Newcity Chicago November 2021

September 17–December 18, 2021 One of 100+ cultural partners across the City of Chicago Graham Foundation Explore more at 4 W Burton Place chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org Free Admission Gallery and Bookshop Hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 12–5pm Reservations required, book on grahamfoundation.org Image: Drawing Architecture Studio, (detail) “Still Life in the Windy City,” 2021

NOVEMBER 2021 ARTS & CULTURE Waste Not? Art Artists grapple with sustainability at the Hyde Park Art Center Rethinking feminist icon 6 2Hannah Wilke ..................................................... 9 Dance THE Hubbard Street Dance BEST 6 8is back on stage ................................................. OF Design CHICAGO 7 0Mood: Pillows ..................................................... Art Golf is back in Elmhurst.............................. 7 2 This time it’s personal Dining & Drinking 13 Brian Duncan shares somme 74wisdom...................................... NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity Film Bad Luck In 76Bucharest....................................... Lit Anne Elizabeth Moore learns there’s no such thing 7 8as a free house ................................................... Music Who needs to listen to Chvrches and Guided By Voices?................... 8 0 Stage The world according to Garth: Drabinsky returns to Chicago with Paradise Square ........................................ 8 2 Reviews Expanded this month but we still have more online! .......................... 8 5 3

—LETTER FROM THE EDITOR HOW DO WE CELEBRATE A CITY in the sec- favorites decades later; others shared their ond year of a still-raging pandemic? favorite things about Chicago. And some wrote longer essays on single subjects of particular This was the challenge we contemplated when personal passion. planning our twenty-ninth Best of Chicago edition. In normal times, we've offered hun- Rather than organize the issue around catego- dreds of recommendations of places to eat, to ries like food and drink, or culture and nightlife, shop, to experience. we organized it by writer, with stories appearing in the order they were submitted. But these are not normal times. Our experience of life over the past year, if we've managed to We asked our art director, Dan Streeting, to use survive, has been collectively so similar—we've the same approach to the visual identity of the stayed home, we've worn masks, we've gotten issue, giving him the charge to express his per- sick, we've gotten shots—but our response to sonal best of Chicago in the imagery he'd create that experience has been so different. Some for this edition, including the cover. have dropped out of unfulfilling jobs and changed careers, while others have developed What you'll find within these pages is some- a heightened appreciation of the things they thing special: a collection of voices expressing cherish, whether friends and family, the natural their city in their own very personal ways, that world or that little mom-and-pop restaurant on together offer universal insights into what we the corner that has managed to make it through all cherish about our life in this place. so far. Not taking life for granted is imprinted on us all, likely for the rest of our lives. But that's just my personal opinion. It's just so personal. BRIAN HIEGGELKE So for this edition of Best of Chicago, we decid- ed to make a radical break from our usually highly structured format and invited fourteen writers to share their “personal Best of Chicago.\" Writers had complete freedom on how to ap- proach the subject; they could write about one or two dozen places and things, things big, or small, idiosyncratic or obvious. Some wrote childhood reminiscences that still inform their Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 4

In keeping with our commitment to art which engages the critical issues of our time, Wrightwood 659 presents Shahidul Alam: We Shall Defy, an important exhibition of images and texts illuminating the life and work of the renowned Bangladeshi photojournalist, teacher, writer, institution-builder, and activist Shahidul Alam, whose efforts on behalf of human rights have provoked both accolades and unjust imprisonment. We Shall Defy integrates contemporary and ancient forms of storytelling to make visible the turbulent issues of the Bangladeshi people and their collective struggle. FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS THROUGH DECEMBER 18, 2021 Tickets at wrightwood659.org Support for this exhibition is provided by Alphawood Foundation Chicago IMAGE CREDIT: Photo by Shahidul Alam

CONTRIBUTORS NANCY CHEN (Writer, “Waste Not? Artists VASIA RIGOU (Writer, “Best of Chicago 2021”) ON THE COVER Grapple With Sustainability in Future Fossils”) is Newcity’s Design Editor and has been calling Cover Illustration and Design is an arts organizer and a freelance arts and Chicago home for the better part of a decade. Dan Streeting culture writer from Philadelphia. She recently Her main pastime is exploring what this vibrant moved to Chicago, working on an MA in the city has to offer—whether an emerging artist Vol. 36, No. 1420 Humanities at the University of Chicago. exhibition, a hole-in-the-wall live venue, or the diversity of American foodways in the form of PUBLISHERS KERRY CARDOZA (Writer, “Best of Chicago a great taco, an extra smoky bbq or a local brew Brian & Jan Hieggelke 2021”) is Art Editor at Newcity. on tap. Then she tells their stories. Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett EDITORIAL Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 TED C. FISHMAN (Writer, “Best of Chicago ROBERT RODI (Writer, “Best of Chicago Editor Brian Hieggelke 2021”) is a Chicago-based writer and the 2021”) is an author, spoken-word performer Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke international best-selling author of “China, Inc.” and musician who has served as Newcity’s Art Editor Kerry Cardoza and “Shock of Gray.” His books appear in Music Editor since 2014. He’s written more Design Editor Vasia Rigou twenty-seven languages. In addition to Newcity, than a dozen books, including the travel memoir Dining and Drinking Editor the many publications he's written for include “Seven Seasons In Siena.” His literary and David Hammond The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, music criticism has appeared in the Los Film Editor Ray Pride Esquire, GQ, National Geographic, Harper's, Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Salon, Music Editor Robert Rodi The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Chicago The Huffington Post and many other national Stage Editor Sharon Hoyer Magazine, Chicago Reader and too many and regional publications. ART & DESIGN defunct titles to mention and in whose demise Art Director Dan Streeting Fishman only played a very small part. DAN STREETING (Cover artist, “Best of Senior Designers Chicago 2021”) is Newcity’s Art Director and Fletcher Martin, Billy Werch DAVID HAMMOND (Writer, “Best of the founder of Streeting Design, a graphic Designer Stephanie Plenner Chicago 2021”) is Newcity’s Dining & Drinking design and illustration studio that focuses MARKETING Editor, and his pieces about food/drink and on publications and print projects. In previous Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke travel have also appeared in Chicago Tribune, careers, Dan taught experimental typography, OPERATIONS Sun-Times, Better and other publications. ran a storefront gallery, and played in a synth General Manager Jan Hieggelke Travel inspires him. band in southern Michigan. He holds an MFA Distribution Nick Bachmann, in 2D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Adam Desantis, Preston Klik DAVE HOEKSTRA (Writer, “Best of Chicago and he lives in Berwyn with his wife Jessica 2021”) is a Chicago author and documentarian. and son Liam. Retail price $10 per issue. In certain locations, He wrote the exhibit \"The State of Sound: one copy is available on a complimentary basis. A World of Music from Illinois\" for the Abraham KEKELI SUMAH (Writer, “Best of Chicago Subscriptions and additional copies of current Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in 2021”) is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer and back issues available at Newcityshop.com. Springfield; up through Jan. 23, 2022. His practicing within the fields of fine art, design Copyright 2021, New City Communications, Inc. book about independent multi-generational and architecture. Working freely across All Rights Reserved. newspapers will be released next year by disciplines and scales, his work has been Newcity assumes no responsibility to return Agate Publishing. exhibited at Università Ca' Foscari, as part of unsolicited editorial or graphic material. All the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, as well rights in letters and unsolicited editorial or SHARON HOYER (Writer, “Best of Chicago as at Sullivan Galleries (Chicago), and Galerie graphic material will be treated as uncondition- 2021”) is a freelance writer and the Dance 73 (Vienna, Austria). In 2020, he curated “A Tale ally assigned for publication and copyright Editor of Newcity. She is a regular contributor to of Today: Nate Young and Mika Horibuchi,” the purposes and subject to comment editorially. transportation site Streetsblog Chicago and is second exhibition in the Richard H. Driehaus Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part the producer and host of \"Means of Production,\" Museum's initiative to bring contemporary art without written permission from the publisher. an interview show on Lumpen Radio covering into the Gilded Age-era Nickerson Mansion. performing arts in Chicago. Sharon is also the Sumah holds a BFA, a BAVCS, and an MArch Newcity is published by former general manager of the Dill Pickle Food from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Newcity Communications, Inc. Co-op and helps new, independent neighbor- 47 West Polk, Suite 100-223, hood grocery stores open their doors. DAVID WITTER (Writer, “Best of Chicago Chicago, IL 60605 2021”) has been a contributor to Newcity SCOOP JACKSON (Writer, “Best of Chicago since 1987, nearly its first year of publication. Visit NewcityNetwork.com 2021”) is president of Strong Island Media, a Witter has also written several books including for advertising and senior features writer for ESPN, co-host of The “Oldest Chicago I” and “II” and “Chicago editorial information. Music Snobs podcast, and author of “The Game Magic: A History of Stagecraft and Spectacle.” Is Not A Game: The Power, Protest and Politics Subscribe at Newcityshop.com of American Sports.” (Haymarket Books) TANNER WOODFORD (Writer, “Best of Chicago 2021”) is founder and executive JOHN MOSS (Writer, “Best of Chicago 2021”) director of the Design Museum of Chicago. is a longtime Newcity contributor. He has As an artist, he paints optimistic, typographic written about a range of subjects, including and larger-than-life murals. mushrooms, professional wrestling, natural building and the sport of netball. MICHAEL WORKMAN (Writer, “Best of Chicago 2021”) is a visual artist, writer and RAY PRIDE (Writer, “Best of Chicago 2021”) longtime Newcity contributor and Editor- is Newcity's film critic and Film Editor and also in-Chief of the Bridge Journal and Director a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine. of Bridge, a Chicago-based 501 (c) (3) His history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” in words publishing and programming organization and images will be published in Spring 2022. (bridge-chicago.org). His bylines have appeared Previews of that project on Twitter (twitter.com/ in the Chicago Tribune, Guardian US, WBEZ, chighostsigns) as well as photography on and his choreographic writing has appeared Instagram: instagram.com/raypride. Twitter: in several anthologies, including a special twitter.com/RayPride edition of the Notre Dame Review focusing on the work of participants in the &NOW Festival of Innovative Writing (michael-workman.com). 6

TowardCommonCause.org

DANCE The University of Chicago is host to nearly 100 ARCHITECTURE arts organizations, initiatives, and academic THEATER programs. Experience world-class visual, DESIGN performing, cinematic, and literary arts at VISUAL ART Court Theatre, the Smart Museum of Art, the MUSIC Logan Center for the Arts, the Film Studies LITERATURE Center, the Department of Music, Arts + Public FILM Life, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, UChicago MEDIA ARTS Presents, DoVA, the Oriental Institute, the UChicago Library, the Neubauer Collegium, …AND MORE Theater & Performance Studies, the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, and many, many more. With a vast network of artists, faculty, students, and community partners presenting exciting, thought-provoking work, you’ll want to make UChicago your next cultural destination. Above: Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center (CMDC)’s world-famous Hiplet Ballerinas perform at the Logan Center. arts.uchicago.edu • 773.702.ARTS • @uchicagoarts

WASTE NOT? 9 NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity Artists Grapple With AS AN ARTIST-IN-RESIDENT AT THE HYDE PARK ARTS CENTER IN 2017, Sustainability in Lan Tuazon was making a series of sculptures out of plastic containers when she first proposed the idea of constructing a house entirely from recycled Future Fossils: SUM materials. This fall, the Chicago-based artist’s vision has come together in “Future Fossils: SUM,” an art installation in the form of a one-bedroom home. at the Hyde Park Keeping in mind the estimate that the average person in America generates Art Center 109 tons of waste over the course of their lifetime, Tuazon’s project purports to explore the ecological question of how humans can use raw materials sus- by Nancy Chen tainably so that the materials perpetually recirculate, rather than the extractive or linear (“take-make-waste”) way we use resources now. ABOVE Installation view of “Future Fossils: SUM” The concept of this paradigm shift has been around for at least two de- by Lan Tuazon/Courtesy Hyde Park Art Center cades. The influential 2002 manifesto “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things,” co-authored by a German chemist and an American ar- chitect, advocated that human design and industry should aim for “cradle to cradle” instead of “cradle to grave” use of our planet’s resources. The authors urged designers to take inspiration from nature, to create products and build- ings where the raw materials (“technical nutrients”) could be perpetually re-circulated. They even argued against recycling, as recycling often leads to downcycling of materials until they become too expensive to recuperate, and therefore destined to become waste anyway.

Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 “FUTURE FOSSILS: SUM” Turning then to Tuazon’s installation itself: if one were not told it was intended to evoke a one-bedroom home, one might instead have the impression it is a gallery 10 within a gallery, in which temporarily erected walls cre- ate rooms to display sculptures by Tuazon and other opens with an introductory video in which Tuazon ex- artists who work with recovered and reconstituted ma- plains her interest in making sculptures out of used ma- terials. Among the eclectic array of sculptural pieces, terials, without extracting any new resources. The artist the most compelling are two of Tuazon’s own works. explains her dedication to designing the installation in a First, mounted to one wall is a slab of a material called way that ensured that the materials used within this tem- “newswood.” Having been around since the 1970s, porary art exhibition go on to find new purposes after- “newswood” is made by gluing and compressing sheets ward. This is an admirable point that gestures to the of newspaper into the dimensions of two-by-four wood waste that is inherent to the process of producing tem- planks. The finished product resembles tree wood, but porary exhibitions, and inherent to making art in general. upon closer inspection one discerns the typography and For the ecologically minded, why should art be exempted layout of the newspaper page, amusingly transmogrified from the same rigorous questions of sustainability? back into a form referencing where the material came By the gallery’s entrance, there are containers of sort- from. If only all the walls were made of “newswood,” ed plastics for recycling, accompanied by signage indi- instead of sheets of plywood, the material innovation cating that visitors and local residents are invited to drop would have greater impact, and the installation would off their own recyclables. These contributions will be certainly be more immersive. ABOVE treated as raw art materials, to be shredded and pressed The second of the more engaging sculptural forms Lan Tuazon, “Future into wainscoting-like sheets, then incorporated into are Tuazon’s “Future Fossils,” the exhibition’s epony- Fossils,” 2016-2021, Tuazon’s installation throughout the show’s run. The ex- mous series of plastic containers that have been bisect- recovered plastic, hibition’s curator and HPAC’s director of exhibition and ed and nested together. Tuazon began making this variable dimensions. residency programs, Allison Peters Quinn, says “Future series during her 2016-17 artist residency at HPAC. In Courtesy Hyde Park Art Center Fossils: SUM” has the potential to make the art center the artist’s words, these nested forms are meant to RIGHT into “a laboratory for radical processes in new material.” evoke the concentric rings of a tree. There are water One hopes that visiting the exhibition later in its run and bottles, dish soap and laundry detergent containers, in- Lan Tuazon's seeing the results of these material transformations will creasing in size up to rain barrels and plastic water tanks. \"newswood\" detail. substantiate this vision. Do these colorful sculptures pose scalable solutions for Photo: Nancy Chen

how to reabsorb material into everyday life in a func- tional or practical manner? No, not really. Are they aesthetically and compositionally satisfying, and in a way reminiscent of cleverly constructed matryoshka dolls? Sure, I give them that much credit. As a whole, the conceptual scope of the exhibition is overly ambitious and way too broad. Instead of making the overinflated ideological claim that this installation could “put into perspective the geologic weight of our consumer habits,” “Future Fossils: SUM” would have been better off doing away with the framework of the domestic space—which comes across as a vague and minimal gesture, nowhere close to a serious proposition of a house of the future—and instead focusing more specifically on the agency of artists when it comes to questions of sus- tainability and ecological responsibility. Artists around the country are grappling with these questions. There are dynamic, creative spaces at the intersection of art and environmental concerns such as Recology in San Francisco and RAIR (Recy- cled Artists in Residency) in Philadelphia, both of which are embedded in recycling centers and provide artists with on-site studio space as well as direct ac- cess to the urban waste stream as a trove of raw ma- terial. It would be fantastic if Chicago had a space that provided such valuable access and exposure for creative thinkers. Having personally spent a season working at RAIR, standing in the dumping yard as truck after truck pulled in, I will never forget seeing for myself the mountains of waste as they rose around me, shrank as materials were sorted, and inevitably rose up again. Some trucks dumped construction waste, others dumped the entire contents of an individual life (usu- ally several times a day, a 1-800-GOT-JUNK truck would roll through with the contents of a house clea- nout, presumably after someone had passed away). I can attest that those hours provided potent creative inspiration along with a true sense of urgency. My sense is that “Future Fossils: SUM” was intended to inspire some of this energy, as Lan Tuazon has stated that her sculptures “are meant to be evidence of the very things we deny,” and that she intends for her art- work to “give visibility to the nature of our condition.” The stated goal is a noble one, but “Future Fossils: SUM” falls short of both conveying much “geologic weight” and only scratches the surface of alternate material possibilities. “Future Fossils: SUM” remains on view through November 13 at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 South Cornell. Guest artists invited by Lan Tuazon to present artwork made with recovered and reconstituted materials in “Future Fossils: SUM” include Sungho Bae, Ruth Levy, Michelle Nordmeyer, Kate Poulos, Anirudh Singh Shaktawat and Rachel Kaching Tang.

