Frankenstein's 200th BirthdayCelebrated with four theatrical productions at Court, Lifeline,Lookingglass and Remy Bumppo plus a screening of James Whale's1931 “Frankenstein” on October 15 at Music Box Theater. rts & Culture
Presented in partnership with Art Design Chicago S E P T E M B E R 18 – D EC E M B E R 9, 2 018 FREE AND OPEN TO ALL blockmuseum.northwestern.eduUp is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and The Mary and Leigh Block Endowment. Image: Morton Goldsholl, Untitled LightPainting, c. 1944, Glass slide collage with 35mm slide film and perforated paper teleprinter tape. Courtesy of the Goldsholl Family. Digital reproduction by Jan Tichy.Newcity OCTOBER serious Design in Midcentury America 09.28.18 –01.06.19 Presenting Sponsors: mam.org/play52
ARC Gallery 1977 Member's Exhibition Art Still Women Strong closed its doors in 2003, ARC is gearing up After All These Years to celebrate its forty-fifth anniversary this fall. While much has changed during the course of the gallery’s run, its commitment to empowering women in the arts and providing a venue for emerging artists remains the same. ARC Gallery Turns Forty-Five “The importance of the gallery, we believe, By Kerry Cardoza is that we are an alternative space and we OCTOBER 2018 Newcity “I’m not going to wait until I’m old or dead offer a chance for people who are outside to be discovered,” artist Johnnie Johnson told the Chicago Tribune in 1974, “You have to the gallery system to exhibit in a professional know how to sell your work.” This sentiment helps explain why Johnson, along with fifteen Artemisia Gallery and N.A.M.E., all of which space,” says Cheri Reif Naselli, ARC Gallery’s fellow women artists, joined forces to found Artists, Residents of Chicago Gallery (ARC) the sought to give emerging artists a venue to president. “One of the founding members prior year. ARC opened in 1973 alongside several other alternative art spaces, including exhibit their work. that I talked to said, ‘We wanted to do our own thing. We wanted to take control of our ARC and Artemisia stood out in the Chicago lives. There were like three choices for alternative landscape as feminist co-operatives, women if they went to college: to become a which in part meant they were not traditional, nurse, to become a secretary or become a teacher. Younger women realized how commercial art venues and they made limiting that was.’” decisions by consensus. Yet while Artemisia 53
Though ARC can now lay claim to being one of women, they earn an average of eighty-one cents for every dollar made by their male peers. the last remaining women’s cooperative galleries in the country, it has not been without its own challenges. As with any long-running This reality is why ARC remains committed space, the cooperative has endured numerous to challenging the status quo, not only leadership changes in addition to eight gallery through their organizational structure but ART TOP 5 moves, most often due to rising rents. ARC is, also through the shows they mount. The in fact, wrapping up their most recent move, a co-op has four group exhibitions per year, 1 Vanessa German. process that began in 2017 when the landlord two of which are juried. And members make Carl Hammer Gallery. of their 2156 North Damen location raised the it a priority to produce shows with a political A sculptor's enigmatic or feminist focus. In 2015, a group show mixed-media assemblages rent twenty-five percent. speak riddles about the lives of titled “I Can’t Breathe” looked at police young black women in America. The new location includes up to four exhibition violence and institutionalized racism. The 2 Sarah Reynolds rooms, as well as a basement gallery known prior year they mounted “The ‘F’ Word: and Fuyumi Murata. Feminism Now,” which encouraged artists Comfort Station. Having shown as a “raw” space, available for artists who their sculptural work together work in installation to transform. It will also offer to submit work examining what feminist art last year in Japan, the pair will is and where it is going. surely please again. a gallery specifically dedicated to video and 3 Edie Fake. Western multimedia work. ARC is also unique as a feminist co-op in that Exhibitions. Former Chicagoan Edie Fake returns ARC is in good company in their new West it has shown work by men since its inception. with colorful and graphic paintings evoking gender fluidity Town location, which is within walking “We’ve always been a women-only member- and the ties between mental and sexual health. distance to Western Exhibitions and Paris ship, but we show men’s work as well 4 Hans Haacke: Gift London Hong Kong. They christened the because we think it's important to have a Horse. Art Institute of Chicago. From London's Fourth new locale with “Women Strong: New Space, dialogue,” says Reif Naselli. Plinth to the Art Institute's outdoor terrace, a monumental New Work,” a group show that opened To that end, following the forty-fifth-anniversa- bronze sculpture of a skeletal horse yokes culture to capital. mid-September, which featured artworks ry show will be a solo exhibition by photogra- 5 Yvette Mayorga. from over fifty past and current ARC pher Jason DeBose. Titled, “Presidential: Roman Susan. Mayorga's sickly sweet installations offer members. Included in that group was Iris un-saccharine views of life Goldstein, who first joined ARC in the 1970s Public Depictions Overseas of U.S. Leader- between Mexico and the ship,” the work features images of graffiti United States. and later served as the gallery president. from thirteen countries, all responding to or 54 “I was very aware of ARC from the very representing a world leader from a different beginning,” Goldstein says. She attended one nation. Displayed alongside the work will be of the founding meetings but didn’t become a wall texts offering historical information to contextualize the pieces. member until later on. “Maybe I was just too timid, I don't know.” Reif Naselli says that staging challenging, Goldstein, who received her MFA from the cutting-edge work is one of the most School of the Art Institute of Chicago, important goals of the gallery. “Some of recalls the energy and enthusiasm of the those battles that we thought we’d fought original members. “It was an exciting time,” and won, keep reemerging,” she says. “So I she says. “More artists started staying think it is important.” around. Chicago started seeming like a Goldstein believes ARC offers unique place you could have a career. It was just opportunities for members to not only show slowly beginning that women were having a their work but also to be a part of the city’s art chance to do anything in the arts. You might community. For her, the experience has been say we haven't gotten there yet.” particularly fulfilling. “ARC fit me very well,” she Reif Naselli agrees that the art world remains says. “It was just perfect for me.” Throughout her years at the gallery, she has worked in a place without gender parity. “Men still leadership and development, has curated and dominate the field, even though there are hung shows, and of course shown her own women curators and women galleries now,” sculptural work. “It's been a great experienceNewcity OCTOBER 2018 she says. Statistics support her claim. According to the National Museum of Women for me, and I like to think I’ve contributed to other artists’ experiences, promoting a place in the Arts, work by women artists make up that’s good for artists to show their work.” between three and five percent of major permanent collections in the United States and Europe. Commercial galleries don’t fare much Jason DeBose's \"Presidential: Public better: only thirty percent of represented artists Depictions Overseas of U.S. Leadership\" opens October 5 and shows through October are women. Nor are women in the arts compensated equally. A National Endowment 27; \"Reinvention II: an Open Walls Exhibition\" opens on October 31, at ARC Gallery, 1463 for the Arts report from 2010 found that although fifty-one percent of visual artists are West Chicago.
