Illinois news

• MR. SONNY KNOWS for Sept. 27

  27-09-2023 14:00
  
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• Experience Juneteenth with these celebrations of Black life through space and time in Chicago

  09-06-2026 20:19
  
  I overheard two white women on the sidewalk the other day, excitedly making plans to see each other on June 19. “Yay, we have Juneteenth off! So we’re going to—” yadda yadda yadda. When President Joe Biden signed Juneteenth into law as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021—commemorating the 1865 day Union soldiers arrived […]
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• UIC has a James Turrell, and it’s falling apart

  09-06-2026 14:00
  
  On a midday drive down to Greektown for a meeting, I passed a baffling structure. Located on the University of Illinois Chicago’s urban campus, in a plaza on the southwest corner of Roosevelt and Halsted, stands a nearly 30-foot high brick-red freestanding pavilion. Strewn with litter, its only visitors were a few houseless people on […]
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• Celebrate Pride with these Reader-recommended events

  08-06-2026 20:48
  
  June is here, which means another Pride month is underway. Pride can be a fraught time—from corporate appropriation to cops marching in parades. As staff writer Micco Caporale writes in this month’s staff note, “It’s been a pretty terrible year for LGBTQ+ people in general,” prompting our “official ethereal terror of Homosexual Month” to ask […]
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• ‘Between Us’ brings together neurodiverse artists from Osaka and Chicago

  08-06-2026 14:00
  
  “Between Us" through 6/27 at Project Onward
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• Actual intelligence

  05-06-2026 21:19
  
  The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to offer. Any writer worth the ink won’t touch AI with an infinity-foot pole. Nevertheless, many of us have had to spill such ink over our thoughts on it, and for good reason—words […]
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• Who wouldn’t be curious about a band called the Purple Cucumber? 

  05-06-2026 20:59
  
  Longtime readers know that the Secret History of Chicago Music likes obscure, far-out 60s bands, whether they recorded one ballistic garage-rock single in their basement or released several failed acid-rock 45s through a major label. Odd or over-the-top band names are a plus too—Secret History has covered the likes of Bangor Flying Circus; Khazad Doom; […]
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• Talking About Godard is a love letter to tangled friendships

  05-06-2026 17:07
  
  Talking About Godard, through 6/28, Curious Theatre Branch at Facility Theatre
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• Two couples bare their teeth in A Dog’s House

  05-06-2026 16:32
  
  A Dog's House, through 6/14, Ego Death Theatre Collective at the Greenhouse Theater Center
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• The Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash shows how big a grassroots hip-hop fest can get

  05-06-2026 16:00
  
  Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash Fri 6/12 - Sun 6/14 at Seatgeek Stadium
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• Longtime collaborators Stephan Crump and Eric McPherson join forces with Darius Jones in Otherlands Trio

  05-06-2026 16:00
  
  Otherlands Trio Sun 6/14 at Constellation
  The post Longtime collaborators Stephan Crump and Eric McPherson join forces with Darius Jones in Otherlands Trio appeared first on Chicago Reader.
  
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• Be you at the Bijou

  05-06-2026 16:00
  
  When I meet Steven Toushin at a coffee shop in Irving Park, he’s just come from selling his longtime motorcycle, a 1963 BMW with a chrome frame and decals of Adam and Eve on the front and rear fenders. “It’s really a work of art,” he says in a thick Brooklyn accent as he excitedly […]
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• Babe Haven empower the babes and tweak their enemies on Nuisance

  05-06-2026 16:00
  
  Babe Haven Sat 6/13 at Beat Kitchen
  The post Babe Haven empower the babes and tweak their enemies on <i>Nuisance</i> appeared first on Chicago Reader.
  
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• Arrested Development bring their timeless Afrocentric hip-hop to Millennium Park

  05-06-2026 16:00
  
  Arrested Development Mon 6/15 at Millennium Park
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• Queer Contra’s monthly dances are a crash course in community feeling

  05-06-2026 15:00
  
  I am, at heart, a partner dancer. I primarily do two-step and lindy hop. I’ll line dance if the song is right, but it has never moved me the way two people dancing hand in hand does.  This past winter, a friend invited me to go out dancing on a snowy Chicago evening. We entered […]
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• Chicago’s transmasc tipping point

