Newcity Chicago January 2020

Design Mexico at Midcentury” and “Weaving Beyond Tastemakers The Bauhaus” are well-timed to spotlight the JANUARY 2020 Newcity and Influencers important role women played in the mainstreaming of modernism in postwar A Closer Look at Two Design Exhibitions at the American design. Art Institute of Chicago This phenomenon stands as an exception to By Philip Berger the not inaccurate presumption that women in design have faced the kind of obstacles they It risks restating the obvious that the more inescapable by the minute—requiring did in every human endeavor. But there is a Me Too and Time's Up movements are us to rethink every aspect of history and counter-narrative here, in which women—posi- transforming American culture. They’re part society. Which is why two current shows at tioned in traditional gender roles as weavers the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC)—“In a and as “decorators\"—acquired status as taste- of a new universe in which considering the Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair: Six Modernists in makers and influencers. impact of the patriarchy on our civilization is \"The Bride Has Entered,\" 1982. Gift of Lenore Tawney; restricted gift of the Textile Society, Joan G. Rosenberg, Mr. and Mrs. Richard J.L. Senior, Mrs. William G. Swartchild Jr., and Mrs. Theodore D. Tieken. © Lenore G. Tawney Foundation. It’s unclear whether AIC planned these two shows to run concurrently, but the coincidence provides a chance to appreciate the virtues and resources of an encyclopedic art museum. While it’s nice that the Art Institute can host blockbuster traveling entertainments like the Andy Warhol retrospective, these AIC-curated shows illustrate why the “minor” departments of the institution are so important as genera- tors of unique, illuminating content which provides a bellwether of prevailing societal norms. In addition to the focus on the significance of women to the modern movement, “In a Cloud”—mounted by the museum’s depart- ment of Architecture and Design—makes us reconsider the position of Mexico as an important incubator of postwar modernist design. Specifically, it takes its impetus from an exhibition at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1952, “Art in Daily Life: Well-Designed Objects Made in Mexico,” that featured the work of, among others, the six designers presented in this show. Of these six women, most—with the notable exception of Anni Albers—would be unfamiliar to all but the most serious design wonk. The most fortuitous discovery for me was the work of Clara Porset, a Cuban-born multitalented industrial designer who assembled the 1952 show. She organized that exhibition to advance her idea that “there is design in everything” and, reflecting the clear influence of the Bauhaus, that good design invariably 51

improves the quality of life and moves society own. While there is some curatorial wall text as DESIGN TOP 5 part of the gallery installation, it directly tells us forward. The Art Institute displays several 1 Chicago Architecture pieces of what Porset called “our own kind of the organizers have chosen to limit their Biennial. Chicago Cultural overview of the materials and instead have Center. CAB's third edition furniture” that, while designed in the 1950s, enters its fourth and final month used the artist’s own words to explain their with architecture, design, look so contemporary you would not be urbanism, policymaking and surprised to find items like them today at DWR works. visual arts events around the city. Catch it while you can. or CB2. Despite the absence of spoon-feeding, it’s not Through Jan 5 Probably the most visually exciting materials in difficult to draw conclusions simply from the 2 Chicago Works: Assaf chronological manner in which the weavings Evron. Museum of the show are the colorful rug designs of Contemporary Art. The Cynthia Sargent, an American artist who, with are presented. The clear message is that Anni multidisciplinary artist and former Albers and the artists whose work is featured, photojournalist explores local her husband Wendell Riggs, manufactured histories of Israel and Chicago at all but one of whom are women, fully the intersection of architecture, rugs and textiles in Mexico City under the design and place. Through embraced the Bauhaus spirit of innovation and March 1 Riggs-Sargent label beginning in the 1960s. One of the most intriguing aspects of the \"In A free expression—to see themselves as useful 3 In a Cloud, in a Wall, in Cloud\" show is the obvious cross-pollination of artists in the world of machines and mass a Chair: Six Modernists production. in Mexico at Midcentury. ideas among designers; the work of these Art Institute of Chicago. Six artist-designers come together women was often used in the major works of to celebrate Mexico and the Mexico’s most important architects—specifi- And while there is a scarce amount of what we nation's lasting influence on their might consider didactic materials, what the work spanning furniture, textiles, cally at the Camino Real, a lavish hotel in photography and prints. curators offer is easy to absorb and to draw Through Jan 12 Mexico City designed by architect Ricardo Legorreta, who made extensive use of textiles your own conclusions. Particularly helpful is a 4 Weaving Beyond the of the American weaver Sheila Hicks, who now kind of org chart of the artists whose work Bauhaus. Art Institute of works in Paris but was based in Mexico during appears in the show and the institutions where Chicago. An exhibition the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps not coinciden- they worked and their interrelationships; we presenting the work of Bauhaus tally, Hicks’ work appears in both the Mexican see a similar cross-pollination evidenced in the artists as they moved from mid-century Mexico show. We discover that Germany across the Atlantic to design show and in “Weaving Beyond The shape the American design Bauhaus” in the AIC’s newly renovated textile Anni Albers fled Germany to chair the textiles landscape. Through Feb 17 department at the progressive art institution department galleries. 5 Setting the Stage: Black Mountain College; her Bauhaus Objects of Chicago Theatre. Design Museum of Similarly, since Anni Albers is probably the associate Marli Ehrman founded the textiles Chicago. Costumes, lights, props, sets and other design most celebrated textile designer of the program at the Chicago’s Institute of Design, objects from local theater companies come into the twentieth century, it’s no surprise to find that which was founded as the “New Bauhaus” in spotlight at this Design Museum 1937. exhibitionr. Through Jan 5 Porset included her work in the 1952 \"Art In Daily Life\" exhibition and that it’s featured prominently at “In A Cloud.” And of course her But it’s in its visual execution that the Weaving show distinguishes itself. The \"In A Cloud\" work is central to the “Weaving Beyond The show presents itself in a fairly conventional, Bauhaus” show. Albers, who was the only woman to chair a department at the Bauhaus unsurprising fashion; there’s a lot of monochro- school in Dessau, played a monumental role in matic material and a lot of text. Despite its small size, \"Weaving Beyond The Bauhaus\" promoting innovation and artistry in postwar offers far more in terms of the sheer pleasure textile design. in experiencing richly textured works of art at The post-Bauhaus weaving exhibition offers an close range. This is particularly true of the interesting counterpoint to the Mexican design galleries containing powerful yet contemplative installations of works by artists who worked show, in both its curatorial grounding and visual presentation. It’s hard to visit any of the later in the twentieth century while embracing post-Bauhaus ideals: Lenore Tawney, Yvonne A&D department’s shows without having a major learning experience, and \"In A Cloud\" is Pacanovsky Bobrowicz and significantly, typical of what to expect from the department: Chicago’s own Claire Zeisler—who studied with Albers at Black Mountain College and a straightforward presentation of drawings, with Ehlers at the Institute of Design and Newcity JANUARY 2020 photographs and objects generously whose powerful “Private Affair I” the museum augmented with detailed informative materi- als—all evidencing the impeccable scholarship is displaying for the first time in twenty-five years. It alone makes a trip to the Art Institute reflected in the lavishly illustrated catalog worthwhile, but there’s so much more. Plus, of accompanying the show. course, there’s the Warhol show. “Weaving Beyond the Bauhaus,” in the “In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair: Six Modernists museum’s newly remodeled textiles gallery, in Mexico at Midcentury” is at the Art Institute while equally instructive, reflects a different through January 12, 2020. “Weaving Beyond approach to presentation that in some ways requires viewers to connect the dots on their The Bauhaus” through February 16, 2020. 52