OCT 12, 2018–JAN 27, 2019 ROCKFORD ART MUSEUM | 711 N MAIN ST, ROCKFORD IL Featuring paintings, photography, sculptures and installations by JACQUELINE MOSES, JUAN FERNANDEZ, JOE CASSAN, and SHANA MCCAW + BRENT BUDSBERG. rockfordartmuseum.org Jacqueline Moses Spain: Twenty-First Century DystopiaTorkwase Dyson OCTOBER 2018 NewcityJames Samuel MadisonSEPTEMBER 14–OCTOBER 27, 20181711 WEST CHICAGO AVENUECHICAGO ILLINOIS 60622WWW. R HOF F MAN G A L L E RY.C O M 55
EXHIBITIONSTHE ARTS CLUB OF CHICAGO ILLINOIS HOLOCAUST MUSEUM & EDUCATION CENTER201 East Ontario Street312 787 3997 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie, [email protected] / www.artsclubchicago.org 847 967 4800Tues–Fri 11-6, Sat 11-3 [email protected] / www.ilholocaustmuseum.orgSeptember 20–December 21 Gaylen Gerber Mon–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sun 10-5Garden Project: Jenny Kendler and Brian Kirkbride – July 19–January 13, 2019 Stories of Survival: The Playhead of Dawn Object.Image.Memory October 7–June 23, 2019 Activists and Icons: The Photographs of SteveTHE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART SchapiroAt Northwestern University Always Open: Take a Stand Center and Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL847 491 4000 LINDA WARREN [email protected] / www.blockmuseum.northwestern.eduTues, Sat–Sun 10-5, Wed–Fri 10-8, Mon closed 327 N. Aberdeen, Ste. 151September 18–December 9 Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments 312 432 9500 [email protected] / www.lindawarrenprojects.com in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl studio Tues–Sat 11-5 or by private appointmentSeptember 18–December 9 Break A Rule: Ed Paschke’s Art and Teaching September 7–October 27 Michiko Itatani - Gallery Y -July 17–November 4 Paul Chan: Happiness (finally) after 35,000 years Shadows of the Mind of civilization September 7–October 27 Paula Henderson - Regard - Gallery O September 7–October 27 Paula Henderson - Groundwork(s) - Gallery XCARL HAMMER GALLERY LOGAN CENTER EXHIBITIONS740 N. Wells Street312 266 8512 At the Reva and David Logan Center for the [email protected] / www.carlhammergallery.com 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637Tues–Fri 11-6, Sat 11-5 773 702 2787September 7–October 27 Vanessa German - Things Are Not Always [email protected] / arts.uchicago.edu/logan-center Tues–Sat 9-9, Sun 11-9, Mon closed What They Seem: A Phenomenology of Black Girlhood September 14–October 28 Candice Lin: A Hard White Body,DEPAUL ART MUSEUM a Porous SlipAt DePaul University MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY935 W. Fullerton Avenue773 325 7506 451 N. Paulina [email protected] / museums.depaul.edu 312 243 2129Mon–Tues closed, Wed–Thurs 11-7, Fri–Sun 11-5 [email protected] / www.moniquemeloche.comSeptember 6–December 16 Brendan Fernandes: The Living Mask Tues–Sat 11-6September 6–December 16 Whitney Bradshaw: Outcry September 15–October 27 Sanford Biggers: New WorkSeptember 6–December 16 Yasuhiro Ishimoto: Someday, Chicago November 15–December 22 Ebony G. Patterson: ...for those who bear/ bare witness...
THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY RHONA HOFFMAN GALLERYPHOTOGRAPHY 1711 W. Chicago AvenueAt Columbia College Chicago 312 455 1990600 S. Michigan Avenue [email protected] / www.rhoffmangallery.com312 663 5554 Tues–Fri 10-5:30, Sat 11-5:[email protected] / www.mocp.org September 14–October 27 Torkwase Dyson: James Samuel MadisonMon–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5October 11–December 21 The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold: Art, Identity RICHARD GRAY GALLERY & Politics Richard Gray Gallery, Hancock: 875 N. Michigan Avenue, 38th FloorOctober 11–December 21 Echoes: Reframing Collage Mon–Fri 10-5:30 Gray Warehouse: 2044 W. Carroll AvenueTHE NEUBAUER COLLEGIUM Wed–Sat 11-5FOR CULTURE AND SOCIETY 312 642 8877 [email protected] / www.richardgraygallery.comAt the University of Chicago Through November 21 David Hockney: Time and More,5701 South Woodlawn Avenue773 795 2329 Space and More…[email protected] / www.neubauercollegium.uchicago.eduMon–Fri 10-5 SCHINGOETHE CENTERThrough December 21 Jason Dodge with Ishion Hutchinson: The Broad of Aurora University Church of Night 1315 Prairie Street, Aurora, IL 630 844 7843POETRY FOUNDATION [email protected] / www.aurora.edu/museum Mon, Wed–Fri 10-4, Tues 10-761 W. Superior Street September 20–December 14 Joel Sheesley: A Fox River Testimony312 787 7070 September 20–December 14 Celebrating 125 Years: Aurora [email protected] / www.poetryfoundation.orgMon–Fri 11-4 SMART MUSEUM OF ARTSeptember 27–December 21 Krista Franklin: “…to take root among At the University of Chicago the stars.” 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue 773 702 0200THE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY [email protected] / www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu Tues–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sun 10-5At the University of Chicago Through December 16 Expanding Narratives: The Figure5811 S. Ellis Ave., Cobb Hall, 4th Floor773 702 8670 and the [email protected] / www.renaissancesociety.org Through December 30 The Time Is Now! Art WorldsTues–Wed, Fri 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Sat–Sun 12-5September 15–November 4 Shadi Habib Allah: Put to Rights of Chicago’s South Side, 1960–1980
Dance Nomi Dance Company DANCE TOP 5 Musician Dan Hesler and dancers Brennan Renteria and Miranda Borkan of Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre. Photo: Dan Kasberger 1Elevate Chicago Dance. Chicago Cultural Center. Immersive Alchemy Chicago-based dance artists and companies take over the Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre Pairs Live Music and Dance Cultural Center for a day of free in an Uplifting Experience performances, workshops and discussions around the theme By Sharon Hoyer “Intersections between Dance, Space, Race and Place.”Newcity OCTOBER 2018 Back when musician-composer Joe Anyone who caught CRDT’s most recent October 21 Cerqua and dancer-choreographer Wilfredo work-in-progress showing at the Old Town Rivera teamed up with painter Matt Lamb to School of Folk Music last spring can attest 2 Unwanted. MCA Stage. create a company, few dance troupes that the company’s mission of using dance Rwandan performance regularly performed to live music. Nineteen and music to nourish mind and soul is artist Dorothée Munyaneza years later, this is still largely the case, at least realized in the alchemy between musicians shares the testimony of female as a regular practice, and when live music and dancers. CRDT pieces engage some of survivors of the Tutsi genocide and dance appear together, musicians are the most pressing questions of our time, and through choreography and often submerged in the orchestra pit, out of at times the room emotionally transforms as original song. October 3-7 view. Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre forged dancers physically interpret deeply personal the way for a fresh approach to concert material to an energy that only live music can 3 Tere O’Connor Dance. dance, giving equal visibility to a nine-piece produce. There are ample opportunities to Dance Center of Columbia jazz band onstage with the dance ensemble, experience this firsthand as CRDT performs College. New York-based with visual art elements woven into the set. their fall concert series, “My Past/Our Present” company returns to the Dance “It’s truly a multisensory experience,” Rivera at three locations throughout the month of Center with “Long Run,” a new says in a phone interview. October, first at Studio5 in Evanston October work that pushes the performers to physical and 58 emotional extremes. October 18-20 4 HTHE END IS HERE and that’s ok. Links Hall. Kelly Anderson Dance Theatre evaluates the circumstances leading up to Armageddon, guiding the company through a brainstorming session on the creation of a new world order. October 12-14 5 Swan Lake. Auditorium Theatre. The Joffrey Ballet presents Christopher Wheeldon’s reenvisioning of the iconic ballet. October 17-28
