Newcity Chicago September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity 51

hicago's flourishing art scene has two main components: the dy- namic artists who continuously challenge themselves in their art practice, and the behind-the-scenes curators, gallerists, insti- tutions, collectors and cultural workers who provide the infrastructure to make sure that art gets seen. This year's Art 50 shines a light on this group of power players, whose work making our city's art scene thrive too often goes unac- knowledged. We bring you our take on those who wield the most influence in the Chicago art world, from nonprofits with humble begin- nings to philanthropists with some of the deep- est pockets in Illinois. — KERRY CARDOZA Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 ART 50 2019 was written by KERRY CARDOZA with additional items from CAIRA MOREIRA-BROWN, ALISA SWINDELL and HOLLY WARREN All photos by NATHAN KEAY with photo assistance by JOE CR AWFORD and JR ATKINSON Shot on location at Comfort Station 52

1. SANDY & JACK GUTHMAN 1 in have been heralded,” Sandy says. The cou- her first solo show in Chicago, examining SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity ple look forward to DePaul Art Museum’s the General Motors workers og Lordstown, JACK AND upcoming solo exhibition for Julia Fish, to Ohio. As part of the Feminist Art Coalition, a which they have lent work. group exhibition in line with the network’s SANDY GUTHMAN ethos of presenting feminist-driven projects 2 as the election nears, is slated for the fall Collectors of 2020. SOLVEIG ØVSTEBØ Jack and Sandy Guthman have been preem- 3 inent patrons of contemporary art in Chicago Director and Chief Curator, for decades. Between them, the list of insti- the Renaissance Society ELISSA TENNY tutions they have supported is daunting: Hub- bard Street Dance, EXPO Chicago, the MCA, Under the direction of Solveig Øvstebø, the President, School of the Art Institute of Chicago the Chicago High School for the Arts, to name Renaissance Society continues to exhibit only a few. Jack currently serves on the board some of the most exciting work in Chicago, As the president of the School of the Art of United States Artists, where the couple has from an international roster of artists. In the Institute of Chicago, Elissa Tenny under- endowed a fellowship. He is the chairman of past two years, the Ren has produced major stands the importance of creating a lasting the board of this year’s Chicago Architecture new projects, including by Liz Magor and foundation for arts education. She views Biennial and serves as a trustee to the MCA. Jennifer Packer. This past spring, a mil- artists as vehicles for change, and uses her The Guthmans gifted the museum fifty con- lion-dollar gift from the Mansueto Foundation, position at SAIC to cultivate an atmosphere temporary photographs by women artists in the institution’s largest ever, ensures it for students’ artistic and academic prosper- 2017. The couple are drawn to conceptual will have a strong publishing program for ity. Since Tenny assumed the position in photography and work that has a social or the next decade. In September, the Renais- 2016, SAIC launched a space in Homan political bent. “It’s always pleasing to us that sance Society will exhibit a groundbreaking Square, which engages North Lawndale some of these artists that we have an interest new body of work from LaToya Ruby Frazier, artists with the school’s artists and educators 53

Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 to hold classes, residency programs, exhi- 4. NAOMI BECKWITH & MICHAEL DARLING bitions and other public art offerings. A 22. NADIA SULAYMAN present and approachable president, Tenny has maintained SAIC’s commitment to excel- lence; the graduate fine arts program is consistently named one of the best in the country by the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Tenny also serves on the boards of the Chicago Loop Alliance and the Chicago Artists Coalition. 4 NAOMI BECKWITH AND MICHAEL DARLING Curators, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago The exhibition schedule at the MCA never fails to astound, thanks in large part to the prodigious efforts of senior curator Naomi Beckwith and chief curator Michael Darling. Beckwith co-curated last year’s stellar “How- ardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen,” the long-overdue, first major survey of the artist’s work. Darling was the lead curator of the summer’s hottest exhibition, the three- years-in-the-making “Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech.” Up next, he’s working on a paint- ing exhibition that will show the influence of digital processes. Beckwith has been think- ing deeply about making the MCA collection more diverse and more accessible to the public, as the museum works on a new stra- tegic plan. “I love thinking of ways to make art and art history more accessible to a broad public,” she says. 5 GARY AND DENISE GARDNER Collectors, Art Institute of Chicago Trustee Gary and Denise Gardner have developed an impressive art collection in their South Side home over the past twenty years, with a keen focus on the work of African-American artists and Chicagoans. “Our passion is to share the rich culture and history of Afri- can-American art and connect our commu- nity more fully with art and art-making,” Denise says. “It's not only a source of pride, but also a vehicle for activating change and creating livelihoods.” The couple were major sponsors of the Art Institute of Chicago’s 2018 Charles White retrospective and frequently advocate for museums to expand their col- lections to include more work by African Americans. In addition to serving on the Art Institute of Chicago’s Board of Trustees and on SAIC’s Board of Governors, Denise recently joined the board of the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, where she focuses on diverse small arts organizations.  54

6. CAROLINE D. OLDER & TERESA SILVA 6 7. MARK KELLY, ERIN HARKEY, SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity LYDIA ROSS & DANIEL SCHULMAN TERESA SILVA AND CAROLINE D. OLDER Director of Exhibitions & Residencies and Executive Director, Chicago Artists Coalition Chicago Artists Coalition has been busy. Executive director Caroline Older oversaw the 2018 move from Fulton Market to the Kinzie Industrial Corridor, making sure the new construction was ADA-accessible and had room for CAC's first dedicated education center. CAC also removed artist fees from the BOLT and HATCH residency programs, ensuring that the programs are widely acces- sible. In line with this goal, CAC launched its SPARK microgrant program, an unrestricted award for Chicago artists with disabilities who have demonstrated a need, are self- taught or identify as a person of color. (The success of their artist development programs is demonstrated by the inclusion of six CAC alums in Newcity’s 2019 “Breakout Artists” issue.) The support and guidance that Teresa Silva brings to the organization, as director of exhibitions and residencies, is widely her- alded. CAC looks forward to the creation of a library that will hold the art-book collection of the late Sabina Ott. 55

7 Colescott in 2020 and this fall will launch a 9. ESTHER GRIMM professional development series on the role MARK KELLY of art in communities. ing to Chicago in 2015 as curator of the Uni- versity of Chicago’s Logan Center Exhibitions, (COMMISSIONER), 8 she has made a splash organizing exhibitions, with a focus on global contemporary art and ERIN HARKEY YESOMI UMOLU spatial design. As the artistic director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial, Umolu (DEPUTY COMMISSIONER Director and Curator, has assembled an ambitious program that FOR PROGRAMMING), Logan Center Exhibitions, invites viewers to interrogate the built envi- University of Chicago ronment through social, geopolitical and DANIEL SCHULMAN ecological perspectives. Called a “visionary Seemingly no one can match Yesomi Umo- curator” by Rahm Emanuel, earlier this year (DIR ECTOR OF V ISUA L ART ) & lu’s level of prodigious activity, carried out she added director of Logan Center Exhibi- with clear purpose and intention. Since com- tions to her resume. A 2016 recipient of an LYDIA ROSS Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Fellowship, she also sits on the (DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC ART) board of trustees at the Graham Foundation. City of Chicago Department of 9 Cultural Affairs and Special Events ESTHER GRIMM The city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) team is responsible Executive Director, 3Arts for bringing art to the public through a wide range of programming and exhibitions. The 3Arts holds a unique place in Chicago’s art team, which also includes Greg Lunceford, philanthropy world: it promotes and supports Nathan Mason and Joanna Goebel, ran the the work of local women artists, artists of Year of Public Art initiative in 2017, with pub- colors and artists with disabilities through lic art commissioned in each of the city’s fifty project funding, unrestricted grants, resi- wards. Earlier this year, DCASE worked with dency fellowships and other avenues. Esther other city departments to launch a mural Grimm has served at the helm of the orga- registry which aims to catalogue and cele- nization for more than fifteen years, seeing brate Chicago's vast collection of painted it through continued growth and a sustained murals. They also launched an initiative for focus on its mission. In 2017, 3Arts launched Maxwell Street Market, with a commission their Make a Wave program, an artist-to-art- by Yvette Mayorga and William Estrada, to ist giving program, which will increase its capture the richness of the market’s legacy. award to $2,000 this year. Grimm has over- Looking ahead, DCASE will mount an ambi- seen the creation of their first Artist Council, tious retrospective of the work of Robert where eight artists become co-decision-mak- ers in programming. Her staff is currently 10. JANINE planning the annual 3Arts Awards Celebra- MILEAF tion; this year the event’s honorary co-chairs include Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and First Lady Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 Amy Eshleman. 56

As a partner of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the University of Chicago will be hosting events, exhibitions, and programs in and around campus, Sep 13, 2019—Jan 5, 2020. For a full listing of events visit arts.uchicago.edu/cab.

These folks,Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019DANIEL BERGER NATASHA EGAN or the roles they inhabit, are so Collector and Founder, Executive Director, well-established and Iceberg Projects Museum of Contemporary Photography, foundational to the Daniel Berger’s contributions to the art and queer Columbia College Chicago art world of communities of Chicago are vast and wildly Chicago that they impressive. The founder of Northstar Medical In a twenty-plus-year tenure at the Museum of are always near the Center, the Chicago HIV/AIDS research and treat- Contemporary Photography, executive director ment center, Berger is also an avid art collector, Natasha Egan has experienced firsthand the top of the list. and in 2010 founded the domestic gallery Iceberg evolution of the photograph from a physical object Projects. Berger published the book “Militant to an image that can be consumed and exchanged 58 Eroticism—The Art+Positive Archives” in 2017 with electronic ease across the globe. Egan’s with John Ne , which is the first survey of the art awareness of the e ects of globalism on the dis- and practice of Art+Positive, an a inity group of play of photography was apparent in her recent ACT UP New York. Iceberg Projects staged mul- exhibition “Stateless: Views of Global Migration,” tiple noteworthy shows last year, including “David which included compelling images by national Wojnarowicz: Flesh of My Flesh,” a gorgeous and international artists, some of whom were not mounting of the late artist’s work. able to enter the United States for the exhibition. Under Egan’s leadership, MoCP has a solid record JOHN CORBETT of engaging with significant and contemporary topics. “In Their Own Form” (2018) was a pow- AND JIM DEMPSEY erful showcase of current Afrofuturist work, and the current exhibition, “Go Down Moses,” exam- Founders, ines themes of resiliency in historically oppressed Corbett vs. Dempsey cultures. Next year, the MoCP will host an exhi- bition focused on protest culture and art in Puerto Corbett vs. Dempsey relocated to a new Near Rico, yet another indication that Egan’s finger is West Side location this year, christening the spot firmly on the pulse. with an exhibition by Christopher Wool. Founders John Corbett and Jim Dempsey, both veterans of CARLOS TORTOLERO the Chicago arts community, were invited to be curators in the 2018 Carnegie International, where President, they installed “Dusty Groove II: Space is a Dia- National Museum of Mexican Art mond.” The pair participated in last year’s epic Art Design Chicago, curating “3-D Doings: The Carlos Tortolero founded the National Museum Imagist Object in Chicago Art, 1964-1980.” Their of Mexican Art more than thirty years ago. Corbett vs. Dempsey record label is releasing Throughout the years, he has ensured the museum seven new CDs this fall, and will exhibit the first remains committed to displaying art “sin fronteras\" Chicago show of artwork by Lee “Scratch” Perry, (without borders), a goal as important today as it one of the inventors of Jamaican dub reggae. was in the 1980s. To celebrate the museum’s thir- tieth anniversary in 2017, it mounted “Memoria LISA CORRIN Presente: An Artistic Journey,” a lively group exhi- bition of works by artists from Chicago and neigh- Director, boring locales.  Block Museum PAUL GRAY AND Leading the Block Museum since 2012, Lisa Corrin has transformed the vision and reach of VALERIE CARBERRY the Northwestern University institution by stag- ing interdisciplinary exhibitions from a wide Partners, range of artists, movements and eras. The Richard Gray Gallery Block’s “Caravans of Gold” exhibition broke previous attendance records and will travel on Richard Gray Gallery continues to wield signifi- to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto and the cant influence in the Chicago art market, with Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. representation of local greats like Theaster Gates In anticipation of the museum’s fortieth anni- and David Klamen, and European heavy hitters versary, the Block is building its collection, with David Hockney and Magdalena Abakanowicz. a focus on contemporary art. One of Corrin’s The gallery opened Gray Warehouse in West current goals is to expand beyond the Block, Town two years ago, a 5,000-square-foot space through collaborations with other arts organi- nearly twenty feet high, with no columns to zations. “Such partnerships recognize Chicago obstruct views; the opportunity for displaying as a hub of creative greatness,” she says, “and work is nearly limitless. The gallery hired local a landscape in which we can support and pro- curator Anastasia Karpova Tinari earlier this year, mote each other to the mutual benefit of our and Carberry recently became the first non-Gray programs and our audiences.” Corrin is also family member to be named an equity partner. contributing to the first in-depth study of the The partners are gearing up for a fall exhibition Seattle Olympic Sculpture Park, which she of pioneering abstract painter Leon Polk Smith, helped develop. as well as a spring 2020 exhibition with McArthur Binion, a recent addition to their roster.

