Illinois news

• Immigrants power Chicago’s food industry

  07-10-2026 19:36 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Chicago’s first permanent settler, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, was a baker, a smokehouse manager, a dairyman—and an immigrant. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), he established a sprawling trading outpost at the mouth of the Chicago River that foreshadowed the city’s future as a center of commerce and multicultural exchange; he maintained strong relations with […]
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• Chicago cinephiles still want something to hold

  07-10-2026 23:58 via chicagoreader.com
  
  It’s no secret that physical media is in right now. The digital world is hostile: Tech CEOs are committed to the right-wing political project and filling platforms with AI. Since the pandemic lockdowns ended, people have been craving reality, seeking out both third spaces and physical objects tied to the things they love. (The people […]
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• Reeling is still where queer cinema goes to find its people

  07-10-2026 23:28 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Though the Landmark Century Centre Cinema is a mere 15-minute walk from Northalsted, the chain theater on the top floor of a hollowed-out mall doesn’t exactly scream “queer hot spot.” But in late September, the movie theater was abuzz with queer moviegoers of all ages, gathered to attend Reeling: The 44th Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film […]
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• Mapping Chicago’s independent grocery stores 

  07-10-2026 21:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Grocery shopping can be a political act. Where you put your money can be just as important as where you put your vote. In a city full of food, Chicagoans face rising prices, competing priorities, and varying resources when deciding where to shop. Some shoppers automatically opt for big-box stores on their commute home, with […]
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• Chicago’s independent grocery stores

  07-10-2026 21:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Independent neighborhood grocery stores are part of the fabric of Chicago’s food scene. The owner often knows their customers, buying produce, meats, and other goods that reflect their daily needs. Here, the owners of a few of those shops—Makola African Supermarket, Go Green Community Fresh Market, Salsa’s Family Market, Supermercado Granados, L’Afrique Market, and La […]
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• Chicago Reader Volume 56, Number 1

  07-10-2026 16:49 via chicagoreader.com
  Chicago Reader Volume 56, No. 1. October 2026. The Food Issue.
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• Support breast cancer awareness and prevention with your purchase of a 7X Bingo Multiplier Instant Ticket from the Illinois Lottery

  07-10-2026 15:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  For years, the Illinois Lottery has been nationally recognized for its trailblazing work with specialty tickets dedicated to raising awareness and funds for worthy causes affecting our local communities. In collaboration with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), a portion of every dollar raised by the 7X Bingo Multiplier Instant Ticket directly contributes to […]
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• Southeast Spotlight: Jump Smart Early Learning Academy

  07-10-2026 15:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Jump Smart Early Learning Academy8168 S. Cornell, Mon—Fri 6 AM–6 PM(773) 206-9451, certified.natureexplore.org/jump-smart-early-learning-academy-2, Email [email protected], Instagram @mypath2care Some educators teach because it is a job. DeCarla Burton teaches because it is who she is. As the owner and director of Jump Smart Early Learning Academy on Chicago’s Southeast Side, Ms. Dee has spent nearly 30 […]
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• Objects of memory

  07-10-2026 15:00 via chicagoreader.com
  Chicago’s southwest suburbs are home to one of the largest Palestinian populations in the country. As a child growing up in Bridgeview, I recognized that the area was unlike other places. When I traveled to Chicago’s historically immigrant neighborhoods—Greektown, Little Italy, Chinatown, among others—I’d come across cultural institutions dedicated to the communities that had shaped […]
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• Paying the Recipes Forward

  07-10-2026 14:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Nimba3252 S. Morgan708-517-3547lanimba.com
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• Guava is a bridge between past and future for immigrant cafe and bakery owners

  07-10-2026 14:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Johan Balaguera remembers guava like it was yesterday. As a child in Colombia, he would travel by bus toward Bogotá, stopping for guava and cheese along the way. Years later, he returned to Colombia hoping to conjure up that nostalgia. The ingredients hadn’t changed, but the memory was harder to reproduce. “Even now that I […]
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• Gladys Nilsson: ‘I was here’

  07-10-2026 14:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  “Creative people don’t retire,” the radiant Gladys Nilsson giddily exclaims during our leisurely lunch in her eccentric, art-filled Wilmette home. She is adorned with a pin featuring the cartoon character Olive Oyl on a red backdrop; there is also a kinetic Olive Oyl sculpture on the coffee table. Between an extensive art collection and collected […]
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• Rohingya roots take hold in West Ridge

  07-10-2026 13:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Editor’s note: Names in this story have been changed to protect anonymity; they are marked with an asterisk on first mention. In his youth, Ahmed* was forbidden to play on his father’s farm. His mother instead insisted he concentrate on his studies at the high school just outside their village in the western Rakhine State […]
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• First they came for the dishwashers

  07-10-2026 13:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Last week I was chatting with a chef who employed some 50 workers in the kitchen at the big, glitzy downtown steak house where he was working last fall. One day, one of his bussers pulled a no-call, no-show. Not unheard of in the industry, but this was in November, and Operation Midway Blitz was […]
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• Chicago’s restaurant industry was struggling. Midway Blitz made it worse.

