Newcity April 2017

n DESIGN TOP 5 Top: Otis D. Gibson, Founder and Chief Creative Officer; Bottom: Heather Knapp, President. APRIL 2017 Newcity Photography courtesy of Gertrude, Inc. 1 Mas Context Presents Bilboa Issue Launch. MAS Context will fete its new Now, with its three distinct divisions, Gertrude can accommodate the issue dedicated to the city of Bilboa at the ideation and life of a brand at every step: Gertrude invents a brand, OZ Cervantes Institute, with a panel featuring editor will start shaping what that brand looks like, and RAYE brings it to life in chief Iker Gil, Metropolitan Planning Council as an experience. president MarySue Barrett and SOM's Philip Enquist. April 19 “From concept to design to execution, these projects exist for a number of reasons,\" Gibson says. \"We happen to be in Pilsen, we happen to 2 August Fiedler and The Stately have enough room to do it and we happen to be in a creative environ- Interiors of the 1870s and 1880s. ment that’s open to it. When all those things come together, I think it’s Glessner House. The art historian Rolf Achilles pretty unique.” Collaborating on a hands-on level with artists and will deliver a lecture on the interior design styles craftsmen within the local community, Gibson is a firm believer in the and trends of several of Chicago's Gilded Age city’s untapped talent. “All of our fabricators are within a three-minute mansions. April 28 drive/ten-minute walk. That’s really important to us,” he says. 3 Dan Friedman: Radical Modernist. That tie to locality and place is essential for Gibson. Both he and Knapp Chicago Design Museum. The Chicago are originally from the East Coast but have become champions of their Design Museum's latest exhibit, showcasing the adopted hometown. “I just really loved Chicago and decided to start the work of multifaceted modernist Dan Friedman. agency here because I didn’t want to leave,” he says. “But Gertrude Opens April 28 can be anywhere we wanna be, because it was never set up to be a Chicago agency or even a U.S. agency—it was always meant to be a 4 Urban Think & Drink: Force of global agency,” he says, explaining that this enabled them to think even Nature. Metropolitan Planning Council. bigger, expanding to offices in London and New York and to clients Celebrate Earth Day getting to know the around the world. “With Singha beer, for example, we were doing story behind The Nature Conservancy and its marketing for ninety-five countries, for a client based in Thailand, out founder, George Fell, a Richard Nickel of of Chicago.” environmentalism. April 20 This past February marked all of the companies’ birthdays: Gertrude’s 5 Chicago Art and Design Show. twelfth, OZ's third and RAYE turned one. But they did not have a party. Navy Pier. A new art and design show “We’re fortunately very busy,” says Gibson, “but maybe we’ll do it in displaying varied wares ranging from furniture, spring.” Whatever they come up with one thing is for certain: it’s going glass, jewelry and sculpture takes over Navy to be quite an experience. Pier. April 8-9 51

&DiDnirningkingNewcity APRIL 2017 Little Levant Middle East Bakery's spinach and feta and beef pies with side of shatta harra, labneh, and picked peppers, garnished with sumac/ Photo: Elliot ReichertA Culinary Journey Inside the Middle East Bakery & Grocery By Elliot Reichert At the northwest corner of Foster and spanning from Greece to Turkey, Aleppo to Hisham blends all of his seasonings in-house Clark in Andersonville, the painted signage Baghdad, and Cairo to Jerusalem. and makes them available for purchase, along over a bustling storefront proclaims “Restau- with just about any spice you might require for rant” in three-feet-high Arabic script. No The store’s strengths are many: first and a Near Eastern recipe. The Falafel Spice, matter that most of the customers to the foremost is the bakery, which turns out fresh Shawarma Spice and Moroccan Ras el Middle East Bakery & Grocery (1512 West pitas daily, with multigrain and whole-wheat Hanout blend are lifesavers—and timesavers— Foster) cannot read it, they come anyway, in varieties in addition to the traditional style. when you want to make the dish at home but droves, for the lentil soup and the falafel Hisham shuns preservatives and artificial would prefer to leave the seasoning to the sandwiches. To be fair, the word “CAFE” is ingredients, which means the bread is as seasoned pros. Hisham’s house blends of helpfully painted behind the Arabic, and a fresh as it is perishable; get it hot, on the grilling seasonings for chicken and fish are large cartoon of a stack of bagged pitas morning of the day you want to eat it. In their must-haves for any pantry; they make an adorns the main entrance, the words “Middle basement ovens, they also make a range of everyday dinner a much more savory affair. East Bakery” painted below it. And yet this savory pies—lamb and potato, artichoke Sumac, fenugreek and the aforementioned place is so much more than a bakery. For and cheese, spinach and feta, among several za’atar are among the many specialty decades, patrons have come here for the others—and kibbeh, spiced beef dumplings seasonings carried here, as well as a whole oven-fresh pitas, but also the homemade covered in bulgur. Although they’re best fresh, range of more everyday spices: anise, spice blends, and the aisles of groceries, the pies freeze well and make an excellent coriander, cumin, ginger, nutmeg, mint, sage ingredients and snacks: pomegranate syrup, lunch-on-the-go for the busy work week. and the rest of them. Dried and crushed chili cracked green olives, Jordanian candied The bakery also specializes in manaqeesh, peppers are on the shelf, but why not almonds, medjool dates and countless more. a focaccia-like bread baked with za’atar, a experiment with the bright and potent Aleppo traditional savory blend of dried oregano crushed pepper instead? A little before he opened the bakery in 1981, and basil with sesame seeds and sumac. Hisham Khalifeh left the West Bank city of In Beirut, you would grab a manaqeesh, The shelves of dry goods and groceries are Ramallah to find new fortunes in the United with or without cheese, hot from the oven a tour de force of pickles, olives, peppers, States. Since then, he’s presided over an on your morning walk to work. Fortunately, preserved dates and brined vegetables. increasingly popular spot for groceries and the bakery sells them in bags of three or Pantry-stockers will find everything Arab— prepared foods based on the recipes of his four, so you don’t have to show up here hummus, baba ghanouj, tahini, fava beans Palestinian heritage and the broader region, every morning. (called foul and pronounced “fool”), hot pepper52