PFRREOEGFRAALML S FROM THE POETRY FOUNDATION Virtual events, writing workshops, and the largest online archive of poems! NOV 9| 7 PM Open Door Reading Series: Natasha Mijares, Henry Feller, Jason Vasser-Elong & Roderick James Jr. NOV 13| 11 AM Reading for Young People: Jillian Tamaki NOV 18| 6 PM Celebrating the Poets of Forms & Features Learn more and register at POETRYFOUNDATION.ORG

THE THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO FEATURING DAVID HAMMOND JOHN MOSS NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity VASIA RIGOU RAY PRIDE TED C. FISHMAN 13 KERRY CARDOZA MICHAEL WORKMAN DAVID WITTER KEKELI SUMAH ROBERT RODI SHARON HOYER DAVE HOEKSTRA SCOOP JACKSON TANNER WOODFORD ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN BY DAN STREETING

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO DAVID HAMMOND MY PERSONAL BEST CHICAGO places, each representing peak and memorable experiences, no surprise, are about food. —HOT DOG IN A CHICAGO PUBLIC PARK When I was five or so, my father would Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 come home from work, have his supper, and then take me to the Portage Park pool. The changing area was in an old WPA- looking brick building. After putting our street clothes in metal baskets, each with lunch elsewhere, because the combo I went with my friend Larry. His dad, Big a numbered pin we’d stick on our swim- smell of the park and the steamed wiener Larry, who drove us into Chicago from El- ming suits, we’d paddle happily in the cool is irresistible. So, when we were strolling mhurst, was looking for a used carburetor waters and the warm night air. After get- on the Chicago Museum Campus in early to retrofit into a vehicle he was working on. ting dressed in the outdoor changing August, we spotted a vendor, and I ordered It was a wintry day, and as we stood in rooms, we’d walk back to our home on one “with everything.” the empty lot at the northeast corner of Hutchinson. On the way, we’d pass by the “Everything” from this twenty-first cen- Halsted and Maxwell, I saw Jim’s Original, 14 man selling hot dogs in a white trailer, hot tury vendor meant mustard, pickle, onion… the enduring streetside stand, at its original dog- and onion-scented steam pouring And ketchup, which raises the hackles and location. A line of guys on the Halsted side out the takeout window, the interior bathed even psychotic antipathies of Chicagoans waited patiently for their Polish sausage or in bright yellow light. At that age, nothing who will put fistfuls of appalling garbage bone-in-pork-chop sandwich, and fries, in the world smelled better. Sometimes, down their gullets but who draw the line always fries. (For top-of-the-menu items, my dad would buy us hot dogs (twenty-five at ketchup on their hot dog. As it turned “A Bag of French Fries Is Included FREE”) cents, I recall), and being young and par- out, I ate the hot dog, and I liked it, because Jim’s has been serving the Maxwell ticularly ravenous after a vigorous swim, a it was a hot dog in the park, and it would Street Polish since around , when hot dog was the most beautiful thing. take more than ketchup to wreck that Chi- James “Jimmy” Stefanovic, a Macedonian Hot dogs served in Chicago Parks during cago experience. immigrant and founder and namesake of the Eisenhower years were of the “depres- Jim’s Original, took over his aunt’s and un- sion” variety still o ered at places like Gene —MAXWELL STREET POLISH cle’s stand. Stefanovic claimed to be the and Jude’s: the dog in the bun was dressed AT JIM’S ORIGINAL inventor of the sandwich, and it’s accepted with just onions, mustard, glow-in-the-dark that he was, indeed, the man responsible green-blue relish and sport peppers. It I first visited the Maxwell Street Market for popularizing it. If you’d seen his stand would be a while before I sampled the fully around , when the outdoor bazaar in the old days, before it relocated not far dressed Chicago dog with pickle spear, was still on Maxwell Street. At that time, it away on Union Street, you’d notice that fresh tomato and so on, and I can’t say I was cavalierly referred to as the “Cheat Polish sausage was the first item listed on prefer one variety over the other. But when You Fair,” and older kids would smile Jim’s trademark red-and-yellow signage. I have the dogs at a place like Gene & Ju- knowingly as they whispered, “You can get The Maxwell Street Polish, as served at de’s, I think back to those simple dogs I en- anything there.” Jim’s Original, has been pretty much the joyed in postwar Portage Park. same over the decades. Hours of sitting on When I see vendors in Chicago parks the warm grill allows the sausages to ren- o ering hot dogs—an increasingly rare der out the fat that makes them so irresist- sight—there’s a likelihood I will stop and ible and soak up the essential, acidic juic- buy one. I stopped recently, minutes after ABOVE es of steaming yellow onions. Jim’s Polish Maxwell Street Polish sausage and chops on the grill at Jim's Original. Photo: David Hammond

sausage sandwiches are as tasty now as Riverview, like cotton candy, vanished in an THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO ever, although there have been some instant, but there is not a time—not a single changes. Jim Christopoulos, grandson of the original Jim, offers something for those time—that I don’t drive by the intersection who don’t eat pork, telling us, “We do have of Western and Belmont and hear in my mind’s ear an all-beef Polish sausage, but it tastes more like a hot dog.” the park’s famous spokesperson-huckster, Two-Ton Baker, beckoning us all to It’s excellent that Jim offers non-pork options, but if I want a hot dog, I’ll eat a hot “Laugh your troubles away… at Riverview!\" dog; as for a Polish, I prefer mine prepared from the traditional pork, cooked on a grill with griddled onions, greasy and delicious as all get-out. —HAGEN’S SMOKED FISH Ever since we lived in the Portage Park Kryptonian city in Superman’s Fortress of ding splash-down in a long pool. My per- NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity neighborhood, if I’m traveling along Mon- Solitude. It’s a place that’s warm and invit- sonal favorite was the Wild Mouse, at the trose near Central, I’m going to stop in at ing, yet frozen in time. time one of the newer rides, and less rick- 15 Hagen’s Fish Market. ety than the creaky old roller coasters, built —COTTON CANDY on a steel structure. This ride got its name Walking in the door, the smell of hot AT RIVERVIEW because it would zoom screaming passen- smoke interacting with fatty fish fills the gers fast on the straightaway and then do nose, and I will, inevitably, unavoidably, be My parents were somewhat health-con- tight, ninety-degree turns at every corner… going home with multiple packages, each scious. We rarely had Coca-Cola, candy, just like a rodent. tightly bound in white paper, cradling or other empty-calorie foods in our pantry. smoked salmon, trout, eel or other sea- But when we went to Riverview, every- There were also despicable attractions borne deliciousness. thing changed, and not only did we eat lots at Riverview. The racially tinged dunk of candy, but we also ate one type of can- tanks—advertised as the “African Dip” and I’m a big fan of Calumet Fisheries, of dy you would never have at home. referred to with other, less polite names — course, but that worthy destination is a long were popular with white dudes who hurled drive, so I more often go to Hagen’s. The I’m talking about cotton candy, and yes, racial epithets at the Black men sitting E.P.A. has cracked down on smoking fish, I know you can buy tampon-looking slugs above the water tanks and baseballs at a but both Hagen’s and Calumet were grand- of cotton candy in a sealed plastic bag, but round target which, when hit, would re- fathered in, making them the last of the Chi- those never felt or tasted anything like the lease the man into the water. There were cago-based smoked fish operations. We fresh-spun stuff at Riverview, which disap- also the freak shows, which I never visited, will probably not see their likes again. peared with a whiff of sugary fake-fruit fla- but had some idea about from the post- vor—blue raspberry, cherry-berry—the cards of deformed faces and twisted bod- Since 1946, Hagen’s has been in the moment it hit the tongue. ies sold on the Midway; I had nightmares business of smoking fish, even your own, for years about an image of a man with one if you want to bring in your catch. Smoking Riverview, which opened in 1904, was very huge eye. is an excellent way to add flavor with zero the greatest amusement park the city calories to your fish as well as preserve it had—or has—ever seen. Chicagoan Walt It’s hard to describe the pain we Chica- a while longer without freezing. Disney looked to Riverview for inspiration goans felt in 1967 when it was announced as he later created his own fantasy king- that Riverview was closing for good. None If I’m at Hagen’s during the lunch or din- dom in California. of us had been to that magical place ner hour, I also buy one of their fried fish enough times, and then we realized we sandwiches, dipped in “Grandpa Hagen’s There were marvelous attractions at would never go there again. If you ask any secret blend of spices.” I contend this is Riverview, like Aladdin’s Castle, a scary lifelong Chicagoan of a certain age if they one of the best fish sandwiches you will funhouse and a taste of Arabian “exotica” remember Riverview, watch closely and if find anywhere in Chicago. You don’t want in the Midwest, and the Chutes, which sent the reply is in the affirmative, you’ll see to take this sandwich all the way home passengers on a fast ride down a steep their eyes get a little misty. (fried food goes limp fast), and there’s no slope of running water, ending with a skid- seating area in the store; so, take shelter Riverview, like cotton candy, vanished and your lunch in the parking lot. in an instant, but there is not a time—not a single time—that I don’t drive by the in- The smoked fish, though, is the main al- tersection of Western and Belmont and lure, and half the fun of going to Hagen’s hear in my mind’s ear the park’s famous is to experience the place, to talk to the spokesperson-huckster, Two-Ton Baker, knowledgeable folks at the counter (who beckoning us all to “Laugh your troubles will tell you anything you want to know away… at Riverview!” about their offerings), and to smell the at- mosphere that surrounds the place like the protective shield around the shrunken

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO VASIA A PLACE TO RELAX AND RIGOU UNWIND: CHICAGO LAKEFRONT Spanning much of the city, the Lakefront is what makes Chicago, Chicago. A desti- nation for bikers, joggers, dog-walkers, art- ists, designers, tourists and the neighbor- hood crowd to read your copy of Newcity, eat a slice of pizza while people-watching, ing the graduate community of a top get a nice base tan or at least walk bare- American university allowed me to wander foot at the beach as soon as the weather into the fascinating world of art, new me- allows, experience the green of the parks dia and the great city of Chicago, and also and the blue of the lake, and even stumble develop the practical skills that turn jour- upon public art. But walking across the nalism students into well-rounded art pro- waterfront—its twists, turns and breathtak- fessionals. The multidisciplinary culture of —AN ESCAPE FROM ing viewpoints—you realize that most im- SAIC, the proximity to the fascinating in- THE BIG CITY: LOST LAKE portantly, the trail makes you feel like stitution that is the Art Institute of Chicago, you’re a part of the city as much as the city and the opportunity to meet mentors, “A portal to your favorite warm-weather is part of you. teachers and friends changed the course memory and an antidote to the long Mid- of my life forever making me a Chicago na- western winters,” as they put it, the award- tive in the making. Almost a decade later, winning tropical cocktail bar transports —AN EVER OF-THE-MOMENT here I still am! you to a world where a fruity drink and NEIGHBORHOOD: NORTHALSTED S A I C.E D U Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 good company are all you need to take a deep breath and think: Life is good. Rightfully, the most colorful neighborhood L O S T L A K E C H I C A G O.C O M of Chicago, Northalsted, previously —AN ART-FILLED NIGHT OUT: dubbed Boystown, is more than America’s NIGHTS AT THE MUSEUM first o icially recognized gay village (since —HOCKEY CULTURE )—it’s a place of parties, events and From celebrating the anniversary of the re- art exhibitions, it’s a foodie destination, a peal of Prohibition drinking s cock- Chelsea Dagger, ice-cold beer, group hugs drag queen performance hub, a locale to tails dressed as flappers and dappers at with strangers. Let’s go, Hawks! shop from independent bookstores and the Chicago History Museum, to nighttime NHL.COM/BLACKHAWKS curated boutique shops, it’s home to Chi- telescope viewings of Jupiter and Saturn cago’s annual Pride Fest, but most of all at the Adler Planetarium, to dance parties 16 —A CAMPSITE IN THE CITY: it’s a place to be yourself. at the Museum of Contemporary Art, a night at Chicago’s museums is fun and N O R T H A L S T E D.C O M LOTTIE’S PUB dare we say, educating, too. A grocer-turned-bar from Chicago’s mys- —A HISTORIC ART SCHOOL —AN ALL-TIME FAVORITE terious past with a name that honors its THAT STILL ROARS: HONKY-TONK: BIG STAR former owner, the history of Lottie’s goes SCHOOL OF THE ART back to . A lot has changed since then, INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO It was a chilly early evening, at the time of but the vibe of the place remains the same: the year when it starts to get dark earlier good food, good fun and of course, beer. A boundary-pushing art academy without and earlier in the day. I was alone, walking Highlights include their patio transforma- which Chicago would not be the same, back from a gallery exhibition I had to re- tion into a campground of sorts, complete The School of the Art Institute of Chicago view. Wicker Park was quiet on a week- with private heated tents, buckets of local (SAIC) has been educating creatives since night but I needed a place to look through brews, hot boozy cocktails, and a TV to my notes—you know, in case I had missed watch the game while you pretend to enjoy from Walt Disney to Georgia O’Keef- anything and needed to turn back. I was the great outdoors. At a time when we fe to Je Koons to yours truly. Turning tired and a little cold. Coming from Greece couldn’t be indoors, Lottie’s sure made my downtown Chicago into a colorful mashup I’m not made for this kind of weather, as I pandemic experience more bearable. of artists, designers and scholars, the usually say, only half-joking. And then I School has been recognized as “the most saw it: A bright light; an actual guiding star. LOTTIESPUB.COM influential art college in the United States” Big Star’s yellow neon sign was before my and consistently ranked among the top eyes and I was pulled into a world of ex- graduate fine arts programs in the nation traordinary tacos, refreshing margaritas, and, well, the world. I had never imagined an extensive single-barrel bourbon selec- finding a journalism degree within the con- tion and music playing out of an old- text of an art academy, but this has proven school record player. The honky-tonk vibe to be one of the most important decisions in my academic and professional life. Join-

