The Five
Don’t-miss picks for Wednesday, April 20 through April 26, 2016
1 Bach Week
Classical Bach, time’s consensus greatest composer, possessed a singular ability to spin out baroque brilliance from simple musical ideas. This festival continues analogously to spin out concerts from his inexhaustible catalog, mounting cantatas, selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier played on piano, The Art of Fugue performed surrounding the audience, and the complete Musical Offering.
4/22–5/6. $10–$80. Various locations. bachweek.org
2 Jen Kirkman
Readings The former Chelsea Lately writer and rising lit star discusses her “life under construction” in this talk and reads from her new book, I Know What I’m Doing and Other Lies I Tell Myself.
4/23 at 8. $20–$25. Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport. ticketweb.com
3 Mastry
Art Kerry James Marshall, Chicago’s greatest living painter, has said there are “enough” pictures of white people, so he won’t paint them. See “This Modern Master Spent His Life Bringing Black Faces to Classic Art” for more.
4/23–9/25. $7–$12. Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago. mcachicago.org
4 Taste
Theater When Terry and Vic meet for their first date, the dinner plans are shocking: Vic is the main course. Inspired by a 2001 German case in which a man was cooked by his online sweetheart, playwright Benjamin Brand’s bad romance isn’t for the squeamish.
4/23–5/22. Free. Red Theater at Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr, redtheater.org
5 Tim Munro
Jazz The flutist Tim Munro, who spent a decade with Eighth Blackbird, has flown the sextet’s nest to pursue his own projects. For example, he’s working on a piece with the composer David Reminick based on things Reminick’s wife says in her sleep. Munro gives a taste of the work in progress and raises funds for the commission.
4/24 at 8:30. $15. Constellation, 3111 N. Western. constellation-chicago.com
What I’m Doing This Weekend
Up next in our series of weekend plans from notable, in-the-know locals: Edra Soto, guest-curator of Present Standard, which runs through April 24 at the Chicago Cultural Center.
“Friday night, I’m going to do some gallery hopping. There are two openings I’d like to attend, Chloe Seibert’s Nightmare Heart at Efrain Lopez Gallery at 6 p.m., and Things at the Soccer Club Club at 7 p.m. SCC is a performance space and gallery run by the local record label Drag City. Among the artists in Things is Mariano Chavez, who also has a fantastic piece in Present Standard.
“Every Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m., I stay home and open up the Franklin, a small gallery I operate in my backyard in East Garfield Park. It’s sort of my response to the artist-run gallery scene, which has been good to me, and it’s meant to foster a relationship with the community in East Garfield Park. It’s a pretty simple space—like a semi-enclosed wooden gazebo with a roof and moveable walls. Like any other gallery, people don’t come by every day, but when they do I like to offer them coffee or tea and have a conversation about the art. The current exhibition is curated by Miami artist William Cordova. It’s called Transmissions: Algoritmos, Polyrhythms, Karuraqmi Puririnay, and I’ve just extended it through May 28.
“I’ll spend most of Sunday at Corner, in Avondale, working on my current installation there. It’s called Relocation Techniques. I’m trying to bring something from my home country, Puerto Rico, to America. First, I installed rejas—metal screens you see in a lot of Caribbean countries—in the gallery windows. Inside, there’s a collection of books borrowed from Pablo Helguera’s Librería Donceles, which is currently at the Cultural Center. Right now, I’m working on sewing [what I call] a “Social Dress” there. It’s modeled after the ’50s house dresses that women wore in Puerto Rico. My mother and grandmother wore them while I was growing up, so I’m inviting people to come in while I work and sew their grandmothers' names into the dress. If I’m not too tired after that, Yumiko Yoshioka is hosting a series of Butoh workshops this weekend at Defibrillator Gallery in Streeterville.” —As told to John Hardberger
Freebie of the Week
Present Standard
Art In conjunction with the citywide Latino Art Now! conference, this large group exhibit makes a case for art that addresses issues facing Latinos in the United States today. It’s an opportunity to see great work by José Lerma, Dianna Frid, Paola Cabal, and Maria Gaspar.
Through 4/24. Free. 78 E. Washington. chicagoculturalcenter.org