&DiDnirningking Erick-Williams/ Photo: David Hammond More Than Just bites of gumbo, beets and gizzards, a light a Place to Eat preparation of offal that turned out to be much meatier and full of flavor than we ever Erick Williams and His Virtue expected from that organ. Traditional dishes JANUARY 2020 Newcity such as beef short ribs and a half-chicken, By David Hammond catfish and pork chops are sourced and finessed with a fine-dining chef’s attention Erick Williams, who opened Virtue in national named Virtue one of 2019’s best to detail and presentation. Hyde Park about a year ago, has received new restaurants, and in November, Esquire as many awards as a chef could hope for in joined the applause and named Virtue one We’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything we’ve the first months of operating a new of the “Best New Restaurants in America.” eaten at Virtue, but a restaurant like Virtue is restaurant. The New York Times listed Whew. more than just a place to eat. Williams as one of the “Black Chefs Changing Food in America”; Bib Gourmand We’ve eaten at Virtue several times and We chatted with Williams as he sat at a recognition came from Michelin; Eater have been impressed with simply satisfying table with Theaster Gates, University of Chicago professor, social-practice installation artist, and a person with whom Williams shares an interest in developing 53

Newcity JANUARY 2020 DINING & DRINKING unique gathering spaces. Gates creatively people, all so comfortable with one another TOP 5 redesigns old buildings to promote social that they’ve elected to sit together, close, in interaction and community building. His nice clothing, on the floor. It represents to 1 The Fate of Food. Stony Island Arts Bank is an early twenti- me a high level of comfort and trust. We Currency Exchange Café. eth-century savings and loan reimagined as want to be the kind of place that harbors A meet-up in Theaster Gates’ a place for people to come together, read people who crave kindness, people who reconcepted and redesigned and study, interact and make real their want to extend kindness.” space, focusing on Amanda artistic visions. Little’s book about what we’ll all Williams calls my attention to a photograph be eating in a bigger, hotter, Currency Exchange Café (now Peaches at next to the big painting we were talking and (we hope) smarter world. Currency Exchange Café) is a rehabilitated about. It's a long, tall portrait of a young Jan 4 former facility that used to serve neighbors couple, looking right into the lens, both in who needed to cash checks and pay utility the moment and into each other, gazing 2 Farmers Market. The bills. The aging structure had fallen into back, entirely comfortable with the Robey. Wicker Park’s disrepair. The old currency exchange is now photographer and with one another. “I was Farmer’s Market moves indoors a restaurant and also, perhaps more lucky enough to have the artist, Dawoud with ten to fifteen vendors of importantly, a community space, with sofas, Bey, come in here to hang that photograph,” vegetables, meat and other easy chairs and a downstairs area that, the says Williams. “And after he hung it, we comestibles, with a full cash bar. weekend we visited, was filled with people stepped back and stood there silently and Jan 4, Feb 1 at their laptops, working, or at tables, just just stared at the photograph for a few talking, not through FaceTime, but minutes. Then he said, ‘To me, it means a 3 Pasta Cooking Series. face-to-face. time when nothing else matters. Do you Onward Chicago. Executive remember a time in your life when nothing chef Patrick Russ leads amateur The restaurant as a social center is not a else mattered, time when nothing mattered pasta makers through creating, new concept. About a block east of Virtue is except that moment?' At that moment, rolling and presenting three Valois, famous for its slogan “See Your nothing else matters. And I’d like to believe different pastas. Then eat Food,” and a place that has functioned as a that Dawoud had a moment like that, in this Chef’s pasta and take home vital community center for decades. The space. In this space. And so we want to noodles you made. Jan 20 social network that evolved at Valois was channel the idea of how important it is for all documented in Mitchell Duneier’s 1992 of us to have these moments to single out, 4 First Bites Bash. The book “Slim’s Table: Race, Respectability, whether that moment is with someone we Field Museum. Kicking off and Masculinity,” an ethnographic study of love or just a hard reset. Restaurant Week, the thirteenth the mostly working-class guys who annual First Bites Bash is gathered there across the years and created “Here, you might have a cup of coffee, and hosted by Thai and Danielle a café culture. Like Virtue, but on a much you start to decompress. And at some point, Dang of HaiSous and more basic level, Valois serves simple foods you can leave here whole. That’s a big deal,\" features celebrated Chicago everybody loves: Swiss steak with rice, he says. \"People spend a lot of money with chefs sharing their best bites. baked ham and sweet potatoes, macaroni their therapists, and their rehabilitation Jan 23 and cheese, nothing fancy but everything centers, hospitals, synagogues, churches, satisfying. mosques, places of worship, to just reset. 5 Annual d’Vine Affair. People go on very exotic trips, just to be Union League Club. The After our most recent dinner at Virtue, able to escape everything else and focus on nineteenth annual get-together Williams sat down to talk about the space what matters most. People suffer injuries of the Catholic Charities of the he had created. He wanted to establish an and have sudden recall of the priorities of Archdiocese of Chicago will atmosphere that would promote “kindness,” their life. At Virtue, for a very affordable price, witness much pouring of wine, a word that’s used a lot by Williams and on we want to be able to do that at the dinner quaffing of craft beer and his website. There’s a lot of art on the walls table, because we recognize that before noshing of gourmet hors at Virtue. The dining room is dominated by a people could fly across the world at a d’oeuvres. Jan 26 large painting, done after a photograph, of moment’s notice, when we didn’t have famous friends gathering, including some access to all the things we do now, we had 54 you’d likely recognize, suits and ties, sitting one thing that has been consistent, and that around, relaxed. “If you look at that picture,” one thing has been the opportunity to Williams says, “there’s a lot happening in commune with one another and to share there, and that’s what struck me when we something as little as the breaking of bread. curated it. There’s not a lot of African-Ameri- And for a moment, if just a moment, nothing can portraiture, so here’s a work by an else matters.” African American, and it’s a portrait of African Americans. There’s this group of Virtue, 1462 East 53rd Street, (773) 947-8831

