Arts & Culture
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Tour Guides: Take a Tour of the Real Chicago
For six nights only, poetry meets the stage meets Chicago in this theatrical exploration of urban life. Collaboratively written by members of the Poetry Performance Incubator, this ensemble piece offers a lyrical tour of the Chicago tourists never see. According to the Guild’s Coya Paz: “This is a collaboration between 10 spoken word poets, 7 of whom perform. The piece…
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Tonite! New School Poetics Presents: These Are The Breaks – Chicago Book Launch
Idris Goodwin is back home to Chicago tonight to celebrate the recent publication of his first book. It’s a collection of prose, poetry, and essays titled THESE ARE THE BREAKS. These Are The Breaks is the debut collection by NEA award-winning playwright, HBO Def Poet, and critically acclaimed “indie” rapper, Idris Goodwin. Diverse in scope and wickedly…
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A Conspiracy is Born.
Ayana Contreras (me) and Simeon Viltz (of The Primeridian) are the “Groove Conspiracy…” In the land of 10 million grooves only a few can grab a hold of the people’s aural senses and captivate their shokras. Spinning cutting edge beats juxtaposed with gritty, get down gems from the cradle of soul. Their weapon of choice: vinyl.…
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The Makings of Groove
Xraydio 2 Disc Table [2009] Diesel for Moroso This coffee table is almost as cute as my boombox throw pillow… It’s made by printing the X-ray of a dj console on glass. The glass is still transparent, which adds dimension. I’m thinking it’ll look fresh in my record room.
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Don’t Care Bears. Hilarious.
You know you love it. Or else, you don’t care. This t-shirt, featuring a trio of apathetic bears modeled after the iconic Care Bears is available from Chicago’s own Threadless, by artist Alex Solis.
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ReMake Estate: Brand New Day.
ReMake Estate is a really cool project going on in Gary (Indiana) in which an abandoned house on 24th and Massachutsetts will be reborn as a meeting space and a community garden. The project is being organized in conjunction with interested local community groups and Australian-based artists Keg de Souza and Zanny Begg. The artists (from…
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Lyricist Loft: Kids Today Can Read… and Write.
Wednesday nights this Summer, an Open mic for Open minds: hosted by dimi d. & Fatimah DJ talent & DJ Such N Such Bring your poems, songs, videos, chants, interpretive dancing…etc. JUST COME and bring your Positive Energy FEATURED POETS= Kuumba Lynx Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm Location: 400 South State
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The Return of Captain EO: This was it.
Hot off the presses.. Captain EO will be reopen at the Epcot Center (at Walt Disney World) this July. The ride/film short directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featuring Michael Jackson was originally opened in 1986 and closed in 1994 amidst allegations of abuse. The film was definitely a highlight of my family’s trip to…
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Brighter Side of Darkness: a love note.
Below, “Love Jones” by Brighter Side of Darkness, performing on Soul Train. Don’t confuse this group with the Jackson Five, as they are aren’t a family act. They were just one in a rich history of Chicago-area based Kiddie Soul groups. The nucleus of the group came from Calumet High School here in Chicago, but 12…
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Hip Chicago Jazz with Soul!
Darkjive has been on Summer Vacation, but always digging deeper… I’ve been really into swinging sixties jazz from Chicago, like “Coming to Atlantis” a hip mover produced by Monk Higgins and credited to Freddie “The Creeper” Robinson (on Lead Guitar). The Flip of this 45, called “Before Six” is wonderful, as well. During the late 1960’s, there…

