Chicago Reader print issue of July 24, 2025 (Vol. 54, No. 42)

‘I want people to be happy, seeing my artwork.’

Thomas Kong’s legacy of art and collaboration

By Kerry Cardoza, p. 9

THIS WEEK

CITY LIFE

04 Festivals The inaugural South Side Zine Fest is a celebration of self-publishing in Bridgeport.

FOOD & DRINK

05 Reader Bites | Montoro Pomelo sorbet at Village Creamery

NEWS & POLITICS

06 Feature The Cook County State’s Attorney’s

Office stops maintaining a list of discredited cops.

08 Make It Make Sense | Mulcahy Trump sacks immigration judges, Governor Pritzker loosens eviction protections, and the Chicago Disability Pride Parade takes to the Loop.

ARTS & CULTURE

09 Cover Story | Cardoza How curator S.Y. Lim is working to preserve the late Thomas Kong’s artwork

THEATER

13 Plays of Note Girls & Boys at Griffin Theatre is a high-wire walk between comedy and tragedy; Stephen Sondheim’s Passion returns with Blank Theatre Company; Northlight celebrates Donny Hathaway in Twisted Melodies

FILM

14 Review Ari Aster’s Eddington reflects on the paranoia, individualism, and lasting consequences of the 2020 pandemic lockdown.

15 The Moviegoer It’s a bird, it’s a plane.

15 Movies of Note Oh, Hi!’s delivery is unhinged enough to stick; Superman is too full to allow its best aspects to shine.

MUSIC

16 The Secret History of Chicago Music Guitarist Jimmy Rogers played a part in every era of Chicago blues.

18 City of Win Chatham-born rapper Ju-Blick has walked a long path to his debut album.

20 Shows of Note Previews of concerts including Uniflora, Black Rave Culture, Pelican, and MSPaint

23 Jobs 23 Services

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CULTURE EDITOR: ART, ARCHITECTURE, BOOKS KERRY CARDOZA

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Reader Letters m

Re: “Lowering the curtain,” written by Daniella Mazzio and published in our July 17 issue (volume 54, number 41)

I have written, collaborated on, and reported on many NEA grants, and know and have worked with some of the incredible cultural admins, artists, and arts educators covered in this article. Really good reporting . . . some helpful examples and graphics for those who really have no idea how any of this works but care. Thanks to all who do this difficult work at all its stages and bring so much joy, beauty, community, education, and healthy provocation and reflection to our lives. —Deirdre Harrison, executive director of SitStayRead, via LinkedIn

Brilliant, comprehensive article. [Kate Dumbleton of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival] poses a key question: “Who are we asking to be resilient, and why?” —Cortney Lederer, CNL Projects, via LinkedIn

Re: “The compact disc isn’t going quietly,” written by Leor Galil and published in our July 10 issue (volume 54, number 40)

Here’s something I haven’t really read or heard being said . . . One of the reasons I won’t give up CDs or vinyl is the human interaction that you get by going out on payday and going to the music stores. And maybe finding a pearl that you’d been looking for. Streaming is nice (I won’t lie), but I’m not giving up going out and shopping local. —Simon Chapdu, via Facebook

The very high uptick in CD buyers has been extremely noticeable over the last two years. Customers buy stacks and stacks of CDs at my store. —Alan Heffelfinger, Oak Park Records, via Facebook

CORRECTION

The Reader has updated the online version of Daniella Mazzio’s July 17 print article, “Lowering the curtain,” about Chicago artists and arts organizations rebuilding in the wake of cuts to federal arts funding.

In a statement sent postpublication, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) commissioner Clinée Hedspeth said DCASE has responded to the crisis at the federal level by committing to “increased direct-to-artist funding.” A DCASE spokesperson also said that the department has “received two termination notices for separate federal grants” but that neither termination has so far affected cultural grants

programs. One grant was spent before the termination notice arrived, and DCASE is appealing the other termination.

In response to the claims made in the Artists for Chicago letter sent to Mayor Brandon Johnson, DCASE said, “There is no documented record of late grant payments over the past year. DCASE remains committed to timely disbursement and clear communication with all grantees.” And regarding the reinstatement of the consecutive funding restriction in the CityArts program, DCASE explained that the change “ensures that emerging and underrepresented organizations have increased access to public support, rather than being overshadowed by repeat recipients.” v

Find us on socials: Facebook and Bluesky: chicagoreader X: Chicago_Reader Instagram and Threads: chicago_reader LinkedIn: chicago-reader

The Chicago Reader accepts comments and letters to the editor of fewer than 400 words for publication consideration. m letters@chicagoreader.com

dream of a

Switching to electric

us get there. And now there’s even more reason to go electric: ComEd is offering rebates on

CITY LIFE

FESTIVALS

Self-expression without worry of retaliation

Zine Club Chicago hosts the inagural South Side Zine Fest.

By SYDNEY RICHARDSON

one’s own art and writing.

The group Zine Club Chicago (ZCC) will host the inaugural South Side Zine Fest at Chicago Public Library’s Richard J. Daley branch in Bridgeport on July 26. The event, which is free and open to the public, was organized by ZCC’s Cynthia E. Hanifin and Jamie Kadas, who are both native south siders and active members of Chicago’s zine community.

Hanifin, a social worker and arts organizer, is a founding member of ZCC and the main producer of the group’s series of free community events. She is also a former organizer of the Chicago Zine Fest and the Midwest Perzine Fest.

The club hosts meet-ups and other happen-

SOUTH SIDE ZINE FEST

Sat 7/26 11 AM– 4 PM, Chicago Public Library Richard J. Daley branch, 3400 S. Halsted, free, all-ages. Additional programming at Tangible Books, 3326 S. Halsted. See zineclubchicago.com for details.

Richard J. Daley library branch manager Jeremy Kitchen about organizing a new zine fest to showcase talent from the south side. Kadas, an artist, zinester, and high school teacher, said that the south side is “. . . home for me. [I always thought that] if I were to start organizing a zine fest, it would start here.”

South Side Zine Fest will take place from 11 AM to 4 PM and include tables operated by a variety of zinemakers and collectives, including the Support Ho(s)e Collective, Zine Fiends, and more, plus zine making activities. The event was paid for by a grant from the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s Community Connections Fund, which the Daley branch applies for each year to support

Digital has come to dominate the media landscape but print is still very much alive and well, especially in the form of zines. DIY publications have played a central role in many cultural movements, from the self-published literary journals of the Harlem Renaissance to various punk subcultures of the late 20th century. Today, self-made publications are still celebrated as bastions of independent thought and artistic expression. Zines are self-published, often smallcirculation magazines. They’re best known in the form of photocopied booklets that are traded, sold, or given away. These publications can be used to educate about systemic or social issues, connect with fandoms, or share

ings at locations around the city. Quimby’s Bookstore, the longtime Wicker Park hub for fans of indie books, comics, and zines, is a frequent ZCC host and was Hanifin’s employer for four years.

Festivals are a way for zine enthusiasts to connect with one another while distributing their own work and acquiring new publications. Hanifin and Kadas realized that hundreds of applicants miss opportunities to share their creations at larger events like Chicago Zine Fest, which was held on July 19 at the Harold Washington Library Center, due to a limited capacity for tables. “I really started to think about filling that need,” Hanifin said.

In 2024, Hanifin and Kadas approached

with. “We welcome anything that’s not hateful,” Kitchen said.

The zine library’s shelves provide blank paper and writing utensils, encouraging patrons to create their own zines and demonstrating the accessibility of the medium.

“It is something that anybody can do. You don’t really need much more than a sheet of paper and maybe a stapler and a pencil,” Kadas said.

Zines are often used as a tool by those who have limited access to other forms of media. Midwest Books to Prisoners is among the groups that will have a table at South Side Zine Fest. The organization provides free educational materials and distributes zines created by incarcerated people. When it comes to riskier topics, zines also allow the ability to share information in a way that is less traceable than the Internet or traditional print media.

community programming.

A discussion is scheduled for 2 PM o -site at neighborhood used bookstore Tangible Books, which is about a block north of the library on Halsted. There, former Quimby’s manager and current library science student Liz Mason will talk with Keidra Chaney, proprietor of Wild Ramp Publishing, a micropress dedicated to small-run zines about pop culture, fandom, disability, and identity. (Chaney has also previously written for the Reader.) Kitchen and ZCC have previously collaborated on other events as well as the South Side Zine Library, a permanent installation at the Richard J. Daley branch where people can donate zines of all kinds for patrons to interact

“There’s a lot going on in the world right now that people want to protest or talk about or get out there,” Kitchen said. “It’s a way for people to express themselves freely without worrying about retaliation.”

When the Trump administration began conducting frequent immigration raids, Hanifin noticed zines being distributed around her neighborhood informing people on what to do if ICE comes to their home. “Some of the people that are sharing that may not want to run the risk of that being digitally disseminated in a way that can be traced back to them,” she said.

Apart from their practical uses, many people appreciate zines for the simplicity of communicating on a small scale through ink and paper. While some are preserved in archives or collections like the South Side Zine Library, zines are ephemeral by nature.

“There is something about that small-run, small-circulation, handmade-quality zine,” Hanifin said. “I think that really appeals to people, especially in an age where we’re looking at a lot of digital content being sort of mass-disseminated and mass-produced.” v

m letters@chicagoreader.com

Le : ZCC event at Gerber/Hart Library and Archives in June; right: South Side Zine Library at the Richard J. Daley CPL branch

COURTESY ZINE CLUB CHICAGO

FOOD & DRINK

In the summer, I like to bike from Chicago up to Village Creamery in Niles on the North Branch Trail. The woods feel like some sort of magic portal—one moment you’re in the trees, dodging deer, and the next you’re in the parking lot behind King Spa and Super H Mart. You exit the trail onto northbound Nordica, hang a left into that shopping center a couple blocks north of Howard, and then cross the intersection of Oakton and Waukegan to reach its northwest side. Now it’s time to get some pomelo sorbet.

of the grapefruit, and Village Creamery uses real pomelo juice in its sorbet. (This does wonders for the flavor, but if you have issues with grapefruit drug interactions, be cautious here too.) Pomelo tastes sweeter and less bitter than grapefruit, which makes it perfect for a sorbet.

This particular sorbet is ludicrously intense—it cranks the sweetness and tartness up to 11. In their perfect balance, they also heighten the astringent, floral perfume of the pomelo till it’s almost synaesthetically vivid. If you put a scoop of this in a cup with a scoop of literally anything else, it’ll leap out in front like it’s lit up from the inside.

One last thing: Village Creamery is open until 9 PM, so keep the sunset in mind when you plan your bike ride back home. I can’t make any promises about where the magic portal leads after dark.

“Made in the USA” since 1916

Rather than a restaurant or a rat-shaped hole, this Chicago hidden gem has been contributing to and commemorating the city’s cultural landscape for almost 110 years. Despite having no relation to the well-known local television station (and existing well before they were on air), WGN Flag & Decorating Co. is just as much of a Chicago institution.

and etiquette. The business once operated on a 24-hour service bell, and while they have shied away from the excessive accessibility, WGN Flag & Decorating Co.’s dynasty runs strong.

Village Creamery specializes in Asian flavors, with an emphasis on Filipino favorites: mango, durian, buko pandan, red bean, Thai tea, matcha, jackfruit, avocado, queso, maiz, ube, and more. You can find the omnipresent classics too (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry), but I’ll be honest, I don’t ride 11 miles for those.

The pomelo is a southeast Asian ancestor

—PHILIP MONTORO VILLAGE CREAMERY 8000 Waukegan Rd., Niles, $4.95 single scoop, $7.95 double scoop, $8.95 pint, $14.95 quart, 847-965-9805 v

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.

The family-owned business was founded by William George Newbould on Chicago’s Southeast Side in 1916. Today, it continues to thrive under the stewardship of Carl “Gus” Porter III, the fourth-generation owner. Not only is WGN Flag & Decorating Co. one of Chicago’s oldest establishments, it is also one of the most seasoned flag companies in the country. In recent years, their involvement in their neighborhood goes beyond their detailed decorations; their commitment to their community is evident from their over century-long presence and involvement in collectives like the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the National Independent Flag Dealers Association.

With approximately 95 percent of their materials being sourced from the U.S., homemade authenticity is at the core of every creation. In addition to their long-lasting legacy, WGN Flag & Decorating Co. also upholds educational values, serving as a resource for proper flag care

Their work can be seen all around the city—from street festivals to the large Chicago flags that fly downtown. The boutique banner production company’s most recent standout projects include bunting flags for the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, and the United Center and Chicago Bulls’ new pennants for the retirement of Derrick Rose’s number. Just like our new pope and Rose, WGN Flag & Decorating Co. takes great pride in being from the South Side; it’s almost serendipitous that their histories are stitched together in such a subliminal, yet literal, way.