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THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO RIGHT Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth Street (exterior installation by is palpable, people are friendly and if you're style across the country, and from a mobile Jessica Stockholder). Photo: John Lusis anything like me you’ll enjoy it best if you vintage store, to two brick-and-mortar grab a seat at the bar—except if it's a sum- homes, one in West Town and another in mer day, then you better soak up some Logan Square. Their latest venture? Vin- vitamin D on the patio. tage housewares ranging from playful B I G S TA R C H I C A G O.C O M kitty figurines, to Turkish kilim pillows, to vases, mirrors and furniture. “Lost Girls is more than just a vintage clothing busi- —A TASTE OF GREECE: ness—it's a mindset,” they say. “It's about GREEKFEST unapologetically living a fearless life of fun and adventure. About never giving up, fol- Coming from a small country that’s known lowing your dreams, and breaking all the —A HIDDEN ARCHITECTURAL for its blue waters, picturesque islands, molds. Lost Girls is knowing yourself, lov- GEM THAT’S ALSO sunshine-filled days and fun-filled nights, ing yourself, and confidently presenting A GALLERY:WRIGHTWOOD 659 Greekfest is a taste of home to me, a that true self to the world.” chance to catch up with friends and with L O S T G I R L S C H I C A G O.C O M If you’re a first-time visitor maybe you’ll the latest from the grapevine. But if you’re walk right past this place. Can’t blame you. not Greek, don’t fret. There’s plenty of World-renowned Japanese architect Greek food and drinks to go around, plen- —A FLOWER SHOP: Tadao Ando designed the gallery space ty of dances to be danced, and an oppor- ADAMS & SON GARDENS dedicated to exhibitions of architecture tunity to make new friends that will make and socially engaged art within a four- you one of us in no time. A life-size cactus with bright pink, egg- story 1929-1930 apartment building that shaped flowers greets you at the door as looks pretty much the same as when it Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 you step into the oasis of the family-owned was built—hidden in plain sight in its Lin- —A MULTI-LEVEL flower shop Adams & Son Gardens—one coln Park neighborhood. But step in and WORK/FUN PLACE: CHICAGO that has been in the Humboldt Park neigh- you find yourself in an atrium that rises ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION borhood for over twenty years. Indoor and thirty-seven-feet high and features ex- outdoor plants extend as far as the eye can posed brick walls, sleek concrete surfaces A rooftop with elaborate cocktails and see, occupying every corner. Ferns, mums, and a ton of natural light—and that’s just sweeping Chicago views, a cozy area to bonsais of all shapes and sizes, and, of on the ground floor. Your art viewing expe- enjoy a nightcap in front of the fireplace, course, cacti, terrariums and succulents— rience will never be the same. a lobby with vast table space to work from the kinds that have flooded your Instagram W R I G H T W O O D 6 5 9.O R G which doubles as a convenient place to feed. Tony Adams, the son in Adams & Son, have a meeting: an absolute must-visit for will awaken your inner botanist and bring 18 out-of-towners. The Chicago Athletic the tropicalia into your life, teaching you —A FUNKY BOOK BY A CHICAGO- Association is first and foremost a hotel— how to plant, grow and care for your plant BASED ARTIST: “CATS AND but I’ve never viewed it as such. What used of choice, whether a dainty-leaved ficus, a PLANTS,” STEVEN EICHHORN to be an elite private men’s club dating healing aloe vera or simply moss. Bonus: back to the 1890s, the Chicago Athletic The pictures of wide blue beaches, pine When Stephen Eichhorn brings cats and Association is now a retro-chic architec- trees and waterfalls that cover the walls— plants together, magic happens. In his book, tural marvel of a hotel that hosts the ulti- an intimate collage of the Greek owners’ “Cats and Plants,” now in its second edition, mate adult playground and bar. “The Game family moments back home to keep up the Chicago-based artist works with curi- Room” on the second floor is true to its close and warm up those Chicago winters. osity and humor to bring the two delights name, and has some of the city’s best old- A D A M S A N D S O N G A R D E N S.C O M together in extravagant collage form: Cats school cocktails and snacks, all served around billiards, chess, cards, foosball tables and, of course, a bocce court. Your grandpa would be proud. CHICAGOATHLETICHOTEL.COM —A ONE-STOP VINTAGE SHOP: True to the Peter Pan reference they LOST GIRLS were named after, they see fashion as a Lost Girls is Sarah Azzouzi and Kyla Em- never-ending adventure: from in-town brey—and Winnie, their hand-painted 1976 pop-ups to cruising with style across the country, camper van that started it all. True to the Peter Pan reference they were named after, and from a mobile vintage store, they see fashion as a never-ending adven- to two brick-and-mortar homes, one in ture: from in-town pop-ups to cruising with West Town and another in Logan Square.

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity wearing flower crowns, cats creeping be- fueled wonderland rocking Douglass Park teed adrenaline rush. If you are competi- 19 hind leaves and sneaking inside flower pots to the ground each mid-September with tive by nature, you’ll want to keep yourself among cacti, succulents, ferns and floral rock, punk, alternative rock, and hip-hop in check, but attending a live auction is a arrangements. The artist started working sounds is whatever you want it to be. Cel- thrilling experience. And what better way on this as a side project, but more than 200 ebrating its fifteenth birthday next year, the to immerse yourself in it than visiting collages of felines extraordinaire, several homegrown festival that started as a Wright Auction? Richard Wright, who prints and two editions of the book later, multi-venue event, manages to pull it off started buying stuff at flea markets and there’s only one bottom line: Cats and every year, putting up a show for all, com- thrift stores before he turned his business plants go very well together! plete with tons of local beer and food into a world-famous auction house, now trucks, a Ferris wheel and a traveling cir- headquartered in an elegant 40,000- C AT S A N D P L A N T S.C O M / P R O D U C T S / cus sideshow—an end-of-the-summer cel- square-foot, part-warehouse part-auction CATS-PLANTS-BOOK ebration to kiss festival season goodbye house building in Chicago’s West Loop that will leave you dirty, sweaty and neighborhood, with a second, newer loca- —A PLACE TO FEEL PUNK ROCK: exhausted proving that punk is definitely tion on Madison Avenue in New York City, RIOT FEST not dead… and never will be. has handled more than 40,000 lots of twentieth- and twenty-first century design A jam-packed three-day festival ode to R IOT F EST.O R G since its founding in 2000. Among them: your pop-punk high school self, a long- design objects, furniture, postwar and con- awaited reunion of your all-time favorite —A LIVE AUCTION EXPERIENCE: temporary art. Once, he even auctioned off band that hasn’t played together in years, WRIGHT AUCTION the entire interior of Chef René Redzepi’s a road trip opportunity to create memories groundbreaking Copenhagen restaurant, and post that perfect Instagram, the beer- Have you ever wondered about the feeling noma. Coming up, a selection of works by of vying against others in a fast-paced art Jean-Michel Basquiat. Need we say more? and design bidding war? The heart beats Going once, going twice, sold! faster, palms start to sweat; it’s a guaran- W R I G H T 2 0.C O M

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO —AN ALL-AROUND CREATIVE: KERRY VIRGIL ABLOH, OFF-WHITE, CARDOZA LOUIS VUITTON “Don’t be a victim to the statistics—you can be a kid from Chicago with the same skin —AN ANNUAL SUMMER FASHION tone as me and create work around your EVENT: SAIC FASHION SHOW circumstance,” said Virgil Abloh on open- ing day of his Museum of Contemporary When one of the most experimental Fash- Art “Figures of Speech” exhibition. He ion Departments in the world throws a should know. By then, the kid from Rock- runway show, you keep an eye out for it. In ford was on top of the world: A designer, their highly anticipated annual Spring artist, DJ, owner and art director of RSVP fashion event, The School of the Art Insti- Gallery, founder of Milan-based label O - tute of Chicago’s (SAIC) fashion design White and Louis Vuitton creative director, students present edgy, avant-garde and and named by Time as one of the hun- over-the-top looks, as well as more down- —BEST PUBLIC dred-most-influential people. Existing at to-earth, wearable creations that show- ART PROJECT the intersections of fashion, design, music case a masterful balance between concept and architecture, Abloh constantly re- development, skill-building and artistic More than two years in the making, Whose invents himself, looks for inspiration every- boundary-pushing. The next generation of Lakefront, a project conceived by JeeYeun where—from Chicago’s cityscape, to hip- fashion designers starts here but during Lee, ingeniously drew attention to the un- Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 hop, to Warhol and Duchamp—and pretty these hourlong extravaganzas of catwalk ceded land in downtown Chicago. On Oc- much anything he touches turns to gold— shows, performances, music and installa- tober , dozens of artists, Native people even if that’s an IKEA tote bag. There’s tions, you won’t feel like you’re in a school and non-Native allies drew a line in red definitely no stopping him so you should setting at all—not even for a minute. sand along Michigan Avenue. In the s, be paying attention—he could be stepping S A I C.E D U /A C A D E M I C S / D E PA R T M E N T S / the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians out of his comfort zone to make his next FASHION-DESIGN were forced to give their land up to the big, bold move happen anytime now. shorefront of Lake Michigan; since that C A N A R Y---Y E L L O W.C O M time, landfill has greatly expanded Chica- —A PLACE TO SHOP SMALL go’s Lakefront footprint, which now in- AND HAVE FUN, TOO: cludes some of the most valuable land in —A GALLERY: RENEGADE CRAFT FAIR the city. Working with a group of Native 20 KAVI GUPTA Founded in Chicago in —this year advisors, Lee conceived of this participa- tory performance, which stunned and con- The Chicago-based contemporary art marking their fifteenth anniversary—and fused passersby during its procession of gallery Kavi Gupta is on a mission to am- growing into the biggest craft fair show- over three hours. Education on this history plify the voices of diverse and underrepre- case in the world, Renegade returns home is an important first step in decolonization. sented artists to expand the canon of art at least three times every year—once to W H O S E L A K E F R O N T.C O M history. With two expansive spaces in kick o spring (usually in May around the the West Loop neighborhood, an ever- Pilsen neighborhood), once to kiss sum- interesting roster, and Kavi Gupta Editions, mer goodbye (find it across Division street —BEST EXAMPLE OF CARE where they design and print monographs, in Wicker Park, mid-September) and once IN ACTION exhibition catalogues and academic texts, right in time for your Christmas shopping the gallery is worth keeping an eye on (this time it takes place indoors at the An initiative led by South Side native for anyone interested in staying in the Bridgeport Art Center). Bringing together Andrea Yarbrough, “in c/o: Black women,” loop with the contemporary art world in a wide assortment of artists, designers, fosters collaboration with individuals that Chicago and beyond. They also throw a makers and entrepreneurs from across the build sites of care in the community. A re- great party. country, the renowned event also does cent graduate from UIC’s Museum and Ex- K AVIGUPTA.COM pop-ups—Pitchfork Festival is an annual hibition Studies program, Yarbrough seeks staple—and apart from an opportunity to to not only make visible the care work of shop small and support local businesses, Black women, but also to regenerate va- provides a genuine good time: Think beer, cant public spaces through teaching skills, wine and cocktail samples, as DJ booths stretch across the fair. Bottom line: No matter how many times you’ve visited over the years, you’ll still find it fun—or neces- sary!—to go back. R E N E G A D E C R A F T.C O M RIGHT Ida B. Wells monument. Photo: Michelle Duster

In the 1800s, THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians were forced to give their land up to the shorefront of Lake Michigan; since that time, landfill has greatly expanded Chicago’s Lakefront footprint, which now includes some of the most valuable land in the city. for better wages and benefits, greater NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity transparency, a safer workplace and great- er say in workplace decision-making. The 21 goal is to form wall-to-wall unions, encom- cultivating green space, building function- were withdrawing from the exhibition. The passing all eligible employees, with the al objects and putting together public pro- move, an unusual one for the art world, knowledge that there is strength in collec- gramming. The project carefully and was a show of solidarity with MCA employ- tivity. With unions now at museums that thoughtfully navigates questions of access ees who had been laid off or silenced by range from the Guggenheim to the Met to to public space and community agency. museum leaders. The letter called on the Mass MoCA to the Walker Art Center, it The group’s commitment to its community museum to take direct action in repairing would be a misstep for Chicago’s largest, was made plain through its withdrawal the harm they had done to not only their most-renowned art institution to not rec- from this year’s Chicago Architecture Bi- current and former employees, but to the ognize majority-supported unions. ennial, due in part to what it called the in- art community at large, asking that the stitution’s “lack of honest investment.” You museum live up to its own stated goal of —BEST NEW MONUMENT can read more about that decision through being “a living example of equity.” an open letter on their website. At a time when the role of public monu- —BEST ART WORLD TREND ments is hotly debated, a years-in-the- I N C A R E O F B L A C K W O M E N.U S / O P E N-L E T T E R making tribute to Ida B. Wells-Barnett was Workers at the Art Institute of Chicago and finally unveiled this summer in Bronzeville. —BEST SHOW OF ART the School of the Art Institute joined the The abstract figure, entitled “Light of Truth,” WORKER SOLIDARITY burgeoning museum unionization move- was crafted by inimitable sculptor Richard ment when they announced their union Hunt and is installed where the Ida B. In March, a sizable group of artists in the campaign in August. After dozens of lay- Wells Homes were once located. The thir- MCA group show “The Long Dream” pub- offs at both institutions, workers are asking ty-five-foot-high sculpture serves as a tes- lished an open letter announcing that they tament to Wells-Barnett’s crucial work as a journalist and activist, and is a small but much-needed step in the direction of de- mocratizing monuments.

