Theaster Gates Jr. shakes up his hometown art fair
URBAN OUTFITTER: Fresh off the Whitney Biennial, the artist will show his porcelain collages at the Art Chicago satellite fair NEXT
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Cromer and Halberstam on New York, "A Streetcar Named Desire"
PAIR PLAY: We talk to the pair about the perils of Gotham City and of bringing Tennessee Williams’s seminal steam bath of madness, sex, and Southern discomfort to Glencoe.
Sunday Night Out: Wine and Art at Bluebird's Salon Series
Conceived by J. C. Steinbrunner, an artist, and Tom MacDonald, the owner of The Bluebird, The Salon Series is in part a response to the weak economy. But it’s also a reaction against typical gallery culture: How can artists show their work outside of the gallery system? How to you get people to talk about art in a different way?…
Pianist Laurence Hobgood Just One Great Jazz Act to Catch in May
The pianist Laurence Hobgood is perhaps best known as the long-time collaborator and accompanist of the singer Kurt Elling, in equal measure for his sterling keyboard work and ingenious small-group arrangements. Last year, Hobgood put out the tremendous solo/duo album, When the Heart Dances, with the legendary bassist Charlie Haden; but for this trip back to Chicago he’ll lead a sextet of old local friends, including the saxophonists John Wojciechowski and Pat Mallinger…
Your Friends, Kids, and Coworkers—Onstage at Second City
“I don’t feel that nervous until the theatre starts to fill up . . . and then I start to panic,” said my friend, who wrote two of the sketches in “Wait, It Gets Better,” a show that recently played at Donny’s Skybox Theater, one of the venues for Second City’s Training Center. I saw the show a couple Fridays ago, and, watching him greet friends in the ticket line, I felt his pain…
Books We Like: 'The Living Fire' by the Poet Edward Hirsch
Born in Chicago’s Michael Reese Hospital in 1950, Edward Hirsch turned 60 this year—which means he had finally run out of excuses for not putting together a collection of verse culled from his seven books of poetry. “I couldn’t say I was too young anymore for a book of selected poems,” says Hirsch…
Best things to do in Chicago in May
POCKET GUIDE: A cultural short-list for May, in order of buzz
Lost and Found
Our top five picks for things to do this week: 22 Years from Home … Natalie Merchant, Corinne Bailey Rae … beer, booze, and books … free stuff
'Welcome to Arroyo's' by Kristoffer Diaz: Bring on More Funk
I kicked myself at least a dozen times last year for missing The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Kristoffer Diaz’s full nelson of a play, ostensibly about wrestling, in its world premiere at Victory Gardens. I kicked myself again last week, when the play was named a Pulitzer finalist. So when I had the chance to attend Monday night’s premiere of another Diaz play, Welcome to Arroyo’s, running through May 16th at American Theater Company, I jumped…
"22 Years from Home" tells story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan
Lost Boy Found: A new documentary follows one young man home