The immense amount of familial and institutional knowledge is packed into and produced within just one city block, but its reach is worldwide. WGN Flag & Decorating Co. has celebrated and produced championship banners for all of the Stanley Cups, World Series, and retired jerseys. As they look to the future, even the lack of winning for Chicago’s sports teams can’t slow them down.

Pomelo sorbet at Village Creamery

This content is sponsored by the Southeast Chicago Chamber of Commerce

MAX SANSING

Courtesy W.G.N. Flag & Decorating Co

NEWS & POLITICS

A CATALOG OF INFAMY

Cook County state’s attorney stops Maintaining list of discredited cops

The changes amount to small but significant rollbacks in the office’s openness under Eileen O’Neill Burke.

By MAX BLAISDELL

This story is part of “A Catalog of Infamy,” a series on Brady cops and practices at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s O ce, Chicago Police Department, and suburban police departments between the Invisible Institute and the Reader.

Shortly after taking office in December 2024, newly elected Cook County state’s attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke quietly scrapped two lengthy lists of tarnished police o cers that were maintained by her predecessor to fulfill the o ce’s constitutional obligations and prevent wrongful convictions.

The “do not call” list, which was first publicly released by former state’s attorney Kim Foxx in the summer of 2023 and updated continuously through the end of her tenure in November 2024, grew to include the names of more than 280 officers who are currently stripped of police powers or whom the office deemed so unreliable that they should never be called as government witnesses in a criminal trial. It included cops accused of planting drugs on public housing residents, coercing dozens of Chicagoans into false confessions, and committing high-profile shootings of teenagers.

Foxx’s office also maintained a separate, more comprehensive list of o cers called the “disclosure” list. It was designed to fulfill the state’s attorney’s office’s obligations under Illinois supreme court rules and multiple U.S. Supreme Court decisions that require prosecutors to turn over exculpatory evidence and information that could undermine the credibility of government witnesses, such as police o cers. (These lists are usually referred to as Brady or Giglio lists after the Supreme Court cases that established these obligations.)

Reporters learned in May that O’Neill Burke had abruptly discontinued use of the disclosure list after previously providing it in

internal list of officers who were stripped of police powers by local law enforcement agencies. Although the vast majority—but not all—of the o cers on Foxx’s do not call list had been relieved of their police powers, that list and O’Neill Burke’s internal list vary substantially from one another.

The changes amount to small but significant rollbacks in openness under O’Neill Burke despite her campaign pledge to “prioritize increasing transparency throughout the o ce.” And they come amid an array of other policy decisions in her more than eight months in o ce that signal the piece-by-piece dismantling of the legacy of her progressive predecessor and a return to business as usual for a jurisdiction that has led the country in overturned convictions since 1989, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. These decisions include abruptly ending prosecutors’ longstanding policy of reviewing felony gun charges in two predominately Black areas of Chicago and accusations of threatening a witness in a wrongful conviction case.

The move to release the list publicly was part of Foxx’s e orts to increase transparency around the byzantine operations of the coun-

try’s second-largest prosecutor’s o ce. “The credibility of our o ce and the integrity of the work that we do requires that we are as transparent as we can possibly be,” Foxx said in a July 2023 interview with Block Club Chicago.

February, according to her o ce’s responses to public records requests filed by the Invisible Institute and the Reader . And, instead of retaining Foxx’s publicly available do not call list, O’Neill Burke replaced it with a shorter,

While there is overlap between Foxx’s do not call list and O’Neill Burke’s list of stripped officers, many notorious cops haven’t been stripped of police powers, and some who have been were later reinstated. Missing from O’Neill Burke’s list, for instance, are Alvin Jones, an officer found to have falsified police reports as part of the notorious squad led by Sergeant Ronald Watts (Jones resigned from the department in May 2022); Jeffrey Kriv, an o cer who repeatedly used the same excuse in tra c court, that his girlfriend had stolen his car, to evade dozens of tickets; and several officers affiliated with the Oath Keepers, a right-wing extremist group linked to the 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, whom the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has declined to reinvestigate or fire.

O’Neill Burke’s policy chief, Yvette Loizon, defended the move to do away with Foxx’s do not call list, incorrectly claiming there was no way for o cers to be removed if added by

mistake. “There [were] no guidelines for how people got on that list. There was no opportunity to get o the list if you were put on the list in error,” she said in an interview. “And there was no clear direction on where the supportive materials and supportive documents and the information that would be potentially appropriate for disclosure would be kept or would live and how.”

Foxx’s policy explicitly stated that cops were added to the do not call list at the sole discretion of her o ce and had 90 days to contest their inclusion via a letter to the office’s ethics team. (Last year, the Invisible Institute and Reader obtained appeals from more than 30 officers asking to be removed. Some, but not all, were successful.)

identified up to five o cers who may require disclosure, according to a public records request.

O’Neill Burke’s o ce did not respond to a request for comment about how it was handling criminal cases that involved o cers it previously believed it had to make disclosures about.

“Bad Brady policies do lead to wrongful convictions. We know that is a fact, and so that’s certainly the looming concern here.”

Rachel Moran, a University of Saint Thomas law professor who has studied Brady lists extensively, said she has never heard of an incoming prosecutor entirely discarding one upon taking o ce. “It’s not even that so-called progressive [of] a move to have a Brady list at this point,” she said. “It is becoming, certainly not universal practice by any means, but more commonly accepted practice than it was even a few years ago.”

For Moran, who was also formerly an Illinois assistant appellate public defender, maintaining a Brady list is essential in large jurisdictions, like Cook County, that process thousands of cases a year involving hundreds of officers from multiple departments. “You couldn’t possibly keep track of this information if you didn’t have a systematic way of doing so,” she said.

Loizon said the office will now maintain a new internal database of disclosure materials on officers. That database will include responses to a new “Brady/Giglio” questionnaire, a copy of which the Invisible Institute and the Reader obtained through a public records request. The two-page questionnaire asks, among other questions, if police o cers have ever been arrested, charged, or convicted of a crime; whether they’ve been the subject of a complaint, investigation, or disciplinary action; or whether they’ve made statements on social media that could call into question their judgment or bias. Since the new policy rolled out in March, prosecutors have

O’Neill Burke also revamped the office’s Brady/Giglio policy, narrowing the means prosecutors use to seek out information they’re required to disclose to defense counsel, such as an officer’s history of misconduct. Under Foxx, the office sought all sustained disciplinary findings related to untruthfulness or dishonesty directly from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the CPD’s Bureau of Internal A airs, though it did not always receive them. Both agencies are routinely tasked with investigating Chicago o cers for alleged misconduct, including whether their sworn statements or testimony are inaccurate and willfully deceptive.

A September 2024 investigation by the Invisible Institute and the Reader revealed serious gaps in the disclosure list, even with the requests from Foxx’s o ce. Reporters found that the list was missing nearly 120 officers found to have made “false, misleading, inaccurate, and/or incomplete statements.” But even limiting prosecutors’ attention to these and other categories of sustained misconduct, as Foxx did, precludes a large number of cases experts say deserve consideration.

Foxx’s policy also required prosecutors to notify their superiors if they believed a judge concluded that an officer made a false or inaccurate statement in court. These determinations, known as adverse credibility findings, were the subject of a previous investigation by the Reader that found, between 2008 and 2022, judges held 40 law enforcement o cers in Cook County either not credible or unbelievable. Prosecutors and defense attorneys consistently agree that such findings require disclosure under any reading of the Supreme Court precedents and Illinois law.

Under O’Neill Burke, however, the o ce will no longer proactively seek out sustained disciplinary violations for untruthfulness or require prosecutors to report adverse credibility

findings they witness firsthand. Instead, the new policy relies on cops with checkered pasts to truthfully and accurately tell prosecutors about their previous histories of misconduct, whether alleged or proven.

According to Moran, the law professor, while many of the questions in the new policy’s pretestimony questionnaire are useful for gathering information that warrants disclosure, she cautioned against relying on that approach alone. “The problem, for me, is that you have officers who might misremember things, o cers who are probably not coming with a complete list of their whole personnel file and every complaint ever filed and how it was resolved,” she said. “It seems to lend itself to inaccuracies—both accidental and, perhaps, intentional—in terms of what the witness discloses.”

For this reason, Moran said, “you want to be pursuing as many avenues as you can to get this information, not limiting yourself to one specific way.”

In a written statement, a spokesperson for the Law O ce of the Cook County Public Defender said they have “concerns regarding

disclosure” under the new policy but did not elaborate. “Complete and accurate disclosure to the accused in a criminal case is a crucial component to the administration of a fair criminal legal system,” wrote deputy of communications Eugenia Orr in an email. “We value open communication with the new administration and look forward to discussing our concerns regarding disclosure to ensure that our clients receive all the relevant information for their cases.”

For Moran, the risks are substantial. If officers fail to flag disclosable misconduct and prosecutors don’t catch it, she warned, critical information could be withheld from the defense—information that might have changed the outcome of a trial or a person’s decision to plead guilty. “Bad Brady policies do lead to wrongful convictions,” she said. “We know that is a fact, and so that’s certainly the looming concern here.” v

Additional reporting by Sam Stecklow, Invisible Institute

m letters@chicagoreader.com

ATTENTION

ATTENTION: PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD FOR CHA’S PROPOSED FY2026 MTW ANNUAL PLAN SCHEDULED FOR JULY 17-AUGUST 22, 2025

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.

The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is releasing its proposed FY2026 MTW Annual Plan for public comment from July 17th through August 22nd, 2025. The proposed annual plan and summary documents are available for review on CHA’s website at www.thecha.org.

CHA welcomes questions and comments from residents, program participants and the general public, but participation in the public comment is not required and will not impact your housing options at CHA.

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.

You can submit comments on the proposed plan by email, fax or mail:

Chicago Housing Authority

60 E. Van Buren St, 12th Floor Chicago, IL 60605

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.

Attn: Proposed FY2026 MTW Annual Plan

Email: commentontheplan@thecha.org | Fax: 312-913-7837

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: Tue, April 20, 10:00am: https://youtu.be/QBGG47BHXMg

CHA will also host two livestream and one in-person public comment meeting:

• Livestream: Tuesday, July 22, 2025, at 11:00 am Monday, August 4, at 11:00 am Links to the livestreams will be available at www.thecha.org and a sign interpreter will be present. Comments can be submitted in the livestream chat and recordings of the livestream sessions will be available on CHA’s website following the meetings.

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.

• In-person: Wednesday, July 30, 2025, at 6:00 pm, FIC 4859 S Wabash Sign language and Spanish interpreters will be present, and comments can be submitted in person.

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

If you require additional translation services, please read the enclosed notice, or check with your property manager for more details.

All comments must be received by August 22, 2025.

Ifyouhaveaquestionaboutthisnotice,pleasecalltheCHAat312.913-7300. Torequestareasonableaccommodation,pleasecall312.913.7062. TTY 866.331.3603

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

NEWS & POLITICS

You’re fired

President Donald Trump has fired two Chicago immigration judges at a time when masked federal agents are increasingly turning to immigration courts to enact Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda.

Assistant chief immigration judge Jennifer Peyton was one of dozens to be removed in an early July nationwide purge of immigration court officials that also included Judge Carla Espinoza , WTTW reported. A third official from Chicago’s court, Kristi Nelson, told WTTW that she resigned in April after it “became an environment that I did not want to work in anymore.”

In recent months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have stalked the halls of immigration courts across the country, kidnapping people who showed up to their scheduled hearings only to find that their cases had been dismissed. A federal lawsuit filed on July 16 seeks to halt the practice, accusing the federal government of “intentionally [stripping] people of basic due process rights.”

Peyton confirmed to ABC7 that she and other immigration judges were directed to relax their standards for dismissing cases. “We were given guidance that when the [government] files these motions [to dismiss], we should not give [people] ten days for a response, we

should adjudicate them right on the spot,” Peyton told ABC7.

Between 2019 and 2024, Peyton granted roughly 86 percent of asylum claims that came before her, far above the national average of 57.7 percent during the same period, records show. Yet she and her colleagues complied with Trump’s orders nonetheless, clearing the way for masked federal agents to disappear people and fast-track them for deportation. As Chicago’s top immigration judge, Peyton also enforced rules prohibiting reporters (including me) from taking photographs of ICE agents on court property, even in the court’s hallways.

U.S. immigration courts—unlike criminal or civil courts, which belong to the judicial branch and work independently from lawmakers and the president—are controlled by the executive branch.

Pritzker signs “anti-squatter” bill

Governor J.B. Pritzker on Monday signed into law a bill that allows Illinois police to bypass the eviction process for people accused of “criminal trespass.”

Previously, property disputes were treated as civil matters, meaning landlords and property owners needed a court order before cops could evict someone illegally staying on their property. However, the so-called “anti-squatter” bill, sponsored by state senator Lakesia

Collins, clarifies that police can now “remove persons or property from the premises when there is a criminal trespass” without going through the eviction process.

