New and recent summer reading from local chefs, cooks, and restaurateurs by
The Jewish Museum of Chicago is radically reimagining what a museum can be by
Theatre connects Black stories of the past and present by
06 Feature | Sula Some new and recent summer reading from local chefs, cooks, and restaurateurs
08 The To-Do In the streets
Dilla’s Chicago Pride
&
10 Feature Passages Charter School abruptly closes its pre-K program.
13 Make It Make Sense | Mulcahy Protesters
fight ICE detentions, Chicago cops visit LA on a “peer exchange” trip, and a new city pilot provides housing for domestic violence survivors
16 Feature | Caporale A vision for an anti-Zionist Jewish arts hub
18 Feature | Cardoza Prism/Prison magazine brings together work by local and incarcerated artists.
20 Stages of Survival | Reid FleetwoodJourdain Theatre connects Black stories of the past and present.
22 Performance Picks | Reid Ten shows that promise to heat up summer stages
23 Shows of Note Black Bone at Definition is a blistering satire of race and academia, Diana at Theo celebrates the late princess, and the Impostors explore Chicago’s breezeways in Footholds Vol. 6
24 Movies of Note Bring Her Back is horrific perfection, The Phoenician Scheme is made in service of its director and cast, and Predator: Killer of Killers is an action-packed animated anthology.
25 Moviegoer Artificial intelligence
26 City of Win Larry Legend is the most interesting man in Chicago.
28 Secret History of Chicago Music Fred Below helped invent the beat of electric Chicago blues.
30 Shows of Note Previews of concerts including Yasser Tejeda, Samantha Crain, and 8-Bit Creeps
PUBLISHER AMBER NETTLES
CHIEF OF STAFF ELLEN KAULIG
EDITOR IN CHIEF SALEM COLLO-JULIN
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THEATER AND DANCE EDITOR KERRY REID
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CULTURE EDITOR: FILM, MEDIA, FOOD AND DRINK TARYN MCFADDEN
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34 Savage Love Is he on Bumble, or did he just bumble?
How a South Side small business is delivering trust and opportunity
In the age of Amazon, Universal Concepts Office Center has become a southeast community staple for safe shipping and safekeeping. When McKeela Wilson began to encounter issues with packages going missing at one of her other businesses, she knew she couldn’t be the only one impacted. In October 2024, Wilson pivoted her passion for supporting the community to providing a reliable and convenient place for shipping and mailing.
Despite the “porch pirates,” as Wilson poetically referred to the folks wrongly taking packages, she turned this problem into a pathway for economic development and empowerment of the surrounding businesses.
As a fellow small business owner, Wilson has a keen understanding of the importance of local support and providing patrons with consistent, quality service. Prior to opening Universal Concepts Office Center, Wilson was a salon owner and hairstylist for many years. Like any good beautician, Wilson is a witty conversationalist who cares deeply about anyone who steps foot into her business, no matter the services they need.
Although boutique in size, the one-stop shipping shop on Bennett Avenue beams with catalytic energy. With the other major logistics and mailing companies only having satellite stations located in other retail stores, Universal Concepts is filling a significant void for the southeast side community, providing access to person-to-person service. However, Wilson by no means is in competition with USPS, FedEx, and UPS; Universal Concepts has contracts with each of these companies, providing a plethora of options to her customers, including helping with Amazon returns. In addition to printing postage and providing all the necessary shipping supplies, Universal Concepts also offers PO Boxes; the beautiful, vintage mail cubicles create space for other emerging small businesses to grow and for local residents to feel their shipments will be secure.
Having grown up on and started her career on the South Side of Chicago, being able to steward and reciprocate the support she once received is a driving force for Wilson. She proudly stated, “I am very, very interested in the future opportunities for the next generation, so that they can flourish in this community, especially a er investing so much time out of my life, I would like to see that it meant something.”
a pair (two odes)
yt girl boobs sit up straight hold their own pepperonis two vanilla scoops shaved ice un-syruped pointing at the sun full circles the parties’ balloons rose buds bouncing heirloom tea cups snow hills a planned trip
By E’mon Lauren
blk girl titties sag and slouched split since birth hershey’s kisses broken waffle cones grape koolaid splashing drowning with the moon long ovals the afterparty deflation petals running mamas coffee mugs mud slides a journey unseen
The persnickety part of my brain would like to remind you that it’s not technically summer this year in the northern hemisphere until Friday, June 20. I’m being stubborn about it because the rest of my body is mourning colder weather. I know I’m in the minority for loving Chicago’s winters, but I expect some of you will start changing your minds as we continue on our hurtling trajectory toward being a world on fire. Given the state of things, who wouldn’t want to stay home and bury their troubles in a cup of hot cocoa while throwing snowballs at the neighbors?
Thankfully Chicago offers us year-round opportunities for diversion, distraction, and inspiration via our strong arts and culture workers. Though I fear the oppressive heat that we may be faced with in August, even I can admit that there’s absolutely no reason to isolate ourselves this summer. And staying in our caves is what the enemy wants us to do. Out of the closets and into the streets, indeed. This issue we bring you our reflections on, and previews of, what’s to come at our theaters and other culture institutions this
summer. Arts and culture coverage has always been important to the Reader; you can see extensive evidence of this in the meticulous film and music listings that are included in nearly every 1971 and 1972 issue. Culture is more than just an escape: it’s integral to our city’s identity and reflects our diversity and history. Good art creates conversation and imagines tools to solve our problems. And a thriving arts scene like Chicago’s attracts and retains residents.
Chicago artists used to say that people came here to get good (perhaps attending one of our many postsecondary art programs) and then left for the coasts, or Europe, to get famous. Increasingly, that’s not the case. Makers, dreamers, writers, and musicians will continue to be attracted to Chicago for the arts programming, for the ability to find their fellow creators, and for the audiences—as long as we can continue to keep the cost of living here reasonable and the neighborhoods safe and thriving, and as long as media outlets continue to cover the arts. v
—Salem
Collo-Julin, editor in chief m scollojulin@chicagoreader.com
E’mon Lauren was named Chicago’s first Youth Poet Laureate. Her work unpacks her coined philosophy of “hood-womanism”. She is an artist and educator from the Wes and Souf side of Chicago and has been featured in Vogue Magazine, Chicago Magazine, and The Chicago Tribune. Her work has appeared in the BreakBeat Poets Anthology series, Volumes 1 & 2, Poetry Foundation Magazine, The Reader, South Side Weekly and elsewhere. While E’mon holds position as Artistic Director for Chicago’s South Side liberatory art’s organization , The #LetUsBreathe Collective’s #BreathingRoom Space, she is host of her hit talk show, “The Real Hoodwives of Chicago’’, produced by her production company, BlkHoneyBun Productions. Her first chapbook of poems, “COMMANDO”, was published by Haymarket Books.
Poem curated by The Third. Third is a SouthSide born rapper and teacher with a deep affinity for words. As a lyricist and storyteller, Third is always looking to tell the stories of the underrepresented, challenge the norm, and inspire a higher tier or art.
A weekly series curated by the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.
Opening Hours
Wednesday - Saturday: 11 AM - 5 PM
Poetry All Summer
The Poetry Foundation is Chicago’s own literary oasis, featuring a library with more than 40,000 volumes of poetry, a light-filled gallery, and a roster of public events—all FREE and open to the public!
Learn more at PoetryFoundation.org
Re: “Time for Chicago to get on the right track,” an opinion column on public transportation written by Matthew Roling and published online on June 2
Chicago is waaaaay too close to Motor City historically to have given more pennies to transit. Besides, this is a federal-level failure that continues. —Christopher Gray, via Facebook
Re: “Monday Night Foodball turns four this summer,” written by Mike Sula and published online on June 4
Congrats on four years! Thank you Mike Sula and Frank and Mary’s Tavern for throwing Chicago’s best weekly party. —John Pragalz, via Instagram
Re: “Draglesque Pride,” the initial Rhinestone Digest column (on drag and burlesque culture in Chicago), written by Charli Renken and published in our June 5 issue (volume 54, number 35)
This is so needed! Thank you. —Julie Slowinski, via Instagram
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The Chicago Reader accepts comments and letters to the editor of less than 400 words for publication consideration.
m letters@chicagoreader.com
FOOD & DRINK
Curtis Duffy’s banger memoir, Meathead’s barbecue bible, a serviceberry cookbook, and more
By MIKE SULA
F ireproof: Memoir of a Chef, Curtis Duffy with Jeremy Wagner, Dead Sky Publishing, July 1
Che oirs always seem to follow a formula of triumph over adversity. See Grant Achatz’s Life, on the Line and Rick Tramonto’s Scars of a Chef. This is a recipe likely born in Anthony Bourdain’s seminal Kitchen Confidential But I’ve read few as harrowing as this one. Duffy’s tragic origin story and rise to greatness have been told plenty of times in print and film, but I’ve never encountered a version this raw and unflinching. That’s particularly true in the first chapter when he recounts, at 19, the graphic and cruel encounter with the police when he had to identify the bodies of his parents after his father murdered his
stepmother and then killed himself—or the chapters where he describes the incident itself and its sorrowful aftermath.