5 and 6, then down to Links Hall in Lakeview collaborator Monique Haley, who explores her The final piece will premiere next year, in October 19 and 20, then on to Hyde Park at identity as a black female artist, maturing and celebration of CRDT’s twentieth anniversary the Logan Center for the Arts for one finding her voice. Deeply Rooted Dance season. performance October 27. The extended run Theatre company member and one of last is rare in the dance world—shows most com- year’s Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Rivera says that CRDT hopes to expand their monly run a single weekend—but even more Artists Joshua Ishmon pairs with Pharez reach further into the neighborhoods in the rare is the tour of local venues. Whitted who, amongst many accomplish- years to come. Earlier this year, they ments, now serves as the jazz director of performed at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis“It’s important to us to bring the arts to the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Ishmon Cultural Center (a hidden gem on West neighborhoods,” Rivera says. “It’s great to go is a young rising star in the Chicago dance Armitage Street in Hermosa), and the downtown for a show, but not everyone can scene and Whitted a seasoned artist in his company will return in 2019. This month make it to the Auditorium Theatre, especially fifties. Rivera says the age gap in the pairing gives ample opportunity to experience if you have kids. We want to not just visit a is by design, as further creative fodder for CRDT’s unique brand of immersive, uplifting venue and take on the responsibility of selling Ishmon’s reflection on influence and identity, performance and get a peek into what’s to tickets, but really partner with presenters and “The Process Takes a Lifetime.” Rivera has come in their twentieth year. reach their community.” The approach to two pieces on the bill: “Sin Fronteras,” a presentation is part and parcel to CRDT’s commission from the Chicago Sinfonietta At Studio5 in Dance Center Evanston, 1934 creative muse: the themes that shape our with music by Grammy nominee Clarice Dempster, October 5 & 6 at 8pm. At Links community. Assad, and the latest iteration of his Hall, 3111 North Western, October 19 & 20 multi-year project with Cerqua, “American at 7pm (October 19 is a benefit concert, The fall program consists of four pieces that Catracho.” Rivera, whose family emigrated special tickets required). At the Reva and speak to a multitude of experiences, each the from Honduras so that he could have access David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 East product of collaboration between a composer to professional dance training, explores the 60th, October 27 at 7:30pm. $30 in advance, and a choreographer. “ROOT: mwanzo wa immigrant experience in a suite of dances $35 at the door, discounts for students and mwili ni roho” teams Cerqua with past that have been in development since 2016. seniors. Tickets at cerquarivera.org. Photos: Ben McKeown Photos: Mathew MurphyTERE O’CONNOR DANCE EPHRAT ASHERIE DANCE OCTOBER 2018 NewcityOctober 18–20, 2018 October 11–13, 20187:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m.TICKETS TICKETS$30 REGULAR / $24 SENIORS / $10 STUDENTS $30 REGULAR / $24 SENIORS / $10 STUDENTSSUBSCRIBE AND SAVE 25% SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE 25%dance.colum.edu dance.colum.edu 59
Design Tightly Knit The Weaving Mill Seamlessly Blends Business and Community in the Heart of West Town By Isa GiallorenzoTextile scans courtesy of The Weaving MillNewcity OCTOBER 2018 Globalization usually spells disaster for graduate Matti Sloman in 2015. Together, Hotel. They also make limited runs of unique American industry, and so it did for the defunct saving all the industrial looms from the scrap items sold directly on The Weaving Mill Chicago Weaving Corporation—a textile heap, they founded The Weaving Mill. \"In website, sometimes in collaboration with other manufacturer established in the 1940s that graduate school at RISD, we shared a artists. There are two community-oriented sold tablecloths, placemats and table runners common interest in how to continue making programs as well: the Envision partnership, to the also-defunct Chicago-based depart- work in experimental ways outside of the W.E.F.T. (West Town Education for Textiles), ment store Marshall Field's (it's now operated academic context,\" says Sloman. \"We both felt and W.A.R.P., alluding to their West Town as Macy's), which replaced them with a the pressure of losing the resources found Artist Residency Project—both acronyms supplier from China. In the process of closing within an institution, and knew we were not forming a wordplay on \"warp and weft,\" two down in 2005, Chicago Weaving Corporation alone in this anxiety. We were also interested in basic components in weaving. partnered with Envision Unlimited, a social the idea that a studio is a place to make work, services agency serving adults with disabilities. but the shape of the studio can also be In its most recent installment, W.A.R.P. hosted They moved the remainder of their equipment explored as part of the work itself. We were multimedia artist, curator and writer Andreana to the agency's workshop and offered a excited to build a practice together that Donahue. \"These programs are evolving with job-training program to its clients while continuously tested and reflected our each iteration,\" says Winter, \"but the basic continuing a decreased production of experiences in making.\" And making they did. principle is that we aim to provide meaningful tablecloths. But the partnership didn't last long. programs for Envision clients and to create \"In 2014, the program was petering out, and They cleaned out the space, learned how to opportunities for person-to-person interaction the opportunity to try a new studio model in use the inherited industrial equipment, and and engagement in the studio that put ability the space opened up,\" recounts Emily Winter, figured out how to structure classes with and disability distinctions aside and allow for at the time a studio assistant at the Envision Envision. They also began their own wholesale people to approach each other as equals and Unlimited Arts Studio. Holding an MFA in design and production, which has been picked learn from one another.\" As for the healing Textiles from the Rhode Island School of up by big-ticket brands such as Rejuvenation, properties of the craft, the designer ponders: Design (RISD), Winter joined forces with fellow Unison Home, Rebecca Atwood and Ace \"I think that the act of making, whether it's60
DESIGN TOP 5 1 Open House Chicago. Around the city. Your annual chance to explore the city’s most iconic buildings—more than 200 landmarks, theaters, hotels, residential spaces and private clubs—and learn their architectural and cultural stories. October 13-14Tote Bags made with textiles woven by W.E.F.T. students/ Photo: Nathan Keay 2 Modern by Design: Chicago Streamlinespainting, drawing, ceramics, whatever, is often Winter approaches weaving in a wider context: America. Chicago History \"I think the process is really inexhaustible in its Museum. Founded in 1856 totherapeutic because you as a person are study and interpret Chicago's history, the museum stays true to its mission by highlighting the city’s role in bringing cutting-edge modern design to the American marketplace. October 27– December 2making decisions about materials, color, variety,\" she says. \"I like how you can set up 3 Vintage Garage. 5051 North Broadway.shape, etcetera, that are only your own—that limitations in a very tangible and literal way and The city's one-stop destination come up with solutions and combinations you for all things vintage, retro andprocess can be very grounding. For a lot of one-of-a-kind promises apeople, the repetitive and rhythmic aspects of wouldn't expect. To me, it feels like a good Halloween-themed day—blow working-through medium and provides a molds, witches, jack-o'-lanternsweaving can be calming or meditative. But and more fright props for thisoften weaving can be pretty frustrating and not material access point to all sorts of different year's trick-or-treaters. October kinds of questions—especially historical ones. 21, 10am-5pm, $5so fluid at all, so I think a big part of being aweaver is learning how to fix problems calmly, You can get a lot of real information about a place or a time or a people by looking at howand how to work with the materials andequipment—not against them. So ideally that textiles were made, thought about, dealt with,encourages some amount of self-awareness etcetera.\" To Sloman, a painting major, textilesand creativity, and a sense of self-confidence initially became an interest because of the materiality of fiber in contrast to paint.or trust.\" \"Weaving, for me, is most exciting when weThe result of these efforts is impressive, since think about the life of the textile,\" she says. \"I 4 African American love making edits to our designs that ensure a Designers in Chicago:the products they create with frugal means Art, Commerce, and thehave a luxurious feel and look naturally tasteful. useful, personal relationship to a home and Politics of Race. Chicago household. Textiles are wonderful to admire, Cultural Center. A range of\"A lot of what we do at The Weaving Mill media showcases how but what drew me to it as a medium was its African-American designers andrevolves around available materials,\" says artists remade the image of theWinter. \"We try to be resourceful with leftover, inseparable connection to application and black consumer. October 27–donated or dead-stock yarns, and recombine function. After learning more about the field, I March 3them in ways that push them into a new and realized it also tapped into my desire for a more collaborative studio. What brought me tounexpected life. A lot of our work is about weaving was The Weaving Mill,\" she says.setting up simple systems (black-and-white \"Weaving is the foundational medium of mystripes, color relationships, gradation) and practice with Emily, but the work we doworking into those systems with color andmaterial. We use operations of chance in our together expands to writing, drawing,design work and we use the limitations of our installation and beyond.\" That includesequipment as starting points for workarounds. multiple exhibitions in venues like Elastic ArtsWe think a lot about how a fabric functions in and Comfort Station, and in academic settings 5 Keep Moving: Designing such as Wheaton and Columbia colleges. Chicago’s Bicycleits life as a fabric: Not every fabric can do Culture. Chicago Design OCTOBER 2018 Newcity Museum. An exhibition thateverything, some fabrics are better suited to As if they weren't busy enough, this summer looks at bicycle design and manufacturing in Chicago andcertain uses than others. We also try to the duo is working on a bag project—bags explores the city’s contribution to the early popularity of bicyclesunderstand how fabric can be used as a in America at-large. Octobermaterial and medium in art making. How you made with textiles produced by their W.E.F.T. 19-February 15can use it in ways that push it outside function program, developing another bag collaborationin an interesting way.\" As far as their aesthetic with local brand 1733, and creating a newinfluences go, Winter cites Bauhaus weavers, churro blanket with New York-based studio Sharktooth, available this fall. Plus, as usual,Mazandaran kilims from Iran, and work by they will be hosting various open housesItalian conceptual artist Alighiero e Boetti. throughout the season. \"And we try to takeHolding an undergraduate degree in history, the trash out and recycling,\" jokes Winter. 61
