Destigmatizing abortion rights by Je
Balch, p. 8
Theater, lm, and music previews starting on p. 14
The rape kit was invented in Chicago
A new book explains by Kerry Cardoza, p. 12
THIS WEEK
Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit
JACLYN NASH/NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY
08 News feature Personal PAC and Theo addressed de facto abortion bans with a reading of The Turnaway Play 10 Make It Make Sense | Mulcahy Rally for trans rights, a new leader at COPA, and farmers
to protect wetlands ARTS & CULTURE
12 Cover Story | Cardoza A new book uncovers the history of Chicago’s first rape kit.
14 Dance feature | Renken Pranita Nayar on celebrating Mandala South Asian Performing Arts’s tenth anniversary
16 Plays of Note The Kinks take the stage in Sunny A ernoon at Chicago Shakespeare; Hannah and Halmoni Save the World at Filament; Helena & Hermia in the Enamored Odyssey with the Impostors
FILM
17 Film feature The staying power of Eric LaRue: a conversation with playwright Brett Neveu and filmmaker Michael Shannon 19 Movies of Note Holland feels like a tired retread of bygone thrillers; Julie Keeps Quiet is a technically precise film with a call to action, and more.
MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE
20 Secret History of Chicago Music Jim Brewer kept country blues alive in the big city.
22 Shows of Note Previews of concerts including Yagódy, Sex Mex, Dom Kennedy, and Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas
BACK
27 Savage Love Preparing for anal and more answers to sensitive questions
CLASSIFIEDS
27 Jobs
27 Services
ON THE COVER
Photographs of technicians Mary Ann Mohan (bottom le ) and Bernadette Kwak and Ray Lenz (top right) from the Chicago Police Star, January 1979. All other elements found in a photo of an early Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit by Jaclyn Nash, courtesy of the National Museum of American History. Collage by Kirk Williamson
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Reader Letters m
Re: “Trump continues his assault on higher ed,” written by Shawn Mulcahy as part of the Make It Make Sense news column published in our March 20 issue (volume 54, number 24)
Isn’t Northwestern owned by private equity? They betrayed their students last year in how they responded to the divestiture encampment. No surprise they’d aid the fascists given precedence. —dirtytechnobitch, via Instagram
Well . . . since Trump just signed an [executive order] to end the [U.S. Department of Education] (which, technically, he can’t do, only Congress can) that investigation is over and now they can stop answering any requests from them. See them in court! [laughing emoji] —the.blunt.wytch, via Instagram
Re: “Creative agency 3V helps independent artists build sustainable futures,” written by Joshua Eferighe as part of the City of Win column published in our March 27 issue (volume 54, number 25)
There’s a lot to be excited about in Chicago’s creative community right now, and this Chicago Reader piece spotlights some of the folks doing the work to build real, sustainable impact. Shout out to my friend Cat Sanchez and the team at 3V Agency for the way they’re supporting artists like TheGr8Thinkaz and Mother Nature—not just creatively, but with real infrastructure and vision. It’s the kind of work that resonates far beyond the local scene. Proud to know folks like this and always grateful to learn from how they operate. —Mike Raspatello, via Linkedin
The Chicago Reader accepts comments and letters to the editor of less than 400 words for publication consideration.
m letters@chicagoreader.com
CITY LIFE
calendar
The To-Do
Upcoming events and activities you should know about
By SALEM COLLO-JULIN
Check out these upcoming events, exhibitions, screenings, and other activities to kick o April.
Fri 4/4
You can’t throw a pair of original Nike Air Jordans without hitting a vintage vendor pop-up these days (and we really don’t recommend that you throw your shoes around anyhow). The Magnificent Mile is the latest spot where you’ll fi nd a special grouping of clothing, jewelry, and accessories sellers purveying their retro wares for a limited amount of time. Vintage on the Avenue visits the Lux Landing at Shops at North Bridge this weekend, with three full days of pop-ups from local independent shops including Wini & I, Shytowngirl Vintage, Schlesäk Vintage, and more. It’s free to browse, and brave souls who wish to drive there can get a discount parking validation for the garages at 10 E. Grand and 516 N. Rush with a minimum $10 purchase from Nordstrom.
Fri 4/4 and Sat 4/5, 10 AM–8 PM, Sun 4/6, 11 AM–7 PM, 520 N. Michigan, free, theshopsatnorthbridge.com
SAT 4/5
The Westside Justice Center (WJC) was formed by lawyers, legal advocates, and community leaders in 2015 to address inequities in legal services for west-side residents and other Chicagoans in need. The organization offers help with tasks that traditionally might benefit from interaction with a lawyer, like estate planning or eviction court, but WJC also provides technical training and programs designed to help Chicago residents understand the law and help themselves. Today’s Rap Sheet Information Day is open (registration required) to anyone who feels that their criminal record might be preventing them from gainful employment or getting housing. WJC legal advocates will walk attendees through the fi rst steps of possibly getting their records expunged. The event
up some bargains.
happens on the south side, hosted by WJC partner Saint Mark United Methodist Church of Chicago.
10 AM–1 PM, 8441 S. Saint Lawrence, free but registration required by emailing advocates@westsidejustice.org or calling 773-940-2213
SUN 4/6
Chicago house and techno turntablist DJ Vader collaborated with the TAPS Dance Program at the University of Chicago, Circle Theory, and Detroit’s Motor City Street Dance Academy to develop For the Feeling, a house dance battle event that premiered last year. This weekend’s For the Feeling Volume Two features midwest house dance performers at several levels challenging each other one at a time, working toward a $500 prize for the ultimate winner. Two intermediate and advanced master class workshops are scheduled for Saturday afternoon on the University of Chicago campus (contact organizers directly to find out about participation requirements), but the general public can attend Sunday evening’s
event to witness the work. Vader is joined by DJ King GNS and the proceedings will be hosted by emcee Bravemonk.
4–10 PM, Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th, free to attend, facebook.com/VADERWINS/events
Looking for a reason to dress up and possibly be obnoxious? The nomadic entertainment company Pop Up Karaoke hosts Karaoke Prom tonight with the theme of Fire and Ice. (Whether or not you use that as inspiration to grab your bae and duet on Rick James and Teena Marie’s “Fire and Desire,” well, that’s up to you). Organizers promise four hours of karaoke, drinks, and dessert, including a mini churro station (included in the ticket price), and they ask attendees to come dressed “fancy or fun, but keep it red hot or icy cool!” Longtime Reader contributors Glitter Guts will be providing photo ops. It’s $65 to reserve a singing spot or $45 to just watch and chomp on churros.
8–11:59 PM, Rizzo’s Bar & Inn, 3658 N. Clark, popupkaraoke.com
CITY LIFE
TUE 4/8
The south-side focused reading and live storytelling series the Frunchroom marks ten years this season. Storytellers have included local writers; residents from Beverly, Pullman, Chatham, and other south-side neighborhoods; and teachers, politicians, and journalists. It’s hosted by Morgan Park resident Scott Smith in partnership with the Beverly Area Arts Alliance, and the audiences at Frunchroom events can feel like a “who’s who” of south-siders, whether they’re reading or not. Tonight’s anniversary event happens at Beverly Arts Center.
7:30 PM, 2407 W. 111th St., facebook.com/thefrunchroom
Wed 4/9
In the mood for experimental films that cover love and sex? There’s a ton of places we could go with this, but if you’re serious about the experimental part, check out Tone Glow’s event Under Some Kind of Hex: Love and Sex in the Films of Stan Brakhage Tone Glow is a newsletter edited by Reader contributor Joshua Minsoo Kim, who hosts a two-part program this evening at Elastic featuring 16 short fi lms by Brakhage. Brakhage was an American abstract fi lmmaker, considered by some to be one of the most important people in the narrative of 20th-century experimental film. $15 tickets are required for entry and can be purchased through the Elastic website.
7 PM, 3429 W. Diversey, Suite 208 (there’s a staircase up to enter), elasticarts.org v
m scollojulin@chicagoreader.com
FOOD & DRINK
“The excessive drinking of co ee in any case is an evil. But it is often forgotten that co ee can be taken in other ways and in none better than in the form of jelly.”
The Lancet, July 18, 1903
Who can argue with the august, peer-reviewed medical journal, which weighed in on the benefits of gelatinized bean juice almost a century after the treat began appearing in British, and later U.S., cookbooks? At least The Lancet was a decade or two ahead before it got big in Japan. While coffee jelly’s popularity faded in the West (along with a reasonable respect for established science), it might never have fallen out of favor there. It certainly benefited from a viral surge in 2016, when Starbucks Japan released a coffee-jelly frappuccino with cubes of jiggly joe settled at the bottom of the cup.
serves green and hojicha tea during and after meals—not hot co ee. But ever since Naoki and Yoshimi Nakashima took over and renamed the erstwhile Renga Tei, you could find a whipped cream–topped parfait glass of subtly sweet coffee jelly with a small container of creamer on the à la carte dessert menu, or at the end of their fourcourse prix fixe.
According to Yoshimi, theirs is made from scratch—not a prepackaged mix— with espresso, brown sugar, and gelatin sheets, for a balance between postprandial adult digestif and wobbly, childlike reward for finishing every last bite of your tonkatsu curry.
Yoshimi had no comment on her jelly’s “tendency to absorb any excessive acidity of the stomach” or to nullify “the astringent principles of coffee,” but let’s all agree that science is real and leave it at that. —MIKE SULA TENJIN RESTAURANT 3956 W. Touhy Ave., Lincolnwood, $6, 847-675-5177, tenjinrestaurant.com v
FOODBALL MONDAY NIGHT
The Reader’s weekly chef popup series, now at Frank and Mary’s Tavern, 2905 N. Elston, Avondale
THE LINEUP
April 7 Sicilian-style bakery by the Focaccia Mama @thefocacciamama
April 14 The Temptation by Gilda @gildachicago
April 21 A midwestern flower rises from the ashes with Las Flores @lasfloreschicago
In keeping with the medical research, this classic Lincolnwood Japanese spot
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 fooddrink@ chicagoreader.com.
Follow the chefs, @chicago_reader, and @mikesula on Instagram for weekly menu drops, ordering info, updates, and the stories behind Chicago’s most exciting foodlums.
April 28 Cocinero Verde is risen! @cocinero.verde
May 5 Cinco de Mayo with Tacos Las Manitas @tacos_lasmanitas
May 12 The revenge of Logan Oyster Socials @loganoystersocials
May 19 The long-awaited return of Links Taproom @linkstaproom
May 26 Memorial Day West African barbecue with Dozzy’s Grill @dozzysgrill
June 2 Indigenous-inspired fermentation freaks Piñatta Chicago @pinattachicago
Coffee jelly at Tenjin
NEWS & POLITICS
Destigmatizing abortion rights
The Turnaway Play addresses de facto bans of the procedure.
By JEFF BALCH
Why does someone decide to abort a pregnancy? What are the impacts of denying this choice?
An audience of about 100 considered such questions on March 18 at Evanston’s Theo, prompted by Lesley Lisa Greene’s The Turnaway Play and an ensuing discussion of abortion access.
Greene’s play, incorporating narratives of women who have sought abortions, draws from her sister Diana Greene Foster’s groundbreaking Turnaway Study . Tracking participants for a decade, Foster explored the longterm e ects of restrictive abortion policies on women and families.
Before Foster’s study, little research had meaningfully addressed this issue. Several previous studies noted that choosing an abortion may generate post-traumatic stress disorder—but those studies lacked key comparison groups: people who had sought abortions but had been denied them. These were the “turned-away” people at the heart of Foster’s investigation and Greene’s play. Before kicking off the presentation and subsequent discussion, Personal PAC CEO
Sarah Garza Resnick highlighted crucial but often-obscured facts. Chief among them is that one U.S. woman in four will choose an abortion at some point in her life. Asking for a show of hands, Resnick illustrated the frequency of the choice, as all audience members indicated they knew someone who had had an abortion.
“It’s a choice available to most women in Illinois but not in neighboring states,” Garza Resnick said. Consequently, in 2023 (the most recent year with available data), 37,000 women from adjacent states came to Illinois for abortion care.