The bill passed almost unanimously out of the General Assembly; the lone vote against the measure was cast by state senator Andrew Chesney, a Republican from Freeport.

A person commits criminal trespass when they enter or remain in a building they know they don’t have lawful authority to occupy, remain on someone else’s property after being told to leave, or falsely represent their identity “to obtain permission from the owner or occupant to enter or remain in the building or on the land.”

State lawmakers, including representative La Shawn K. Ford , have been trying for years to ease eviction protections for alleged squatters. The e ort was buoyed by a string of “investigative” reports from ABC7 and WGNTV that highlighted individual cases of alleged squatting, yet they failed to produce evidence that the issue is widespread despite repeatedly referring to it as a “crisis.” (One real estate attorney even told WGN in 2023, “I wouldn’t say [squatting is] prevalent.”) Even so, the stories often relied on fear to imply that criminals could easily take possession of people’s vacant homes and be shielded by state law that protects tenants from wrongful eviction.

Pritzker committed to signing the bill into law earlier this week, following a report from ABC7’s Samantha Chatman that squatters had allegedly moved in next door to state representative Marcus Evans —SHAWN MULCAHY

Disability pride

The Americans With Disabilities Act celebrates 35 years as law in 2025, and, at a time when basic civil rights are under attack by federal and state o cials, it’s more important than ever to protect the fair and equal opportunity a orded to people with disabilities under the ADA.

With that in mind, Chicago’s Disability Pride Parade, scheduled to kick o at 11 AM on Saturday, July 26 in the Loop, is a great occasion to promote diversity, inclusion, and equality while honoring the variety of Chicagoans who live, work, and thrive while being di erently abled. The 22-year-old parade is organized by a group of volunteers who represent various disability-related groups and organizations in the Chicagoland area; some are individuals with disabilities and some are allies.

A free open mike night is also planned for Friday night at Chicago Temple (77 W. Washington). From 7 until 9:30 PM, community members can join the parade’s planning committee for fellowship accompanied by music, stand-up, and spoken word.

The parade route starts near Plymouth and Van Buren, with the kicko led by this year’s grand marshall, Rachel Arfa , who is both a member of the disability community as well as commissioner for the Mayor’s Office for People With Disabilities . A procession of community members and organizations will walk, roll, and drive west on Van Buren toward Dearborn, then head north until reaching Washington, where the parade will end at Daley Plaza.

Postparade activities at the plaza will include music performances and a resource-filled vendor village populated by local nonprofits. Members of the public are welcome to register to participate in the parade up until the morning of; details are available at disabilityprideparade.org —SALEM COLLO-JULIN v

Make It Make Sense is a weekly column about what’s happening and why it matters.

m smulcahy@chicagoreader.com DISABILITY PRIDE PARADE Sat 7/26, 11 AM, Plymouth and Van Buren, instagram.com/disabilitypridechi

ICE agents outside Chicago’s immigration court at 55 E. Monroe on June 16, 2025 RAVEN GEARY

ARTS & CULTURE

“First thought, best thought” was the credo of the Beats, but it could also apply to the art practice of the late Thomas Kong. For over a decade, Kong sat at the register in his Rogers Park convenience store, Kim’s Corner Food, and created artwork out of whatever was around him: packing materials, leaves, cigarette cartons, magazines. From 8 AM to 8 PM, he laid out collages and occasionally crafted sculptures, eventually making around 30,000 pieces.

“He created collages all day, every day, as long as the corner store was open,” said Expo Chicago artistic director Kate Sierzputowski, who interviewed Kong for the Reader in 2015. “It was just so interesting to see the dedication, but also how the work fueled the art. And then the art also fueled the work, because he would use the collages as these tactics also to sell the goods that were there. So it was this almost perfect circle of creation, work, support that was just fascinating to talk to him about.”

Kong’s collages are deceptively simple and uncluttered. He makes clever use of consumer packaging. In one, a crop of an idyllic scene from an Ice Mountain water package becomes a ready-made landscape. Another shows an ATM beside a small map of the U.S. above the words “be happy.” Polar bears from cases of Coca-Cola or Klondike bars show up frequently, as does the black equine silhouette from Dark Horse cigarettes—Kong’s favorite. It’s easy to spot certain brands: the bright orange from a Sunkist soda box, or the red, white, and blue Pepsi orb.

Kong died on May 1, 2023, at 73 years old, from complications of pneumonia. He had recently been diagnosed with leukemia but still his death was somewhat unexpected. He hadn’t written a will or made formal plans for what would happen to his store—which was essentially a total work of art, filled as it was with his creations. He’d made collages on the windows and blinds, in coolers and display cases, on the ceiling, walls, and doors, all around the cash register, and sometimes on the products themselves. A storage room in the back held thousands of additional pieces.

Curator S.Y. Lim had been collaborating closely with Kong in recent years and received his blessing to care for his work. After his death, she worked quickly to preserve what she could. She had the store professionally photographed and 3D scanned and enlisted a small group of volunteers to pack up and move the work before the building owner retook the

COVER STORY

How to be happy

The late Thomas Kong turned artmaking into living.

By KERRY CARDOZA

storefront space. Since then, Lim has worked with Kong’s wife to preserve his work and bolster his legacy—including overseeing the documentation of thousands of works, mostly collages.

In addition, she has helped facilitate the acquisition of over 3,000 of Kong’s pieces by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in

“It’s a lot of work to do,” Lim said, of overseeing Kong’s archive. “I just felt like I had to do it because I was super close with Thomas, we worked together a lot. . . . I feel like I have to step up as a friend because he was such an important figure in the Chicago art community. I didn’t want to see all these artworks going to trash.”

Thomas Kong was born Tae Kwon Kong in North Korea in 1950, six months before the start of the Korean War. In a 2021 interview for Borderless Magazine, Kong told Claire Voon that shortly after his birth, his father was kidnapped and killed by North Korean communists; his remaining family fled North Korea.

“When I was six months old, my mother, five older sisters and I took a small rowboat and escaped to Deokjeokdo, a small island in the Yellow Sea,” he said, a distance of about 60 miles. “My mother said we could go back after three days, but we spent three years on the island. Then we sailed over to the port of Incheon, about 20 miles west of Seoul. We didn’t know anyone in South Korea. We didn’t have any relatives. We had to start all over.” He studied English literature at Sogang University in Seoul and worked for a spell in the marketing department at Korean Air Lines, sowing the seeds for his later consumerism-based assemblages. He married Sandy (Han Sang Sook) in 1977 and moved to the U.S. at the invitation of his youngest sister, a nurse who had moved to the country three years prior. “The economy in Korea was very bad at the time, and America was very dream worthy to me. I decided this when I was 27 years old. So, yes, I came for the dream,” Kong told Borderless.

Kong worked a string of jobs in the ensuing years—gas station attendant, travel agent, shoe repair shop owner—while raising a family with Sandy (they have one son, who lives in San Diego). The couple briefly ran a dry cleaning business before purchasing Kim’s Corner Food in 2006 from a fellow Korean immigrant, Charlie Kim. Kong kept the name; its blueand-white sign still wraps around the corner facade at 1371 W. Estes.

Sheboygan, which will exhibit his work in a forthcoming show, likely within the next two to three years. Lim is also working with art book publisher Roma Publications on an imprint of Kong’s work. And in the fall, visitors to Lim’s soon-to-be reopened gallery 062, in Pilsen, will be able to see some of Kong’s work on display.

Kong’s foray into artmaking began around 2010 as an attempt to beautify the store. As he often recounted, Kong was dissatisfied with the dirty shelving and so started to line the shelves and racks with images. “It looked nice, the merchandise looked nice on the shelves, so I started putting wrapping all over the shelves,” he said in a 2017 interview. “So,

Thomas Kong in his Rogers Park convenience store DAN MILLER

ARTS & CULTURE

continued from p. 9

all of a sudden I started making some images, putting them on, and the store looked more like an art store. That’s when I started. I used a lot of packaging—there’s some kinda interesting and funny images on the packages, so I cut them out and made di erent shapes and started putting them all over the store.”

Kong’s trajectory was forever changed in 2014, when Dan Miller, an Australian artist studying at Northwestern, happened upon Kim’s Corner Food. “I was so charmed by its unusual exterior that I was compelled to enter,” Miller wrote, in a 2017 publication about Kong published by Half Letter Press. The two artists struck up a friendship, and eventually an ongoing collaboration. As Miller puts it, Kong was interested in expanding his art world horizons—he wanted to meet other artists and exhibit his work beyond the confines of the store.

Miller started to spread the word about Kong and Kim’s Corner Food. That’s how Nathan Abhalter Smith, then a housemate of Miller’s, first met Kong. Nathan runs the Rogers Park gallery Roman Susan with Kristin Abhalter Smith; at the time the gallery was also planning programming for a pop-up space on Howard Street. “We did a project there that was called ‘The Wide Open.’ And anyone in the neighborhood could bring a piece of art and be in it,” Nathan said. Nathan invited Kong to participate in the show—his first exhibition. After that, Nathan started going into the store all the time. Roman Susan became involved in a proposal for a mural, designed by Kong, as part of the Rogers Park Mile of Murals project in 2017. As they worked on the proposal, Nathan would bring Kong stacks of paper scaled to the size of the mural wall—slated for the concrete embankments of the el. Kong would finish creating collages on them in about ten minutes; he eventually created 206 works for the project. A condensed version of the proposal was eventually approved, and a section of the wall was painted with a collage that Kong and Miller reconfigured from those 206 pieces. On top of a rich blue-purple back-

ground are Kong’s signature shapes: an image of a tape dispenser, one resembling a sailboat, the words “be happy.” The mural remains on view across the street from Kim’s Corner Food.

At the same time the mural was

“When you stepped into Kim’s Corner Food, you were in this complete environment that he had made, sort of a modification of the world according to his aesthetic viewpoint.”

— Laura Bickford

taking shape, Nathan and Miller were working to make another of Kong’s wishes happen: opening a gallery of sorts in a storage room adjacent to the store. “The Back Room,” as it became known, functioned in a few di erent ways over its run, from 2015 to 2019. The first few shows consisted of local artists selecting and installing work by Kong in the space, which had a series of six cubbylike stalls in its rear, a large open area in the middle, and walls filled with thousands of pieces by Kong.

“But then Thomas would go in and just, like, add stu ,” Kristin said. “If it was too minimal, if there was a lot of wall space, he would just put more things.”

Soon after, invited artists started showing their own work. Artists were chosen informally by Miller or Nathan either because they were interested in Kong’s work or because their aesthetic meshed well with his. Sometimes Kong invited artists he met through the store.

In the project’s last year, it shifted to an experimental residency model, thanks to a Propeller Fund grant. The artists shaped their own programming and hung around the store, talking and helping Kong with his work. Robin Hustle, a lifelong Rogers Park resident, was the final artist in residence.

“I was just completely floored by Thomas’s art and his practice and his way of existing in that space, and found myself going back a lot to talk to him,” Hustle said. “Getting to know him and his art and his practice really brought me out of a slump of not making art, being in a transition between mediums. And I had pretty

Kim’s Corner Food was essentially a total work of art. DAN MILLER

close to then finished nursing school, and was just kind of in a life transition of not knowing what my life as an artist would look like anymore, and just was so deeply inspired by him. That made such a big di erence for me.”

Hustle put together an exhibition, where she showed ceramic sculptures for the first time. She also hosted an “expressive potluck,” where people were encouraged to bring sculptural food and edible art. When she arrived to set up, Kong handed her materials—co ee filters, Milano cookies, and tortilla chips—and instructed her on how to set them up. “Basically, a food collage that he wanted installed everywhere,” Hustle said. During Back Room events, Kong usually didn’t socialize much. But while the potluck was going on, unbeknownst to Hustle, Kong had taken some paper plates, gone back to the store and made collages on them, then returned to install them on the potluck table.

In 2018, Lim met Kong at his store. Lim came to the U.S. from Gwangju, South Korea to get her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 2017. Now she runs 062 and works as the programming director at Public Media Institute. “One of my teachers back in the days told me that I should go meet this Korean guy who’s making crazy art, or like collages, up north in Rogers Park,” Lim said. “I obviously didn’t listen.”

She later came across Kong’s Half Letter Press zine at the Chicago Art Book Fair and was entranced. “I was like, ‘Oh shit, I think this is the guy that I was supposed to meet.’ So I went up to the store with my partner and I was just so shocked by the amount of artworks he was making, like per day, and the amount of artwork that was covered in the space. I actually cried that night at home.”

Lim and Kong became close friends, and Lim mounted a solo exhibition of his work at 062 in 2018. “That’s how I started working with him. And then he was obviously not making enough money,” Lim said. “The store was his studio. . . . I mean, it was a functioning store but more people were coming in to see his artwork than buying products.”