Given that Du y’s the most handsome chef on the planet, I have no trouble believing he had regular three-ways in the hot tub at the country club where he cooked while attending Ohio State. But he keeps the che y debauchery at a minimum, instead dropping a lot of names you’ve likely never heard as he chronologically recounts his résumé, rising through the ranks in the early chapters. On the other hand, his often hilarious potty mouth is a surprising contrast to his usual placid confidence in public.
Du y moved to Chicago to escape his trauma, and that’s where his star began to rise, first at Charlie Trotter’s, then Trio, Avenues,
and his first restaurant, Grace (recounting the acrimonious lawsuit that led to its downfall), and finally his current perch at Ever amid its mid-COVID opening.
This is also when the names get familiar and Du y gets into some fascinating digressions on his cooking style, philosophy, and inspiration. That’s when the book really fires o .
The Meathead Method: A BBQ Hall of Famer’s Secrets and Science on BBQ, Grilling, and Outdoor Cooking with 114 Recipes , Meathead, Harvest
Is Meathead (the artist formerly known as Craig Goldwyn) the most prolific barbecue writer on the planet? Probably. Through his exhaustive website AmazingRibs.com, a
Walmart’s worth of gear and merch, a line of rubs and sauces, and now 16 publications, his empire of smoke never stops billowing. Nearly a quarter of this 413-page doorstop, published last month, is devoted to sensory and food science, the latter foreshadowing its comprehensiveness with the question: “What is food?” (Answer: Mostly water.) He goes on to recommend tools (product reviews are a hallmark of his website), and he schools you on safety. And then come the recipes, encompassing rubs, sauces, marinades, and their ilk, red meat, pork, poultry, seafood, vegetables, bread, and desserts.
Yes, says Meathead, you should smoke cheese and chocolate too.
Through science and humor, he’s an avuncular, hairier Alton Brown (who happens to write the foreword) who delights in debunking myths. (You really can clean your cast iron with soap, and go ahead and wash those mushrooms.)
He took all the photography too, but maybe the most remarkable thing about this opus is the way he presents this galaxy of information in brief digestible segments, which contrast effectively with the book’s more complicated material.
Berries for Bloomingdale: The Serviceberry Cookbook , Bonnie Tawse, Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail
Just in time, the author of The Belt Cookie Table Cookbook comes in with a recipe collection for the fleeting purple fruit of the white-blossomed serviceberry tree, which happens to grow along the length of the Bloomingdale Trail. The sweet, slightly tart berry with tiny seeds that taste of almonds has an underground following among urban foragers. Some believe a serviceberry is best eaten fresh o the branch, but these 26 recipes, contributed by various enthusiasts, suggest otherwise. You better get your hands on this fast because you only have a few weeks to make serviceberry chutney, fermented serviceberry syrup, and serviceberry pemmican—in the tradition of local Potawatomi, Menominee, and Ojibwe peoples. After that, they’re gone. Proceeds support the Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail.
Deep Dish: Inside the First 50 Years of Lou Malnati’s Pizza , Marc Malnati, Agate Publishing
Lou Malnati, among others, is sometimes miscredited as the inventor of the deep-dish pizza during his bartending days at Pizzeria Due in the 1940s. Not true, but he was in fact the progenitor of Chicago’s second great deep-dish chain.
Even though it’s now partially owned by a San Francisco investment firm, his son Marc stays in the game. After his father’s death in the late 1970s, he took over with his brother Rick and eventually expanded across four states with
almost 80 restaurants.
In some ways, this is an anodyne business book about the growth of an empire, but in others, it’s a funny, candid account of the family dysfunction and general chaos that almost sank the original restaurant. Patriarch Lou, who looms large throughout the book, “was the poster boy for Dewar’s White Label, and it was not uncommon for him to polish o more than half a bottle and remain generally functional during a shift in his restaurants.” When his temper flared, he took it out on everyone from his wife and kid to petrified servers on the restaurant floor—trauma that haunted his son for decades.
The Wisconsin Whey: Cheesemaking in the Driftless, Judy Newman Coburn, Little Creek Press
This isn’t the only Wisconsin cheesemaker profile collection on my shelves, but it’s the newest. Published in March, it covers 14 fromagers from the rolling, glacier-sculpted southwestern Driftless region, many of whose preserved milk products are found behind Chicago cheese cases.
That would include Andy Hatch’s Uplands Cheese, which offers Pleasant Ridge Reserve—winner of more awards than any U.S.-produced cheese—year-round and the coveted Rush Creek Reserve only in the fall. There’s also the prickly master affineur Willi Lehner’s Bleu Mont Dairy, whose magnificent, spine-chilling bandaged cheddar is more scarce—but it’s well worth the drive to Madison’s Dane County Farmers’ Market to stock up. v
Upcoming events and activities you should know about
By SALEM COLLO-JULIN
Thu 6/12
Tonight is the kicko of Fiestas Patronales Puertorriqueñas, a multiday celebration of Humboldt Park’s Puerto Rican community. The annual festival features food and drink vendors, musical performances (including a salute to 80s and 90s freestyle on Friday), carnival rides, and special programs, like tonight’s Doggie Fashion Show, featuring local pooches in duds created by local designers. Fear not, people’s fashion will also be on display throughout the weekend via the Paseo de Moda fashion show program coordinated by festival organizers Friday and Saturday evenings. The festival surrounds Saturday’s 47th annual Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade (starting Saturday, 6/14 at noon), which includes bomba and plena performances, souped-up cars, and marchers heading down Division Street into Humboldt Park’s entrance on Mozart Street. This year, festival organizers have added a foot race on Sunday to keep everyone energized: the San Juan 5K run and walk invites participants to begin at 8:30 AM on a course that goes through and around the park. Proceeds from the race and some of the performance donation fees will support Tu Casa Project’s youth education and cultural programs in Puerto Rican communities throughout Chicago.
Thu 6/12 and Fri 6/13 3 PM–10 PM, Sat 6/14 and Sun 6/15 noon–10 PM, 2800 W. Division at Mozart, suggested donation $20 at gate, separate ticketing for some music performances, packages including merch and VIP tastings
$38.50–$53.50 (available at dynamicevents.ticketspice.com), all-ages, puertoricanfest.com
Sat 6/14
No gods but “yes gawd.” No masters but Master P. No royals but Latrice Royale. These may be some of the sentiments you’ll find at today’s No Kings rally and march, the Chicago contribution to a national day calendar
RISINGTHERMALS/FLICKR
of action and mobilization in response to increasing corruption and authoritarianism from Trump and his allies. If you’re reading the Reader , chances are you already know a few reasons why you should participate, whether it be showing up in person, talking with your neighbors about the issues, or creating signs for others to use. Help stand up for our communities most affected by this reign of terror.
Noon–2 PM, Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington, free, all-ages, mobilize.us/indivisiblechicago/event/786356
Sandra Bernhard is the queen of the one-woman show, and many performers who straddle the lines between performance art, stand-up comedy, and cabaret can count
viewing the seminal Without You I’m Nothing as a formative experience of their craft. She narrates her life with a reflective and joyous sneer that evokes the best of 80s downtown New York, and on her weekly radio show, Sandyland on Sirius XM, she demonstrates an unwavering curiosity that goes beyond her fellow city dwellers and into the worlds of art, politics, and underground culture.
8 PM, Park West, 322 W. Armitage, $47.41, 18+, jamusa.com/events
Zine Club Chicago exists to celebrate both the publications that fill the shelves of shops like Quimby’s and the people who create them. This Pride month iteration of the casual “meet, discuss, and make
together” series is hosted at Gerber/Hart in Edgewater, where attendees can glean a little inspiration from the archives. Chicago zinemaker and artist Larry Wolf will lead a workshop and discussion on queer zines, and participants are welcome to bring their own favorite examples of publications by LGBTQ+ makers and/or with queer themes. An online option is available for those who can’t attend in person.
7–9 PM, Gerber/Hart LGBTQ+ Library and Archives, 6500 N. Clark, second floor, free, all-ages, zineclubchicago.com. Livestream option via Zoom: RSVP to zineclubchicago@ gmail.com by 9 PM on Monday 6/16 for the Zoom link. v
m scollojulin@chicagoreader.com
I grew up internalizing homophobia, but meeting Bernard helped me grow.
By Shermann “Dilla” Thomas
up, he swung his chair around and asked me, “What’s your problem, bro?” Puzzled, I said, “Huh?”
Bernard let me know that it was rude for me to have a conversation discussing my sexual exploits on the floor of the job, and that he felt really uncomfortable. I said, “My bad,” half-laughing, and then proceeded to take calls.
Two days later, Bernard took a personal phone call at his desk and started discussing what had happened on a recent date with a
had handles and everything. It turned out that he’d attended a Chicago public high school but never made the team. I suspected I knew why.
After that, Bernard and I would sometimes sit in the break room and talk about sports. He knew all the ladies in the call center and had no problem introducing me to anyone I thought was cute. My son’s birthday came, and Bernard bought him a skateboard. He was fast becoming my friend.
But even with all of that, I still had preconceived notions about gay men. One day, while
for his childhood experience. I felt bad that it took me so long to see what was clearly an incredible human being.