Film Noah Jupe in “Honey Boy” “Joker” “John Wick 3: Parabellum” Robert Pattinson in “High Life” “Too Modern Richard Burton, in the desert, in year in an area of concentration or For Me”? Nicholas Ray’s “Bitter Victory” (1957), fixation, so lists of ten drawn from 3,000 New Movies Are Being Born objects seem bizarre unless as a proposal looks across the ruins of a Berber city By Ray Pride and pronounces, “Tenth century, I’d say. for a book where ten movies across ten Too modern for me.” chapters chart the transformation of the form and the industries behind it, Burton’s murmurous rumble stuck with me something like J. Hoberman’s essential since first seeing that strange picture after book-length decade-width surveys of college. How “modern” is modern? How American film history. These books that modern is “modern”? The “modern” is all are nearly formulated, not yet written, each chapter dedicated to a film that could around us, but often, variations, visions, breakthroughs go unrecognized, and many explain the arc, not of the movie but an reviewers of art—movies, films, pictures, arc that demonstrates something about storytelling, something about representa- “flicks”—become over time less curators tion, something about technology. than simply arbiters of one’s own taste, JANUARY 2020 Newcity a maker of rankings, a taker of pulse. “What’s the difference between one In the chill weeks before the end of 2019, drop of the ocean, and the ocean as a mass rush to nail the decade past with a whole?” pondered Hungarian author deathly finality into a chifforobe in the back László Krasznahorkai in one of his multifarious maelstroms of language. hallway spare bedroom pushed gusts of “Nothing. Nothing.” listmaking into the pixelsphere. A committed observer, or professional “Duration” versus “longevity”: volume critic, might see 300 things in a given versus poetry? 55

FILM TOP 5 Is a “movie” sixteen hours and twenty- if what was already there to be five minutes of “Twin Peaks: The Return” recognized and inscribed. 1 Raising Kael. Siskel. Documentary on mid-century film critic Pauline or the nearly 3,000 minutes of the he average person that likes to watch Kael, “What She Said: The Art Of Pauline Kael,” accompanied by seven of her Marvel Cinematic Universe? Is a movies will always have unexpected favorites, including five on 35mm: Robert Altman’s essential “McCabe & movie an hour and forty-five minutes and exotic byways of fascination. Mrs. Miller,” Renoir’s “The River,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” Scorsese’s “Mean Streets,” of Falconetti in “Joan of Arc” or five There are always things people like that De Palma’s “Casualties of War,” as well as Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris,” one minutes and two seconds of Oscar of the diminutive doyenne’s great flames winner Beatrice Straight in “Network”? you would never expect. Finance, as (or flame-outs), and Godard’s “Band of always, is perilous, the moving parts Outsiders.” January 10-23 Is it fractions of wind, rain, traffic of the moving picture industry, as ever, 2 Chaplin without Charlie. Siskel. lights I post to Instagram stories? Two pictures with Chaplin behind are endangered. “Lists or no lists, I just the camera: a 4K digital restoration of Is a particular movie a moment that his final feature, “A Countess From Hong want a more disordered, cacophonous Kong” (1967)—is fifty-two years too soon somehow lodges in memory atop all to reevaluate the hate for his romantic cinephilia,” another Twitter user comedy with Marlon Brando and Sophia the others? These questions don’t Loren? Also: on 35mm, Chaplin’s 1923 thought and launched into the sea. drama, “A Woman of Paris.” January 17, have to be asked, let alone explored 19, 20, 23 But filmmakers (and their producers) or answered. Storytelling persists in 3 Old Joy. Chicago Film Society, appear to have realized that formally NEIU. Kelly Reichardt’s slow- profusion despite all of us. simmer take on difficult male friendship so much is possible. Slivers of is part of a CFS focus of 35mm films shot on Super 16. January 15 Social media strikes sparks, some- audience follow in some cases. 4 Mandy. Music Box. Midnight times productively atop a base of The illusion of gatekeepers is broken, revival of Panos Cosmatos’ drenching, haunting shriek of grief, flint, an elemental insight. “The quality control, a level of stylistic a fiery epic starring Nicolas Cage and galaxies of gore. January 17-18 theatrical experience is / was an analog in reception for the film capture consistency; it’s all out the window. 5 The Student Prince In Old Some 2019 titles: “Queen & Slim,” Heidelberg. Chicago Film Society, phenomenon—brief, expensive, Music Box. A rare chance to witness “Waves,” “Dark Waters,” “Atlantics,” in 35mm an Ernst Lubitsch silent on this focusing of attention, intensity, rare big screen, in this case a 1927 MGM “Honey Boy,” “Joker,” “The Irishman,” romantic comedy with Norma Shearer then gone—whereas streaming is and Ramon Novarro. January 4 “1917,” “The Souvenir,” “John Wick 3: analogical to digital recording, faux 56 Parabellum,” “Ad Astra,” “Once Upon eternal, cheap, content, always on, quotidian,” Twitter user Uncas Blythe a Time … in Hollywood,” “Uncut Gems.” What do they have in wrote on in December. common? Mad possibility. The everyday is not the ordinary. We can’t always see what’s in front of But there’s so much, too much, so very us. Language is virus, ideas beneath much too-muchness. The New Yorker’s Richard Brody repurposed an earlier become viral, can serve the masters skein of his tweets and expanded of many thoughts. The internet is a commonplace book, flipped through on the glut of entertainments and pageantry. “Despite the prominence of at different speeds and depths by a few scattered prestigious titles, what each user. The twentieth-century dominates the streaming environment Albanian-Italian Marxist philosopher and overwhelms the popularity of Antonio Gramsci’s prison notebooks any individual movie or show is the are thick and full and yet a single popularity of streaming itself—of a given relentlessly applicable observation obtains: “The crisis consists precisely service, whether it’s Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, or another,” he wrote in in the fact that the old is dying and his New Yorker year-end piece. “What’s the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid more, the popularity of streaming is similarly circular: the sheer quantity symptoms appear.” (One of that of what’s streaming also overwhelms work’s latest translations was a the cinematic punditocracy with the lifework of the father of presidential sheer quantity of previewing, sifting, aspirant Pete Buttigieg.) recapping, summarizing, comparing “It is those who accept the world as and listing. The need to pay constant it is who are becoming the disinherit- attention to the services rather than the works turns critics into connoisseurs of ed,” art critic-essayist-novelist shit, comparing one mediocrity against John Berger wrote in 1969 in “Art another in order to be able to assemble & Revolution,” “at the same time as a list of what’s barely recommendable the dispossessed are rediscovering with a straight face by contrast with their inheritance.” (His case is much what’s even worse.” Brody hates richer than a few phrases.) the system, loves the makers, the Newcity JANUARY 2020 When is a movie? What movies “audacious and forward-looking breathe the same air? When I watch resisters to corporate production, a movie or look at a picture, or take not defenders but advancers of a photograph, I hope for a sense of individual creation and conscience moment, an illusion of now, a sliver who overcome the redefinition of art of witness that is also memento mori. as content—regardless of how their Claire Denis is a single filmmaker films may be marketed.” whose work, shot after shot, I can The old is dying. The new is being born. It’s hard out here for a film. readily pluck as emblematic of that touch, that breath. What feels like But dream and possibility: it’s there. the quotidian, but also what offer It’s here. sensations, elevated extremities

