42

anything else in particular that unites them. nothing is more important to me than politics. I think what really thrills the inmost part of I often ask what my Facebook followers are my soul is often nature, or scene. Which reading and the range of answers is breathtak- In the middle of the series, when Lenox ing. Which I love. I was lucky to be raised by means I should probably be a poet instead of women who read voraciously, high and low, himself enters the world of politics, he takesand I know their taste shaped mine. I like on shoddy orphanages, people putting chalk a novelist, but it shook out that I loved reading writing female characters. And I feel very novels more than poetry, worst luck. I think lucky to have female readers. in the milk to dilute it and all sorts of social problems. Ultimately most historical fiction is a place is often what brings a character backThe criminal case runs almost secondary truce between the reality of then and the reality to himself or herself, where a character can to the story of Lenox and his milieu. How of now. The average Victorian gentleman, even pause and remember that they’re more thando you work out the balance between an enlightened one, held views that would be the scraps of experience they have in a day,character and plot? Sections are almost repugnant to us. I wanted Lenox to be at the or a week.essayistic in their meanderings, digres- sions and questions: “What was a very outer edge of liberal plausibility in that How have you changed as a writer? murder… theirs was the century in which murder had become a real notion.” sense. But you can’t forget your reader. And Sheer experience really makes you a better What are your models? Raymond Chandler said the perfect mystery I know these books are also escape pods. writer. Ten thousand hours. It’s like learning to novel would never be written, because the mind that can construct a perfect puzzle can’t I try to respect that, and never foreground poach an egg or hit a backhand. For the firstconstruct a perfect world. My gift, or at least my taste, is for the world Charles Lenox lives political issues too hectoringly. three or four books in the series (I think I’m too in and that atmosphere is what drives me to write. Sometimes I enjoy writing the mystery I enjoy how you weave in little moments of hard on them and people love them), all I canand sometimes it’s nausea-inducing. Those social commentary—”A wife takes a vow see is how poorly I plotted them out. It’s likedigressions, meanderings—those are a treat to obey… There’s no vow for a mother.” being on the other side of a beautiful Persian for the writer. I try not to indulge in them toooften, but they’re also part of me and part of It’s also a lovely portrait of closely bonded carpet, to borrow an image from Edith Wharton. the charm of the novel. You want a novel to mother and son. Do you draw much from All you can see is the loose threads, and the tell you things incidentally, between moments, personal experience in the Lenox series? faint imprint of what the carpet’s exterior side I think. That’s what makes it such a uniquely Also, the reactions of Lenox to his dying looks like. It’s the saddest part of being a writer, flexible medium. father, buttoned-up, wanting a different not being able to enjoy your own work.You pay sharp attention to status, outcome, it is a larger portrait of being What was it like to write a novel outside wealth and the layers of social class— human that many whodunnits usually never didactic, often sharply funny— provide. What are your aims? the series? Will there be more? such as Lady Jane Grey coming from“good stock,” Lord Brakesfield who was Yes, I think if this were the start of a new series Yes! I wrote a super-personal book called born to a butcher and made his money it would be a little strange that Lenox spends “The Last Enchantments,” which is literary in soap, asides about newish Elizabethan fiction. It took me years to write, and it wasearls and “Lenox wouldn’t have deigned so much time with his mother, or worrying to let Markham carry his cricket bat.” about his father. But my hope is that because as naked as I’ve ever been, emotionally, as a It’s an insider/outsider view —how did people are invested in the character by now, writer. It’s about a group of students at Oxford, you get to those observations? Through those storylines will have more power. And for where I studied. Literary fiction is actually your time at Oxford? How is the social new readers, I hope he’s likable enough out of my first love; the Lenox novels are… is it badcommentary read by Americans? to call them a day job? They are my secondYou know, I make an occasional mistake in the gate that you don’t mind spending time research, but I don’t really care as long as love. But the literary fiction takes much, much the tone of the