“By comparison,” Garza Resnick said, “California and New York took in 5,000 to 6,000 women in the same period, though they are [larger states, with more total abortions]. Illinois is the linchpin in the midwest, the reason more women aren’t dying.”
Foster’s study involved nearly 1,000 women from 30 abortion facilities in 21 states. Some got the abortion they sought; some were turned away. All were recruited from 2008 to 2010 and interviewed semiannually for five years to track mental health, physical health, and socioeconomic consequences.
question: “Nobody! Those who are denied generally manage alone, often in poverty. If not alone, they often face violence [from a domestic partner]. But those who got an abortion more often experience a decline in such violence” and a lesser risk of poverty. Multiple narratives came from women who were turned away, typically because they were too far along in the pregnancy. What were some of the reasons for their delay? One had not gotten her period for many months prior to pregnancy so did not note a change. Another had reason to believe she was still getting her periods, though in fact she was pregnant.
Others who were too late faced challenges getting to the necessary facility—a common obstacle, given that only 10 percent of U.S. counties have such a facility. (The play’s narratives predate the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which magnified the challenges through the curtailment of medical abortion in 19 states.)
The study comprised nearly 8,000 interviews.
The principal finding was that getting an abortion does not harm well-being, whereas the denial of a desired abortion leads to worse financial, health, and family outcomes.
In the staged reading of Greene’s dramatization, multiple women described their varying motivations for seeking an abortion. More than half had very limited means, were already mothers, and felt an obligation to protect their child(ren) from the instability that another child would introduce.
“If I hadn’t gotten an abortion, it would’ve been chaos,” one character said. “I could not a ord diaper number one.”
Another described the need to hold onto her job to feed her daughter—a job she would lose were she to continue her pregnancy and give birth. “Everything I’ve ever done has been for [my daughter]. I would be depriving her by having to support a second one.”
Portraying “guest lecturer” Diana Greene Foster, actress Lauren Winder asked the audience to consider: “Who do you think steps in when someone is denied an abortion?”
After a pause, Foster answered her own
Foster, via Winder, did not deny that abortion can sometimes cause emotional harm— an argument famously stressed, without evidence, in a 2007 opinion by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. But she emphasized data showing that, comparatively, “more women experience multiple harms when compelled to carry a pregnancy against their will. There is a depression curve [in both cases], no measurable di erence in ‘regret,’ and both sets are doing better after five years—but there are key differences in health effects and ability to cover basic needs. The ‘turned away’ have less food, and worse health is more likely.”
After the characters concluded their narratives, Greene’s play gave way to even more immediate accounts from the nonactor presenters: Garza Resnick, Evanston mayor Daniel Biss, and Dr. Connie Fei Lu, an obstetriciangynecologist at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.
Garza Resnick described her own abortion experience as a student abroad in England: “I was so lucky that I had compassionate care at my university and got to a private clinic. I am a real person, and it happened to me—I wouldn’t be the human being I am today if I hadn’t had access to an abortion, and I am so very grateful.”
Mayor Biss told of his grandmother, who got an abortion between giving birth to his mother and his aunt. “Her feeling was [that] it’s not possible to provide just now,” Biss said, adding that he did not see giving up a newborn for adoption as a true alternative. “Imagine the
From L: Dr. Connie Fei Lu, Personal PAC’s Sarah Garza Resnick, and Evanston mayor Daniel Biss
COURTESY PERSONAL PAC
NEWS & POLITICS
Why does someone decide to abort a pregnancy?
What are the impacts of denying this choice?
woman giving up her newborn, wondering, ‘Will this child be loved?’ That is where the great emotional cost lies.”
Dr. Lu spoke of growing up in Indiana with an appreciation of pro-choice activism and going east for college and medical school, not foreseeing she would return to the midwest.
“Geography is crucial,” she said, noting that abortion access is easier in northeastern U.S. states.
“But later, [I felt drawn back],” she said. “We hear about conscientious objection to providing abortion care. We don’t talk as much about the conscientious decision to provide care.” She pointed out that even in states with access, 40 percent of medical school programs do not o er abortion instruction, adding that “care can be weaponized in hospitals getting
“Illinois used to be one of the most anti-
choice states,” said Garza Resnick. “But now we are one of the most pro-choice. We built this, and we have to fight for it. Personal PAC is the organization holding officials to account. We are not accepting an authoritarian government.”
Biss complimented the organization’s reputation as “credible experts with political muscle.”
Perhaps the most memorable moment came before the program, when Biss drew attention to a side table where several older women were sitting. “Tonight, we have with us some of the original Janes,” he said, “the underground collective who led the way [prior to the 1973 Roe decision] in providing abortion access in Chicago.” The audience was loudest
ATTENTION
ATTENTION
PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS & HCV PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS:
NativePOP!
If you listed Lawndale Complex or the Lawndale Community Area on your Housing Choice Survey as a place you would like to permanently live, please read the information listed below.
PROPOSED UPDATES TO THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER (HCV) ADMINISTRATIVE (ADMIN) PLAN
The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is releasing proposed updates to the HCV Admin Plan. The 30-day public comment period begins April 1, 2025, and ends April 30, 2025. While CHA encourages and welcomes all program participants, residents, and the community-at-large to review the proposed updates to the HCV Admin Plan you are not required to view or attend the public comment hearings to submit comments. Your presence or absence at the hearing does not affect your housing
The Draft Tenant Selection Plan (TSP) and Lease for Ogden Commons, a mixed-income community is available for review. The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) has worked with its development partner to develop a Draft TSP and Lease for use at the private development known as Ogden Commons (previous site of the Lawndale Complex). The units within this development will be used as replacement public housing units for Lawndale Complex and the Lawndale Community area. If you listed Lawndale Complex/Lawndale Community area on your Housing Choice Survey as a place you want to live or maintain a right to return to new CHA replacement housing per the Relocation Rights Contract (RRC), you can comment on the Draft TSP and Lease during the 30-day public comment period.
CHA will host two public comment hearings—one livestream and one in-person:
• Livestream: Tue, Apr 8, 2025, at 11:00 am www.thecha.org A recording of the livestream session will be available following the hearing. A Sign interpreter will be present.
The 30-day public comment period will be held for CHA to receive written comments starting April 7 through May 7, 2021. The Tenant Selection Plans (TSP) will be available on CHA’s website beginning April 7, 2021.
• In-person: Wed, Apr 9, 2025, at 6:00 pm FIC 4859 S Wabash Sign and Spanish interpreters will be present.
Due to COVID-19, CHA has suspended all in person public meetings and instead, CHA will livestream one public comment hearing. The date and time of the public comment livestream hearing is as follows:
We ask that comments pertaining to the HCV Admin Plan be submitted electronically to commentontheplan@ thecha.org prior to each comment hearing or submitted in the chat during the livestream.
Tue, April 20, 10:00am: https://youtu.be/QBGG47BHXMg
If you require translation services, please check with your property manager for more details or call the number below.
We ask that comments pertaining to the TSP & Lease be submitted electronically to commentontheplan@thecha.org at least 48-hours prior to the comment hearing. Comments will be read live during the time outlined above. Comments received after the hearing will be added to the comment grid.
A summary and the Proposed HCV Admin Plan will be available on CHA’s website at www.thecha.org on Apr 1, 2025. You may also mail or fax comments for the Proposed HCV Admin Plan. All comments must be postmarked and/or received by Apr 30, 2025.
If you require translation services, please read the attached notice or check with your property manager for more details. Do not mail comments to CHA.
E-mail or Fax comments to: commentontheplan@thecha.org Fax 312. 913.7837
Chicago Housing Authority Attention: Proposed FY2025 MTW Annual Plan Amendment 60 E. Van Buren St, 12th Floor Chicago, IL 60605
Email: commentontheplan@thecha.org | Fax: 312-913-7837
If you have a question about this notice, please call 312-913-7300. To request a reasonable accommodation, please call 312-913-7062. TTY 866-331-3603
Ifyouhaveaquestionaboutthisnotice,pleasecalltheCHAat312.913-7300. Torequestareasonableaccommodation,pleasecall312.913.7062. TTY 866.331.3603
NEWS & POLITICS
Rally for trans rights
About 1,000 people packed into Federal Plaza on Sunday, March 30, to stand against growing attacks on transgender rights.
The rally and march to Trump Tower was organized by the groups Trans Upfront Illinois and Indivisible Chicago. Speakers included Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago commissioner Precious Brady-Davis, the first Black openly trans woman elected to public o ce in Cook County; drag nuns with the Second City Sisters; the mother of a transgender boy; and state representative Kelly Cassidy.
“I have news for President Donald Trump: We aren’t going anywhere,” Brady-Davis said, according to the Windy City Times. “Our community was here long before you, and we will be here long after you.”
March 31 is internationally recognized each year as Trans Day of Visibility—a celebration of trans resilience and, especially this year, a reminder of escalating anti-trans violence in the face of global fascism.
Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a proclamation commemorating the holiday, in which he committed to “continuing the fight for full equality of all transgender people.”
New interim COPA chief
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced on March 27 that LaKenya White will serve as the Civilian O ce of Police Accountability’s (COPA) interim chief administrator. White replaces Andrea Kersten, who resigned in February, and will lead the agency tasked with investigating police misconduct until the City Council confirms Kersten’s replacement.
White has spent more than two decades working on police oversight in Chicago. She joined the since-shuttered Office of Professional Standards in 2000, then moved to its successor, the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), in 2007, where she investigated police shootings. White transitioned to COPA in 2017, after the IPRA’s dissolution, and was named the agency’s director of investigations for intake in 2023.
The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) is required to conduct a nationwide search for Kersten’s replacement and select a finalist from a list of ten candidates. The CCPSA’s selection is subject to City Council approval.
Kersten resigned earlier this year amid reports that the CCPSA was probing “the quality
and integrity” of COPA’s investigations. The commission planned a no-confidence vote of her leadership, according to WTTW. Two former employees are suing Kersten and COPA over allegations that they were fired in retaliation for blowing the whistle on “anti-police bias” in COPA’s investigations.
Kersten’s term as COPA’s chief administrator was set to expire later this year.
Farmers fight for wetlands
Judge C.J. Williams, chief of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, heard oral arguments on Monday, March 31, in a federal lawsuit seeking to dismantle wetland conservation e orts.
In April 2024, libertarian law firms Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento, California, and Chicago’s Liberty Justice Center filed suit against the “Swampbuster” law, passed by Congress in 1985, on behalf of Chicago
corporate attorney James Conlan. Under the law, any farmer who drains a wetland on their property is no longer eligible for federal benefits like low-interest loans and subsidies administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A few years ago, Conlan bought about 80 acres of farmland in northeastern Iowa. Nine of those acres, according to court filings, have been designated wetlands by the federal government. Conlan’s lawyers argue Swampbuster’s prohibition against draining the land “imposes compulsory conservation” (god forbid!) and “greatly decreases the value of the property for both farm leases and sale price.”
The Iowa Farmers Union, Dakota Rural Action, Food and Water Watch, and the Iowa Environmental Council, represented by Chicago’s Environmental Law and Policy Center, have signed on to fight the lawsuit. The groups asked to intervene in support of the federal government last year and received approval in December.
Thirty million acres of midwest wetlands, including one million in Illinois, face destruction from industrial farming, according to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Any further destruction of wetland habitats would be devastating to the environment and our current way of life. Wetlands naturally trap pollutants in contaminated water and can store 50 times more carbon than rainforests. They also prevent flooding in surrounding areas by trapping and slowly releasing groundwater.
If Conlan’s lawsuit is successful, it would strip Swampbuster’s protection from about 78 million acres of wetland—two-thirds of the remaining habitat in the U.S. —SHAWN MULCAHY v
Make It Make Sense is a weekly column about what’s happening and why it matters.