WE TELL 50 YEARS OF PARTICIPATORY COMMUNITY MEDIA A people’s history of American social movements, political struggles and cultural awakenings, as told by the communities who experienced them 41 short documentaries | 6 nights 15 organizers, scholars, media makers | FREE Jan 16, Jan 30, Feb 20 @Logan Center for the Arts Feb 6, Feb 27, Mar 12 @Green Line Performing Arts Center INFO arts.uchicago.edu/apl AND FILM filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu STUDIES CENTER

Lit Johanny Vazquez Paz LIT TOP 5 /Photo: Elias Carmona Rivera 1 E. Patrick Johnson Hanging By a Thread with Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Seminary Co-op Johanny Vazquez Paz Explains “I Offer My Heart As a Target” Bookstore. E. Patrick Johnson discusses his By Tara Betts latest book “Honeypot: Black Southern Women Newcity JANUARY 2020 Johanny Vazquez Paz sat in her quiet at the end of the semester. I was in Facebook, Who Love Women” with classroom at Harold Washington College and you know they have these advertisements, black feminist scholar Alexis shortly after reading at the Miami Book Festival, because they know what you like, and I saw Pauline Gumbs. January 12 where audience members, including Richard this Paz Poetry Prize advertisement, and Paz Blanco and Joyce Carol Oates, came to hear is the last name of my mother. All Spanish- 2 An Evening with Paz read from her latest collection, “Ofrezco mi speaking countries use both last names. Edwidge Danticat. corazón como una diana,” or “I Offer My Heart Center for Black Diaspora, As a Target” (Akashic Books, 2019). Yes, you take your mother and your DePaul University. Award- The book was chosen by Rigoberto Gonzalez father’s surnames. winning Haitian-American as the 2018 National Poetry Series Paz Poetry author Edwidge Danticat Prize winner. This collection is part of Paz’s Exactly. Vazquez is my father’s last name, reads and discusses her growing body of work, which includes four and Paz is my mother’s last name. That’s the writing. January 13 previous books. name I was born with, because back home you use both last names, and that’s my writer’s 3 Kristiana Rae Colón Paz’s name may be familiar from her hosting name. Then I clicked to look at the information. and Patrick Durgin. of the Guild Complex’s Palabra Pura series, I couldn’t believe there was this contest for Poetry Foundation Open which featured Latino poets from across the writers who write in the United States that Door Series. Kristiana Rae country. She coedited the earlier anthology write in Spanish and live in the United States Colón and Patrick Durgin “Between the Heart and the Land / Entre and this is for me! The name of the award is each read with one of their el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets in the Paz because of Octavio Paz. students in the Open Door Midwest.” We talked about the painful origins of Series. January 21 her new award-winning book. Absolutely. 4 Emily Jungmin Yoon. Please talk a little bit about how the I used to joke and tell my friends, “I have a Poets in the Field, book came together. Mexican uncle named Octavio.” After awhile, Field Museum. Poet Emily It’s a funny story. The book is not funny. It’s they’d say “Octavio Paz is your uncle?!” Jungmin Yoon reads as part No, because in Puerto Rico, supposedly all of a pop-up poetry reading a depressing book. Last May, I remember it was series. January 22 5 Billy Lombardo. Volumes Bookcafe. Billy Lombardo reads from his novel “Morning Will Come” at Volumes’ Wicker Park location. January 25 58