Lenox books is correct— with his family. the atmosphere. The calibrations of class in longer for me to write. And who knows, may England during that period, the 1860s and1870s, were so fine that it really did matter, As for personal experience—I don’t know a be worse because of that. for instance, how old an earldom was. JackAubrey’s family, in Patrick O’Brian’s series of writer who doesn’t draw on it. Someone said You do your own creative work in the naval novels, which I think are the best historical fiction ever written, paid not to get a Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” was the greatest morning, then write reviews and do baronetcy. I try to play it straight-faced, so that the absurdity of it is there for the reader who triumph in the history of novelistic realism, revisions in the afternoon. Is it becoming wants to notice that, and the history of it is there for the reader who wants to notice that. which strikes me as kind of true. easier or more difficult to be a writer? I will say that when I was at Oxford you couldstill feel it. Everyone knew who had been at How do you get into the headspace I try to stick to that schedule, yes. After an Eton, or wherever. of Victorian England when you live hour or two of writing I get noticeably worse. Similarly, the reader notices observationsof poverty, inequality and the social in Chicago? And then I try to have some lunch, take a walk, immobility of the time—while Lenox isgenerally unjudgmental. Are you? Are I lived in England, which is the best cure I look at Twitter. And I might try to go back at it such issues relevant again to contempo- rary audiences, and if so, why? know of for Anglophilia. I wrote the first Lenox or I might just read, since you always need to Well, I’ve struggled a lot with this. Almost feed the meter, or work on things that flex a book before I’d ever set foot in the country, and a huge part of writing them now is trying different muscle—revision, criticism, which I write quite a lot of. I tend to work in my study to return myself to that Edenic feeling I had or if I get tired of sitting there at my (this is a about it—country lanes, snow on thatched terrible admission) Starbucks, here on cottages, sweeping valleys. And I do travel Southport Corridor. there at least once every year or two. Do your readers expect an unrealistic Every day it gets harder to be a writer. standard of accuracy to your fictional I want to quit. You just recognize more and world? more of what’s bad or wrong about books, I get emails you wouldn’t believe, which are and feel less and less freedom because of four or five pages of single-spaced corrections that. My hope as I enter my late thirties is that across the entire series. I will bend geography I’ll be able to come through the other side and regain the spontaneity I had when I was FEBRUARY 2018 Newcity and term times and that sort of thing to my story without much compunction—the tone is twenty. But I don’t know. Thomas Mann said far and away the most important thing for me. writers are people for whom writing is harder I don’t want a note of that to be false. I try to than other people. be as accurate as possible historically, but ultimately it’s not my first priority. The only thing “The Woman in the Water” by Charles Finch, I truly regret is using the word sidewalk in one Minotaur Books, 304 pages, $25.99 of the books. I’ve never heard the end of it. How do you think about place—is it Charles Finch launches his book on purely location or do you aim to do more? February 20 at 7pm at Volumes Bookcafe, 1474 North Milwaukee, (773)697-8066. 43

Live at The Book Cellar IN THE FORMER BOOKMAN’S ALLEY SPACE AT 1712 SHERMAN AVE, EVANSTON Storytime with Miss Jamie! Lauren Whalen “Satellite” FEBRUARY EVENTS February 2, 11am February 16, 7pm Wednesday, February 21, 6 pm The Book Cellar Book Club welcomes Melanie Benjamin Nicole Blades Phyllis Lyons discusses “Have You Met Nora?” the “lost” book by Junichiro Tanizaki February 7, 7pm February 17, 6pm Northwestern professor emerita Phyllis Lyons discusses Tell Me A French Story In Black and White, her new translation of a novel that renowned with Miss Mathilde— Colin Winnette Japanese writer Tanizaki never published in a stand-alone volume Storytime in French and English “The Job of the Wasp” and which—unlike his now-classic works Some Prefer Nettles and The Makioka Sisters—disappeared from his known body of work. February 8, 11am February 19, 7pm Thursday, February 22, 6 pm Crystal Cestari Sarah Manguso“The Sweetest Kind of Fate” “What Happens When Nothing Mark Miller: Jolt: Stories Happens” master class of Trauma and Transformation February 8, 7pm February 21, 6pm at StoryStudio Chicago reporter Mark Miller’s newest book explores how The Kates!! some people who experience a traumatic event—a plane crash, Local Author Night