  07-10-2026 13:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Restaurants in Chicago are struggling because they’ve always struggled. Profit margins are notoriously slim. Hours are long. The pay isn’t enough. Inflation and tariffs skyrocketed the cost of everything from labor to imported curry leaves. And customers aren’t eating out as much as they used to.  The arrival of federal immigration agents in Chicago last […]
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• A year without Silverio

  07-10-2026 13:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  It’s been just over a year since Silverio Villegas González was killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Franklin Park on September 12, 2025. The tragic incident happened early in the chaotic, violent run of Operation Midway Blitz, when hundreds of masked and armed federal agents from the Department of Homeland […]
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• Stick a fork in 2026 with a new fall lineup for Monday Night Foodball

  07-10-2026 00:32 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Marko Milunovic always brings the good stuff. At 5 PM yesterday, he set up a round of shots on the pass—quince-flavored Vojvoda Stara Rakija Dunjevaca—and about a dozen of us toasted a dream coming true before our eyes. With that Milunovic turned to the line forming at the kitchen window, while his brother Nemanja turned […]
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• Trapped in stasis

  06-10-2026 18:32 via chicagoreader.com
  
  “Permission Structures and Decorative Art" through 10/24 at Shanghai Seminary
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• Casa Cafe takes a hiatus from hardcore

  06-10-2026 18:06 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Pilsen taco joint Casa Cafe has become the most important space for the youth wing of Chicago’s hardcore punk scene. This is largely thanks to Francisco “Pancho” García, a punk musician who cofounded Ruidosa Art Collective. He started hosting occasional shows in the restaurant’s back room a few years ago, and the space has since […]
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• Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar is a soul-stirring elegy and affirmation

  06-10-2026 17:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  In 2023, the Invisible Institute and City Bureau released their Missing in Chicago investigative report by City Bureau’s Sarah Conway (now the Reader editor in chief) and Invisible Institute’s trina reynolds-tyler. The report found that “Black people make up about two-thirds of missing persons cases in Chicago, according to the last two decades of police […]
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• Man vs. nature

  06-10-2026 14:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  In the project 60 wrd/min art critic, writer Lori Waxman explores how art writing can serve an expanded field of artists—including those incarcerated, trying to gain visas, working to establish themselves professionally, or just wanting feedback for a secret hobby. For this iteration, Waxman reviews work by Chicago-based artist Jiaqi Liu. Jiaqi Liu Jiaqi Liu […]
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• Cook County groups want a budget freeze for the sheriff and state’s attorney

  05-10-2026 23:07 via chicagoreader.com
  
  A coalition of 57 community, faith, policy, and social service organizations is calling on the Cook County Board of Commissioners to freeze law enforcement spending amid a projected $550 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2027. The groups argue commissioners should freeze spending on the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s […]
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• Intimacy coordinator

  05-10-2026 18:39 via chicagoreader.com
  
  In the project 60 wrd/min art critic, writer Lori Waxman explores how art writing can serve an expanded field of artists—including those incarcerated, trying to gain visas, working to establish themselves professionally, or just wanting feedback for a secret hobby. For this iteration, Waxman reviews work by New York–based artist Yutong Xie. Yutong Xie What […]
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• Getting your drag or burlesque act together

  05-10-2026 16:32 via chicagoreader.com
  
  If you’ve ever seen a truly remarkable drag or burlesque act, you may have thought, “How did they even come up with that?” There’s a lot that goes into act development: music choice, choreography, props, character, tech requirements, costumes—sometimes even one or more act partners. Everything has to serve whatever story a performer is trying […]
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• Musclecars center New York City’s dance history in their omnivorous house tracks 

  05-10-2026 15:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Musclecars Fri 10/23 at Smart Bar
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• Muggsy Spanier’s hot cornet gave extra shine to early Chicago jazz

  03-10-2026 00:14 via chicagoreader.com
  
  As I get older, I’ve grown more interested in the earliest roots of the music I love—even when they predate me by a century. This includes prewar jazz, and luckily this lively music is plentiful at thrift stores (where this budget shopper spends some serious time). When I spotted an LP called Muggsy Spanier Vol. […]
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• Nemanja Milunovic previews Amara, his upcoming brick and mortar, at the next Monday Night Foodball

  02-10-2026 23:08 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Last month, Nemanja Milunovic made a pilgrimage to the Professor’s school. Mićina Domaća Kujna in Belgrade is the culinary headquarters of Milovan Mića Stojanović, the one-time personal chef of Yugoslavian despot Josip Broz Tito. Stojanović earned his spot in no small part by his creation of the karađorđeva šnicla, a deep fried veal roulade stuffed […]
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• Blasphemy reigns at the 2026 Sanctum Dark Music Festival

  02-10-2026 20:56 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Sanctum Dark Music Festival Fri 10/30 and Sat 10/31 at Thalia Hall
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• Holding pattern

  02-10-2026 18:00 via chicagoreader.com
  
  “Long Habits" through 10/24 at Julius Caesar
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• Topdog/Underdog returns to Steppenwolf after 23 years

  02-10-2026 16:49 via chicagoreader.com
  
  Topdog/Underdog, through 11/1 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company
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