  05-06-2026 15:00
  
  My introduction to the nascent group that would eventually mature into Transmasc Society of Chicago was my homie posting a photo of himself and 20 trans guys in someone’s living room—I swiped up immediately. “What’s this?” “A friend invited me to a big group dinner, and it’s turning into something regular,” he says. “I added […]
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• The Matchmaker is a good bet at Theatre Above the Law

  04-06-2026 19:41
  
  The Matchmaker, through 6/28, Theatre Above the Law at Jarvis Square Theater
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• Damn Yankees brings old-fashioned charm to Theo

  04-06-2026 19:26
  
  Damn Yankees, through 7/5, Theo at the Fred Anzevino Theatre, Evanston
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• Going Bacharach focuses on the music rather than biography

  04-06-2026 19:10
  
  Going Bacharach: The Songs of a Icon, through 6/21 at Apollo Theater Chicago
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• A Black woman and an Irish man share romance and literary references in keerah

  04-06-2026 18:49
  
  keerah, through 6/28 at Definition Theatre
  The post A Black woman and an Irish man share romance and literary references in <i>keerah</i> appeared first on Chicago Reader.
  
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• Event discovery platform EverOut launches in Chicago

  04-06-2026 17:00
  
  CHICAGO, IL — Noisy Creek announced today the expansion of event discovery platform EverOut to Chicago, alongside advertising launch partners Goose Island Beer Company and 16” on Center. First launched in 2019 by The Stranger in Seattle and the Portland Mercury, EverOut currently boasts over 700,000 users in both cities. The platform combines curated expert […]
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• A heated rivalry between sports and politics

  04-06-2026 16:33
  
  Seven months ago, Loyola grad student Nathan Perl first fed his curiosity for amateur adult hockey at the Warren Park ice rink, armed with no hockey experience and a used pair of skates. But his passion for the ice germinated inside his shared studio apartment as he beheld his Samsung TV.  Born in Colorado, Perl […]
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• ‘Let’s find out who you are’

  04-06-2026 16:00
  
  Matthew Keller, 47, is from all over, but he grew up in northwest Ohio. “I went to college and got my bachelor’s degree and lived my life,” he told me. “And then I decided at fortysomething, I was going to move back to Ohio and buy a Victorian house. And I did that, and I […]
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• Pidgeon and Sarah-Ji’s 16-year friendship embodies the expansiveness of queer chosen family

  04-06-2026 15:00
  
  Despite the structural barriers to traveling between Chicago’s 77 community areas, many friends are willing to face the city’s geographic hurdles and sustain relationships that transcend race, gender, age, and class. In an effort to chronicle human connection and love in spite of  these challenges, the Going the Distance series examines the enduring friendships between […]
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• Chicago drag shows up and shows out

  04-06-2026 15:00
  
  “Drag performers fill a lot of roles in the community, and one that we’ve always filled from the beginning is—not only the jester or the town crier—but the community organizer, the person that brings people together,” says legendary drag performer Lucy Stoole.  Lucy learned early on that organizing and community support were just part of […]
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• Chicago Reader Volume 55, Number 17

  03-06-2026 16:20
  
  Chicago Reader Volume 55, No. 17. June 2026.
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• Where Chicago’s leather history lives

  03-06-2026 16:00
  
  Social Fabric is a glimpse into the vibrant lives, objects, and spaces that shape our city, cocurated with community archives and local photographers. There is a former synagogue on North Greenview Avenue in Rogers Park that holds the memory of a world most people don’t know exists. The Leather Archives & Museum is one of […]
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• ‘We really try to be a place where they can be themselves’

  03-06-2026 16:00
  
  Back in March, Jackalope Theatre Company produced the first show for young audiences in their history. The Dress-Up Play, written by Juliet Kang Huneke and directed by Karina Patel, showed four kids (played by adults) in a play session where they tried on clothes and took on characters, all while sharing aspects of their own […]
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• Queer Wrath

  03-06-2026 16:00
  
  Recently, I saw Derry Queen start her headlining set for a comedy variety show at the Hideout by announcing a fake Snapple sponsorship. “The brand paid me $500 to say this,” she said, as she unfolded a piece of paper, then composed herself for the audience. “Throw this down your throat, faggots!” That’s kind of […]
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• Gamjatang at To Soc Chon

  03-06-2026 16:00
  
  A popular saying in Korea, “Fight fire with fire,” argues that the best way to cool down during the sweltering summer months is to sip on a hot bowl of soup. The method may seem counterintuitive, but it’s actually scientifically proven. Raising your internal temperature triggers your body’s thermoregulation response; in other words, it makes […]
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