Dilla’s Chicago is a biweekly window into the hidden histories of Chicago area historical figures, buildings, neighborhoods, and more from Shermann “Dilla” Thomas. Thomas is a Chicago historian and content creator and founder of Chicago Mahogany, LLC. He serves as the brand ambassador and chief of social media for the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center.
Chicago certainly embraces celebrating Pride month as a city, and we’ve been doing so for a long time. After all, the Society for Human Rights, the first LGBTQ+ rights organization in our country, was founded here in Chicago in 1924 by postal worker Henry Gerber. And one of the first organized Pride marches in the U.S. took place here in Chicago in 1970, after a gathering in Bughouse Square to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City. Despite access to that history and all the Pride month celebrations that happen here, there are still Chicagoans who are homophobic, biphobic, or transphobic. Shamefully, I used to have some homophobic viewpoints; I was just really misinformed, because I believed the hateful words and misinformation others told me when I was growing up in the 1980s and ’90s.
It wasn’t until my 20s that I faced the homophobia I’d internalized as a kid. I got a job at a Verizon call center in Elgin. My cubicle was set up next to a guy I’ll call Bernard, a gay Black man around my age.
We worked the same shift, so we saw each other every day for months. We never really had a conversation at all beyond hello and goodbye, until the day I took a personal call at my desk.
I was talking to one of my friends about the date I’d had the night before, and I didn’t spare any details while on the phone in front of Bernard. By the end of my call, I could tell that Bernard was uncomfortable. When I hung
fellow. While looking straight at me, he described his evening, sparing no details. Before he could hang up, I jumped out of my seat and started shouting at him.
Our supervisor ran over and pulled us both into his office. We both explained what had happened. Our supervisor had us agree not to have any locker-room talk on the floor. Bernard and I shook hands and returned to work.
After that incident, I started to notice Bernard. For starters, he was ready to fight when I got in his face, and I respected that.
Bernard and I started to become work homies. He’d ask about my kids; I would ask about his mom. I noticed he would always wear some of the coolest and rarest sneakers. I loved cool shoes too, so we would often talk about Jordans.
Verizon brought in portable basketball hoops to award us, and the top ten salesmen got to shoot hoops for a few hours on the clock. Bernard and I both made the cut.
When it came time to play ball, Bernard didn’t miss a shot. He was incredible. He could dunk despite only being about five foot ten. He
discussing sports, I asked Bernard if I could ask him a serious question. His face told me he knew where I was going. I asked him if he always knew he was gay or if something had happened that “turned him gay”?
Bernard let out a sigh and sat up straight. “Dilla,” he said, “I was the best dressed in high school four years running. My brother worked at Foot Locker. I have every pair of Jordans ever made. But when it came down to picking ‘best dressed,’ they didn’t vote for me because they knew I was gay. I was a student leader and got things done for my class, but they wouldn’t vote for me as class president because I was gay. I tried out for the basketball team for four straight years. I was the best player on the court every time, but the coaches never picked me because I was gay. If all I had to do was like women and think that boobs were cool, I would have done it in a heartbeat. So no, Dilla, being gay is not a choice. No one in their right mind would choose to be picked on and left out.”
In that instant, I understood and felt shame for every gay joke I’d ever cracked. I felt bad
Because of my friendship with Bernard, I’ve pursued learning more about LGBTQ+ history. I learned that Bayard Rustin, a gay Black man and one of MLK Jr.’s best friends, was one of the architects of 1963’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I learned that house music, a genre that many Chicagoans cherish, has deep roots in the Black LGBTQ+ community and was developed and evolved in part because of the work of a gay Black Chicagoan named Frankie Knuckles. I learned that Gerber lost his job at the post office in 1925 because he was brave enough to start the Society for Human Rights. And Bernard taught me about Finnie’s Balls, the drag shows Bronzeville used to have starting way back in the 1930s, founded by a Black gay man named Alfred Finnie. Bernard encouraged me to read about Lorraine Hansberry, a Chicago lesbian who was the first Black woman author to have a play she wrote performed on Broadway. Bernard convinced me to read Langston Hughes and James Baldwin and see how their sexuality didn’t detract from but rather added to their greatness.
The most essential thing Bernard ever taught me is that we are all humans. We all gotta go to work and pay bills. We all gotta pay taxes, and one day, we will all die. Bernard taught me never to judge a book by its cover, unless the cover of the book features a man wearing impeccable Jordans. In that case, you can judge that that book is going to be cool as hell. v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
Dilla’s Chicago is sponsored by Clayco, a fullservice real estate development, master planning, architecture, engineering, and construction firm. Clayco specializes in the “art and science of building,” providing fast track, efficient solutions for industrial, commercial, institutional and residential-related building projects.
The abrupt closure of Passages’s preschool raises questions about its future at a time when other charter schools across the city are closing their doors.
By DILPREET RAJU
Two weeks before Chicago Public Schools (CPS) classes finished for the summer, more than 20 preschool staff at Passages Charter School in Edgewater learned that when they said goodbye to their students, it would be for the final time.
Five days later, on May 28, the school made the news public. In a town hall, sta told parents of the more than 100 children enrolled in Passages’s preschool that it would be shutting down in June. The school will continue to
serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade, which, unlike the preschool, are included in the charter agreement with the city. The decision to close the preschool could have unintended ramifications. More children were enrolled in preschool than in any other grade at Passages, according to Kady Pagano, lead teacher in the preschool department. “It’s displacing more families than, I feel, the CEOs realized, or maybe even cared about,” Pagano says. Passages is run by the nonprofit social
services provider Trellus. The organization, known until a 2023 rebrand as Asian Human Services, caters to refugee and immigrant communities in Chicago. Trellus also operates a health clinic and offers behavioral health services, job training, and educational programming. The nonprofit network is made up of three divisions: Asian Human Services of Chicago, the Asian Human Services Family Health Center, and a third organization, Pipal, which manages Trellus’s real estate holdings. The nonprofit’s abrupt decision to close
Passages’s preschool program raises questions about the future of the almost 50-year-old nonprofit. Interviews with current and former sta across various Trellus departments, many of whom wished not to be named for fear of retaliation, in addition to a Reader review of court records and the organization’s public financial documents, highlight concerns about potential financial mismanagement, whistleblower retaliation, and dysfunctional leadership at the nonprofit.
The issues raised are part of a larger pattern. An outside auditor, in fall 2023, documented issues with the nonprofit’s most recent financial statements and tax filings. And in late May of this year, CPS placed Passages under “financial remediation” due to poor financial ratings. In addition, Trellus has been named in a handful of recent lawsuits by former employees and even its own health clinic, alleging retaliation and mismanagement, though most have been settled out of court.
The closure of Passages’s preschool follows other Chicago charter schools that have decided to shut down in recent months, often pointing to financial challenges. And it comes on the heels of new charter school reforms passed by the city’s school board after months of debate. The situation is made more dire by a federal administration that plans to slash funding for nonprofits and refugees alike and has upended grant estimations for organizations across the globe.
In an email, Trellus co-CEO Eric Lindstrom writes that he is “not in a position to comment on matters related to funding identifiers, personnel issues, or the future status of individual programs.” The organization denied multiple requests for an interview, but in a statement, Lindstrom acknowledges “deep uncertainty” spurred by inconsistent funding streams and increased service costs that have had “a direct and profound impact on organizations like Trellus.”
“Despite these unprecedented times for non-profit organizations across Illinois,” Lindstrom says, “Trellus remains committed to its mission of empowering underserved communities to thrive by removing barriers and providing supports that create opportunities for life.”
Pagano, who is also Passages’s union secretary, tells the Reader that co-CEO Rebecca Creighton alerted staff on May 23 that Trellus’s board of directors voted to close the preschool.
Charter school boards must comply with the state’s Open Meetings Act, which requires minutes to be posted within ten days of approval. But, to date, the organization has yet to post minutes from any meetings in 2025. The board was most recently scheduled to meet on April 23, according to a public agenda.
During exit interviews in early June, Pagano says, the union learned that administrative employees had feared looming cuts for months. “We found out that [Trellus] knew as early as four to five months ago, possibly sometime around March, that there were going to be cuts,” she says. “I’m a little bit surprised as to why they went from ‘There’s going to be some cuts and a few layoffs’ to ‘We’re completely shutting down a program.’”
Schools, another charter system, which in February was forced to reverse plans to close five of seven schools after community pressure led the Chicago Board of Education to intervene. “I feel like the timing of everything was done very intentionally to make it where we could not follow Acero’s lead, where we could not rally parents and sta , previous students, previous families.”
Karim Ibrahim, a former kindergarten teacher at Passages, didn’t know that 2025 would be the year he’d learn how to write and file legal motions in court—but then he was fired from his job in February. He’s one of at least a couple dozen employees who’ve been let go or fired by Trellus since January. (Trellus declined to answer questions about how many people have departed the organization this year.)
“This last year, we’ve also lived in fear that our charter schools would close . . . because the charter model is inherently flawed and it allows operators to close schools at any time.”
She says the preschool’s main funder, Start Early, had originally committed to keep the doors open for up to 50 children through December 2025, so the board’s decision to close in June caught her off guard. Start Early, the organization responsible for administering federal Head Start funds to community-based agencies in Illinois, tells the Reader in an email that funding is “contingent on the continued delivery of services to children and families. If the services delivered by any of our community-based agencies stop, the funding from Start Early will stop.”