Olive Tree cafe, which predates the current DINING & DRINKING space opened in April of last year. About ten TOP 5 years ago, Hisham closed Olive Tree and rented the space to the owners of Icosium 1 Women’s Wine Month. Kafe, an Algerian crepe restaurant that closed Geja’s Cafe. Female in 2014 after a good run. Staying open enologists from around the world through two years of piecemeal renovation, are recognized in this second the cafe boasts fresh takes on Hisham’s month of a two-month classics—have I mentioned the lentil soup?— celebration, featuring an as well as a menu of meals newly enabled by extended list of wines made by the kitchen. women. (Throughout April) Baclava Assortments/Photo: Elliot Reichert A modest, tidy arrangement of tables line the 2 Firkin Fest. Headquarters south window bank and a high counter runs Beercade. Dozens of craft paste (shatta harra), garbanzo beans, garlic along the east. A long, open grill spans the beers, on draught, straight from paste, etc., available in cans and jars, but the north wall, where a handful of young men the keg, unpasteurized: including recommended items are made fresh in-house and women perform choreographed cookery, 3 Floyds, 4 Hands, 5 Rabbit, and available in the chilled section. There, shaving shawarma and chopping tomatoes, many others. And games. Lots of Hisham’s famous lentil soup sells by the quart cucumbers and red onions. There is nothing games.($57, all access, includes and often runs out when fiends—myself on the menu not to recommend, but with food) April 2 among them—stock up on six or seven tubs some chagrin this critic will emphatically at a time. Garlic hummus, feta spread, hot endorse the “shawafel” sandwich, a bit of a 3 Midwest Rum Fest. pepper paste, pickled beets and fresh bastard thing that mixes falafel and chicken Logan Square Auditorium. chopped tabbouleh (a salad of parsley, shawarma in a single pita wrap with pickles, Micro- and boutique rum tomatoes, onions, and bulgur tossed in olive fresh salad and tahini. The large bottle of distilleries (yes, there are such oil and lemon juice) are favorites among the shatta harra on each table will bring the spice things) present their best; dozens of mezze (Levantine appetizers, served up to your preferred level, but be careful to admission includes seminars en masse before a meal) prepared daily for squeeze gently—the chopped peppers have (which is a little like subscribing to take-away. On the far right, a section a tendency to bottle up and explode. If, for Playboy for the articles). April 8 dedicated to dairy stocks labneh baladi, a some reason, you tire of lentil soup, the thick yogurt, very sour, that contains less potato soup does marvels on a cold day, 4 Unity in Diversity Dinner: lactose than most American varieties. Ayran, with, of course, a hefty dose of shatta harra. Jewish/Iraqi/Middle a slightly salty yogurt drink popular in Lebanon Vegans will delight in the fact that, in both the Eastern. Southport and Irving. and further East, is sold in individual bottles or grocery and the cafe, Hisham never adds Sitting at the table together is one half-gallon jugs. On a warm day, a glass of it animal products unless they’re necessary for of the best ways to encourage in the morning makes breakfast all the better. the recipe, including the baked goods. Most world peace.($55). April 20 things vegetable-based tend to be vegan, And what to make with all these strange and and everything is clearly labeled as such. 5 Frontera’s Thirtieth exciting ingredients? Intermingled amongst Anniversary Bash. the heaps of rice, lentils, beans, bulgurs and It would be remiss not to mention the Art Institute. Guest chefs and couscous are ready-mixed stocks of Hisham’s extensive array of nuts, sweets and teas speakers from around the world favorites. The famous lentil soup comes dry available in the grocery for postprandial come to recognize and chow in a bag with simple instructions for replicating enjoyment. The Moroccan Mint tea, which is down with Rick Bayless, a man the magic—easier said than done, says this dried mint mixed with gunpowder green tea who changed the way Mexican critic. The bakery has fielded so many requests leaves, is a good approximation of the North food is prepared and perceived for the mix from Chicago ex-pats that they are African tradition, which is typically prepared in Chicago and beyond. A considering how to ship it bulk by mail. Until with fresh, wild mint stalks; in Rabat, if joint effort of Frontera Farm then, a curious mind and an eager palate someone offers you “Moroccan whiskey,” Organization and Family Farmed. would do well to read a few good books: this is what you’ll get. The house blend of ($500. Yes, it’s pricey). April 30 Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi’s Earl Grey and Ceylon is a personal favorite“Jerusalem” is a lavishly illustrated ode to the for its subtle aroma and hearty kick. unparalleled excellence of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian palates that intermingle in the A few months spent in Beirut and Jerusalem, Holy City; Samantha and Samuel Clark’s far from spoiling my appetite for this region,“Moro” veers toward Andalusia and Northern have made me crave the good work of the Africa, where the seven-century Muslim Middle East Bakery & Grocery more than occupation of Spain gave rise to collaborations ever. This corner, home to Taste of Lebanon of taste that are as delightful as they were at (1509 West Foster) and the Palestin- that time unexpected; and finally, Christiane ian-owned Andersonville Wine and Spirits Dabdoub Nasser’s “Classic Palestinian (5201 North Clark), has been my Little Levant Cuisine,” recently re- released by the eminent for years. For a quick take-away bite, Taste Saqi Books, hits closest to home for Hisham’s of Lebanon still rules, and its tabbouleh bests repertoire, with instructions for fresh salads, Hisham’s for its proper mix of heavy parsley, savory roasted meats, and comforting not to mention its generous portion. If you’ve rice-based dishes, among others. studied your cookbook well, Elias Bousheh of Andersonville Wine and Spirits will surelyTo get a sense of what is possible at home, give you a good recommendation for a wine a meal at the adjoining cafe is a sound place pairing, whether or not you’re cooking to start. Longtime patrons will recall Hisham’s Middle Eastern fare. Beirut beckons, but the corner of Foster and Clark keeps me well-fed in Chicago. May it do the same for you.