Rally on March 30 PAUL GOYETTE/FLICKR VIA CC BY 2.0
Lakenya White COURTESY COPA
poetry events and gi s for visitors
Blood Wolf Moon
April 10, 6 PM
In partnership with the Center for Native Futures
Exhibition opening Escaramuza, the Poetics of Home
April 17, 6 PM
poetryfoundation.org/events
ARTS & CULTURE
RThe Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy Vintage, paperback, 256 pp., $19, penguinrandomhouse.com/books/677425/ the-secret-history-of-the-rape-kit-by-pagan-kennedy
Content note: This story contains descriptions of police violence and sexual assault.
In the 1970s, as today, sexual assault was among the least reported violent crime in the U.S. Marital rape was still legal (it wasn’t made a crime in all 50 states until 1993). In Chicago, when people did report a sexual assault to law enforcement, the response from police or medical examiners could be traumatizing in itself and rarely resulted in a conviction.
In 1972, Marty Goddard, an executive at a Chicago philanthropic foundation and an independent-minded divorcee, sought to change that. Goddard wasn’t a picket-waving activist; in fact, she didn’t identify as a feminist at all. But she did recognize that sexual assault was seething under the surface of society, like a quiet epidemic for which there was little or no recourse.
As journalist Pagan Kennedy recounts in her snappy, engaging new book, The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, Goddard first became aware of the issue while working as a volunteer for Metro-Help (now National Runaway Safeline), a crisis center and hotline for runaway teenagers. On phone call after phone call, teenage girls recounted how they’d left home after being violated by someone, usually someone known to them—a parent, a teacher, a priest. Goddard vowed to avenge these crimes.
She spent the next few decades studying
The legacy of Marty Goddard
Despite big strides, justice is elusive for many sexual assault survivors.
By KERRY CARDOZA
the problem and working to redress the many wrongs of the criminal justice system. One of her first realizations was that police, typically the first responders to an assault, and hospital sta had little to no formalized training to deal with the unique crime of sexual assault and no scientific way of collecting and preserving evidence. She struck upon the idea for an evidence collection kit and brought it to Chicago Police Department (CPD) sergeant Louis Vitullo, who had gained local notoriety for his forensic work in identifying Richard Speck as the man who killed eight student nurses in South Deering in 1966.
Kennedy reports that Vitullo was initially dismissive of Goddard but then put together a kit as she’d described. These early kits, trademarked as the Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit, included swabs, a bag for clothes, a slide for fluid collection, a consent form to release evidence to the police, and an area for anyone who handled the kit to initial, to preserve the chain of custody.
In 1978, thanks to a sizable grant from the Playboy Foundation, Goddard, through her new nonprofit, the Citizens Committee for Victims Assistance, employed a rape kit pilot program in Chicago, distributing the boxes to 25 local hospitals. By the end of the following year, nearly 3,000 kits had been filed with CPD. Kennedy notes that before the introduction of the rape kit, a study found that nearly one third of all evidence had to be thrown out due to errors; afterward only about 2 percent of
evidence was ruled inadmissible. Of course, progress doesn’t follow a neat, linear trajectory. Misogynistic attitudes of everyone from police to medical staff to lab technicians interfered with justice then and now. Kennedy found a 1973 Chicago police training manual which warned that “many rape complaints are not legitimate,” noting
also cites a 2020 study in which crime lab technicians complained that police shouldn’t collect evidence from “shady” complainants, like teenagers or sex workers.
that “actual” victims “will give the impression of a person who has been dishonored.” Newspaper articles from the period told stories of cops pranking victims, including one who tricked a woman into removing her clothes under the guise of documenting evidence and then shared the photos with friends. Kennedy
Then there’s the persistent issue of rape kits not being tested at all, or being otherwise damaged or discarded. Kennedy devotes considerable space to the horrific backlogs that came to light in the 2000s. New York reportedly had the first backlog, with 17,000 untested kits in 2000. In 2009, it was discovered that more than 11,000 rape kits sat moldering in a Detroit parking structure. Though police budgets have soared in recent decades, it seems little of that money was set aside for the purpose of solving sexual assaults, even though recent research makes clear that rapists tend to be repeat o enders. Kennedy reports that in 1998, when the FBI launched its computerized DNA system, a match linked a convicted rapist in Illinois with an attempted murder in Wisconsin within minutes.
Indeed, many sexual assault survivors submit to the invasiveness of an hourslong
ARTS & CULTURE
exam with the hopes that the o ender will be caught before they can harm someone else. As one survivor in the book puts it: “Why would you put someone through this very invasive, whole-body exam, which is traumatizing in itself, take their rape kit and just let it sit there?”
Yet despite Goddard’s world-changing invention, and the subsequent years she devoted to seeing the kit gain widespread usage and calling out the entrenched sexism of rape culture, how much has really changed for sexual assault survivors? As the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network notes, more than two out of three assaults still go unreported. Of every 1,000 reported, only about 50 lead to an arrest, and only half of those lead to incarceration.
For Black women, the picture is even bleaker due to the long history of police brutality.
For every Black survivor who reported a sexual assault, a 2003 study found, there were 15 who did not. Kennedy highlights the inequality inherent in forensic technology, such as the use of toluidine blue dye to reveal abrasions,
which doesn’t work as well on dark skin.
In Illinois, there is some cause for hope. In 2022, the state announced that it had cleared its rape kit backlog for the first time in decades. (In 2010, the Illinois Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Act stipulated that all sexual assault evidence had to be analyzed within 180 days as long as “su cient resources” were available.) According to End the Backlog, an initiative by the Joyful Heart Foundation, Illinois “has achieved all six pillars of rape kit reform,” including testing all new kits, implementing a tracking system, allocating ongoing funding, and keeping victims informed about the status of their kit.
Though, not every step of the process proceeds as intended. An investigation done last year by NBC 5 found that, between 2018 and 2024, “88 hospitals failed to properly treat victims of sexual assault.” Many Chicago area hospitals failed to record whether a kit was collected while others neglected to contact police, sent survivors home without performing an exam, or left kits sitting untested for years—all violations of the Sexual
Assault Survivors Emergency Treatment Act.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Goddard could likely not have anticipated the police abolition movement or the rise of restorative justice initiatives. She wasn’t a diehard movement activist; she preferred “women who got things done quietly,” as Kennedy puts it. The most visionary change she could fathom was a scientific method of preserving evidence, ensuring that sexual assault survivors had a science-backed way of proving their word. In 2025, it’s clear that rape kits aren’t enough to change the justice system. The abysmal number of sexual assault reports—let alone convictions—and the steady rate of sexual assaults illustrate that. Marty Goddard was never going to end rape culture, but she did do a lot to change it. And, thanks to Pagan Kennedy, now more people will know that, and maybe even be inspired to join those taking her work to the next, needfully more radical, level. v
m kcardoza@chicagoreader.com
THEATER
‘There’s more freedom for how to tell stories’
Pranita Nayar of Mandala South Asian Performing Arts on ten years of melding traditional forms with contemporary influences
By CHARLI RENKEN
For the past decade, Pranita Nayar, founder and artistic director of Mandala South Asian Performing Arts, has used the organization to bring cultural education and entertainment to Chicago, making a place for dancers, musicians, and audiences both within and outside of the diaspora to celebrate South Asian culture.
One thing that makes Mandala special is its focus on both preserving traditional South Asian dance forms and expanding on the genre through modern adaptations and fusions with other dances like jazz, hip-hop, ballet, modern, and more. The organization o ers classes in a plethora of South Asian dances such as Balinese, Bharatanatyam, Bollywood, Garba, Kandyan, Kathak, Kathakali, Khmer Apsara, Kuchipudi, Mohiniyattam, and Odissi. These dances range in geographic origin and history, making Mandala a diverse, cultural juggernaut for dance of all kinds.
I talked to Nayar about her journey from founding Mandala in 2015 to the
tenth-anniversary benefit and celebration “Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow,” coming to the Primitive gallery on April 10. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Charli Renken: What made you want to create Mandala?
Pranita Nayar: Twenty years into my career as a classical Indian dancer, choreographer, and Bharatanatyam teacher, I recognized there was a growing generation of performers and audiences from South Asia who had grown up in more than one cultural environment; one that their parents practiced, that they were born into, and the second that they were exposed to. I started thinking about the Indian subcontinent as a cultural region where arts traveled beyond our boundaries and mixed and influenced each other to become new art forms. I decided with a group of board members that I wanted to provide a home for a larger group of people practicing South Asian dance and music and even people outside the diaspora.
“W
Thu
What has been your approach to both preserving traditional dances and creating new dance forms through fusion?
I migrated here in 1985, armed with a very traditional practice of Bharatanatyam. For the past 40 years, when I meet new practitioners, it’s not just about changing the costume or the music that they’re listening to; it’s about expanding the vocabulary of the dance. It’s expanding on how it’s practiced in both artistic and practical ways. For example, back in India, we traditionally dance on clay floors, and when
Performing Arts)
you stomp on those floors it creates a beautiful sound. We can’t do that here because I can’t afford clay floors, and it doesn’t sound pleasant to stomp on wood floors, and it hurts your feet, so that’s been altered.
We also expand our mudras [symbolic hand gestures used in South Asian dance and spiritual practices] to relate to new things. We live in Chicago where there’s snowfall so how do we show snowfall instead of rainfall? It’s all about expanding that dance vocabulary.
We also try to think about how to make the stories we tell in South Asian dance—which are very narrative-based—relevant to the current times. In 2016, we produced a dance called Conversations With Devi on the same day as the Women’s March. Devi is the Sanskrit name for “female goddess,” and in Hindu mythology all the gods laid their weapons in front of the female goddess. The performance was meant to be reflective of Clinton not winning the election and of the Women’s March.
One of Chicago’s most popular dance styles is jazz, which you mix with South Asian practices. What is that like? How do you do that?
Our artist in residence and choreographer for our tenth-anniversary benefit is Amber Mehta, and she has taken to that like a fish to water. I can conceptualize what the fusion of those dances should look like, but my body is so trained in traditional dances that I have a hard time doing it physically. Amber, though, is trained in jazz, hip-hop, and Bharatanatyam, so she’s able to combine those. It’s hard for me to describe it verbally. You just have to see it.
What are some of the challenges and rewards of bringing di erent dance styles together?
The challenge is that for a large group of people who do not want to accept change, they feel like you’re messing around, that you’re tampering with the traditional practices. They don’t like that.
The reward is that there are now new ways of expressing oneself; there’s a new vocabulary. With these emerging artists, practitioners of both Western and South Asian dance, there’s more freedom for how to tell stories. Dance is a language, and it’s one of our oldest languages. We walk and move before we talk. This is just a new way to do that.
Pranita Nayar (seated) teaching a class at Mandala
here Tradition Meets Tomorrow”
4/ 10 6 PM, Primitive gallery, 130 N. Jefferson, mandalaarts.org, $250/$ 450 per couple (all proceeds benefit Mandala South Asian
Pranita Nayar ARMANI KRISHNAN
Ten years is a huge milestone. How has Mandala changed over the years?
Ten years ago it was a wobbly organization. We were unsure what would happen in the coming years, but now it’s a well-recognized organization in Chicago and beyond. For the last six years, we have been presenting the Mandala Makers Festival, which provides a platform for emerging South Asian artists to present their work. [The next festival will be this summer, dates TBA.] I’m extremely proud of the number of artists we’ve presented who have gone on to become award-winning and critically acclaimed artists. Today we know there’s a future for this kind of art. I don’t feel boxed in by expectations of what makes a successful organization anymore.
What made you feel boxed in before?
I had a lot of pressure to present myself and my work in a certain way. “Stay in the box. You’ll have more opportunities, more funding.” But I didn’t want to do that. I feel strong in my cul-
THEATER
ture. I know my language. I know my identity and this other [Western] identity. I know that I walk two roads. When I launched Mandala, it became a benchmark for me that I was going to walk those two roads and encourage others to do the same. The goal is not assimilation—it is accumulation.
What are you excited about for “Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow”?