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO DAVID town. Unlike the rooftop bars downtown WITTER or in River North, the views are unobstruct- ed. It is one of my favorites because I grew up nearby, and can gaze at Lincoln Park’s south fieldhouse, where I went to day camp as a pre-teen. Another childhood memory is of the long-gone Je ’s Laugh- using film and film cameras—could prac- Inn Lounge. Located on the first floor tice their craft. The civil unrest al- where Elaine’s is now, it was just a regular most destroyed the store. After years, neighborhood hangout. I was very young Central Camera has reopened, for now in then and wondered incorrectly if the net- a space next door. work television show “Laugh-In” was re- 230 S. WABASH corded at the bar, and would stare at it in wonder, hoping to see Lily Tomlin. 1816 N. CL A RK —BEST PLACE TO GET A HORSESHOE SANDWICH: 6 DEGREES —BEST RENOVATED —BEST ARTISTIC CAMERA FORMERLY CHEAP HOTEL: STORE TO REOPEN AFTER Unlike deep-dish pizza, the Italian beef and THE HOTEL LINCOLN THE 2020 CIVIL UNREST: saganaki, the Horseshoe sandwich is not CENTRAL CAMERA native to Chicago. Invented in in It is located in the heart of Lincoln Park Springfield, it consists of two slices of and looking at it now you may wonder how Central Camera was opened in by a Texas toast and a ham or beef patty under Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 it ever got that way. Even though it never Hungarian Jewish immigrant who arrived a pile of French fries or tater tots. This got to the point of being an SRO or fleabag, in Chicago in and saw a future in whopping combination is then drowned the Hotel Lincoln used to be known as a what was then a bulky, expensive pro- in cheese sauce. But this is not the tepid place where people, often single men or cess—film. In fact, third-generation owner nacho-style sauce you would find at less- couples between jobs, stayed. This is how Albert D. Flesch has said that, “At that time, er hot dog stands or -Eleven. Styled after it was in the s. In the hippie days of cameras were large and awkward and cost the Welsh Rarebit, it is made from eggs, Old Town in the s, the sympathetic two dollars. After the film was shot you beer, butter, sharp cheddar cheese, flour, owner gave quarters to bloodied demon- sent the camera back to Kodak who devel- dry mustard, paprika, salt and pepper, and strators running from the police during the oped it for a dollar. At the time a loaf of Worcestershire sauce. A favorite at many riots. It was also a cheap place for bread was a nickel, so it was an expensive bars in South Central Illinois, it is best sam- artists: playwright David Mamet lived there process.” Kodak dominated the industry pled locally at Degrees, a Bucktown bar 22 during the early seventies and wrote much and held what it thought was a monopoly. and eatery that was likely introduced to of “American Bu alo” while staying in its Beginning at East Adams, the store the dish by the many students from down- small rooms with musty carpets and win- continually opened and closed to more or state colleges who gobbled its high grease dows that were often hard to open or close. less hide from Kodak. The business moved and caloric content after nights of alcohol- Mamet fondly remembers the nightly mes- to South Wabash in . There, Cen- ic adventures. sages from the owner, a woman named tral Camera witnessed advances like the 1935 N. DAMEN Elaine, who called him every evening at spool camera, Exacta and Leica lenses, 6 D E G R E E S B U C K T O W N.C O M eleven o ering him a co ee or tea night- the Polaroid, and cameras with built-in cap. In fact, the hotel’s first-floor co ee light meters and auto exposure. But film shop is named “Elaine’s Co ee Call.” always had to be developed through a me- —BEST VESTIGE OF THE Today the Hotel Lincoln is one of the few ticulous process using chemicals, dark 1920S EGYPTIAN CRAZE: non-Airbnb places to stay in Lincoln Park. lights and trays. Central Camera, along REEBIE STORAGE AND MOVING Refurbished by the Hyatt chain, it contains with a host of other camera stores in the a downstairs bar, Kennison’s eatery, and Loop, South Loop and River North, catered Lotus and palm fronds, Egyptian columns, most importantly, the J. Parker rooftop bar. to the needs of professional, amateur and a magnificent bronze doorway, and a white Boasting a retractable domed roof and fur- artistic photographers. Then came digital terra cotta facade that features two larger- nished outdoor deck, it o ers three views: photography, and soon, phone cameras. than-life statues of Ramses II greet pass- Lincoln Park, Lake Michigan and down- Photographic stores disappeared, like ersby on Clark Street. Built in , it is the street lights turned o at dawn. But Central closest Chicago gets to Hollywood and Camera, now with members of the fourth Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre. Both were generation of the Flesch family on the job, part of the Egyptian craze of the s, endured. Central Camera became one when, after the discovery of King Tut’s of the last places where photographers— Tomb, everything from movie palaces to including students from the Art Institute diners donned the theme. In the case of and Columbia College who preferred the Reebie Storage and Moving Co., the boss depth, brilliance, and ability to create art actually traveled to Egypt. Designed by

FALL 2021 In-person arts events and conversations, including: Saturday, Nov 6 Saturday, Nov 6 Columbia College Columbia College Student Center Student Center Imagining Debbie Chicago’s Future Millman Film screening and Why Design Matters conversation Saturday, Nov 13 Saturday, Nov 20 Reva and David Logan Symphony Center Center for the Arts Nikole Hannah-Jones Teju Cole On the 1619 Project In conversation with Amanda Williams Sunday, Nov 21 Tuesday, Dec 7 Harris Theater for Music Box Theatre Music and Dance Alan Cumming Annie Leibovitz In conversation with Chris Jones On photography Explore the full calendar and get tickets: chicagohumanities.org

George S. Kinsley, the building is on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Chicago Landmark in 1999. Ever aware of the Great Chicago Fire which occurred about fifty years earlier, reed-colored terra cotta lettering that states “Fireproof” surrounds the structure. The interior of the building boasts stained- glass windows, more lotus and palm fronds and plaster reliefs depicting grain being transported on barges. It now hous- es a resale shop where visitors can get a peek at the storied interior. I grew up three blocks north, and as a child I was afraid to venture anywhere nearby, because the older kids told me “The Mummy” lived there and he would come out at night and kidnap children and drag them to his tomb. 2325 N. CLARK —BEST PLACES THAT TELL US RIVER NORTH WAS ONCE FULL OF FACTORIES, FACTORY WORKERS AND WINOS: THE GREEN DOOR TAVERN AND CLUB LAGO Filled with townhouses, condos, high-rises and four-star eateries that sell fifteen-dollar craft cocktails consumed on quaint street- side patios, the area has been called River North for a while. But the neighborhood just north of the Chicago River was once called “Smoky Hollow.” This was due to the pleth- ora of factories that then lined the river, receiving steel and raw materials via barg- es and sending back manufactured parts, machines and products. After World War II, the advent of trucking moved the factories to the far ends of the city and beyond. As depicted in Tom Palazzolo’s photographic book, “Clark Street,” the area became wa- tered-down skid row, filled with cheap bars, diners, burlesque houses and adult book stores as well as SROs filled with pension- ers and struggling artists. Built in 1872, 678 North Orleans is one of the oldest surviving wood structures in Chicago and a place those pensioners would have gone. Origi- nally a grocery store, it became a tavern in 1921 and the Green Door was added during Prohibition to signify it was a speakeasy. Since then little has changed inside and out. The building itself is “racked,” or slated, leaning like a Chicago Tower of Pisa, and the bare hardwood floors bear the ruts and wear of over a century of foot traffic. The prices still reflect those of a neighborhood bar, and old-timers and hipsters continue

to make it thrive. The same can be said of I grew up three blocks north, THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO Club Lago, a half-block north at 331 North and as a child I was afraid to venture Superior. The restaurant was opened in anywhere nearby, because the older kids 1952 by the Nardini family, who still own the restaurant. Adorned with a tin ceiling, told me “The Mummy” lived there and old-style red-and-white checkered table- he would come out at night and kidnap cloths, terrazzo tile bathrooms, and straightforward pastas and drinks. Club children and drag them to his tomb. Lago is the kind of old-fashioned Italian restaurant that modern corporations try to duplicate, and fail. 678 N. ORLEANS AND 331 N. SUPERIOR —BEST CHURCH TO REPRESENT furnaces, and built houses and buildings by —BEST FOUNTAIN: NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY: hand developed an enormous taste for beer. THE LITTLE COLD THE METROPOLITAN APOSTOLIC Breweries like the John A. Huck Brewery, WATER GIRL 25 COMMUNITY CHURCH the Conrad Seipp Brewing Co. and the Lill & Diversey Brewery quenched the thirst of Located in Lincoln Park near North Ave- Bronzeville is returning, as shops, galleries these workers. But the brewery that topped nue and Lake Shore Drive, the statue bears and restaurants line streets like South them all was the Schoenhofen Brewery. At a striking resemblance to Savannah, Geor- State, Michigan Avenue, Cottage Grove, one time it occupied three city blocks, with gia’s Bird Girl, the Sylvia Shaw Judson Pershing and 43rd Street. While it boasts as many as fourteen structures pumping sculpture made famous through the book historical references like the Bronzeville out 190,000 gallons of beer a year. The main “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” Walk of Fame, there is one structure that structure was erected in 1862, which makes The statue was erected by the Woman’s is an embodiment of what was once called it one of the oldest buildings in Chicago. Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). the Black Metropolis. Built in 1890,the Met- Schoenhofen, who immigrated from Ger- Originally called “The Little Cold Water ropolitan Apostolic Community Church many, was a master brewer who was one Girl,” it was placed at the 1893 World’s Fair has welcomed worshippers including Ida of the first major producers of lager beer. primarily to dissuade men from propagat- B. Wells and Gwendolyn Brooks as well as Lager is lighter, crisper, and requires more ing the beer tents that mushroomed along visitors including Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul time and expertise, as even today, many mi- the Midway. Robeson and Thurgood Marshall. The crobreweries produce more ales, stouts and brownstone structure was the spot where porters. Schoenhofen’s best-selling lager Although the World’s Fair was a marvel the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was Edelweiss, made from water tapped of technology and culture, the city around met and organized. In 2001 the building from an artesian well on the premises. it teemed with corruption and alcoholism. was set to be demolished, and even the Buildings including the main brewery, a Groups like the Anti-Saloon League, The stained-glass windows were removed. cooperage, machine shop, powerhouse Independent Order of Rechabites, and the Groups led by Preservation Chicago and storage areas occupied the area along Sons of Temperance were formed, and the fought to keep it from being razed, and in Clinton, Canal, 16th and 18th Streets. The WCTU made their national headquarters 2007 it became a Chicago landmark. brewery closed in 1972 but the main build- at LaSalle and Monroe Streets. Members ings remain. Listed in the National Register of the group traveled throughout the city 4100 S. MARTIN LUTHER KING of Historic Places, the Schoenhofen Brew- “converting” drunks, and a major portion of ery Historic District is now a mixed office the $3,000 for the statue’s funding came —BEST REMINDER THAT and residential complex. On the cornice in from abstinence pledges. CHICAGO WAS ONCE THE the western part of the complex is a BREWING CAPITAL OF THE six-pointed star. While many think the When the fair shut down, the fountain NATION: PETER SCHOENHOFEN hexagram is the Star of David, it is actual- was transferred to the WCTU headquar- BREWERY HISTORICAL DISTRICT ly the “Bierstern,” or \"Brauerstern,” a sym- ters downtown before being relocated to bol of brewing purity which dates to the Lincoln Park in 1921. After being moved As German, Irish, Polish and other immi- 1300s. While these structures survive, the east of the LaSalle Street underpass near grants streamed into Chicago in the second towering staircase where The Penguin North Avenue in 1940, the statue was half of the late eighteenth century, the work- pushed Jake and Elwood Blues down as stolen in 1958. The four-and-a-half- ers who stacked wheat, shoveled coal into part of St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud Or- foot figure was recast and rededicated phanage was part of the structure that was just east of the Chicago History Museum LEFT torn down. Yet as the former home to both near other famous monuments like the The Little Cold Water Girl. the Blues Brothers and a brewery, this Lincoln Standing statue. Today joggers, Photo: David Witter building is a true Chicago landmark. bicyclists, and children from the nearby Latin School regularly visit the fountain, as 500 W. 18TH STREET they gaze in wonder at a girl their age, cast in bronze for eternity.

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO —BEST REPLACEMENT FOR UNCLE FUN: THE EXTRAORDINARIUM In the early days of Newcity’s Best of Chi- cago, “Uncle Fun” was the perennial win- ner for Best Toy Store. Its stock of books, hard-to-get toys, novelties and gags tied together the old hippies, new punks, and LGBT elements of its Belmont and Clark- ish location. Uncle Fun has been closed for many a year, but there is a larger and even more diverse emporium for kitschy toys and fun gags. Located at the hub of Milwaukee Avenue, Diversey and Kedzie, The Extraordinarium is 4,100 square feet of more than toys. Some of the items sold include books, comic books, magazines, novelties, movie posters, sixties, seventies and eighties memorabilia including lunch boxes, toys, vintage trivia books, fan mag- azines and action figures. But it doesn’t least give you portions of food in new, ex- ways, still represents the street-level artis- stop there. There are mini-sections that citing locations. But Chicago’s Sidewalk tic feelings and sensibility of earlier gener- sell buttons, patches, refrigerator magnets, Food Tours combine food and history. The ations of Wicker Park residents. Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 t-shirts, jewelry, denim and other types of River North tour provides tastes of deep- S I D E W A L K F O O D T O U R S.C O M apparel. The arts section features books, dish pizza, gourmet doughnuts and carni- cassettes, 8-track tapes and a DVD collec- tas via Rick Bayless with the history and tion boasting what could be the worst architecture of the Merchandise Mart, the —BEST REAL CHICAGO VERSION movies ever made. The best-selling items Chicago Varnish Company Building, and OF “NIGHTHAWKS”: DINER GRILL include Funko Pops and items involving the landmark Criminal Courts Building. But Anime. The most unique may be a collec- the Wicker Park Tour does one better. Edward Hopper’s ubiquitous painting, also tion of Frida Kahlo playing cards. Guests taste java from Fairgrounds Coffee, known as “Nighthawks at the Diner” de- “The store is about inspiring people's burgers from Small Cheval, chicken from fines the word “iconic.” One of the most imaginations, doing things differently,” the Harold’s, tacos, and empanadas. But walk- popular works at The Art Institute, it has business owner, known throughout the ing down Hoyne Avenue they pass the his- been duplicated and imitated in hundreds 26 city as Flabby Hoffman says. A musician, toric mansions of Beer Baron Row, then of ways—some complimentary and others comic and filmmaker, Hoffman is turning turn on Evergreen Avenue. Here it stops at in cheap representations with the likes of the rear portion of the store, which was the longtime apartment of Nelson Algren James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and even formerly a miniature golf course, into a at 1958 West Evergreen. As the author of Mike Ditka sitting at the counter. (You can space featuring live music performances, “The Man With The Golden Arm,” “Chicago, find these versions in the “art” aisle at poetry readings, pop-up art markets and City on the Make,” and many others, this Walmart.) But with its long, narrow config- stand-up comedy, to be broadcast via so- National Book Award-winner chronicled uration, gleaming light that cuts through the cial media. the down-and-out drunks, drug addicts nighttime sky, and sign that reads “Open 24 2800 N. MILWAUKEE and characters of Wicker Park, in the por- Hours,” Lakeview’s Diner Grill is Chicago’s tion then known as “Polish Broadway.” The “Nighthawks.” The business boasts a back- tour also stops at nearby Alliance Bakery, story and menu that would make Hopper —BEST TOUR COMBINING CHICAGO’S a venue where Algren and his partner Sim- proud. Opened in 1937, it is Chicago’s oldest BEST NEW FOODS AND BEST OLD one de Beauvoir may well have bought diner. It survived the end of the Depression, WRITER: SIDEWALK FOOD TOURS morning sweets. In many quarters, Algren World War II, one or more health-food craz- remains unheralded and even forgotten. es, and multiple turnovers of neighborhood Unlike New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis, Using the tempting tastes and smells of clientele. In 2016 a fire burned it to the Philadelphia and other cities, Chicago the area’s fine eateries, tourists and local ground and nearly tolled its doom. But the does not have a central historic district. members of current generations are ex- restaurant reopened two years later. Today Take blues and jazz: How is a tour going to posed to an author whose writing, in many there are new items like wraps and salads, travel from Buddy Guy’s to Rosa’s to the but you can count on this diner to still pro- Green Mill, let alone the historical district vide hot coffee, eggs and hash, burgers, near 43rd Street? Ghost tours drive past chili, and if you want them all at once, their many venues that have, just like the ghosts, famous “Slinger” which combines hash disappeared. The same with gangster browns, two burger patties, cheese, grilled tours, which pay homage to murderous onion and two eggs, all covered with chili. creeps and killers. Chicago’s food tours at 1635 W. IRVING PARK, DINERGRILL.COM ABOVE Diner Grill. Photo: David Witter

From dance to literature: you want to be here. The Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago is a multidisciplinary home for artistic practice. Connect with the Logan Center for concerts, exhibitions, performances, family programs, and more from world-class, emerging, local, student, and international artists. logancenter.uchicago.edu Logan Center for the Arts 773.702.ARTS 915 E 60th St loganUChicago Photo: courtesy of Deeply Rooted Dance Theater.