February 9 and 24, 7pm Sahar Mustafah, Patty McNair, a terror attack, the death of a child—ultimately discover a Christine Rice and Cyn Vargas renewed sense of life’s meaning and reinvent their lives. Mamrie Hart“I’ve Got This Round” February 21, 7pm MORE INFO AT February 10, 2pm at Tied House Warner Loughlin WWW.BOOKENDSANDBEGINNINGS.COM “The Warner Loughlin Technique: 224.999.7722 OR VISIT US ON FACEBOOKAnne Johnsos An Acting Revolution”“Potty Mouthed: Big Thoughts The following events take place at the Poetry Foundation and are From Little Brains” February 22, 7pm free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served. February 10, 6pm Kelly Barnhill Poetry off the Shelf “Dreadful Young Ladies Cave Canem Legacy Conversation: Renee Rosen and Other Stories” Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady“Windy City Blues” Thursday, February 8, 7:00 PM February 28, 6pm Poetry off the Shelf February 11, 10:15am at Sulzer Library Mai Der Vang at Emanuel Congregation Tuesday, February 13, 7:00 PM Poetry off the Shelf Dick Simpson Poetry Out Loud City Regionals“The Good Fight: Life Lessons Wednesday, February 14, 10:00 AM From A Chicago Progressive” Readings & Lectures The Open Door Readings: February 15, 7pm Tara Betts & Rachel Galvin Tuesday, February 20, 7:00 PMGo to our website for event details, book clubs and more! Poetry off the Shelf Poetry Out Loud Suburban RegionalsYour Independent Book Store in Lincoln Square! Wednesday, February 21, 10:00 AM Poetry off the Shelf4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago CantoMundo Authors Amy Sayre773.293.2665 • bookcellarinc.com Baptista, Natalie Scenters-Zapico & Jacob Shores-ArgüelloFEATURED Thursday, February 22, 7:00 PMFEBRUARYFREE READINGSEVENTS& PERFORMANCESAT THE POETRY FOUNDATIONPoetry Foundation61 West Superior Street312.787.7070 | poetryfoundation.org

Music Photo: Chris StrongMUSIC TOP 5 Mavis sing and music that would sound good FEBRUARY 2018 Newcity1 Robert Plant and the Staples as performed by her band. If you weren’t Sensational Space Shifters. familiar with their previous work together Riviera Theater. The former Led Still Taking Us There and only had a passing familiarity withZeppelin frontman tours his new Wilco’s music, you might foresee a recipe for album, “Carry Fire,” with his latest By Craig Bechtel disaster—a Converse-wearing, Generation X band, who are more than a match white hipster puts himself in the sensi- for his iconic howl. February 20 Black History Month is here again, but ble-but-sequined stage flats of a seventy- this year the struggle for African-American eight-year-old black soul singer and comes2 Portugal. The Man. equality carries more resonance than ever, off as a sycophantic carpetbagger. The fact Aragon Ballroom. This especially given the political environment that the record is a success from beginningAlaskan band’s irresistibility is led by a president (at press time) whose to end is nothing short of miraculous, and a due in equal measure to its finely campaign slogan might as well have been testament to Tweedy’s songwriting skills. honed wit and the loveliness of Make America White Again. frontman John Gourley’s high Indeed, Tweedy’s touch is so seamless that register. February 16 But local legend Mavis Staples won’t have a listener would never know he had a hand any of that negativity. As Chicago Tribune in the recording, except to sensibly stay out3 Ruthie Foster. SPACE. music critic Greg Kot wrote in his 2014 of the way and let Staples’ soul singing be Austin’s most soulful blues biography, “I’ll Take You There: Mavis the star. Even when he duets with Staples on singer blends in just enough Staples, The Staples Singers and The March “Ain’t No Doubt About It,” her alto vocals are church to tinge raw regret with Up Freedom’s Highway,” “She is an artist so deep and rich and his tenor so high and the promise of sweet salvation. who grew up in church and on the civil rights unaffected, it’s hard to tell the difference battlefront, but she doesn’t finger-point, between the two, and that may be exactly February 22 preach or prod. She leads with enthusiasm the point. Their most successful and for the day ahead.” engaging partnership to date makes the4 Frightened Rabbit. case that there does not have to be division Thalia Hall. The ever-brash That enthusiasm is palpable throughout between races and generations. “We’re Scottish alt-rockers tour the Staples’ new record, “If All I Was Was Black” not loving one another the way we should,” tenth anniversary of their seminal (ANTI- Records), even though all ten tracks Staples is quoted in the press release second album, “The Midnight were written by another local legend, Wilco’s accompanying the album. “Some people Organ Fight.” February 16-17 Jeff Tweedy. This is their third collaboration, are saying they want to make the world