FilmNewcity April 2017 Body Electric Jean-Pierre Léaud in “The Death of Louis XIV” Inscribing the Gestures of Screen Acting By Ray Pride In ravishing candlelight, seventy-two-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud shoes of an old man in his death throes, and you cannot avoid personal lies in a bed in a room surrounded by courtiers in Spanish filmmaker repercussions if you play someone like that. I began to feel the proximity Albert Serra’s “The Death of Louis XIV.” It takes nearly two hours, then of my own death and realized that Albert was recording my own death the long-lived monarch, as the title promises, dies. through Louis XIV’s. At my age, you cannot banish death from your life. I was reminded of Jean Cocteau’s quote: ‘Cinema is death at work.’” The range of physical acting that Léaud accomplishes beneath teeming, toppling royal perukes—powdered wigs—is both minimal and maximal, Language, sturdy, vivid language, for acting and performance is all too body laid out, papery eyelids aflutter, powdered cheeks tremulous, the rare in writing about film. How to write about physicality, not just the tug dead weight of our memories of Léaud’s long onscreen life-on-the-run, of sensuality or sculpting of beauty or “typage,” casting an actor to look, of a body both in repose and decline. In the April issue of Film and perhaps embody a character just by their suggestive countenance? Comment, with nearly sixty years of screen acting behind him (since his Recently on Twitter, Richard Brady reduced two screen icons to fewer iconic 1959 debut as a Parisian juvenile delinquent in Truffaut’s “The than 140 characters: “Joan Crawford, the essence of cinema—still, 400 Blows”), Léaud describes his performance. “I said to myself that opaque, and mask-like even at the most frenzied height of expression… this film would mean a great deal, in my life and in my filmography. I Bette Davis, theatre as cinema—displaying intentions, and the intention said to myself that I must succeed, with all the energy that’s in me. So I of intending, even in undramatic repose.” That’s durable literary intonation. was in Louis XIV’s bed, trapped within an apparatus of three cameras that filmed me continuously from eight in the morning until eight in the But coming closer to the corporeal, physical character of the gig, after evening, every single day… Through this apparatus, I stepped into the the untimely passing of Bill Paxton in February, “Twister” director Jan de54

Bont quoted the charismatic performer on much in conjunction with the cinema itself… far more common in classic cinema becausedaring injuries in the pretense of chasingtornadoes: “He kept saying, ‘Certain things Manny was light years ahead of most of us in the industry saw beauty not only as a sellingyou cannot act—you have to feel them.'” the way that he talked about acting. He was point, but a thematic tool worth exploring.” Explorations like hers—and she’s notEqually, there’s room for writing that corre- saying that the acting and the movie weresponds to what radiates from the screen, working hand in hand. That sometimes when alone—are exciting, showing how much therethe performer herself. In 1950, critic-painter is to discover about movies in simple presence,Manny Farber complained of performances people are writing about acting what they’rethat were “a collage of personality, which alongside the poetry of fleeting gestures, thevaries drastically in every way to create the really talking about is the directing, andgreatest explosion and ‘illumination’ in each cadence of duration, the contemplation ofmoment.” Farber, whose insights and sometimes when people are writing aboutpost-pulp precision influenced critics including photographic beauty, the personality of aJonathan Rosenbaum, Kent Jones and me, directing they’re really talking about acting.disdained the histrionics of 1950s street screenwriter or a director.melodramas like “The Sweet Smell of And to know how the visual style of theSuccess,” when a movie “sweats too mucharound the edges.” Famously, he also squinted movie is informed by the actor, by the physicalat Angela Lansbury’s “helicopter-like perfor- makeup of the actor, by how they look within To bring matters back to Léaud sharing amance in ‘The Manchurian Candidate,’ in the frame—not just the way they’re lit by the deathbed with King Louis XIV, Albert Serra,which every line begins and ends with a I was startled and gratified to discover, alsovertical drop.” Jimmy Stewart? “A harassed director—but also by what they bring,Adam’s apple approach to gutty acting.” wrote about Manny Farber writing about what their presence is.” Or as director PaulSterling prose, suggestive, but the question of screen acting! “All movies should come to lifescreen acting still demands fresh answers. Morrissey is remembered for saying, “FilmsDiscussing Farber in 2008, Kent Jones, now are about personality: the better the personali- only on the screen,” Serra notes, describingdirector of the New York Film Festival, told Eric his directing methods, “Nothing of what weHynes it’s hard to talk about acting. “The ty, the better the film.”reason most people find it difficult is a) it’s see should have happened in reality before.really hard, and b) the way it’s usuallydescribed is divorced from the film… Pauline There’s a new generation of writers massaging Only the camera should be able to recordKael could write brilliantly about acting. But the tissue of what constitutes screen acting, what is essential to the actor; people in theshe was writing about the art of acting—not so what lyricism lies in personality, including the shooting should not be able to perceive it.” prolific Chicago-based Angelica Jade Bastién. Serra writes that “the core of every cine- matographic performance, according to Farber, In one of several knowing appreciations of the complexities of Keanu Reeves’ mien and is the suggestive material that surrounds the borders of each role, and never its psychologi- manner, on the occasion of “John Wick: cal-ontological center: quirks of physiognomy, Chapter 2,” Bastién wrote, “While in many private thoughts of the actor about himself, action films the weaponry takes on a misalliances where the body isn’t delineating near-fetishistic glow, Reeves becomes the camera’s main interest, as lovingly shot as the the role, but is running on a tangent to it.” glamorous starlets of classic Hollywood. The Can all these perspectives be correct? All true, every bit. language of the body is one that American audiences, no matter how far removed we are from this country’s Puritan beginnings, may not “The Death Of Louis XIV” opens in Chicago know how to speak. It’s a language that was this spring. April 2017 Newcity 55