D&iDnirningkingNewcity OCTOBER 2018The Best Pizza wanted something more substantial to eat with in Chicago your beer, you could order out. And that’s how Photo: David Hammondwe discovered the best pizza in Chicago. Sez Who? Sez Me. Most Chicagoans will tell you that deep-dish By David Hammond pizza is mostly for tourists and teenage boys with unquenchable hunger and the unlimited Marie’s Rip Tide Lounge was the kind of Naugahyde stool at the bar, you sank easily capacity of a dumpster. I can eat a slice of place you’d drive by hundreds of times without into the mellow vibe. The dimly lit space deep-dish pizza now and again, and it’s just stopping. It was your typical Chicago washed you in a wave that swept you back to fine, but texturally it’s lacking, with the neighborhood bar, known to locals, but to 1961 when the place opened and Marie’s homogenized consistency of pudding. those passing by, likely known only by the served their first can of beer. funky signage, a washed-out image of a blue Most Chicagoans, it is not too bold to wave cascading over black-and-white Undeniably old school, Marie’s was cash only, speculate, prefer the thin cracker crust of barroom tiles. with to-go six packs of cold Old Style, a what’s called “tavern-style pizza,” the kind of jukebox and an old Zenith radio, original equip- pizza I enjoyed growing up in Portage Park Marie’s battered and bland exterior—with the ment that was probably playing WGN and when almost all the pizza we ate was either blond bricks and glass blocks of so many Near WJJD the day the place opened. You could bruschetta brushed with olive oil, which my Northwest side buildings—didn’t exactly get a bag of chips from the back bar, which Genoese grandma called “pizza,” or thin crust beckon, but once you grabbed a red also housed not-for-sale porcelain dolls. If you cheese and sausage. For years in Chicago, well before you could get pizza with goat cheese and arugula, thin crust was the pizza you ordered. The pizza came sheathed in a paper bag emblazoned with the smiling face of62
a jolly mustachioed man in a chef’s hat, and sturdy enough to support the weight of DINING & DRINKING TOP 5the pie was cut in a crisscross pattern—some- toppings, so you can hold the piece in onetimes called “party cut”—that reflected the grid hand while eating. Forks and knives are unnecessary for all but the center pieces, 1 West Town Food Trucksystem of Chicago streets. Social. Noble at Chicago, which are always less crisp. Textural variation near Eckhart Park. Check out 5411 Empanadas, WhaddaTo this day, at least to my mind, the thin crust keeps each bite interesting. Jerk, Harold’s Chicken, DönerMen and other foodtavern-style pizza is as good as it gets. Sam Steve “Hungry Hound” Dolinsky published trucks with street-smart servings. Free; $20 samplerSifton of the New York Times came up with “Pizza City, USA: 101 Reasons Why Chicago Is tickets available. October 5-6the Pizza Cognition Theory that states, in a America’s Greatest Pizza Town,” in mid-Sep- 2 Lincoln Square Ravenswood Apple Fest.nutshell, that the first pizza we have as kids Lincoln Avenue betweenbecomes the paradigm for all pizza to come, tember, and it will likely be the definitive word Lawrence and Eastwood. Cider on Chicago pizza for years to come. In a and other apple-influencedthe slice against which all other slices are drinks and food are served, recent interview, Dolinsky said that, for some prepared by chefsmeasured. This argument for the obvious accompanied by live music. $5 tavern-style pizza, he favors the eminently suggested donation. Octoberrelativity of taste carries a lot of weight, 6-7 worthy South Side Vito and Nick’s. My favoritesupporting what seems the undeniable truth 3 Beer Tasting in thethat claims of “the best” this or “the best” that pizza place does not get a mention. Garden. Chicago Botanic Garden. Day drinking amidstare, fundamentally, impossible to prove. It’s botanic splendor, featuringlike asking “what’s the best movie ever made” Older by several years than Marie’s Rip Tide beers from Band of Bohemia, Lounge, this pizza place was founded in Half Acre Beer Company andor “what’s the best poem ever written”? Church Street Brewing. $27 inAbsurd questions, which some feel they have 1957, and they say on the sign out front advance gets you more beer they’ve been delivering pizza since pretty than you probably want tothe authority to answer. drink. October 11 much day one. Dining in, however, is a trip: 4 Bloody Mary Fest.We enjoyed the best pizza in Chicago at the paneled walls, with reproductions of old Theater on the Lake. Do yoga or run along the lake,place that used to deliver to Marie’s, and it’s masters’ paintings side-by-side with Three get healthy and then drink bloodys while enjoying brunchgot the equivalent quotient of curb un-appeal. Stooges’ posters and the obligatory bites as a reward. $25-$80People aren’t drawn to this place for anything “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” picture, with gets you a day of exercise and Elvis serving Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn tipsy good times. October 14other than the pizza. Monroe and James Dean. It’s a big place 5 Taste America Chicago. Prime & Provisions,As far as I can tell, this place has never been with several dining rooms, and on a recent Builders BLDG. A James Beard Sunday afternoon, about one-sixth of the event that brings togetherreviewed by any of Chicago’s major print Chicago chefs to strut theirpublications. It has, however, been praised by seats were filled with the butts of what you stuff and serve their chow andmany people online. Grubhub gives it the top can bet were locals. cocktails. Only seventy-four guests will be served, but yourating of five stars based on almost 3,500 can still get on the waitlist.individual reviews. People like it; publications As at Marie’s, the street signage of my October 26 favorite pizza place is the antithesis of glitz:ignore it. just the name and the familiar picture of theOn Yelp this summer a representative citizen jolly mustachioed man in a chef’s hat.reviewer gave the place five stars, saying, “I With the same kind of black-and-white tilegrew up eating this pizza. After we moved, floor, low-light anti-ambience and faded glorythey wouldn’t deliver to our house. No other as Marie’s, this place is a survivor and a lookplace compares! Recently, I moved to Texasand I can’t tell y’all how I’m just counting the back at how Chicagoans were eating in thedays to go back to my hometown Chicago to years before anyone in town had heard of the Michelin Guide, and the word gourmeteat here!!! I miss this place more than anyother place on earth.” On LTHForum, a poster referred to things like the thirty-one flavors at Baskin-Robbins.declared it “about as classic Chicago as youcan get.” If you make it to the best pizza place withThey have a big menu here, including some out-of-towners in tow, give them a crashunabashedly un-health foods like the Foot of course in two of the three Chicago classics:Onion Rings, the Breaded Sampler (breaded pizza, and, right across the street, stop atand fried zucchini, poppers, mozzarella sticks, Redhot Ranch and get the minimalist Depres- sion Dog (onion, relish, sport peppers, but nomushrooms, and, of course, rings) and the fresh tomato, cucumber or fancy-pantsveal or chicken Parm—big slabs of meat, accoutrements), served since 1952.breaded and fried. There’s a range of pizza OCTOBER 2018 Newcitystyles on the menu, too, including The Godzilla, Chicagoans argue endlessly about whichwith eight toppings. pizza, or hot dog or Italian beef is the best,The best pizza in Chicago has a thin crust and it’s good to passionately hold beliefs.with just the right amount of cheese and very, For pizza, I’m going with John’s Pizzeria Ristorante and Lounge, 2104 North Western.very little grease, the flavors of the simple It’s the best pizza around. Sez who? Sez me.ingredients coming through cleanly andclearly. The bulk sausage is crumbled evenly John’s Pizzeria Ristorante and Lounge,over the surface, providing an even distribu- 2104 North Western,(773)384-1755,tion of the fennel-and garlic-seasoned meatblobs. The crust around the pie’s periphery is johnspizzachicago.net 63
Newcity OCTOBER 2018 164 North State Street • Between Lake & Randolph JEAN-LUC GODARD'S THE RISE & FALL OF A SMALL FILM COMPANY SEPT 28 - OCT 4 \"Diverting and substantial.\" — NY Times KUSAMA: INFINITY OCT 5 - 18 \"A visually exuberant documentary that tenderly traces the enthralling career of the maverick Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.\" — Film Journal International BUY TICKETS NOW at www.siskelfilmcenter.org 64