following 2010’s Grammy winner for Best great again, but we never lost our greatness.5 Eighth Blackbird Americana album, “You Are Not Alone” and We just strayed into division.” and Amadinda. Logan the Grammy-nominated “One True Vine,” Center for the Arts. Chicago’s released in 2016, but it’s the first record It’s important to remember that not only did bravura new music ensemble penned almost entirely by Tweedy (Staples Jeff Tweedy’s songwriting acumen originate throws down with the Hungarian co-wrote three of the tracks), who tried to with the original 1980s-90s alt-country act percussion group for an exhil- imagine the words Staples would want to Uncle Tupelo from downstate Belleville, arating anything-can-happen Illinois (whose Southern soul allegiances ran collaboration. February 2 so deep as to be reflected in their nomencla- ture and who ushered in the No Depression 45

era), and improved across ten road in the face of adversity; Wilco albums, but he and his and although all of the tracks band also worked on two albums are inspired by real world events (such as Michelle Obama’s of Woody Guthrie reinterpreta- “When they go low, we go high” tions with Billy Bragg, titled “Mermaid Avenue” and “Mermaid speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention), none call Avenue Vol. II.” Tweedy is not some Johnny-Come-Marching- out anyone by name. Tweedy Home-Lately in his understanding says he didn’t include a list of of the roots of folk, and the same gun violence victims, for example, can be said for his respect for the because he knew he would have gospel-infused old school rhythm- to leave someone out, and he and-blues created on “If All I Was wouldn’t feel right about drawing that line, deciding who merited Was Black.” inclusion and who didn’t. The record begins with the slow, soulful, sultry, electric backwoods The electric chug-chug of “Try bounce of “Little Bit,” and while Harder” marches further forward, the lyrics admit that “this kind of soldiering on in the face of adversity; and a brief acoustic tension” is “hard not to notice,” meditation closes the collection, Staples admonishes listeners showcasing Staples at her most that they’ve “got to keep your raw and revelatory, with her range eyes right on this long narrow bordering on baritone, and as she road”—perhaps an allusion to sings, she’d “do it all over again.” the Staples Singers civil rights anthem “Freedom Highway”— “If All I Was Was Black” is themati- and progress can be made, slowly but surely, bit by little bit. cally and lyrically extraordinary, perfectly fitting for extending and The title cut and first single, fomenting a quiet yet passionate co-written by Staples, makes the revolution toward racial equality point that Staples is much more without ever coming across as than just black. She’s also much preachy or heavy-handed. Jeff Tweedy serves as Mavis Staples’ more than a living legend, who perfect channel to convey began singing in church as the youngest of The Staples Singers, principles perhaps even she hadn’t been able to fully articulate led by her father, Pops, a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, on paper, despite this being her sixteenth solo album. It’s a Jr., and who has since worked testament to Tweedy’s musical with Bob Dylan (who allegedly proposed marriage to her), Prince, sensibilities that the musical M. Ward, The Band, Ray Charles, arrangements wisely break no new ground; the spare instrumen- Nona Hendryx, George Jones, tation and use of traditional blues Natalie Merchant, Los Lobos, Dr. John, Delbert McClinton and and gospel tropes allow the musicians to get out of the way of most recently Gorillaz on their Staples’ eloquent instrument, her 2017 album, “Humanz.” More importantly, propelled by a fuzzy passionate yet never histrionic voice of reason and love. rhythm guitar part that bridges vibes of sixties and seventies “classic rock” via Curtis Mayfield, “Bring us all together as a people— that’s what I hope to do. You Staples has “all the love I give,” “natural gifts” and “perspective.” can’t stop me. You can’t break me. I’m too loving,” she says in “Who Told You That” is a screed the record’s press release. “These against the received wisdom of songs are going to change the complacency, whereas “Peaceful world.” For all our sakes, I hope that’s the case. As she sings on Dream” conveys hope for the future with rootsy gospel harmo- “No Time For Crying,” “We’ve got nies, acoustic guitar accompani- work to do.”Newcity FEBRUARY 2018 ment, subtle organ accents and organic handclaps as its only Mavis Staples performs February percussion; and as the title 3 at the Vic Theater, 3145 North implies it’s the most peaceful Sheffield. Doors open at 7pm, moment on the record. show at 8pm, 18+ “No Time for Crying” and “We “I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, Go High” are the other numbers The Staples Singers and The co-written by the collaborators, March Up Freedom’s Highway” by and both espouse the philosophy Greg Kot is part of The Chicago of moving forward without Public Library’s 2018 “One Book, despairing and taking the high One Chicago” reading program.46