the Pazs are related. Vazquez is a common participants, there were poets and women to do with that, but up to this point, it’s hard last name, but Paz? There are not that many, who were going to talk about their experienc- for me to talk about that because my mother and they could be “de la Paz” but just Paz? es. I thought, “I’m in the wrong group.” didn’t want anyone to know. She wanted us There are not that many. So, I’m like, “Oh to be treated equal. She didn’t want people my god, I have to do that.” Fortunately, Why is that? to be “Oh, that’s the daughter of the man they allowed some poems that have been who…” because it was in the news. Because previously published in magazines or some- I grew up in a house where there was a of the secret, I looked through my mother’s thing like that, not in a book. I have to do this secret. I knew something was going on with things, and I found a newspaper clipping. because the due date was in two weeks. my father, but I was always afraid to ask what He turned himself in to the police after he did I already had some poems. I didn’t have a happened because my mother would get sad that. She didn’t want us to have that cloud. manuscript. I got this big feeling that I had to and cry. My parents were divorced, but there When my son was little and he did something, do this, then I realized that the contest is not was this big secret regarding my father. Then I said, “Oh, that kid is crazy.” And she said, every year. It’s every other year, so I needed when I was eleven or twelve years old, there “Don’t say that!” because she was always to do it this year because I didn’t want to was a problem. I don’t know what happened. afraid since my father was schizophrenic wait. And to top it all off, I was going to Spain My aunt sat with us and said “After your and supposedly it’s inherited, it could happen when the semester was over. So, that’s why mother went through all that with your father…” to one of us. So, the second poem “The so many of the poems are on things going My mother looked at her and said, “They don’t Daughter of Violence” is the first poem where on in recent years. The first poem is about know.” I’m the youngest of four daughters, I talk about what happened. the killing of the women of Juarez. so I was twelve years old. None of us knew. At that moment, I found out my father had That poem stood out aside from the Yes. You wrote it to Elina Chauvet, creator mental health problems, and he tried to kill my book’s title “I Offer My Heart As a Target.” of the Red Shoes (Zapatos Rojos) project. mother when she was pregnant with me. He There’s all this wounding, whether it’s stabbed her like seven times in the stomach. someone wounding another person Yes, she came to DePaul, and they invited My aunts said you were a miracle. The doctor or someone wounding themselves, and me to an event with her. I started writing that said you were a miracle. The priest said you how do you carry that hurt and heal. poem, but never finished it. I had to deal with were a miracle. Everybody thinks you were a the shoes and she really inspired me, and I miracle because of how she was stabbed. Exactly. I never thought of myself as a survivor found a great ending for the poem. That event or a victim. Then in the last few years, other was about violence, sexual harassment, and You survived. things happened. The stories of sexual things like that that have been going on—the harassment, of the violence, of the killings, and topic of #MeToo, the violence against students I survived! You know, they didn’t think either I realized that’s me every time I see a story in in Parkland, and things like that. The event of us would survive, but my mother always the newspaper. I think “That could have been was supposed to be for survivors of violence. wanted to keep that from everybody. In my my mother…” It just sort of hit me in the face. When I got the information with the list of previous book, you can tell certain things had I think that’s why some people don’t under- FREE WINTER EVENTS FROM THE POETRY FOUNDATION JAN 09 | 7 PM FEB 06 | 7 PM JANUARY 2020 Newcity Exhibition Opening Poetry & Music A.R. Ammons: Watercolors Poetry in Russian Music Exhibition open through April 30 FEB 13 | 7 PM JAN 16 | 7 PM Poetry o the Shelf Poetry o the Shelf Patricia Lockwood Theorem: Elizabeth Bradfield & Antonia Contro POETRY FOUNDATION 61 WEST SUPERIOR STREET JAN 24 | 7 PM POETRYFOUNDATION.ORG/EVENTS Poetry o the Shelf Brenda Shaughnessy 59

Live at The Book Cellar stand why when you’re sexually Why is that? harassed you don’t say anything, Storytime Mark Caro and then twenty years later I think she would not like that with Miss Jamie! you’re talking about it. It’s hard I told her story. In my previous “Special Counsel” and to process and realize “Oh my book “Sagrada Familia,” it January 3, 11am god, I went through all those seems to me that we always Mark Jacob things, too.” pretended certain things. You Rachel Bertsche always pretend to be a happy “Aftershock” Yes. family or you pretend to have “The Kids Are In Bed” January 16, 7pm more money than what you January 8, 7pm When I was reading about have. You see, my mother was Chicago Writer’s Bill Cosby, that happened to here with me until the other day, Storytime Association me once. A guy gave me a pill. and just to go to Walgreens, with Miss Tonya! Things like that, and I’ve been she puts on makeup and Book of the Year Awards through sexual harassment so dresses nice. Ma, in Chicago, January 10, 11am January 18, 7pm many times that you think this nobody cares. Nobody looks is normal. Men are like that. at you, but in Puerto Rico, they Dr. John Duffy Nuit de la Lecture You just have to say no. All the do. In Puerto Rico, you can times that I felt uncomfortable, find people you know in different “Parenting the New Teen (Reading Night) all the times that I was a little places, and she always wants in the Age of Anxiety” January 24, 5pm girl in my Catholic school to look presentable. She is from January 10, 7pm at Lycée Francais uniform. I walked by and men a big family with little sisters were masturbating in a car. who all had husbands who Bryan Gruley Abby Cooper It happened to me for a whole were successful as attorneys, week once. I lived up on a hill and things like that, and she “Purgatory Bay” “Friend or Fiction” and the school was on the felt bad because… January 14, 7pm January 25, 11am same street, and it was a busy at Will’s Northwoods Inn avenue, so how did I stop that? Of what happened? Jeff Huebner I had to get up an hour earlier Local Author Night and leave early. So many times. That, and she didn’t have a “Walls of Prophecy and Protest” I was on a bus once when I was husband, and the husband she featuring Jan Alexander, January 31, 7pm very young, and I felt something had was loco. Because of that, Andrew Farkas, Vojislav here [touches her shoulder] my mother became a business- Pejovic and Val Rendel and then I turned and I had woman, and financially, I could January 15, 7pm a penis there. tell that we were doing better every year when I was growing Go to our website for event details, book clubs and more! I’ve heard of that happening. up. When I was little, we got a Other women have told me repossessed home that she fixed. Your Independent Book Store in Lincoln Square! similar stories. It’s shocking She bought a condominium. to think one, that happened, All by herself, she did that. Still, I 4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago but two, if it happens and think as someone from her time, 773.293.2665 • bookcellarinc.com you have no place where you that’s not good enough. What’s can tell that story, where do good enough is to say “I have a Newcity JANUARY 2020 you put it? I think people husband that is this and that…” bury it and put it away, then something brings it back. What’s one thing that you want readers to glean from For me, I realize. If I see a man this book? sitting in a car, I cross the street still to this day. Those things The biggest message that I don’t happen that much now. have is about violence against I guess that’s the good thing women and abuse. The thing about getting older because that has hurt the most with it happened to me when I was #MeToo and all the violence young and in my Catholic school is that people still blame the uniform. And with #MeToo, woman. So many cases that all those stories… Almost every I read, and you can read job I’ve had, something has comments to the newspaper happened. So, I said I’m finally now. It tears me apart. Always going to write about this. I wrote blaming the woman, blaming a bunch of new poems in two someone, instead of asking weeks. I always have poems what are we doing to our young that I never finish or I don’t like, people? Why are guns so easy and I worked and worked them. for them? Why are people not I kept telling my husband, “I getting help for mental health? don’t think I’m gonna make it.” Something inside of me said, Go to lit.newcity.com for a “You have to do it.” You have longer version of this interview. to send this to the Paz because it has the last name that is my “I Offer My Heart As a Target” mother’s, but I don’t want to by Johanny Vazquez Paz, show that book to my mom. Akashic Books, 96 pages 60