JAMES RONDEAU MADELEINE ELIZABETH GLASSMAN President and Director, GRYNSZTEJN President and CEO, Art Institute of Chicago Terra Foundation for American Art Director, With more than twenty years at the Art Institute Museum of Contemporary Art Elizabeth Glassman will be stepping down from of Chicago, James Rondeau’s commitment to her role once a successor is hired, but her almost expanding access to the museum, furthering art After more than a decade as director of the twenty-year career at the Terra, not to mention history scholarship and generating a lifelong Museum of Contemporary Art, Madeleine Grynsz- her flawless execution of the 2018 Art Design appreciation of art for its visitors has been long tejn remains committed to strong contemporary Chicago initiative, warrant her spot on this list proven. Public engagement is crucial to Ron- work that fosters social cohesion and builds com- until she leaves. Art Design Chicago partnered deau’s vision, and the museum provides ample munity. With a vision of expanding art access, in with more than ninety-five organizations and opportunity for Illinois residents to visit; more 2017 the museum made entry free for everyone served two-and-a-half million visitors through than thirty percent of all visitors attend for free. under eighteen, added more nighttime hours and forty-six exhibitions and hundreds of programs, A new audio guide made by teens for teens and opened a commons space on the first floor, with a heroic undertaking. “The stories our commu- a revamped website equipped with more than frequent free programming. Grynsztejn recently nities told throughout this initiative work together 50,000 pieces from the permanent collection concluded her tenure as president of the Associ- to champion Chicago’s role as a hub for imagi- also make the institution readily accessible. Ron- ation of Art Museum Directors, where she helped nation and impact,” Glassman says. Once her deau looks toward a star-studded exhibition establish an industrywide commitment to paid departure is complete, Glassman looks forward calendar, including “Andy Warhol—From A to B internships, as well as lobbying for a change in to helping other foundations, as well as collectors and Back Again,” which opens in October, and tax law to restore artists’ rights to donate their and philanthropists who hope to make a differ- an exhibition of El Greco in March. artworks to museums. Grynsztejn plans to oversee ence through giving. an undertaking of new initiatives into 2020 that THEASTER GATES will widen the canon beyond Euro-American art KAVI GUPTA “to encompass a more relevant, and revelatory, Founder and Executive Director, contemporary art scene, consisting of diverse Owner and Director, Rebuild Foundation, Artist and Professor new histories and artists.” Kavi Gupta Gallery The quantity of accomplishments and projects TONY KARMAN The prestigious gallery continues to mount some that Theaster Gates has a hand in is dizzying. of the most ambitious exhibitions in the city, He continues to lead Rebuild Foundation, which President and Director, including a solo show of Devan Shimoyama’s he founded in 2010, and regularly exhibits works EXPO Chicago signature glittering portraits. The gallery has as an artist, including the recent “Every Square long represented several founding members of Needs A Circle” at Gray Warehouse. In honor of Over the course of eight years, Tony Karman has AfriCOBRA, who were recently recognized on what would have been Tamir Rice’s seventeenth greatly increased the visibility and prominence of an international scale with “AFRICOBRA: Nation birthday, Rebuild reconstructed on the Stony EXPO Chicago, the city’s preeminent international Time,” an official collateral event for the 2019 Ven- Island Arts Bank lawn the gazebo where Rice contemporary art fair. EXPO’s eighth edition aligns ice Biennale, which was curated by local Jeffreen was killed. “Having a chance to honor Tamir Rice with the start of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, M. Hayes. Earlier this year, Kavi Gupta Gallery and participate in a moment of reflection with in addition to the exhibitions planned to run for joined the ranks of the Art Dealers Association of his mother, Samaria Rice, was truly amazing,” EXPO Art Week, plunging the fall art season into America. Gupta’s fall line-up coincides with EXPO Gates says. “Activating the Stony Island Arts full swing. EXPO makes good on its commitment Art Week, with exhibitions by Kennedy Yanko and Bank in ways that really matter have been espe- to focus on curatorial initiatives this year, with the Jeffrey Gibson opening September 21. cially important to me.” In coming years, Gates new Red Bull Arts Global Curatorial Initiative, an says he will continue to make concrete his visions expansion of the Curatorial Exchange program, RHONA HOFFMAN for creative space on the South Side, with proj- which will bring ten or more international curators ects like the Dorchester Art + Housing Collab- to the fair. Gallerist and Owner, orative, St. Laurence, Kenwood Gardens, the Arts Rhona Hoffman Gallery Block on Garfield Boulevard as well as the Stony Island Arts Bank. With more than forty years in the Chicago art world, Rhona Hoffman was a key sculptor of the LORELEI STEWART MARY JANE JACOB city’s contemporary art scene. She opened her SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity first gallery in 1976, showcasing conceptual and Director, Gallery 400, Director, minimalist art while her counterparts focused University of Illinois at Chicago Institute for Curatorial on European work. Hoffman focuses on concep- Research and Practice, tual art to this day, and has taken an interest in As director of Gallery 400 since 2000, Lorelei School of the Art Institute of Chicago sociopolitical art, creating a dynamic roster of Stewart has made the space a site for artists, diverse artists, including Deanne Lawson and art-workers and community activists and organi- Mary Jane Jacob’s legacy in the art world to date Derrick Adams. While her influence extends zations to collaborate on innovative exhibitions is wide-ranging, from her curation of work at the beyond Chicago, she continues to support local and programming that expands and challenges MCA to her opening of SAIC’s Sullivan Galleries. artists, such as Julia Fish and Amanda Williams, the canon. Under her leadership, the gallery is In her role as director of SAIC’s Institute for Cura- and remains rooted in the city’s art scene. Now also a training ground for students who have gone torial Research and Practice, Jacob is helping operating out of West Town, the veteran gallerist on to prominent institutions such as the Block shape the landscape of critical scholarship while has proven that while trends change, work ethic Museum, Studio Museum and ICA Philadelphia. educating a new generation of curators. Her book is essential to the operation of a gallery. The Stewart also celebrates the tenth anniversary of “Dewey for Artists” (2018), published by the secret to her craft is that she showcases art that the Propeller Fund, a granting agency that she University of Chicago Press, shows readers inspires her, and her passion precedes the poten- co-founded, which has made some of the most how John Dewey’s democratic thinking in tial financial gains of the art world. exciting art projects in Chicago possible. regards to art-making and viewing lives on in today’s artists. 59

10 11. gearing up to celebrate its tenth anniversary. GARY Metzner and his husband, Scott Johnson, are JANINE MILEAF METZNER also avid art collectors, holding works rang- ing from Roger Brown to Andrew Holmquist. Director, Arts Club of Chicago the former president and now a member of the board of Threewalls, Metzner helped 12 Janine Mileaf’s tenure as director of the Arts bring art to neighborhoods around the city. Club of Chicago has been filled with initiatives He also helps fund the Museum of Contem- KATE BOWEN and ideas to make the public aware of the porary Art Chicago's internship program. institution’s work. From rotating sculptural Metzner recently joined the board of the AND EMILY GREEN installations displayed outside, to jazzy new Chicago High School for the Arts, which is street signage, Mileaf is dedicated to expand- Acting Executive Director ing the reach of the Arts Club’s work. Her and Founder-Executive Director, ACRE programming of exhibitions and perfor- mances fits well into the institution’s daring Born out of a desire to nurture emerging avant-garde history, regularly challenging artists in a community-oriented, accessible viewers and artists to take risks and deepen and equitable way, ACRE (Artists’ Coopera- their understanding of contemporary art. In tive Residency and Exhibitions) has fostered Ekene Ijeoma’s recent performance, the art- the art community in Chicago and beyond ist used the National Anthem and a player since 2010. Founded by Nicholas Wylie and piano to address the crisis of mass incarcer- Emily Green, ACRE is spoken of in revered ation. In September, the Arts Club mounts a tones by anyone who has attended or vol- solo exhibition by Abraham Cruzvillegas, unteered at its rural Wisconsin summer res- which will include constructions made onsite idency program. The program improves each that address the migration of Mexicans from year based on participant feedback; has Michoacán to Chicago. Mileaf and her team restructured its admissions process to make are also focused on more public program- space for a more diverse cohort; runs annual ming, including an ongoing performance equity training for volunteers and offers schol- series called “Platforms.” arships for queer artists and artists of color. ACRE has expanded its fundraising model 11 in recent years to include a small store of GARY METZNER Collector; and Senior Vice President-Head of Office, Sotheby’s Chicago As the head of Sotheby’s Chicago office, Gary Metzner has long been immersed in the world’s finest art, from Old Masters to con- temporary greats. His office secured $21.1 million for Kerry James Marshall’s “Past Times” in 2018, the highest price ever paid for one of the artist’s paintings, and the most ever for the work of a living black artist. As 12. EMILY GREEN Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 60

artist-made objects and ACRE merch in their 14. TRACIE founded in 2016, is on pause as she searches Pilsen gallery. Green serves as the executive D. HALL for a new space; the Pilsen locale drew over director, but is on sabbatical until 2020; 31. THOMAS 12,000 people to its exhibitions and program- Bowen has served as acting executive direc- GALBRAITH ming. “I'm working hard to reach the next tor since January of this year. generation of artists and thinkers who see Foundation, showcasing the work of artists art as foundational to the work of social jus- 13 of color at Rootwork Gallery or curating an tice,” Hall says. “I see that as both a mission exhibition of art inspired by the Black Pan- and a succession plan.” DEANA HAGGAG thers, as she did last year at Stony Island Arts Bank. At the Joyce, Hall has had a hand 15 President and CEO, United States Artists in a range of community-focused projects, from helping Free Street Theater develop its SARAH HERDA Since taking the helm as president and CEO new Latinx theater space StoryFront, to work- of the Chicago-based granting organization ing to diversify the next generation of art Director, Graham Foundation United States Artists two years ago, Deana leaders through the Arts Leader of Color Haggag has worked tirelessly to support Fellowship. Rootwork, the gallery Hall During her decade-plus tenure as director artists. USA is one of the few arts philan- of the Graham Foundation, Herda has thropy organizations to give unrestricted 17. brought the institution greater visibility, both grants to artists—they award $50,000 each ALISON GASS in Chicago and around the world. The work to fifty artists each year—and in recent years of Graham fellows Brendan Fernandes and that generosity has increased. Haggag’s team Martine Syms and grantees Sahra Motalebi launched the Berresford Prize in 2018, an and Diane Simpson was included in the 2019 unrestricted $25,000 award intended for a Whitney Biennial. In addition to world-class “cultural practitioner who has contributed programming, the Graham is the only private significantly to the advancement, well-being U.S. foundation to award project-based and care of artists in society.” Haggag is grants to individuals and institutions working especially proud that USA was able to offer on issues relating to the built environment. 2019 fellows access to a certified financial This year they awarded over $460,000 to planner, who can help them craft a plan for sixty-three individuals working on architec- their award. “Giving people money is one ture-related projects, and in 2018 gave over thing,” Haggag says, “but helping them get $600,000 to organizations engaging original robust and regular financial advice for their ideas that advance our understanding of tailored needs is another thing altogether— architecture and its role in the arts, culture that kind of ‘money therapy’ is invaluable.” and society.  14 TRACIE D. HALL Founding Curator, Rootwork Gallery; Culture Program Director, Joyce Foundation Tracie D. Hall believes that having access to arts and culture is a fundamental human right. It’s a conviction that permeates all her work—whether it’s strategizing at the Joyce Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 62

artist-made objects and ACRE merch in their 14. TRACIE founded in 2016, is on pause as she searches Pilsen gallery. Green serves as the executive D. HALL for a new space; the Pilsen locale drew over director, but is on sabbatical until 2020; 31. THOMAS 12,000 people to its exhibitions and program- Bowen has served as acting executive direc- GALBRAITH ming. “I'm working hard to reach the next tor since January of this year. generation of artists and thinkers who see Foundation, showcasing the work of artists art as foundational to the work of social jus- 13 of color at Rootwork Gallery or curating an tice,” Hall says. “I see that as both a mission exhibition of art inspired by the Black Pan- and a succession plan.” DEANA HAGGAG thers, as she did last year at Stony Island Arts Bank. At the Joyce, Hall has had a hand 15 President and CEO, United States Artists in a range of community-focused projects, from helping Free Street Theater develop its SARAH HERDA Since taking the helm as president and CEO new Latinx theater space StoryFront, to work- of the Chicago-based granting organization ing to diversify the next generation of art Director, Graham Foundation United States Artists two years ago, Deana leaders through the Arts Leader of Color Haggag has worked tirelessly to support Fellowship. Rootwork, the gallery Hall During her decade-plus tenure as director artists. USA is one of the few arts philan- of the Graham Foundation, Herda has thropy organizations to give unrestricted 17. brought the institution greater visibility, both grants to artists—they award $50,000 each ALISON GASS in Chicago and around the world. The work to fifty artists each year—and in recent years of Graham fellows Brendan Fernandes and that generosity has increased. Haggag’s team Martine Syms and grantees Sahra Motalebi launched the Berresford Prize in 2018, an and Diane Simpson was included in the 2019 unrestricted $25,000 award intended for a Whitney Biennial. In addition to world-class “cultural practitioner who has contributed programming, the Graham is the only private significantly to the advancement, well-being U.S. foundation to award project-based and care of artists in society.” Haggag is grants to individuals and institutions working especially proud that USA was able to offer on issues relating to the built environment. 2019 fellows access to a certified financial This year they awarded over $460,000 to planner, who can help them craft a plan for sixty-three individuals working on architec- their award. “Giving people money is one ture-related projects, and in 2018 gave over thing,” Haggag says, “but helping them get $600,000 to organizations engaging original robust and regular financial advice for their ideas that advance our understanding of tailored needs is another thing altogether— architecture and its role in the arts, culture that kind of ‘money therapy’ is invaluable.” and society.  14 TRACIE D. HALL Founding Curator, Rootwork Gallery; Culture Program Director, Joyce Foundation Tracie D. Hall believes that having access to arts and culture is a fundamental human right. It’s a conviction that permeates all her work—whether it’s strategizing at the Joyce Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 62