Current and former staff who spoke with the Reader expressed concern that the nonprofit’s financial restructuring could ultimately impact the 350 kindergarten through eighth-grade students at Passages, almost 90 percent of whom come from economically disadvantaged families. Some suggested the nonprofit’s executive team is disconnected from—or lacks the lived experience of—the community they’re supposed to serve.
The rushed, end-of-the-year closure felt like an intentional decision to avoid backlash, Pagano says; she contrasts this with Acero
In court filings and an interview with the Reader , Ibrahim claims he was dismissed from Trellus for alerting authorities to an unlicensed coworker who was administering language exams to students. Since being let go, Ibrahim has filed multiple lawsuits against his former employer, alleging that Trellus mismanaged real estate property and funds meant for English language learners, in addition to other fraudulent activity. The nonprofit has denied all claims made by Ibrahim and, in response, in March, accused Ibrahim of defamation. (Ibrahim denies any wrongdoing, and the case is ongoing.)
However, this isn’t the first time the nonprofit has been embroiled in legal trouble. In 2018, Asian Human Services Family Health Center, the division of Trellus that oversees the medical clinic, alleged in a lawsuit that the organization “failed to clear vendor bills in a timely manner, made consistently inaccurate monthly financial reports to the health center’s board of directors, and mismanaged the clinic’s billing and collection systems, resulting in monthly losses in excess of $20,000.”
According to court filings, the clinic claimed Trellus pulled more than $1 million from its bank account without approval. The case dragged on for years, entangling all three of
Former HR director sues Asian Human Services (AHS) for whistleblower retaliation
AHS Family Health Center sues AHS for financial malpractice
Craig Maki steps down as CEO, AHS reshuffles management team
Chicago Board of Education renews Passages’s charter for one year
AHS rebrands as Trellus
Former teacher Karim Ibrahim sues Trellus for whistleblower retaliation and financial malpractice
Trellus sues Ibrahim for defamation
Trellus informs staff of plan to shutter Passages’s preschool program
Trellus hosts town hall to inform parents of plan to shutter Passages’s preschool program
Chicago Board of Education renews Passages’s charter for two years
School year ends
continued from p. 11
the nonprofit’s divisions. Pipal, the organization’s real estate division, ultimately agreed to pay back almost $900,000 to the clinic, in addition to an undisclosed settlement between the clinic and Trellus.
Similarly, in 2017, Trellus’s former human resources director claimed she was fired in retaliation for raising concerns that the then CFO, Nikita Johnson-White, was improperly siphoning funds from the nonprofit. The two parties settled the case out of court within a few months.
The claims levied in court resonate with recent audits that have documented a string of errors within Trellus’s finances.
In 2023, an audit of the organization’s finances by PKF Mueller found “material weakness” in Trellus’s records. The independent audit, required by state law for certain nonprofits, determined the organization failed to keep records of bank statements used to crossreference transactions and found “an overstatement of grant expenditures due to certain expenditures being improperly included in the [schedule of expenditures of federal awards].” The auditing firm recommended in a corrective action plan that Trellus make sure “financial statements are free from material misstatements” by reporting necessary documents like bank records.
chief strategy o cer, Craig Maki, previously served as Trellus’s CEO.
Another contractor, the finance firm Tereo Group, was cofounded by Chris Shue, Trellus’s CFO. Wendy Neal, listed on Trellus’s website as the organization’s controller, also serves as a senior manager at Tereo Group. (Shue’s LinkedIn notes he was also named CEO of a suburban YMCA district in February.)
Trellus didn’t respond to questions about the contracts, but Shue deleted his LinkedIn profile after the Reader sent the organization a summary of its findings.
C“It’s displacing more families than, I feel, the CEOs realized, or maybe even cared about.”
Separately, CPS recently placed passages under “financial remediation” due to its “FY24 financial performance,” according to Rochelle Washington, the CPS Office of Innovation and Incubation’s performance and accountability director. Officials uncovered the issues as the Chicago Board of Education decided whether to renew Passages’s charter agreement with the city, which was set to expire at the end of the year.
Speaking at a May school board meeting, Washington explained, “Schools that are involved in this process are required to host a root analysis session and submit additional documentation to the district for additional oversight.”
Some employees who spoke with the Reader also questioned Trellus’s contracts with companies connected to current and former executives. The nonprofit works with Provisio Partners, a Salesforce consulting firm, whose
tual obligations with CPS. The report also claims for-profit and nonprofit operators can move public funds to private bank accounts. “When not balanced with proper financial and operational Board oversight and accountability—both for-profit and nonprofit charter operators create fiscal loopholes both for themselves and their stakeholders,” the report states.
closing Haugan Middle School in Albany Park due to low enrollment and a corresponding drop in funding.
Jodie Cantrell, chief public affairs officer at the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, however, lambasted the “illegal backroom resolution,” saying it would “bypass state laws,” though the resolution clearly asks for policy changes through the Illinois General Assembly.
harter schools offer free tuition and sometimes specialize in certain areas of care, as Passages does with immigrants, but are operated privately by nonprofits or for-profit education organizations. Schools looking to renew their charter status must pass an assessment from the district’s Office of Innovation and Incubation. The assessment includes an evaluation of each school’s academics, financial performance, programming inclusivity, and legal compliance. Passages received ratings of “needs substantial improvement” for every category except academic performance, which met CPS’s standards.
Nonetheless, the Chicago Board of Education voted to renew agreements with 21 charter schools, including Passages, on May 29. The vote was delayed for four months as board members debated reforms to the city’s charter schools and considered the fate of the seven Acero schools slated for closure.
That culminated at the late-May school board meeting when members voted to adopt a resolution “addressing various improvements needed” for charter schools. It increases the amount of lead time operators must give the school board when intending to close a school, and it asks for legislative changes in Springfield, including prohibiting charters from closing during their renewal term.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) released a report in May criticizing charter schools for closing without warning and accusing them of flouting state law and their contrac-
Hours before the school board voted on the resolution, Melina Pereyra, a member of Parents for Education, implored members to adopt increased oversight for charter schools.
“When Acero announced, heartlessly, that it would close seven schools, there was no warning. There was no dialogue. There was no support. You were witness to the su ering of every individual a ected by that decision,” Pereyra said, noting that the board ultimately stepped in. “You came to our side by saying this is an injustice. Now, you have the opportunity to take this stance and turn it into policy.”
Caroline Rutherford, a teacher of 15 years and CTU’s charter division vice chair, told the board that charter communities fear closure.
“This last year, we’ve also lived in fear that our charter schools would close, as we watch Acero, ASPIRA, and now Passages close their doors on families, students, and educators because the charter model is inherently flawed and it allows operators to close schools at any time,” Rutherford said.
ASPIRA, part of a national charter school network, announced early this year that it was
The CTU report argues otherwise. “Lack of oversight, support, and accountability has produced repeated and real harms: closures that destabilize neighborhoods and provide little recourse, public funds diverted from classrooms to corporate accounts, unsafe and inequitable learning environments,” the report concludes. “Charter operators are able to continue to benefit from public funding while evading the public standards and responsibilities that district schools are held to.”
Passages’s charter for kindergarten through eighth grade has been renewed through 2027, but increased oversight measures and patterns of mismanagement leave more concerns than answers for parents and children, who traveled far and wide to reach Chicago.
In the meantime, more than 100 children in Passages’s early childhood education program will have to find new preschools, including the dozen-plus students who relied on the school for summer care. v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
Protesters, community members, and elected officials confronted federal immigration agents in the South Loop on Wednesday, June 4, to oppose the detention of at least ten immigrants.
Demonstrators and press convened in the early afternoon at 2245 S. Michigan, the site of an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) facility for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This followed social media reports that immigration agents were detaining people—including a long-time community organizer named Gladis Yolanda Chavez Pineda—summoned to the facility for immigration “check-ins.” ISAP is an immigrant monitoring system used by ICE, which the agency says employs “telephonic reporting, body-worn GPS monitoring,” and a phone app system called SmartLINK.
Protesters formed a picket in front of the ISAP facility and also rallied in the alley behind the building. Events reached a climax after protesters physically blocked two white vans from entering an adjacent parking lot. The vans initially drove away, but multiple federal agents pushed through the crowd moments later. They formed a human chain to escort handcu ed detainees from the facility entrance into the vans, which had returned to wait in the middle of the street.
Alders Byron Sigcho-Lopez, Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez, Jessie Fuentes, and Anthony Quezada were on site during the protest; as federal agents pushed through the crowd, one shoved Quezada to the ground. “It’s the worst. It’s devastating,” Quezada said through tears after the white vans pulled away.
Chicago police were also on the scene. Though they carried out no arrests, officers were seen entering the ISAP facility, and Chicago Police Department (CPD) vehicles stretched down the block. Governor J.B. Pritzker defended Chicago police to press on Thursday, but questions remain as to whether the CPD’s involvement with the protest violated Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance or the Illinois TRUST Act. Both laws limit the extent to which city and state police can assist with federal immigration enforcement. Alder Andre Vasquez has introduced a City Council order that aims to determine whether the CPD did, in fact, violate the city’s sanctuary law.