Music Declassifying Is there another art form that obsesses I have to say, though that, as a classical Classical over genre and subgenre quite as much musician, I’m feeling left out. as music? If there is, I’d love to know about Origin of Animal Heads it. If you walk into a bookstore, you’re going Somehow we never came up with cool a Genre-Bending Concert to see the books arranged by fiction, biogra- subgenre names for our music. Where other phy, history, you name it; and these catego- people have dark ambient, we have neo- By Seth Boustead ries have subcategories—like science fiction, romanticism; where an electronic musician mystery, young adult—but nothing that I can has bitpop, we have repetitive minimalism. think of in literature, dance, visual art or film Baleraric beat on the one hand, spectral JANUARY 2020 Newcity comes close to the dizzying array of subge- music on the other—and yeah, that sounds nres in music. kind of cool until you look it up. Then you see it means “a compositional practice involving Why say you’re a rock musician when you analysis, manipulation and transformation of can say that you’re a practitioner of spazz- sound spectra.” Just doesn’t quite have the core, emo, stoner metal, Afro punk, grunge, same ring to it as psychobilly, does it? lo-fi, steampunk or shoegaze? Why be a hip-hop musician when you can just as easily When I think of it, it’s fascinating that we say you’re fluent in the art of crunkcore, still use the word “classical” at all. The term hyphy, Low Bap, motswako or merenrap? came from an architectural movement in the eighteenth century called classicism. Even country musicians have cool subgenres Composers of the time were writing highly like the Bakersfield Sound, close harmony, structured pieces, the forms of which honky tonk, red dirt, urban cowboy and reminded people of elaborate buildings western swing. with clean lines, and so they were called 61

classical composers, much as cover bands. As a young musician, the previous generation had been I got more involved in contemporary called rococo composers, also classical composition and jazz and after architecture. moved out to Chicago. MUSIC TOP 5 The movement flourished for a while, “My love of rock is still deeply rooted and then composers started taking though, specifically with prog-rock 1 Makaya McCraven. Symphony more drugs and drinking absinthe bands like Dream Theater and Yes. Center. The wizardly Chicago jazz and the Romantic movement was They’d write these long ten-minute drummer and self-proclaimed “beat born, taking its name this time from forms that were clear and interesting scientist” leads a topflight ensemble literature rather than architecture. but totally unpredictable; I’ve always of some of the city’s premier players— But somehow the name classical loved that kind of artistic freedom. Marquis Hill, Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, came to apply to all of the music Greg Ward and Brandee Younger— and we’ve never been able to “So with this opportunity, I got a in a sociopolitical-themed multimedia shake it off, let alone come up with chance to explore that kind of program, “In These Times.” January 31 a fun new name like acid trance. structural narrative, as well as revisit sounds from my youth while weaving 2 Mipso. Old Town School of Folk The situation with the word classical in modern influences. The opening Music. The North Carolina quartet has gotten so confusing and of the piece uses power chords, beguilingly meanders between alt-folk, misleading that many ensembles or open fifths, superimposed at alt-country and rock; but with a sound are omitting it from their marketing different intervals, combined with a this infectious, who cares about nailing materials entirely. driving three-eight time that shifts them down? January 25 into other meters. Somehow that “We define ourselves by our medi- opening just felt like a good mix of 3 Steven Forbert SPACE. For forty um—being an orchestra—and that rock, jazz and orchestral, and I let years, Forbert struggled to emerge we play music by living composers the piece unfold from there.” beyond cult celebrity. Since 2017, a and deliberately explore a range of tribute album, memoir and new album compositional approaches, sounds David Keller is combining a lifelong (his eighteenth) have put the singer- and styles,” says Randall West, love of the symphonies of Gustav songwriter front and center. January 10 artistic director of the Chicago Mahler with his fascination with the Composers Orchestra. “We explore music of Deep Purple, Mahavishnu 4 Yola. Thalia Hall. The British everything from avant garde, to Orchestra and Metallica. Randall singer-songwriter, whose debut neo-romantic, to pop, sound art, West is inspired to mix influences album “Walk Through Fire” dropped last academic, jazz, etc. And with jazz from Yes’ album “Drama” with the year, has the kind of voice that resonates specifically, we’ve collaborated slowly unfolding music of Anton in your tailbone—and writes lyrics that with jazz composers on recent Bruckner and Janice Misurell-Mitch- resonate in your head. January 14 programs—Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka ell’s piece “Aurisons,” “plays with Reid—and these were such cool the idea of listening to sounds 5 Yuna. City Winery. The Malaysian programs. So the idea of a collabo- which are in our environment but singer-songwriter, whose pop- ration with a large rock-jazz ensem- might be unexpected in a traditional inflected recordings are lavishly produced, ble was a perfect fit for CCO.” concert setting. comes to town for an acoustic set Newcity JANUARY 2020 that promises to place the emphasis West is talking about an upcoming “The piece follows a jazz format in on her gorgeously evocative voice. collaboration with Origin of Animal, that fundamental musical ideas are an art-house ensemble that, as introduced in the first part of the January 17-18 we so often have to say these piece, and subsequent sections days, defies categorization. Origin present this material in different 62 of Animal is a highly flexible group guises. Performers are asked to play that has done everything from various motives within a general perform classic albums like Miles framework, but they are not always Davis’ “Birth of the Cool” or King given precise rhythms or pitches.” Crimson’s “Red” in their entirety, to performing in rock venues, to New works by Elisabeth Johnson, playing on the Thirsty Ears classical Trevor Watkin and a collectively music street festival. composed work by Origin of Animal round out a program that’s blissfully Origin of Animal joins Chicago heedless of genre limitations. And Composers Orchestra on January of course that’s the gist of all of this, 25 for “chaos | composed,” a that genre and subgenres, no concert of music by Chicago matter how cool the name, are composers who have all been asked inherently limiting. to write something new for either or both ensembles. Four of the Still, I do have to confess that if a composers will also be paired with classical composer were someday visual artists as part of Homeroom to refer to their music as, say, Chicago’s latest Ten x Ten project. chillwave, it wouldn’t bother me one bit. None of the commissioned compos- ers is overly concerned with genre January 25, 7:30pm at Ganz Hall, labels. Composer Amos Gillespie 430 South Michigan, (312)341-3500, says, “When I was young, my mom chicagocomposersorchestra.org; was a guitarist and bassist in rock $20, $15 students.

