• The whole world is watching again

    The whole world is watching again
    The adage that history repeats itself may seem banal at this point, yet it remains undeniably true, unfolding before our eyes as our nation and the world descend further into turmoil. Another repetition may play out this summer, when Chicago will host the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in a political landscape eerily similar to that […]
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  • The madness and mayhem of Midsummer Night’s Dream

    The madness and mayhem of Midsummer Night’s Dream
    The rose gold interior of the Lyric Opera House is dappled with green light, as if filtered through leaves on a forest floor. Birdsong penetrates the space, sweet and ineffable in a place typically infused with the artifice of orchestral sound. Beneath a twinkling canopy of lights is a twin bed, upon which reclines a […]
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  • Cadinho Bakery previews its new cafe at the next Monday Night Foodball

    Cadinho Bakery previews its new cafe at the next Monday Night Foodball
    The Abbot of Priscos was an accomplished gastronome, often enlisted to organize baroque feasts for the Portuguese royal family. But from his tiny parish in northwestern Portugal, Padre Manuel Joaquim Machado Rebelo kept most of his recipes to himself. His name might have faded into obscurity if he hadn’t given up just one: the Pudim […]
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  • Lessons from August Wilson

    Lessons from August Wilson
    In an embarrassment of riches, two impeccable renditions of August Wilson’s plays share space in the Chicago theater community this spring: How I Learned What I Learned, produced by Congo Square Theatre, in association with Broadway in Chicago and staged at the Broadway Playhouse, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at the Goodman Theatre (the […]
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  • Screamo blowout ZBR Fest Midwest packs Subterranean with 28 bands

    Screamo blowout ZBR Fest Midwest packs Subterranean with 28 bands
    In June 2022, Beat Kitchen hosted the debut ZBR Fest Midwest, a two-day screamo marathon organized by Zegema Beach Records. Festival founder Dave Norman launched the label in 2013, building on the rapport he’d established with screamo bands through his blog, Open Mind/Saturated Brain. In 2017, he threw the first ZBR Fest in Toronto. Two […]
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  • Chicago Record Report: April 2024

    Chicago Record Report: April 2024
    Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few, The Almighty  Saxophonist Isaiah Collier is still in his mid-20s, and he’s already made a lasting mark on Chicago’s storied jazz scene. The Almighty is his first record with the Chosen Few (drummer Michael Shekwoaga Ode, pianist Julian Davis Reid, and bassist Jeremiah Hunt) since 2021’s knockout Cosmic Transitions, […]
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  • Emergency Group will turn you into a “jam band guy”

    Emergency Group will turn you into a “jam band guy”
    Emergency Group swim in the heady tides of prog rock, psych rock, and free jazz. These Brooklyn improvisers harness kaleidoscopic reverb and distortion with a creative generosity befitting one of Miles Davis’s electric groups, creating a contemporary sound that reminds us the label “jam band” wasn’t always cause to shudder. Their hallmarks include taut tickles […]
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  • Cindy Lee’s haunted songs recall pop’s past to enliven its present

    Cindy Lee’s haunted songs recall pop’s past to enliven its present
    I have to resist the temptation to romanticize the spellbinding indie pop that Patrick Flegel has created via the drag persona Cindy Lee. Even the way they’ve released this music feels special. In late March, Flegel’s Realistik Studios label dropped the two-hour Cindy Lee album Diamond Jubilee and made it downloadable for free (with a […]
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  • Satan-worshipping doomsters Bongripper celebrate the nihilistic new Empty

    Satan-worshipping doomsters Bongripper celebrate the nihilistic new Empty
    As the story goes, Chicago instrumental doom-metal quartet Bongripper began with the desire to write a track longer than Sleep’s “Dopesmoker,” the single 74-minute song on their iconic 1998 album of the same name. Bongripper joked that Sleep had failed to completely fill up a CD and decided it’d be funny to top one off. […]
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  • Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a Procurement Planning Consultant

    Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for  a Procurement Planning Consultant
    The post Request for Qualifications (RFQ) fora Procurement Planning Consultant appeared first on Chicago Defender.
  • Keli Stewart’s Front Porch Arts Center: Uplifting West Side Culture, Creativity

    Keli Stewart’s Front Porch Arts Center: Uplifting West Side Culture, Creativity
    Keli Stewart’s Front Porch Arts Center is on a mission to spotlight Black culture and the arts on the West Side (Credit: Front Porch Arts Center).
    On a beautiful day in Chicago, the weather motions everyone outdoors to do their favorite activities, whether dining at a restaurant, attending a lively concert or simply spending quality time with family at home.
    The city offers various options for those seeking cultural enrichment, from theater performances to captivating spoken word events, d
  • MMA Fighter Who Witnessed George Floyd’s Murder Gets $150,000 Settlement

    MMA Fighter Who Witnessed George Floyd’s Murder Gets $150,000 Settlement
    Photo: Getty Images North America
    Donald Williams, the man who witnessed George Floyd‘s murder and tried stopping the deadly arrest, will get a $150,000 payout from the City of Minneapolis for mental health issues he suffered from the encounter. According to the Star Tribune, officials unanimously approved the settlement on Thursday (April 25) after Williams sued the city last spring.
    Williams, a mixed martial arts fighter, testified former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin used a &
  • WATCH: White Cops Tase Black Man, Break His Leg For Driving Off With Pen

    WATCH: White Cops Tase Black Man, Break His Leg For Driving Off With Pen
    Photo: Ajax9 / iStock / Getty Images
    A Black man plans on seeking legal action after he claims two Georgia cops followed him home, tased him, and broke his leg over a ballpoint pen. According to WSB-TV, a Greenville police officer pulled over 30-year-old Corriyon Bray for speeding in December 2023.
    Body camera footage shows the officer handing a pen to Bray to sign a ticket. When the officer demanded the driver return his pen, Bray held it outside his window and drove away.
    “That motherf**
  • J. Pharoah Doss: Cornel West and “lies that hide”

    J. Pharoah Doss: Cornel West and “lies that hide”
    CORNEL WEST AND MELINA ABDULLAH (CornelWest.com Photo)
    Independent presidential candidate Cornel West chose fellow academic Melina Abdullah as his running mate. Abdullah teaches pan-African studies at California State University, Los Angeles, and serves on the board of directors for Black Lives Matter Grassroots.
    West and Abdullah’s progressive politics distinguish them from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but what sets them apart from the Democratic incumbents? West went
  • The Raven Room shuts down despite strong community support

    The Raven Room shuts down despite strong community support
    When my favorite bartender at the Raven Room told me that the bar and event space is shutting down at the end of April, I nearly burst into tears.  For more than a year, I had been visiting the establishment every Wednesday night for its weekly Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) events. I’d made close friends […]
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