164 North State Street • Between Lake & RandolphI AM NOT YOUR NEGROMARCH 31 - APRIL 6 \"Life-altering.\" — NY TimesNISE: THE HEART FILM TOP 5OF MADNESS 1 Veronika Voss. Chicago Film Society atAPRIL 28 - MAY 4 Music Box. The last feature released in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s lifetime, the black-and-white\"A brilliantly rendered slice “Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss” (The Intenseof history.\" — Eye for Film Longing of Veronika Voss), capturing the 1950s downfall of the last days of a retired film actress, is BUY TICKETS NOW at one of his most lustrous and beautiful. (Tragic, too.) www.siskelfilmcenter.org 35mm. April 3 2 Ugetsu. Siskel. Digital restoration of Kenji Mizoguchi’s stunningly beautiful and heartfelt 1953 masterpiece of a ghost story and love story. April 3 Free Fire. Ben Wheatley’s follow-up to “High-Rise” is a comedic thriller about a weapons deal gone wrong in 1970s Boston, reportedly a profane and relentless melee; with Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Sam Riley, Sharlto Copley. Opens Friday, April 21 4 Lois Weber Tribute. Siskel. Five features and three shorts from a not-to-be-overlooked pioneer of cinema. April 5 The Fate of the Furious. In their eighth time around the track, America’s ambassadors of the family of integration and cooperation rev again against h8ters at home and abroad. Opens Friday, April 14

Live at The Book Cellar IN THE FORMER BOOKMAN’S ALLEY SPACE AT 1712 SHERMAN AVE, EVANSTONLaura Caldwell Essay Fiesta APRIL EVENTS“Anatomy of Innocence” April 17, 7pm Wednesday, April 5, 6 pm Mustafa Akyol discusses his book The Islamic Jesus: How the King of April 4, 7pm It’s Poetry Month! Celebrate the Jews Became a Prophet of the MuslimsAnnette Gendler April 19 and 20, 7pm Thursday, April 6, 6 pm Book Launch for Barbara Mahany, author of“Jumping Over Shadows” Joel Berg Motherprayer: Lessons in LovingApril 6, 7pm “America, We Need to Talk: A Self-Help Book for the Nation” Wednesday, April 12, 6 pmMustafa Akyol Former Chicago Bull Craig Hodges, author of Long Shot: The“The Islamic Jesus” April 21, 7pm Triumphs and Struggles of an NBA Freedom FighterApril 7, 7pm The Third Annual Chicago Young Thursday, April 13, 6 pm Lori Rader-Day launches her new suspense novel The Day I Died, inGale Renee Walden Adult Book Festival! conversation with writer Lynne Raimondo“Where The Time Goes” with April 22, 10am-5pmAmy Hassinger, “After The Dam” Monthly store book clubs: Potluck Cookbook-of-the Month Club, The Julie James Very Short Book Club, and The Mortality Book ClubApril 8, 6pm “The Thing About Love” And Storytime every Saturday morning at 10:30!Lori Rader Day April 25 at Lady Gregory MORE INFO AT“The Day I Died” WWW.BOOKENDSANDBEGINNINGS.COM April 12, 7pm Nadine Johnstone 224.999.7722 OR VISIT US ON FACEBOOKZak Mucha “Of This Much I’m Sure: A Memoir ““Emotional Abuse: April 27, 6pm The Manual for Self-Defense” April 13, 7pm Bob EcksteinThe Kates! “Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores” joined by local illustrator Pat ByrnesApril 14 and 29, 7pm April 28, 7pm“Revise the Psalm” It’s Independent Celebration Book Store Day!!! April 15, 7pm April 29, 10am-5pmGo to our website for event details, book clubs and more!Your Independent Book Store in Lincoln Square!4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago773.293.2665 • bookcellarinc.com

Lit Breaking Hearts and the Frailty of All Things Who Knows Which Pieces Will Matter? Kristen Radtke discusses \"Imagine Wanting Only This\" By Toni NealieNewcity APRIL 2017 In her debut graphic memoir, Kristen Radtke layers a Wiscon- get a sense for where things will fall, but the end result is often very sin childhood with global travel, first apartments and a dystopian different from what I originally outlined. I draw everything digitally, New York City. “We forget that everything will become no longer with a tablet, into Adobe Illustrator. ours,” she writes amid images of abandoned ruins. An elegy to loss, she explores the transition into adulthood, ideas about home, You use a variety of styles. Does that reflect different time comfort and our shaky relationship with permanence. “And when periods? I notice your recent work (the New Yorker series) you love and then cannot continue that loving. And when the walls more consistently features line drawings and a recognizable of a heart designed for protection turn in on themselves?” Radtke look. queries. “What can be made of the spaces that we cannot witness?” In my new work I didn’t necessarily set out to try a different style, but it just sort of happened. I think after thousands of drawings for Radtke, the film and video editor of Northwestern University’s this book, I was really desperate to try something new. I’m working TriQuarterly magazine, is an alumnus of Columbia College Chicago in color a lot now, which still feels exciting. and the University of Iowa. She works as managing editor of Sarabande Books and her creative work features in many publica- I recognize the names of some incredible writing teachers. tions, including the New Yorker, BuzzFeed, The Rumpus and several Who taught you to draw? I have long admired your video anthologies. We conversed by email. essays—are you still making that type of work? Why did you decide to focus on graphic essay? What was the most satisfying aspect of creating this book? I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, and took as many art classes as Difficult? were available in high school. I had two very encouraging teachers Since “Imagine Wanting Only This” was my first book, I had no there. Art classes were a reprieve for me from the rest of the school evidence that I could actually make a book. Even after I had a day where I couldn’t focus and where I felt pretty detached from contract and a deadline, I woke up every day feeling like I couldn’t what we were learning. I loved the bright industrial rooms and actually do what I’d signed a piece of paper saying I was going to expansive drawing tables. Working on a graphic book wasn’t so do. So, for me, the most satisfying part of creating the book was much a decision as a gradual coming around. I initially envisioned actually finishing it. The most difficult part was sitting down every the book as a prose project and then I started working some images day and seeing dozens of blank squares in front of me that I had no in. It took a few years until I finally committed to it being a graphic idea how to fill. book. Do images precede words, words before image, or do they I laughed about the art school where students make puppets come about together? How do you physically make the work? and have a high drop-out rate. Is that Columbia? What did you I tend to work back and forth between text and image, at least as major in? It was obviously a good enough launch pad to get much as possible. I often storyboard before I begin drawing so that I58