FilmReels by Ray Pride Emulsion Pictures CFS is in a good position to teach this stuff; we've all been projectionists at one time, and Chicago Film Society Projects a Celluloid Future three of us still are. We have close relation- ships with film archives and archivists, so we By Ray Pride understand their side in all of this. Plus, we've all been working in the industry during this The Chicago Film Society has scheduled two workshops put on by the Association of weird period of transition, and between the five OCTOBER 2018 Newcity twenty screenings this fall across the Moving Image Archivists. It's a work-in-prog- of us we've taken a photo of every type of film landscape: at the Music Box, Northeastern ress, but the longterm goal with these damage, optical track, shipping disaster, you Illinois University, the Chicago History Museum workshops is to fill the void in formal training name it, that's crossed our paths in the past and Chicago Filmmakers. The quintet behind it for film projectionists, specifically for people ten years. Our slideshows are really good. all—Julian Antos, Rebecca Lyon, Cameron handling archival prints. Archival prints come Worden, Kyle Westphal and Becca Hall—is with a lot of rules in place to protect the Kyle Westphal: We've had a monthly expanding its preservation game, as well as longevity of the print that have to do with how showcase at the Music Box since 2016, which commissioning a singular 35mm print of you handle, project, even ship it. And if you has developed an audience distinct from our Andrew Bujalski’s analog-video hallucination, don't follow those rules the archive won't lend NEIU screenings, although some brave souls “Computer Chess.” We gathered conspirators you prints. So if you do a bad job, you lose attend both. We had our most successful Antos, Lyon, Worden and Westphal for an access to this important world of films, some show ever, at any venue, with “Urgh! A Music update on their celluloid sickness, their of which don't exist digitally. CFS signed on to War” back in July. We generally shy away from seven-year-old, nonprofit artisanal enterprise host a workshop in Chicago for sixteen canonical titles, not because we don't like and how to encourage a new generation of students, the hope being that eventually these them, but because they're shown so often and emulsion handlers. will become a regional thing that any group are available on disk and streaming. That with a certain skill level can teach. We had strategy has worked well, but we'll make an Rebecca Lyon: Julian and I were invited to people from every corner of the country come, exception when something comes along like Alamo Drafthouse in Austin in 2016 to teach a it was wonderful! Houston, Minneapolis, Los the IB Technicolor 35mm print of “Rio Bravo,” section on \"archival film handling and Angeles, Portland, Iowa City, New Orleans, which we borrowed from a private collector. inspection\" in what was then the second of there was even a woman from Mexico City. We all love that movie and thought the opportunity to present it in an original print was too good to pass up—especially because 65
FILM TOP 5 modern prints of “Rio Bravo” don't look so hot. uses our series as a springboard to discuss That's important about CFS: we want to give film history and archival research. The idea that 1 Wanda. Siskel, October people the ability to look at films—even films students can receive academic credit for 5-6, 8. A digital restoration they've seen a dozen times—from a new, seeing “Truck Turner” in 35mm warms my to Barbara Loden’s only film: materialist perspective. heart. the rich, raw story of a Rust Belt wife on the road, turned Rebecca Lyon: It's a strange time to be Rebecca Lyon: Chicago has a strong adventurer and crook. Essential viewing. involved in film projection. Theaters began community of people working in film exhibition, 2 Bisbee ‘17. switching over to digital around 2010, and by and while it can feel overwhelming to think of Music Box, opens Friday, all the obstacles a venue running film these October 5. Robert Greene’s 2012 you'd be hard-pressed to find a venue experiments with documentary days is facing—especially if they want to do it form fascinate, and “Bisbee that was still running film as their primary ‘17” is his most radical, combin- well, which they should—I think about how far ing collaborative documentary, format. But along with this monumental music and reenactments as change, a lot of theaters started to realize that CFS has come just teaching ourselves this townspeople explore the there's an audience that actually cares about stuff, and from learning from all these very town’s 1917 deportation of talented and knowledgeable film people that hundreds and hundreds of seeing things on film. As something grows striking immigrant miners. Chicago is lucky to have. So these workshops scarcer, it becomes more special and then 3 Garry Winogrand: people become more vocal about wanting to feel small in the grand scheme of \"keeping film All Things Are see it. You start to see theaters with multiple alive\" but it's a step in the right direction, and Photographable. we hope they'll be a resource for people Siskel, opens Friday, October 26. screens that have transitioned to digital Curator John Szarkowski called who've been struggling to figure things out on Garry Winogrand \"the central projectors decide to keep film projectors on photographer of his generation,\" their own. and Sasha Waters Freyer’s one screen. You start to see venues taking documentary captures the vitality of this unstoppable their platter systems out and replacing them Cameron Worden: Having a space like street photographer. with two projectors, so they can run films 4 Halloween. Opens Friday, reel-to-reel instead of having to build them up Chicago Filmmakers where we can regularly October 19. The onto one giant platter. Screening films this way screen 16mm has allowed us to present dark-hearted duo of David small-gauge filmmaking in a way that we have Gordon Green and Danny is one of the main requirements of most McBride turn to a reinvention of only been able to sporadically in the past. John Carpenter’s classic. archives. What you end up with is that film projection is no longer the norm, but it's still a \"Film\" means 35mm to a lot of folks, but there 5 Chicago International are entire modes of filmmaking that are Film Festival. big part of the draw for certain venues. And River East, October 10-21. it's often something that sets them apart from ignored when you just focus on 35mm feature High-profile attractions for the your run-of-the-mill all-digital multiplex. So, for films. As an organization dedicated to celluloid, fifty-fourth fest include Pawel the projectionists and the technical directors, we feel an imperative to not only contextualize Pawlikowski’s “Cold War”; Mike the job has become more like art handling. Ten and screen features that received 35mm Leigh’s “Peterloo”; Hirokazu years ago, if you put a huge scratch down the theatrical distribution, but also showcase the Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters”; Steve middle of a print of “Mamma Mia!” the studio wide spectrum of cheaper, less visible modes McQueen’s “Widows”; Joel of film exhibition which tend to receive less Edgerton’s “Boy Erased” and wouldn't have cared, because there were a Christian Petzold’s “Transit.” repertory attention. We were very excited to thousand other prints. When we screen 66 “Mamma Mia!” now, it's a studio vault print and show a selection of films by Curt McDowell—in if you scratch it, someone will notice. You've gorgeous prints struck from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ recent done permanent damage to something of which there are very few left on earth, and you restorations last season—in part because a may never get a print from that studio archive filmmaker like McDowell doesn't fit into easy repertory programming boxes. He worked again. And you'll want to crawl under a rock primarily in 16mm, had one foot in the and die. experimental film world and another in the Kyle Westphal: For our first few years, we porn industry, and has been mostly seen had difficulty keeping a stable venue for outside of \"traditional\" theatrical contexts. reasons beyond our control: landlords, liquor Demonstrating that the history of film licenses, HVAC breakdown. It's gratifying that exhibition is as varied and diverse as the CFS has been able to expand its programming. history of film itself has always been part of our mission. Screening at Chicago Filmmakers is a We're now in our fourth year of residence at NEIU and it continues to be a great place for natural extension of our programming imperative. Part of why we screen shortsNewcity OCTOBER 2018 us to present an eclectic line-up. We know before features is to complicate the fea- there are folks who come every week, regardless of what's showing, and we try to be ture-based repertory model despite the fact conscientious about that. We deliberately give that showing standalone features limits your people something different every week—here's purview to a sliver of film history. a pre-Code film, and next week is a 1970s Rebecca Lyon: I once made a joke to [film Western, and the week after that is a scholar] Patrick Friel that not only do we Taiwanese film from the 1990s. The NEIU project your films, but sometimes we'll give Communications, Media and Theatre department, which sponsors our program, is you a ride home after the show. That's a going to offer a cinémathèque course, which full-service film projectionist.