He was transparent about needing to earn more money and Lim began trying to help him sell work. She started bringing his collages to art book fairs, from Chicago to Shanghai to Tokyo. “I just wanted to show his work. But, also, if the sales come through, it’s amazing, right? I didn’t really take any cuts from him at all.” In 2023, Lim was invited to put together an exhibition of Kong’s work for the Tokyo Art Book Fair. In 2024, Kong’s work was at the cen-

ter of a show at San Francisco’s Casemore Gallery, co-organized by 062.

While he was hospitalized, Lim said, Kong asked her to look after his work. After his death, she quickly organized a group of friends to help document the store and package up his artwork. Guanyu Xu photographed the interior and Andrea Hunt 3D scanned it.

Artist Sungjae (SJ) Lee was one of the movers. “We cleaned the whole store,” Lee said. It was a huge job. Already in a state of disarray, after having been vacant while Kong was in the hospital, mold and vermin had proliferated.

“There were a lot of physical labors needed for this project, it wasn’t just, like, tidy, clean . . . It was literally stepping onto rats’ shit.”

But Lee didn’t mind. “This whole thing was a natural thing—helping S.Y., helping Thomas was just—it’s a natural calling,” he said. Besides, he added, “I understand how important it is to preserve Thomas’s works.”

Artist Sungho Bae was another volunteer. “Helping with his work gave me a glimpse into the quiet rhythm of someone who had turned making into a part of living,” Bae wrote over email, of sorting through the store. “Moving through it felt like walking through a life shaped slowly and attentively over time.”

The group packed up a U-Haul’s worth of work and moved it temporarily to Mana Contemporary, where Lim previously worked. There, they sorted it, and unfortunately had to discard thousands that were damaged by mold or mice. Lim said the entire floor where the work was held smelled like cigarettes for weeks—proof of Kong’s incessant smoking habit.

They moved the work again to a temporary studio in Austin, where a di erent set of volunteers—artists Eugene Tang and Galit Julia Aloni—were photographing it in order to make it accessible online. (The work can be viewed at thomaskong.org.) “At first I thought, we can finish it in two months,” Tang told me in May, six months into documentation—which is ongoing. Once it’s photographed, they are packaging and organizing it by material. It’s hard to catalog, as most works aren’t dated. Instead, the team is using clues—like dates found on the commercial products used in the works—to try and figure out when they were made.

From the 30,000 pieces Kong was estimated to have made, it’s unclear just how many survive. Many of the works that the Kohler

Thomas Kong, works on cardboard and packing material

ARTS & CULTURE

continued from p. 11

Arts Center took needed particular conservation—collages that incorporated natural materials like leaves and some three-dimensional objects. Laura Bickford, a curator at Kohler, said they acquired the works pretty soon after Kong’s passing. It’s hard to imagine a better fit for Kong’s work, as Kohler has a unique focus on preserving large-scale artist-made environments and artist collections. Their Art Preserve, opened in 2021, consists entirely of work from art environments.

“We focus on what we call artist-built environments—for me, the way that I like to think about them is it’s more of a practice than a product,” Bickford said. “There isn’t a separation of like going to the studio and working and then coming home. And for Thomas, I think, being in his place of business, it takes on this really incredible mingling of what it means to go to work and what it means for an artist to be at work. When you stepped into Kim’s Corner Food, you were in this complete environment that he had made, sort of a modification of the world according to his aesthetic viewpoint.”

Kong’s work will eventually go on long-term view at the Art Preserve. “It’s so exciting to think about Thomas’s work in the Art Preserve and in conversation with all of these other artists because it’s aesthetically pretty di erent,” she said. Not only did Kong work primarily on paper (much of the other work on view is large-scale and sculptural), but his working environment was also unique—not a private swath of land like many others but an urban convenience store.

While Kong’s friends are happy to see the work acquired, some voiced frustration that institutional support only materialized after his death. “Me and Kristin and Nathan and Dan and other friends of his really, really tried, while he was alive, to find an institution that could work on preserving his work, both because his enormous amount of production really overwhelmed the space at some point, and also because we felt it was important that he have the accolades and appreciation and also money that would come with that while he was alive,” Hustle said. “I’m glad that there are e orts being made to preserve his work,” she said, even though he won’t feel the impact of it. “The work itself is important, but not as important as him, the person. It just really speaks to the failure of arts organizations to support living artists, especially self-taught or

outsider or whatever term you want to use artists. It’s much easier to commodify that work when someone is dead, but that is a real tragic disservice to living artists like Thomas, who need that support while they’re alive.”

In 1993, Kong turned to Jesus, becoming a Christian during a particularly difficult period of his life. At the store, he frequently listened to Christian radio; he told Hustle he read the Bible cover to cover. His mantra “be happy”—which appeared often

“Helping with his work gave me a glimpse into the quiet rhythm of someone who had turned making into a part of living.”

— Sungho Bae

in his work—was inspired by the beatitudes, passages in the Bible which bestow blessings upon those who previously suffered from misfortune.

(You’ve probably encountered at least one: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”)

and it’s good,” he said.

He told her that all shapes are equal and are put there by God. “Cutting out shapes was his version of worship,” Hustle said.

One thing that’s clear about Kong’s work is that many younger artists feel particularly drawn to it. “I think it’s just his ease of making, of being able to have such expansive ideas at the ready,” Sierzputowski said. “Thomas is just making and making and making and making and ideas never cease, and the production never stops. Where he just has this constant flow of production that I think many people

should be preserved not only for what it is, but for how it came to be. His story, especially for artists, o ers a chance to remember that a meaningful practice doesn’t have to be loud. It can be slow, sincere, and deeply rooted in the everyday, and sometimes, that’s enough.”

Tang and Aloni have a particular relationship to the work, having spent so much time looking at it. “Digestible, very easy to see, but also there’s depth in it,” Tang said.

“I feel like we’re in a capsule of time, and every work we’re looking at is the moment that he spent,” Aloni said. Kong would often use material as soon as he was finished consuming it.

In an interview with the artist Jisu Lee, Kong said he makes work “to give happiness to people for the rest of my life.” “That’s why the catchphrase is ‘be happy.’ It is a command. ‘Be happy’ is the phrase to use while we’re living. It is not for when we’re dead.”

He spoke to Hustle about how he channeled God through his art. “Whenever I do this thing, making things and cutting things, sometimes I ask him, ‘Is this the right way, or beautiful way, or is that nice? What color should be good in this section,’ you know. And then I just put it in

would be very envious of.”

“I really admire Thomas’s career as a selftaught artist,” Lee said, in awe at Kong’s prolific artistic output. “Preserving them, putting my hands on those thousands of artworks always took me in awe. . . . I couldn’t stop thinking of his physical labor, cutting these tiny pieces, one by one, and just thinking of that labor with love. . . . I don’t think anyone can do that. It’s not for everyone.”

Bae agreed. “He wasn’t trying to impress anyone,” he wrote. “I think what he left behind

“A lot of his work is actually really political, but you don’t really see it,” Lim said. She wondered if his frequent use of boatlike shapes might be a reference to when his family fled North Korea. “He never told me about that—the ship, that motif, which is fucking sad. . . . That’s how I feel looking at all these works, ‘Why have I not asked him?’” More than anything, for Lim, it was a reminder that he’s gone. “I’m regretting that I did not spend enough time with him, I think that’s how I’m feeling every time I see this. So it’s a lot of regret, actually.”

Tang, Lim, and Aloni sometimes refer to their documentation sessions as “Sunday church”—a fitting name for time spent cataloging the work of an artist whose practice was deeply spiritual. Over the years, Kong’s family tried to get him to slow down, to close the store, to stop smoking cigarettes, to take better care of his health. Manning a convenience store can be a dangerous job—he was beat up more than once. I remember visiting when he was in a neck brace. But he didn’t want to give up his art practice.

“There was a certain amount of freedom in being able to sit there all day and make things—that’s what he cared about,” Kristin said.

In his interview with Hustle, Kong lent credence to the work that Lim has continued to do to preserve his work and burnish his legacy. “I want people who didn’t know me, know me. That’s the only thing I want. . . . I want people to be happy, seeing my artwork. That’s the main thing.” v

m kcardoza@chicagoreader.com

S.Y. Lim has worked tirelessly to preserve Kong’s work. COURTESY S.Y. LIM

OPENING

R High-wire gender act

Griffin’s Girls & Boys explores misogyny in family life.

In British playwright Dennis Kelly’s Girls & Boys, presented at Bramble Arts Lo by Griffin Theatre Company under Robin Witt’s direction, the domestic sphere serves as a backdrop for a high-wire walk between dry comedy and deep tragedy.

The narrator, billed as “Woman” and played by Chicago stalwart Cynthia Marker, talks us through her life a er meeting the man she marries and starts a family with. Their joint successes and the birth of their children—a girl and a boy—move us through the story, and the play hinges on a brutal revelation that I won’t spoil here. Kelly’s text reveals its true project at this climax, deploying a family story to examine ingrained misogyny, so o en stuffed in a closet or swept under the rug. In mimed flashbacks, Woman mediates conflicts between her children, where Kelly asks whether traditional gender roles are natural to children or assigned.

—ROB SILVERMAN ASCHER GIRLS & BOYS Through 8/16: Thu–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark, griffintheatre.com, $43 ($38 seniors, $35 students)

RChamber Sondheim

Blank Theatre Company revives Passion.

er, and someone who has been defined (and gossiped about) by the men around her most of her life (including the callow count who married her for money as a teen and le her destitute). She has learned to use the seducer’s tools for her own purposes, but she’s still carrying scars of the past.

Against the gray backdrop of Hayley E. Wallenfeldt’s set, which evokes the ruined castle near the base (“I find it lovely. Probably because it’s ruined,” Fosca explains to Giorgio at one point), the unlikely attraction between Fosca and Giorgio feels inevitable—a desperate grab at something grander and bigger than themselves. Aaron Kaplan’s musical direction and Evelyn Ryan’s chamber orchestrations for the five-piece ensemble serve the score and the story as well as the lead performances do, working against the stylistic melodrama of the tale to distill the essence of raw and complicated emotions.

—KERRY REID PASSION Through 8/10: Thu–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 8/4 7:30 PM and Sat 8/9 2 PM; Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, blanktheatrecompany.org, $37 ($22 student/ industry)

RMusic in the static waves

Twisted Melodies is a musical love letter to Donny Hathaway.

Kelvin Roston Jr. refers to Twisted Melodies as a labor of love in his playwright’s note. That labor is evident from the first melody that glides from the stage. Starring in the show that he wrote and first performed back in 2019, Roston has composed a musical love let-

ter to Donny Hathaway. Scattered among the discord, Hathaway’s music lives between static waves—waves that come at him time and time again, sweeping him back under.

Carefully directed by Ron OJ Parson, Roston’s show at Northlight is nothing short of wonderful. And although Roston is alone on the stage, he’s never quite alone. Not really. This one-man show has a costar the whole time—the audience. Whether real or imagined, Hathaway sees us. He feels our presence. Seemingly alone in his hotel room, tortured by the voices he cannot quiet, the audience becomes a sounding board. A duet partner. A friend. It becomes everything he needs as he struggles to record a song that plays back static. Or worse, the Duke, whose existence has plagued him for years.

Roston takes us on that twisted journey with Hathaway, masterfully connecting the threads of his life to show us how the soul musician’s incredible work was born—how Hathaway took his pain, his joy, and his sorrow and “twist[ed] them into melodies.” All these decades later, those melodies are still serving him one beat at a time. —AMANDA FINN TWISTED MELODIES Through 8/10: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu–Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2:30 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PM; also Sun 8/3 7:30 PM; relaxed/sensory-friendly performance Wed 7/23 7:30 PM, audio description/touch tour Sat 8/2 2:30 PM, open captions Fri 8/1 7:30 PM and Sat 8/2 2:30 PM; North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie, Skokie, 847-673-6300, northlight. org, $49-$91 ($15 students any performance, pending availability) v

Sotirios Livaditis’s set, consisting of two living rooms—one literally turned upside down, suspended from the ceiling—reflects this use of the domestic setting. As Woman, Marker is dry and witty, authoritative, but never didactic. Woman rambles, warmly leading us from memory to memory. We’re on a whole new topic before we even realize it, like a chat with an old friend at the bar. Witt’s production has a tense, uneasy atmosphere, the gravity of which pays off. Girls & Boys makes the most of this uneasiness, disarming the audience while getting us to face some of our ugliest truths.

In his book Look, I Made a Hat, Stephen Sondheim introduces the section on 1994’s Passion by describing the music as “somewhere between aria and recitative,” along with his hope that “there’s enough dialogue so that no one could mistake Passion for an opera.” Sondheim’s score and James Lapine’s book (based on Ettore Scola’s 1981 film Passione d’Amore, in turn inspired by Iginio Tarchetti’s 1869 epistolary novel, Fosca) resulted in one of the most sung-through musicals in the Sondheim canon. And as the title suggests, the subject matter is one that’s served as the foundation for many operas.