“We are a welcoming city. Our ordinance is very clear,” Alder Fuentes said at the protest Wednesday. —DAVE BYRNES
CPD’s west-coast vacation
Chicago police leadership flew to Los Angeles and El Segundo, California, in late January for a “peer-to-peer” visit with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), public records show. The trip was financed by a grant from the Chicago Police Foundation.
Glen Brooks, who leads the CPD’s office of community policing, traveled to LA from January 26 to February 1, according to a disclosure posted by the city’s ethics department. Brooks was joined by Commander Lazaro Altamirano and Sergeants Leila Ruiz and Manuel Guzman—staff from the Tenth District, which includes southwest-side neighborhoods Little Village and Pilsen.
The trip appears to have been coordinated by Crown Family Philanthropies. An email from Dominique Steward, a program officer for the foundation’s gun violence prevention work, says it was intended to “build a Community Safety Partnership” between the CPD and the LAPD. (The billionaire Crown family has long faced criticism for their investment in General Dynamics, a U.S military contractor and weapons manufacturer that has helped Israel wage a genocide in Gaza.)
Brooks, as head of the department’s community policing initiatives, frequently appears at protests to liaise with organizers and help coordinate the police response. His inclusion
on the trip is notable given that, in recent days, LAPD has violently suppressed anti-ICE protests, indiscriminately injuring and maiming community members with tear gas, stun grenades, and so-called less-lethal munitions. The Chicago Police Foundation is a nonprofit organization led by various business and real estate executives that, according to its website, “helps to improve the City of Chicago’s public safety by supporting and funding programs that supplement resources and equipment available” to the CPD. Police foundations have faced scrutiny for allowing major corporations like Verizon and Bank of America to privately funnel money to law enforcement to protect their interests. —SHAWN MULCAHY
City pilot targets housing for survivors of gender-based violence
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration has taken steps to help move domestic violence survivors into safety by launching the Shortterm Assistance for Emergency (SAFE) Transfer Pilot program. Created in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety and the Chicago Department of Housing (DOH), the SAFE Transfer pilot is for residents of federally funded DOH multifamily properties who are in
a dangerous living situation and can’t find alternative housing.
In 2023, the state’s domestic violence hotline received 14,823 calls, according to the city’s press release on the pilot’s launch. The SAFE Transfer Pilot creates a coordinated system for folks in need that begins when either survivors or their property managers contact the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline. It directs survivors toward immediate, trauma-informed support and planning and is intended to keep property managers informed about residents who may need to move to safer housing. Eligible residents may receive 60 days of temporary housing and associated ongoing care from Family Rescue, a *sed social services organization dedicated to eliminating domestic violence in the city.
Johnson says in a press release, “The SAFE Transfer Pilot is about a rming that survivors are not alone—and that this city will show up for them.”
ILLINOIS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE
1- 877-TO END DV or 1- 877- 863 - 6338 (phone) 1- 877- 863 - 6339 (TTY)
—DEVYN-MARSHALL BROWN (DMB) v Make It Make Sense is a weekly column about what’s happening and why it matters.
m smulcahy@chicagoreader.com
The Illinois Lottery is nationally recognized for its pioneering work with specialty lottery tickets dedicated to raising awareness and funding for specific worthy causes that impact local communities. Nearly twenty years since it introduced its first-in-the-nation specialty ticket, dedicated to breast cancer support and research, the Illinois Lottery is making its biggest impact yet, through a joint specialty instant ticket that supports ten different causes, including HIV/AIDS prevention education and treatment. A portion of every dollar spent on this ticket directly contributes to organizations that support Illinois residents living with AIDS or HIV and work to reduce new transmissions of the chronic medical condition within the state. Now in its second year, the joint ticket—the 7X Bingo Multiplier—costs $5 and is available for purchase at more than 7,000 Illinois Lottery retailers throughout the state. With its spring green background and colorful, eye-catching design, 7X Bingo Multiplier makes a great present for friends, family members, neighbors, and colleagues 18 and over—or play it yourself for a chance to win up to $200,000. Visit the Illinois Lottery website for more information about 7X Bingo Multiplier and the many good causes it supports each year. Read on to learn more about Transforming ReEntry Services, a local nonprofit that supports Chicagoans living with HIV and AIDS, and provides mobile testing services as part of their mission of supporting formerly incarcerated community members. Your purchase of a 7X Bingo Multiplier ticket can help Transforming Reentry Services and other community organizations empower Illinois residents and work toward the statewide Getting to Zero Illinois initiative, which has the goal of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic within the state by 2030.
Life after incarceration can be full of hope and opportunity, but transitioning back into one’s home community after prison or jail can be overwhelmingly complex. That process can be even more challenging for those living with a chronic health condition such as HIV/AIDS; they must navigate their unique health journeys while rebuilding relationships and attaining stable housing, employment, and transportation. In 2015, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) estimated that 1.5 percent of the state’s incarcerated population had received a positive HIV diagnosis. In 2024, Prison Policy Initiative reviewed data that showed approximately 24,000 men and women were released from Illinois prisons in 2019. Those figures underline the need for HIV and AIDS support services dedicated to those transitioning from incarceration into local communities.
That’s where an organization like Transforming Reentry Services can make a world of difference. Founded in 1982 by Reverend Doris Green and previously known as Men & Women In Prison Ministries (MWIPM), the nonprofit, which has offices in Chicago’s Bronzeville and Austin neighborhoods,
This sponsored content is paid for by Illinois Lottery
assists returning citizens in reconstructing their lives and advocates for community members impacted by the incarceration system. In 2024 alone, the organization provided services to over 2,500 members of the reentry population in 33 communities across the city’s south and west sides.
“The goal was to help people coming home from prison or jail transition back into society as smoothly as possible, getting them whatever they need, whether it’s housing, whether it’s a job,” says Transforming Reentry Services’ deputy director Russell J. Jackson Sr. “We got to a point where we’ve got a niche. Now, we help them get their Social Security card, birth certificate, and state ID—that’s necessary for them to get any other resources that they try to tap into.”
In response to their clients’ needs for accessible medical care, Transforming Reentry Services has made health and wellness a cornerstone of their operations. That includes HIV and AIDS related programs, which are supported by the Illinois Lottery. Through funds raised by the Lottery’s joint
specialty ticket, the organization receives a Quality of Life grant through IDPH that supports their work in HIV and AIDS screenings, education, and case management services.
Jackson served as a Transforming Reentry Services case manager before becoming the organization’s deputy director, and he describes a non-judgmental approach that centers the individual as they navigate their personal and medical needs. “When people came home from prison and jail who were HIV positive, I would manage their situation and get them the things that they needed for their special needs,” he said. “We would get them Ubers, get them to the doctor’s appointment, make sure they had their medication, and stuff like that.”
While many people returning home from prison are aware of their HIV status, others are not. That makes education and testing all the more vital. The grant funding Transforming Reentry Services receives through the Lottery specialty ticket program helps to provide resources on HIV and AIDS prevention, medical breakthroughs like PrEP and PEP, and more. While the organiza-
tion isn’t able to offer clinical services, they often partner with groups like Howard Brown and Alliance Care 360 to help clients access necessary healthcare. Jackson says the majority of their staff members have been certified by IDPH to do non-clinical HIV screenings. “We’ve been doing those for years and years and years. We go out to the community and we do them in our offices on the south and west side,” he says.
Funding through the Illinois Lottery also supports Transforming Reentry Services’ work in lowering new cases of HIV through harm reduction services, which aim to minimize adverse effects associated with drug use and related behaviors, including HIV transmission. In November 2020, the organization became the first Black woman-led syringe access program in Illinois, which has made a direct impact in at-risk communities on the south and west side. “We have a van that we go out in and do outreach, and we pass out clean supplies,” Jackson says. “We’re out just trying to keep people alive. We pass out Naloxone, we pass out Narcan. It’s like we transition into whatever the community needs, in addition to the reentry population.”
This sponsored content is paid for by Illinois Lottery
You can help Transforming Reentry Services continue their vital work and support Illinoisians living with HIV and AIDS in the reentry population and beyond with your purchase of a 7X Bingo Multiplier Instant Ticket from the Illinois Lottery.
For more information about Transforming Reentry Services, visit transformingreentry.org
The Jewish Museum of Chicago has a bold vision for an anti-Zionist Jewish arts hub.
By MICCO CAPORALE
For artist and arts administrator Gabriel
Chalfin-Piney-González, the desire for an anti-Zionist Jewish space didn’t start in October 2023. At 13, the Hudson Valley native was kicked out of their first Hebrew school for inquiring about Israeli treatment of Palestinians. In late 2022, they felt a strong yearning for cultural connection and wondered: Where can Jews in Chicago connect with the vastness of their art and history? Is there a way to decenter the Holocaust and honor a diasporic sense of Judaism that stands in solidarity with all oppressed people?