FINALIST, 2017 PULITZER PRIZE FOR DRAMA “ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST PLAYS” –The New York Times WOLVESTHE BY SARAH DELAPPE DIRECTED BY VANESSA STALLING FEBRUARY 9 – MARCH 11Corporate Sponsor Partner Contributing Sponsor 312.443.3800 | GoodmanTheatre.org THE POWER OF THEATER GROUPS OF 10+ ONLY: 312.443.3820ROCKEFELLER CHAPEL PRESENTS . . .SACRE D POWE RS OF ANIMAL S FRIDAY FE B RUARY 23 | 7:30 PMA concert of music celebrating the wisdom and ways of animals: George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae(Voice of the Whale) and R. Murray Schafer’s whimsical and rarely heard A Medieval Bestiary, alongwith music of John Tavener and other music celebrating animals. $20 at the door, free to students. SILENT FILM WITH MUSIC IMANI BY THE SONS OF BACH WINDS HAMLET (1921) AT THE CUTTING EDGE SUNDAY FEBRUARY 4  |  7 PM SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11  |  3 PMWhat if Hamlet were a woman? The restored 1921 German silent The chamber music quintet presents the world première of Aaronfilm, with live music from master organist Dennis James and Helgeson’s “Le voi ce l’est” (The Light Is On), and John Harbison’sharpsichordist Michael Tsalka, featuring mezzo-soprano Angela 1979 Quintet for Winds plus a selection of Imani Winds’ signatureYoung Smucker. $20 at the door, free to students. works. Free.ROCKEFELLER CHAPEL 5850 S. WOODLAWN AVE., CHICAGO, IL 60637 rockefeller.uchicago.edu

Stage Tony Santiago and Bradford Stevens in \"The Hairy Ape\" STAGE TOP 5 at Oracle Theatre/Photo: Joe Mazza, Brave Lux 1 Skeleton Crew. NorthlightNewcity FEBRUARY 2018 One For “I moved up to Chicago about ten years Theatre. The third play in Dominique Art and ago, wanting to do the same thing I Morisseau’s Detroit Trilogy takes place in Art For All did in Richmond—hang with friends, one of the last auto plants in the city just smoke weed, act in theater and ride as last decade’s financial crisis begins Tony Santiago on the my bike,” says Santiago about his to unfold. Opens February 2 Necessity of Keeping superhero origin story. (One of my first Art Accessible memories of meeting him was at a 2 Fear and Misery of the Victory Gardens mixer when I asked if Third Reich. Haven Theatre. By Emma Couling he biked, and he said, “Do you mean, Artistic director Josh Sobel stages an ‘do I have my cool kid card?’”) ensemble-driven production of Brecht’s You might not clock Tony Santiago 1938 classic as a warning of how as a natural leader upon meeting Santiago got his start in Chicago theater insidiously a culture can make space him. He’s not a showboat, he doesn’t in 2008 when he was hired at About for atrocity. Opens February 13 take over a room when he enters, he Face Theatre to perform in their social doesn’t exude a need to be the center justice outreach program during Bonnie 3 Breach: A Manifesto On Race In of attention. On the contrary, he’s Metzgar’s tenure. “It changed every- America Through The Eyes Of A usually seated next to the speaker at thing,” says Santiago. “It was the first Black Girl Recovering From Self-Hate. the party, acting as DJ, or better yet, time I’d seen theater being used as a Victory Gardens Theater. Antoinette in the kitchen making food. You know tool for positive change and starting Nwandu’s coming-of-age story about race, you’re at the right party when it’s three needed conversations. I met a ton of class and motherhood examines how hard in the morning and Tony Santiago is great people…[who] showed me that it is to love others when it’s yourself that frying something. my art and activism are linked and not you loathe most of all. Opens February 16 to shy away from that.” In 2017 alone, this vibrant soul helped 4 The Burn. Steppenwolf for lead a movement, started a theater It’s a philosophy he’s carried ever Young Adults. When a high school company and orchestrated a new since, such as in his work with theater production of “The Crucible” forces a collective of accessible theater, not companies like Catharsis, which uses social outsider and her tormentor together, to mention countless contributions to performance to teach sexual-violence- tensions escalate into acts of bullying— Chicago theater before his transforma- prevention education, and his involve- both online and IRL. Opens February 17 tive year. ment in movements like The Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition (which 5 Six Corners. American Santiago co-founded with Ike Holter, Blues Theater. Two burnt-out Sydney Charles, Sasha Smith and violent-crimes-unit detectives try their Kevin Matthew Reyes), which shook the damnedest to close what should be an Chicago theater community with its open-and-shut case, but which proves strategic and vibrant response to Hedy instead to be a horrifying mystery and a Weiss’ controversial review of “Pass- legacy of violence stretching back years. over” at Steppenwolf Theatre last June. Opens February 2248