Timothy Edward Kane in Court Stage Theatre’s revival of “An Iliad” /Photo: Joe Mazza, Brave Lux Thirst Top Girls Winter Theater (Strawdog Theatre Company) (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company) Preview Set in a tense, segregated society, this Whip-smart, funny and ultimately complex look at family and love in wartime moving, Caryl Churchill’s groundbreaker 2020 EDITION explores the politics of race and redefines brilliantly debates questions about female community in a fierce post-apocalypse. empowerment, gender conformity, By Kevin Greene January 13-February 15 career and family. January 19-February 22 Every year, Newcity produces The Gulf a comprehensive Fall Arts If/Then (About Face Theatre) Preview, which serves as an As passions and tensions flare over (Brown Paper Box Co.) overview of our city’s vibrant arts infidelities, life choices and job struggles, With unforgettable songs and a story by the two women at the heart of this Lambda the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning community, including, but Literary Award for LGBTQ Drama-winning creators of “Next to Normal,” this musical naturally, not limited to our play must confront what it takes to paints a moving portrait of the lives we world-class theater scene. overcome the space between them. lead and the ones we might have led. And while it’s natural to get January 16-February 15 January 26-February 16 excited for the return to regularly scheduled programming Juliet: A Dialogue About Love How A Boy Falls represented by the autumnal JANUARY 2020 Newcity months, any real Chicagoan (Theatre Y) (Northlight Theatre) (or, for instance, any increasingly The story of a Juliet with no Romeo, A newly hired au pair is thrust into the bitter, displaced New Englander) woven by a chorus of mothers in a midst of a mystery when the loss of a knows that fall is merely a poignant commentary on motherhood young boy casts suspicion on her as well prelude to the Midwest’s season and the existence of eternal love in a as the boy’s wealthy parents in this world of choice: winter. We may not deeply oppressive society. premiere from Steven Dietz. have the awe-inspiring peaks of January 16-February 16 January 31-March 1 the Rockies or the Appalachians or even the snowmobile sports Encounter Do You Feel Anger of isolated rural frost-spots, but we do have art and plenty of it. (Collaboraction) (A Red Orchid Theatre) As we enter the depths of this The annual performance series An outrageous comedy zeroes in on the dark, cold and soul-trying curated around diversity, equity and absurdity and the danger of complicity season, we offer a mere glimpse inclusion returns in two parts: “Being” in a world where some people’s feelings of that which keeps our spirits and “Becoming” matter more than those of others. January 18-January 25 February 2-March 15 and earthly substances nourished. It is why we came and why we choose to stay, year upon year, rain upon snow… upon rain… upon snow… upon… Stay bundled, bold and brave, Chicago. And find yourself in the warm embrace of the theater. Editor’s note: The show descriptions on these pages are courtesy of the producing companies. All events are subject to change. Check each company’s website for details and confirmation. 63

Newcity JANUARY 2020 STAGE TOP 5 Labyrinth Poison (The Plagiarists) 1 Sheepdog. Shattered Globe (Broken Nose Theatre) A battle of will and wit in seven- Theatre. Directed by Wardell Julius It’s open season on Wall Street as teenth-century Paris will expose the Clark, this riveting mystery-as-love story moneymen push entire countries truth about class: that justice is only has high stakes and no easy answers toward the brink of bankruptcy for the rich and powerful. while fearlessly examining police before beginning to reckon with February 20-March 14 violence, interracial love and class in the the true price of fortune hunting. twenty-first century. Opens January 19 February 3-February 29 The Layover (The Comrades) 2 The Leopard Play, or sad Roan @ the Gates Stranded on a snowy Thanksgiving songs for lost boys. Steep night, two travelers dare to ask and Theatre. An excavation of truth amidst (American Blues Theater) answer questions that will send both lies, intimacy amidst violence and a A longtime couple confront of their lives into upheaval. reckoning of learning how to love the questions about their marriage February 20-March 22 very thing you hate the most, by one that they never thought to ask as of Chicago’s most exciting young their personal relationship collides Middle Passage playwrights, Isaac Gomez. Opens with national security in the local (Lifeline Theatre) January 24 premiere of a play by ABT artistic Building on a tradition of Afri- affiliate Christina Telesca Gorman. can-American storytelling, this 3 Verböten. The House Theatre of February 6-February 29 tale—adapted by David Barr III and Chicago. On the eve of a show Lifeline artistic director Ilesa Duncan that could change their lives forever, a A Doll’s House from Charles Johnson’s novel— band made up of outsider teens must challenges perceptions of American fight to keep their self-made punk-rock (Raven Theatre) identity using a black aesthetic. family together. Opens January 26 Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece about February 24-April 5 a radical thinker trapped in the 4 Roe. Goodman Theatre. The patriarchal world of 1870s Norway I Am Not Your Perfect local premiere of Lisa Loomer’s gets a vibrant and progressive Mexican Daughter latest follows the lives of the complex new adaptation. (Steppenwolf for Young Adults) young women behind one of the most February 10-March 22 A poignant new work—adapted by hotly contested court cases in our Isaac Gomez from the award-win- nation’s history. Opens January 27 Stick Fly ning novel by Erika L. Sánchez— is a love story to young Chicanas 5 How to Defend Yourself. (Writers Theatre) who, in trying to find the truth about Victory Gardens Theater. Sibling rivalries and parental the people and the world around Self-defense becomes a channel for expectations come to a head as them, end up finding themselves. rage, trauma, confusion, anxiety and family secrets emerge during a February 29-March 21 desire in the world premiere of liliana weekend away that becomes padilla’s femme-centered takedown more interrogation than relaxation, An Iliad of rape culture. Opens January 31 in a witty and moving rollercoaster (Court Theatre) of a family comedy-drama by Court revives this one-man 64 Lydia R. Diamond. adaptation of Homer’s “Iliad,” February 12-March 15 in a groundbreaking site-specific performance starring Timothy A Raisin in the Sun Edward Kane. February 29-March 22 (Invictus Theatre) Lorraine Hansberry’s perennially The Pillowman relevant twentieth-century classic (The Gift Theatre) about the divergent dreams and The dark, twisty and utterly conflicts within three generations unforgettable masterpiece from of an African-American family one of Ireland’s most treasured on Chicago’s South Side in writers is granted new life by the 1950s. director Laura Alcalá Baker. February 17-March 15 March 2-April 5 Titus Andronicus What the Constitution Means to Me (Haven Theatre) (Broadway In Chicago) This production of Shakespeare’s Heidi Schreck’s boundary-breaking revenge-tragedy promises a play breathes new life into our thrilling, bloody marathon raising Constitution and imagines how the voices of marginalized people it will affect the next generation who are too often excluded from of Americans. classical theater performance. March 4-April 12 February 18-March 15 Her Honor Jane Byrne Kill Move Paradise (Lookingglass Theatre Company) It’s 1981 and Chicago’s simmering (TimeLine Theatre Company) pot of neglected problems boils over Inspired by the ever-growing list while the city’s first woman mayor of slain unarmed black men and women, this new play from Kevin Ijames is a portrait of those lost: not as statistics, but as heroes who deserve to be seen for the splendid beings they are. February 19-April 5

