• The Tomeka Reid Quartet goes long on third album 3+3

    The Tomeka Reid Quartet goes long on third album 3+3
    Cellist Tomeka Reid and her powerhouse quartet—guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara—recently celebrated their tenth anniversary of performing together. But you could be forgiven if you thought they’d already had a decade together when they released their self-titled debut in 2015—the album is a marvel of uncanny synchronicity and head-spinning polyrhythms. […]
    The post The Tomeka Reid Quartet goes long on third album <i>3
  • Dancing into summer

    Dancing into summer
    June is busting out all over, which means it’s time for Chicago Dance Month. The annual citywide celebration of dance and movement, presented through the nonprofit service organization See Chicago Dance, is now in its 12th year. And though the opening-day performances last Saturday at Navy Pier got rained out for the most part, that […]
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  • Milo’s Market forges the one sandwich to rule them all at the next Monday Night Foodball

    Milo’s Market forges the one sandwich to rule them all at the next Monday Night Foodball
    Gilberto Bahena has already been initiated into the Sacred Order of Mary Stark. He knows the secret handshake. He sat stoically for the ecstatic agony of the hidden meat loaf tattoo. And he always bows and recites a short prayer before lighting up Mary’s stove. Bahena also is a registered Friend of Foodball, having developed, […]
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  • Lee’s Unleaded Blues rises from its own ashes

    Lee’s Unleaded Blues rises from its own ashes
    Like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, Lee’s Unleaded Blues (7401 S. South Chicago) has risen again after a decade of disuse, defying grim pronouncements about the demise of “real blues” on the south side. Chicago entrepreneur Warren Berger, who also owns Club Escape (a Black LGBTQ+ bar a few blocks away at 1530 […]
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  • Review: Bad Boys: Ride or Die

    Review: Bad Boys: Ride or Die
    Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the fourth installment in the franchise, finds the buddy cop duo of Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) a bit older but not at all wiser. Narratively, we aren’t breaking any new ground for the action-comedy genre. Our heroes are framed for a series of crimes they […]
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  • Review: Young Woman and the Sea

    Review: Young Woman and the Sea
    In an era when collective, in-person viewing is in a tenuous state, Young Woman and the Sea is what we call a straight-to-streaming movie.  There’s certainly little that’s objectionable about the story and how it’s told, which easily lends itself to an inspirational, live-action Disney experience. There’s a heroine in period dress who overcomes all […]
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  • Review: Hit Man

    Review: Hit Man
    There’s a lot of hope for Glen Powell, and lots of energy—from studios, directors, publicists, even critics—behind the idea of him as the next great Hollywood star. Untainted thus far by superhero dreck, he’s a charismatic lead focused on executing a nostalgic playbook for household status, which thankfully means compiling a diverse portfolio of interesting […]
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  • Angel Reese Makes It Known That It’s Not Only One Person Boosting The WNBA

    Angel Reese Makes It Known That It’s Not Only One Person Boosting The WNBA
    Amidst growing popularity of the WNBA, Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese has voiced her significant role within the league. During a press conference held in Chicago on June 3, she challenges the narrative that attributes the WNBA’s rise solely to players like Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever. 
    Reese, who was the No. 7 overall pick, traced the surge in attention back to her performance in the 2023 NCAA National Championship game. “I’ve been dealing with this for two years n
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  • CHICAT is enrolling now for its No-Cost Career Training Programs in Food Manufacturing, Advanced Maintenance, and Medical Billing

    CHICAT is enrolling now for its No-Cost Career Training Programs in Food Manufacturing, Advanced Maintenance, and Medical Billing
    The Chicago Center for Arts and Technology (CHICAT) (located 1701 W. 13th Street; Chicago, Illinois) is currently enrolling for 3 no-cost classes for individuals interested in pursuing careers in Food Manufacturing Quality Technician, Advanced Maintenance Mechanics, and Health Information Technology (HIT) Medical Billing and Coding.
    These programs will start on June 10th and run Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM for nine months.
    Serving all of Chicago, but mostly the North Lawndale,
  • White Dad Pushes Black Superintendent Away From Daughter During Graduation