The idea of the wandering Jew has been central to creating and upholding Israel, but Jews in opposition to Israel still struggle to find space for their ideas and culture. There are non-Zionist temples in the United States, but almost none is explicitly anti-Zionist. An exception is Tzedek Chicago, which does not have a permanent space. In April 2023, Chalfin-Piney-González collaborated with Comfort Station’s artistic director, Katie Rauth, to host a Passover dinner for 30 Jewish creatives at a private studio in Little Village. That only strengthened their belief that Jewish people need a multigenerational arts and cultural space. By August, they'd started an
Instagram announcing the Jewish Museum of Chicago, and since then, they’ve partnered with different people and institutions to experiment with what a community-focused wandering museum could be.
Last spring, they connected with local artist and educator Maya Kosover through a workshop on demystifying the production of Jewish ritual objects. Kosover sees her spirituality and artmaking as one and the same and shares Chalfin-Piney-González’s urgent desire for a Jewish arts hub. Together, the pair are committed to articulating a precise vision for a new kind of museum and finding a sustainable way to realize it. In May, they put out an open call to form an artist collective, which is having its first strategy session at the end of the month. That’s the museum’s first step in a long journey toward the ultimate goal: a place of their own.
Maya Kosover: Gabriel and I both attended a sacred Jewish arts retreat called L’Shem Kedushat. It was about teaching us how to make Torah parchment paper out of deer hide. The craft of making Torah scroll has really been gatekept by Orthodox men. It’s forbidden for women, queer and trans people, and disabled people, so this was a retreat specifically for those communities to learn this craft. It was taught by a rabbi who’s a woman who started as a scribe and wanted to scribe her whole Torah. No one would sell her parchment, so she’s like, “Well, if no one’s gonna sell it to me, I guess I gotta learn how to do it myself.” Now she’s like, “I want to make this craft accessible to as many people as possible.”
The event’s organizers did these regional cohorts—so there was a group of us from Chicago, a group in the Bay, all these groups who could take the learning back to their com-
RTHE JEWISH MUSEUM OF CHICAGO citrushistory.org/jewmuchi instagram.com/jewishmuseumchicago munities. Gabriel and I got connected through emails and road-tripped together as strangers. The entire car ride, [we] were just sharing ideas, talking about inspiration. Gabriel was involved in the Jewish Museum, and I was like, “What an amazing project! I would love to be involved.”
Gabriel Chalfin-Piney-González: [The museum] started as just me for the first five or six months. Initially, the museum was launched on Passover of 2023 as a collaboration with Katie Rauth. That turned into Jess [Bass's] and my two-person show at Comfort Station [in September 2023].
In the beginning, it was very much learning who I was in community with already and who had already been doing this work. Lilli Sher got involved, [who’s] really active in fundraising for displaced families in Gaza and in touch
Buddy and the Chicago
with a lot of organizers in Cairo as well, so I was using the platform to support Lilli’s organizing. Lilli organized one of our first events, which was a Kleztronica event at Dorothy’s with DJ Chaia and Upshtat Zingerai. Then Lilli moved to the Bay, and it was just me for a little bit. I was thinking about how to move forward, and then I did this retreat with Maya. A month or so after the retreat, we were swimming in Lake Michigan. I was like, “Hey, do you want to run this thing with me?”
Kosover: When Gabriel and friends looked at what Illinois museums are available, it’s the Holocaust Museum in Skokie. It’s almost an implicit, de facto Jewish history museum, but the inroad is this incredibly traumatizing cultural event. The Holocaust is part of Jewish history; it’s not all of Jewish history, and it’s only part of Jewish history for some Jews. There are Mizrahi Jews and non-European Jews [for whom] the Holocaust is not in their ancestral experience. Jews have been persecuted throughout history, but the Holocaust is this Eurocentric end-all, be-all that’s like “Jewishness starts here.”
From the beginning, Gabriel was very clear that this is an anti-Zionist museum that believes in diasporic Judaism. This is a museum that doesn’t believe in militarism or state nationalism or that Israel is the endall, be-all of Jewish life, art, and religion. So much of institutional Judaism right now is in alignment with Israel and Zionism. We are really trying to create something that does not exist. It exists in small pockets, right? There’s
"This is a museum that doesn't believe in militarism or state nationalism or that Israel is the end-all, be-all of Jewish life, art, and religion."
a collective organizing here, a pop-up Shabbat here, a liberation Seder here, but there is no structured, institutional place for us.
Chalfin-Piney-González: In December of 2023, during Hanukkah, we put up questions on the walls and gave people Post-its to answer. The questions were like: What are good examples of museums and other organizations to learn from? What does anti-Zionism mean to you? What would collaboration with other populations and cultural organizations look like? What does coalition-building look like with Arab-led organizations?
Kosover: We have received a ton of interest, feedback, and excitement. Finally, Gabriel and I were like, “This is not sustainable for the two of us to continue doing. We need to build a structure to get people involved.” That’s where this artist collective idea came from.
The ten-year goal is to have a physical space that is able to host all these things—a multi purpose, intergenerational space. There’s kids getting tutored for their bar and bat mitzvahs. There’s people baking challah. Our herbalists in residence are in the garden making tinctures from Jewish herbs. The studios are alive, and the people are praying, and the organizers are activating. It’s a hub for Jewish life.
Chalfin-Piney-González: We put out this call for people who are interested in joining [the artist collective]. We broke everyone down into these teams that will be amorphous and
shifting. Not all of them will happen continually. We’re convening on June 22 for a private event [to begin planning].
Kosover: What feels really important to me is we sing the shehecheyanu, which is a blessing for things that happen for the first time. My art and spirituality are really connected. When people create with materials, it’s a spiritual experience, like cocreation with the divine. So this event on June 22—we really want it to feel like we are entering a process of cocreation with one another, with the public, with Chicago. But also, like, God is here! The divine is with us, moving through us, bringing us to this work. Activism for me doesn’t come without God and strengthening our source to a higher power. How can Jewish arts be a spiritual or grounding practice?
Chalfin-Piney-González: I think the second you put the word “museum” on something, it becomes real or o cial. When I started this, I made an Instagram: @JewishMuseumChicago. It was pretty much anonymous, and within several weeks, I started getting real proposals
from people, like, “Hey, we’re a puppet company from Poland coming to town. We’d love to perform. What is your theater setup like?” Every month, we have someone say, like, “Hey, we think we align with the museum. Can you take this archive?” We have no legal documents yet, right? We are just a couple people organizing.
Kosover: Gabriel’s really held the intention: How do we subvert what a museum can be? So many museums actually have patterns of harm, of stealing artifacts, of being places where some stories are visibilized and others are erased. That’s at the forefront of what we’re trying to do: create a museum that is actually a site of healing, repair, and truth telling. So many times, museums feel elitist or inaccessible, like, “These people are the artists, and I’m just the passive recipient walking through.” A big part of this project is to get every single person to realize they are a creative being, that they have artistry to o er, and that it’s actually needed. v
m
mcaporale@chicagoreader.com
A new publication from Chicago Books to Women in Prison pushes back against prison censorship.
By KERRY CARDOZA
In general, maps aren’t allowed. Neither are annotations. Some prohibit coloring books or books with blank pages. Others ban anime or calendars or books on astrology. Several ban books that mention gender or sexuality or depict violence or nudity. These are just a few of the seemingly random mail restrictions at the prisons served by Chicago Books to Women in Prison (CBWP).
Founded in 2002 by a group of “book enthusiasts and archivists,” CBWP has always had the simple goal of sending books to incarcerated women in order to build solidarity between those inside and those outside. Over 20 years
later, the mission of the volunteer-run organization has largely stayed the same, though now it also serves trans people in men’s prisons.
An offshoot of this foundational work, CBWP’s latest project was planned in part as an answer to prisons’ onerous mail restrictions. Prism/Prison is a publication featuring illustrations by artists with Chicago connections and writing and artwork from incarcerated women. The magazine not only
Prism/Prison editors Stephanie Clemson, Grace Ebert, and Colin Palombi—all CBWP volunteers— each had a di erent initial idea for the publication, which was funded by an Illinois Humanities Envisioning Justice grant. Palombi wanted to work with local artists. Ebert wanted to work with women on the inside and ensure all contributors were paid. And Clemson wanted to find a way to
Trinidad, who work in illustration. Then the editors held an open call for submissions from people on the inside. The open call was one sheet of paper; one side featured instructions, and the opposite was one of the coloring book pages. Ebert estimates they received over 60 submissions, from drawings and poems to narrative-based work and journal-like entries. “There was a lot of beautiful writing, and there was a lot of very heavy topics,” Clemson said.
“Even though a lot of the submissions do deal with trauma and abuse and really di cult relationships, di cult topics—not all of them do. There’s a lot of joy in this, in the way that I think previous magazines that we’ve done don’t have,” Ebert said. The editors were purposeful in giving the magazine a name that would allow space for a wide range of submissions. “As we were choosing submissions too, we wanted to kind of give more of a breadth and a bigger understanding of life inside and the people inside.”
The inaugural issue, which launched in May at the National Museum of Mexican Art, is available on CBWP’s website and at Women &
Children First. The editors hope to continue to put out issues, though there isn’t a strict timeline for the next iteration. They are thinking about how to bring more people into the conversation about censorship in prison. “One of the contributors, we sent her a copy, and we don’t know if she’s actually going to receive it because her facility doesn’t accept coloring books,” Ebert said. “That’s something we’re really thinking about.”