It’s an immersive experience. People will be walking through this beautiful space that has a collection of world artifacts and objects, and our dancers are going to activate those through performance. There’s also going to be an ensemble performance toward the end of the evening. The cocktails are inspired by Indian flavors: one is a pink rose-inspired drink, another is mango flavored. There’s also going to be appetizers reflective of modern Indian culture. I’m very excited for Amber Mehta to be there. It’s going to be thrilling. v
m crenken@chicagoreader.com
WHERE LANGUAGE DIVIDES, LOVE CONNECTS
Written by Brian Friel Directed by Braden Abraham
THEATER
OPENING
George Streeter, vaudevillian
The Distrikt of Lake Michigun is fun but slight.
Presented in a storefront on the sixth floor of Water Tower Place, Stage Le Theatre’s premiere of The Distrikt of Lake Michigun by Stephanie Murphy presents the story of Chicago legend George “Cap” Streeter. When his steamboat beached on a sandbar 450 feet off Lake Michigan in 1886, he claimed it as an “independent district,” which later evolved into the present-day neighborhood of Streeterville. Unfortunately, the play’s antics get in the way of storytelling. Seth Wilson’s direction makes the most out of the space’s depth (for the record, it was an American Eagle), and the cast, featuring Andrew Pond as Streeter, Jessika Cutts and Jennifer Mohr as his wives, and a nimble ensemble, struts its stuff in raucous musical and dance interludes.
Yet there’s a sense that the horseplay comes at the expense of plot, and the play ends without revealing much about its subject. Per a cursory Wikipedia search, some of the play’s information about Streeter is simply untrue. Murphy’s script is full of solid metaphors about power and the manufactured American Dream, and when the play serves as satire and not just a container for silliness, The Distrikt of Lake Michigun has a lot of promise. Streeter, a huckster and a fabulist, is an excellent stand-in for any number of corrupt American politicians, so it’s too bad that the show’s message is drowned out by bits. It’s a good time, but in sacrificing plot for hijinks, it runs aground. —ROB SILVERMAN ASCHER THE DISTRIKT OF LAKE MICHIGUN: A MOST LAMENTABLE COMEDY AND MOST RIDICULOUS TRAGEDY (AND ALSO COMPLETELY FACTUAL AND ALSO TRUE) Through 4/27: Fri–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Thu 4/17 7:30 PM, no show Sun 4/20; a vaudeville “curtain raiser” takes place a half hour before each performance; Water Tower Place, 835 N. Michigan, Ste. 7080 (6th floor), stagelefttheatre. com, $40
RSuperheroes, family style
Hannah and Halmoni Save the World offers a sweet intergenerational story at Filament.
Hannah (Emily Zhang) is a seven-year-old girl with an active imagination and an even more active dislike of practicing the flute. Before her mom (Miriam Lee) gets home from work, she and her grandmother Halmoni (Ginger Leopoldo) play at being superheroes, and Hannah does everything she can to forget that playing the flute is on her to-do list from her mom (along with making the bed, taking out the trash, and watering the plants). But in Juliet Kang Huneke’s sweet family story, Hannah and Halmoni Save the World (directed for Filament Theatre by Karina Patel), the greatest challenge Hannah faces is learning to be honest with herself and her family.
The 45-minute play is also a touching paean to wise and loving grandmothers, filled with clever, homespun visuals (created by set designer Mara Ishihara Zinky, props designer Krissi McEachern, lighting designer Seojung Jang, and costume designer Jazmin Aurora Medina) and performances that engage both the younger and older members of the audience. We are enlisted to help with various tasks, from gathering jars of kimchi to building a protective barrier to keep an
asteroid from crashing into a volcano. A small group of audience members provide support for a shadow puppet sequence illustrating why Hannah fears and dislikes her flute lessons. With Grandma Halmoni’s help, Hannah figures out how to overcome her anxiety about disappointing her mom.
Along the way, the effervescent Keimon Shook plays everything from a feral alley cat to an American Idol announcer to mom’s plant, wilting because Hannah forgot to water him. Grandma provides an insight that kids and adults should take to heart: “You’re not a troublemaker. You just made a mistake.” Learning to give yourself a break while trusting and talking to the adults in your life is a solid life lesson, delivered by Filament’s production with wit and verve. —KERRY REID HANNAH AND HALMONI SAVE THE WORLD Through 4/27: Sun 11 AM and 2 PM; Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee, filamenttheatre.org, $18 adults, $15 children, $5 babies, recommended 5+
RMidsummer, remixed
Helena & Hermia in the Enamored Odyssey is an enchanting new musical take on Shakespeare’s comedy.
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the shorter plays in the canon—a fact that is referred to ironically more than once in Helena & Hermia in the Enamored Odyssey, a new musical version of the story created by composer and writer Dominick Alesia for the Impostors. Yet, despite coming in at just under three hours (which is longer than most versions of the original), this show is an absolute treat, filled with strong singing, smart Shakespearean in-jokes, and a view of both the romantic and platonic relationships at the heart of the comedy that contemporizes without preaching.
Staged with a sure and inventive hand by Stefan Roseen in a small space at the Den, this is the best show I’ve seen yet by the Impostors, one of the most consistently engaging and enjoyable young companies in town. (They’re celebrating their sixth season now.)
That theme is present not just in the young lovers. It’s also palpable in the Theseus/Oberon and Hippolyta/ Titania pairings (played here by Gabriel Reitemeier and Tessa Marie Hoffman, respectively, who bring rich operatic voices that fill the small space without overwhelming it). And the friendship of Helena and Hermia (as the title implies) is the real heart of the show. At one point, Juliet (Maya Reyna) pops up to remind them that a lot of other Shakespearean characters (like, say, a teenager whose only female friend is her nurse) admire and even envy what the Double Hs have in each other.
The second act does feel like a little too much of a good thing from time to time (even with the delicious stylings of Ian Rigg’s pompous Nick Bottom), but when a show is this thoughtful and zesty, and boasts an ensemble overflowing with comic chops and melodious voices, that’s hardly a hardship. I hope the Impostors make a cast recording available (perhaps fleshed out with more than just Alesia’s skillful keyboard accompaniment), and I hope that this show gets a life in other theaters around the country. —KERRY REID HELENA & HERMIA IN THE ENAMORED ODYSSEY Through 4/12: Thu–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, theimpostorstheatre.com, $20 general seating, $25 reserved
Edward Hall, who restages it here. (Hall became artistic director at Chicago Shakes in fall of 2023.) And for fans of the Kinks, it should not be missed. For skeptics of the jukebox musical, it may not completely allay complaints about the short shri given to character development in the form. But by showing us how the songs themselves become stand-ins for the emotional and social turmoil of the band and the times (embodied by the yin and yang of introspective Ray Davies and party animal “Dave the Rave”), Sunny A ernoon honors one of the most idiosyncratic bands of the British Invasion.
Ray (Danny Horn), who, as father Fred (John Carlin) notes, “boils at a different temperature,” is the slightly dreamy, off-kilter genius who seemingly channels songs at a frequency others can’t quite hear. The defining tragedy and inspiration of Ray’s life, as emphasized here, was losing his older sister, Rene, on his 13th birthday—right a er she gave him his first electric guitar. (Rene, who had a congenital heart problem, died of a heart attack at London’s Lyceum Ballroom in 1957. The 1983 Kinks hit “Come Dancing” isn’t heard in this show, but takes on fresh poignance in light of the family history.)
In a way, this show is the mirror-world version of Alesia’s 2023 Impostors musical, Miranda: A War-Torn Fable in which two sisters try to reconnect in a world that is, well, war-torn and dystopic. Here, the bucolic forest-and-fairies setting of Shakespeare’s original provides the background for besties Hermia (Shannon McEldowney) and Helena (Anna Roemer) to work out their feelings for each other and the young men, Lysander (Ethan Gasbarro) and Demetrius (Zachary Riley), who both start out besotted with Hermia, but—thanks to the interventions of Puck (a delightfully feral Rachel Borgo)—end up chasing Helena instead.
To put it simply, this is a show that punches above its weight and budget restraints (Roseen does triple duty by also designing the set and sound, and Roemer choreographs) to deliver an enchanting and sometimes quite moving perspective on just what we’ll do for love.
RWaterloo sunset’s fine Sunny A ernoon at Chicago Shakes celebrates the Kinks.
According to a comment on X by Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band and Little Steven’s Underground Garage, “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks was “the beginning of the modern Hard Rock world as we know it. Absolutely incredible that it was a top ten hit single! Unimaginable in today’s boring f****** world.” The comment was made last year in response to Dave Davies of the Kinks noting the song’s 60th anniversary. That song—and many others in the Kinks catalog— shows up to great effect in Sunny A ernoon, the biomusical now onstage at Chicago Shakespeare. Featuring a workmanlike book by playwright Joe Penhall, the show premiered in London in 2014 under the direction of
Penhall’s book tries to hit the high points, but skims past some of the more troubling history (Ray Davies and his first wife and Kinks backup singer, Rasa, played here by Ana Margaret Marcu, divorced in 1973, leading to a suicide attempt by Ray and a subsequent diagnosis with bipolar disorder). In some ways, the story is standard-issue rock ’n’ roll ups and downs: shady management deals, the strains that touring life places on relationships, antics caused by excessive drinking (Oliver Hoare’s Dave Davies literally swings from a chandelier at one point), internecine fights for glory and credit within the band. (The second act starts with a blistering drum solo by Kieran McCabe as Mick Avory, which certainly helps make the case that it wasn’t just the Davies brothers that gave the Kinks their kick.) The show also highlights the band’s problems with U.S. unions. As their father notes, it’s ironic that a group of socialists from the working-class London neighborhood of Muswell Hill should be brought down by labor. The running theme throughout the show, which comes to glorious fruition with Ray’s masterpiece “Waterloo Sunset” late in the show, is that being in a band means learning how to be alone together. And there is so much great music here (“Lola,” the title song, and “Till the End of the Day” among them) and clever, exuberant stagecra that the relative thinness of the book hardly matters. The final medley had everyone on their feet, and I don’t think it was just boomer nostalgia. I think maybe Little Steven had it exactly right. —KERRY REID SUNNY AFTERNOON Through 4/27: Tue 7 PM, Wed 1 and 7 PM, Fri 7 PM, Sat 2 and 7 PM, Sun 2 PM; audio description with touch tour Sun 4/13 2 PM, open captions Wed 4/16 1 and 7 PM, ASL interpretation Fri 4/18 7 PM; Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, 312-595-5600, chicagoshakes.com, $90-$135 v
Helena & Hermia in the Enamored Odyssey SAM BESSLER
RERIC LARUE (2023)
119 min. Fri 4/4 –Thu 4/ 10, Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, $13 general admission, $ 8 students and youth, $ 6 Film Center members, $ 5 SAIC students and faculty and Art Institute staff, siskelfilmcenter.org/eric-larue
Grief, anger, confusion, and empathy: the staying power of Eric LaRue
A conversation with playwright Brett Neveu and filmmaker Michael Shannon
By KAT SACHS
“Chicago playwright Brett Neveu’s 2002 play Eric LaRue is one of the most haunting and bleak experiences I’ve had in the theater, with final moments that have never left my memory,” wrote Reader theater and dance editor Kerry Reid in her review of Michael Shannon’s 2023 film adaptation, his directorial debut. She was referencing the original production of its source material on the occasion of a screening at the Chicago International Film Festival Shannon’s film adaptation of Neveu’s play— which premiered onstage in 2002 at A Red Orchid Theatre, where both Shannon and Neveu are company members—is near arid in its probe of a family following a tragedy. Judy Greer and Alexander Skarsgård star as the parents of a teenage son incarcerated for killling three people in a school shooting; both seek solace from di erent local churches, and this composes the action of the film.
“Thoughts and prayers” are generally all this country has to o er in the wake of such tragedies, which are still happening with little in the way of any direct action. I spoke with Shannon and Neveu about the film, its relevance to the current moment, and what it might say about us.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Kat Sachs: What made now the right time to adapt Eric LaRue for the big screen?