16 16. JULIE of her roles, Cristello fuels cultural exchanges RODRIGUES- with leading global institutions as part of her JULIE WIDHOLM desire for Chicago to be recognized as a core 18. STEPHANIE location of the global arts community. RODRIGUES-WIDHOLM CRISTELLO 16. JANET DEES Director and Chief Curator, garage. Her expertise extends to her publish- & KATHLEEN DePaul Art Museum ing and editorial work, as editor-in-chief of The Seen, an international journal of contem- BICKFORD BERZOCK “It's very important to me that DPAM is part porary art that she founded in 2013. In each of the fabric of Chicago's cultural life with partnerships and collaborations,” Julie SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity Rodrigues-Widholm says. To that end, in the four years since she took the reins, the insti- tution has served as a satellite site for the 2017 and 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial, organized the group exhibition “Out of Easy Reach” alongside Gallery 400 and the Stony Island Arts Bank and served as a venue for the National Veterans Art Museum Triennial, with Eric J. Garcia's exhibition \"The Bald Eagle's Toupee.\" In keeping with her desire to ensure that DPAM reflects the city’s diverse communities, the museum has recently acquired works by artists such as Brendan Fernandes, Betsy Odom and Bar- bara Jones-Hogu. Rodrigues-Widholm is also leading a  multi-year research initiative into how art museums can work better with Latinx communities. 17 ALISON GASS Director, Smart Museum of Art Alison Gass took over as director of the Smart Museum in 2017, and has made great strides  in her mission to make the museum welcom- ing to all visitors and to make the collection and programming more diverse and inclusive. Recent Smart exhibitions have taken a wide view of Chicago history and culture, from “Cross Currents/Intercambio” to “The Time Is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960-1980.” As proof of the Smart’s increas- ing influence, Mayor Lightfoot borrowed an Amanda Williams piece commissioned by the museum for the recent show, “Solidary & Solitary.”  Last year, the Smart announced a major reinstallation of its collection and launched “Expanding Narratives,” a three- year, three-part series. The final chapter of the initiative is scheduled for 2020, and will include an ambitious global history of art. 18 STEPHANIE CRISTELLO Artistic Director, EXPO Chicago After five years as EXPO Chicago’s director of programming, Stephanie Cristello’s adroit curatorial eye helped secure her recent pro- motion as the fair’s artistic director. Cristello is also the director and curator of Chicago Manual Style, a gallery she runs out of her 63

21. ALLISON PETERS QUINN & KATE LORENZ 20 efforts spearheaded by Jacqueline Terrassa. Terrassa and her team work closely with 19 JACQUELINE TERRASSA youth and educators to develop programming that interrogates museum practices. They JANET DEES Woman's Board Endowed Chair also lead public engagement, most notably AND KATHLEEN of Learning and Public Engagement, with their annual Block Party, an all-day live BICKFORD BERZOCK Department of Learning and Public arts event for the community. “The day really Engagement, The Art Institute of Chicago feels of Chicago, as our name indicates,” Ter- Curators, Block Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago has worked rassa says. As part of her commitment to Northwestern University steadily to transform its culture by expanding equitable access, Terrassa and colleagues The addition of Janet Dees (Steven and Lisa access and complicating narratives of art, have been working on an initiative to increase Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and the number of paid internships and to ensure Contemporary Art) and Kathleen Bickford 20. that every intern experiences the museum Berzock (Associate Director of Curatorial JACQUELINE as a whole as an inclusive and supportive Affairs) to the Block Museum curatorial staff, TERRASSA place.  in 2015 and 2013, respectively, has been a blessing to the university’s exhibition sched- 21 ule. Under their curatorial expertise, the Block has made good on their mission to display KATE LORENZ AND visual art that looks broadly across cultures and time periods. Earlier this year, “Caravans ALLISON PETERS QUINN of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa,” Executive Director and Director of Exhibitions had the biggest opening day in the muse- & Residency, Hyde Park Art Center um’s history. Curated by Berzock, the exhi- bition was eight years in the making, and Through the leadership of Kate Lorenz and involved thirty-two lenders from six coun- Allison Peters Quinn, the Hyde Park Art Cen- tries. Dees is at work on a 2021 exhibition ter functions as a vehicle for both established that hopes to put contemporary conversa- and early-career artists while creating space tions around anti-black violence into a his- for the broader community to connect with torical context. Dees was a 2018 recipient creative ideas. Over the past two years, art- of a curatorial fellowship from the Andy ists like Anna Kunz and Folayemi Wilson Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and have taken over the main gallery space to was recently named an affiliate of North- stage ambitious, immersive exhibitions. western University's Center for Native Amer- HPAC is developing international exchanges ican and Indigenous Research. between Chicago artists and global institu- tions to foster creative exchanges, with Cro- atian artist Selma Banich in residence this fall. Local sculptor Faheem Majeed will mount a major solo exhibition in 2020 that Lorenz says “will be ambitious in every way.” As educational programming is a crucial com- Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 64

Admission is always free. All are welcome. September 18–December 29, 2019 | Opening Reception: September 17, 7–9 pm SAMSON YOUNG SILVER MOON OR GOLDEN STAR, WHICH WILL YOU BUY OF ME? Through September 22, 2019 TARA DONOVAN FIELDWORK October 19–December 29, 2019 MELEKO MOKGOSI BREAD, BUTTER, & POWER Images: Samson Young, Photograph from the production of Houses of Tomorrow, 2019, Video and sound installation, 20 min. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Jonathan Loïc Rogers. • Samson Young, The Highway is Like a Lion’s Mouth (animation still), 2018, Video and sound installation, 10 min, 53 sec. Image courtesy of the artist. • Installation view, Tara Donovan: Fieldwork, Smart Museum of Art, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery. Photo: Michael Tropea. • Meleko Mokgosi, Bread, Butter, and Power (detail), 2018, Courtesy the artist and Honor Fraser, Los Angeles. Photo © Monica Nouwens.

ponent of their mission, HPAC is prototyping 33. DUNCAN MacKENZIE mances on the High Line and at the Getty a model for artists of all ages and skill levels 24. CHERYL & ERIC T. McKISSACK Museum, was part of the 2019 Whitney Bien- that will give access to training, space and nial and his first solo exhibition with Meloche equipment, and a creative community.  city’s gallery scene. Her artists, past and pres- is scheduled for November. Since relocating ent, have seen huge professional successes to a larger space in West Town in 2018, 22 in recent years. Amy Sherald’s portrait of Meloche has committed to ever-more-ambi- former First Lady Michelle Obama hangs tious programs. With more than fifty percent NADIA SULAYMAN permanently in D.C.’s National Portrait Gallery of her roster artists of color, the gallerist’s and Rashid Johnson’s first feature film \"Native commitment to expanding the diversity of the Director, Community Arts & Programs, Son\" premiered at Sundance, but Chicago art world is commendable. The gallery’s recent Arts + Public Life, University of Chicago artist Brendan Fernandes might be having acceptance into the prestigious ADAA is fur- the biggest moment. He’s staged perfor- ther evidence of Meloche’s curatorial prowess.  As director of community arts and programs at the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public 24 Life, Nadia Sulayman oversees public arts programming, exhibitions and overall strategy. ERIC T. AND For Sulayman, honoring the cultural legacy of Washington Park, where Arts + Public Life CHERYL McKISSACK is located, is a crucial component of her work. “That rich cultural heritage hasn't left,” she Collectors says. “I get to think ambitiously about how to leverage resources and opportunities so Eric McKissack, founding partner and CEO that arts and culture aren't just a part of this emeritus of Channing Capital Management, neighborhood's past, but a driver and cata- and his wife Cheryl have collected art, primar- lyst in the contemporary moment too.” She ily by local artists of color, for decades. The has launched a curatorial program to aid couple recently lent work by Wadsworth Jar- emerging curators in developing their skills. rell to the Museum of Contemporary Art North A longtime interest in making the invisible Miami for their AfriCOBRA exhibition, which work of the arts world visible has developed continued onward as an official collateral event into a spring 2020 exhibition at the Arts Incu- of the 2019 Venice Biennale. The McKissack’s bator, which will showcase the art of less- gifted a rare copy of a 1970 bust by Charles er-known cultural workers. Alston that depicts Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Smithsonian National Museum of African 23 American History and Culture in 2016. Eric also sits on the boards of the Graham Foun- MONIQUE MELOCHE dation and the Art Institute. Gallerist and Owner, Monique Meloche Gallery Known for her keen eye for talent, Monique Meloche has forged a strong position in the 23. MONIQUE MELOCHE Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 66

L to R: by Wendell Castle, by William Morris, by Toshiko Takaezu, Racine Art Museum Visit America’s Largest Contemporary Craft Collection Learn more about Racine Art Museum current exhibitions and events at ramart.org September 21 – January 5 OBJECTS REDUX: 50 Years After OBJECTS: USA Defined American Craft October 20 – February 2 OBJECTS REDUX: Studio Craft in Context, 1960 – 1985 Through January 26, 2020 OBJECTS REDUX: Clay, Glass, and Metal, 1960 – 1985 Through July 26, 2020 It’s Like Poetry: Building a Toshiko Takaezu Archive at RAM Racine Art Museum Downtown Racine, Wisconsin 262.638.8300 ramart.org THE BEST The Barber of Seville, OF MUSIC Madama Butterfly, THEATER nd Street, and more A new season opens September 28 - create your own series and save! .. LYRICOPERA .ORG

















Art Art on the Highway EXPO Chicago's Override Takes Over Chicago Billboards By Pia Singh Todd Gray/ Image courtesy of EXPO Chicago and David Lewis Gallery. Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 EXPO Chicago hosts \"Override,\" a between international and local, established without gallery representation. public art project running the duration of the and up-and-coming artists. For Jacob, fair that subverts the commercial usage of bringing younger Chicago artists in “A lot of the program was solicited as we digital billboards across the city, targeting conversation with more established also wanted to host a dream team of artists the gaze of drivers, museum-goers and Northern European artists was an exciting that would make for a great thematic non-art audiences passing by at over thirty prospect. Billboard takeovers are markedly grouping, though there were some miles an hour. an American tradition, with “tags” and wonderful surprises in the open call,” graffiti often finding their way onto the Cristello says. With over fifty applications, Twenty-eight sites across the city will be advertisements. As the latest icon of “Override’” showcases thirteen artists whose activated through Chicago’s Digital Network, site-specific public art projects, the work parse social issues such as identity, exhibiting work by over thirteen artists billboard project has grown into a full- gender, art and craft, leading to an selected by a committee comprised of fledged, curated digital exhibition where expanded exhibition in the city’s largest EXPO Chicago’s IN/SITU curator, Jacob one can’t help but question, what truly public space. In an attempt to increase the Fabricius; artistic director Stephanie accounts for public art in Chicago? art fair's visibility and make contemporary art Cristello; exhibitor relations manager Alexis more accessible, over two million people will Brocchi; and director of public art Lydia Previously, artists were selected for the encounter “Override” on their daily commute. Ross and director of visual art Daniel program by galleries participating in EXPO. Schulman from DCASE, the Chicago This year, in creating a more generous “Because of the way it’s experienced, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special curatorial call, the committee opened the program functions on three levels for me. Events. The committee chose to create a application process to all artists, from the The first is, if you’re a stranger to the art space for intergenerational conversations 135 galleries hosted at EXPO and to those world, you may see an image that is not an 76