into Iowa—what were the positive things Review LIT TOP 5about going to college in Chicago?Going to Columbia was one of the best New-Generation African Poets 1 Chicago Comic anddecisions I ever made. I loved it there. I poke Edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani Entertainment Expofun at it a little in the book, because, well, art This limited-edition box set of ten African poets (C2E2) McCormick Place.school can be kind of silly, and we all took it is gorgeous. Not only does it introduce readers A convention for fans of comics,so seriously. But I’m really glad that we to the best poetry by contemporary poets of graphic novels, anime anddid—I wouldn’t have been able to work the African and the African diaspora, it more. April 21-23toward making a life as an artist without that showcases the art of Eritrean painter Ficrefoundation. Ghebreyesus. The political refugee, humanitar- 2 Springfest/17: Stuff. ian activist and Yale graduate lived in New Chicago HumanitiesYou juggle a lot—Sarabande, including Haven with his wife, poet/essayist/playwright Festival hosts its spring festival,designing book covers; freelance work; Elizabeth Alexander and their children, until his featuring Siddhartha Mukherjee,conference presentations—is that type sudden death in 2012. Alexander, who recited Caitlyn Jenner, Sheryl Sandbergof “portfolio career” the norm for a her poem “Praise Song for the Day” at and others. April 28-30creative life now? Is it sustainable? Is it President Obama’s inauguration, wrote autterly rewarding and fabulous or is it memoir “The Light of the World” about her life 3 Centennial Brooks Thereally, really hard? with Ghebreyesus and her subsequent grief. University of Chicago andIt does seem like juggling multiple jobs has As editors Chris Abani and Kwame Dawes the DuSable Museum. Abecome the creative norm, doesn’t it? So write, “The art lives on in beautiful and scholarly conference andmany of my peers have a full-time day job meaningful ways, through the conversations celebration in tribute toand a couple of side projects, even beyond that it has with the other artists.” These books, Gwendolyn Brooks, presentedtheir own creative work. All I’ll say is that it with their smooth, jewel-colored covers, alongside Our Miss Brookscan be really hard. I go through weeks where elegant slipcase and intelligent words, are a 100—a city-wide program formanaging a day job, freelance design moving tribute to Ghebreyesus. Chicagoans. April 6-8projects, writing and drawing assignments,and my own book projects feels absurd, The poets include Yasmin Belkhyr, Victoria 4 Book Apothecary. Cityespecially if you get sick, or if your apart- Adukwei Bulley, Chekwube O. Danladi, Lit Books. Chicago writersment’s plumbing starts leaking, or if you Mary-Alice Daniel, Lena Bezawork Grönlund, and book lovers offer literaryhave to deal with really anything other than Ashley Makue, Momtaza Mehri, Famia Nkansa, prescriptions for existentialwork. But it’s a privilege to get to do it and Ejiofor Ugwu and Chimwemwe Undi. They ailments, featuring readings byI’m lucky that I have a life that allows me to write about the body—pleasure, sensuality, local authors including Christinedo it. I do wish there were a few more pain, oppression, transgression—in thrilling Sneed, Kathleen Rooney, Martinresources to make things easier for working and startling ways. “I am a sea child,” writes Seay, Kyle Beachy andartists and writers, though, like freelance Ejiofor Ugwu. “I armpitted my paddle, / my Rebecca Makkai. Pop-upjobs that actually paid on time, or access to boat on my head, / and set out for the sea Apothecary until April 30, withaffordable health care. I find it borderline under.” As Abani says in his preface, no body author reading April 8, 5pm.unethical that I can see work on the has been more commoditized and dehuman- Free.newsstand that I haven’t been paid for yet. ized than the black body, the African body.That’s not the norm in almost any other The collection provides space for theseindustry. We can do better than that. reclamations. The poets write about religion, political issues, memory and forgetting,Do you have any advice for younger immigrant experiences and relationships.writers/artists coming up? Some poems are quiet and reflective, someYou just have to do the work. You have to be lively and sharp, all using sound and metaphorrelentless. in unexpected ways. Where do you think home is? Chicago poets Matthew Shenoda and Ladan 5 An Evening with Anne APRIL 2017 Newcity Brooklyn. Osman (currently in New York) wrote prefaces Lamott. The People’s for two books. Osman featured in an earlier Church of Chicago. I daren’t ask about next work, so only series, as did British-based Warsan Shire, who Where to find meaning in life— tell me if you have something to discuss. shot to global fame when Beyoncé used one bestselling author Anne Lamott I’m working on two new projects: A series of of her poems in her hit song “Lemonade.” reads from her new book illustrations on urban loneliness, and a Selecting manuscripts for their fourth “Hallelujah Anyway.” Q & A andgraphic novel on terrible men. I want to write collection (NNE means four in Swahili) was book signing. April 10, 7pm,and draw a book that represents exactly difficult, say editors Dawes and Abani. It is $24 (includes book) how people really talk to each other, with no wonderful to read the work individually in each pretense. It’s about a lot of things, but I like chapbook, as well as the poets’ braidedcalling it my “terrible men book.” So let’s call voices. I am slipping into my purse to read on it that. the El today, “Blood For The Blood God” by Mary-Alice Daniel—“The first thing the dead“Imagine Wanting Only This,”by Kristen might say / when they finally get a chance to Radtke. Pantheon, 288 pages, $29.95. respond / is: Sing! (Toni Nealie)Kristen Radtke reads May 2, 7pm at The New-Generation African Poets: A ChapbookWhistler, 2421 North Milwaukee, (773)227- Box Set (NNE)3530 and May 3, 7:30pm at Women and Edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris AbaniChildren First, 5233 North Clark, (773)769- Akashic Books, 300 pages, $29.959299. 59