Michael Shannon: Well, frankly, it’s long overdue. I mean, the production I saw was in 2002, and [school shootings] just keep happening, you know? Not that I think the movie is going to put a halt to all of it, but I think I was ready to attempt to direct it, because I just worked with Brett on a play he had written called Traitor [2018], and I’d had such a phenomenal experience . . . and felt, I don’t know, linked to Brett. Brett has a very unique perspective and a unique aesthetic, and I don’t
know if everybody gets it right away, but I felt like I was in the zone, having come o working on Traitor. And I just adored the [Eric LaRue] script so much when I read it, and I loved how Brett had changed it to translate it from a play to a screenplay. I thought he had done it very adroitly and very intelligently, and I loved all the new characters, and I could see in my mind, you know, people inhabiting those parts. I had ideas right away for actors that I wanted to put in there. It just kinda revealed itself to me. It wasn’t something I was looking for. It just kind of fell out of the sky, really. It’s like surfing—if you find the wave, you don’t waste it. Ride it.
The film really critiques institutions and how they process tragedy. I’m curious how you both see it fitting in today’s conversations on grief and accountability.
Brett Neveu: Turning toward the church . . . is what a lot of people do. Especially people who live in small towns, especially in the midwest, there’s a feeling about therapy, about seeing a psychologist, [and] it not being the right decision—or at least, you’ll be judged. . . . So going to the church, whether it’s evangelical or Presbyterian, in the case of this movie, is free. Sort of free. But also [it’s] a step that you don’t necessarily get judged on when you go.
The issue, though, is that it’s faith based, and so there are rules, and there are variations on those rules depending on the church you go to, but there’s always a cost. And it may not be monetary, but sometimes it’s your soul, and who may be fighting over your soul. So that lack of intentional focus sometimes, I think, can be helpful for some, whatever “helpful” might mean in context, or damaging for some, whatever that might mean in context.
I really wanted to explore that, because I feel like that’s a big part of American society that we just do not talk about at all—the depths of how far people can invest in those institutions. We see a lot of—when there’s a school shoot-
Judy Greer as Janice LaRue in Eric LaRue (2023) COURTESY MAGNOLIA PICTURES
FILM
continued from p. 17
ing or where there’s a tragedy that happens in a town—the pastors and churches come out, and they’re like, “We got this.” And I’m like, “Do you, though? Do you?” Because it keeps happening, and as opposed to judging that, exploring it is really important to me because there are churches all over the place. And in this case, I’m not exactly sure how much they help and how much they hurt.
Shannon: At the end of the day, beyond the church environment, they’re just people talking to each other. It could be in the church or outside of the church. I mean, there’s the notion of God—God intervening, God being there to help or assist or support, or help you deal with the situation or whatnot—but separate from that, there’s also just these people. All the characters in the film, they have their own trials and tribulations as well. It’s not just Janice and Ron—I mean, they obviously are dealing with something pretty monumental and traumatic—but you look at Steve, the pastor from the Presbyterian church. He’s going through a hard time himself, and even the people where Janice works, you hear her boss talk about all the problems her coworkers are having. Everybody has problems, and everybody is dealing with their own struggles. And nobody is necessarily finding an outlet or a way to overcome the problems that they’re grappling with.
In American society, there’s this erosion, I feel, of support for people, and this is definitely prevalent right now with what’s happening in the government—the notion that having some things in place, systems in place, mechanisms in place to support people and help them deal with the adversity of their life is not a meaningful or worthwhile thing, that it’s frivolous. And I find that shocking, that we’re not more concerned about each other, and that the concern that is displayed sometimes is a very brittle concern. It’s a very superficial concern, and it is very temporary. It comes, and it goes. And that’s why I feel like this movie is so important, because . . . this is not the only movie that’s been made about school shootings. Obviously, there are some very beautiful, strong pictures that have been made, but they tend to focus on either the event itself or the immediate aftermath of the event. I feel like this is the first film that’s saying, OK, there’s the event, there’s the immediate aftermath, and then there’s something even after that that does not go away. That’s why I felt like this film was so important to make.
How do you both see this kind of storytelling? Is it a means of making sense of tragedy or a way of confronting its unknowability?
Neveu: That second one. I try very hard to o er some sort of, not a solution, but an ending. . . . I like endings. I like stories that have endings. And whether the ending is semiambiguous or not, or leaves people wondering what happened, that’s still an ending to me. But I feel like I’m not offering an answer, or the story doesn’t o er an answer—it o ers a human reaction to everything, the accumulation of everything that’s happened before. Other stories I write have completely di erent endings, maybe similar situations—or in my head, they’re sort of similar situations—but a character makes a di erent decision. And I think that’s it: the o ering of the possibilities for what would you do, or what does this character do?
My goal always is—and maybe this is because I used to be an actor—empathy. It’s like, let’s sit with this person. I mean, there have been studies recently of brain chemistry being changed because of film, because of empathy being felt. You get to feel something, and it changes the way you view a lot of stu . This physically changes the chemicals in your brain. And not that I’m necessarily setting up those giant, lofty goals, but I feel like that is what I want. It helps me. That’s what I’m looking for. . . . I need to understand and o er up some ideas around this so I can just lessen the amount of questions that are in my head, because it can be overwhelming.
Shannon: And I think it’s Death of Salesman . . . where Mrs. Loman says that attention must be paid. That’s what we’re doing. Attention must be paid.
How has your perspective on the story changed since it was first written and staged?
Neveu: It hasn’t changed. Zero. I’m angrier, I guess. But it’s hard to think that I’m angrier now than I was at age 28 because I was a pretty angry young man. I still have flashes of that same anger. But it’s through this process and through the conversations that we have with the cast and crew [and audiences], certainly with Michael and the people I’ve worked with on this story, whether that’s the stage version or the film, I feel like those conversations, that’s the thing that changes—bringing this specific story about people, as Michael
said. It has a school shooting at its center, but it’s about people dealing with a lot of di erent things.
Shannon: If I only had one word to say what it’s about, I would say it’s about confusion. It’s a movie about confusion. It’s a movie about how confusing it is to live in this country. I mean, at the end of the day, you can be outraged about what’s happening or whatever, and I’ve certainly experienced a lot of that over the years. But I’m getting to a point now where, more than anything, I just find it confusing.
And in terms of how it’s changed since I first saw the play . . . the analogy that popped into my head is if you were at a lake or something, and you saw this little toy boat that was just kind of floating in the water by the bank of the lake. Like, back then, it was like that. And now it’s like the boat has just floated out to the middle of the lake, and this fog has rolled in, and it’s just completely mysterious and ominous. Everything is kind of unmoored and untethered, and every day you wake up and you think, “Certainly I cannot be more flab-
“There’s the event, there’s the immediate aftermath, and then there’s something even after that that does not go away.”
bergasted than I have been lately,” and then something happens and you’re like, “Oh, no, I have not reached the threshold of flabbergastedness.” It’s continuing to boggle my mind. And there’s the macro level of that, which is, you know, what’s in the media and the government and whatnot. And then there’s the micro level of that, which is just people dealing with each other and interacting with one another. That’s what I was seeking to highlight in making this film: the extraordinary amount of confusion that people have encountered, even in intimate relationships with people. It’s so strange. Ron and Janice have one child, Eric. It’s a very intimate unit. It’s just three people, and yet you get the sense that these three people don’t know each other at all or have any idea how to interact with one another. I feel like that happens all the time, particularly in our country. It’s like you see people that on the surface are “together,” you know, part of a “community” or a “family,” and they’re complete strangers to one another. And it’s just really disconcerting. v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
Alexander Skarsgård as husband and father Ron LaRue COURTESY MAGNOLIA PICTURES
NOW PLAYING
Holland
On the surface, Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman) inhabits a picture-perfect world. Her charming house, her loving optometrist husband, Fred (Matthew Macfadyen), and her spirited son, Harry (Jude Hill), form an idyllic, enviable tableau. Nancy and Fred are pillars of their twee, suburban midwestern town of Holland, Michigan, with Nancy teaching at a local school. Everything is meticulously arranged, as curated and precise as Fred’s elaborate model train set in the garage. Yet, beneath this veneer of perfection, Mimi Cave’s sophomore feature film, Holland, hints at a disquieting undercurrent, a sense that the pieces are somehow out of order.
This is evident when Nancy panics that she can’t find one of her earrings. Disheveled at the thought of crime infiltrating her manicured life, Nancy berates the babysitter, played by Rachel Sennott, and kicks her out—to her son’s dismay. At first, Nancy’s uproar plays simply, like an uptight suburban mother, but her fixation indicates something else: She can’t take her life at face value.
And so, Nancy narrows in on another budding anxiety. Fred, who frequently leaves for optometry conventions, must be having an affair. Nancy is fueled by a galvanic desire to uncover some plot or conspiracy against her, tasking the lovestruck woodshop teacher Dave Delgado (Gael García Bernal) to help her. The two conspicuous detectives stage an amateur investigation.
It gets messy. Even though what Nancy and Dave uncover is much messier than they anticipated—and painfully predictable—the mess in question is the film itself. Holland frays over and over again, tension building for mere seconds before predictability sets in again. It expects the audience to just understand why Holland might be uncanny, why Nancy pursued a quiet domestic life at first, and why we should care about extramarital espionage. Holland spoon-feeds us 90s nostalgia, half-heartedly paying homage to genuine suburban thrillers from 20-plus years ago. The only shock value is delivered in tepid dream sequences that, in retrospect, dilute the narrative a er you realize they serve nearly no purpose but to explicitly scream, “Nancy is worried and probably right!”
To no one’s surprise, there is a sinister underbelly to the Vandergroots’ perfect life. But by the time the climax arrives, it feels like a tired retread of bygone thrillers, leaving audiences feeling that the film’s lens is severely out of focus. —MAXWELL RABB R, 108 min. Prime
R Julie Keeps Quiet
Julie Keeps Quiet doesn’t have scenes; instead, the film is made up of fragments. The camera is static, and cuts almost always move the audience into the next piece of this collage of moments. There are no shot–reverse shot conversations, and the camera doesn’t follow characters’ movements through space. The closest
the filmmakers offer to traditional cuts within a single period are cuts from close-ups to medium-wides, allowing us to see more characters, but they don’t adjust our angle, ensuring that we remain centered on the titular Julie (Tessa Van den Broeck in an astonishing debut performance).
All that technical precision may not matter to some viewers, but it makes itself felt whether it’s specifically noticed or not. The film is about this particular teenage girl and her experience; it’s not a social drama or a message movie, despite what its logline may lead us to believe. The premise—that a coach at Julie’s tennis club has been suspended and each member answers an investigator’s questions while Julie keeps quiet—could easily turn into something obvious and preachy. But the view director Leonardo Van Dijl offers keeps us always focused on the individual.
That focus allows us to see how Julie responds to new information, how she moves around different people, when she does and does not advocate for herself, and more. The choice to so tightly lock our perspective on her without placing us in her perspective forces us to consider the ways the adults in her life have failed to see her, functioning almost as a directive for us to pay attention to the young people in our lives and the way they communicate without speaking directly. —KYLE LOGAN 100 min. Gene Siskel Film Center
ROut of the Picture
More than a decade ago, journalist Deborah Solomon opined that there were fewer than ten full-time art critics employed in the U.S. While it’s hard to get a precise count, odds are that number is even lower now, as media outlets across the country have shed more than 20,000 jobs since then. (And, no, Chicago doesn’t have one.)
Longtime art critic Mary Louise Schumacher tackles this free fall in her new documentary, Out of the Picture Schumacher spent more than ten years tracking the rapid changes in arts writing through film, covering the rise in online media outlets and the flailing of more traditional print media. Then, in 2019, Schumacher was let go from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a er nearly two decades, so she doubled down on the documentary, ultimately focusing on a handful of arts writers to illustrate the field today.
The most poignant story belongs to Jen Graves, the former art critic of Seattle’s alt-weekly the Stranger When the paper started asking her—a Pulitzer prize finalist—to start writing shorter, faster pieces, ostensibly geared toward an online, clickbaity audience, she decided to leave. We see her packing up her office in the middle of the night; then it cuts to her next gig: cleaning offices. According to the film, she was the last full-time art critic in the Pacific Northwest. What do we, as a society, lose when we lose our critics—the people whose job it is to make sense of our culture, and by extension, our world?