Blank Theatre Company’s current chamber production at the Greenhouse, directed by Danny Kapinos, plays it simple and devoid of stereotypical operatic bombast, and the result is a largely absorbing 90-minute showcase for the performers, anchored by Brittney Brown as Fosca, the “ugly” daughter of a deceased general (as the soldiers at the base describe her) and Evan Bradford as Captain Giorgio Bachetti, the soldier who finds himself carrying a torch for the tortured young woman, despite already being involved in an affair with the married Clara (Rachel Guth). What starts in pity (Giorgio is encouraged to pay attention to the ailing Fosca by the base doctor) indeed ends in passion. Like Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men, Brown’s Fosca is as much a lonely victim as a schem-

Girls & Boys MICHAEL BROSILOW

In Eddington, the real virus is what corrodes our common ground

Ari Aster’s latest reflects on the paranoia, individualism, and lasting consequences of the 2020 pandemic lockdown.

By MAXWELL RABB

Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) of Eddington, New Mexico, is in COVID-19 lockdown with his gloomy wife, Louise (Emma Stone), and her mother, Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell). It’s May 2020, and the three are bubbled up. Louise and Dawn gradually slip into a swirl of conspiracy, while Joe butts heads with the local government over mask mandates. Despite the tight quarters, there is a vast distance between them. Each day of the pandemic brings this bubble one step closer to popping. No doubt, this pressure chamber is a setting familiar to many of us.

One night, after a rare flicker of intimacy between Joe and Louise goes dark, the lovesick lawman rolls away from her and retreats into the glow of his phone. He is swallowed by a feed brimming with outrage, half-truths, and algorithmic comforts that are easier to face than his wife beside him. Yes, it’s the nowquotidian doomscroll. It’s this escape that defuses any explosion, a guaranteed distraction that balks at any real reckoning with the problems outside (and within) the walls. This, too, is awfully familiar.

That isolation—and the paranoia it breeds— is what Eddington zeroes in on. It’s the kind of psychic terrain director Ari Aster loves. First championed for Hereditary (2018), a domestic tragedy veined with the occult, and then Midsommar (2019), a breakup movie recast as folk horror, Aster made his name chronicling

the slow unraveling of ordinary people under extreme pressure. In 2023, he turned inward with Beau Is Afraid, a personally charged epic that spiraled so far into absurdity that Aster lost the reins. This year, Eddington drops us into the tumultuous summer we lived through five years ago, placing pandemic panic under harsh light. Aster cashes in his humor and taste for the absurd to craft the best film on the subject to date.

Eddington investigates how, that summer, the very innovations meant to bring us together—smartphones, social media, and the Internet—instead inflamed our isolation. A socially distanced country went online to find solace, but rapidly, communities (or really, individuals) fell prey to their self-built echo chambers. Suddenly, everyone was an expert, and everyone else was an idiot.

In Aster’s hands, a fictional small town in New Mexico (the state where he was raised) becomes a microcosm of America’s spiritual freefall that spares no one: the left, the right, the indifferent. He charts how information, funneled through our phones straight into our nerves, turned people into voiceboxes, regurgitating headlines and Instagram posts on command. The film’s most unsettling truth isn’t that people are misinformed, but that perhaps we crave something to fear—a chance to signal virtue on either side. Aster pushes further: Would we be prepared if our worst fears were to prove true?

Joe, already weary, is pushed to the edge by the one-two punch of romantic bitterness and political frustration. He loathes Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), the face of everything he hates in politics, and notably, an exboyfriend of Louise from more than two decades prior. Ted enforces COVID-era mandates with performative zeal, cloaking his tech-funded campaign with a shield of progressivism. Tensions boil over when Joe defends a local who refuses to wear a mask at the grocery store. Ted confronts him, rattling o rehearsed statistics. For Ted, it’s not about being right; it’s about appearing right. That’s when Joe decides to run for mayor. By the next day, his car is plastered with global conspiracy slogans, proof, he claims, of what he’s protecting Eddington from. He tells Ted point-blank: COVID isn’t a “here problem.”

This mayoral race in a town of just 2,435 is less about policy than it is about how information is weaponized. While Ted is emblematic of spineless liberalism, playing the good guy to gain support, Joe is exemplary of real-life candidates who refuse to “play by the rules” by

spreading fear and slander. It shows us how, at the height of COVID, talking points splintered into paranoia, and how, in the chaos, people could say anything and be believed. Joe might be a totem of right-wing extremism, bolstered by an onslaught of misinformation campaigns, but in truth, he’s also a victim of the powers that control the flow of information.

The real danger lurks behind the progressive sheen of Ted’s campaign: a tech company, absurdly named SolidGoldMagikarp (AI lingo or Pokémon?), is planning to move into Eddington. This company is poised to soak up local resources without any consideration for the neighboring citizens. (Call Erin Brockovich.) Because everyone is hyperaware of the problems facing American society—and the world at large—something sinister has slipped through the cracks amid the noise of conflict and virtue signaling.

The ensuing chaos is amplified when the national uprisings sparked by George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police begin to trickle into Eddington through its teenagers, who mimic activism more than understand it. A sense of impending collapse hangs over the place. The town’s anxieties are inflated by one source or another, inciting small clashes and broken windows on the streets, and stoking worries among the sheri ’s deputies, Guy (Luke Grimes) and Michael (Micheal Ward), about antifa storming in.

As Joe spirals into politics and paranoia, another belief system creeps into his home. Louise and Dawn are drawn into the orbit of Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler), a charismatic, tattooed influencer who livestreams wellness gospel with a steady drip of conspiratorial dread. (At first, it’s disappointing how little attention Stone and Butler get.) This drifting echoes how many of us felt after that summer, returning to “regular life” to find loved ones fanatically following new ideologies. In this time alone, many people found ways to feel vindicated, no matter what the cost.

Admittedly, Aster is handling a lot, and this makes parts of the movie muddled. Still, this mirrors the information bombardment we faced. It’s hard to parse out the truth. Awareness, once a tool for solidarity, now serves self-absorption and cultural paranoia, leveraged by corporate and political powers. We process information through the warped lens of our personal fears and algorithms. The horror of lockdown wasn’t that we were alone then, but that we remain isolated now.

Aster manages to spike tension without losing the reins over two-and-a-half hours thanks to the sharp cinematography by Darius Khondji, who has made us stir in our seats several times over in nerve-racking films such as David Fincher’s Seven (1995) and the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems (2019). From one loaded confrontation to another, Khondji places us uncomfortably close to the action as it unfolds across this isolated desert town. All the while, Daniel Pemberton and Bobby Krlic’s score thrums with unease, each scene infiltrated by what sounds like a discordant rendition of some bygone western classics.

In Eddington, the real virus is what corrodes our common ground. Far less outwardly horrifying than Aster’s first three films, it simmers in the dread of its characters. The fallout of 2020 is di cult to confront because we’re still reckoning with what happened. For some, the damage crept in quietly; for others, it exploded without warning. When Eddington erupts, it’s blunt. (There is a literal dumpster fire.) It wasn’t individual choices that undid us so much as the systems that failed to protect us— machinations of capitalism that prioritized profit over care, leaving the most vulnerable to face the worst. Our error was turning on individuals, rather than those in power. What’s left is a population more paranoid, more isolated, and more convinced than ever that the truth is whatever confirms their fear. v

m letters@chicagoreader.com

Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) in Eddington COURTESY A24

This week, I saw a four-and-a-half-hour movie. It’s not the longest film I’ve ever seen in a theater—that distinction goes to Wang Bing’s monumental 2002 documentary Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, which is a little over nine hours. I’ve seen other films by Wang and Frederick Wiseman that come close to that runtime, but this felt di erent, like uncharted territory, so to speak.

Louise Weard’s Castration Movie Anthology I (2024) is in a class of its own. It certainly has a connection to film history, specifically that of low-budget independent films made scrappily and with collaborators consisting mostly of the filmmaker’s immediate friend group, but in terms of its existence at the point between form and content, it’s something wholly idiosyncratic. The film has two parts: The first is about a covert incel/aspiring filmmaker who’s dumped by his girlfriend. The second, longer part centers on Weard as Michaela “Traps” Sinclair, a trans sex worker, and her eclectic friend group. (Trans filmmakers Vera Drew and Alice Maio Mackay appear as some of these characters.) It’s likewise surprisingly earnest and shockingly explicit— watching it made me wonder if that’s what it felt like to watch early John Waters films when they premiered, sans the gross-out aspect.

It’s an easy out to say a film defies summarization, but it’s nevertheless true here. The film’s not really about anything so much as it chugs along at its own pace and addresses tension—of any kind that might substantiate a plot point— as it arises. Aoife Josie Clements stars as Traps’s best friend, a trans woman whose partner is having top surgery, prompting financial concerns. Traps is dating a man with whom she hopes to become serious and even explores whether or not she’s still fertile. It’s these things, a mix of the mundane and the momentous, that compose its tenuous plot, but it’s the specificity of what’s happening that makes it unique. The first and second parts have no substantial connection but nevertheless put forth interesting ideas on the complexity of being human.

Get showtimes and see reviews of everything playing this week at chicagoreader.com/movies

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ROh, Hi!

A still from Superman (2025) JESSICA

MIGLIO/WARNER BROS. PICTURES

At the start of the film, the incel character is rambling on and on to a disinterested colleague about Superman, that symbol of ultimate—but ultimately unattainable—manhood. Funnily enough, I also saw James Gunn’s new Superman (2025) this weekend, but I took a little road trip to do so. A friend and I went to the suburbs to see the film on ScreenX at the Marcus Addison Cinema. What’s ScreenX, you ask? It provides “a 270-degree panoramic movie experience by extending select scenes onto the side walls of the auditorium,” per an o cial description. Except, the film was shot in the 1:85 aspect ratio for non-IMAX theaters and thus didn’t fill the main screen.

I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from seeing it this way. I certainly had fun, and the movie is OK. Some viewers are interpreting an aspect of the plot in which a small country is being annexed by a more powerful neighboring state as an allegory for what’s happening in Palestine; Gunn apparently said it’s not, but some fans of his suggest that he was being sarcastic. (For example, one commenter, mimicking Gunn, said, “C’mon, it’s not Israel and Gaza . . . it’s Bizrael and Plaza.”) On the one hand, it’s bold if true; on the other, what does it mean in the context of things? In the film, a boy in a Palestine-like country erects a Superman flag, beckoning the recently maligned superhero to help. But there’s no Superman in real life, no one person to save them. In the absence of a literal superhero, what do we do?

Happily, though, I enjoyed a Picture Restart screening at Chicago Filmmakers this weekend as well. Prepared Texts: Five Mischevious Films on Language & Philosophy by Dana Hodgdon, all on 16 millimeter, was light and engaging while still being evocative and thought-provoking. All the films I saw this past week were as such. Until next time, moviegoers. —KAT SACHS v

The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film bu , collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to o er.

Love makes anyone a little crazy, especially in those first few months, when it feels like a full-on guessing game. The thrill that people get when having a crush is the same feeling that makes others fear romance altogether. And this masochistic game is only escalating, with dating app fatigue and open relationships—damned by poor communication—scrambling all the signals. But, for many, if you’ve lucked out, you latch on.

A bright-eyed Iris (Molly Gordon) appears to have lucked out with her boyfriend, Isaac (Logan Lerman). The twentysomethings are knee-deep in the honeymoon phase, driving to a romantic getaway and passing the time with smoldering flirtatious banter and singing Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s 1983 duet “Islands in the Stream.” They stop at a roadside strawberry stand, and suddenly, we taste some unease between the two. As Isaac flirts with the woman at the stand, Iris leers at his shoulder. Nothing is as secure as the duet might’ve suggested.

Superman

Sophie Brooks’s sophomore film, Oh, Hi!, plops us into one of the most vulnerable dating stages: an overnight vacation three or four months into seeing someone. Brooks zeroes in on the quiet, clawing insecurities that surface just as casual dating starts to turn serious.

Isaac plays the boyfriend role expertly; anyone would be smitten. Lerman and Gordon’s chemistry is the crown jewel of Oh, Hi!, perhaps the only reason this absurd rom-com works as well as it does. A er finding restraints in their host’s closet, the two decide to try out some kinky sex. Isaac ties up Iris before Iris requests to switch roles. Following an intimate sex scene packed with the same sprightly flirtation, Isaac drops a bomb: He’s not looking for anything serious.

This comes as a serious shock to Iris, who responds in one of the best rom-com monologues of the year, thanks to Gordon: “Why would you tell your mom about me? Why would you eat me out in broad daylight? That’s fucking boyfriend shit.” Mind you, Isaac is still tied up. A er letting this soak in, a brilliant idea dawns on Iris. She can keep Isaac tied up and show him how happy they could be together.