ART TOP 5 SANDRO MILLER: I AM PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1 Ruby T: Underwater Flood. SEPTEMBER 6 - NOVEMBER 9, 2019 Western Exhibitions. 1637 W. CHICAGO AVE. CHICAGO 60622 Ruby T, one of our 2018 Breakout artists, shows her EXAMINE BELIEFS. signature drawings and marbled RADICALLY RETHINK THEM. silk paintings, this time around alternately depicting elaborate SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO scenes of flowing water with GRADUATE PROGRAMS U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. Opens September 13 SAIC encourages interdisciplinary, Graduate SAIC Day collaborative, and experimental investigation. 2 Eleanor Antin: Time's In addition to our renowned Master of Fine SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 Arrow. The Art Institute of Arts program, SAIC o ers a number of Master 10:00 A.M.– 2:00 P.M. Chicago. In 2017, the pioneering of Arts, Master of Architecture, Master of SAIC BALLROOM feminist revisited her classic Design, and Master of Science programs. 112 S. MICHIGAN AVE. self-portrait series \"CARVING\"; CHICAGO, IL 60603 this exhibition will have both sets of photographs, alongside other Chicago Graduate projects that explore aging and Portfolio Day one's sense of self. Opens August 24 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2 10:00 A.M.– 2:00 P.M. 3 Remember Where You COLUMBUS DRIVE BUILDING Are. DePaul Art Museum. 280 S. COLUMBUS DR. The work of four emerging artists, CHICAGO, IL 60603 hailing from Chicago and San SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity Antonio, using personal and Apply Now public histories to bring attention Melanie Teresa Bohrer (MFA 2016), Untitled (Memorial), 2016saic.edu to the complexities of acculturation and migration. SAIC GRADUATE ADMISSIONS | 312.629.6100 | saic.edu/gr | [email protected] Opens September 12 4 Salome Chasnoff and Meredith Zielke: Present Absence. Roman Susan. Through a five-channel video installation, Salome Chasnoff and Meredith Zielke create a personal conversation amongst Chicagoans who have lost a loved one to police violence. Through September 14 5 Thanks for not breeding: Laura Davis and Derrick Woods-Morrow Aspect/Ratio. Multidisciplinary local artists investigate the complexity of gender roles using sculpture, video and performance. Opens September 6 77

IS N ad, and you may not know who the artist is or where they are OW from but, subconsciously, that image becomes a part of your CLEVE CARNEY visual culture,\" Cristello says. \"The second are those who are ART GALLERY interested in knowing more about art and do not know the artist, where ‘Override’ can provide them with an opportunity to discov- er new artists through the work. The third are audiences who may be visiting town for the fair, who will immediately know or be able to recognize who the artist is for a particular artwork and be able to then draw connections to why the work was selected and how it is related to artists practice.\" It is not an exhibition in a conventional sense. With multiple billboards rotating images every half hour, it is fragmented, an exhibition in parts and moments that can be viewed in full by standing still or by passing by at different times of the day. theccma.org The tradition of the landscape-oriented, rectangular proportion of the billboard is turned on its head at one site. Here, a por- trait-oriented billboard hosts the works of four selected artists who address feminist histories and themes of representation, specifically in the economies of art and craft, looking closely as what is traditionally read as women’s work. In past years, internationally recognized Chicago names have shown works on this coveted site. EXPO, hosted Theaster Gates’ Black Madonna project, from Fondazione Prada In 2018,  working closely with Richard Gray Gallery to bring the body of work from Europe to Chicago. The year before that the portrait board showed the work of David Shrigley. NEWCITY The tradition of appropriating signage and text is also one that runs the course of graphic design and graffiti history. Here, artist March 2018 Kay Rosen uses text to secretly imply hidden political messages. But how does one read works like these? Are they advertising for the art world or are they advertising nothing but themselves? How does one begin to curate billboards keeping in mind the sensitivity of issues that may affect communities and neighbor- hoods surrounding these sites? + Designer of the Moment “There are a lot of unknowns that we can’t have any control over,\" Cristello says. \"All context becomes unpredictable, which is also part of the fun of the project, but it’s also made us think deeply about how we would like to create exhibitions in this form in the December 2018 future.\" SEPTEMBER 2017 newcity Art 50: Chicago’s Even so, the curators admit that there may be those who do not Visual Vanguard register the works as art. Similarly, one wonders whether the 33 VISIONS FOR THE NEXT CITY presence of the billboard as a commercial structure in a DISCOVER &FallArtsPreview cityscape momentarily transforms as the bearer of two-dimen- & Chicago sional text and visual information to a three-dimensional form, or Architecture architecture, or public sculpture? What may be the biggest Biennial question is whether viewers take away any of the messaging situated in the contemporary art world outside of it, as there THE CITY &ArtLeader would never be any way of knowing what could have been of the Moment: transmitted. BENEATH DeanaHaggag THE In the democratization of the art world and its increasing efforts SURFACE in community engagement, “Override” provides more questions than it does answers on the accessibility and role of contempo- feb cover+FOB.indd 1 1/20/19 4:50 PM rary art in everyday life. Images shared in a landscape of fast food restaurant signage, cable TV services and life insurance Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 May 2019 providers occupy a vast public space that serves as a reminder of the volatility of images, and the unpredictability of our desires BreAarktiosutst from them. It also reminds us of the neverending potential of contemporary art to extend its arms up from the ground up to the vastness of the sky. Newcity_May2019_coverFinal.indd 1 4/14/19 1:52 PM Subscribe at Newcity.com/subscribe “Override” will be on display at billboards throughout the city, September 9-29. 78

Abraham Cruzvillegas The Ballad of Etc. September 12 - December 20 312.787.3997 Pop América, 1965–1975 [email protected] SEPTEMBER 21 – DECEMBER 8, 2019 @artsclubchicago GALLERY HOURS Collection viewings by request. FREE AND OPEN TO ALL www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu Tue-Fri 11:00 am - 6:00 pm Visit artsclubchicago.org for Sat 11:00 am - 3:00 pm reservations. Image: Hugo Rivera-Scott, Pop América, 1968. Collage on cardboard, 30 x 21.5 inches (76.5 x 54.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist. © Hugo Rivera-Scott. FREE Art Programs AIC7_8.indd 1 8/15/19 4:18 PM 773.731.9287 MONGERSON SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity GALLERY www.skyart.org 2251 W. GRAND AVE. [email protected] PHONE: 312.943.2354 @skyartnfp MONGERSONGALLERY.COM facebook.com/skyartnfp Pictured: Work by Julia Thecla (top) and Gertrude Abercrombie (bottom) 79

EXHIBITIONS THE ARTS CLUB OF CHICAGO LOGAN CENTER EXHIBITIONS 201 East Ontario Street At the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts 312 787 3997 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 [email protected] / www.artsclubchicago.org 773 702 2787 Tues–Fri 11-6, Sat 11-3 [email protected] / arts.uchicago.edu/logan/gallery September 12–December 21 Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Ballad of Etc. Tues–Sat 9-9, Sun 11-9, Mon closed Through October 12 Garden Project | Eliza Myrie: garden/ruinate September 13–October 27 Tufting Gun Tapestries: Assemble THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART in collaboration with Duval Timothy, Big Chief Demond Melancon and the Material Institute, New Orleans At Northwestern University 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY 847 491 4000 [email protected] / www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu 451 N. Paulina Street Museum closed through September 20 312 243 2129 September 21–December 8 Pop América, 1965-1975 [email protected] / www.moniquemeloche.com Tues–Sat 11-6 CARL HAMMER GALLERY September 7–October 26 David Antonio Cruz: One Day I’ll Turn 740 N. Wells Street the Corner and I’ll Be Ready For It 312 266 8512 [email protected] / www.carlhammergallery.com MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY Tues–Sat 11-5:30 PHOTOGRAPHY September 6–October 26 Celebrating 40 Years November 1–December 21 Kahn and Selesnick - Madame Lulu’s At Columbia College Chicago 600 S. Michigan Avenue Book of Fates: Drawings and Photographs 312 663 5554 [email protected] / www.mocp.org DEPAUL ART MUSEUM Mon–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5 Through September 29 Go Down Moses At DePaul University 935 W. Fullerton Avenue THE NEUBAUER COLLEGIUM 773 325 7506 FOR CULTURE AND SOCIETY [email protected] / artmuseum.depaul.edu Mon–Tues closed, Wed–Thurs 11-7, Fri–Sun 11-5 At the University of Chicago Closed for installation August 12–September 12 5701 South Woodlawn Avenue September 12, 2019–February 23, 2020 Julia Fish: bound by spectrum 773 795 2329 September 12, 2019–February 23, 2020 Remember Where You Are [email protected] / neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu September 12, 2019–February 23, 2020 Architectural Annotations Mon–Fri 10-5 Through September 6 HUTOPIA: Alec Finlay, Patrick Lakey, Goshka Macuga, Guy Moreton, John Preus, Ewan Telford September 17–January 31 Martha Rosler: Passionate Signals

POETRY FOUNDATION SCHINGOETHE CENTER 61 W. Superior Street of Aurora University 312 787 7070 1315 Prairie Street, Aurora, IL [email protected] / www.poetryfoundation.org 630 844 7843 Mon–Fri 11-4 [email protected] / www.aurora.edu/museum Saturday, September 21 11-4 Mon, Wed–Fri 10-4, Tues 10-7 September 5–December 20 The Life of Poetry in Morden Tower The Museum is closed through September 23 September 24–December 13 THREADS: A Line from There to Here THE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY SMART MUSEUM OF ART At the University of Chicago 5811 S. Ellis Ave., Cobb Hall, 4th Floor At the University of Chicago 773 702 8670 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue [email protected] / www.renaissancesociety.org 773 702 0200 Tues, Wed, Fri 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Sat, Sun 12-5, Mon closed [email protected] / www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu September 14–December 1 LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Last Cruze Tues–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sun 10-5 Through September 22 Tara Donovan: Fieldwork RHONA HOFFMAN GALLERY September 18–December 29 Samson Young: Silver Moon or 1711 W. Chicago Avenue Golden Star, Which Will You Buy of Me? 312 455 1990 [email protected] / www.rhoffmangallery.com ZHOU B ART CENTER Tues–Fri 10-5:30, Sat 11-5:30 September 13–October 19 Gladys Nilsson: New Work 1029 W. 35th Street September 19–22 EXPO Chicago 773 523 0200 [email protected] / www.zhoubartcenter.com RICHARD GRAY GALLERY Mon–Sat 10-5 September 20–October 12 Centerline Richard Gray Gallery, Hancock: 875 N. Michigan Avenue, 38th Floor September 22–November 8 Terminal Forms - Ed Oh, Mon–Fri 10-5:30, Sat by appointment Gray Warehouse: 2044 W. Carroll Avenue Presented by 062 Tues–Sat 11-5 312 642 8877 [email protected] / www.richardgraygallery.com September 13–November 23 Leon Polk Smith: Endless Space (Gray Warehouse)

Dance DANCE TOP 5 Take Root in “Ripples From the Skin We Shed.” 1Then a Cunning Voice and A Little Bit of This, a Night We Spend Gazing A Little Bit of That at the Stars. Calumet Park Cultural Center. Emily Johnson’s Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival Provides radically inclusive performance/ a Sampling of Indie Work from Across the Country sleepover begins with ritual events, takes a group walk, and By Sharon Hoyer winds up on a massive quilt on the shores of Lake Michigan. Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 2008 was a rough year for many industries, of her own eponymous dance company. As September 28 and the arts were no exception. Companies heads of small performing-arts organizations, shuttered, festivals folded—particularly those the pair possessed the administrative, 2 Harvest Chicago with small budgets, no matter if they were production and marketing skills to start up Contemporary Dance considered institutions at the time (think something new—a festival to fill the void left by Festival. Ruth Page Center for Around the Coyote). “The type of performance the economic downturn. “We put our heads the Arts. Almost twenty dance opportunities we wanted as independent together and decided to create the kind of artists, physical performers and artists were lacking,” says Melissa Mallinson, festival we would like to participate in and that local and national companies director of ology dance in a phone interview. we think audiences would like to see.” convene for a two-weekend “For practicing artists—people who maybe sampler of short works. have full-time jobs teaching but still want to That festival, celebrating its tenth anniversary, September 20-21; 27-28 create interesting work.” is a showcase of broad-ranging dance and physical theater styles grouped under the 3 The Fly Honey Show. Harvest Chicago was co-founded by Mallinson common parlance “contemporary.” In the mix Den Theater. The and Nicole Gifford, founder and artistic director this year: almost twenty individual performers tenth-anniversary performance by Chicago’s renowned 82 sex-positive, body-positive, queer-positive, uproariously fun feminist variety show. August 8-September 7 4 The Forward March of Women. Ebenezer Lutheran Church. A four-part Art + Activism series with performance/installation/ conversation on the politics of womanhood. September 20-21 5 Calling Time. MCA. IBrendan Fernandes presents a culmination of his participatory open rehearsal series in the MCA Commons, which invites dancers and visitors alike into the performance. September 27