Schumacher doesn’t tie things up in a bow for the audience, but she does end on a positive note, praising the new, inventive ways that writers are finding and connecting to audiences. I do wish she’d devoted a bit more time, as she noted in a series of articles for NeimanReports, to the unsustainability of the field. A 2017 survey she conducted of more than 300 arts writers found that fewer than 20 were making more than $80,000 per year; a third of respondents said their jobs were “not at all secure”; and more than half made $20,000 or less per year. For all the changes in criticism over the past two decades, it’s clearly not enough. If it doesn’t become more open and more equitable to nontraditional writers, it’s going to continue to feel out of touch for today’s readers. —KERRY CARDOZA 98 min.
Limited screening tour
RWarfare
We’ve heard of tone poems, auteurist pieces, and actors’ films, but Warfare may be the first sound department film. The deafening blasts of gunfire, the concussive bangs of grenades and improvised explosive devices, and the warbly echoes of voices that struggle to make themselves known in the wake of violence are front and center throughout the film. Sound editor Ben Barker, designer Glenn Freemantle (an Oscar winner for his work on 2013’s Gravity), and mixer Mitch Low make Warfare a complex sonic assault that draws us into the anxious, shell-shocked perspective of the young men at its center.
Based on “only their memories,” as the opening onscreen text informs us, Warfare portrays a horrific event in the lives of a platoon of Navy SEALs in 2006 Iraq—specifically, the platoon that cowriter-director Ray Mendoza belonged to when he was a soldier. The film’s script was cra ed by Mendoza and fellow cowriter-director Alex Garland based on interviews with the members of Mendoza’s platoon in an attempt to develop an accurate re-creation of the incident.
At the film’s Chicago premiere, held at the Music Box Theatre on March 16, Mendoza said the film’s goals are twofold: first, to function as a conversation starter between veterans who o en have difficulty communicating with civilians, and second, to help his platoon-mate Elliott (played in the film by Shōgun’s Cosmo Jarvis), who was severely wounded and hasn’t been able to remember what happened to him, better understand the experience that changed his life.
It’s an ambitious combination of social and personal goals, and only time will tell how successful it is. But there is no doubt that Warfare is, to this civilian’s eyes and rattled ears, the most effective any film has been at
not only communicating but sharing the mental state of soldiers in warfare. —KYLE LOGAN R, 95 min. Wide release in theaters
RA Working Man
A Working Man plays like a mashup of John Wick (2014) and Taken (2008), combining the “Russian gangster’s son messed with the wrong guy” and “human traffickers messed with the wrong guy” premises into something aggressively unoriginal. That’s not a slight, as the movie turns that unoriginality into a feature rather than a bug; it’s a trick that star Jason Statham and director-cowriter David Ayer de ly pulled off with their last film together, The Beekeeper (2024).
Statham’s Levon is a quintessential “wrong guy,” an ex-Royal Marine who now works as a construction crew leader for a family business. When his boss’s daughter is kidnapped, he begins an investigation/killing spree that pits him against quintessential bad guys whose looks have been turned up to eleven. The Russian gangsters wear gilded tracksuits with matching bucket hats, while the leader of a meth-dealing biker gang sits on a throne of motorcycle parts.
It’s that turned-up aspect that makes A Working Man, well, work. Rather than attempting to differentiate itself from the archetypes and narrative beats viewers know well, the movie leans into them, making them absurd without ever turning into an outright comedy. Lines like “No half measures,” “You wish I was a cop,” and an o -repeated “I’m gonna bring her home” are perfectly at home and transcend their roteness by virtue of being overdeployed.
The action isn’t quite as spectacularly over-the-top as the narrative, but its simple, brutal choreography with a focus on impact over fluidity and two standout vehicular set pieces ensure that A Working Man doesn’t skimp on its required violent delights, either.
While it’s a bit too densely plotted, leading to an unnecessarily long runtime, the almost giddy selfawareness and solid action make A Working Man another hypercliche winner for Statham and Ayer. —KYLE LOGAN R, 116 min. Wide release in theaters v
Out of the Picture MARY LOUISE SCHUMACHER
THE SECRET HISTORY OF CHICAGO MUSIC
Jim Brewer kept country blues alive in the big city
He gigged for decades at No Exit and the Maxwell Street market, but he didn’t leave a recorded legacy commensurate to his importance.
By STEVE KRAKOW
Since 2005 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.
When you think of Chicago blues, you probably hear electric guitar. Electrified blues dominated the genre after World War II, and its charged six-string crackle became the foundation of R&B and rock ’n’ roll. But for decades, guitarist Jim Brewer sustained the unplugged prewar sound of country blues—by the time of his death in 1988, he was one of its last original practitioners. His unadorned, idiosyncratic playing had a raw sincerity rarely heard in bigger, more polished bands.
Like many great Chicago bluesmen, Brewer came here from Mississippi, where he was born in the town of Brookhaven on October 3, 1920. The eldest of seven siblings, Brewer lost his sight to an illness as a child. Brewer’s mother sang gospel in church, while his father played blues guitar and piano.
Brewer’s father gave him a guitar when he was seven or eight, and he learned religious songs and popular blues and folk tunes. His mother wanted him to play gospel, but his father thought Brewer would make more money playing blues—and Brewer had to think about how to pay his own way during the Great Depression. As a teenager, he began to play his
growing repertoire on the streets of Brookhaven. Soon he was traveling more widely.
“Brewer left home early and scuffled throughout the south in the 1930s, riding freights and sleeping in barns while making a living playing music on the small-town streets and at private parties,” wrote blues scholar David Whiteis in a Reader story on the occasion of Brewer’s death. “It was the classic hard life of the itinerant musician, made harder by his blindness.”
When Brewer’s mother died, his family migrated to Chicago. Whiteis says Brewer came here with them in 1940, while various liner notes say he followed a year later, arriving in 1940 or ’41. In any case, Brewer immediately began to play on 43rd and 47th streets, near the family home. He developed an a nity for blues guitarists of an older generation, includ-
ing Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red. He also started busking at the famous Maxwell Street market, an important blues incubator where countless future legends cut their teeth. With his powerful voice and passionate playing, he could be heard without amplification, and he’d continue to turn up at the market for decades. In the early 1950s, Brewer spent three years in Saint Louis. He played on the streets, on streetcars, and in bars, and for the hell of it he joined a washboard-and-jug band. After Brewer returned to Chicago, he met and married his wife, Fannie, who was also blind. She would often accompany him on Maxwell Street. Fannie’s mother gifted Brewer a solid-body electric guitar and amplifier—the first decent gear he’d owned. In the late 1950s, Brewer switched to singing almost exclusively gospel, weary of the trouble that dogged the blues scene.
Brewer would change course again during the folk-blues revival of the 1960s, a phenomenon driven by a new and mostly white audience. Two decades into his tenure on Maxwell Street, he was “discovered” in 1962 by two white college students, who asked him if he’d play some blues numbers. He made instant fans of them with his rootsy Mississippi Delta sound and his way of working a crowd.
“Brewer was the kind of musician the young enthusiasts had read about and dreamt of, but seldom seen,” Whiteis wrote. “He was a witty, garrulous entertainer whose ribald sense of humor, personal warmth, and soft-spoken eloquence allowed him to establish intimate rapport with an audience. ‘Take it easy, greasy!’ he’d chuckle to his guitar, in a voice alternately gritty and tender, after a particularly deft solo.”
STEVE KRAKOW FOR CHICAGO READER
Brewer’s encounter with those students led to a concert booking at Northwestern University. He arrived early for his set and used that time to visit No Exit, then still in Evanston. He auditioned for Joe Moore, the cafe’s owner at the time, and ended up with a regular gig at No Exit that lasted more than two decades.
The audience created by the folk-blues revival allowed Brewer to gig much more widely than before, at clubs, colleges, and festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada. He was afraid of flying, though, and only ever toured Europe once, very late in life. Whiteis quoted him as saying, “I’d rather see a man with no head walk toward me than fly!”
set at Kirkland College in upstate New York, and it features driving Brewer originals, traditional numbers, and songs by blues elders such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, W.C. Handy,
mother didn’t name me ‘Blind,’ she named me ‘Jim.’” He was a sensitive soul, preoccupied with mortality and worried about injury, perhaps because his blindness made him vulnerable.
Like many country bluesmen, Brewer didn’t bother to play in a strict meter when he didn’t have accompanists who needed to follow him, and his lines expand and contract like a breathing thing.
When he was in Chicago, Brewer kept up his Sunday appearances at Maxwell Street— according to a map of the market published in 1975 by Living Blues magazine, his regular spot was at 14th and Newberry. The reputation he’d built there had already led to his first published recording: Brewer’s 1960 version of “I’m So Glad Good Whiskey’s Back” appeared on the 1961 compilation Blues From Maxwell Street, which also featured the likes of Blind Arvella Gray (with whom Brewer often performed) and Daddy Stovepipe.
Paul Oliver, an English scholar of architecture and the blues, played a big role in assembling that collection (he wrote the liner notes and organized some of the sessions, including Brewer’s). In 1965, Oliver released another compilation, this one of recordings from the midwest and south. Brewer didn’t appear on the original LP release of Conversation With the Blues: A Documentary of Field Recordings by Paul Oliver, but when it came out on CD in 1997, it included several songs that paired him with Gray.
In 1964, Brewer appeared with Fannie on the compilation Can’t Keep From Crying: Topical Blues on the Death of President Kennedy, where the company they kept included Otis Spann and Big Joe Williams. In 1966, a Brewer track showed up on Ramblin’ on My Mind: A Collection of Classic Train and Travel Blues, which also included David “Honeyboy” Edwards, another beloved Chicago country bluesman.
Brewer didn’t release an LP under his own name till he was in his mid-50s: Vermont label Philo Records released his self-titled solo debut in 1974. The album captures a 1973 live
Tampa Red, and Big Bill Broonzy.
In 1975, Brewer appeared on the TV show Introduction to Folklore , talking about the meaning of the blues, his experiences on the chitlin’ circuit, and his influences. Thankfully he spends most of the show playing songs, demonstrating his gru , lonesome pipes and alchemical acoustic guitar. Like many country bluesmen, Brewer didn’t bother to play in a strict meter when he didn’t have accompanists who needed to follow him, and his lines expand and contract like a breathing thing.
By that point, Brewer had been on TV and radio several times, and he’s featured in Mike Shea’s iconic documentary on Maxwell Street, And This Is Free . He was filmed in late 1964 playing gospel with vocalists Carrie Robinson, Mother Mary Northern, and Amos Gilmore as well as fellow guitarist Albert Holland (sometimes given as Hollins).
In the late 70s, Earwig Records owner Michael Frank became Brewer’s manager, and in 1983, Earwig released Brewer’s second and final solo album, Tough Luck. Frank produced the LP, portions of which were recorded in 1978 in DeKalb, in 1982 in Chicago, and live in 1980 at the ninth annual Gambier Folk Festival in Gambier, Ohio. Brewer plays originals and covers of prewar blues innovators such as Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson, and Big Maceo Merriweather.
I’ve read that Brewer sometimes departed from his usual arrangement of voice and acoustic guitar to play autoharp, piano, or electric guitar, and late in life he even used a drum machine. But because he recorded so infrequently, I haven’t been able to hear any of that. No matter the setting, though, he stuck to elemental, hardship-baked blues.
Brewer disliked being billed as “Blind Jim Brewer,” and he’s often quoted as saying, “My
After Brewer finished his only European tour, the promoter wanted to talk about a return trip, but Brewer refused to fly again. In any case, he probably wouldn’t have had time for another tour. Brewer died in his sleep from heart failure at his Chicago Housing Authority apartment on June 3, 1988. He’s buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip. His old pals Homesick James and Andy Cohen raised money for a gravestone at a benefit in Brookfield the month after he passed.