IN THE FORMER BOOKMAN’S ALLEY SPACE AT 1712 SHERMAN AVE, EVANSTON 224.999.7722 OCTOBER EVENTS AT THANK YOU BOOKENDS & BEGINNINGS to our 2018 Event Partners for helping Monday Oct. 8, 6 pm: make our inaugural Writers Festival and The Tango War: Author Mary Jo McConahay in conversation Story in a Night Fundraiser a huge success! with Medill professor Doug Foster That was one for the books! Tuesday, Oct. 9, 6 pm : The School of Graduate Studies The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt with author/cartoonist Ken Krimstein Wednesday, Oct. 17, 6 pm: Letters From Max with author/playwright Sarah Ruhl Signed copies available by calling the store or ordering online. Join one of our book groups: The Very Short Book Group, The Mortality Book Group, or Talking About Race For more events and news visit us atWWW.BOOKENDSANDBEGINNINGS.COM Where you can also order from us 24/7Live at The Book Cellar Amy Blumenfeld John Barr,“Dante in China” and Anonymous $1,500 OCTOBER 2018 Newcity“The Cast” Susan Hahn, “Losing Beck: A Triptych” Anonymous $500 Eileen Madden of Evanston Print & Paper October 4, 7pm October 13, 4pm Merz Apothecary Sanders Fine PortraitsJames Mustich Essay Fiesta! Chicago Shakespeare“1,000 Books To Read Before You Die” Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel Chicago October 15, 7pm TimeLine Theatre October 4, 11:45am at the Standard Club Local Author Night Lifeline Theatre Peter Sagal & Meb Keflezighi featuring Julie Hyzy, Jim Doherty, Beth Remy Bumppo Theater BibRave Podcast Live: Chicago Marathon Ann Fennelly, Francie Arenson and Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Monica Berlin Seminary Co-Op Bookstore October 6, 2pm at Westin River North October 17, 7pm iO Theatre Tyler James Smith Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago“Unstoppable Moses” Jeremy Wilson “Adult Teeth” Court Theatre October 6, 6pm WBEZ Chicago Public Radio October 18, 7pm Whiskey Tasting with Lew Bryson Simon Smith October 8, 6pm “Son of Soothsayer”Jaap Robben October 19, 7:30pm“You Have Me To Love” Thrilling Mysteries October 10, 7pm Young Adult Panel Deborah Gang October 20, 3:30pm at Sulzer Library“The Half Life of Everything” Ryder Carroll October 11, 7pm “The Bullet Journaling Method” The Kates!! Standup Comedy October 30, 7pm at Sulzer Library October 12, 7pm Tell Me A French Story Storytime in French and English October 13, 10:30amGo to our website for event details, book clubs and more! For more information on StoryStudio Chicago, visit www.storystudiochicago.comYour Independent Book Store in Lincoln Square! and follow us on social media!4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago773.293.2665 • bookcellarinc.com 67
Lit Surviving the Shitshow sexuality also interest me. Narrowly defined masculinity is a problem for several of these Jeremy T. Wilson Talks About \"Adult Teeth” characters, and not just the men. By Toni Nealie As far as motifs go, animals and food feature in a lot of the stories. My goal is to make a relationships in reality. reader hungry. It's the easiest way to get That said, I've seen too them to feel something. But really, I just like many people I know food, so food goes in. Whenever I read a put total and complete story with characters who don't stop and eat faith in their partner to something, I feel there's been a wasted be everything for them, opportunity for the writer to offer a detailed and I mean everything: description of a regional dish, like, say, teacher, lover, father, Brunswick stew. Animals are the same way. mother, friend, critic, Animals are so completely integrated into our chef, doctor, adminis- daily lives that we sometimes forget they're trative assistant, there. I can look outside right now and see at therapist, masseuse, least three animals, not to mention all the sommelier, guru, you insects I can't see. I can see more animals name it. This is trouble. than people. Maybe that's because I'm Relationships that don't upstairs and there's a big silver maple allow for individual outside my window, but still. Last year I saw growth and exploration a coyote run down my street. Even though through continued we rarely act like it, we are sharing this place social engagement and with a lot of different creatures. enrichment outside the relationship quickly You balance humor and sadness—what become stifling and considerations go into getting that dysfunctional. This is balance right? the definition of I was watching \"Mary Poppins\" the other day conservatism. with my daughter and there's a scene where they are all obviously high, so high that theyNewcity OCTOBER 2018 Drawn to rogues and rascals, Jeremy T. \"Leaving Charity\" offers are having a tea party on the ceiling and they Wilson writes about humans grappling with life’s a good example of cannot stop laughing. The only thing that will curveballs. His funny, sharp, debut collection what I'm talking about. Mac is upset his best get them down from their high is to start “Adult Teeth” features a Florida man who takes friend Clark is finally leaving their small town, crying. The message here is clear: you can't on an alligator, a sex doll named Tiffani, a heading out west with some crazy dreams. So stay high forever. This seems to accurately couple who meet at a nativity audition, a gorilla Mac spends the whole story illustrating how reflect life as it's lived. Not the getting high stranded atop a water tower and a sleazy youth Clark has some kind of personality defect that and having tea parties on ceilings part, but pastor whose redneck wisdom—“It don’t get produces these flights of fancy, but really Mac humor ultimately giving way to sadness and no better than this”—speaks volumes. Wilson is just doesn't want to lose his best friend. He vice versa. I'm not sure that I get the balance a 2012 winner of the Nelson Algren Award for would rather Clark stay in town than afford him right as much as I'm just trying to mimic my short fiction and teaches creative writing at the the opportunity to light out and discover some- experience. Chicago High School for the Arts. This is an thing new. What's worse is he won't even tell edited conversation. him how he feels. So many of the characters Tell me about the settings—the stories are in my stories would be so much better off if very visual and remind me of movies that I feel both grossed-out and sympathetic they were just better communicators. But that are situated in a particular slice of toward the characters. They are hilarious, doesn't make for good fiction. America—unclassy. How is place but you don't seem mean in your comedy. important? Where are you from and what It's a dismal look at the state of relation- How did the collection germinate, includ- do you draw upon? ships—what are you drawing on? ing themes and motifs such as zoo My family moved around a lot growing up. I \"Grossed-out and sympathetic\" might be the animals? lived in Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Georgia, best compliment about my characters ever! I don't really think about themes until well into but both my parents were raised in Perry, Thank you. Let me just say that I think it's far the writing process. People struggling with Georgia. They always wanted to get back there, better to go through this shitshow with people transition seems to be a common thread. so when they had the opportunity they moved you love than it is to go it alone. The dismal Something seismic is shifting under their feet home. I was going into the eighth grade at the relationships my characters find themselves in and they're all ill-equipped to deal with it, or time, and we were moving from Fort Worth, don't necessarily reflect my own thoughts on refuse to deal with it, or communicate in Texas, so in addition to all the other teenage terribly immature ways. Issues of identity, awkwardness, there was the awkward specifically as they pertain to gender and transition from an urban setting to a rural one, from skate parks to fishing holes, from a city with Whataburger to a town with Krystal. My68
stories tend to reflect this spirit of disassociation,of wanting to belong to a place, but notnecessarily feeling you belong to that place.I usually don't know where a story is going to LIT TOP 5be set when I start, but it will likely end upbeing somewhere I'm familiar with because I 1 Fuller Awardee Stuartnever like to stop what I'm doing and figure Dybek. Poetry Foundation.out the street names or the local dialect or The Chicago Literary Hall ofwhat kinds of trees grow in the medians of, Fame recognizes poet andsay, Kansas City, a place I've never been fiction writer Stuart Dybek forbefore. I'm sure their fast food is different, too. his lifetime contribution toBut place is just as important to story as literature. October 10character or any other element of fiction. Imean, a character from Chicago knows allabout dibs. And knowing all about dibs meansthat character has a relationship with theirenvironment and that environment has shapedthem into either supporting or not supportingdibs. Everyone has an opinion on this. Youcannot live in Chicago and abstain from thedibs debate. Not possible. We are shaped byplace, so place has to shape our stories. I snorted at your asides about “mise-en- capable of being held within a frame, dis- 2 Chelsea Clinton. scène” and “French-y ambience”—there played, cherished, revisited again and again, or Women and Children First. are many places when you capture perfect even forgotten in a basement. Novels are more President's daughter Chelsea dialogue or little tells of a pretentious like collections of dryer lint. The compression Clinton spurs on budding character—do you write scripts? Are you of a short story is also one of its challenges, activists and signs books. constantly listening and watching? figuring where to cut, what's vital. Oh, and October 21 I do write scripts. And I love to listen to people endings. Man, short-story endings are so, so, talk. Dialogue to me is the swiftest form of so, so hard. 3 Pilsen Community characterization. A character isn't alive to me Books First Annual Fair. until they're talking. I love the shorthand that Tell me about the passage of this book. Co-Prosperity Sphere. A people develop with one another out of How and when did you write it? three-day extravaganza of books, proximity or time, so I try to pay attention to I think the oldest story in the book was probably music and art. October 5-7 that when I'm thinking about how my written ten years ago. Like all good southerners characters speak. I still might say \"Yes, sir\" with literary leanings, I thought I wanted to write 4 Pass The Mic: and \"No, ma'am\" to my friends’ parents, a collection where all the stories took place in a A Spoken-word because I grew up doing so. But that would fictitious small town not unlike the town where I Workshop For Educators. be totally foreign to some people. A jamoke to grew up with a cast of characters not unlike Encyclopedia Britannica. me is a jabroni to somebody else. My mom some people I knew. Some of those stories are Kevin Coval and Young Chicago might say, \"Go to the grass!