Contributors' copies are still making their way through the prison system, though the editors have gotten many notes of appreciation for the honoraria. “People have access to work often, but they get paid literal dollars an hour. And so $150, while not that much—and we, of course, wish it could be more—is still a really meaningful amount of money,” Ebert said. “And also, people are really thankful to have their work be published, and their voice beyond the walls, because I think often they feel very forgotten and ignored, and I think it means a lot.” v
m kcardoza@chicagoreader.com
In its 46th season, the Evanston company continues to foster new and established artists.
By KERRY REID
Stages of Survival is an occasional series focusing on Chicago theater companies, highlighting their histories and how they’re surviving—and even thriving—in a landscape that’s become decidedly more challenging since the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown.
Founded in Evanston in 1979 as Foster Community Theatre, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre (FJT) has been a home for stories of the African and African American diaspora for 46 years, operating by the motto “Umoja!! . . . Working together in unity.” Under the leadership of artistic director Tim Rhoze since 2010, the company has continued to emphasize Black stories. Sometimes that’s through new work, including the recent world premiere of Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women , based on the ethnographic book by Northwestern professor E. Patrick Johnson, adapted by D. Soyini Madison, codirected by Madison and Rhoze, and coproduced by Northwestern’s Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts. Sometimes it’s through Black American classics, including last summer’s revival of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf They’ve also emphasized remounts of more recent plays that premiered originally at other Chicago theaters, such as 2023’s production of former Chicagoan Loy Webb’s The Light, first seen with now-defunct New Colony Theatre in 2018.
FJT’s upcoming summer season also highlights past and future. For the second year, they’re presenting the Gloria Bond Clunie Playwright’s Festival, which provides staged readings for emerging Chicago-based writers. (The festival is named in honor of FJT’s founding artistic director and a founding member of the first playwrights ensemble at Victory Gardens Theater, whose plays include the Je Award–winning North Star.) Then in July, the company stages Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over, directed by Rhoze. The latter, blending
teer and visual artist Michael Montenegro to create a mural for FJT’s production of Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog . “I really liked that this realistic set was flowing within this mural that also felt like it was telling a story.” For The Light, artist Jess Patterson created murals with stylized images of Black women, all reflecting in some way on Webb’s story of a Black romantic relationship unfolding against the intersection of racial and gender violence.
Jazzma Pryor, who played Genesis in that production and also starred as Lady in Red in For Colored Girls, says, “That’s always one of the exciting things when I do a show there—to see what the background is going to look like. Tim is always gonna use a local artist, which I appreciate and love.” For The Light, she says, “It was just so beautiful to see these faces and see myself in these women, each and every one of them.”
2ND ANNUAL GLORIA BOND CLUNIE PLAYWRIGHT’S FESTIVAL
Sat 6/28 5 PM and Sun 6/29 3 PM, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes, Evanston, fjtheatre.com, $10 (both days $15)
PASS OVER 7/26 - 8/ 10 : Sat 7 PM, Sun 3 PM Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes, Evanston, fjtheatre.com, $ 32
aspects of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot with a searing look at the violent deaths of young Black men, caused a sensation in its 2017 premiere at Steppenwolf and was eventually filmed by Spike Lee.
Funded through the City of Evanston as part of the city’s parks and recreation department, FJT is non-Equity. But as Rhoze notes to me, “Over the years, the budget has increased. The city council has given its thumbs up every
year, so we have the funding to do what we do and to pay the artists. We’re not an Equity theater, but I know that we are in the upper tier of the salaries that we pay our designers, actors, and everyone.”
In addition to highlighting Black playwrights of the past and present, FJT also has provided an artistic home for performers and designers. In recent years, Rhoze has called upon local visual artists to create vibrant murals as part of the set designs for FJT shows on the Noyes Cultural Arts Center’s proscenium stage. (The 200-seat space was also formerly the home of Next Theatre, which closed in 2014 after over 30 years in operation. The building itself houses many visual artists and other companies, including the Actors Gymnasium just down the hall from FJT and Piven Theatre Workshop.)
Rhoze notes that, in 2018, he asked puppe-
Pryor also credits Rhoze for helping her see herself in roles that hadn’t been available to her in other Chicago theaters. She made her debut with FJT in the 2018 revival of Endesha Ida Mae Holland’s From the Mississippi Delta, and then appeared a year later in Dominique Morisseau’s Sunset Baby. Pryor, who is also an ensemble member of Shattered Globe Theatre, says of Rhoze, “He’s given me an opportunity to really grow with really juicy, meaty roles at Fleetwood. That’s allowed me to develop my skills as an actor and meet new people.” She adds, “I feel like 90 percent of this industry is being told ‘no.’ And when you have this desire inside of your heart and you know your work ethic, and you feel like you are a decent actor, and you’re not being given opportunities to showcase your skills, it gets to you.”
FJT doesn’t have a formal acting ensemble, but Rhoze says he crafts each season with an eye toward the people he’s worked with in the past as well as the stories he feels are important for his audiences to see.
“I certainly want to broaden the community’s awareness of what kind of stories are available out there that we normally are not accustomed to here on the North Shore. We’re talking about plays that have Black themes, right? In The Light, for instance—you know, you don’t often have a play that’s about racism and things like that, but it’s still a Black love story.”
Pryor says that she thinks the common thread for FJT shows is that they are “talking about relevant things, talking about life situations. It’s giving stories where the audience leaves thinking and wondering and hoping for change, or
thinking about what things they can do to make a di erence in their world, you know?”
But not all shows find the same level of audience engagement.
“It’s the producer’s dilemma,” says Rhoze, “because there are shows that you can pick that you know are just gonna put butts in the seats. And it’s the title. Or it’s because of the playwright. You know, they’re like, ‘I have to go see [2019’s] Black Ballerina. How can you not wanna see Black Ballerina ? [Rhoze and Stephen Fedo’s script gave a starring role to Rhoze’s dancer daughter, Kara Roseborough.] Of course, they’re gonna come for [the musical] Crowns and [For] Colored Girls. And then
observations, comes from how Rhoze and his sta work to create a welcoming atmosphere. Each show begins with him asking us to greet the person next to us with, “Hi, neighbor.”
After the show, Rhoze and the cast mingle with audiences, talking about the production. Pryor says, “It shows that you value their time and their commitment to the theater and the fact that they spent money to come here to see this artwork. You know, like, ‘I see you. I appreciate you coming and sharing this moment with me, and I also see you and thank you.’”
“I certainly want to broaden the community’s awareness of what kind of stories are available out there that we normally are not accustomed to here on the North Shore.”
you do something a little more challenging, like Until the Flood or This Bitter Earth.” (The former, by Dael Orlandersmith, is a documentary play about the uprising in Ferguson, Missouri, after the police slaying of Michael Brown, and the latter, by Harrison David Rivers, traces the relationship between two men—a Black playwright and a white activist.)
Despite the challenges, Rhoze notes that FJT operates at around 80 percent capacity for their productions overall. “There’s always a production within the season, usually the first one out the gate, that will get people interested and hyped about the next two plays,” he says.
Part of that patron loyalty, at least from my
DIRECTED BY LILI - ANNE BROWN
BASED ON THE NOVEL BY ALICE WALKER AND THE WARNER BROS./ AMBLIN ENTERTAINMENT MOTION PICTURE
BOOK BY MARSHA NORMAN
MUSIC AND LYRICS BY BRENDA RUSSELL, ALLEE WILLIS AND STEPHEN BRAY
Kristian Harris, Evanston’s second ward city council member, also has a personal connection to FJT. In an email, she says, “My sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., has been a sponsor. My daughter has acted in performances and then worked for Tim.” Harris, who notes she was a fan of FJT before joining the city council, also says, “It has given the City of Evanston: Black excellence, Black theater, cultural storytelling and simply a voice in this community.”
For Rhoze, who tells me he never actually thought he’d want to be an artistic director, one of the joys of the job is not only how the stories affect the audiences, but also how a family of artists supports each other on the Fleetwood-Jourdain stage. “When the veterans come on board, they start to become the mentors to these younger actors who are coming onto our stage. And so it’s really cultivating a culture of learning, and expanding through the humanity that theater just naturally brings to the table.” v
m kreid@chicagoreader.com
Twenty years since its Broadway musical debut, The Color Purple is reborn in Lili-Anne Brown’s revelatory production— “perfection on every level!” (Chicago Sun-Times).
It’s a celebration of life, hope and the healing power of love! The musical stage adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prizeand National Book Award-winning novel is a heart-rending, yet ultimately joyous, story of a young woman’s perilous journey of personal awakening in the American South. Come ready to shout in church, stomp at the juke joint, laugh and cry with unforgettable “come-to-glory gospel hymns, down-and-dirty bump-and-grinds, jazz that stutters, dips and dives, and gorgeous alto arias” (Chicago Sun-Times).
The summer performing arts scene heats up.
By KERRY REID
Summer isn’t just for street fairs and beaches (or protests and marches, which might be more urgent this season). There are still plenty of great options in comedy, dance, and theater waiting for you when you’re ready to shift gears (and some still let you get outside). Here are ten picks to store with the sunscreen and water bottles.