and groups hailing from Chicago and across the United States: aerial Logan Center Gallery • Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts • 915 E 60th St Chicago IL 60637 Gladys Nilsson September 13 artists, straight-ahead modern-contemporary dance companies, clowning-physical theater performers, and performing artists who are New Work arts.uchicago.edu/logan/gallery difficult to describe in a one word or even three or four. SEPTEMBER 13–OCTOBER 19, 2019 October 27 SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity Each company or performer gets a short spot on the two-night 1711 WEST CHICAGO AVENUE program, and Mallinson organizes the shows to keep audience interest CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60622 with a variety-show curatorial approach. “Each piece has a ten-minute WWW.RHOFFMANGALLERY.COM time limit so we curate a blend of different group sizes and forms,” she says. “Some pieces are aerial-contemporary or urban-contemporary or Assemble in collaboration with performance art-contemporary so that audience members see Duval Timothy, Big Chief Demond Melancon something different and interesting every ten minutes.” and the Material Institute, New Orleans Harvest Chicago’s sampler-style short performances make the festival — not only accessible to independent artists with day jobs, but also a potentially unintimidating point-of-entry for folks unfamiliar with TUFTING GUN contemporary dance and the many things a word meaning “of right now” can indicate, either as standalone or cumulative adjective. TAPESTRIES Take for instance the jazz-contemporary Giordano II company, which 83 performs “Periphery,” a full-company piece about moving up to the next stage in a career, with support from friends and loved ones (certainly a personally resonant subject to the second company dancers). Giordano is grounded in a movement style familiar to anyone who’s caught excerpts from a Broadway show, any number of televised dance competitions, or music video choreography: high-octane, muscular, theatrical dancing with a capital T. In the same night, you’ll also see Chicago dance artist J’Sun Howard’s duet “aMoratorium,” a duet reflecting on death in relation to the black church and black spirituality, originally a commission from the Art Institute in response to a retrospec- tive of work by mid-twentieth century figurative painter and lithographer Charles Wilbert White. And there will be a short film from Rochester, Michigan, shot and audio-recorded entirely underwater. Also an abstract clown piece by Utah-based Dmitri Peskov. And six other pieces, too. Mallinson says that she looks to the applicants to set the tone of the festival. “Over the years it’s been interesting to see the trends and issues artists are working with,” she says. “Over the last few years we’ve seen more social issues. This year we’ve seen more hope and community power. Nicole and I let the candidate pool dictate what the festival is. We can puzzle piece together the logistics, but our goal is to be the platform for the artists to share their work.” Among the many pieces across two weekends grounded in social issues are Virginia-based james morrow/THE MOVEMENT’s “We Don’t Dig Holes to Bury Ourselves,” a solo inspired by combat veterans suffering PTSD and media portrayals of war, and Chicagoan VADCO/ Valerie Alpert Dance Company’s premiere of “The Memphis Project,” informed by the National Civil Rights Museum and the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum. With almost two-hundred applicants for nineteen slots, Harvest Chicago seems to be helping fill a presentation void for independent artists and small companies in Chicago and nationally. When I asked Melissa what she envisioned for the festival in the next ten years, she says she intended to keep Harvest Chicago small-scale and intimate, “We’ve found a good spot for our organization in being a small, independent event,” she says. “We love being able to connect with audiences and the artists and having a historical venue like the Ruth Page.” Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 North Dearborn. $25 general admission, $18 military, seniors and students. Tickets at hccdf. brownpapertickets.com/. Friday and Saturday, September 20-21 and 27-28 at 8pm.

Design DESIGN TOP 5 Farnsworth House/ Photo: Chris Bellezza Photography 1Chicago Architecture Lines, Lasers and Biennial. Chicago Cultural Lost Landscapes Center. The much-anticipated third CAB presents an ideal Geometry of Light at the Farnsworth House opportunity to explore a future in architecture, design, urbanism, By Tanner Woodford policymaking, research and the arts. Opens September 19 Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 Even without lasers, the Farnsworth drive away from the city, the buildings are House is a significant physical and intellectual smaller and further apart. Eventually, they 2 Virgil Abloh: Figures of journey. With them, a visit becomes more of a almost cease to exist. We park, amble along a Speech. Museum of spiritual pilgrimage. The iconic home—built by path of fresh mulch through a winding, rich Contemporary Art. Explore the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1951 and green landscape, and then walk across a life and career of Louis Vuitton designated a National Historic Landmark in steel bridge over a flowing brook. men’s artistic director, whose 2006—is nestled along the Fox River in Plano, influence and creativity rises Illinois, about sixty miles west of Chicago. For Paces later, Mies steps in. From a distance, beyond media, merging the three nights this October, the structure will be the structure strikes as the pure essence of visual arts, music, fashion, clad with twenty-five bright red Bluetooth-con- International Style, with every extraneous graphic design and architecture. trolled lasers, revealing previously invisible element removed. The elegance turns Through September 22 lines along the building, its terrace and the ethereal as I approach the house, and a bright surrounding property. The light will react to a red laser extends across my chest. 3 River North Design tonal reading made from the pitch of the District Fall Gallery Walk. space, played on speakers, further extending Geometry of Light is an intervention by the River North. The RNDD the invisible lines into both time and space. inimitable duo of Luftwerk and Iker Gil, with an collaborates with the River North accompanying audio experience by Oriol Arts District Galleries to bring The journey to the house is as important as Tarragó. It takes place at, but also, on the artists and designers together for the destination itself. It provides context. On historically significant home. The sound and the fifth year, now in thirty-three this particular rainy drive to a preview of the light installation seeks to uncover the site’s locations. September 6 & 7 intervention, an old friend and I eagerly forgotten history and lost landscape by anticipated a new experience. As we talk and revealing how the geometry of architecture 4 The McCormick House– Past, Present, Future. Elmhurst Art Museum. Interior architect Robert Kleinschmidt brings the McCormick House back into a domestic setting with classic mid-century furniture. Opens September 14 5 Renegade Craft Fair. Division between Damen and Ashland, Wicker Park. The biggest craft fair showcase in the world, Renegade returns home for a weekend, bringing a wide assortment of artists, designers, makers and entrepreneurs. September 7 & 8 84

Martha Rosler PASSIONATE SIGNALS Sept 17–Jan 31 Luftwerk, Mas Context, \"Geometry of Light,\" Barcelona Pavilion /Photo: Kate Joyce SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity relates to flood plains, topography and trees that no longer exist. The project premiered in February 2019 at the Barcelona Pavilion as part of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe’s ongoing program of artistic interventions. The light- and sound-based intervention at the Farn- sworth House draws another invisible line, this time between two significant buildings. Mies thrived in the details, famously believing an architect should design form, structure and utilities holistically. For the Farnsworth House, he served as both architect and general contractor, which gave him complete control over the project. He used this privilege to create the most honest and minimal interpretation of his ideology I have seen. It is truly the ultimate refinement. The entire structure is composed of three strong, horizontal planes, which suspend glass walls between attenuated and widely-spaced steel columns. The one-story weekend retreat appears to float above the ground. Lasers infinitely extend the figurative space of the hovering planes onto the surrounding site, revealing how high the structure sits comparatively to the trees across the lawn. Under red light, the subtlety of the grid reminds me that this expression is merely a cross-section of a larger skyscraper. It is a piece of the puzzle. The project has more to do with creating an experience than it does architecture, sound or light. It asks the viewer to see Mies’ work in a fresh way. Standing on the lawn, I notice that one of the laser lines is bouncing up and down, clearly in contrast to the stability of the rest. Eventually, it is revealed that this particular laser is pointed to a five-foot elevation, representing and clarifying the highest flood line, which caused a great deal of damage to the estate. The laser is bouncing to reference running water inside the home. It draws a clear relationship between the house, its history and its landscape. Details like these are too often left between the lines, but headlining them now and again is important in an ever-changing environment. The point is subtle, but appreciated. This is all too fragile. On view October 11-13 from 7pm-10pm. 85

&DiDnirningking Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019Hofbräuhaus, Oktoberfest Hofbrauhaus, Rosemont/photo: Johnny Knight Suds, Sausage, Spankings and History By David Hammond Oktoberfest might be one of those seventies. I remember that it was chilly outside, “Because I’m a Nazi. A new Nazi,” the young ancient, perhaps “pagan,” harvest festivals— and so it seemed like a perfect day for hoisting man replied, with a touch of inane pride. At like Gaelic Samhain or Celtic Lughnasa—held a few with friends. That evening, I was sitting which point one of our group, which was at the end of the season to celebrate the gifts with some American buddies on a long, mostly Jewish guys, said he thought it was and gods of the earth and prepare for the well-worn bench at one of the wooden tables time to go, and he was right. We kept an eye winter ahead. But Oktoberfest is not that old. at the four-centuries-old—and surprisingly behind us as we made our way out the door. The first Oktoberfest was held in 1810 in honor cozy—Hofbräuhaus. of Bavarian Prince Ludwig’s marriage to That the young man should make such an Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghau- The serving maidens at the Hofbräuhaus, assertion of allegiance is surprising, as sen. Oktoberfest is now a monthlong wedding robust and jolly, were able to carry a vast Germany has become understandably reception, a time to throw back a few beers, quantity of beer steins in two hands, maybe sensitive to Nazism. Germans are not afraid to sing raucous songs and dance. up to twelve, enough to serve a whole table of acknowledge the evil Nazism represented, and drinkers. they go a step further by outlawing the use of Munich’s Hofbräuhaus has been the scene of Nazi symbolism. So, to confess one’s many an Oktoberfest, although the brewery is As we enjoyed our second beer, we were allegiance to the Nazi Party was a legally much older than the holiday itself. joined by a group of outgoing locals, guys our precarious display of bravado. Public displays age. Before long we’re toasting with our big of Nazi sympathies, like those on view in 2017 Munich’s Hofbräuhaus holds a powerful ceramic steins. At one point, the young man in Charlottesville, would be strictly forbidden in position in German cultural and political sitting directly in front of me narrows his eyes Germany. And as we see our own government history. Young Adolf Hitler painted a watercol- and asks, “Are you a Jew?” taking a hard right toward authoritarianism and or of the place during his “artist” phase. Later, a violent cult of personality, the vicious trap that in 1920, an ascendant Hitler stood in the The correct response to this question, the average German fell into during Hitler’s rise Hofbräuhaus to deliver his address, “Why We especially when posed in an aggressive and to power becomes more understandable. Are Anti-Semites.” interrogative manner, would be “Fuck you.” Never has it seemed more likely that “it” could, Instead, taken aback, I simply said, naively, indeed, happen here. One hopes that if the I visited Munich’s Hofbräuhaus in the early “No, why do you ask?” worst does occur in our country, that future 86