\" instead of \"Go to here. But the longer I lived in Chicago, and the Authors lead a hands-on hell!\" but that's because she's a nice southern more I felt part of the city, the more I wanted to workshop on how to use lady and would never tell someone to go to hell. write about it. Whatever the setting or the origin spoken word and poetry to of the story, they all underwent frequent center student voices, based on What are the ingredients of a good short changes over the years. I'm a relatively slow odes. October 10 story? What do you like about the genre? writer, I guess. I tend to work on a story in a What are some of the challenges of it? burst of energy that lasts about a week or two. 5 Chicago Humanities OCTOBER 2018 NewcityThere are as many ways to write a good short If a draft comes out of that process, I'll share it Festival: Jill Lepore. story as there are short stories, which is just a with a few trusted readers, and after I get Northwestern University. polite way of saying \"I don't know.\" Literary feedback I'll leave it alone for a few months. New Yorker writer and Harvard journals often subscribe to the \"I'll know it when When I come back to it, I have a better historian Jill Lepore argues in I see it,\" definition, which is less polite and understanding of what might be working and \"These Truths,\" her huge history equally unhelpful. But when I think about short not working, so I'll try to crack it back open and of the United States, that stories I like, they often have a distinctive voice see if there's anything worth a damn. devotion to facts, proof and or an authority that grabs me and says, \"hey, evidence is central to the nation. trust me, this will not be a waste of your time.\" “Adult Teeth” October 28The most perfect short story ever written is By Jeremy T. Wilson\"Yours\" by Mary Robison. All the ingredients are Tortoise Books, 246 pages, $15.99 here. Except, like a good Brunswick stew, I'm Jeremy T. Wilson's book release party is not sure what all the ingredients are. on October 18, 7pm, at The Book Cellar, 4736 North Lincoln, (773)293-2665. Jeremy will It might be a tautology, but one thing I like have a conversation with author Billy about short stories is that they're short. Lombardo, then will read from \"Adult Teeth.\" Compression requires precision. No time for He will be in conversation with Bill Ayers on twenty-five page digressions on the history of October 25, 6pm, at 57th Street Books, 1301 Brunswick stew. Like I said: food is important to East 57th (773)684-1300. me. The form demands you pay attention to every detail and give every detail your utmost attention. Short stories feel much more like objects of art than novels do, something 69
Music Photo: Joe Mazza World Class MUSIC TOP 5 Spektral Quartet’s New Season Takes a Global Perspective 1 Lauryn Hill. Chicago Theatre. The By Seth Boustead legendary singer-rapper-song- writer tours the twentiethNewcity OCTOBER 2018 I don't know about you, but I feel like I've engage us each and every day,\" their website anniversary of her spent a good chunk of the last two years in a puts it, \"we celebrate the spectrum of color, groundbreaking—if not fetal position, like seriously curled up in a ball experience and interaction that constantly revolutionary—album, “The on top of the bed with all of my clothes on, shift and reassemble to shape our existence. Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” lights off, fingers in my ears rocking These are not your ordinary string quartet October 7 side-to-side, slowly muttering \"make it stop, concerts. This is THE WORLD AROUND US.\" make it stop\" in a singsong voice until I fall More on that, but let me say first that to 2 Nine Inch Nails. Aragon. into a sleep so permeated with bad dreams name your concert season is bizarre. I mean, Thirty years on, the industrial that I wake up in a sweat, shaking and crying the normal name for a classical music giants are again essential and start the whole thing over again. concert season is something unostentatious listening. Their new album, “Bad like “2018-2019 Season.” Something solid Witch,” is the howling assault on In fairness, I did watch the second season of and respectable like that. So right off the bat, societal decay that the Trump era “Stranger Things” somewhere in there, so it we know we're dealing with a different kind of demands. October 25-27 hasn't all been bleak. Oh, how I pine for the group, like potentially unstable and weird. Reagan years! Maybe you're like me and Since its inception, the Spektral Quartet has 3 Tank And The Bangas. you've been spending entirely too much time consistently pulled off the impossible, Concord Music Hall. disengaged from the world, or even actively combining the intense rehearsal schedule, After unanimously winning last blocking it out. The Spektral Quartet thinks meticulous attention to detail and plain-and- year’s NPR Tiny Desk Contest, it's time to reengage. I take their upcoming simple top-level music making you'd expect this disarmingly fierce New concert season, called “The World Around of a Grammy-nominated string quartet, with Orleans funk-soul-hip-hop Us,” as a call to action, a ringing alarm to an offbeat programming philosophy and ensemble gives you a chance to rouse us from collective torpor. performance vibe that can only be defined hear them live. October 26 as fun. \"From the verdant Chicago lakeshore to 4 Božo Vreco. Old Town dreams of sun-bleached islands of the And they have a knack for finding gems that School. The gender-fluid Mediterranean to the people and culture that were hiding in plain sight. For me this was Bosnian Serb singer specializes in Sevdalinka, the emotionally 70 rich Bosnian folk music; his mesmerizing performances melt cultural boundaries. October 27 5 The Stanley Clarke Band. SPACE. The elder statesman jazz bassist rides herd over an ensemble of young players, and lends his groove and gravitas to their irrepressible energy. October 16
especially evident in the focus of their last musically political climate in which they were by the lakeshore ecology along Lake Michigan, and the audience will be surround-season: the four string quartets of Arnold made and be heard on their own terms: as ed by custom speakers that aid us inSchoenberg. When I heard that they were music. conjuring the sounds of this local, naturalgoing to spend a season delving into these So it's one thing to get us to set aside our environment.works, God help me, but my first response musical prejudices and reevaluate the work ofwas: why? a pioneering titan on its own terms; but what “Gloria Coates' 'String Quartet No. 7' isThese quartets occupy a strange niche in the about our actual prejudices? They can't inspired by angels—more of the terrifying andclassical repertoire: too out there for a seriously be asking us to engage with the awe-inspiring variety rather than those of thebuttoned-down quartet, but too passé for actual world as it is right now, at this moment… religious-bookstore type—and the audience can they? I mean, in case you haven't heard, is going to be in for one mammoth listeningfirebrand ensembles looking to prove their experience as the piece pairs us with themettle on the weirdest, hardest music they can the world is a frickin' disaster. It's onefind. And, well, it just felt like we already knew goddamn thing after another. largest organ in Chicago, with the organist atso much about Schoenberg, at least those of Luckily they're talking about the world both times asked to pummel her forearm onto theus who make it our business to know a lot physical and metaphysical, not any given keys at key moments of the piece.”about arcane modernist music. What else was political landscape, and I'm seriouslythere to say about well-known music by one of considering pulling myself out of bed to check After reading about Spektral's upcoming it out. A concert on October 5 called season I realized that I've been entirely toothe most written-about composers of the “Earthbound, Looking Skyward” in the focused lately on humanity, and especiallytwentieth century? Rockefeller Chapel in Hyde Park is especially the wanton cruelty part of humanity—the \"Oh Humanity!\" part. But it's time toPlenty, as it turns out. Spending that quality intriguing. remember what Hamlet said: that there aretime with Schoenberg was absolutely the rightthing to do and the right time in which to do it. \"It's a program that lives at the edges of the \"more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,The quartet spent who knows how many thunderous and the hushed,\" founding violist than is dreamt of in your philosophy.\"hundreds of hours rehearsing the pieces, and Doyle Armbrust says, \"and if we're doing our Although my name isn't and has never been job well, will span the distance of the earth to Horatio, he's talking directly to me. I'll seethey brought out every subtle nuance and the sky through the voices of two exceptional you at Rockefeller Chapel.detail. Not only that, they got us havingconversations about tonality and complexity in living composers—hailing from two separate generations. Spektral Quartet performs “Earthbound,music again and, perhaps most importantly, Looking Skyward,” October 5, 7:30pm atthey demonstrated once and for all that thesefour quartets are absolute masterpieces in the “Tonia Ko's 'Plain, Air' was written for us for Rockefeller Chapel, 5850 South Wood-repertoire that deserve to transcend the this season,” Armbrust says, “and is inspired lawn; free. THE HANGAR OCTOBER 2018 Newcity at Fort Knox Studios 7,200 square feet of flexible production space and all of the resources needed for your creative project. A truly integrated space for film, video, music, photography and special events. For more information call (630) 689-6969 71