From Nessun dorma to Bohemian Rhapsody, the city’s premier vocalensemble gives opera a new twist at this inventive concert.April 7-23 in Hyde Park, Evanston,Oak Park and NapervilleTICKETS: www.chicagoacappella.org (773) 281.7820 CHICAGO A CAPPELLA NIGHT at the OPERA

Music Carl Newman (front and center) and The New Pornographers MUSIC TOP 5 1 Rufus Wainright. City Hall. Indie pop’s reigning divo (and now opera composer) goes retrospective, covering every phase of his flamboyant career. April 6 & 7Porn Stash 2 Richard Thompson. Old Town School of FolkCarl Newman Reflects On His Work Music. A not-to-be-missedwith The New Pornographers chance to see British folk-rock’s reclusive elder statesman andBy Craig Bechtel Fairport Convention founder. April 9 & 10“You’re trying to find new ways to ‘be you’ man” (originally by The Clique). He bought a when you’ve been a band for a long time,” Beatles guitar songbook and says, “That’s 3 The Zombies. Thalia Carl Newman says about writing and where I learned most of my chords from, Hall. Fifty years after its recording his new album with The New ’cause they used all the chords… But I’ve release, the seminal British Pornographers, “Whiteout Conditions.” It’s the never been much of a guitar player. I’ve never Invasion band celebrates its septet’s seventh full-length since their 2000 loved the idea of being really good at the guitar. gorgeous, Sgt. Pepper-inspired debut and the first on their Collected Works I always thought of it as just a tool… from the album, “Odyssey and Oracle.” imprint (part of the Concord Music Group). minute I picked up the guitar I was trying to April 13 & 14 write things.” He was never trying to figure out Newman is the de facto leader of the group, how to play Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing,” 4 Roomful of Teeth. which formed in Vancouver, British Columbia he says by way of example, which features a Logan Center for the Arts. (taking their name from a Japanese film called legendarily deft guitar solo. This a cappella ensemble aston-“The Pornographers”), and he provides insights ishes by exploring the uncanny into his musical education—or lack thereof— “Even though we use a lot of well-worn rock sonic and textural range of the and what distinguishes this release from the clichés in our music,” Newman continues, human voice. April 2 six previous albums in their discography. “wanky guitar solos” was one he never desired, “ ’cause a lot of guitar solos can sound really 5 The Flaming Lips. Newcity April 2017 Despite always being “a massive music fan,” he boring, and… I didn’t want to sound like [what] Riviera Theatre. If alt-rock reveals he was a college dropout who didn’t my idea of boring is. We’ve had guitar solos is our best counter to the alt- pick up a guitar until he was eighteen, and here and there, but when I play, you can tell right, this band of fearless— didn’t start playing with people until his early the guitar solos that I played in the band, and by now legendary— twenties. He studied communications theory in ’cause they’re very skronky.” provocateurs are just what the college, “nothing you could use very much” current apocalyptic moment (although he admits some of that may have Newman, who will turn forty-nine this month, calls for. April 17 snuck into his lyrics), “but I was not a very good is appropriately introspective about his musical student. I would look around me and think, education. “When I look back at all the stuff‘These people want to be here. Why am I here?’ I’ve done, a lot of it just seems like growing up I realized I’m just doomed to do what I do. I in public… sort of fucking around…being in a think there were points when I was a musician band seemed like a fun thing to do. I was just when I wanted to be something else. I wanted a guy in a band before I ever thought I would to be an upstanding member of society but start to take it seriously and learn how to write after a while I realized, ‘Nope. You’re not an songs and learn the craft of it.” upstanding member of society; you know, you’re either going to be a hero or a zero.’” Newman now admits that if he has any kind of “natural knack,” that “if there’s anything that After a high-school friend showed Newman comes easy to me in music, I feel like it’s how to play some simple chords, he could always been harmony and melody,” and these play “Gloria” by Them and R.E.M.’s “Super- complementary elements have always been 61

key components of the sound of He cites the chorus of “High TicketThe New Pornographers. “White- Attractions” as an example, explaining that it “came after theout Conditions” is no exception,and it’s overflowing with the typical fact… I didn’t know it was theearworms, but there is a different chorus, I just started singing a new melody over the same chords.sonic approach. Then I went, ‘Oh, this is theAlthough most of the usual chorus… and that was fun.’”suspects have returned for this The New Pornographers performouting, including Neko Case on two 18+ shows at Metro (3730vocals, John Collins on bass, North Clark) on April 19 and 21;Blaine Thurier on keyboards,Todd Fancey on guitar and Kathryn tickets $38. In between they’reCalder (Newman’s niece) on vocals, doing an all-ages show at Pabstkeyboards and guitar, it’s their first Theater (144 East Wells) inrecord without Dan Bejar and their Milwaukee on April 20.first with new drummer Joe Seiders Waxahatchee opens.as a full member. Newman says he Reviewused this personnel change as anopportunity for “a different drumattack.” He elaborates that, “I Typhanie Moniquewanted it to have a good clip, to Call It Magicbe speedy but in a sort of relaxed Typhanie Monique has built away,” which made him think of significant résumé not only in jazz,Krautrock. “This is the first record but in soul and funk, and shewhere we have a lot of loud drums brings it all together in her newbut there’s also a lot of mechanical release, “Call It Magic.” Thedrums in there too, and that felt evidence is immediately evident inlike something different and new the title tune; she finds a stirringfor us, so that was fun.” sense of church in the Coldplay original. The lines “I don’t no IThat “light Krautrock feel” led the don’t no I don’t no I don’t /band to “keep the chord structures Want anybody else but you”—very simple, because we wanted which in the original have theto use a lot of drones on the breezy charm of a Hugh Grantrecord. We wanted to experiment stutter—are delivered by Moniquewith having things droned through with life-or-death urgency. Whenthe whole song.” This approach is she breaks into a searing scata stark difference from previous midway through the tune, you getsongs, known for their many parts a sense of lyrics just not being ableand many chords. “To me that was to contain her any longer.very fun, just messing around withjust three or four chords, so songs Almost every tune is an equallylike ‘High Ticket Attractions’ or startling reinvention. The old‘The World of the Theater’ [the first Sinatra standard “Just Friends”two singles] might sound like they becomes an art-funk outing;have four or five sections to them, “Where Is Love?” from the sixtiesbut they’re all essentially the same musical “Oliver!” is given justchord… That, combined with the enough chordal dissonance tofeel of the songs felt like, oh this is lend its treacle some transformingnew. And I didn’t know if anybody astringency; and “What Is Thiselse would think it sounded new Thing Called Love” gets a Jonwho doesn’t know the story of Hendricks-style vocalese treatment.how it was made, but to me it feltfresh… and it made the record fun Monique surrounds herself with anto make.” absolutely topflight crew of Chicago players, including BenIt would be a mistake to label the Lewis on piano, Joshua Ramos oncompositions on “Whiteout keys, Victor Garcia on trumpet,Conditions” as stripped down Dana Hall on drums and cymbals,compared to their earlier albums, Tony Monaco on Hammond B-3because, as Newman says, “in its organ and many more. It’s anway, it’s the lushest… It’s got the opulent outing, the equivalent ofmost going on… If you’ve got a lot luxury casting in a big-budget film.of chord changes and weird time But Monique has the charisma andsignatures, the music has to be a artistry to keep the focus squarelylittle bit more minimal, just because on her uncanny instincts andit would be cacophonous—there’s peerless instrument.no room if there’s too much…On this record it was just trying to “Call It Magic” is available throughfind how many places you could the usual channels, and throughgo within the chord structure.” Typhanie Monique’s website.