generations will recognize that we weren’t all food, too, is classic German. General manager members of the KKK, the American Nazi Party Brad Cool tells us, “We take pride in providing and other forces of intolerance. our guests with the most authentic experience as possible, following traditional recipes to None of that darkness was in evidence in bring the Bavarian culture to Chicago.” Rosemont last week, where we got an early start to Oktoberfest. Our favorite wursts are: Rosemont’s Hofbräuhaus is one of multiple Leberkäse. This is a square of emulsified pork DINING & DRINKING franchise locations around the United States or beef, baked in a bread-type pan and served TOP 5 that carry on the well-known name of sliced. I had a leberkäse years ago at Munich’s centuries-old beer hall. Says Christkindlmarket, loved it, but haven’t since 1 Etch-a-Sketch Workshop. SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity brewmeister Rob Hunter, “We make not only seen it served this way at that annual The SafeHouse Chicago. the lager, but all of the beers in strict Christmas market in Daley Plaza. At Rose- Princess Etch hosts a workshop accordance with the Bavarian Beer Purity Law, mont’s Hofbräuhaus, you can get this dish the called Sketch at this spy-themed using only the finest malt, hops and yeast way I remember it, which I greatly enjoy. It is, bar, and a good amount of from Germany. We brew the authentic Munich truth be told, basically a griddled hot dog nostalgia and drink will be recipes in a traditional German brewhouse meatloaf. It’s way better than it sounds. involved. September 5. that was designed and manufactured in Germany along with all the tanks and cellar Weisswurst. The story goes that a butcher in 2 Oktoberfest. Hofbrauhaus, equipment. I like to tell our brewery guests Munich was preparing to make bratwurst Rosemont. See our feature that everything for the beer comes from when he discovered he didn’t have all the about Hofbräuhaus in this issue; Germany except the water… and me.” ingredients, so he improvised with veal, pork, Octoberfest is all about the beer, bacon, onions, salt, pepper and lemon powder. the celebration… and the Samples of beer are sent to German labs on a He called his creation weisswurst, and spankings. September regular basis to ensure that the brews served traditionally, and at Hofbräuhaus, this sausage 13-October 31 in Rosemont and other U.S. locations taste as is served in a bowl of hot water. The tradition is much as possible like the brews served at the to bite off the end of the moist sausage and 3 Taste of Lettuce River original Hofbräuhaus in Munich. suck out the contents without eating the skin; North. Wildfire Chicago. kinda gross but fun. Chefs from Big Bowl, Shaw’s In the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen- and Beatrix sidle up with chefs turies, German immigrants to the city helped Currywurst. In postwar folklore, a German at Wildfire for a one-night-only raise Chicago to a world-class beer city. charwoman in bombed-out Berlin traded some four-course feast that puts the Though anti-German sentiment sharply English soldiers a bottle of schnapps for a tin of best dishes from all four increased around the times of both World curry powder. She added the curry powder to restaurants on your table. Wars, initial anti-German sentiment was due, ketchup, poured it over sausages, and a September 24. basically, to xenophobia and intolerance, the street-food classic was born, now much kind that today is more focused on Afri- beloved. There is a Currywurst museum in 4 Chicago Gourmetl. can-Americans, Mexicans and Muslims. Berlin, a few yards from the old Checkpoint Millennium Park. Charlie, and the sausage is still sold all over the The annual extravaganza of John F. Hogan, author of “The Chicago Beer city and country. excess, featuring the best efforts Wars,” told me in a 2016 interview about the of chefs all over Chicago, and historic clash on Clark Street bridge between At the Rosemont Hofbräuhaus, the barmaids in this year featuring Newcity’s German immigrants and police. This bloody dirndls come around the tables to offer diners a David Hammond emceeing a confrontation was sparked by Mayor Levi spanking with long wooden paddles. At our demo with a well-known chef. Boone’s prohibition on Sunday beer sales: table, two young blue-eyed blondes, a man September 28-29 “The riot was about beer, of course, but it also and a woman, both in lederhosen, probably in represented a release of tensions that had their thirties, eagerly stood and leaned over 5 Apple Fest. Downtown been building for years. Since its earliest days, their chairs to receive their public paddling. Long Grove. You like Chicago had been governed and largely apples? At Apple Fest, you owned by old-line Yankee stock that traced its “Is this a German thing?” I asked the general can get fresh apple cider, apple origins back to the Puritans, those folks whose manager on duty during these festivities. “No, donuts, spiced apple lattes, greatest fear was said to have been that not really,” he said. “It’s a U.S. thing; it started candy-covered apples, apple someone, somewhere, was having a good in Vegas and caught on in Chicago.” wine, apples, apples, apples. time. These stern people became increasingly September 28 alarmed over the growing influx of immigrants, Looking around the room at Rosemont’s particularly German. Hofbräuhaus, you can see why the beer hall is one of Germany’s great gifts to the world. “Beer has been a centerpiece of German culture People are laughing and drinking and since time immemorial,” Hogan said. “The beer singing; having a good time through good hall was more than a place to down a few. It times and bad. was a community gathering spot that welcomed families and people of all ages, a Hofbräuhaus in Rosemont celebrates place to meet friends, exchange news, read Oktoberfest from September 13 through German-language newspapers, sing, dance, October 31. There will be lots of traditional listen to music.” German food and drink, as well as German musicians imported for the occasion, including All the best aspects of the German beer a forty-piece bugle band. Of course, well-mus- hall—singing, dancing, and so on—are in cled barmaids will gladly administer a spanking, evidence at Rosemont’s Hofbräuhaus. The if that’s what you’re into. 87

Film clockwise from top left: “Years and Years”: Episode 1: Trump nukes China. “Children of Men” “Hunger Games” Apocalypse Now or Never Futures Written And Not Yet Written By Ray Pride How do artists make sense in a fumbling, The movies have savored extinction, eradica- know that the kids know something is very crumbling world, when misprisions and much amiss and awry. follies, crimes and brute hate savage the day? tion and annihilation for years, accelerating The hope of capturing historical present tense after 9/11, with unspecified menace every- A week after September 11, 2001, Graydon is like expecting to perform a delicate operation on a runaway train. Feature films where, set to ash the skies with snowflakes Carter, then editor of Vanity Fair, plumply take months, usually at least a couple of years, to make it into production, distribution and of death. Genre pictures love nothing declared, “I think it’s the end of the age of then (the men and women of money and art dearly hope) public consciousness. The movie more than a brooding calamity. The end of or series that lands square in the zeitgeist civilization, or even the planet itself, has been irony.” But today? Irony is banging a tin pan seems prophetic, yet it is haphazard, simple a sizzling, seething, sorrowful constant across from six feet under and just won’t stop. And chance: good or great work with something to naysayers are going to have their nay: why are say, usually allegorical, dropped into the features and series even before our latest collective lap. Two bold cases from 1979: the you even making art? (Such as Universal and nuclear mishap at Three Mile Island occurred apocalypses, major and minor, began to twelve days before the release of the Blumhouse’s unseen but Trump-canceled cautionary “China Syndrome” (from a story pile up like dead marine animals on our that co-writer Mike Gray had nurtured for a satire “The Hunt,” which was due at the end long time). George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Pacific shores. Dead,” released less than two months later, of September.) has a direct reference to the Three Mile Island Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 plant. (There’s a fine rationale the Coen Young-adult fiction has been hot at the brothers have for confecting only period forge for decades. Skipping past the “Hunger “How can you talk about musicals at a time like pieces or “near-period pieces.”) this?” Preston Sturges’ film director character Games” as a series, as well as its less-suc- rants in “Sullivan’s Travels” in 1941. “With the cessful kid-dystopia counterparts, just think of the first “Hunger Games,” directed by Gary world committing suicide, with corpses piling Ross: directly injected into the consciousness up in the street, with grim death gargling at of $694 million worth of moviegoers worldwide, you from every corner, with people slaughtered through canny genre armature, the message, like sheep!” the blunt narrative, of generations of youth as chattel, denied a future, forced to bow to And before filmmakers set to work, to take an unanswerable white-haired class, led by a breath, what about the everyday horrors and lied to by President Coriolanus Snow. that lodge in the brain of the man- or The shows the kids know are the shows that woman-in-the-street? Even in the doggiest 88

of dog days in mid-August, It’s not one bad vision of an FILM TOP 5 the shards and screams, all-too-possible future; it’s a arriving in multimedia blurts multitude of them. To make it 1 Two-Lane Blacktop. Gene Siskel Film Center. They only made them this way once. Monte and burps as a weave of through each episode does Hellman’s all-American existential road movie as existential wisp: landscape as destiny, from an catastrophe and chaos: Stolen feel, in some ways, like survival. epically terse script by Rudy Wurlitzer, with James Unless you’re a Trump lover, Taylor, Dennis Wilson and Warren Oates in a children in cages. Clockwork cross-country race from New Mexico to Washington, this is a nightmare what-if D.C. In 35mm Techniscope. September 20 & 22 gun massacres. Presidential documentary of the near thumbs-up photo ops with future.” “Years and Years” is a newly made orphan. very much a ‘’fear the living, Legislative scenarios taking envy the dead” bill of fare. “The Handmaid’s Tale” as a handbook instead of a There’s a scene at the end cautionary tale. A leader’s of the first episode that is battle against language, the skin-tingling, hair-raising, and spoken and the thumbed, letters in profusion spelling out cathartic while also soul-suck- confusion and danger and rage. ing. Signs and auguries are The death of Jeffrey Epstein in everywhere: the episode, filled 2 The Films of Abbas Kiarostami. Gene his cell by the most extraordi- with asides about bad things Siskel Film Center. As the late Iranian master’s nary of unlikely misadventure. to come, debuting shortly Koker Trilogy arrives in a Criterion Blu-ray edition, Ninety degrees in Anchorage, before the investiture of Boris the first true wide release of the films in the United Johnson as prime minster, States, the Siskel surveys the larger landscape, 120 in Baghdad. Species showcasing twenty-two features and eleven shorts. obliteration. Sea-ice dissolution. ends on a family gathering, rich with conflicts, sweet soap September 6-October 30 Tundra, revealed, ablaze. Litanies that sound less mad opera and smart gab, until than language virus hijacking the extended family around the everyday thoughts of those the table in the backyard gets a video message from who cannot look away. a relative, video calling from a “The unmentionable odour of conflict on an island near China 3 Joker. Music Box Theatre. A 70mm-exclusive two-week run of Todd Phillips’ Joaquin death / Offends the September contested by the United States. Phoenix-starring “Joker” is among Warner Bros. Sirens sound on both sides awards-season sprints for the origin story from the night,” W. H. Auden wrote in director of “The Hangover,” as well as a premiere at “September 1, 1939.” How do of the call: four days before the Toronto International Film Festival in September. consumers of culture, let alone the end of his term, Donald TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey calls “Joker” a artists, speak aloud in day after Trump has launched nuclear “cinematic achievement on a high level” with “some fraught day without descend- missiles and their world will real dark tones… grounded in this career-best career ing into gibbering glossolalia? never be the same. performance by Joaquin Phoenix.” Opens October 4 I had been steeping in Alfonso Sweet clarity! The series Cuarón’s “Children of Men” jumps forward five years as for a few weeks, particularly the writer-director’s conversa- the authoritarian politician tions about how that foul future, played by Emma Thompson mirroring the latter-day world consolidates her tyranny on what is left of the land Orwell immigration crisis, was dubbed “Airstrip One” in conceived and constructed, when a six-episode BBC-HBO “1984.” (There are also spirited soliloquies that would have family drama from writer 4 The Eleventh Annual Noir City Chicago: Paddy Chayefsky eating Film Noir in the 1950s. Music Box Theatre. Russell T. Davies (“A Very Nine double features, mostly in 35mm, including cigarettes.) Davies ends his the brass and bravura of “In a Lonely Place,” “Pickup English Scandal,” “Doctor on South Street,” “Kiss Me Deadly,” “Killer’s Kiss,” despairing series with relatively “Nightfall” and “Touch of Evil.” September 6-12 Who”) the pre- and post- apocalyptic “Years and Years” hopeful notes, but his syncretic announced itself with a short, weave of an ambient blanket of present-tense terrors is fierce, sharp “ahem.” It’s a coup of exploiting genre to explore the frightful and compelling. The most piercing nightmares are fallen world. the waking ones, the familiar “Davies is in a full sprint to ones we have learned to exponentially unleash a bevy engage and then, with earnest 5 Where’s My Roy Cohn? Many names are bruited as the masters of what our political of ideas about what happens hope, disengage. There are world has become, but the one malicious, malefic tonal infelicities, but the serious, monstrous man who must never be forgotten is from this very moment to thug attorney Roy Cohn, whose career began sorrowful wash of “Years and as sideman to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and many years in the future as extended to mentoring real estate heir Donald SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity Years” is on par with Cuarón’s J. Trump in his decades-established ways. A necess- one horrible domino topples ary portrait of a bad man. Opens September 27 2006 Christmas Day release. into another—and splits off Stories sometimes arrive into fifteen different lines of before their time, and others horrifying dominos clicking land when we least expect and falling,” Tim Goodman them. This storytelling thing? wrote in The Hollywood It might just have a future. Reporter, coincidentally evoking the result of opening one’s phone first thing of a “Years and Years” is playing morning. “As a viewer you on HBO. Madness lies in are constantly on your heels. your Twitter feed. 89

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Hovering Lit in the Middle Discussing “On Division” with Goldie Goldbloom By Kelly Roark When fifty-seven-year-old Surie Eckstein independence. Though discovers she’s pregnant with twins, she it is about an older person who miraculously gets not only has to adjust her life as a Chassidic grandmother to this unexpected news, but she pregnant, it’s really just begins to question the traditions and actions her own story about what of her marriage, education and religion. As she am I going to do? Am I hovers on the brink of dramatic change, she’s going to make a claim for my own independence, unable to share her news with her husband my understanding of my and family, fearing criticism or ostracization from her community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. family and my world? Surie and her husband had a son, Lipa, who died by suicide after facing rejection from his There’s a part where family and religious community as a gay man. Surie is talking to a midwife at the health Her pregnancy and a young woman she meets at the health clinic offer a way for her to clinic about mother- treat the next generation with more compas- hood, religion, their careers, and they’re sion. Goldie Goldbloom, also Chassidic, a mother of eight, and a queer activist, speaks both a little critical of the other’s choices— about her remarkable novel, “On Division.” —You’ve never been How did you settle on Williamsburg around a conversation as the location for the novel? like that, right? (We I lived in Brooklyn for about six years. When laugh heartily.) I started working on the book, I thought, Is that something you wanted to address Surie sees her pregnancy as a chance to right some wrongs that occurred I think I’m going to set the book in Williams- in the book, the high standard women with her son. Are you a believer in redemption? burg because that’s where they have the set for each other that makes life so Charles Baxter has a great essay called “Against Epiphanies,” this idea that like, largest issues. I had been doing work for something happens and offers great, deep Eshel, which is an LGBT advocacy organiza- much more difficult for us? meaning, and as a result you rethink your One-hundred percent. Even though it’s set entire life. I don’t know that I believe in that, tion, and I still do independent work with but what I do think happens is that when community members in Williamsburg, and as in Chassidic Williamsburg, those issues are difficult things happen, your thinking slows issues that almost every woman deals with down and you start to focus on the stuff a result I thought: this story belongs there. that really matters. Is there an idea of in her life. I really think it’s dealing with larger redemption for Surie at the end? I don’t I went back and walked around, reorienting know. Is she thinking more deeply about issues that are happening in the world and something she thought she had given myself to the place and the changes that enough attention to earlier? Yes, for sure. have taken place. It used to be a less-upscale the United States in particular. Many of the characters in “On Division” neighborhood and now it’s very current and There’s a lot of Yiddish and Hungarian are concerned about reflecting poorly on the community, for example, when expensive to live there. in the book—what’s your hope when someone commits a crime. Was that a concern for you, of reflecting poorly on The book begins with an epigraph a non-Yiddish speaker reads the book, the Chassidic community as you were SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity about Abraham and Sarah (“And Abraham that they’ll look up the words or figure writing this book? fell on his face and rejoiced, and he said it out from context? to himself, “Will [a child] be born to one My hope is that they’ll figure it out from who is a hundred years old, and will context, and I did quite a bit of work to ensure Sarah, who is ninety years old, give that was possible. In the past year I’ve read birth?”)—how much of an inspiration many wonderful books that had Spanish or was that for the book? Greek or some language that I don’t speak. I have two degrees in theology and so of Did I go and look it up? No. For the most part course those kind of stories are on my mind. I was like, yes, that’s the experience of being Surie’s story is her own story and she has her in a community where you don’t speak the language, you don’t understand everything. own trajectory, she’s looking for a little bit of 91

Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 LIT TOP 5 Yes. Yes and no. What I tried to do was be the isolation, the shame, the disconnect from as extremely accurate as I could be in terms their communities and families and religion. 1 Tom Pickard. Poetry of showing both the good and the bad. And Foundation. Tom Pickard I think that my book is the only fiction book Do you write with an audience in mind? discusses literary landmark, that writes about the Chassidic Jewish Not really, I write with an idea in mind. “The Life of Poetry in Morden community that accurately is able to portray I usually start with some questions that I Tower” at the exhibition both the good and the bad in a balance, don’t know the answers to, and then I write opening, including its reading and I worked really hard to make sure that to see if I can come closer to some kind of series which began in 1964, happened, because I didn’t want it to be just understanding. In the case of Surie, I was which he co-founded. a spiteful tell-all, an angry tirade against all wondering what it would be like to live with the things that aren’t right in the community. an explosive secret. What kind of pressure September 5 It’s a community where there are wonderful does that put on a person and how does that things about it, and some things need transform the way they think about things? 2 Ocean Vuong. attention. When I handed the book to my That was Lipa’s life and she almost recreates Seminary Co-op. Emily women readers in Williamsburg, they were that life, herself. Jungmin Yoon discusses one almost weeping when they handed it back of the buzziest debuts of the and they said, You got us, you wrote the real You include a couple of pages about year, “On Earth We’re Briefly story of us. what life was like for the great-grand- Gorgeous,” with its poet- mother who grew up in Romania and turned-novelist author. In the story when the young girl is abused they’re really beautiful and transportive, by an uncertified therapist in the community but why was it important to include September 3 and the community circles the wagons and those pages? starts raising money for that person, I want To me, we’re all a culmination of the history 3 Ours Poetica Launch. to emphasize strongly that it’s not that they that our families have lived, so Surie is not Poetry Foundation. The believe that that person is innocent, in fact just Surie who grew up in America and Yidil Poetry Foundation will launch they know that that person is not innocent. is not just Yidil (her husband) who grew up in a new poetry video series with The person was fired the day the information America. They are the product of their history curator Paige Lewis (“Space came out. The community is not supporting and the memories of their parents who grew Struck”), series producer John the pedophile, the community is supporting up in Europe. There’s the idea that these Green (“The Fault in Our Stars”), the community rather than the individual. histories are almost transported genetically and poet Kaveh Akbar (“Calling I think that’s an important thing to note. to us. I don’t know how valid the science is, a Wolf a Wolf”) all present for I don’t agree with it, but that’s what it is. but I do think that’s an interesting thought. the kickoff event. September 12 Cetaceans, meaning large whales, have been As I read your book I thought about how shown to have passed memories down to 4 The Children’s Book practically every religion has aspects their offspring, and their offspring behave in Fair of Hyde Park. 57th that are wonderful and comforting and ways that indicate that the history changes Street. Kids have their day in practically every religion has aspects the way they behave now. And I think that’s Hyde Park for the thirty-second that could be improved upon. true for human beings, so I think you have to year. September 15 Right! The same hand that swings the include these moments of history that made incense sensor in the Catholic church—and people the way they are. 5 J. Ryan Stradal. people love that, they love the smell and the The Book Cellar. The whole experience—that same hand could be Could you tell me more about the best-selling Northwestern alum the hand of a pedophile. As time goes on, we work you do in the queer Chassidic returns, in a literary sense, to understand that not everything is perfect or community? his home state for “The Lager everything is awful, it’s somewhere hovering I was one of the founding members of Eshel, Queen of Minnesota.” in the middle. There are things that are great which is an advocacy organization for queer and things that are in need of attention. Jews in the Orthodox Jewish community and September 28 I quickly discovered that there were resources Does a person like Surie have a chance for regular, Orthodox Jews, there were not for 92 at making a change in a community like Chassidic Jews and specifically Chassidic the one at Williamsburg? Jews who are leaving the community, which Realistically? No. But, you know what? The is often the case. I knew a lot of people in the role of fiction is to enlarge people’s hearts, community and none of them would come to to allow them to see into somebody else’s the events or talk to another person because world and to create a sense of compassion they were afraid the other person would for that world. And if I have a secret hope, somehow out them. It was difficult to make it’s that my book makes its way into hands any inroads because there was no way for that need to read it. them to meet. I needed to figure out a way for people to connect, so I started interviewing The reader comes away with such a people and putting their interviews on a blog. sense of sadness for the character of It was immediately, ridiculously successful. Lipa, the son, and a sense of regret I still get a lot of emails and telephone calls from his parents—could you talk about from people who say you’re the only person how you developed that character? we know who’s queer and still living in the I know a number of children who have community as an out, queer person. I’m not committed suicide for a variety of reasons a trained psychologist, so I’ll talk to someone within the queer, formerly Chassidic for a while, but I’ll usually recommend they community. Lipa isn’t one person, he’s an talk to a psychologist. I have resources, I’m amalgamation of a number of people that like a stepping stone. I’ve known, and I tried to include the important details that drove each of these \"On Division\" by Goldie Goldbloom children that I knew to take their lives. So, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 288 pages

Live at The Book Cellar The Adler Planetarium presents Local Author Night Nancy Atkinson with Dreamspinner Press presenting Heidi Cullinan, j. leigh bailey “Eight Years to the Moon” and Kathy Lyons (aka Jade Lee) in conversation with Andrew Johnston September 18, 7pm September 5, 7pm Stuart Ross Tallgrass Writers Guild “Jenny In Corona” presents “All Things Autumn” September 19, 7pm September 6, 7pm Chuck Schaden Ibram X. Kendi in conversation with “How To Be an Antiracist” September 7, 6pm Steve Darnall Dessa “Chuck Schaden’s Radio Days” September 20, 7pm “My Own Devices” September 8, 1pm Cathryn J. Prince Mason Thomas “Queen of the Mountaineers” September 21, 6pm “The Witchstone Amulet” September 11, 7pm Seane Corn The Kates!! “Revolution of the Soul” September 22, 5pm September 13 and at Ravenswood Event Center September 28, 7pm Oonagh Duncan Poetry Night “Healthy as F*ck: The Habits featuring Mary Hawley You Need to Get Lean, Stay and Renny Golden Healthy, and Kick Ass at Life” September 14, 6pm September 26, 7pm Essay Fiesta! J Ryan Stradal September 16, 7pm “The Lager Queen of Minnesota” September 28, 4:30pm Go to our website for event details, book clubs and more! Your Independent Book Store in Lincoln Square! 4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago 773.293.2665 • bookcellarinc.com

Music Scoring a Score I’ve always enjoyed listening to movie soundtracks; although since “Days of the Bagnold Summer” won’t have Belle and Sebastian’s its theatrical release until sometime in 2020, there’s no Big-Screen Moment chance of seeing it before Belle and Sebastian’s soundtrack comes out this month (September 13, Matador). By Craig Bechtel Given that the group was born in a haze of obscurity in Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 the pre-Internet age and took their moniker from an obscure short story read by Stuart Murdoch, prompting a “stars-aligning” meeting with original member Isobel Campbell shortly thereafter, it somehow makes sense to write about a band whose titular inspiration I haven’t read, for a soundtrack to a movie I haven’t seen, based on a book I haven’t read. As you might expect, if you’ve heard their earlier records, it’s gorgeous, vintage orchestral pop, the group’s specialty since it was formed in 1994 by Murdoch and Stuart David (who left in 2000). They’ve produced an estimable collec- tion of chamber pop with a clever, humorous approach across ten full-length albums now (as well as numerous EPs and singles), perhaps picking up the gauntlet thrown down by the Smiths following their 1987 dissolution. Yet the Smiths analogy goes only as far as their acoustic approach and insouciant cleverness; B&S have never possessed the 94

sardonicism (some would say nastiness) of drawn from the movie, voiced by the the Mancunian quartet. In fact, they seem mother’s character. Have I mentioned how lovely all this is? to be inspired by Murdoch’s wide-eyed innocence and optimism. Perhaps most surprising here, in addition The film “Days of the Bagnold Summer” to choosing Belle and Sebastian for this MUSIC TOP 5 is based on a 2012 graphic novel by soundtrack about a metalhead’s relation- Joff Winterhart, and although Murdoch ship with his mother rather than Megadeth 1 Vic Mensa & Jesse. The Vic. Mensa went full- didn’t read it until being approached by or The Mountain Goats, or, I don’t know, bore political this year with his confrontational single, “Camp its producers, he says its “style and its any other musical act, is the inclusion of America.” He shares the bill with “Safety Valve,” perhaps the most, uh, lovely The Neighborhood’s Jesse atmosphere set me off straightaway. Rutherford. September 6 moment of the entire enterprise. “I know I read it on a Friday, and by Monday I there’s something out there, I can feel it,” pretty much had all my ideas lined up. Murdoch sings with wistful simplicity, and What was great was that Simon [Bird] hadn’t shot anything then. You want to get later “I know I’m not in a good place, I know I’ll get better.” in early, because that way you can start having late night conversations with the director about ‘The Graduate,’ or whatever. “That one’s ancient,” Murdoch says. “It predates the band; it’s maybe twenty-five- We all have fantasies about those great years old. The only time I can remember movies of the sixties and the seventies. ever playing it was in a coffee shop with If you are going to get involved with a 2 Weyes Blood. a friend of mine, and people scratching Thalia Hall. The lush project like this, you want to do it right.” production of Natalie Mering’s their heads. There was only a verse and fourth album, “Titanic Rising,” might not translate to the concert “Days of the Bagnold Summer” marks a chorus, so I went back to it, and revised stage, but her serenity-in-the- shadow-of-doom message the directorial debut of actor, writer and the words. It’s a simple song about being surely will. September 30 comedian Simon Bird, star of the British over-reliant on a particular person—proba- series and two films of “The Inbetweeners.” bly my girlfriend at the time. But it seems The press release describes the movie as to work okay here, too.”This song might be the best of this bunch, in terms of the “a tender, touching and acutely observed album as a whole, and it’s a quiver full of coming-of-age story, which tells of a quivering highlights. heavy-metal-loving teenager’s holiday plans falling through at the last minute, The kind of simplicity that Murdoch leading to him having to spend the references permeates Belle and Sebas- summer with the person who annoys tian’s approach—their arrangements are him most in the world: his mum.” never overstuffed with orchestral bells and 3 Aldous Harding. Empty Bottle. The New All of those adjectives (excepting perhaps whistles, the compositions are tastefully Zealand singer-songwriter tours the “heavy-metal-loving”) fit the winsome, done. That’s especially apparent on the her remarkable new album, brief “Another Day, Another Night,” sung “Designer,” whose infectious whimsical ways of Belle and Sebastian, tunefulness lures the listener and penned by the sextet’s Sarah Martin into complex ambiguities. but their involvement was not the work of a music placement person for the film. (who also plays violin, recorder, stylophone, September 24-25 melodica, guitar and flute for the ensem- Murdoch describes Bird as “a proper fan,” noting that he was adamant that the ble). She says the song was inspired by band’s “Kiss Me Now I’m Dying,” originally the mother’s character: “In the screenplay, on “If You’re Feeling Sinister,” be included. the mum is a richer character than in the book… There’s a point when she thinks The song was re-recorded for the about an old boyfriend, and her whole soundtrack, with a more dynamic ap- past, with all its regrets, suddenly opens proach. Also re-recorded was “I Know up before her. I love her character.” Where The Summer Goes,” which 4 The Black Keys. United Center. After a five-year gap, originally appeared on B&S’s fourth EP, The full version of “Sister Buddha,” the the blues-rock duo has returned with a back-to-basics new album, “This Is Just a Modern Rock Song,” and “Let’s Rock,” the title of which later collected on “Push Barman To Open first single, released in July, begins with might be a mission statement a muscular approach and a riff echoing for this tour. September 27 Old Wounds.” The new rendition is less organ-based and more piano-dominated. Pulp’s “Common People,” powered by a Both are improvements over the originals, soaring, anthemic trumpet part. While it wasn’t intended for the film originally, which is saying something significant, as they were perfectly fine to begin with— when Bird heard it, he knew he wanted it. Murdoch indicated that “Simon picked but these have a fresh bounce that up on it, wanting to have something was missing from the languid, leisurely uplifting at the end of the movie, and we compositions as originally recorded. were happy for him to have it.” 5 Lizzo. Aragon Ballroom. SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity There are a few instrumental moments, In short, it’s amazing that the record The soul-pop diva tours her album, “Cuz I Love You,” including a lovely deconstruction of the coalesces so well, given that it is a sort which continues her ascendancy in the charts, the culture and the first single, “Sister Buddha,” which of Frankenstein’s-monster exercise in entire time-space continuum. although it might seem an outlier, Bird assemblage. Belle and Sebastian garnered September 28 chose due to his interest in Buddhism; “Jill Pole,” a sweeping, anthemic meditation a brief mention in the record store-set with lovely harmonica inflections; and “The “High Fidelity” movie, but will this be a moment for them like The Shins’ in Colour’s Gonna Run,” which borders on Mogwai-ness. “We Were Never Glorious” “Garden State?” Quite possibly. I will just is a lengthy, by comparison, instrumental have to look, and maybe by then I will have read the book. conclusion but seems to have dialogue 95