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO ROBERT My personal trifecta of great Chicago RODI of cell phones, by people aiming to hook Parks concludes with Montrose Dog Beach up somewhere on the park’s sixteen acres. (which, despite its name, is more accessible from Lawrence Avenue). It’s just a few min- utes’ drive from my former house, and I’ve been there in all kinds of weather. Paradox- Welles Park’s crowning moment (in every ically, I find it the best place for peo- year that isn’t a licted by a coronavirus) ple-watching anywhere in the city. There’s is the summer Square Roots Festival— something about placing someone in a which admittedly takes over much of the communal setting with their dog; the man- surrounding Lincoln Square, but which ner in which the owners conduct them- seems to be in fullest flower in the park, selves is starkly, and often comically, reveal- where, despite the presence of hundreds ing of character. Some people just untether of music lovers, there’s never a sense of their dogs and then breezily ignore them, being crowded. preferring to chat with friends; some appear The twenty-two acre Winnemac Park (at to have an almost boot-camp agenda, and IT’S BEEN A TOUGH year-and-change Damen and Leavitt) was an even more stay tight with their dogs, throwing tennis for many Chicagoans, and this summer I regular stop for me, because—again—of balls or larger items into the water for them bowed to stark necessity and, after de- my dogs. Welles Park is dog-friendly, but to retrieve, over and over and over again, cades as a North Sider, moved out of the there were times that Winnemac’s popu- with no lessening of intensity. Some peo- city entirely, landing in the western sub- lation seemed more canine than human. ple fret and fuss over their dogs, and chase urbs. What makes this notable is that I My four dogs treated it like a second home. the unleashed animals around, frantically have two contemporaries who have done There are the requisite softball fields and monitoring their behavior and trying to mi- Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 the same, which is the kind of anecdotal playground, but the landscaping is the cromanage their every interaction with evidence that leads people like me to con- feature here. Each summer the Park Dis- other dogs. I’m not going to tell you which clude there’s an epidemic of late-middle- trict allows a prairie garden to grow, and one I am. age urban flight going on. Maybe that’s a maintains pathways that you can navigate Neighborhood parks like these allowed stretch. Certainly I’m not viewing this as through; by the end of the season the wild me, when I lived in the city, to expand the full-scale abandonment; I see it more as a grasses can be waving above your head. landscape of my daily life beyond the strategic retreat. And since I’ll still be work- My favorite memory of Winnemac was in interior of my house and the desk at my ing in the West Loop, it may be less a re- November , the day after Joe Biden o ice. The sense of ownership is subtle but treat than a straddle. won the presidential election. The weather pervasive, and the understanding that All the same, leaving the city after living was very clement, so I went out for a run, its shared ownership can be intoxicating. here since the eighties has thrown me into and as usual, made Winnemac part of my The conversations you can have with a 28 elegiac overdrive. I find myself reflecting route. As I jogged into the park, I had the random stranger on a sun-drenched day on the commonplaces of my urban life with sensation of entering a medieval fair- will astonish you with their intensity and sustained wonder. And while Chicago has ground; the entire surrounding area ap- honesty. The openness of the setting many facets to its brilliance, what I’ve end- peared to have emptied into the park to prompts a corresponding openness in us. ed up missing most is the people, and celebrate. There were jugglers, musicians, Is this a strictly urban phenomenon? I hon- more particularly, those spaces and ven- barbecue grills and large parties with blan- estly think it might be. In any case, the ues that made communing with my fellow kets and lawn chairs that apparently just parks are the one precious element of city citizens so easy and congenial. settled in for a prolonged hit of the com- life that you can’t fully experience by driv- Chicago’s parks are an extraordinary re- munal euphoria. I felt my step lighten as I ing in from elsewhere. You really do have source for building community, singular, made my way through. to live here. and communities, plural; but as noted above, they’re so ubiquitous that I took them for granted. Now I look back on them as a bureaucratically managed chain of Shangri-Las. Welles Park (at the juncture of Lincoln and Montrose Avenues) remains my touchstone. It’s walkable from my former Paradoxically, I find it the best place digs in Ravenswood, and its baseball fields, for people-watching anywhere in the city. tennis courts, horseshoe pits and—for me, the clincher—embrace of dog culture drew There’s something about placing someone me continually back. The enormous in a communal setting with their dog; wrought-iron gazebo is the park’s most the manner in which the owners identifiable feature, but it has a function beyond the aesthetic; “I’m by the gazebo” conduct themselves is starkly, and often has probably been recited into thousands comically, revealing of character.

DAVE The City of New Orleans was known as THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO HOEKSTRA the “Main Line of Mid-America.” With the southern point in New Orleans, the streamlined Pullman cars stopped in Can- ton, Jackson and McComb, Mississippi, operated from this building between Memphis, Tennessee, North Cairo, Illinois, and and Brunswick from to . and St. Louis, Missouri. The main line was Seminal Black artists like Gene Chandler, a gateway to possibility. the Chi-Lites, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy In the southeast fringe of Grant Park, Reed and many others recorded here. The there is a tall blue-and-gold marker hon- Beatles’ debut “Meet the Beatles” oring “The Blues Trail: Mississippi to Chi- was distributed on Vee-Jay from cago” that cites the influence of Delta South Michigan. I argue that these two blues on the classic postwar Chicago blocks on South Michigan Avenue are one blues style while noting that these artists of the most important twentieth-century arrived at Central Station across the street. musical corridors in America. The marker was placed by the Mississippi The kind folks at Overflow Co ee have Blues Commission and not by any Chicago repurposed the main floor of the two- THE LITTLE GIRL IS CHASING BUBBLES cultural entity. story Vee-Jay/Brunswick building into a among the iron sculptures in the south Central Station closed in and was sleek co ee shop and meeting place. end of Grant Park. It is an overcast early demolished in . There and gone. Today, Jackie Wilson recorded his smash “Higher October afternoon in Chicago but that an Aurelio’s Pizza stands at the corner of and Higher” for Brunswick in this space. does not matter to all of the brilliant pos- Roosevelt and South Michigan. If you look Little Richard landed at Vee-Jay in sibilities the girl’s mother is waving out of hard enough there is a faded brick in the and . Vee-Jay album covers from Ed- a magic wand. The clear bubbles are sidewalk in front of the pizzeria that says die Harris, the El Dorados and the Four NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity amazing. There and gone. “Illinois Central Station.” It resembles a Seasons line the co ee shop’s north wall The headless park sculptures gravestone. But then you see the little girl as a nod to the building’s legacy. are known as “Agora”—the name for the weaving and bobbing through the statues In October , Mayor Richard M. Daley urban gathering places of ancient Greek across the street. Rebirth. declared a Vee-Jay Day in Chicago. The civilization. The public art installation is Her mother says the girl’s name is Luna. Staple Singers recorded “Uncloudy Day,” across the street from what I consider to She is sixteen months old. Luna takes their first gospel hit in with be one of the most important cultural sites breaks from her afternoon workout to Vee-Jay and patriarch Pops Staples felt the in Chicago. faithfully push a doll in a pink baby car- recognition was overdue, like a train to the The Illinois Central railway station riage. Luna is happy among the nine-foot- city. Pops migrated to Chicago from Mis- known as Central Station sat at the corner tall sculptures that were designed and sissippi in to work in the Union Stock- of Roosevelt Road and South Michigan made at a foundry in Poland. Luna’s fami- yards. Of the Vee-Jay recognition, Pops, 29 Avenue between and . It was ly came to Chicago from Bogotá, Colom- who was seventy-seven, told me, “It may the arrival point for the Great Migration bia. You tell the mother you once had a not come on time when you want it, but it ( - ). Future artists, athletes, chefs, magnificent lunch atop the mountain of will be on time.” clergy, dreamers, grifters, laborers and mu- Monserrate in Bogota. The mother says, The Vee-Jay site also was chosen as one sicians arrived at the station known for its yes, the mountain reaches to the heavens. of fifty important Chicago music sites in thirteen-story clock tower. New times This young family’s story of migrating to the multimedia DCASE (Department of helped shape the soul of Chicago. Chicago and chasing dreams is similar to Cultural A airs and Special Events) “Music The families of musicians Jerry Butler those of the intrepid travelers who came Lives Here” initiative. Here is a link to the (Mississippi), Sam Cooke (Mississippi), to Chicago years ago across the street. “Music Lives Here” road map: musiclive- Willie Dixon (Mississippi), Bo Diddley (Mis- I look to my left and look to my right. shere.site (Disclaimer—I was a member of sissippi), Buddy Guy (Louisiana), Mahalia What did the eyes of the Great Migration the selection committee.) Vee-Jay was Jackson (Louisiana), Otis Clay (Mississippi), see when they landed on this spot? Was once the largest Black-owned label in the Pops Staples (Mississippi), Muddy Waters there excitement and fear like the first time United States, pre-Motown. I ask the (Mississippi) and countless others migrat- you fell in love? Did they bring the family young barista if customers inquire about ed to Chicago on the Illinois Central. In Bible and a friendly guitar? Did they hear the building’s deep history. “They did when the late Chicago singer-songwriter Marian Anderson sing “Oh! What a Beau- we first opened (early ) but not so Steve Goodman wrote the hit “City of New tiful City” ( ) with three gates in the much now,” she says. Orleans” about his ride on an outbound east and three gates in the west? I stand History can be fluid. Sometimes history Illinois Central train to Southern Illinois. alone and wonder. is in the eye of the beholder. But from The site of the Central Station stands on understanding where we were, we learn its own as one of the most historic places that anything is possible moving forward. in Chicago, but the deal is sealed with a And life, even with its clouds, life can short two-block walk south to the site of be hopeful. the old Vee-Jay Records and Brunswick Just keep dancing in the shadows of Records, South Michigan. Vee-Jay the sculptures.

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO TANNER trends by showcasing both the relevance WOODFORD and beauty of well-designed historic typography. The shop’s work stays true to the craft of traditional letterpress but breathes new life into antique metal and wood type to create beautiful and thought- ful prints across a variety of functions. Un- able to host regular in-studio events during —BEST PROFESSIONAL the pandemic, Starshaped has pivoted GRAFFITI WIZARD: ZEB toward Print Club, a subscription series from to per month that includes As a contemporary, prolific and anony- postcards, greeting cards, prints and note- mous gra iti writer, ZEB is working to books made with Midwestern vendors. move the entire genre into a fine arts STA RSH A PED.COM movement. “This is a switch. I’m not going to be a gra iti artist making fine art,” he —BEST PLACE TO PUT says. “My gra iti is fine art and so is all JOHN OLIVER’S WEIRD ART gra iti.” In , he created performances —BEST (& MOST RELENTLESS) COLLECTION: MUSEUM OF of illegal gra iti writing in more than ten SUPERVILLAIN: COVID-19 BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS major cities where he documented the processes on social media. He found that Every good hero story needs a supervillain. In July , the American Alliance of gra iti is often welcomed once you pre- Try to imagine Batman without the Joker, Museums predicted that one-third of all tend or perform like you have permission. Black Panther without Erik Killmonger, or United States museums may close for More recently, ZEB’s work has appeared Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 America without Ted Cruz. Over the last good. After this report hit the desk of “Last in an exhibition at Chicago’s Congruent two years, the foil in our story has not Week Tonight” host John Oliver, he decid- Space, at Minneapolis’ George Floyd stopped relentlessly pounding on us— ed to help in the best way he knew how. Square, and of course, across a myriad dividing us against ourselves while multi- Among other masterpieces, Oliver is bun- of train cars, street signs and back alleys plying with impunity. Though a vicious dis- dling twenty-eight-year-old rat erotica near you. ease, COVID- is a top-tier supervillain, with a painting of Wendy Williams eating reprehensible beyond words appropriate a lamb chop (and a , donation), —BEST MINI GOLF COURSE for print. When the main story drags on and sending it all to Chicago’s Museum of INSPIRED BY MIGRATORY longer than you would like, rest assured Broadcast Communications. The exhibi- BIRDS: THE DOUGLASS 18 that the turning point is closer than ever. tion, titled “Masterpiece Gallery,” will After all, what is the point of having a su- travel to five museums in total. Oliver is The over species of migratory birds 30 pervillain if not to watch it eventually suc- also o ering a matching , donation that pass through North Lawndale each cumb to the protagonist? Your days are to a charity selected by each museum— year are more than enough fodder for the numbered, COVID- . Watch your back. in our town, it’s the Greater Chicago forty teens charged with redesigning a Food Depository. neglected eighteen-hole community min- —BEST MONTHLY iature golf course. With the support of the LETTERPRESS PRINT CLUB: —BEST ARTIST-RUN Chicago Park District and the Lincoln Park STARSHAPED PRESS INDUSTRIAL WEAVING Zoo, youth worked alongside lead teaching STUDIO: THE WEAVING MILL artists Eric Hotchkiss of the School of the Starshaped Press eschews tradition—well, Art Institute of Chicago and Haman Cross depending on your definition of tradition. In , The Weaving Mill settled into a III of Firehouse Community Arts Center to Since , its principal designer and small mill that had been occupied by the create obstacles and sculptures inspired printer Jen Farrell bucks popular digital Chicago Weaving Corporation and turned by nature. The Douglass Park Miniature it into an artist-run industrial weaving stu- Golf Course improves the quality of life for dio. Since then, they have filled the space North Lawndale residents, builds a sense between the hand and the machine with of community, is open from May to Octo- artists and designers of diverse textile ex- ber, and only costs per game. periences where they make fabric, and take on projects of their own, textile and —BEST SPOT TO HANG OUT otherwise. Some of this good work is in WITH MARILYN MANSON, KANYE partnership with the social services agen- WEST & DABABY… IF YOU’RE cy Envision Unlimited, allowing them to INTO THAT SORT OF THING: enroll adults with developmental disabili- DONDA’S HOUSE, SOLDIER FIELD ties in textile workshops. The Weaving Mill brings the mechanics of textile pro- If hanging out with Marilyn Manson, Kanye duction into a broader context, and they West and DaBaby sounds like fun, the best do it better than anyone else in Chicago. place to do so is objectively under a giant

ARTISTS, VISIONARIES, LIBRARY CHAMPIONS, AND YOU. YES, YOU. THEASTER GATES J. NICOLE BROOKS AMY TAN GLOBAL ARTIST CHICAGO RISING STAR GROUNDBREAKING AUTHOR NOVEMBER 9, 2021 AT 6:00 P.M. CST TUNE IN AT CPLFOUNDATIONAWARDS.ORG HONORARY CHAIRS MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT AND FIRST LADY AMY ESHLEMAN GOVERNOR JB PRITZKER AND FIRST LADY MK PRITZKER