Santiago started working with “Folks online posted things likethe now-defunct Oracle Theatre in ‘I guess that’s the end to public2012, a company that promoted access in Chicago theater.’Public Access Theatre, a business I couldn’t blame people for thinking that, and I realizedmodel that allowed tickets to that I wasn’t done with giving YOU GOT OLDERbe free while relying on donor access to art.” FORsupport to stay afloat. “I fell in TICKETSlove with their mission of ‘Free ArtFor All,'” he says. It was a turning Thus a new approach to public TO PREVIEWS access art was shaped. “Tonypoint as well as an inspiration. JAN 25 – FEB 4 seems interested in breaking“Oracle was doing so much and USE CODE NEWCITY apart and improving models ofnot charging anyone admission Wild sexual fantasies. how we create, market and A mysterious cowboy.and they were growing.” Facing the future while navigating share the art we make.” says the thorny path to adulthood.Though Santiago’s acting was Gus Menary, artistic director By Clare Barron Directed by Jonathan Berryfeatured heavily on Oracle’s stage of the Jackalope Theatre Company, who has worked with steppenwolf.org | 312-335-1650(in “The American Play” as well Santiago in multiple capacities. Major Production Sponsoras the Monty Cole-directed “Both The Roustabouts andproduction of Eugene O’Neill’s“The Hairy Ape”), his work behind Chicago Arts Access are organizations [that] represent athe scenes is where his impact new way of making and present-and signature lies. It wasn’tlong before he became Oracle’s ing art for a changing world.”associate artistic director and Chicago Arts Access worksa producer of their B*Sidesperformance series. For some of similarly to Oracle: free tickets forSantiago’s associates, his work at all, funded by donor contributions. But rather than provide tickets toOracle marked the beginning of a single theater, Chicago Artswhat he is known for today: hisability to turn wild ideas into reality. Access partners with artistic institutions across the city,One of those wild ideas was providing free tickets to the public“Stay Lit,” an evening of short for companies across the city.scenes by award-winning Chicago “I’m not sure where Chicago Arts Access will head,” Santiago says.playwright Ike Holt, which hassince been produced in succes- “It works but still feels like an experiment. Our partners andsive iterations across the city. patrons will help shape us.”The beginning of Santiago andHolter’s artistic partnership and And so they will, but Chicagothe result of years of close Arts Access will have the rock offriendship, it led to a summersurprise: a new company led by Santiago’s leadership, taste and discernment behind it. “Thethe two (The Roustabouts) and Chicago theater community feelsthe premiere of Holter’s thriller unique in that we place high valueplay “Put Your House in Order,” on curatorship,” explains Menary.which Santiago starred in. “There’s an artistry to bringing“[At Oracle], Ike and I produced groups of people together thatwork that featured people who produce engaging work andlook like us. Folks who’d never Tony has that down.”seen theater were coming out Tony Santiago is a dreamer,to our shows and hanging out.Our shows were not going to be even a visionary. But grandeur isJeff recommended and we didn’t not what makes him unique. His superpower is kindness and faithgive a fuck,” he says. “We justwanted to make shows that folks in other artists, a key go-to for aare excited about and that once man who has dedicated his life to an art form that deals in empathy.you’re in the seats to watch the “Folks are recognizing that if weshow, people are down to chill want theater to be better, it’s upand get to know each other. It’sbuilding community and in these to us. Organizations like Chicago Inclusion Project and Not In FEBRUARY 2018 Newcitytimes that feels political. Afterproducing three or four shows in Our House show us that theaterOracle’s space, Ike and I agreed isn’t in a bubble. Theater should be the example of how we buildthat we should just do this with community on our blocks andour own company.” neighborhoods.”Oracle Theatre closed at the endof 2016 after a change in space Santiago is scheduled to directand leadership, leaving Santiago Trevor Hawkins and The Neo-heartbroken. He saw signs of a Futurists in “A Story Told in Sevencommunity dream disappearing, Fights,” premiering in March. 49

Newcity FEBRUARY 2018 Life is BeautifulBy David Alvarado50