“Along with David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards and Homesick James, he was among the last of the seminal generation of acoustic guitarists who lived and played in the rich folk tradition that was the progenitor of Chicago blues and, through it, most of what passes for popular music today.” Amen. v
The radio version of the Secret History of Chicago Music airs on Outside the Loop on WGN Radio 720 AM, Saturdays at 5 AM with host Mike Stephen. Past shows are archived at outsidetheloopradio.com/tag/secrethistory-of-chicago-music.
To close this tale, I’ll return to words published in the Reader almost 37 years ago, a few weeks after Brewer’s death. “Brewer let his deep blues feeling and versatility shine,” wrote David Whiteis. “He was a ‘songster,’ encompassing over half a century of black folk tradition and caring little for artificial distinctions among di erent kinds of music.”
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Ukrainian folk-pop ensemble Yagódy spread power and hope
THURSDAY3
Sex Mex Answering Machines and Jason Shapiro open. 8 PM, Fallen Log, 2554 W. Diversey, $10. b
San Antonio musician Clark Gray launched Sex Mex in 2021 as a solo project, recording lo-fi garage pop at home and performing alone with backing tracks to get his music out into the world. He later expanded Sex Mex into a full band, but he’s since gotten rid of it, and last fall he declared on Instagram that he never wants other people to be part of his writing process again. Gray’s music melts down Ramonesstyle punk, new wave, electro-pop, and more into a high-octane radioactive ooze whose simmering alienation and rage doesn’t prevent it from sounding euphoric. (The cover art for the 2024 Sex Mex compilation Repackaged looks like a Tootsie Roll wrapper, with an ingredients list that includes “Sugar, Corn Syrup, Anger, Nihilism, Longing, Entry Level Synthesizers & Organs.”) Gray’s irreverent lyrics and upbeat vocal delivery will bring a smile to your face even as you wonder what the fuck he’s talking about: “Supercouch,” off Sex Mex ’22, seems to be an ode to a piece of furniture with robotic arms that can jerk him off. In February, Sex Mex released Sixteen Minutes of Hits , a flurry of snarling power-pop melodies, adrenalized beats, and relatable tales for current and former disaffected punk youth. The effusive “#1 Fan,” which recalls the Vaselines’ twee indie pop, riffs on the demands and delusions of the biggest devotees of unknown bands. “Too Young” laments an unrequited crush on an older woman, while “I Love Everyone” is a joyful takedown of so-called fans who treat musicians like garbage until they see a glimmer of success. For this tour, Sex Mex will be traveling as a party of two, and Gray will be singing and playing drums.
—JAMIE LUDWIG
FRIDAY4
Ra Bishop 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15, $5 livestream. 18+
Wed 4/9, 7:30 PM, Old Town School of Folk Music, Maurer Hall, 4544 N. Lincoln, $30 VIP meet and greet. b F
YAGÓDY ARE A UKRAINIAN FOLK-POP BAND driven by the haunting four-part vocal harmonies of Zoryana Dybovksa, Vasylyna Voloshyn, hand percussionist Tetiana Voitiv, and accordionist Nadiia Parashchuk. Founded by Dybovksa in Lviv in 2016, the charismatic group (whose name means “berries”) have a repertoire that consists primarily of Ukrainian, Slavic, and Balkan folk songs translated into a highly theatrical style that draws on pop, rock, hip-hop, and various global sounds. The women create tension and drama as they interweave their voices, so that their songs feel like they’re ringing out from the hills with a primal energy that’s been polished up and projected across the sky.
In 2021, Yagódy dropped their self-titled debut full-length, which features ten reimagined traditional songs. They’ve since released a steady stream of singles, including 2024’s arresting protest song “Tsunamia,” which is also their first original composition. Its lyrics cast everyday
people as mighty and healing seas in the face of a mutual threat, and though they’re in Ukrainian, the song’s message of survival, resistance, and rage comes through loud and clear no matter what language you speak. “Tsunamia” was shortlisted for Eurovision 2024, and in January, Yagódy competed in the international music contest again, this time with “Bramaya,” which dreams of peace throughout the land. They have plans to release a second album later this year or in 2026.
This show is part of Yagódy’s first U.S. tour, and it comes at a pivotal historical moment for their country and ours, as alliances are broken and reshu ed in service of authoritarian power grabs. While music alone cannot save Ukraine (or any other country), the collective experience of a Yagódy concert can help shore up your spirits and renew your commitment to solidarity. In that sense, I expect Chicago to give Yagódy a spectacular welcome.
—MONICA KENDRICK
In the early 1990s, trombonist Jeb Bishop became an essential part of Chicago’s musically and geographically outward-looking jazz community. His mastery of the full spectrum of trombone language, from earthy melody to abstract sound effects, made him indispensable in every band he joined—including the Vandermark 5, Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet, School Days, and Engines—and the indelible quality of his compositions made his recordings with his own bands landmarks of the era. Bishop le Chicago for a decade in 2012, spending years in North Carolina and then Massachusetts, where he forged enduring relationships with saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra and pianist Pandelis Karayorgis. When he returned to town in 2022, he knew that he couldn’t just pick up where he le off. As he told the Reader at the time, “It’s not gonna be like I’ve never le , and I don’t want it to be. You can’t go back like that. Chicago’s not the same. I’m not the same.”
While Bishop has kept up ties with old mates, including drummers Tim Daisy and Weasel Walter, his new ensemble Ra Bishop features two play-
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ers affiliated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (a community he didn’t engage with much before his move) and another who was still in high school when Bishop le town.
Avreeayl Ra first played with Bishop shortly a er his return, when the drummer joined the Chicago Edge Ensemble led by guitarist Dan Phillips; since the 1960s, Ra has contributed his versatile and dynamic playing to the music of Sun Ra, Phil Cohran, Nicole Mitchell, and countless others. Woodwinds and didgeridoo player Edward Wilkerson Jr. has led
intriguingly orchestrated ensembles such as Shadow Vignettes and Eight Bold Souls since the 1980s, and he’s a vital participant in the total improv collective Extraordinary Popular Delusions. And since moving to Chicago in 2022, pianist Erez Dessel has become a ubiquitous presence in ad hoc improvising groups as well a member of Ken Vandermark’s Edition Redux. Ra Bishop’s debut CD, Of the Essence (Amalgam), features a quartet set recorded live at the Hungry Brain last year; the download adds a set without Dessel, who arrived late from a recording session elsewhere in town. The material
is completely improvised, but the ensemble transitions fluidly between complex pointillism, earthy grooving, and primal shamanism while patiently developing each aspect of the music. This concert celebrates the album’s release. —BILL MEYER
SATURDAY5
Mabe Fratti Diles Que No Me Maten and Sing Leaf open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $20. 21+
Mabe Fratti carves labyrinthian soundscapes that mesmerize and intrigue in equal measure. Raised in Guatemala City, Fratti began playing cello at age eight. She’s since relocated to Mexico City, where she’s become an integral part of the fertile local avant-garde music scene. Over the course of four albums and several collaborative records with the likes of German DJ Gudrun Gut and Mexican folkrock band Belafonte Sensacional, she’s honed a singular artistic approach.
Fratti uses electronic effects to process her cello and build scaffolding loops, o en adding intertwining layers of synthesizers. (On last year’s Sentir Que No Sabes , whose title translates to “Feeling Like You Don’t Know,” her band also includes guitar, piano, drums, and trumpet.) Sometimes she sings wordlessly, sometimes in Spanish, and her arrangements o en treat her voice like another textural element in their sonic space; she bends and elongates her words in murmurs and chants, like poetic conjurations shaped to fit pop-infused melodies. Fratti’s heady universe is immersive and revelatory, filled with moments of ethereal beauty and contrasting eruptions of deliberate dissonance. She gives us the refreshing opportunity to explore sentiments and contemplate questions, and she doesn’t demand certainty or resolution. On “Pantalla Azul,” Fratti
sings, “What to do with all these pieces? / To await a miracle.” —CATALINA MARIA JOHNSON
Dom Kennedy Casey Veggies opens. 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 1375 W. Lake, sold out (wait list available). 17+
West-coast rapper Dom Kennedy is respected for his effortless flow and down-to-earth demeanor, and his music reminds us that it could all be so simple. On fan favorites, including 2008’s “Watermelon Sundae” and 2013’s “An Intermission for Watts,” Kennedy portrays everyday life, making mundane inner-city happenings feel like aspirational dreams. On “In the Daytime,” off 2008’s 25th Hour, he samples the R&B classic “Intimate Friends” by Temptations cofounder Eddie Kendricks, and its sweet, sentimental Motown sound romanticizes the simple act of running errands. “In the daytime,” he raps, “I cruise the city and mind the ladies’ waistlines / To the bass line / Some old Quik shit.” It feels like riding shotgun in a 1980 Chevy Malibu with the windows down, sun-kissed in the so breeze, while the driver greets neighbors with a friendly honk and the flash of a peace sign. Though hip-hop o en centers lavish, ostentatious lifestyles, Kennedy tells the stories of those le out of that mainstream conversation, and he especially likes to champion Leimert Park, the culturally rich Los Angles neighborhood where he grew up.
MUSIC
Nearly 20 years into his career, Kennedy is proof that making it as an independent artist isn’t a sprint but a marathon. In 2010, he founded his own label, Other People’s Money (OPM), and though Interscope approached him about a deal in 2013, he’s continued to release his records through OPM— most recently last year’s Class of 95, a 19-track project that shows off his word-painting lyrical reveries over melodious beats. At this show, Kennedy will be joined by a fellow west-coast hip-hop veteran, Odd Future cofounder Casey Veggies, who made waves locally when he teamed up with Chicago rapper Rocky Fresh for the 2019 collaborative EP Fresh Veggies. Whether Kennedy plays new material or pulls out deep cuts from his lengthy catalog, his laid-back raps and placid LA vibe will make for a perfect way to thaw into the Windy City spring. —SHAWNEE DAY
MONDAY7
Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $41, $61 balcony, $486 sixperson opera box. 17+
Guitarist and producer Ebo Taylor and vocalist Pat Thomas launched their careers in Ghana, but their individual and combined bodies of work—which traverse highlife, funk, jazz, Afrobeat and more—now
MUSIC
continued from p. 25
stand as testaments to Africa’s global influence. Born in Cape Coast, Ghana, in 1936, Taylor began shaking up the music world in the late 1950s as leader and producer of the Stargazers, part of the wave of postwar bands that helped popularize the jazzy, refreshing sounds of highlife. In 1962, Taylor brought a different group, the Black Star Highlife Band, to the UK, where he studied at London’s Eric Gilder School of Music and explored new genres and studio techniques. While in the UK he also developed community with fellow African musicians, including Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, Afro-pop saxophonist Teddy Osei, and Ghanaian jazz-rock drummer Sol Amarfio (who later cofounded legendary African-Carribean group Osibisa). Taylor returned
to Ghana in 1965 and worked as a producer and arranger before founding legendary highlife band the Blue Monks in 1970.
Thomas, who’s ten years Taylor’s junior, moved from his native Agona to Accra the following year to join Taylor and his crew, and they’ve collaborated on and off ever since. Their infectious, feel-good music on 1984’s Pat Thomas & Ebo Taylor rests on a foundation of pulsating, repetitive rhythms cra ed from intricate layers of traditional and electronic instruments, including axatse (a close relative of the shekere), gankogui (a double bell also called an agogo), keyboard, and guitar, all further elevated by masterful, genre-bending horn arrangements.
Taylor and Thomas are currently on the road for Taylor’s final U.S. tour, which he’s using to say fare-
well to his fans while sharing the wealth of wisdom he’s accumulated in a career nearly seven decades long. Together, Thomas and Taylor remind us of the unifying language of music, and if you’re lucky enough to witness their powerhouse partnership in the flesh, you won’t regret it. —SHAWNEE DAY
TUESDAY8
Mac Ayres 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $35, $360 opera box for six. 17+
New York singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mac Ayres is underrated in the world of R&B. His music draws inspiration from greats such as D’Angelo and Stevie Wonder, and his easygoing, soulful voice sounds pleasing on recordings and downright prodigious in person. On his current tour, he’s pared down his usual full-band production to a solo piano show. (He’s typically accompanied by drummer Chris Anderson, guitarist and bassist Paul “Papa Bear” Johnson, saxophonist and keyboardist Zach Berro, and keyboardist Jordan Robertson.) This more relaxed setting should offer an excellent showcase for his crystalline singing.
