Illinois news

• Bier Omakase is the social lubricant beer drinkers need right now

  17-12-2025 20:54 via chicagoreader.com
  Shana Solarte balanced a glass of soju on a pair of chopsticks set parallel atop a glass of pale Korean lager. “You have to find a way to get the shot glass into the beer,” she said, raising a fist. “Some people will bash their head on the table—if they’re on their tenth one. I […]
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• Fred Hampton Jr. keeps the revolution alive in Chicago’s music scene

  17-12-2025 19:24 via chicagoreader.com
  On December 5, one day after the 56th anniversary of Fred Hampton’s assassination, I’m trekking through the snow in hopes of catching his son with time to talk. “Skin in the game” is how the junior Hampton would later describe my efforts. Hampton led the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. He was killed […]
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• ‘It’s hardly imaginable that the VDB can survive’

  17-12-2025 19:04 via chicagoreader.com
  “The Video Data Bank is committed to fostering awareness and scholarship of the history and contemporary practice of video and media art, to serving the artists represented in the VDB collection, to providing access to the collection, and to ensuring the future of the collection for generations to come.” —Video Data Bank’s mission The nonprofit […]
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• America faced domestic fascists before and buried that history

  17-12-2025 18:50
  Fritz Kuhn, center, is congratulated by fellow officers of the German American Bund in New York on Sept. 3, 1938. AP Photoby Arlene Stein, Rutgers UniversityMasked officers conduct immigration raids. National Guard troops patrol American cities, and protesters decry their presence as a “fascist takeover.” White supremacists openly proclaim racist and antisemitic views.Is the United States sliding into fascism? It’s a question that divides a good portion of the country today.Em
  
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• Ben Jealous: Surprised by the headlines about White men and college? Time for a reality check

  17-12-2025 18:36
  (TriceEdneyWire.com)—The headlines this month about White men, college admissions, and the fallout from ending affirmative action startled a lot of people. Stories of declining enrollment and shrinking opportunity for young White men were treated as if they had materialized out of nowhere.Many found it surprising.I didn’t.It reminded me of a conversation I had a little over a decade ago on a Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta to Memphis—one of those brief moments in transit th
  
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• David Marshall: ‘All Skinfolk Ain’t Kinfolk’

  17-12-2025 18:20
  Zora Neale Hurston(TriceEdneyWire.com)—It was during the 1930s when renowned author Zora Neale Hurston popularized the African American proverb, “all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.” While she didn’t invent the phrase, it highlights the unfortunate reality that a shared racial identity among people does not automatically translate into racial loyalty and shared community commitment. Malcolm X would later use the phrase.It is a powerful reminder of the challenge of maintain
  
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• Find a print copy of the Chicago Reader

  17-12-2025 17:30 via chicagoreader.com
  The Reader is available free of charge at more than 1,100 Chicago area locations. Issues are dated Thursday, and distributed Wednesday morning through Thursday night of the issue date. Some locations are restocked the following Wednesday.
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• DeffJam honors its late founder with its biggest fest yet 

  17-12-2025 17:25 via chicagoreader.com
  Since March, talent buyer and indie-scene workhorse Alicia Maciel has been working with a group of locals to present next month’s DeffJam. This all-ages blowout, held at Thalia Hall on Saturday, January 3, honors the late Ryan Deffet, who led Chicago bands Space Gators and Faux Furrs. Deffet founded DeffJam in 2016 in his native […]
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• Chicago Reader Volume 55, Number 12

  17-12-2025 17:15 via chicagoreader.com
  Chicago Reader Volume 55, No. 12. December 17, 2025.The post Chicago Reader Volume 55, Number 12 appeared first on Chicago Reader.
  
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• Greg Bovino is back

  17-12-2025 17:00 via chicagoreader.com
  Bovino’s back ON TUESDAY, U.S. BORDER PATROL commander Greg Bovino crawled out of whatever sewer he calls home to inflict yet more terror across Chicago and the near suburbs.  Videos posted to social media around 8 AM show Bovino and roughly half a dozen troops, all outfitted in green, abducting a person from a Walmart […]
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• The True Definition of a Superstar: Kelly Rowland Opens Up on Mama, I Made It! Season Finale

  17-12-2025 16:41
  The true definition of a SUPERSTAR: Singer, actress, songwriter, producer and the list goes on. The iconic KELLY ROWLAND sat down with talk show host Samantha Chatman for an AMAZING interview on Mama, I Made It! for the season finale. The renowned music sensation is best known for being a part of legendary girl group, Destiny’s Child, and is opening up about everything from being a wife and mom to balancing fame and health while performing at a high level. Kelly is wearing her h
  
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• Runway drama

  17-12-2025 15:46 via chicagoreader.com
  The Model Play, through 12/21, Snails on a Bike at 2442 N. Lincoln
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• MR SONNY KNOWS for December 17, 2025

  17-12-2025 15:00
  The post MR SONNY KNOWS for December 17, 2025 appeared first on Chicago Defender.
  
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• Reader-recommended books

  17-12-2025 14:00 via chicagoreader.com
  Like every year, emails hawking books with a Chicago angle have accumulated faster than I can reasonably read, let alone review, them. Here’s where year-end lists come in handy. Not definitive by any means, this list instead offers a bit more than a handful of local recommendations that I and other Reader staffers read and […]
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