StageThe history of the Jews in America andAmerican popular culture are permanently entwined,from Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths to Borscht Beltcomics to Hollywood moguls to Al Jolson launchingthe talkies with a tale about a quavery-voicedcantor’s son who dreams of breaking away andachieving stardom as a jazz singer.David Chack, who founded Chicago’s ShPIeL-Per-forming Identity theater company in 2012, isperennially drawn to this theme of contact, conflictand connection between cultures and the interplayof history and tradition with modernity.“It was cantors—Avram Goldfaden, Boris Thom- ashefsky, Moishe Oysher—who really started Yiddish theater in America,” says Chack. “And the impact of Yiddish theater was immense”—not just on the immigrant Jewish community but on the larger society. “That’s what I want to do with ShPIeL, create something that’s Jewish and intercultural, that connects with other identities from a Jewish place.”Chack’s own childhood was an interesting mix of Contact, Conflict andshowbiz and synagogue. Raised outside of ConnectionWashington, D.C., Chack—like a suburban AlJolson—loved the theater while learning thecantorial art.“I’ve been leading services since I was eight years David Chack and ShPIeL Explore What it Means to be a Jew at This old and I also sang professionally as a kid—I was a Moment in History child soprano, singing at events and celebrations,” says Chack. “My first hero was Mario Lanza.” By Hugh IglarshFrom apprentice cantor and boy soprano to youngactor in Greenwich Village attempting to stage anobscure Martin Buber play to today’s director-impresario-dramaturg-edu-cator-organizer, Chack remains at the junction of Jewish and performing “We don’t have a regular season—we do things when they’re ready toworlds, doing whatever needs be done to keep the cultural dialogue pop,” says Chack, who’s now developing a play about the great scholargoing. Abraham Joshua Heschel, who left the house of study to march with Martin Luther King in Selma. “The question I’m always asking is, how doI caught up with him in Skokie, where he teaches Jewish culture studies you develop work from your own identity? How does a performanceat Oakton Community College. That’s just one of his many hats. Chack emerge from who you are historically, from your deepest self? I’ve found that these questions of identity tend to lead to other questions of socialalso teaches theater at DePaul University; serves as a consultant forvarious local troupes, including Lookingglass, Silk Road Rising and North- justice.”light; trains teachers for the Chicago Board of Jewish Education; andruns the Alliance for Jewish Theatre, a national association of artists and Chack says he’d be surprised if ShPIeL ever did a “Fiddler on the Roof” or “Fools of Chelm.”organizations. A busy man, he divides his time between Chicago andLouisville, where his wife works as a museum director and he onceserved as program officer of the local Jewish Community Center and “The sixties and seventies were the age of more nostalgic Jewish theater,director of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. reflecting ghetto life,” he says. “Now it’s more about connecting with Newcity APRIL 2017 others and working side by side. ‘The Invasion of Skokie’—not just aBut other than his family, it’s ShPIeL that’s closest to his heart. In the history piece but a ‘goy meets girl’ story—was written by a non-Jew.”four-and-a-half years since the curtain rose on ShPIeL’s first show, aone-man play about the hidden Jews of Spain called “Conviction,” the As is (in part) “A Jewish Joke,” which was remounted March 16-19 at thetheater has produced a wide range of work on everything from the life of Skokie Theatre. Together with Marni Freeman, Phil Johnson authored theEmma Goldman to Israel-Palestine (the satirical farce “Angina Pectoris”) one-man show and, under Chack’s direction, performed it to neurotic,to the neo-Nazi “invasion” of Skokie in 1977. What unites these plays is a hilarious and scary perfection last year at Victory Gardens.querying of what it means to be a Jew at this moment in history and howthe community intersects with others. “Jewish Joke,” which was also staged in New York in 2016, epitomizes 63

An adult comedy about STAGE TOP 5 immature behavior 1 Beyond Caring. Lookingglass TheatreTracy LettsBy ensemble member Company. Full of life, humor and tenderness, (August: Osage County, Mary Page Marlowe) this critically acclaimed new work sheds light on America’s shadow economy and shines anDirected by Dexter Bullard unflinching spotlight on the incendiary (The Flick) intersection of race and class. Opens April 1 March 30 – May 21, 2017 Tickets start at just $20 2 Linda Vista. Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Tracy Letts’ new steppenwolf.org | 312-335-1650 coming-of-middle-age comedy promises to be a hilarious and complex exploration of a modern Major Production Sponsors misanthrope. Opens April 8 Ameriprise Financial, Inc. 3 For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday. Shattered Globe Theatre. The longing for the immortality of Neverland confronts the inevitable passage of time in this moving, tender play from Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl. Opens April 11 4 Force Continuum. Eclipse Theatre Company. Eclipse’s Kia Corthron season kicks off with this precarious journey whereby all involved gradually grasp that understanding comes not only through seeing others but also by hearing. Opens April 16 5 La Havana Madrid. Teatro Vista. Sandra Delgado, who also wrote and directed, stars as a mystical woman who conjures vibrant songs and true stories in this documentary-style tale. Opens April 20

