Chicago
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version 11: the new chicagoans
This Month, Chicago welcomes back both springtime and Versionfest (BTW, I think I saw a daffodil on South Shore Drive the other day). Organized by the good folks behind local Arts & Culture publication Lumpen, the Fest runs from April 22nd until May 1st in Bridgeport (a neighborhood that’s been going through a lot of changes…
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Passing Strange: a righteous afro-rock opera comes to Chicago!
“Passing Strange“, the Tony-winning black rock-opera is righteous, and it’s being staged in Chicago featuring local soul revivalists JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound… and my chica: LaNisa Frederick. Amen. Passing Strange is the coming-of-age story of “Youth” (Daniel Breaker), a kid growing up somewhere in LA in the seventies. He is disillusioned because he doesn’t fit the common…
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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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Cocktails and Clay: sensual overload in hyde park
Perhaps one of the greatest (Nancy Reagan-approved) conceptions of sensual overload ever! Hyde Park brings it back one-mo’-gin : Friday, March 12 at the Hyde Park Art Center… play with clay, explore the exhibitions, enjoy drink specials, and dance! Hyde Park Art Center 5020 S. Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615
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Light on the South Side Book Release
In the mid-’70s, photographer Michael Abramson set his viewfinder on the South Side of Chicago, specifically the many clubs and lounges that served as Hothouses of street fashion (among them, the legendary High Chaparral and the Showcase Lounge). They reflected where blues, soul and disco collided: a dream of grit and gold lamé. The resulting photos have been compiled into…
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Summertime and Billy Stewart: Fruitful and Fleeting
Summer has left our once-warm grasp. In memorium, Darkjive presents Chess Records’ Billy Stewart with a 1966 version of the classic song “Summertime” (from Porgy and Bess). I love how Billy Stewart’s scats interplay with insistent horns and halting guitar licks. The drummer on the cut is a very young Maurice White (of Earth, Wind, and Fire). Originally from…
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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…
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And now, a word from Chicago’s own Lady Terror
Lady Terror (aka Tricia Hersey-Patrick) says she’s a menace on a mission. Terrorizing for a cause. Be it staging a soapbox rant in front of Rothschild’s Liquors (clamouring for more grocery stores) or engaging in impromptu yoga at a Harold’s Chicken Shack (calling for inner city yoga centers for the sake of public health), her…
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Graffiti and Grub: Slaying Food Deserts, One Pear at a Time
Englewood and Washington Park get a Sustainable, Organic Grocery Store to call their own Tomorrow, August 28th, marks the highly anticipated grand opening of Graffiti and Grub, a market ten years in the making. Serving the underserved South Side communities of Englewood and Washington Park, Graffiti and Grub began simply: a husband and wife embarked…
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Light: On the South Side…Grit and Gold Lamé
I, for one, have stared for more than a moment at the forgotten, peeled paint on the side of the 408 Club building over on 79th Street (just East of King Drive). In mid-seventies hipster font, the ad reads “Sheba Disco”, apparently some sort of disco club. I’ve wondered what manner of elephant bells and Quiana was to be found…
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