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO cross on the steps of Ye’s childhood home By day, Dilla works at ComEd as reconstructed on the fifty-yard line of Sol- an area operator, and on nights and dier Field. Billed as a listening party for “Donda,” his tenth studio album, this was weekends, he transforms into a the third and most elaborate event in the one-man history channel where he series. Aside from partying on the stoop, breaks down stories about Chicago on Ye showed up two hours late, set himself on fire and, as the last act, remarried his TikTok sixty seconds at a time, estranged wife Kim Kardashian-West. If, neighborhood by neighborhood. like me, you were looking for a little more social distance from all of the spectacle, the event was simultaneously viewable at home, livestreamed on Apple Music. —BEST REIMAGINING OF CHICAGO’S BRIDGEHOUSES: TENDER HOUSE PROJECT Chicago has thirty-seven movable bridg- into a one-man history channel where he turers a place to showcase their work and es—more than any other city in the world. breaks down stories about Chicago on sell goods. Items featured in the store in- In the day, they were staffed by tenders TikTok sixty seconds at a time, neighbor- clude functional objects, publications, who worked around the clock to open and hood by neighborhood. Most recently, he clothing, bags, music, toys, games, jewelry close bridges for boats to pass by. With represented our city on the Today show. and stationery. As a platform designed to Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 less aquatic traffic today, the structures Next, he’s interested in establishing a non- support creatives, they also host exhibi- serve as an outdoor museum of many ma- profit to tell more Chicago stories. You can tions, talks, workshops, performances, jor architectural styles, including Art Deco, find Dilla on TikTok, but also across social readings and product launches. Buddy is Beaux-Arts and Modernism. (In fact, one media as @6figga_dilla. open daily and goods are online, too. has been turned into an indoor museum hi-buddy.org. too, the McCormick Bridgehouse & Chi- —BEST ARTIST-LED PROBLEM cago River Museum.) Tender House Proj- SOLVING: ALT_ —BEST AND FIRST ect exists to cultivate a cultural awakening CULTURAL HISTORIAN OF of Chicago’s iconic, underused, and vacant When Jordan Campbell and Jon Veal en- CHICAGO: TIM SAMUELSON bridgehouses. 2021 programming includes counter a problem, they don’t gripe or pro- Damon Locks, Lumpen Radio, Communi- test. Instead, they pull volunteers from the Tim Samuelson is an absolute treasure. 32 ties Amplified, Stephanie Manriquez and community and work on solutions. Two He was appointed Chicago's first Cultural Deep Time Chicago. compelling examples of these functional Historian by the incomparable Commis- art installations are Market and [b.in]. sioner of Cultural Affairs Lois Weisberg in —BEST TIKTOK HISTORIAN: Market alleviates food inequalities by 2002. Her job description for Tim was only SHERMANN “DILLA” THOMAS transforming abandoned spaces into com- two words. “Help everybody.” And he munal free markets that encourage com- does. Over the course of his career, Tim Hailing from Auburn Gresham, Shermann munity members to give and take as has provided assistance to mayors, public “Dilla” Thomas is a man of many talents. He they are able. Each [b.in] uses recycled museums, private citizens—anyone he is an urban historian, a captivating and pallet wood and donated plexiglass to cre- found on the other end of the line. He has pithy storyteller, a Chicagoan through- ate needed trash receptacles that are also amassed an enormous collection of and-through (but forever a South Sider), adopted, maintained and emptied by objects from Chicago’s history, loaning and a proud father and son. By day, Dilla community partners. Their work can be them to hundreds of cultural institutions works at ComEd as an area operator, and seen in Austin, Greater Grand Crossing, and exhibitions without fee. Tim retired on nights and weekends, he transforms Englewood and Back of the Yards, this year. As emeritus, he keeps his legend- although their ethos, attitude and culture ary office in the Cultural Center and is improves Chicago citywide. now busier than ever doing his life’s work, helping everybody. —BEST PLACE TO BUY HOLIDAY GIFTS BY CHICAGO ARTISTS: BUDDY Buddy, headquartered at the Chicago Cul- tural Center, is a collaboration between Public Media Institute and Chicago’s De- partment of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. It gives artists and small manufac- RIGHT The Weaving Mill

—BEST ANTI-GALLERY THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO IN HYDE PARK: CONNECT GALLERY NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity Co-owner of the Connect Gallery Rob 33 McKay sees it as an “anti-gallery.” Its vibe is unlike most galleries. It trades stuffiness for genuine community building, and feels familiar the first time you walk in—like walking into an old friend’s place. It gives up the white cube in favor of creating a cross-disciplinary platform that hosts DJs, visual artists, fashion designers, photogra- phers and their stories. The gallery is in Hyde Park near the Silver Room, whose founder Eric Williams is also co-owner. It was founded in 2016 as the Connect Art Fair, a three-day, multi-site, pop-up art event co-produced by Eric and Rob. With deep roots and five years of programming under its belt, Connect Gallery is on a path to greatness. —BEST ARCHIVE OF THE VISUALLY SPECTACULAR: COLOSSAL Dubbed the “Tate Modern of the Internet” by Fast Company, Colossal is an endless fountain of inspiration that covers art, design, modern craft, street art, photogra- phy, illustration, science, animation, and so many other disciplines across visual cul- ture. Founded by Christopher Jobson in Chicago in 2010, the website has an inter- national reach, amassing an impressive archive of over 6,700 articles written by only seven contributors. Colossal cele- brates the visually spectacular artwork of both emerging and established artists with a focus on positive, diverse, and impactful stories. It reaches an estimated ten million monthly readers, and has been honored with accolades by The National Endow- ment for the Arts, TED and PBS’ Art21. —BEST GALLERY IN THE PEDWAY: SPACE P11 Underneath the Chicago Loop is the Ped- way, a network of pedestrian tunnels, com- mercial spaces, train stations, government facilities and other public and private in- frastructure. Most commonly used as a walkway between places on cold or rainy days, the Pedway contains an untapped audience of commuters with many oppor- tunities to engage them. David L. Hays and

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO Jonathan Solomon, directors of Space p11, saw this opportunity in a vacant retail space and opened a free, independent gal- lery for off-grid art, architecture and cul- ture. Space p11 explores divergent futures and evolving alternatives to modern prog- ress in the context of contemporary cities. It brings people and ideas together through exhibitions, performances, talks and reading groups, and creates an unex- pected cultural experience along the way. —BEST MOBILE MAKERSPACE: CHICAGO MOBILE MAKERS Chicago Mobile Makers is creating a new generation of architecture and design changemakers by offering design thinking and problem-solving workshops to youth in Chicago communities. And when they say in communities, they mean it. Their Community Plaza. Formerly a vacant lot, auctions, previews and exhibitions of art flagship product is the Chicago Mobile now you will find a bustling blacktop roller and design are hosted in a 40,000-square- Makerspace—a retrofitted, 108-square- rink with picnic tables, a seating area foot warehouse in the West Loop. A typical Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 foot former USPS delivery van with solar made from repurposed logs, and murals auction might include a Roy Lichtenstein panels, plentiful workspaces, and design by local artists—all surrounded by Pan- painting, Milo Baughman dining chairs, a tools like a laser cutter and 3D printer. African colors of red, black and green. The hand-knotted Moroccan pile carpet, a Next, Chicago’s best mobile makerspace plaza is a small step toward undoing de- lamp by Paul McCobb, a number of is opening a permanent space at the Kim- cades of disinvestment in the community, George Nakashima tables or a monumen- ball Arts Center, where they will offer more which resulted in elevated levels of crime tal sculpture by Harry Bertoia. Speaking of workshops, build a community and safe and violence. Spearheaded by the Garfield Bertoia, Wright is the market leader for his space for like-minded youth, and greatly Park Rite to Wellness Collaborative, the works with over $25 million in sales across increase their impact on our city. new roller rink provides entertainment, lots of over 1,000. As the premier auction builds a community space, promotes well- house specializing in modern and contem- —BEST NEW WEST SIDE ness and safety and signifies that even porary design, Wright has pioneered 34 ROLLER RINK: PULASKI greater things are on the horizon. whole fields of collecting, championed ar- CORRIDOR COMMUNITY PLAZA chitecture at auction and transformed the —BEST ART & DESIGN market for modern design. West Garfield Park has been the home of AUCTION HOUSE: WRIGHT many roller rinks, and roller skating is a key BEST FALL part of its history. Nestled between two Since 2000, Wright has auctioned nearly FROM GRACE: businesses on the heart of the West Side 40,000 lots across the spectrum of twen- R. KELLY is the new family-friendly Pulaski Corridor tieth and twenty-first century design. Their Once known as the King of R&B, Robert Sylvester Kelly is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and now, a convicted sex offender. Over the course of his career, Kelly has sold more than seventy-five million records worldwide, making him the most successful male R&B artist of the nineties, as well as one of the Chicago Mobile Makers world's best-selling musicians. His hit is creating a new generation song “I Believe I Can Fly” took him to new of architecture and design heights. Privately, this fame and success was fueled by an illegal marriage to Aali- changemakers by offering yah, sexual exploitation of children, kidnap- design thinking and problem-solving ping and even an alleged sex cult. His re- cent conviction on nine counts of workshops to youth in Chicago racketeering and sex trafficking was a long communities. And when they say overdue step toward justice as well as a in communities, they mean it. tremendous fall from grace.



THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO JOHN MOSS —ROSCOE VILLAGE COMMUNITY MESSAGE BOARDS Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 These crowned kiosks along Roscoe Street are a curiosity of hyperlocal advertising in the age of worldwide connectivity. Hand- written notes, pull-tab postings, flyers, the occasional glossy production held up by snips and strands of Scotch tape. Aren’t these more commonly found on college campuses publicizing Rush Week and Chem tutors? I routinely visited Roscoe Village this 36 past summer gripped with the community dialogue taking place. Ads and messaging for backyard wrestling, music podcasts, a dinner invitation, dog grooming services, skydiving in Lincoln Park, apartments for rent, a male seeking “femmes” for friendship, a VoIP provider stress-testing its network masking as beatnik poetry, and free carrots. Okay, the last one’s mine. A shameless —OLD TOWN SCHOOL the school’s open-door spirit, anyone interloper from Lakeview, I decided to con- OF FOLK MUSIC from teachers to the public could step up duct an experiment, pledging free carrots, and perform a song in the Maurer Concert to find out what sort of folks were reading Stories of former students going on to mu- Hall. I can still hear the souped-up rendi- and responding to these postings. A post- sic glory echo the halls of the Old Town tion of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” doctoral fellow in neuroscience at UChica- School of Folk Music. I’m a distracted by a mother-daughter duo that knocked go and a CPA for a local startup. Of course student who won’t be going on to music me cold. that’s who. glory, destined to repeat Guitar forever. More recently, the school has been em- 2000-2100 W. ROSCOE I go now for the teachers, most or all work- broiled in turmoil and conflict. At one point ing musicians with talent and charisma to it was on the verge of selling its Old Town spare. They make the learning welcoming location on Armitage before a public out- and memorable (\"Every. Acid. Dealer. Gets. cry and series of protests—featuring song, Busted. Eventually.\"). of course—led the OTSFM board to walk My favorite OTSFM moment is of the back the decision. Seeger Sing Out! It was a weekend 4544 N. LINCOLN AND celebrating folk legend Pete Seeger’s life 909 W. A R MITA GE, 773.728.6000, shortly following his death. Befitting O L D T O W N S C H O O L.O R G ABOVE Roscoe Village Community Message Board. Photo: John Moss

—MUGHAL BAKERY But its rhythms and rumble may have gotten THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO in my bones. Not a few late nights I’ve Stop into Patel Brothers, or about any gro- cery or convenience store in the Little India involuntarily dozed on the train ride home, area and you’ll find shelf space displaying only to spring up at the exact moment the cookies and biscuits from Mughal Bakery. This bakery, in a storefront off Devon, doors opened to my stop. Or maybe each stop bakes more than 25,000 cookies a day to has its own unique scent that a longtime meet the demand for its products. rider picks up and can follow home? It is owned by the Syed family, original- which I corrected to wings on the next vis- home, only to spring up at the exact mo- NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity ly from Hyderabad. Hyderabad is consid- it a few days later. But as a non-native Chi- ment the doors opened to my stop. Or ered by some to be the cookie capital of cagoan I continued to opt for hot sauce maybe each stop has its own unique scent 37 the world, with its massive production and over mild (and still do). that a longtime rider picks up and can fol- distribution. Mughal sells a variety of cook- low home? ies and tea biscuits, including sweet and My friend said if I liked this location, wait salty Osmania cookies, and Dum ke Roat, until I try a legit Harold’s location. What My favorite is Western on the Brown a traditional Hyderabad cookie made with qualifies as legit? I asked. Whether truth- Line. There I met my future wife for the saffron, one of the most expensive spices fully or to shock the bumpkin in me, he said first time outside the north entrance. She in the world. My personal favorites are the the best Harold’s locations have bullet- was taking the train up from Lakeview. savory puff patties they serve warm: soft proof glass in them. Though I’ve visited a Though, as it happened, weekend track and flaky with a spicy beef, chicken or po- few others beyond #62, I have yet to inde- work reduced Kimball- and Loop-bound tato filling, for around two bucks each. pendently verify this. trains to sharing a single track for a stretch between Belmont and Western, causing 6346 N. MAPLEWOOD, 612 S. WABASH, 312.362.0442, lengthy, lengthy delays. Not wanting 773.616.0202 H A R O L D S C H I C K E N D O W N T O W N.C O M to keep me waiting, she ended up taking an Uber. —CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY —CTA (8 8 8) Y O U R - C T A, CPL has been my home away from home They say you don’t really need a car in T R A N S I T C H I C A G O.C O M since I first came to Chicago. Or more ac- the city. They say all you need is accessi- curately “that special third place—beyond bility by foot or public transportation. Who —DICK BIONDI home and work,” as it’s described on CPL’s are “they”? Usually someone with a car in own website. Before life got disrupted, the city. Dick Biondi had the good sense to begin I was going so often I needed to travel to his career in radio in the time of Elvis and a new branch every now and then just to But depending on your situation, they with the Beatles and British Invasion on mix things up. Luckily there are eighty- might be right. I went eighteen years with- deck. Biondi got his start in 1950s New some locations. I was also a semi-regular out one. So the CTA figures prominently in York before moving to Chicago where he at the weeknight programming held in the my life. My way to work, my way to dates, gained a national following on WLS-AM Cindy Pritzker Auditorium at the Harold my way to the Lakefront. Also, it figures 890. I discovered his still-running show fif- Washington Library Center. A great free peripherally. The first six years it was my ty years later in Chicago on WLS-FM, his way to spend an evening. I’m looking for- neighbor, the tracks directly out back playlist unchanged from when my dad ward to getting back. across the alley. I say you don’t really hear grew up listening to him in Logansport, In- it after a while. diana, in the early sixties: The Drifters, The HWLC AT 400 S. STATE WITH NEIGHBORHOOD Tornados, The Chiffons. BRANCHES THROUGHOUT THE CITY But its rhythms and rumble may have 3 1 2.747.4 3 0 0, C H I P U B L I B.O R G gotten in my bones. Not a few late nights A tremendous thrill was when Biondi I’ve involuntarily dozed on the train ride announced my name as part of the wed- —HAROLD’S CHICKEN SHACK #62 ding party of my best friend. Now eighty- nine, Biondi is off the air. A documentary When I first moved to Chicago, I found a on his life is in production. When it wraps, job in Columbia College’s library. Closer in there’s a chance I’ll have an uncredited ap- age to the student workers than full-time staff, I became friends with one of the stu- dents, a Chicago native, who took it upon himself to acquaint me with the city. Lunch, he brought me to Harold’s Chicken Shack #62, on South Wabash, then between Warehouse Liquors and George’s Cocktail Lounge. He got the wings while I went for the Half White—