Stage Fall Howard’s End Pakalolo Sweet Theater Preview (Remy Bumppo (Nothing Without Theatre Company) a Company) Experience the journeys of three The second in Hannah families as they search for love, Ii-Epstein’s trilogy of drug purpose and connection against plays set on the North the tide of class, money and Shore of O’ahu, cannabis sex in this world-premiere adap- and culture collide in tation of E.M. Forster’s novel by this unexpected and Chicago playwright Douglas Post. heartbreaking tale. September 1-October 5 September 17-October 5 Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 2019 EDITION Horse Girls Vanya on the Plains Kate Fry and Grace Smith (The Artistic Home) in a promotional image for By Kevin Green (Exit 63 Theatre) In a future totalitarian “Mother of the Maid” at Northlight An immersion into middle-school society, seventy-nine-year Theatre/Photo: Greg Inda Like kids back from camp, deception and lies, this dark, old Elijah convinces his the Chicago theater community twisted play infiltrates the world friends and family to perform there is a living question for the emerges each September from of pre-teens, their obsessions, Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.\" ensemble in tracing something of the languid summer months in a their insecurities, their selfies September 15-October 27 where they each come from and mixture of excitement and high and their desperate need to asking what is needed for them hopes, eager for the commence- find a place in the world. Dana H. to come together. September 5-22 (Goodman Theatre) September 26-October 13 ment of yet another bountiful An innovative new work, season and the prospect of Murder in the Cathedral based on a harrowing true X witnessing great art not only story, itold in Dana’s own (Sideshow Theatre Company) firsthand but first, period, as our (Curious Theatre Branch words and reconstructed Billions of miles from home, city continues to deepen its & Poetry Foundation) for the stage by her son, a lone research base waits to commitment to new work T.S. Eliot’s drama in verse, playwright Lucas Hnath. receive another message from first performed in 1935, portrays September 16-October 6 Earth. The crew attempts normal of all kinds. the 1170 assassination of operations, but as the silence Archbishop Thomas Becket The Color Purple grows louder, the darkness In order to better reflect this in Canterbury Cathedral during (Drury Lane Theatre) outside the station creeps in. abundance and achieve our the reign of Henry II. The heartwrenching musical September 26-October 27 mission of covering Chicago September 10 & 11 is based on the 1982 novel theater in all its myriad forms and by Alice Walker and earned Luna venues, we have expanded our Midsummer fifteen Tony Award nominations, (Filament Theatre) annual Fall Theater Preview. What (A Play with Songs) including the win for Best In this newly imagined produc- follows represents a comprehen- Revival of a Musical. tion, director Alejandro Tey and sive (although still incomplete) (Greenhouse Theater September 19-November 3 his team take families on an listing of this season’s upcoming & Proxy Theatre) interactive journey on a search performances, from classics at A night of raucous sex turns into Mother of the Maid for friendship and belonging. internationally recognized regional a weekend of car chases, gang- (Northlight Theatre) September 28-November 3 theaters to brand new work in sters, wedding busts, midnight As hardworking and pious unconventional and unexpected trysts—and a second chance at Isabelle Arc’s daughter Twice, Thrice, Frice places and everything (we mean life and love—all set in Edinburgh. ascends from farm girl to holy (Silk Road Rising) September 7-October 6 martyr, we follow the unexpect- In this world-premiere comedy, everything) in between. ed perspective of her proud, three Muslim women confront Be Here Now fierce and frightened mom. adultery and polygamy while Snatch your tickets. September 20-October 20 friendship, fidelity and faith are Grab your friends. And get (Shattered Globe Theatre) called into question when one An atheist and misanthrope King Hedley II of their husbands marries a yourself to the theater. loses her job teaching nihilism (Court Theatre) second wife. in NYC and winds up working Directed by Ron OJ Parson, October 1-November 10 (For even more openings, check in a fulfillment center in her family ties are tested and out our Theater Top 5: September small hometown. crime and retribution collide in September 8-October 19 the ninth play of August Wilson’s 2019 as well as the Can’t-Miss American Century Cycle. Fall Theater selections) The Storefront Project September 21-October 13 Editor’s note: (Prop Thtr & MCA Chicago) The Raveling the show descriptions below Six Chicago-based directors (Walkabout Theater Company) are courtesy of the producing (Dado Gyure, Lucky Stiff, Denise Inspired by true personal companies. All events listed are Yvette Serna, Coya Paz, Sydney narratives of the performers, subject to change. Check each Chatman and Mikael Burke with company’s website for details April Cleveland) each choose a text—not written for theater— and confirmation. and devise a new project September 14-22 96

The Brothers Size Grey House STAGE TOP 5 (Steppenwolf for Young Adults) (A Red Orchid Theatre) Returning to Steppenwolf, A world-premiere horror play 1 Tiny Beautiful Things. Victory Gardens SEPTEMBER 2019 Newcity Tarell Alvin McCraney’s fierce about the gravity of the past, Theater. Based on the bestseller by Cheryl and honest look at the complex and the cruel inevitability Strayed, adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos bonds of brotherhood. of its pull. and directed by Vanessa Stalling, this local October 2-19 October 19-December 1 premiere is about reaching when you’re stuck, healing when you’re broken and finding the The Silence of Harrow House Proxy courage to take on the questions which have (Rough House Theater) (Underscore Theatre Company) no answers. Opens September 13 Through puppetry, environmental Nearly murdered by her best and sonic design, this immersive friend when she was a child, 2 The Great Leap. Steppenwolf Theatre theatrical experience brings Vanessa is now an investigative Company. Witty and weighty, Lauren audiences face-to-face with journalist in a bind. Yee’s latest play (in its Chicago premiere) cosmic horrors. October 22-November 24 explores cultural barriers, political risks and October 3-November 10 personal sacrifice, and is sure to be Accidental Death compelling to basketball fans, history buffs Book of Peace of a Black Motorist and everyone who has ever had a dream. (Collaboraction) (The Conspirators) A part of the 2019 Year of A high-energy, high-style, Opens September 15 Chicago Theatre, this performance hard-hitting satire skewering the will include highlights from the culture of police violence and the 3 Oslo. TimeLine Theatre Company. The company’s last five years of complicity of the Code of Silence. 2017 Tony Award winner for Best Play is peace-focused work including October 25-November 23 a remarkable story about the unlikely theater, dance and spoken word. friendships, quiet heroics and sheer October 4-6 Latin History for Morons determination that pushed two foes to reach (Broadway In Chicago) something neither thought truly possible: A Man of Good Hope The most totally unique show peace. Opens September 18 (Chicago Shakespeare Theater of the season reveals America’s & Isango Ensemble) unsung heroes, throughout past 4 Destinos. Chicago’s annual citywide This magnificent music-driven and present. international theater festival dedicated to production—based on the book October 29-November 3 the Latino experience as told by Latino artists by Jonny Steinberg—tells the true and companies from Chicago, the U.S. and coming-of-age story of Asad The Suffrage Plays Latin America returns for a third year. Featuring Abdullahi, a young Somali refugee. (Artemisia) productions from UrbanTheater Company, October 4-13 Celebrate the upcoming Water People Theater, Aguijón Theater hundredth anniversary of the Company, Teatro Vista and Repertorio Latino Director’s Haven 5 Nineteenth Amendment with Theater Company. September 19-October 27 (Haven) an evening of three one-act Lauren Katz, Aaron Mays and comedies focused on the 5 Bernhardt/Hamlet. Goodman Theatre. AJ Schwartz will headline the next importance of voting rights High humor and human drama collide in chapter of Haven’s initiative to for women. Theresa Rebeck’s rollicking comedy about showcase rising directors. November 1-24 legendary leading lady Sarah Bernhardt and October 14-30 her decision to assume the title role of Dead Man Walking Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at the turn of the Sunset Boulevard (Lyric Opera) twentieth century. Opens September 23 (Porchlight Music Theatre) Based on real-life events, Jake This Tony Award-winning Heggie’s music and Terrence masterpiece of obsession, McNally’s libretto explore the romance and the golden age of nature of friendship and forgive- Hollywood stars one of the most ness in the most profound ways celebrated leading ladies of in what is widely acknowledged Chicago theater: Hollis Resnik. as one of the most riveting operas October 15-November 24 of the twenty-first century. November 2-22 The Effect (Strawdog Theatre Company) Laura and the Sea Hearts pounding, thoughts racing (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble) and sleepless nights. Connie and A world-premiere comedy Tristan are falling in love. Or are about depression, or: a treatise they? Stuck in a clinical trial for an on travel agents who don’t travel. antidepressant, it’s hard to know November 4-December 8 what is love and what is the drug. October 19-November 23 Hoodoo Love (Raven Theatre) Sugar in Our Wounds Katori Hall’s spellbinding, music- (First Floor Theater) filled tale about the danger of Part of playwright Donja R. Love’s our desires makes its return to trilogy of black love at pivotal Chicago in a production helmed moments in history, helmed by by Wardell Julius Clark with music Mikael Burke. direction from Ricky Harris. October 19-November 23 November 5-December 15 97

Newcity SEPTEMBER 2019 Life is BeautifulBy David Alvarado 98

HOMEGROWN CHICAGO BLUES TALENT Logan Center’s music series, Second Monday Blues, features Chicago’s world-class musicians and emerging blues stars. A live interview precedes each concert, moderated by the series’ three-time, Grammy-nominated curator and host, Billy Branch. 2019–2020 PERFORMANCES CAFÉ LOGAN at the Logan Center for the Arts JOHN PRIMER DOKTU RHUTE MUZIC 915 E 60th St Mon, Oct 14, 2019 • 7pm Mon, Mar 9, 2020 • 7pm Chicago, IL 60637 logancenter.uchicago.edu/blues VANCE KELLY NORA JEAN BRUSSO 773.702.ARTS Mon, Nov 11, 2019 • 7pm Mon, Apr 13, 2020 • 7pm loganUChicago Presented by the Logan Center and DEITRA FARR DONALD KINSEY Billy Branch Music, with the support WITH MATTHEW SKOLLER Mon, May 11, 2020 • 7pm Free parking is available at the Logan of The Reva & David Logan Foundation. Mon, Jan 13, 2020 • 7pm GILES COREY BLUES BAND Center all weekend and Mon–Fri after 4pm. Mon, Jun 9, 2020 • 7pm J. W. WILLIAMS FREE admission Mon, Feb 10, 2020 • 7pm

SEP CLOSING SOON 6-4 TUE, 5:30–8 PM Neon sign for Off-White runway show, Women’s Collection, 9-24 TUESDAYS ON THE TERRACE Fall/Winter 2016 (“You’re Obviously in the Wrong Place”), 6-10 JUN 10–SEP 22 2015/19, Photo: Fabien Montique 9-22 VIRGIL ABLOH: Savor the final notes of summer with live jazz! MCACHICAGO.ORG/LOOK “FIGURES OF SPEECH” 10-01 OCT 1, 3 PM AND 6 PM, OCT #MCAMadeYouLook 10-03 2–3, 12:30 PM Free for youth 18 and under See the groundbreaking Kim Brandt, Level Open until 9 PM Tuesdays and Fridays exhibition before it closes. Bodies at work create a body Reserve your tickets in advance of work. Experience pop-up CMChounicsteaeugmmopoorfary Art at mcachicago.org/abloh. dance performances through- out the MCA.