The wild premise of Oh, Hi! demands a lot from its cast. Stuck in a cabin—specifically, chained to the bed— Lerman flexes his comedic chops. However, Gordon shines as this comedy’s star, delivering jokes as she turns on a dime between manic moods and depressed slumps. It’s not perfect, sometimes only cautiously leaning into its absurdity. Still, Oh, Hi! takes a stab at some hard truths about dating; its insights into modern romance aren’t revelatory, but the delivery is unhinged enough to stick. —MAXWELL RABB R, 94 min. Wide release in theaters

James Gunn’s Superman is doing too much from the start. The opening onscreen text delivers an astounding amount of exposition. Some of it is simple enough (Clark Kent/Superman has been active as a hero for three years), but some of it is shockingly grandiose (Superman recently stopped the nation of Boravia from invading its neighbor, Jarhanpur).

The grandiosity isn’t only in the scale of the plot point, but also in its explicit politics, which Gunn bravely dives into over the course of the film. There are conversations about Boravia as a U.S. ally, arguing it’s liberating the Jarhanpurian people from a tyrannical government, and questions are posed about Superman’s right to act unilaterally in international affairs.

It’s timely and intelligent stuff for a superhero movie to grapple with, especially one set to start a new extended universe. It’s also one of at least three major interweaving plotlines in the film. One centers on Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) destroying Superman’s (David Corenswet) reputation by revealing he was sent to Earth to lord over humanity. The other, the weakest storyline of the film, takes Superman, girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), and a couple other heroes to a “pocket universe” that, a er much seeding, causes some interdimensional chaos.

Narratively, that’s already a lot. Then there’s the issue of the film’s overstuffed ensemble cast, including Clark and Lois’s coworkers at the Daily Planet newspaper, other superheroes, Luthor’s entourage, and Clark’s human parents. It’s disappointing not because these cast members aren’t pulling their weight, but because Wendell Pierce as Clark’s boss and Pruitt Taylor Vince as his adoptive father are both such inspired casting choices, and we don’t get to see them do much.

Superman is never bad—it’s just too full to allow its best aspects to shine. —KYLE LOGAN PG-13, 129 min. Wide release in theaters v

Oh,

THE SECRET HISTORY OF CHICAGO MUSIC

Guitarist Jimmy Rogers played a part in every era of Chicago blues

He first made his mark playing alongside Muddy Waters and Little Walter in the 1940s, but he didn’t have the hits to end up as famous.

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.

If you remember the Secret History of Chicago Music’s Winter Blues series, you know I used to cover the blues mostly in the dark, icy months. Lately, every month has felt pretty dark, as our country falls deeper into fascism and escalates its war on the disenfranchised, so I’m writing about a Chicago bluesman in July. Guitarist Jimmy Rogers—perhaps best known as an early Muddy Waters sideman— played a part in practically the entire history of Chicago blues. He was here for its inception in the 1940s, played a part in its growth, and helped drive its revival in the ’60s and ’70s. James Arthur Lane (or possibly Jay) was born June 3, 1924, in the Dougherty Bayou, near Ruleville, Mississippi. He took the last name of his stepfather, Henry Rogers, and he was raised by his grandmother in nearby Vance, Mississippi. As a kid he played in a harmonica quartet with his friend Snooky Pryor, another primordial bluesman who’d later help define the Chicago sound.

In his early teens, Rogers moved to Charleston, Mississippi, where he picked up the guitar. He worked his first gig in Minter City and began playing country blues around the Delta with the likes of Howlin’ Wolf and the second Sonny Boy Williamson (aka Rice Miller). He traveled widely and lived as far afield as Atlanta, Saint Louis, and Indiana before settling in Chicago in the early 1940s. In short order he was running in the same circles as

several blues legends, including Memphis Minnie, Tampa Red, Robert Lockwood Jr., Big Bill Broonzy, and the first Sonny Boy Williamson (aka John Lee Williamson).

Like many blues artists newly arrived in Chicago, Rogers immediately began sitting in at Maxwell Street, the famed open-air immigrant market that was also ground zero for Chicago blues. (Founded in the 19th century by Jewish immigrants, it became a bustling multicultural hub, with large Black and Latine contingents. Today it would probably get raided by masked ICE agents.) Rogers jammed with Pryor, another recent transplant, as well as with harmonica lord Little Walter and the king himself, Muddy Waters, who’d moved to Chicago in 1943. Of course, Waters wasn’t yet a star, and in the mid-40s, Rogers helped him with his guitar playing. In his first band with Waters, Rogers played harmonica with second guitarist Claude “Blue Smitty” Smith and drummer “Baby Face” Leroy Foster. When Smith left, he was replaced by Little Walter—then still a teenager—and Rogers switched to guitar. This group, with Rogers, Walter, and Waters, was nicknamed the Headhunters or the Headcutters. They liked to show up at other people’s gigs and “cut their heads,” getting onstage and outplaying them—which often meant they could take the job if they wanted it.

In 1996, Rogers gave an interview to Jas Obrecht, at the time an editor at Guitar Player magazine. Rogers talked about how he and Waters would introduce songs they’d written to each other. “That’s where we got Walter into arranging songs like Muddy and I would do it,” he said. “Walter would be there, but he wouldn’t say anything. He just be listening and be there, and we’d be sittin’ down. He wasn’t much of a songwriter, Walter wasn’t, but he was a good player. . . . He might get up and walk out or something, and go on wherever he had in mind to go, and we would still be doing this, working on arranging this stu .”

Rogers made his first solo recording in 1946, playing harmonica on “Round About Boogie,” a 78 for the small Harlem label that was miscredited to Memphis Slim & His House Rockers. The following year he appeared uncredited on a single by Little Walter and Othum Brown, “Ora-Nelle Blues” b/w “I Just Keep Loving Her.” In the late 40s, Rogers cut several more sides, but they wouldn’t be released till

much later, after he’d become a notable artist. In 1950, Rogers had a watershed year. He appeared on singles by Waters, the Little Walter Trio (which also included Waters), and the Baby Face Leroy Trio. The Waters record had come out on Aristocrat, owned by Leonard Chess, and that same year Leonard brought in his brother Phil and renamed the imprint Chess Records. Rogers released his first recording as a bandleader, “That’s All Right” b/w “Ludella,” on that brand-new label, which would grow into one of Chicago’s most famous and important.

“That’s All Right” became one of Rogers’s signature tunes and something of a blues standard, recorded by dozens of artists. He stayed in Waters’s band till 1954 and continued to work with him after that, and the relationship he forged with Chess would last for more than a decade. The sides he cut for Chess over that period include many with Waters and lots of solo material (including “Going Away Baby” and “The World Is in a Tangle”) that shows

STEVE KRAKOW FOR CHICAGO READER

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o his spindly licks and clear, mournful tenor voice.

Rogers also loaned his raw but dextrous electric guitar to Chess singles by Floyd Jones, Eddie Ware, and Howlin’ Wolf (as well as Atlantic Records releases by T-Bone Walker). But the Waters tunes are definitely the most notable: Rogers appears on the iconic “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Mannish Boy,” cut in 1954 and ’55.

Like many blues artists newly arrived in Chicago, Rogers immediately

Several of Rogers’s singles were successful too, albeit not to the same degree. “Walking by Myself” from 1956 featured some real heavies: guitarist Robert Lockwood Jr., pianist Otis Spann, harmonica player Big Walter Horton, and bassist Willie Dixon. The 1954 single “Chicago Bound” b/w “Sloppy Drunk” has a proto–rock ’n’ roll sound, and the backing bands (different on each side) include Waters, Spann, Dixon, Little Walter, and pianist Henry Gray. In the early 60s, Rogers began playing in Wolf’s band, but that only lasted a year or so. The popularity of the blues was waning, and Rogers decided to take a break from the music business. He drove a cab and ran a clothing store that burned down in the unrest following Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968.

Acoustic blues had been enjoying a revival since the early 60s, and late in the decade electric blues got a boost from white hippie fans whose favorite rock bands had borrowed heavily from blues artists. Rogers returned to the music business in 1969, just in time to catch this wave. He toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival in 1972, alongside the likes of Big Mama Thornton, T-Bone Walker, and Jimmy Dawkins. (A live double LP recorded at two German dates collected tracks from 11 di erent artists.)

Rogers released his first full-length album, Gold Tailed Bird, on the Shelter label in 1973. The title track shows off his slow-burning vocals and biting ax tone, with production from JJ Cale and backing from godly drummer Fred Below and his bandmates from the Aces, guitarist Louis Myers and his brother, bassist Dave Myers. Rogers also supported Waters on his 1978 album I’m Ready, part of a string of successful “comeback” records produced by Muddy’s friend and fan Johnny Winter. Rogers put out an LP with Left Hand Frank in ’79 and another with Hip Linkchain in ’82.

In 1988, he appeared on the Wild Child Butler album Lickin’ Gravy , which was mostly a reissue of his 1976 LP Funky Butt Lover . The band on the original record was nothing to sneeze at—it featured drummer Sam Lay—but in 1986, Rooster Blues added a couple new tracks and new performances from Rogers and pianist Pinetop Perkins. Lickin’ Gravy came out in 1988, and blues scholar David Whiteis reviewed it for the Reader in 1990. “Jimmy Rogers’s guitar is a bit more uptown than the rest of the arrangement,” he wrote, “but it’s got a roadhouse echo and a fuzzy distortion that likewise evoke the atmosphere of a late-night club jam.”

The album Ludella followed in 1990, recorded in Austin, Texas, and released by Antone’s Records & Tapes. Rogers is backed by blues aristocracy such as Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, Bob Stroger, Hubert Sumlin, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and Pinetop Perkins. Rogers’s last recordings appeared on two 1994 albums: Blue Bird (with harmonica player Carey Bell) and Bill’s Blues (with harmonica player Bill Hickey). He passed away on December 19, 1997, from colon cancer.

Rogers’s work has been turning up on compilations since the late 1960s, and the most recent I can find that’s devoted entirely to him is the 2016 CD compendium of Chess recordings Chicago Bound. His legacy is also carried forward by his son, Jimmy D. Lane, a blues guitarist, producer, and engineer.

In a perfect world, “Chicago Bound” would be a Windy City anthem as famous as “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Take Me Back to Chicago,” or (ugh) “We’re All Crazy in Chicago.” So let’s all start putting it on playlists and bugging DJs to spin it! 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.

LAUNCH PARTY FOR JU-BLICK’S GET RICH OR DIE SLIDIN’ With additional music by DJ Zuni. Fri 7/25, 4–6 PM, Jugrnaut, 427 S. Dearborn, free, all-ages

CITY OF WIN

Ju-Blick has walked a long path to his debut album

The Chicago rapper chooses his steps carefully to do right by the Chatham community that raised him.

By ISIAH “THOUGHTPOET” VENEY

City of Win is a series curated by Isiah “ThoughtPoet” Veney that uses prose and photography to create portraits of Chicago musicians and cultural innovators working to create positive change in their communities.

I’ve known about Chicago rapper Ju-Blick for a long time. We’re about the same age, and we were both raised in Chatham, where he was born. But while I knew he was around, I didn’t get into his music till last year, when he put out the EP The Precursor and the single “Cop a Plea.” In Ju-Blick’s distinctive vision of Chicago’s trenches, I heard a truth I believe in. Even though we hadn’t been close, I immediately recognized his story, in part because we’re from the same neighborhood. That got me interested in collaborating with him. The first time we really connected was at a Subterranean show I cohosted in February 2024, where I saw Ju-Blick get inspired and join the artists onstage, even though he wasn’t on

the bill. In April 2025 he asked me to take some pictures, and for the past few months I’ve been doing unpaid work for him through a creative agency called Unsocial Aesthetics (UAES) that I’ve been part of since 2020. Mostly I’ve been shooting and editing photos and video to help promote Ju-Blick’s first full-length release, Get Rich or Die Slidin’ , which comes out Friday, July 25. That day, he hosts a listening party at Jugrnaut presented by Unsocial Aesthetics, and he’ll also appear at a UAES showcase at Subterranean on Monday, August 25.

Ju-Blick began making music in 2009, during Chicago rap’s blog era. “When the drill era started I was already rapping,” he says. “There’s no one bolder than us at this point doing it—we’re sort of the generation that started it.” His style combines drill influences with classic hip-hop structures from the 1990s golden era.

Over the years, Ju-Blick has rebranded a couple times, but his reputation has endured. When he went by “Judy” (after a childhood nickname), he worked alongside early Chicago drill artists Smylez and Edai, both now passed on. He appears on Edai’s 2012 mixtape The Forgotten , produced by Smylez, whose tracks and remixes also include contributions from Chief Keef, King Louie, and fellow UAES client Hittz. “Hittz introduced me to Smylez,

over there.”

Ju-Blick has always been a student and fan of hip-hop, and his mentors include rapper GLC, best known for working with Kanye West. “He got a nephew that I grew up with on the same street, so I always used to see GLC come through when he came from tours,” he says.