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 pearance as one of thousands recorded at enough to find yourself on the side where work, incense, frisbees, patches, stickers. the 2018 Little Italy festival on Taylor Street the pool table is, stay alert for pool cues. The twist is the melding of store and neigh- taking part in a singalong of the Biondi It’s mostly regulars who play pool at borhood, with dual-themed Dead and Chi- original, “The Pizza Song.” Lange’s, and Lange’s is the sort of bar cago sports team shirts. where regulars are given the benefit of the 3209 N. CLARK, doubt. Lange’s is steps away from the 773.281.1812 —LANGE’S Amazons, Bonobos, Warby Parkers, Jeni’s A M I G O S A N D U S.C O M Ice Creams and J. Crews of the Southport At the corner of Southport and Cornelia, Corridor. But inside you are a world way Lange’s is the place I make sure to go after. from all that. —THE JOHN HANCOCK BUILDING 38 After the evening’s obligations are fulfilled, 3 5 0 0 N. S O U T H P O RT, Whenever I’m near the John Hancock whatever those may be. I know better than 7 7 3.47 2.6 0 3 0 to start at Lange’s because then I’ll never Building, or 875 North Michigan Avenue leave Lange’s. All the action takes place in as it’s now called, I take a moment to a single well-lit room with a square bar and —AMIGOS & US admire it. I have dozens of photos in my a pool table. Sounds straightforward, but phone. I’m like its Pete Souza or something. it’s deceptive. You can go four times and There was a time I assumed Amigos & Us, It seizes my attention and compels me to get four wholly different experiences de- tucked between Blum Animal Hospital and document it every single time I see it in a pending on which side of the bar you sit. L&L Tavern on Clark Street, directly north way no other structure in Chicago, or any- The side near the jukebox fills up first; it’s of Belmont, was just another Wrigleyville where does. If I could see it from my office, where you’ll meet and talk to strangers, smoke shop. Mannequins dressed in tie- I’d never get any work done. And I’d prob- and to monitor the jukebox for those devi- dye t-shirts filling the storefront. Peace ably need a new data plan. It rewards every ants who would skip your songs by paying signs. A pensive Jerry Garcia in the tran- angle: From the west where it slims down extra—although affixing a cocktail napkin som windows. Context clues, man. Cultur- in profile to the full-on power view while with “Out of Order” handwritten on it near al signifiers that it’s 420 somewhere. driving south on Lake Shore Drive past the the payment slot to combat this practice One day in the display window, though, North Avenue pedestrian bridge to the should be done sparingly, if at all. The side appeared a nice stonewashed blue hat climbing cross-bracing upward at the base. against the back wall’s more subdued, rec- with a Steal Your Face patch, a Grateful Downtown recently, I caught an angle from ommended if you want space to eat. Com- Dead symbol, that drew me inside to see the south I’d never noticed before, Big bos are for sale at the bar. If you’re unlucky what this place was all about. I found my- John peering out between Two Prudential self in a brick-and-mortar Shakedown Plaza and the Aon Center; a tall friend in Street. Here was a snack-sized portion of the distance at a crowded party. In a city the parking lot vendor scene formerly of of prized, stunning architecture, the Han- Dead shows, now carried forth by their cock stands out as the best of the best. jam-band descendants. Tie-dyed (and not) 875 N. MICHIGAN clothing, hemp change purses, jewelry, art- 8 7 5 N O R T H M I C H I G A N AV E N U E.C O M ABOVE Amigos & Us. Photo: John Moss

BET Ladies Living &Loving Life Directed by Jackie Taylor Live on the Black Ensemble Theater Stage November 19-21 And also A Black Ensemble Holiday Spectacular December 11-12 and 18-19 FOR MORE INFO CALL 773.769.4451 OR VISIT BLACKENSEMBLE.ORG Exhibition on view at the Newberry Library 60 W. Walton St. September 10 through December 30 Free and open to the public © 2021 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. WALTER E. HELLER FOUNDATION

RAY LOST OR PASSING CHICAGOS: spend- Snow from the era of stories-high neon: PRIDE ing the versatile potato; red, red neon; the way-past-inclement Chicago and Lake flocking, blurring, mounting snow. These Michigan snow that used to flurry unhur- blur when I don't sleep. Emblems, starkly riedly and wet the world. Snow that time I romantic when just out of college: tucking was mistaken for someone whose leather into the dark corners of bars and clubs; jacket I had borrowed and was thrown discovering perfect, simple food; a neon backward into a (defunct) Howard Street kiss unmoored from pop art. Contrasts bakery's picture window, head brushing and textures. Cold and warm. Urban bes- the icing-pink neon sign without injury. In- tiary swaddled under blankets of the night decently clean snow all the length of the and snow. alley that led from Clark Street to ne- on-beckoning Neo (defunct) as \"Love My Magikist lips. These defunct neon signs Way\" played between openings and clos- stood tall and pursed, silent, red, fiery, they ings of the door. Reflections and shadows puckered by day and night along the Ei- of snow refracted via human-scale foyer senhower, the Kennedy, astride the Edens, mirrors (defunct) along a deserted late- the Dan Ryan. There's little evidence of night Michigan Avenue peopled with dark- them now: a few seconds in \"The Blues ened first-floor stores. Brothers\" one garish glory on a street of neon on Randolph near State Street. I see “The snow fell in a soft, suspended the one along the Eisenhower against a motion, as snow does in dreams alone.\" cloud-tufted brightest-blue summer Mid- Nelson Algren ascends into a dream in west sky; Loop lips damped with heavy, “The Man With The Golden Arm\": \"He wet snow, twentieth-century slush. coasted without e ort around and around

and down a bit and then up like that kite She is laughing and with her head turned, THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO with the broken string and came coasting, oblivious: a frame of classical beauty where all winds were dying, back down to the table where Fixer sat waiting. ‘I got no caught in the spill of light for an instant woes,’ he laughed among slow-falling and then as indelible memory. He bleeds. flakes, seeing Louie smiling through the snow. ‘You got a woe, Fixer?’ he asked. ‘It’s es closer to each other and to the pair as Studs Terkel used Division Street as a NOVEMBER 2021 Newcity what I been needin’—a couple good old she twirls, barefoot, across the dirty red- metaphor for America. The years I lived secondhand woes.’” and-black tiles and pushes his face away there, I counted on Division Street for a 41 and he gashes his temple at the rail that sandwich or a cup of coffee. And the Leo's Woes is who? A blade of antiquarian the curtain hangs from. She is laughing potato salad, chunks of potato that consis- neon still stands arrow-tall outside and with her head turned, oblivious: a tency, chilled, barely. It went with every- Ukrainian Village's single-story flat-roof frame of classical beauty caught in the spill thing, especially trying to fill pages of a Rainbo Club (1150 N. Damen), thirty-five of light for an instant and then as indelible composition book faster than the cartoon- years under the same ownership. Algren memory. He bleeds. “Jesus Christ,” R. says, ists filled sketchbooks. Drawing and writ- gets wrongly referenced for that place, “She’s so fucking beautiful even telling you ing and conspiring was afoot, too, at Bom- built in the 1930s a few years before W. H. to fuck the fuck off.” In a movie co-starring bardier Cafe (defunct), later Earwax Cafe Auden’s “September 1, 1939,” lines from that man in the era in which he was known, (defunct), where the potatoes were starchy which can overlay that haunt. \"Faces along the air would be cooled and filled with archipelago in a huge vegan stew that a the bar / Cling to their average day: / The dancing snowflakes, or tiny diamonds of short generation of Chicago graphic artists lights must never go out, / The music must ice to be set in rings worn by the stars of fitfully sustained themselves in the 1980s always play, / All the conventions con- the flea circus. and toward a new century. spire / To make this fort assume / The fur- niture of home; / Lest we should see Chicago, land of locals, would-be brig- Blackbird (defunct) offered their freshly where we are, / Lost in a haunted wood, / ands cooling in the tavern on the corner. parsed potatoes in the 1990s, with chef Children afraid of the night / Who have Or on a side street: Danny's Tavern (de- Paul Kahan’s variation on the Lyonnaise never been happy or good.” funct), MaxTavern (defunct). salad, an endive salad incorporating small Yukon gold potatoes, with basil, rendered I remember many things that happened The local, sometimes distant, for a now- pancetta and poached egg, in a fried cup there and many faces that passed under scattered artists’ working class. Everything made from shaved Yukon golds. Truly the red and pink neon beacon with its written about that past is a little a-kilter. coarse pepper was ground atop the egg cocked, cocky green class. Air-conditioned From that time, too, there's remembrance and vinaigrette on greens, the entire con- respite from steamy streets, rude castle of things repast, there's always potatoes, fection waiting to be crushed by a few bold beneath the great snowfalls of then. An this elongated moment that salted the way diagonal knife and fork strokes. It was ripe, oral history of a hundred or a few hundred for the coming decades of Chicago as a avid, even, for the demolishing. spectators and visitors and regulars and citadel of American cooking. dispossessed and disposed of this place \"It’s the kind of clean-tasting mix of tex- would be so worldly and wise. As Smoke Daddy was opening a couple tures that shows Kahan’s sure hand with decades ago, I listened to the first owner the possibility of fish, seafood and contrast- One night giddy in love, a tall actor of lo- as he cogitated on starch, planning partic- ing textures,\" I wrote a few days after the cal origin came to the Club with a beautiful ular oils and separate fryers for tri- Financial Times weekend edition had woman almost as tall, someone worshiped ple-cooked french fries made from aged named the fairly fresh Blackbird one of the from afar and in the bar, from nearby by a potatoes. Nearly across the street, Leo's world's best new restaurants. Contrasts are crowd that would not allow themselves to Lunchroom (defunct) had a common po- essential to “simple, well-prepared Ameri- be seen as impressed, figures used to tato salad that filled many a lunch and can cuisine,” Kahan told me, \"and by focus- catching and collating glimpses of life lived there was coffee, strong, good. Did it out- ing on fresh and seasonal ingredients, he in the city, never looking straight at a thing. last nearby diners from those that still got the most from the simple contrast of The night tempted swelter. spotted neighborhoods across the city, flavors that are smoky, spicy, sweet or salty.\" The Busy Bee (defunct) under the El at Tall and smitten. Tall and taller. R. and I Damen? Diner Grill on Irving Park? Ar- Fresh, seasonal: what Chicago ought to are close enough to read lips. The pair are lene's Diner (defunct), with the four-\"eeg\" be, always, before memories settle. Before at the notorious photo booth, bar’s dim special four blocks south of Busy Bee, be- the snow begins to fall, glistening in the swim illumined by short curtains parting. fore Ukrainian Village flourished and then sky, small diamonds, which may go to mist, He swoons; she dips. As much as a tall floundered as colorful destination? droplets, dropping. man can swoon standing over a statu- esque woman. She is barefoot and electric. Casually electric. R. says, did he say marry me and I said I don’t know and she says did she say how could I marry you and we lean a few inch- LEFT Chicago Snow, 2004. Photo: Ray Pride.

THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO TED C. Bobolink Meadow, an expanse of prairie FISHMAN wilds behind the Museum of Science and Industry, is part of acres of natural areas in Jackson Park. The Meadow is also one of the city’s oldest sites with an ongo- ing prairie restoration, begun in . The e ort aims to revert the land to what near- by fields had been like before alien plants My favorite hour to arrive at Bobolink were transplanted or crept into the region. Meadow straddles dawn. I head out from The eastern entrance is over the rude red home in the dark before co ee or getting stone bridge that separates Jackson Park’s locked into my phone. Chicago may be at smallest harbor from the park’s East its most beautiful when washed in the red Lagoon. The West Lagoon runs the other light before the sun comes up. The Mead- side of the park where the Obama Presi- ow is close to an uninterrupted stretch of dential Center will—or, rather, is likely to— the lakeshore. As the sun rises the expanse go up. of prairie grasses and shrubs are backlit —PAYING LITTLE MIND Even those who may not have seen the and their shadows long. Looking east from IN JACKSON PARK lagoons up close may know them. Souve- the path leading in, songbirds flit in silhou- nir postcards and photographs from the ette amid a symphony of cheeps and “I love to talk about nothing. World’s Columbian Exposition often tweets. On the west side of the path, over It's the only thing I know show them as the fair’s waterways, though the lagoons, the bigger birds, herons, anything about.” they were conceived before the fair egrets and ducks, bathe in the rosy light, was planned. The old pictures show the preen their feathers and dip into the water Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 —oscar wilde lagoons in summer filled with boaters and for fish. When the water is dark and still, strollers dressed in the era’s athleisure the rings stirred by the heron’s plunging wear, the suits and dresses made of whole beaks catch thin circles of light and radiate bolts of wool, sti cotton and ta eta. The in slow motion until thirty or forty feet in di- THERE’S NOTHING LIKE emptyheaded- smaller lagoon that now backs the muse- ameter later they vanish one by one into the ness to clear the mind. Bobolink Meadow, um was a favorite view at the fair. Today, ink. Geese wing above, their V-formations a lush bit of fields, woods and water in that northernmost pond is one of the black against the sky, their honking unan- Jackson Park, is where I go for a good lobe sights on the walk to the Meadow. On gry. The bigger birds prefer the lagoons scrub. Over the last two anxious, sullying pleasant weekends, the museum’s lagoon south of the bridge to the pool that laps the years the way the Meadow purges my in- attracts some crowds. In a neglected park- rear stairs of the museum. The water and telligence has been just the ablution I’ve ing lot between the museum’s pond and nearby grounds are denser, wilder. 42 needed. I’m not alone. Mental health pro- the East Lagoon, a small group of mostly My ignorance is less complete when it fessionals have been heavily prescribing men shows o customized cars, some of comes to the human touch on the park. doses of wilder spaces for the a lictions of them vehicular lightning, accented by Life in Hyde Park always pulls in the neigh- our era. The New York State Department immaculately polished chrome. Others are borhood’s storied past and my neighbors of Environmental Conservation distilled noisy, souped-up tiny clown cars that and I seem to have gleaned all the same dozens of studies on the health benefits of grown men squeeze into like circus con- historical details of the parks from the exposure to trees and green space and it tortionists who shrink into jars. There are books on local interest we keep and from turns out that nature is a natural remedy the weekend barbecuers, too, families with the pages of the durable Hyde Park Herald, science can get behind. Even as little as trailers who roll out oil-barrel rigs that “Chicago’s Oldest Community Paper,” ten minutes a day out in natural places smoke, grill and fill the air with plumes of whose pages often draw on the publica- helps treat stress by decreasing the stress charcoal and burnt sugar. The partiers usu- tion’s long memory. (An archive is available hormone cortisol. It lifts one’s mood by up- ally arrive after I do, but are often setting online.) And recently, I learned more de- ping the levels of dopamine and endor- up when I head out of the park when tails from talking to Andy Carter, a retired phins. Spells in nature lower blood pres- they’re in a mood to chat and extol to me, math professor who volunteers on a park sure and heart rates. They boost one’s with Attenboroughian detail, the foods I advisory council and also serves as a do- immunity, help with healing and somehow will miss. On most days, people are scarce cent in the Japanese Garden on Wooded both increase vigor and improve sleep. For around the museum pond. Isle, the forested small island that divides me, there is one puzzling finding in the the East and West Lagoons. research. It holds that nature scenes are Jackson Park was originally designed associated with mindfulness. I get that. prior to the Chicago Fire in by the I look closely at what I meet in Bobolink American versatile genius and first notable Meadow. But how did the studies overlook landscape architect Frederick Law Olmst- the benefits of mindlessness, the state ed and the British-American who designed of near complete cluelessness as to what the White House grounds, Calvert Vaux. I am looking at. That blithe state is the The pair famously laid out New York’s Cen- miracle drug. tral Park in the s. They also plotted, in RIGHT AND P. 44 Photos: Ted C. Fishman