    White Dad Pushes Black Superintendent Away From Daughter During Graduation
    Photo: MAX TV – BARABOO/YouTube 
    A Wisconsin father is facing racism allegations after he blocked his daughter from shaking hands with a Black superintendent during her graduation ceremony.
    The allegations stem from a Barbaroo High School graduation ceremony, where a senior’s father grabbed Superintendent Rainey Briggs just before his daughter was set to shake his hand, WKOW reports.
    In a now-viral video of the incident, the father appeared to emerge from the audience and run on
  • Meet Ciera McKissick’s latest enterprise: cam.contemporarie

    Meet Ciera McKissick’s latest enterprise: cam.contemporarie
    Studio suite 920 in Pilsen’s Mana Contemporary building is home to the prolific Ciera McKissick’s latest enterprise: cam.contemporarie. With this new project space, one of Chicago’s staunchest advocates for the arts turns her eye both to the market and to cultivating holistic support for artists. She calls cam.contemporarie a “micro-gallery” (at 394 square feet), a […]
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  • Bringing health equity to Chicago’s south side

    Bringing health equity to Chicago’s south side
    As the state of reproductive health continues to evolve more than a year after the conservative-leaning Supreme Court overturned abortion protections codified in Roe v. Wade, Black health equity advocates in Chicago are responding to the growing need for reproductive health care in south-side neighborhoods. Such areas have long been disenfranchised and deprived of the […]
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  • This Week In Black History – June 5 -11, 2024

    This Week In Black History – June 5 -11, 2024
    JUNE 5
    1872—The Republican Party National Convention takes place in Philadel­phia with substantial representation from former Black slaves. At least three Blacks addressed the national political gathering. At this point in history, the Republicans were the nation’s most progressive party and attracted the allegiance of African Americans. Blacks would remain loyal to the Republicans until the 1930s. But by 1945 with the Republicans becoming increasingly conservative and attracted
  • Critics Choice Association celebrates LGBTQ+ film and TV artists

    Critics Choice Association celebrates LGBTQ+ film and TV artists
    When the Critics Choice Association (CCA) hosts its very first celebration of LGBTQ+ artists in movies and television on June 7, it will mark the culmination of a passion project years in the making for longtime pop culture/arts reporter and Chicagoan Jerry Nunn. A constellation of queer stars will be at the Fairmont Century Plaza […]
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  • The Pearl Handle Band debut 40 years after breaking up

    The Pearl Handle Band debut 40 years after breaking up
    I’d never say the Windy City shouldn’t be famous for blues, soul, and house, because it definitely should. But after nearly 20 years of writing the Secret History of Chicago Music, I’m confident our town can produce top-shelf tunes in practically any genre—gospel, power metal, psychedelic soundscapes, you name it. Most folks don’t associate outlaw […]
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  • ‘Her voice could cut through air’

    ‘Her voice could cut through air’
    Dinah Washington was one of the premier vocal stylists in American popular music from the 1940s through the early ’60s. She came of age as the music industry was beginning to loosen its arbitrary assumptions about genre and audience (in 1949, Billboard started calling its “race records” chart its R&B chart), and her wide stylistic […]
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  • Chicago Reader Volume 53, No. 18

    Chicago Reader Volume 53, No. 18
    Chicago Reader Volume 53, No. 18. June 6, 2024
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  • Edifice complex

    Edifice complex
    In the early 1970s, Imelda Marcos, the wife of Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was infatuated with constructing grandiose structures using funds borrowed from foreign governments, despite the country’s relatively poor economic state. The condition, if you will, became known as the edifice complex. Since then, it’s been used to describe a host of public officials—in […]
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  • Transforming young lives through theater and journalism

    Transforming young lives through theater and journalism
    It’s no secret that in recent years, journalism has been in a state of crisis. According to Northwestern Medill’s State of Local News Project, in 2023 “there were more than 130 confirmed newspaper closings or mergers” and “since 2005, the U.S. has lost nearly 2,900 newspapers.” Disconcerting as that is, I feel a sense of […]
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  • Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution gives a complicated activist his due

    Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution gives a complicated activist his due
    Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael) has seemingly existed in popular culture mostly as a footnote to other, better-known civil rights figures. In George C. Wolfe’s Rustin and Ava DuVernay’s Selma, Carmichael doesn’t appear at all, despite being one of the first Freedom Riders and the chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)—and the man […]
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  • We didn’t start the fire