Ayres taught himself to play music while growing up in Long Island, New York. He later attended Berklee College of Music, but he dropped out before graduation to become an independent artist. His experiences since then have led him to become outspoken about finding freedom on nontraditional paths and making music less for industry success and more for the love of the cra . He self-released his debut EP on Soundcloud in 2016, then broke out the following year with a second EP, Drive Slow “Easy,” a single from that EP, is a love song with a comfortable groove that provides an introduction to Ayres’s considerable talents. He’s since released three full-lengths as well as a third EP. Ayres’s most recent release is 2024’s Cloudy , a
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compilation of 15 tracks curated from his late-2010s Soundcloud output. This collection sheds light on his artistic development, because his early material is noticeably simpler than his newer songs. On “Since You Been Gone I Been Lonely,” for example, he just riffs on the titular phrase to his heart’s content over a catchy, gradually intensifying beat. Whereas Ayres’s 2023 album, Comfortable Enough, felt like a natural evolutionary step in his songwriting and style, with elements of jazz and more cohesive transitions, Cloudy captures his younger self and nascent artistry—and it doubles as a nostalgic gi for longtime fans.
Much of Ayres’s material feels like it would be perfect to adapt for piano. At this Thalia Hall concert, I hope to hear passionate, slow-burning tunes from across his catalog, including “I’ll Be Your Home Now,” “Summertime,” and “Stay.” Ayres will return to Chicago in July to open for Keshi at the Salt Shed, but it’ll be worth catching him in the spotlight in this relatively cozy setting.
—TARYN
MCFADDEN
WEDNESDAY9
Los Pirañas La Rosa Noir and Future Rootz open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $20. 21+
Los Pirañas are a supergroup of Colombian rock ’n’ rollers who do tripped-out takes on Latine party music—they celebrate their vast musical heritage not as a cultural artifact but as a breathing and constantly evolving organism. At the trio’s heart is Edris Álvarez, a composer and guitarist best known as founder and bandleader of the Meridian Brothers, a long-running project that takes roots music into avant-garde territory. In Los Pirañas, he’s joined by some old high school classmates: drummer Pedro Ojeda, who also performs with Álvarez in playful tropicalia group Romperayo, and bassist Mario Galeano Toro, founder of lauded cumbia band Frente Cumbiero.
When their powers combine, the trio find frisky ways to draw through lines between psychedelic rock and traditional Indigenous and Afro-Colombian genres such as vallenato and champeta, creating a punked-out tapestry of sounds that zigzag through their homeland. My favorite Los Pirañas album is 2019’s Historia Natural, which situates their sprawling repertoire in an atmosphere of heavy riffs and gauzy distortion that feels controlled by some kind of Dada genius—it’s sophisticated and goofy in a way that distinguishes great rock records from good ones. But their brand-new Una Oportunidad Más de Triunfar en la Vida is also a banger, leaning into a free-jazz spirit of improvisation. It’s a bit of a slow burn, but its tracks build toward scorching freak riffs and delightfully off-kilter moments, and by the end of the record they’re coming harder and faster. Los Pirañas are bringing that freewheeling, barn-burner attitude to the Empty Bottle, so grab a ticket if you think you can stand the heat. —MICCO CAPORALE
Yagódy See Pick of the Week on page 22. 7:30 PM, Old Town School of Folk Music, Maurer Hall, 4544 N. Lincoln, $30 VIP meet and greet. b F v
Mac Ayres SHERVIN LAINEZ
Ebo Taylor COURTESY THE ARTIST
Los Pirañas COURTESY THE ARTIST
SAVAGE LOVE
SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS
Quickies
Don’t do what you want without asking first, mud pits, and other answers to quick questions
By DAN SAVAGE
Q : How does one find the clitoris?
a : I’m told the clitoris is not hard to find—go north, young man—but if one tries to find it and one fails, one should pull over (or pull out) and ask for directions.
Q : If someone tells you to “do whatever you want,” should you?
a : Someone who says that and means it is eventually going to say it to the wrong person and get hurt. They’re a danger to themselves. Someone who hears that and takes it as license to do whatever they want is a danger to others. So, a decent person—by definition— wouldn’t do whatever they wanted to someone who told them to do whatever they wanted. And seeing as you’re a reader of mine, I’m hoping you’re a decent person.
P.S. People who say “do whatever you want” don’t mean it. What they mean is this: “I’m too embarrassed to ask for what I want, so I want you to guess.” Never guess.
Q : I’ve been with my partner for eight months now. I’m a small woman and seem to be even smaller down there. There’s not much I can do in the bedroom without getting hurt. We have tried different positions but more than half cause me to bleed so we’re le with maybe three positions that work. I can see he gets frustrated with being limited. Is there any way to make myself slightly bigger to give him more room to have fun?
a: Most straight couples experiment with different positions before landing on a few that work for them, that is, positions and angles of penetration that work best for their bodies during penisin-vagina sex (PIV). Those positions become their go-to or default positions. There are lots of ways two people can enjoy each other prior to having PIV in a position that is pleasurable for both partners. Two people can also enjoy each other (and get each other off ) without having penetrative sex. If your boyfriend is pushing you to have PIV sex in positions that are painful for you, he’s a selfish asshole and you should DTMFA (dump the motherfucker already).
Q : Should a woman “prep” every time before doing anything anal—even just a plug?
a : A woman who can’t tolerate even a chance of mess should “prep” (read: douche) before anal. If someone is into anal but squeamish about mess, he should ask his female partner to prep and show his gratitude for the effort with something other than his dick. As for butt plugs: since they don’t go in and out during sex, they don’t require prep. If you’re concerned about what a plug might look like when it comes out, head to the bathroom once the fun is over and remove on your own.
Q : I went to HUMP! 2025 Part One. I want to know more about the mud pit used in one the films! Is that
wrestling pit open to the public? What kind of mud is that? Why is it so hot?
a : “The magical muck in our pit is pure kaolin clay, which we buy in bulk from ceramic supply stores,” said MuddyBuck, cocreator and costar of Pit of Pleasure, one of the more than 20 brand-new HUMP! films now touring the country. “It’s skin-safe, silky smooth, and creates that perfect viscous consistency that lets bodies slide against each other in the most delicious ways.” While the mud pit featured in Pit of Pleasure isn’t open to the public, the team behind the film hosts private sessions for vetted folks at their home base. “Anyone interested in joining the Brotherhood of Mudsters can slide into our DMs,” said MuddyBuck. “As for what draws us to mud play, it’s the ultimate bodyblurring experience. The boundaries between you and your partner literally melt away as you’re coated in this primordial goo. It’s like sensory deprivation and sensory overload simultaneously—perfect for kinky minds who get off on that liminal space between self and other.”
F ollow MuddyBuck at Bluesky (muddybuck.bsky. social). HUMP! 2025 Part One visits the Music Box April 18 and 19. Watch the trailer and buy tickets at humpfilmfest.com. v
Read the rest of this column and more at the URL savage.love. m mailbox@savage.love
CLASSIFIEDS
JOBS
Drupal Technical Lead / Web Architect National Council of Young Men’s Christian Associations of the United States of America d/b/a/ YMCA in Chicago, IL seeks a Drupal Technical Lead / Web Architect to perform website-building activities. 100% remote position. Reqs MS+2 yrs exp / BS + 5 yrs exp. To apply, visit https:// www.ymca.org/ get-involved/careers must reference job title: Drupal Technical Lead / Web Architect.
DePaul University seeks Web Application Developers for various & unanticipated work sites throughout the U.S. (HQ: Chicago, IL) to maintain & enhance sw apps & related data infrastructure. Bachelor’s in Comp Sci/ Comp Eng/Info Tech/ E-Comm Tech/related field+3yrs exp req’d. Skills Req’d: Must have prev exp in higher ed environment w/full SDLC, architecting; cloud tech, .NET, Blazor, ASP.NET, NET API; Oracle & other relational databases; PL/ SQL, Stored Procedures, C#, CSS3; HTML5, JavaScript, JQuery for frontend development; SQL server; LINQ, XAML, Oracle SQL, Visual Studio, SQL Server mgmt Studio, Postman, Chrome DevTools, distributed version control systems (Git, Team Foundation
Version Control); MVC; Bootstrap. Telecommuting Permitted. $89,336$98,224/yr. Apply online: https://offices.depaul. edu/human-resources/ careers, (benefits linked here) REQ ID: 1694
Tempus AI seeks a Senior Software Engineer in Chicago, IL, to build next-generation healthcare platforms and tools using modern software technologies. Telecommuting is permitted. Wage range $105,310.00 - 167,000.00. Apply at https://www. jobpostingtoday. com/ Ref #11219
Research Analyst Research Analyst, Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, Chicago, IL. Help the community learn what offerings they need to provide, to whom to market these offerings to & how to promote them using focus groups, design/ conduct surveys in partnership w/ academic research & community organizations, prepare data analysis reports & presentations in English and/or Chinese & assist community partners w/marketing campaigns. Req: bachelor’s in marketing analytics, marketing, or related field. Must be fluent in Chinese. Email resume to admin@ cbcacchicago.org.
Northwestern University seeks Assistant Professor of Instruction in Italian for Evanston, IL. Ph.D. or ABD in Italian or in a related field required. Must demonstrate native or near-native proficiency in Italian & English. Education or experience must incl:
teaching Italian as FL/ L2. Applications must include cover letter, CV, a statement of teaching philosophy, student course evaluations & 3 letters of recommendation (at least 1 of which must address excellence in teaching). $64,000/yr-$72,000/yr. REF: DB. Send resume to: elizabeth.murray@ northwestern.edu
SERVICES
CHESTNUT ORGANIZING AND CLEANING SERVICES: especially for people who need an organizing service because of depression, elderly, physical or mental challenges or other causes for your home’s clutter, disorganization, dysfunction, etc. We can organize for the downsizing of your current possessions to more easily move into a smaller home. With your help, we can help to organize your move. We can organize and clean for the deceased in lieu of having the bereaved needing to do the preparation to sell or rent the deceased’s home. We are absolutely not judgmental; we’ve seen and done “worse” than your job assignment. With your help, can we please help you? Chestnut Cleaning Service: 312-332-5575. www.ChestnutCleaning. com www. ChestnutCleaning.com
Classical Guitar Lessons offered at my residence. Old Town area just a few blocks away from the Red line train station. Call to discuss 773-234-7311
TAMINO + PLUS +.+
EBO TAYLOR & PAT THOMAS
MAY AYRES THE PIANO TOUR
ALAN SPARHAWK OF LOW IN THE ROUND
ANI DIFRANCO
+ SPECIAL GUEST WRYN
SIERRA HULL
+ MASON VIA MOUNT EERIE
+ HANA STRETTON / PRECIOUS BANE
THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH + THE STILL TIDE
FERMIN
CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF JACKRABBIT
+ CLAIRE OZMUN
PATTIE GONIA
YUKIMI OF LITTLE DRAGON
PENNY & SPARROW + FIELD GUIDE
PALEFACE SWISS + STICK TO YOUR GUNS / NASTY
REGGIE WATTS LIVE
BAD NERVES + SPIRITUAL CRAMP
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH THE DEBUT ALBUM + KNIFEPLAY / LA ZORRA ZAPATA
CALEB GORDON WAR TOUR: BASIC COMBAT TRAINING
ICHIKO AOBA
LUMINESCENT CREATURES WORLD TOUR
TROUSDALE
GROWING PAINS TOUR + BEANE AND MIA ASHLEIGH / BUFFCHICK
RHIANNON GIDDENS & THE OLD-TIME REVUE
RAVEENA PRESENTS: WHERE THE BUTTERFLIES TOUR IN THE RAIN + RENAO
SQUID
CHEEKFACE + PACING
KATE BERLANT LIVE!