1869, the Chicago suburb of Riverside, America’s first planned community and now a National Historic Landmark. In Chi- cago, Olmsted and Vaux also mapped out Washington Park and the Midway Plai- sance, which together with Jackson Park, make up a connected network of parkland as large as Central Park. While Olmsted often imported trees and other flora for his parks around the United States, he was also obsessive about drawing in features of the local natural environment. Olmsted rejected the colonial impulses in Victorian gardens that gave preference to farflung plantings but drew inspiration from the naturalism of earlier generations of British landscape designers. In an earlier career, Olmsted plied the China trade and it is tempting to wonder whether some large Chinese gardens which created scenes of idealized natural settings played a role in his development, too. Olmsted’s and Vaux’s vision for Jackson Park rested on it being populated largely with species na- tive to the region. The Chicago Fire stymied these early plans. What’s more, that vision had to change once Chicago won its bid for the World’s Columbian Exposition. Nothing is less local than a World’s Fair. The 1893 Chicago fair was to be, and was, one of the least local such spectacles the world had then seen. It was back to the drawing board for Olmsted who, together with Dan- iel Burnham and John Wellborn Root, reconceived the park as the grounds for the classically inspired wonderland that made up the signature sections of fair. The Columbian Expo commemorated two events. The first was the arrival of Europe- ans and European civilization to the Amer- icas. The second was Chicago’s impres- sive emergence after the Great Fire. Neither of these purposes fit particularly well with the vision for city parks that Ol- msted usually evangelized, which envi- sioned them as natural places where ur- banites caught in the rush, toil and soot of industrializing cities could go for peaceful recreation and contemplation. Hailing Columbus and the city’s rebirth required that anything but the prairie rise from the prairie. The Olmsted-Burnham-Root maps filled in with megastructures that aped Ancient Rome, Venice, Paris and, down the Midway, the brothels of Cairo. One of the sensations of the fair was the Japanese

exhibition, a series of halls built in a tradi- tionally Japanese style and filled with art and ornament. That’s about as far from the local prairie as one can get, though in a wonderful irony, the Japanese garden in the park today, an heir to the original exhi- bition, is perhaps the park’s most beloved place for the kinds of reprieve from city life that Olmsted held dear. It took more than a century to fully real- ize the vision of Jackson Park as a place for recreation in a more authentically local natural setting. Fire again played a role. This time, rather than inspiring a fair, it cleaned the park of it. In January 1894, a conflagration, which the Tribune reported was started by “insolent tramps,” wiped out nearly all that remained of the dormant Expo. Fiery embers fell on the icy lagoons; the waters looked like blazing gasoline. The southeast section of the park sat derelict for the next four decades, but got a partial public revival in 1933 when the Museum of Science and Industry opened in the renovated building that had been the Columbian Exposition Palace of Fine Arts, the only building sturdy enough to withstand the 1894 fire. (Artworks at the fair needed a fire-resistant hall.) It was around that time, too, that a Japanese teahouse that had been at the Century of Progress Fair was moved to the site in Jackson Park, on Wooded Isle, where the first Japanese pavilions had been fifty years before. It didn’t last long. The teahouse was burned down during World War II in the paroxysm of anti-Japanese feelings. When the city of Chicago joined Osaka as sister cities in 1973, the Japanese city rebuilt the garden, again on the Jackson Park site, as a gift to its new partner. The garden, alter- natively known as the Osaka Garden or The Garden of the Phoenix, has been rebuilt and regularly restored since. For most of that time, the corner of the park where the lagoons and meadow exist languished. Some of the park was used by the U.S. military for a missile site meant to defend against nuclear attack (though the defenses were outmoded soon after they were built). Older adults who grew up in Hyde Park remember Nike missiles at The Point. The pictures of the needle-nosed weapons mounted on launchers and aimed skyward still make one want to duck and cover. Burnt fairgrounds and military defenses seem impossibly distant from Olmsted’s goals for a natural park. Yet, as with barb- ed-wire demilitarized zones and the Cher-

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THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO nobyl exclusion zones, untended land be- There’s the old idea of Socratic ignorance comes a haven for plants and animals, in which true wisdom is knowing the vastness which repopulate them and thrive in the of what one hasn’t learned. That wisdom absence of human activity. The lagoons is easy to come by while fixed on any of and Wooded Isle grew flush with plant and the variety of herons in the lagoon, animal life. The relatively small area be- came a host to more than a hundred kinds up close through the lens, as it stands of birds, many of them migratory species all but motionless in the water. that are prized sightings for birders in the spring and fall. In 2012, a group called Proj- ect 120 raised funds and lobbied success- fully for a restoration of the section of the park to a condition that would, above all, nurture local flora and fauna and keep the restored sections ecologically stable. The effort closed the park to the public for three years and also required the removal of alien plants and trees. Lots of them. The Japanese Garden got another overhaul, too. Yoko Ono installed her graceful, steel, lotus-like sculpture “Sky Landing'' outside gests they’re nesting nearby, too. Some a regular, the unknowability of the lush the garden in 2016. It’s one of the city’s are skittish and take off like pterodactyls density and self-organization in the Mead- most spiritual and most moving public with the faintest disturbance. Others are ow, in its early beautiful hour, a reminder Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 monuments, though there’s no escaping fearless, and stay their ground even as that it’s okay, too, to limit my obsessions that it's milled and fabricated. Children one nears them. Yet as with nearly every- over the human world that will meet me play around it, families picnic under it, sun- thing I see there, I resist going deep. It’s a later in the day. light bathes it in the hues of the hour, but bird! Its head resembles a dinosaur’s! It In 2018, psychologists at Britain’s Uni- the metal flower is ever-free of birds and eats fish! Okay, I stop there. A year ago, my versity of Derby studied the effects on the other wildlife. I understand the piece too family gave me a copy of David Allen Sib- well-being of the Buddhist practice of well and it fights against my jealous fog. ley’s wonderful book, “What’s It Like to Be emptiness meditation. The foundational Happily, I come to it near the end of my walk, a Bird.” I read it and can call a few of its concept of emptiness is that phenomena perhaps an hour and a half after I cross the facts about bird behavior and anatomy to that we perceive as feeling real are instead bridge into the Meadow and get my renew- mind if pressed. But the walk is for wonder dreamlike, and hard to place in time or ing nostrum of numbskullness. and the details about the particulars in- space. According to the investigators, the 46 I carry a camera, fitted with a long lens trude on my awe at what I do not know. On study “involved some of the world's most to catch what birds and insects I can. My what it is impossible to know. Each trip has advanced Buddhist meditators, recruited iPhone 11 Pro is handy for wide-angle pic- me surveying the Meadow and, of course, from across the globe, including from… tures of the landscape and macro shots of it changes moment to moment, making it Thailand, Nepal, Japan, Sri Lanka, and sev- flowers and bugs at my feet. I don’t have all the more ripe for incomprehension. eral countries in the West.” One precept of the lama-like patience of a stalwart nature This fall, in addition to the siege of herons, the meditation school is that with practice photographer but any nature photography the flora in the Meadow has been spectac- one comes to sense how a focus on emp- is the enemy of a hiker’s pace. My sixty- ularly lush and abloom. Grasses and wild- tiness connects one with “fullness,” and to ninety-minute passages through the flowers as tall as corn stalks are alive with the idea that “the one connects the all.” Meadow take those passing by me about flies, bees and grasshoppers. Decaying “[M]editating on emptiness,” the re- five minutes to walk. But ignorance is brush holds its beauty, too. Chipmunks, searchers found, “led to a twenty-four gained by seeing and a camera with an rabbits, coyotes and beavers are near, too. percent reduction in negative emotions, ample telephoto or a smartphone camera This is the South Side of Chicago, friends. sixteen percent increase in compassionate that makes the tiny big, forces the kind of For first timers in the Meadow, especially feelings, ten percent increase in positive close study that makes you feel the limits those from outside who tremble over emotions, and ten percent reduction of one’s knowledge deep down in the Chicago’s south, the sights and sounds of in attachment to both themselves and ex- bones. There’s the old idea of Socratic this place, which can feel like the setting ternal experiences.” I don’t know how the ignorance in which true wisdom is know- for a Constable painting, is a purgative for study assigned percentages of emotion ing the vastness of what one hasn’t fear. It is a giant welcome reminder of what and compassion, but the upshot is learned. That wisdom is easy to come by they don’t know about our city. For me, as that “emptiness meditation… is more ef- while fixed on any of the variety of herons fective at improving wellbeing and wisdom in the lagoon, up close through the lens, as than mindfulness.” This sounds like a it stands all but motionless in the water. group I can walk with. Though it occurs They’ve been more abundant this year to me that striving for emptiness, at least than usual. (In other city parks, too.) There the kind I’ve been seeking, is also a path are mature birds and juveniles, which sug- to mindfulness.

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THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO MICHAEL Plus, as a delivery driver, you get to see WORKMAN pretty much all of Chicago, frequently, good for someone looking to stay current. It’s a little bit of an infiltration game—people be- hind the counter at smaller places come to recognize you over the months and years, while at bigger places there’s always some- one wondering what you’re doing exactly— until they see the bundle under your arm. Then they know: I am bringing you the news, the written word, the visual essay. I am the “dérive-r” of city streets, deliverer of critical, informed opinion. Sometimes they think you’re a nuisance. Mostly, people think of us as street ur- chin-like figures, best overlooked as you make your way, part of the regular back- the warm and friendly Hollywood Beach ground noise of labor happening to resup- hangout hosts, or the guards at the Block ply the city—a nobody. I like to think there’s Museum, o ering a space free for all (if not something unique about the delivery driv- the beaches). —BALLAD OF THE er’s perspective, about the experience they So, for this Best of Chicago, the person- DELIVERY DRIVER get when they’re trying to find a stretch of al best-of metric I’d like to use is how curb to pull over onto in Lakeview, Pilsen, strangers are treated on the road, what Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 I IMMEDIATELY HAD QUESTIONS when on th Street or in Norwood Park. Run- places are not just businesses to check o asked to participate in writing for this ning out into the rain or shine, the polar my route sheets, but where an extra little year’s Best of Chicago issue. For starters, vortex, walking into the Foremost Liquors bit of kindness, hospitality and human fel- as a “personal Best of Chicago,” I won- over broken glass after the George Floyd low-feeling may be found for the weary dered if that meant of all time, or just this protests, masked up, with COVID- pan- urban traveler. In this, I hope to share what year? What does a “personal best” mean, demic papers at hand from the State of I truly believe is not just the best of Chica- exactly? Was I supposed to write about Illinois with the section highlighted grant- go in its usual sense, but also in the very what would matter most to consumers who ing you essential worker status so you finest sense as a city where generosity and read this magazine for the next, best tickets don’t get arrested. inclusion, thoughtfulness and mutual to buy, record store to shop at, or restau- There’s really no one more anonymous self-respect still matter. So come along rant? Or just what matters most to me? than someone driving around the city in a with me on a brief tour of a few select 48 It seemed a complex question, but my U-Haul van, my BFF roomie J. Niimi (cellie, stops along my delivery routes. I’d like to editors appeared to have given me carte he likes to say just because he went to jail start with calling out a few places right o blanche on how I may choose to answer once, but actually we’re roomies) is fond of the bat, of course: the question (a situation I always prefer remarking. I’ve driven past riot crowds, when writing, of course), so I decided to seen guns flashed more than once, rolled —EVERY CHICAGO solve the problem by choosing a perspec- slowly through police cordons at bloody PUBLIC LIBRARY tive to write from. See, though I’m known shooting scenes; a most likely blackout more as a writer, artist and editor-in-chief drunk driver cutting o a truck and rolling I can’t place enough emphasis on how im- of the Bridge Journal, for about the last ten his car into the barricades on I- / . I’ve portant libraries are to the delivery driver— years, I’ve also been a delivery driver for seen all the sights of the city at night, at the right to freely walk in for no other rea- Newcity, slogging north, south, east and high speeds and slow. son than to simply use the restrooms west, more than once throwing out my al- What I find most interesting, though, is should be all I have to say. And while true ready bad back to trundle bundles of this where you may find some semblance of enough, there’s just also a million other sometimes cinderblock-heavy publication kindness and momentary respite on the reasons to visit the library while on the trail, into hair salons, pizzerias, record stores, trail each month—which shop or store of- including their cutting-edge maker labs, university campus buildings. And it gives fers you a free cup of co ee at the tail-end access to free WiFi and computers, pro- me time, that most valuable asset of all; of a long day, or the bar owner who holds grams for family and teens—Sunday I work a few days once a month and live a out a free bottle of ice-cold water when hours—alongside more grown-up pro- spartan life, giving myself as much time as you trundle in, shoulders down, dripping gramming from those showcasing their I can to write or work in my studio. sweat from a heat index of . People new novels and poetry, political views. who don’t see me as either a mark for a (I remember first seeing Howard Dean at customer, but just as another human in the a Harold Washington Library event.) Of world, who takes the time to ask about me. course, there’s also more books than we I would have deeply appreciated some so- can, and should, all strive to read in our cial history of the Ram Bookstore, illicit lifetimes. Aside to CPL planners: can we cruising spaces now vanished. Also too, start archiving artist’s websites, finally?



THE PERSONAL BEST OF CHICAGO —PILSEN STREET ART I am bringing you the news, the written word, the visual essay. I live for the public square, and it happens I am the “dérive-r” of city streets, in a uniquely Chicago print culture that deliverer of critical, informed opinion. takes place across the city, except maybe Sometimes they think you’re a nuisance. River North where they tend to scrape off the public art pretty quickly. Nowhere else Mostly, people think of us as in the city can you immerse yourself in a street urchin-like figures, best public conversation taking place in the overlooked as you make your way, part of stickers and wheat paste and posted bills the regular background noise of labor daily, sometimes even hourly, than on the happening to resupply the city—a nobody. streets of Pilsen. Newcity NOVEMBER 2021 It’s a striking, vital, ever-evolving range of vital discourse to the city at large, hap- pening in real time and unifying a range of communities. Some are so immediate and solemn when they recognize the horrors of the shooting of Adam Toledo, or arguing for viewers to stop the “ShotSpotter” program, you name it. But memorials in some places matter, and they matter more where the conversation is immediate on the streets. —THE VIDEO STRIP There’s something I just personally feel in —THE BLACK er Andy Miles, however, is not only friendly, common with this place, out on the out- ENSEMBLE THEATRE he’s been a warm, welcoming face who skirts on Archer in Bridgeport. Drivers will takes an interest in who I am, and isn’t this one day be replaced by autonomous ev- I don’t know his name, but the night and a crazy place we all live in? I have no rela- erything most likely, and of course renting weekend guard who has been there may- tionship with him other than him as delivery videotapes faces a similar fate. Owner Joe be a year always makes sure to greet me, driver and he as shopkeeper. He’s awesome, Trutin greets me right at the door nearly opens the door when it’s locked, and and I saw they had recently announced they every time, saving me a few steps. makes sure the magazine “books” are tak- were closing up shop at their Andersonville 50 —THE COFFEE STUDIO en care of personally. We’re just workers location, with hopes of finding a new store- together, equals, and it’s always a pleasure front. I’m excited to welcome them when to see the man. He has become a month- they locate that forever home. There’s a LOT of coffee shops in Chicago, ly affirmation of the graciousness we and I’ve delivered to most of them at one can greet each other with, though we are —LA VILLITA ARCH time or another. The Coffee Studio on at our labors. Clark Street in Andersonville is not the only In this mini-treatise on kindness and hos- place that has offered a pick-me-up cup of —FARRAGUTS ON CLARK pitality it would be a failure of observation the brown water, but it’s the only one that for me to not note the inclusion of the La reliably has. They are more than friendly Down the street from The Coffee Studio, Villita Arch in the National Register Histor- here, the folks behind the counter at this there’s this other place. It depends on ic Places, built in 1990 by Vietnam veterans place raised my spirits and made me feel who’s behind the counter here, but for Ronald J. Baltierra and David Ramirez and I’d entered into a place of welcome and many a summer this was where I came in, designed by architect, Adrian Lozano, mak- community. They’ve offered to take the old and the kindly bartender behind the count- ing it the first Mexican-designed architec- magazines so I could carry less recycling, er handed me a bottle of ice-cold water. ture in the city to achieve landmark status. and just generally give a shit. Every time, without fail. It has since stopped, but that little touch of kindness when I was weary has stayed with me. —TRANSISTOR CHICAGO As far as novelty home goods shops go, Transistor is in the mom-and-pop mold of Foursquared, or Neighborly, stores with any number of novelties and hipstery collec- tions that I always find delightful. Co-found-