“We just developed a cool mentor relationship moving forward. A lot of people don’t know that.”

Ju-Blick also credits New York producer Pete Rock with inspiring him. This might come as a surprise if you know about Rock’s since- deleted 2022 Instagram post trashing drill rap (he said it “disrupts the soul” and reflects “the destruction of the culture”) and Ju-Blick’s heated response. He speaks his mind, even when it means challenging one of his biggest heroes. “People will never believe Pete Rock is the reason I’m rapping right now, regardless of the spat we had,” he says.

Blick has a passionate love for Do or Die, Twista, Bump J, and other pioneers of the Chicago sound. Combined with his love for the all-time greats—Tupac, Biggie, Scarface, Rakim—this has helped him create his monstrous, powerful vocal tone and surreal wordplay. “I just drove myself crazy with it,” he says. “You either become an idiot savant or just an idiot,” he says. “I guess

“[Chatham is] a cultured place that just reminds you that a bunch of responsible, accountable, fearless Black people are around doing the best they can and more, making sure we walk these streets as productive as possible.”

and we took a liking to each other because of our music,” Blick says. “I used to go and make songs with them. You used to see people like Lil JoJo, P.Rico, and others running around

I’m on that savant type of time.” Making music has also been a way for JuBlick to show up for his peers without getting drawn into the dangerous rivalries of street

Ju-Blick reps one of his all-time favorite rappers. THOUGHTPOET FOR

With performances from Hittz, SolarFive, CantBuyDeem, Ju-Blick, Brittany Nacole, Rell Cash, Jank the Jewla, and Eli Hendrixx. Special appearances by Levi, the Swim Team, and Tony Baines & the Lil People. Hosted by ThoughtPoet with sounds by DJ Skoli. Mon 8/25, 9 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, $10, 17+

life. “In a city where everybody is stepping on each other and everybody is itching to be known,” he says, “what inspired me to do music is that’s the only way for me to be heard without succumbing to the things the youngsters do here that have nothing to do.”

Ju-Blick has long been recognized in the scene for his powerful flows, but he only finally

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helped keep grudges alive, and because the wrong people decided Ju-Blick was on Tray 57’s side, he was shot while in Burnside, southeast of Chatham. He had to learn how to walk again, and it changed him forever. He still has a rod and a screw in his lower left leg.

Blick (an acronym that stands for Bad Lingers If U Can’t Kreate) is adamant about not responding to violence with violence, and he picks his collaborators strategically to help Chatham get the support it deserves. He wants to find people who care as much about community as he does. At a video shoot earlier this month for artists and organizers Goalden Chyld and Bo Deal, he networked with Fred Hampton Jr. about the ongoing work to transform his famous father’s childhood home in Maywood into a community center and museum. (The building received landmark status in 2022.) He’s taken part in the discussion surrounding the “Drill Is Dead” movement of Chicago rapper and activist Joel Q. And he’s been building and curating events with historians such as Gq tha Teacha.

stepped into music full-time in 2021—though he’s balancing it with the demands of fatherhood. That year he released the track “Dance Wit da Devil” with a video directed by A Fly Visual (aka FlyTy).

It’s taken Ju-Blick four years to get to his first full-length release in part because on July 25, 2023—the same day he chose to release Get Rich or Die Slidin’—he became a victim of gun violence. In 2017, Chicago rapper Vic Mensa publicly laid into DJ Akademiks for exploiting the shootings that plagued the drill scene. One of his biggest criticisms concerned the way Akademiks had sensationalized the 2014 death of Tray 57, who’d been childhood friends with Blick and Mensa. That high-profile beef

“People act like [Chatham] don’t exist, but it’s cool,” Ju-Blick says. “It’s just an area that breeds humility for me. It’s a cultured place that just reminds you that a bunch of responsible, accountable, fearless Black people are around doing the best they can and more, making sure we walk these streets as productive as possible. Gotta love that.”

Blick’s peers have noticed his efforts.

“He’s a hidden gem, man,” says Roc Nation recording artist Tyre Hakim. “He’s in di erent dimensions with it, but he’s from the streets.”

“He gonna say what’s on his mind, and he’s gonna put it to raps,” says MC and organizer Femdot. “That’s what you supposed to do.”

Get Rich or Die Slidin’ tells Ju-Blick’s story in 20 tracks that feature Hittz, Femdot., Joel Q, Tyre Hakim, Asha Omega, Panamera P, SolarFive, Roostar Green, and more. “I didn’t want to sensationalize my personal trauma,” he says. “And everyone in this traumatized-ass town, I just want to give you a piece of what I went through in the nicest, least o ensive way possible.”

“What I would like for you to know about me,” Ju-Blick says, “is that I did everything I could to be better than who I was the day before.” v m letters@chicagoreader.com

Let’s Play!

Recommended and notable shows with critics’ insights for the week of July 24

Chicago postpunk trio Uniflora embody the boundless creativity of our young indie scene

UNIFLORA, FELLER, LOTTIE’S

Fri 7/25, 7 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $20, $15 in advance ($19.93 with fees).  b

PART OF WHAT DREW ME to the young indie-rock bands of Chicago’s Hallogallo scene five years ago was the sense that they all approached their art with freewheeling creativity. Sure, they drew on sounds and subgenres from decades before they were born, but they weren’t burdened by anything that came before. No band in the scene captures that vibe quite like postpunk trio Uniflora. On their new debut full-length, More Gums Than Teeth (Shuga/Charm Co-op), Uniflora wrestle with snaggletoothed art-rock, sublime indie pop, and nasty noise rock. Sometimes they do it all in one song: the melody of the shaggy “Neighborhood Gourmet” bobs and sways like a dinghy in choppy water. Uni-

flora can convey disarray without sounding out of control. Ruby O’Brien drums with a firm, purposeful hand, and Theo Williams plays bass with slinky flair. Together they steer Quinn Dugan’s jittery, zigzagging guitars and dry vocals toward a focal point. The resulting songs have no singular sound, but an array of ideas that gel through youthful hubris and a sonic identity geared toward experimentation. Uniflora don’t share the distrust of hooks that sometimes seems endemic in postpunk, and sometimes they put the catchy parts front and center—the bare guitar ri on the too-short “From the City Circle” becomes the heart of an unexpectedly romantic melody. —LEOR GALIL

THURSDAY24

Open Mike Eagle Cavalier and Rhys Langston open. 8 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $27. 18+

Ambivalently melancholy nerd rap sounds like it should be an oxymoron, but in Open Mike Eagle’s compellingly odd forebrain, it’s the foundation for the sublime. The Chicago-born hip-hop artist’s mix of tripped-out zingers, mellow grooves, and existential heartbreak provided the heart of his iconic 2017 concept album, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (Mello Music). The record is a tribute to his roots in the Robert Taylor Homes (he grew up visiting family at the south-side public-housing complex, before its buildings were demolished beginning in 1998), and its themes—decay and hope, despair and dreams— thump up against horror-flick references and giddy, biting quips. “Now we all in a zombie movie / Only weapon is common sense / Zombie sheriffs is tryin’ to lynch us / Guess I’ll call up my congressman,” he raps on “Happy Wasteland Day.”

The rest of Eagle’s discography also mixes bitter and sweet until you’re ready to giggle till you cry (or vice versa). On “A New Rap Festival Called Falling Loud,” from 2023’s Another Triumph of Ghetto Engineering, he floats from fantasies about grinding up his ashes with coffee beans (“Just drink me! / What does it hurt you? / Doesn’t hurt me / I’m already dead”) to off-kilter raps about fighting Ewoks. And

on “Relentless Hands and Feet” from his most recent release, the brand-new Neighborhood Gods Unlimited (on his own Auto Reverse label), he offers what sounds like a career statement of purpose: “All my homies full of raw feelings / Fi y weeks, no offseason / We singing all evening.” In bleak times, goofy songs with good friends count as defiance. Eagle has been based in Los Angeles for years, and he doesn’t return home to Chicago o en enough— we should take any chance we get to celebrate his bizarrely touching genius. —NOAH

BERLATSKY

BRAEDEN LONG

Open Mike Eagle ROBERT ADAM MAYER

FRIDAY25

Uniflora See Pick of the Week at le . Feller and Lottie’s open. 7 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $20, $15 in advance ($19.93 with fees).  b

SATURDAY26

Black Rave Culture

D. Strange and Linquency open. 10 PM, Smart Bar, 3730 N. Clark, $31, $25 student. 21+

Black Rave Culture is a DJ collective from Washington, D.C., consisting of James Bangura, Nativesun, and Amal. The trio are all long-established figures in their city’s underground scene, and their tastes in techno, club, and house music complement one another. Their camaraderie and chemistry are evident in their live performances: A 2023 video of their Boiler Room set at D.C.’s WEG Studios captures them taking breaks to dance to one another’s music, visibly excited by

their bandmates’ mixes and beats. But while Black Rave Culture love a good time, they’re also interested in forging community and upli ing fellow artists. Along with their DJ work, all three book night-

HIROMI'S SONICWONDER

life events in the DMV area and elsewhere on the east coast. Amal is the founder of independent BIPOC-focused record label and creative agency Hochi Runs, and Nativesun (aka Chris Harris) cofounded the Future R&Bass Collective with DJ Underdog to introduce underrepresented and marginalized talent to the D.C. scene. Black Rave Culture’s expertise can be heard not only in their mixing skills but also in the decades of dance music and other disparate genres they wa in and out of their sets. At this Smart Bar show, you might just hear Afropop, juke, grimecore, punk, house, baile funk, and more, layered together in a joyful listening party that’s also a music history lesson. Black Rave Culture provide the essential elements of dancefloor architecture while creating space for those who live for the beat.

—SALEM COLLO-JULIN

Pelican Coalesce and Porcelain open. 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $26.47 GA, $39.34 seated balcony, 17+

Can Pelican still write riffs so good that you never start wondering when the vocals are gonna come in? Yes, they can. This spring’s Flickering Resonance is the Chicago-based instrumental four-piece’s first studio album since 2019 and their first full-length in 16 years with their original lineup: guitarists Laurent Schroeder-Lebec and Trevor Shelley de Brauw, bassist Bryan Herweg, and drummer Larry Herweg.

(Schroeder-Lebec left after 2009’s What We All Come to Need and returned in 2022.) Pelican have described the new album as a grateful celebration of the underground music community that’s nourished them for decades, and they recorded it with Sanford Parker, who also worked on their untitled debut EP 24 years ago. Earlier this year they toured with Elliot Dicks, a sound engineer they’d met in the mid-90s at the Fireside Bowl, where they played their first show in 2001.

Flickering Resonance might be the most joyful, lively, extroverted thing Pelican have ever released. Given the band’s baseline aesthetic, though, they’ve still arrived at a pretty dark, heavy album—they haven’t suddenly started sounding like the B-52s. Pelican are still pushing back against the narrative that they’re just a doom-metal band—and I say “still” because when I wrote about them in 2003, before I’d gotten into metal myself, genre was already a vexed question for them. “I don’t like stoner rock or metal, and I like Pelican,” I said. “It therefore follows that Pelican must play something else.” (I went on to compare their live show to a Phill Niblock installation.) Shelley de Brauw and Schroeder-Lebec recently talked to BrooklynVegan about their influences, which include Sunny Day Real Estate, Fugazi, and Quicksand. A Pelican T-shirt released in 2023 just has the words “Post-Emo Stoner Deathgaze” on it. If people didn’t assume metal had a stunted emotional range, none of this talk would be necessary, of course. Pelican just want to play their riffs and make

Black Rave Culture COURTESY THE ARTIST

MUSIC

people feel good. If that doesn’t fit your definition of “metal,” then call the music whatever you like. It’ll still feel good. —PHILIP MONTORO

SUNDAY27

MSPaint Part of Wicker Park Fest, which runs Fri 7/25 through Sun 7/27. Today’s lineup also includes Glare, Evening Elephants, and the Lowdown Brass Band. Complete schedule at wickerparkbucktown. com/music. 7:45 PM (festival begins at noon), North Stage, Milwaukee between Damen and Ashland, $10 donation encouraged. F b

MSPaint Lip Critic and Pat & the Pissers open. 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $24.90. 17+

If music journalism were in a better place, half a dozen outlets already would’ve sent their best punk reporters to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It’s the fi h-largest town in the state, with not quite 50,000 people in the city proper, but the small Hattiesburg scene is hopping. This has a lot to do with the work of local microlabel Earth Girl Tapes, whose largely homegrown catalog includes a lot of strange and exciting local interpretations of punk, most notably hardcore misfits Judy & the Jerks and gnarly synth punks MSPaint. The latter have broken out of Hattiesburg in part because they’ve been adopted by the wider hardcore scene, which is surging in popularity—MSPaint have toured with two of its bigger bands, Scowl and Militarie Gun. MSPaint don’t play hardcore themselves, though, and their synth player, Nick Panella, makes it tough to fit them into any particular genre box. “Nick’s the one who crafts a lot of the songs at the genesis of them,” front man DeeDee told John’s Music Blog in May.