moves into Cabrini-Green, prompting the of fathers, daughters, legacy and survival Freaky Friday question: is this just a P.R. stunt or could it at all costs. (Porchlight Music Theatre) truly bring the city together? April 3-April 26 Based on the Mary Rodgers novel March 7-April 12 and beloved films, this is the modern The Dream King story of an overworked mother and Fast Company (Teatro Vista) her teenage daughter who magically (Jackalope Theatre) Marvin Quijada’s genre-bending classic love swap bodies with hilarious and A family of gifted grifters put together the story has a distinct twist: a man falls in love with unforgettable results. score of the decade but will they all get in the woman of his dreams while in his dreams. April 14-May 24 on the action or will only one walk away with April 6-May 10 the whole pot? Ironbound March 10-April 11 Under The Tree (Steep Theatre) (The New Colony) Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Grey Gardens This world premiere tale of two families Majok navigates the murky waters of love, (Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre) asks: is it possible to bury grievances before security, immigration and mobility with The first Broadway musical to be based on burying the man who deceived everyone? heartbreaking humor. a documentary, this hilarious and heartbreak- April 6-May 3 April 17-May 23 ing story shows the infamous psychological struggle of a mother and daughter. The Most Spectacularly Lamenta- The Juniors March 16-April 26 ble Trial of Miz Martha Washington (First Floor Theater) (Steppenwolf Theatre Company) A pitch-black comedy about the ambitious School Girls; Or, The African Both fantastical and fraught with cruel and cutthroat world of high school Home Mean Girls Play reality, this Chicago premiere from Kevin Economics and the lengths we’ll go to in (Goodman Theatre) Ijames pulls no punches as it puts our idols, order to protect what we think is ours. Directed by Lili-Anne Brown in her triumphant and ourselves, on trial. April 23-May 30 return to the Goodman, Jocelyn Bioh’s April 12-May 17 play spotlights the universal similarities— The Duchess of Malfi and glaring differences—of teenage girls The Ring Cycle (Babes With Blades Theatre Company) around the globe. (Lyric Opera of Chicago) When the Duchess of Malfi dares March 16-April 12 Lyric stages Wagner’s “Ring” cycle—one to love honestly, openly and defiantly, of the greatest achievements in Western the men in her family do everything in their Dhaba on Devon Avenue culture—in its entirety, a rare and monumental power to break those that would dare (Victory Gardens Theater) undertaking that will surely attract audiences to flout the rules of a heteronormative, “King Lear” meets “The Cherry Orchard” from across the city and all over the world. patriarchal society. in this world premiere Chicago-based story April 13-May 3 April 25-May 30 PUCCINI A story of love and sacrifice set JANUARY 2020 Newcity to exquisitely beautiful music. FEBRUARY 6 - MARCH 8 Tickets from $39 available at lyricopera.org/butterfly Lyric production revival of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly generously made possible by the Lauter McDougal Charitable Fund, Sylvia Neil and Daniel Fischel, Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin, Marion A. Cameron, Invesco QQQ, and ITW. 65

Newcity JANUARY 2020 Life is BeautifulBy David Alvarado 66

Logan Center Family Saturday: Technologic Takeover Sat, Jan 4 2-4pm FREE In this technology-driven era, enjoy an afternoon of activities focused on creativity and technology. Learn how to use family-friendly programs and software that support your ideas and bring your stories to life. arts.uchicago.edu/familysaturdays Logan Center Appropriate for families with 773.702.ARTS for the Arts children ages 2-12. Registration is 915 E 60th St encouraged. Free parking in lot at LoganCenterCommunityArts 60th and Drexel.

MLOAOYDOEKU CLOSES SUN, JAN 26 FRI, JAN 24–SUN, FEB 9 CLOSES SUN, MAR 1 DIRECT M1.ESSAGE: ART, CHICAGO RESTAURANT COMMONS ARTIST PROJECT: LANGUAGE, AND POWER WEEK AT MARISOL BLKHAUS STUDIOS Challenge your perception of Indulge in Chicago Restaurant Peek inside collections from the words we hear, speak, and Week with two new prix fixe everyday Chicagoans with read daily before this timely menus from the contemporary Folayemi Wilson and Norman exhibition closes. American restaurant inside the Teague’s Commons exhibition. MCA. Lunch is $22 and dinner is $48. Book your reservation now at marisolchicago.com. MCA MUSEUM OF Free for youth 18 and under CONTEMPORARY ART Open until 9 PM Tuesdays CHICAGO and Fridays mcachicago.org/look #MCAMADEYOULOOK