ShPIeL’s aims and approach. Set in the McCarthyite early fifties, the play depicts a couple of very bad hours in the life of Bernie Lutz, a Hollywood comedy writer who discovers that, despite his best efforts at cultural camouflage and political avoidance, the Red-baiters are on his trail. Neither schmuck nor mensch, Lutz is a showbiz everyman who treats his career as a religion and his religion as a source of jokes for his career. When the blacklist, with its underlying anti-Semitism, threatens to overwhelm this seemingly assimilated Jew, Lutz finds that he must reclaim serious, long-dormant aspects of his identity and make a difficult moral choice in order to survive as a person.The Skokie Theatre production includes a post-show panel discussion about the Red Scare trauma of two generations ago and how it relates to the even more naked fear-mongering and xenophobia on display today.“As Jews, we know a lot about being outsiders, about being in exile,” says Chack. “That’s where the ethical responsibility comes in.” At this moment of ascendant cruelty and ignorance, when it’s open season on society’s most vulnerable members, the unique perspective of Jewish theater has more resonance than ever.“Storytelling is a big part of what it means to be a Jew,” notes Chack.“Look at Passover and Purim, two holidays based on reenacting ancient tales about the community and the wider world. The root of Jewish culture has always been intersection and dialogue. It’s by encountering each other that we learn who we are.” A classic Broadway hit comes to Chicago starting April 28 LERNER & LOEWE Starring RICHARD E. GRANT and LISA O’HARE Tickets from $29 | Special discounts for groups of 10 or more10% OFF select opera and musical performances with promo code NEWCITY APRIL 2017 Newcity LYRICOPERA.ORG | 312.827.5600MY FAIR LADY Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Music by Frederick Loewe. Adapted PROMO VALID ON 4/28–5/6 PERFORMANCES OF MY FAIR LADY.from George Bernard Shaw's play and Gabriel Pascal's motion picture Pygmalion. Original Production directed by PROMO RESTRICTIONS APPLY. VISIT LYRICOPERA.ORG/PROMO.Moss Hart. Production created by the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in coproduction with the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre.PRODUCTION SPONSORSTHE NEGAUNEE ANONYMOUS MRS. HERBERT MR. AND MRS. THE JACOB AND ROBERT S. AND MR. AND MRS. J. LIZFOUNDATION DONOR A. VANCE WILLIAM C. VANCE ROSALINE COHN FOUNDATION SUSAN E. MORRISON CHRISTOPHER REYES STIFFEL 65

Life is BeautifulBy David AlvaradoAPRIL 2017 Newcity66

ROCKEFELLER CHAPEL PRESENTS . . . A Triptych EARTH, MOON, PEACESSTThPiAcrkEeTeeKtUsmT$Ra3RjoD5rAApwrLoYer fkeQsArrbUePydAR,A$uRI2gL0TusgE2teaT9neRr|e|aalT7datH:T3thiIc0oRkmeDtPass.MuC,cfehO|aictAauRgrSiOonT.geCdtPhuKeoEEwrR7Fo7rCEl3d.UL7p0rLSe2ESm.AIRiRèOTreSCNo. HFf rCeAheiPtfooErsLStutrdinengtQsuwairttheItD. . Tiffany Ng Carillon and electronics WACthoweEleoNmrDledawNnpYrEteoemSrakciDèhbreaAessfeYcodormEMcnapsrAuieltlmYeornbm1laen0uSdsiigec|nleaa1cnl2.tdrFocoNnollimocOwsp:eOoadsnNibteiyown|asapRktueSObtcUlihCcNipYnKreFPErsaeeFudnloEtCanoLtiailoeLanmEnaadRtnit’sshCseToiLHfufoanAgndayPndSiCErkeeeLctntctoherer.fsoF. rree. rRoocckkeefeflelelrleCrh.aupcehl,i5c8a5g0oS.oeudthuWoodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637

NOWAT THE MCATUESDAYS ARE FREEFOR ILLINOISRESIDENTS!(Open until 8 pm) MERCE CUNNINGHAM: COMMON TIME Through Apr 30 ETERNAL YOUTH Through Jul 23 BATTLEFIELD Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne April 5–8MUSEUM OF Dawoud Bey, Carrie I (detail), 1997. Collection Museum of Contemporary ArtCONTEMPORARY ART mcachicago.org/now Chicago, restricted gift of Jane and Gary Wilner, Anita Blanchard and MartinCHICAGO #mcachicago Nesbitt, Lynn and Allen Turner, James Reynolds, Sandra P. and Jack Guthman, and members of the New Group, 2002.80.a–f © 1997 Dawoud Bey. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago. Installation view, Dance Works III: Merce Cunningham and Rei Kawakubo, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2011. Photo: Gene Pittman. Battlefield. Pictured: Jared McNeill, Sean O’Callaghan, Ery Nzaramba, and Carole Karemera. Photo: Caroline Moreau. Merce Cunningham: Common Time is organized by the Walker Art Center with major support from the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Generous support is also provided by Agnes Gund and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. Merce Cunningham: Common Time is curated by Fionn Meade and Philip Bither with Joan Rothfuss and Mary Coyne. Lynne Warren is the MCA Coordinating Curator.

BIGHEAT April 2017 / Free CHICAGO’S FOOD 50& DRINK CATHERINE DE ORIO OF “CHECK, PLEASE!”newcity_FOB-april-final.indd 1 3/20/17 8:50 AM