On MSPaint’s May EP, No Separation (Convulse), DeeDee rides barbell-swinging rhythms with short, blustery verses about mass death (“Dri ”) and tech overlords watching our dreams (“Surveillance”). The synths on No Separation bristle with anger and evoke the all-consuming paranoia in DeeDee’s lyrics, but Panella doesn’t let those bad vibes fester. He o en redirects that energy into svelte, driving lines that can cut through all the bullshit you have to endure when you don’t give in to the surveillance state. —LEOR GALIL

Rose City Band See also Mon 7/28. Powers/ Rolin Duo open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $33.17. 21+

The Rose City Band LP Summerlong appeared at the onset of the COVID pandemic. The album’s effortlessly twangy licks and endless-highway beats

were an excellent prescription for de-stressing during a very stressful time—its cosmically untroubled songs evoked an endless summer vacation of the mind. When the record came out, the “band” was really just Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo) singing and playing everything except the drums, but three albums later, Rose City Band has cohered into a road-tested quintet. Johnson’s bandmates wreathe his serene croon and lilting leads with swooping pedal steel and keyboards, and the propulsive rhythm section locates a sweet spot between Klaus Dinger’s post-Neu! project La Düsseldorf and late-1970s Grateful Dead. But while the group’s newest record on Thrill Jockey, Sol y Sombra (“Sun and Shadow”), delivers smiling odes to the radio, open roads, and good weed, it also lets in a little darkness. “Evergreen” and “Sunlight Daze” ease up on the tempos to take stock of the world, and by acknowledging existential dread and loneliness, they show what makes Rose City Band’s

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/musicreviews

more upli ing songs so necessary. Whether you’re planning to see the group play the Empty Bottle on Sunday or Evanston’s SPACE on Monday, be sure to show up early. The opener each night, Ohio combo Powers/Rolin Duo, play 12-string guitar and hammered dulcimer through effects that transform acoustic string resonance into psychedelic swirls of pure tone. —BILL MEYER

MONDAY28

Rose City Band See Sun 7/27. Powers/Rolin Duo open. 8 PM, SPACE, 1243 Chicago, Evanston, $33.90.  b

WEDNESDAY30

Rabbitology Silly Stu opens. 7:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $26.96.  b

Rabbitology is the nom de plume of Nat Timmerman, a University of Michigan student who has spent the past two years meticulously crafting a lush, evocative world of eerie occult-horror folk. Following in the grand DIY tradition, she’s built a sizable fan base on YouTube and Discord with a steady stream of self-released singles (recorded in her dorm room) and two EPs, January’s Living Ghost and its potent, powerful follow-up, March’s Living Ghost: Still Rising. Timmerman’s mesmerizing music refracts her lyrics about mental health struggles through a prism of folklore and the natural world, and she’s prone to turning metaphor into myth through symbolistic storytelling. “Thrashing like Ophelia in my feather-down coat / Won’t someone teach me to love without it swallowing me whole / If to be loved is to be changed, I’m only worsenin’ / Mosquito larvae in my ribs / He only loves me when I rot with him,” she sings on last year’s “Bog Bodies” (perhaps the ultimate ode to “vulture culture”). Timmerman developed a taste for cryptic tales at an early age. In a recent interview with online music platform Glasse Factory, she describes how her dad used to sing her “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” as a lullaby. (Nice going, dad—I bet you thought Watership Down was a children’s book too.) She threads her work together using the image of the hare as a sort of magical sort of herald, with birds flying overhead. On the Living Ghost: Still Rising song “Preybirds (The Watched Version),” she and collaborator Sparkbird (aka Portland chamberpop musician Stephan Nance) dance their voices together in a singsong chant whose escalating poetic imagery describes a desperate attempt to save a lover from a horrific fate in this life while hinting they’d been dangerous in another. They’ve released an animated video for the song that incorporates more than 900 pieces of fan-submitted art depicting hares and birds. It’s a joyous mass expression that brings a tiny star beam of hope to a troubled world, its whimsy riding delightfully alongside its spookiness. In October, Timmerman will open for Texas folk duo the Oh Hellos at Thalia Hall, so this Beat Kitchen show might be your last chance to study Rabbitology in the friendly confines of a small venue before she becomes a star.

—MONICA KENDRICK v

MSPaint LIBBY ZANDERS

Nat Timmerman of Rabbitology ANDREW MEMMER

Pelican MIKE BOYD

Rose City Band ROBBIE AUGSPERGER

CLASSIFIEDS

JOBS

Business Systems Analysts / Itasca, IL: Engineer solutions & establish standards for App Dynamics Controller & agent deployments, including optimizations & tunings per reqs. Interact & gather reqs during the design & dvlpmnt of the app & Splunk objects. Dvlp customizations for App Dynamics w/in Client security framework. Travel/relocate to various unanticipated U.S. locs as reqd. Some job duties can be performed from home. Salary: $127k$135k, standard company benefits. Send res to: Prorsum Technologies, Inc. 650 E Devon Ave. Ste. 175 Itasca, IL 60143

(Chicago, IL) PEAK6 Capital Management LLC seeks Junior Trader w/ bach or for deg equiv in Fin, Math, Biz, Biz Adm, CS or rltd & 2 yrs exp in job ofrd or fincl role. Empl also accepts 3 yr dipl/ deg or 3 yrs crswrk in Fin, Math, Biz, Biz Adm, CS or rld & 2 yrs exp job ofrd or fincl role. Series 57 licen reqd. Hybrid - Occas telecom perm in Chicago area. Slry $125K/yr. Bnfts: peak6.com/careers/ Apply to aernst@peak6.com or HR, 141 W. Jackson Blvd. Ste 500, Chicago, IL 60604

DePaul University seeks Instructors for Chicago, IL location to teach courses in mgmt & entrepreneurship. Ph.D. in Mgmt/related field req’d. $91,545 - $114,735/yr. Apply online: offices.depaul. edu/human-resources/ careers, (benefits linked here) REQ ID: 165124

Elementum Advisors, LLC seeks a Business Solutions Associate in Chicago, IL. Reqs BS in Fin, Bus, Stats, or clsly rltd fld + 24 mnths exp in clsly rltd ocptn. Reqs 24 months exp w/ fllwng: SQL, Python, R, C++, Adv Excel skills; Complex reinsrnce, catastrophe bond structres and plcmnt

mats; Catastrophe mdling sftwre; Catastrophe-linked invstmt portfolio risk metrics. Telcmmtng avail. Trvl to Bermuda affilte req 1-2x/yr. Bnfts: Hlth, dntl, vision, commuter & mdcl flxbl spndng prgrms, 401k & prft sharing, flxbl WFH, LTD, grp term life ins. Slry $125,000-150,000/yr + bonus elgbl. Mail resumes to Kaitlyn Hornik at 155 North Wacker Drive, STE 1750, Chicago, IL 60606.

Health Care Service Corporation seeks Sr Systems Analyst (Chicago, IL) to design enhancements & new biz applications and/ or information systems solutions through integration of technical & biz req’s. REQS: Bach + 4 yrs exp. Telecommuting: Flex role (3 days in office / 2 days remote). Pay: $127,754 - $ 164,200/yr. Benefits: https://careers. hcsc.com/totalrewards. Email resume to hrciapp@bcbsil. com, ref R0042873

Health Care Service Corporation seeks Sr. Systems Analyst (Chicago, IL) to design enhancements & new biz apps and/or info sys sol’ns thru integration of tech & biz req. REQS: Bach + 4 yrs exp. Flex role (3 days in office / 2 days remote). Pay:

$127,754 - $164,200/yr.

Benefits: https://careers. hcsc.com/totalrewards. Email resume to hrciapp@ bcbsil.com, ref R0043355.

Health Care Service Corporation seeks SR HR Business Analyst (Chicago, IL) to provide daily admin support & imprvmnt efforts for SumTotal LMS & add’l HR Strategic Business apps incl config & adhoc reporting, support implmnttn of sys upgrades, & test sys enhancmnts. REQ: Bach + 5 yrs exp. Flex role (3 days in office/2 days remote). Pay: $126,755 - $180,700/yr. Benefits: https://careers. hcsc.com/totalrewards. Email resume to hrciapp@bcbsil. com, ref R0043294

Kraft Heinz Foods Company seeks Sr. Data Scientist to work in Chicago, IL and lead the design and implementation of enterprise-level analytic initiatives to harness the power of data, tackling

complex human capital challenges and uncovering opportunities for growth. Degree & commensurate exp. req’d. For pay scale & benefits and to apply online search keyword R-94571 at careers.kraftheinz.com

Mundelein Dental Clinic, LLC seeks Dentists for various & unanticipated worksites throughout the U.S. (HQ: Mundelein, IL) to diagnose patients’ dental needs & chart patients’ existing conditions. DDS / DMD / bachelor’s in dental medicine / related field req’d. IL Dental Licensure req’d. 20% Travel req’d. $120,682/ yr.-$132,205/yr. Apply by email: careers@ dental360grp. com REF:KEO

Nu Image Nails 2 Inc. seeks a Sales Manager. Mail resume to 4644 S Bishop St, Chicago, IL 60609

Office Manager sought by Chicago Health & Rehab Clinic in Chicago, IL to oversee all administrative operations within the medical practice. Reqs Masters in Healthcare Administration, Business Analytics, or related field, or equivalent. Mst hv perm auth to wrk in US. Snd rsm & cvr lttr to 2407 West Devon Ave, Chicago, IL 60659.

Senior Consultant, Software Engineers sought by Focused Labs Inc., Chicago, IL, to collaborate w/ stakeholders to dsgn, query, & maintain relational & NoSQL d/bases, etc. Deg’d applicants exp’d w/ react.native, Vue, Swift, Java, SpringBoot, Kotlin, etc. Benefits incl sick & vacation pay. Salary range: $148,949.00$149,000.00/yr. Send resume to recruiting@ focusedlabs.io.

Senior Energy Engineer: day-to-day technical decision maker for mechanical/energy systems design for HVAC &/or plumbing system replacement, upgrade, or new installs with a focus on energy efficient & central plant design. Coordinating multidisciplinary engineers tasked with or independently preparing: detailed code analyses, engineering calculations, preparing cost estimates. Work is at Elara Energy

Services, Inc. (213 W. Institute Place, Ste 702, Chicago, IL, 60610) with travel to project site visits lasting approx 2 hrs per visit within the Chicago metro statistical area approx 8-10x per month along with 0 to 1 trips per year within the US that last 1-2 days per trip. Min Reqs: bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering, Energy Engineering, or a closely related field, or foreign equivalent; + 3 yrs exp in any occupational title related to Energy Engineering. Must have an Engineer in Training Cert (EIT) or an Engineer Intern Certification (EI) from any US state. Must also possess 3+ yrs exp in: Performing mechanical & energy system retrofit feasibility studies in commercial facilities; Conducting heat gain & loss calculations. $114,000-$120,000/yr. Please send resume to Elara Energy Services, Inc. at employment@ elaraeng.com

Software Architect and Team Lead, SVP sought by PT Financial Holdings Inc. in Chicago, IL to lead a software development team focused on DevOps software development lifecycle. $148,949/ yr. Reqs Bachelors in Comp Sci or rltd field & 5 yrs exp in rltd ocptn. Benefits: Health & life insurance plans, HAS/ FSA, retirement plan. Mst hv perm auth to wrk in US. Snd rsm & cvr lttr to 500 W Madison St, Ste 450, Chicago, IL 60661.

Commonwealth Edison seeks General Engineer, Distribution Capacity Planning, in Oakbrook Terrace, IL to dvlp studies, plans, criteria, specs., calcs., evals., dsgn docs, perf. assessments, integrated sys. anlysis, cost ests., budgets, associated w/ the planning, dsgn, licensing, constr., commissioning, op., & maint. of distribution capacity planning projects incl. summer critical investment projects, new substation constr., voltage optimization, legacy substation/feeder modernization, targeted resiliency enhancements, & distributed energy resources integration. Reqs U.S. or foreign equiv. Bach.’s deg. in Elec. Engr. or rel. Engr. field,

+ 3 yrs elec. engr. exp., incl. conducting elec. sys. anlysis, prep. docs for power distribution sys., & performing dsgn calcs. of elec. loads. Telecomm. 2 days/ wk from w/in normal commuting distance of Oakbrook Terrace, IL is permitted. Salary range from $98,613 to $135,600. Reply by email w/ resume to jobposting@ exeloncorp.com.

Valkyrie Trading seeks a Junior Quantitative Researcher in Chicago, IL, to Design and maintain robust systems and processes, such as data pipelines, trading algorithms, and infrastructure for real-time analytics. Wage $155,000.00 to $160,000.00 per year. Apply at https:// www.jobpostingtoday. com/Ref #94252.

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