    We didn’t start the fire
    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. In 1948, the Eastman Kodak Company introduced a 35 mm triacetate safety base film to replace the highly flammable cellulose nitrate base that had dominated film production until then; Kodak ceased […]
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  • Yellow Line at the Smoothie Joint

    Yellow Line at the Smoothie Joint
    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]. After three years of wishing for a smoothie spot in my beloved Wrigleyville, fate finally intervened. I discovered the Smoothie Joint and […]
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  • Thai Festival Chicago returns to North Center this weekend

    Thai Festival Chicago returns to North Center this weekend
    For three years before the pandemic Dew Suriyawan, owner of Uptown’s great Immm Rice & Beyond, kicked off summer festival season with one of the best food-focused pavement parties of the year. Under various names, it featured contemporary and traditional music and dance performances soundtracking a leisurely crawl among booths staffed by some of the […]
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  • Meet Farley “Jackmaster” Funk: 2024 Chicago Defender Men of Excellence Honoree

    Meet Farley “Jackmaster” Funk: 2024 Chicago Defender Men of Excellence Honoree
    Farley “Jackmaster” Funk is an influential pioneer in the history of house music in Chicago. He was a prominent DJ and producer during the 1980s. Born Farley Keith Williams, he adopted the stage name Farley “Jackmaster” Funk as he rose to fame.
    Farley gained recognition for his DJ skills and his productions, which often featured a raw and energetic style that became characteristic of the Chicago house sound. One of his most famous tracks is “Love Can’t Turn Ar
  • AFS-USA exchange programs allow Chicago area host families and high-school exchange students to “explore the world” together

    AFS-USA exchange programs allow Chicago area host families and high-school exchange students to “explore the world” together
    Even in an era where technology has made the world feel increasingly small, nothing can replace in-person connection when it comes to genuine intercultural exchange. AFS-USA fosters that sort of opportunity for thousands each year by matching high-school exchange students with host families around the globe. The story of AFS-USA starts in 1915, when American […]
    The post AFS-USA exchange programs allow Chicago area host families and high-school exchange students to “explore the wor
  • Stevie Wonder’s Ghanaian citizenship reflects long-standing links between African Americans and the continent

    Stevie Wonder’s Ghanaian citizenship reflects long-standing links between African Americans and the continent
    Stevie Wonder. Getty Imagesby Nemata Blyden, University of Virginia
    There’s a long history of African Americans settling in Ghana or keeping in close contact with the first African country to gain independence. This relationship has most recently been exemplified by musician Stevie Wonder taking up Ghanaian citizenship.
    Ghana, which gained independence in 1957, became a beacon for African Americans disenchanted with their country’s racial problems. Ghana’s first prime mini
  • MR. SONNY KNOWS for June 5, 2024

    MR. SONNY KNOWS for June 5, 2024
    The post MR. SONNY KNOWS for June 5, 2024 appeared first on Chicago Defender.
  • Viral Man Who Drove During Hearing For Suspended License Claims Innocence

    Viral Man Who Drove During Hearing For Suspended License Claims Innocence
    Photo: X
    The man who went viral for driving during a virtual court hearing for his suspended license case says he should’ve never been charged, per ABC 7 News.
    Last month, a video of Corey Harris’ court virtual court hearing before Ann Arbor, Michigan judge Cedric Simpson went viral as the defendant appeared on Zoom from behind the wheel.
    “Mr. Harris, are you driving?” Simpson asked.
    “Actually, I’m pulling into my doctor’s office,” Harris responded
  • Romance and regret, Sondheim style

    Romance and regret, Sondheim style
    The sexual round-robin that swirls through the heart of composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s lilting masterpiece A Little Night Music is set in motion by regrets over paths both taken and not. With a dazzling book by Hugh Wheeler (inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night), the musical’s ravishing, comedic whirl of affairs […]
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  • Breaking the code

    Breaking the code
    The Enigmatist run time is officially 95 minutes, but you’ll want to get there a solid half hour early so you can crack the codes in the “puzzle garden” that greets audiences on the sixth-floor lobby of Chicago Shakespeare Theater. There are four ciphers in the garden, and their solutions figure in the “meta” puzzle […]
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