Illinois news

• Legacy, love, and hair

  18-06-2024 23:53 via chicagoreader.com
  
  As Dennis Dent’s undeniably charming Hustleman makes all too clear, there is always more to every story. And this story? It may be called The Salon, but its roots run far deeper than its parlor. That nuance is only fitting, as writer-director Michelle Reneé Bester notes that this show is a nod to her sister’s […]
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• Qualia is an absorbing dystopic tale

  18-06-2024 23:16 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Orlando-based playwright Ashleigh Ann Gardner’s fascinating science-fiction play is set in a dystopian future, in a high-tech bunker where a scientist and her AI companion (really just a disembodied voice) go about their daily routine: eating meals, doing research, and chattering like old friends about any- and everything going on around them. Outside their doors […]
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• The Devil Is in the Detours takes us away from the numbing news

  18-06-2024 22:59 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Going into a Second City revue during an election year always feels like an anxiety-making proposition and that feels even more true this year. We already know what’s at stake—do we really need to be reminded? (And given what’s at stake, both-sides-ism for the sake of laughs is the last thing we need.) But at […]
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• Moving through Black American history

  18-06-2024 22:42 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre moves into movement (and movements) for their summer season; next month, they open Ntozake Shange’s classic choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Currently, they’re staging Ted Williams III’s propulsively physical 1619: The Journey of a People, an 80-minute voyage through Black history in America—from the arrival of […]
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• The Kite Runner could use more heart

  18-06-2024 22:27 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel, The Kite Runner, about the diverging paths of two boys in Kabul during the 1970s and after, is a moving and sorrowful story of how geopolitical, class, and religious strife victimizes the most powerless among us. It’s also a story rooted in something very familiar in young adult literature—the need to […]
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• Black Fire Brigade Celebrates Grand Opening of New Educational Center

  18-06-2024 21:59
  
  Black Fire Brigade celebrates its sixth anniversary by opening a new Educational Center, marking a major step forward in training and empowering the next generation of first responders (Credit: Black Fire Brigade). 
  The Black Fire Brigade celebrated its sixth anniversary on Saturday, June 15, by opening their new BFB Educational Center.
  The Black Fire Brigade Training Center event was a significant milestone in their mission to train and support the next generation of first responders, a mi
  
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• Rapper Joshua Virtue retires that persona to become Rama

  18-06-2024 21:01 via chicagoreader.com
  
  When local rapper and Why? Records cofounder Joshua Virtue dropped the album Rama in October 2022, they decided to change their stage name. “I started going by Rama around the same time that I put that album out, in my everyday life,” Rama says. “I wanted to feel more rooted into that. I want everything […]
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• Juneteenth 2024: A RTM News Series

  18-06-2024 20:00
  
  Intro
   
   Exclusive: National Geographic Presents “Clotilda: The Return Home”—A Journey Of Remembrance And Reconciliation Ahead Of Juneteenth
  By: Hunter Gilmore 
  National Geographic recently premiered “Clotilda: The Return Home,” a deeply moving one-hour special airing on Disney+. 
  This poignant documentary reveals the untold story of the last American survivors of the Clotilda ship, Cudjo “Kossola” Lewis and Gumpa Lee, and commemorate
  
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• Vietnamese cuisine meets craft beer at Pho No. 1 Brewing Co.

  18-06-2024 19:24 via chicagoreader.com
  
  While green-dyed light lagers flowed from taps across Chicago on Saint Patrick’s Day, Pho No. 1 Brewing Co. in Belmont Heights delivered a different take, brewing a green stout with pandan leaf and coffee.  It was a typical experimental concoction from Pho No. 1, a restaurant and brewery where owner Son Ton regularly creates new […]
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• Rainbow PUSH Chief of Staff John Mitchell Dies After Cancer Battle

  18-06-2024 19:00
  
  The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is mourning the loss of long-time member John Mitchell.
  Mitchell passed away on Friday at the age of 57 after a courageous battle with cancer. 
  For decades, he served alongside Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. as his confidant, serving as his chief of staff, scheduler and conduit.
  Rainbow PUSH called him “a general on the battlefield for Civil and Human Rights.”  
  “He made a difference in registering thousands of voters and securing opportuni
  
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• Lemon cake bites at Middle East Bakery & Grocery

  18-06-2024 18:43 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Reader Bites celebrates dishes, drinks, and atmospheres from the Chicagoland food scene. Have you had a recent food or drink experience that you can’t stop thinking about? Share it with us at [email protected]. Don’t hate me, but it’s possible that at the time of publication, these lemon cakes might not be available at Middle East […]
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• Token Theatre adds a gay romantic comedy to the Asian American canon

  18-06-2024 18:21 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Openly stating, “No fats, femmes, or Asians” (“no FFA” for short, and sometimes the more expansively exclusionary “No Asians, no Blacks”) was not so long ago no big deal—prevalent enough on dating apps to make it the primary example cited by Zach Stafford, former chief content officer at Grindr, of the kind of “discriminatory language” […]
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• Exploring queer Middle Eastern identity in Dummy in Diaspora

  18-06-2024 17:12 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Dummy in Diaspora, like life, doesn’t present complete answers. The new solo play, written and performed by Esho Rasho, features a queer Middle Eastern coming-of-age story. Rasho, the Chicago-based actor and writer, wrote the one-person show in a fervor over three days in January as he navigated the uncertainties of postgrad life, the cancer diagnosis […]
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• J. Pharoah Doss: The Ayatollah adopts American students

  18-06-2024 14:00
  
  Close allies: Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the man who was expected to succeed him, President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash on May 19 2024. ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Live News
  The History Channel ran a series called History vs. Hollywood. Each episode examined a biopic or historical epic to determine whether the film accurately reflected historical events. The series revealed that Hollywood tended to mythologize the past rather than be historically
  
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• Mayor Johnson Signs Executive Order To Launch Black Reparations Task Force

  18-06-2024 05:25
  
  In a significant move ahead of Juneteenth, Mayor Brandon Johnson has signed an executive order to create a Reparations Task Force. The goal of this task force is to develop a Black Reparations Agenda.
  The task force will collaborate with the Aldermanic Black Caucus, the Mayor’s offices of Equity and Racial Justice, Business, Economic and Neighborhood Development, and other key city departments. 
  This body will conduct a thorough study of the policies and ordinances that have harmed Bl
  
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• ‘Bling Bishop’ Lamor Whitehead Sentenced To 9 Years For Fraud, Extortion

  18-06-2024 02:00
  
  Photo: Getty Images
  Lamor Whitehead, known as New York’s “Bling Bishop,” has been sentenced on fraud and extortion charges.
  On Monday (June 17), U.S. Attorney Damian Williams announced that Whitehead was sentenced to nine years in prison after being convicted of one count of making false statements to the FBI, one count of attempted extortion, one count of attempted wire fraud, and two counts of wire fraud in March, per PIX11 News.
  During a two-week trial, Whitehead, pastor at
  
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