Arts & Culture
-
Tofu Chitlin Circuit presents the Mac and Cheese Edition
From the Tofu Chitlin Circuit: a Theater Conservatory based in Bronzeville: A Panel Discussion featuring you… Our October A La Carte features J. Nicole Brooks, playwright of “Fedra” at Lookingglass Theater and African-American Illusionist Walter King Jr. We’re talking about SPECTACLE. What is it? How does it work? Is it low-brow theater? Is it a…
-
Celebrate the Day of the Dead with portoluz
Portoluz, the music and culture organization borne out the ashes of Hothouse, presents a community wide celebration and art-making event honoring those who’ve left us. Help create a community ofrenda (see below), and make a calavera (or skull) to take home with you. Music will be supplied by Jarochicanos, son jaracho youth group. This event is…
-
Dancing Girl – Terry Callier. Windy City Mellow.
I remember where I was when I first heard this: the local round-the-way record store. The carpet was checkered with the maytag logo in bittersweet on brown (harkening back to the store’s past life). There we stood in a communal experience that began with the shop owner saying, “You’ve got to hear this record”. We…
-
Whatever it is I think I see, becomes a Tootsie Roll to me…
Now is the time of year that our minds drift towards fantastical costumes and sugary delights. Above, perhaps the sweetest costume I’ve ever seen. The Tootsie Roll Baby Bunting costume is made out of a soft brown felt and is available at Target.com. A bit about Tootsie Rolls (a Chicago based classic): Tootsie Rolls were first manufactured in…
-
Tim & Tom: it wouldn’t be funny if it weren’t so true
As part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, this Saturday meet Tim & Tom… a “Salt & Pepper” comedy team born in the hotbed of sixties Chicago… Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen met for the first time in tumultuous 1968 Chicago. As the heady promise of the sixties sagged under the weight of widespread violence, rioting, and…
-
Universal Mind Control: Common Double Vision
9image, Common at Army & Lou’s (75th & King Drive, Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood) Here’s the recently released alternate version of the video for Chicago-bred Common’s “Universal Mind Control”. Directed by Lil X, it was shelved in favor of Hype Williams’ robo-love version. Jive on. more about “Universal Mind Control: Common…
-
Arts and Activism: Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis
art, above: from “Public Address”, an art installment/retail concept curated by Ellen Rothberg. Chicago, 2008. Thursday, October 1st at Bronzeville’s Little Black Pearl Art & Design Center, there will be a panel discussion focusing on the Arts scenes in these three cities (and the intersection of art and community activism). Panelists and other participants will be…
-
Baby Be Mine: Johnny Williams’ Record Row Gold
Above, enjoy DuSable High School’s own Johnny Williams with Baby Be Mine, a classically Chicago-styled mid-tempo shuffler. A delicious record, it was recorded at Brunswick Records here in Chicago (1449 South Michigan Avenue, to be exact) for their Subsidiary label, Bashie. Get a whif of those cheering flutes on the tail end. A beast. Pictured…
-
Ronald Fair: Griot of Chicago Tales
1932— Ronald Fair is perhaps best known as a teller of crisp, satirical, and unsentimental Chicago Tales: inner city stories of struggle, morality, and overcoming (not unlike his own Chicago story). Born in Chicago on October 27, 1932, Fair attended public school. He was inspired as a young man by fellow Chicagoan Richard Wright to begin writing.…
-
Tapes Lost to Time: Chicago Stories
I am bothered by tapes that disappear, the same tapes that record our collective story. The sort that get erroneously misplaced, taped over, or buried (true stories, all). It’s happened often in Chicago to bits of media that palpably documented Chicago Cultural History. It seems to have happened too many times for my taste. Here’s a…
darkjive.com 