Stage Easy on the Ears STAGE TOP 5 Nate Herman's Latest Enterprise Fuses Radio, Classic Hollywood Cinema and the Anything-Goes Attitude of Improv 1Zürich. Steep Theatre. Forty floors up, behind the By Hugh Iglarsh windows of a posh Swiss hotel, a man sings, a maid cleans, “Don’t make it about me!” pleads Nate you do that.’ And it was always perfect.” children run wild, a banker makes things difficult, and one Herman in a sudden burst of humility as we sip Using their extensive network of contacts elderly woman’s fight against a acquired over a lifetime in Chicago theater, corrupt world order changes tea in a Rogers Park café. But it’s an everything. (Or nothing.) Herman and Houston were able to publicize Opens October 4 impossible request, as Herman—actor, director, musician, comedy teacher, one-time the show, resulting in a full house at Evan- 2 Patience & Sarah: A ston’s SPACE cabaret. “It was like ‘Rocky Pioneering Love Story. \"Saturday Night Live\" writer, impresario and Third Eye Theatre Ensemble. man-about-town—is the co-founder (with the Horror Picture Show,' everybody knew every A stunning opera based on line,” says Herman. “It came out so well, it was the lives of nineteenth-century similarly multi-talented Gary Houston, now American painter Mary Ann producer emeritus) and driving force of Films our 'Citizen Kane.'” Willson and her partner “Miss Brundage.\" Opens October 5 for the Ear, a loosely organized band of friends Since then, Herman and company have 3 Warrior Class. and fellow travelers who specialize in live, adapted everything from classic thrillers like The Comrades. When Assemblyman Julius Lee quickly prepared staged readings of classic “The Maltese Falcon,” “The Third Man” and makes a bid for Congress, the ghosts of his college days Hollywood movies. “Double Indemnity” to lighter fare such as “The come back to haunt him. Opens October 13 Films for the Ear is all about Nate Herman’s Graduate,” “His Girl Friday” and “Miracle on 4 Hooded, Or Being passions, peeves and predilections. It brings 34th Street.” Actors—who are invited and not Black For Dummies. together two of his loves—vintage movies and auditioned—have over time included many First Floor Theater. local performers, including Houston, Warren Marquis and Tru are both old-time radio theater—and pulls them fourteen-year-old black boys, together in the improvisational, audience-acti- Leming and Bob Swann, as well as media but they exist in two totally vating, something-wonderful-right-away style figures such as retired Channel 7 anchorman different worlds. Opens Joel Daly, one-time \"Saturday Night Live\" cast October 24 he learned at Second City, where he spent member Tim Kazurinsky, Will Clinger of \"Wild 5 Radio Culture. many years as a performer and director. TUTA Theatre Chicago. Chicago\" and iO producer Charna Halpern. Staged in an intimate installation, this production Long-range planning is not what FFTE is all Community means a great deal to local boy takes a subtly profound and unexpected journey around about, and schedules are always subject to the globe to peer in to our change. But as of late August, Herman and his Herman. He’s a product of the sixties, with interior worlds, and the irresist- roots in Chicago’s pioneering improv scene ible, transformative power of gang have three projects lined up: the Jack listening. Opens October 25 and early storefront theater, which were more Benny-Carole Lombard wartime comedy about community building than career about German-occupied Poland, “To Be or development. Not to Be”; followed by “The Big Knife,\" the Clifford Odets-penned drama inspired by the Raised in West Rogers Park, Herman’s Hollywood blacklist; and the British comedy, “The Wrong Box,” with an all-star cast featuring introduction to radio theater came at the Michael Caine, Ralph Richardson, Peter Cook tender age of twelve, thanks to Henry H. and Peter Sellers. The plays will—probably— Mamet (uncle of David), chairman of the broadcast committee of the Chicago Board of be staged at the City Lit theater space. Rabbis, for whom Herman gave his first The project, which is more about fun than successful audition. “I would play the kid on anything else, began appropriately enough at a Mamet’s religious radio shows, whenever the script called for it,” remembers Herman. “I party back in 2013. There, Herman and thought, ‘this is terrific, this is the best.’ I was Houston noticed an eccentric, elegantly always performing and playing music. Me and dressed local writer who reminded both of them of the President Muffley character played the mic, we became best friends.” A couple of years later, Herman took a theater workshopNewcity OCTOBER 2018 by Peter Sellers in Stanley Kubrick’s black with Viola Spolin, the mother of Paul Sills and comedy, “Dr. Strangelove.” The two began creator of the theater games that became strategizing to put the movie, which both of them deeply loved, on stage in the form of an central to improvisation, an experience he describes as “wonderfully wacky.” As for his easy-to-mount reading. love of movies, Herman says his two film Herman cast the show the way his mentor, the schools were the legendary Clark Theater in the Loop and late-night television. late Paul Sills—co-founder of The Compass Players and first director of Second City— After attending the University of Illinois at Navy would have done. “Paul would just get everybody in the room and say, ‘You do this, Pier—a two-year undergraduate institution72
ATSTITC$AK2RE0TTSNate Herman NOV 15 - JAN 13back then, nicknamed “Harvard Herman wrote topical comedy FAMILIARon the rocks”—and doing what he pieces for NPR in the seventies, By Danai Gurira then got his big break, writing for Directed by Danya Taymorcalls “silly theater” at the Pier Pre-wedding stress explodes into a full-on familyPlayhouse, Herman got involved \"Saturday Night Live\" during the feud. Fiercely funny, fast-paced and filled with love,with Josephine Forsberg’s theater Eddie Murphy years of the early Familiar is a brilliant portrayal of a tight-knit family eighties, when the program was searching to preserve their past while building aworkshop, which served as a new future. By award-winning playwright and actortraining ground for Second City. under the direction of Dick Danai Gurira. Ebersol.From there, he joined the first Find yourself here.Second City touring company, a Build the experience that’s right for you. Become amatter of timing as much as talent, When the \"SNL\" stint ended, member for as little as $20 a play.according to Herman. “It was by Herman returned to Chicago andaccident that I became a member again gravitated to Second City, steppenwolf.org | 312-335-1650 this time as a director.of Second City, where I learned Lead Production Sponsors for Familiareverything I know,” he says. The movie adaptations come in“Every career move since has two flavors: radio-style perfor-occurred the same way: mances, with seated actors andhappenstance.” sound effects, and fully stagedIn the late sixties and early readings, with movement, gestureseventies, Herman and his friend and a rudimentary set. Both types of production are assembled in aLeming—who decades later single long day of work.would take on the title role inFFTE’s “Strangelove”—formed thesatirical folk-rock band Wilderness “We read through the script, do theRoad, originally for the purpose of blocking, take a break for dinner and do the show, before theraising money for the legal blocking can be forgotten,” saysdefense of the Chicago Seven Herman. “It ends up being a bitand other, similar causes. The ragged but right, sometimes quiteband caught on and its albums right.”retain a following.After the group broke up, Herman, With its familiar material and DIYthen in California, received a call technique, Films for the Ear is anin 1973 from his friend and fellow intriguing mix of nostalgia and experimentation, bringing togetherChicagoan and Second Cityalumnus John Belushi, who was the aural, interiorized storytelling technique of old-time radio within a National Lampoon revue in OCTOBER 2018 Newcity the spontaneity and presence ofNew York. Belushi insisted that live theater.Herman join him in the show asmusician and understudy, evensending him an airplane ticket. “It “The audience should always beseemed like the easiest gig in the complicit in theater,” says Herman. “Every show I do is like that,world until the next day the making sure the viewers are in onpianist-composer got his hand the joke.”slammed in a taxi door,” recallsHerman. “I had one day to learn There is one caveat, however: “Itthe whole show, including both doesn’t work with schlock.”piano and guitar parts.” 73
Newcity OCTOBER 2018 Life is BeautifulBy David Alvarado74
1 2 31 I WAS RAISED ON 2 MCA STAGE 3 PICTURE FICTION: MCAChicago.org/LookTHE INTERNET CLAUDIA RANKINE, KENNETH WILL RAWLS, AND JOSEPHSON AND #MCAMadeYouLookTHROUGH OCT 14 JOHN LUCAS CONTEMPORARY OPEN UNTIL 9PM TUESDAYS & FRIDAYS YOUTH 18 AND UNDER FREESophia Al-Maria, still from The Litany WHAT REMAINS PHOTOGRAPHY(detail), 2014. Sand, glitter, glass, CMCohunicsteaeugmmopoofrary Artsmartphones, computer screens, tablet THROUGH DEC 30computers, and USB cables, with multi-channel looped digital video, color and DEC 5-9, 7:30PMblack-and-white sound; durations variable.Collection of the artist; courtesy ofThe Third Line, Dubai. What Remains (Will Rawls, Claudia Rankine, Kenneth Josephson, Matthew Again..., 1980 (detail), 1980. Gelatin silver print, 8 X 12 in. and John Lucas). Photo © Julieta Cervantes, © Kenneth Josephson. Courtesy of courtesy Live Arts Bard. Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago.
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