Free America Festival (Obviously) It’s time to F.A.F.(O)! Writer and performer Joe Janes and friends offer a comedic alternative to No Kings marches and protests this weekend. The lineup includes comedy from Patti Vasquez, music from the Famous Brothers (aka Will Clinger, Darren Stephens, and Rick Vamos), and magic from Michael Kent, along with sardonic observations of our current disastrous ship of state from other artists. The parking lot will feature games alongside music, speakers, and information tables from organizations like the ACLU, Sierra Club Illinois Chapter, Life Is Work, Operation Swing State, One Northside, Gemmes for Femmes, and 40th Ward Democrats. There will also be free Reiki sessions. Sat 6/14, noon-3 PM, Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark, shorturl.at/gL6Ig, free, but donations of diapers (adult or child) and nonperishable food items requested.
If the HBO doc on Paul Reubens has you feeling nostalgic about Pee-wee’s Playhouse, maybe Dilly can help. Described in promotional materials as a “female-forward” take on the 80s-style mixed-media madness of Reubens’s show (which itself leaned on Googie midcentury architectural influences), Dilly (aka Jackie Smook) uses puppetry and animation to impart life lessons about being yourself and learning from mistakes. Her appearances at the Color Club include a screening of Smook’s pilot for Dilly’s World, along with live performances and music. Sun 6/29, 4 and 8 PM, Color Club, 4146 N. Elston, colorclub.events/events, $20, all ages
Good Vibes Only
Chicago comic Just Nēsh (aka Taneshia Rice), whose special Just Nēsh: Self Served is now available on Prime, hosts this showcase for standups and other special guests, including singer/performer Sandy Redd (vet of The Voice ). Wed 7/9, 8 PM, the Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park West, promontorychicago.com, $35.22-$158.14, 21+
Unbound: Shattered Frames, Endless Visions
The Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project (CBDLP) highlights ten companies from diverse genres, forming a stunning tapestry of the breadth and depth of Black dance in Chicago. This evening of performances features work from the second cohort of companies in the CBDLP, including the Chicago Multicultural Dance Center and Hiplet Ballerinas, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, the Era Footwork Collective, Forward Momentum Chicago, Joel Hall Dancers & Center, M.A.D.D. Rhythms, Move Me Soul, Muntu Dance Theatre, NAJWA Dance Corps, and Praize Productions Inc. Sat 8/23, 6 PM, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, harristheaterchicago. org, tickets TBA
Superbloom
The Seldoms bring their 2023 piece—whose title refers to the rare botanical event when wildflowers whose seeds have lain dormant in the desert all burst into color at once—to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Founding artistic director and choreographer Carrie Hanson describes the piece for five dancers as “a multimedia performance about radical beauty, wildness and wildfl owers, and the resilience and fragility of the natural world.” 7/25–7/27, Fri–Sat 7 PM, Sun 2 PM, Nichols Hall, Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook, Glencoe, chicagobotanic.org/superbloom, adults $29, $27 in advance (members $12, $10 in advance), children 3-12 $19, $18 in advance (members $8 and $7), children 2 and under free
Dhaba on Devon Avenue
Writers Theatre and TimeLine Theatre team up for the world premiere of Madhuri Shekar’s drama (directed by former Victory Gardens artistic director Chay Yew) about a beloved Indian restaurant facing foreclosure—unless sous chef Rita can convince her father to let her take over the kitchen. 6/19–7/27, Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor, Glencoe, 847-242-6000, writerstheatre.org, $35-$95
The Color Purple
Twenty years after its Broadway debut, the musical version of Alice Walker’s beloved novel hits the Goodman under the direction of Lili-Anne Brown, who previously staged the show for Drury Lane and at the Muny
in Saint Louis. The Goodman production features several related community events, including The Color Purple Book Club on June 28, a Play on Words conversation with poet Zahra Baker July 2, and a vendors fair on July 12. 6/21–7/27, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre. org, $33-$143
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Midsommer Flight returns for their outdoor summer season with this early Shakespeare comedy, in which the King of Navarre and his bros swear off women for three years in order to concentrate on their studies. The arrival of the Princess of France and her ladies-in-waiting proves to be a challenge for the would-be scholars. Founding artistic director Beth Wolf directs the Elizabethan rom-com, which takes over six different Chicago parks, performed in natural sunlight, without amplification—and always free. 6/27–8/3; see midsommerflight.com for complete schedule
If you’re still in the mood for Elizabethan comedy, Hell in a Handbag’s got you covered with a gay 80s twist. Tyler Anthony Smith’s latest (directed by Stephanie Shaw) stars Smith as Elizabeth I, who demands that Halston design a new gown for her to die in, even though he already has his hands full trying to help Liza Minnelli with her new act. 7/9–8/3, Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark, handbagproductions. org, $25-$43
Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train Esteban Andres Cruz (currently appearing in Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin at A Red Orchid Theatre) starred in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s 2000 prison drama for Raven back in 2009 and won a Non-Equity Jeff Award for their performance. Now Cruz, a longtime collaborator with Guirgis (they received a Drama Desk nomination for the 2019 New York premiere of Guirgis’s Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven ) returns to direct the story of a young Latino, Angel, charged with murder and imprisoned at Rikers, where he meets Lucius Jenkins, a charismatic serial killer. Cruz’s cast includes Lenin Izquierdo as Angel and Bradford Stevens as Jenkins. 7/25-9/7, City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, 773-293-3682, citylit.org, $30-$38 v
m kreid@chicagoreader.com
Black Bone at Definition blends collegiate power games with a nation in meltdown.
Tina Fakhrid-Deen wrote her blistering comedy about academia, race, and civil war before our current calamities began. But Definition Theatre’s staging by Carla Stillwell is about as timely as it gets. Three Black faculty members at a predominantly white university gather at the behest of one of them: soon-to-be-published Keisha (Marlene Slaughter), who promises to spill the tea about their Black dean. But internecine squabbles, as well as the looming threat of the reversal of legislation for reparations in the university and beyond (reparations which largely fund their jobs), start to tear apart the fragile connections among them.
Originally developed through Definition’s Amplify series, the piece marks a departure from what I’ve seen of Fakhrid-Deen’s past work, which includes the realist gentrification drama Dandelions and Pulled Punches, her contemporary update of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman (both produced by MPAACT). Black Bone (the title refers to the book for which Keisha has received a huge, and envy-inducing, advance) uses a show-within-a-show device, with Patrick Newson Jr.’s Woodfence serving as a reality-TV host with comedic asides.
Newson is hilarious, but overall it feels like a distraction from the white-hot and take-no-prisoners conflicts spilling out as Keisha, tenured prof Nella (Martasia Jones), and adjunct Afro Latino instructor Cruz (Matthew Lolar-Johnson) dissect everything from the politics of “passing” to the idea of “rest as resistance,” all while reports from a Black television reporter about the embattled Black U.S. president suggest that the world outside the university is catching fire. (The arrival of Cynthia F. Carter’s Dean Ivory adds more fuel to the conflagration.) Black Bone overflows with sharp observations on race, gender, class, and culture, all hitting in many directions at the same time. But the ensemble nails the sense of confusion and fear undergirding our times. —KERRY REID BLACK BONE Through 6/29: Thu–Fri 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; no show Thu 6/19; Definition Theatre, 1160 E. 55th St., definitiontheatre. org, $28.52-$39.19
Theo’s Diana gives a tabloid musical some warmth and depth.
If you’re not a fan of Princess Diana, there’s probably not much of a reason to check out Theo’s production of Diana, the 2019 musical by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan. Even if you are, arguably, you’ll learn more by rewatching The Crown. But the more intimate setting here paradoxically makes up for the biographical paintby-numbers quality of the material. This production (codirected by choreographer Brenda Didier and Theo’s late founding artistic director Fred Anzevino) at its best plays like a cheeky comic revue, which is perfect for the cabaret-style setting. And yet, there are just enough moments of poignancy (especially in the number “Secrets and Lies,” when Kate McQuillan’s Princess Di meets gay men with HIV/AIDS at a hospital and finds that they feel as isolated from their families as she does within the Windsor “firm”) to leaven the campiness. The spot-on casting also helps, with McQuillan showing the evolution from 19-year-old “Shy Di” to the scorned woman who famously donned that jaw-dropping
“revenge dress” when Charles went public with his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. (There is in fact a number just called “The Dress,” and the costumes by Patty Halajian are practically their own characters.) Jacqueline Grandt does exquisite double duty as duty-bound Queen Elizabeth and as Diana’s step-grandmother, romance novelist Barbara Cartland. (A ballad where the queen remembers a simpler time early in her marriage, “An Officer’s Wife,” suggests that she had more sympathy for Diana’s plight than she could publicly let on.) Jack Saunders’s Charles transcends the self-absorbed twit elements etched into the character here to also create some sympathy for a guy who is playacting at being a husband despite having no real affection for the woman picked out for him.
It’s not deep, but it’s fun for what it is. Didier and Anzevino’s approach gives what could seem bombastic and overblown on a bigger stage (with a bigger budget) a balanced perspective, providing these well-worn tabloid figures with some dimensions beyond the familiar scandals and the silly songs. —KERRY REID DIANA
Through 7/6: Thu–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 6 PM; also Wed 6/18 2 PM and Mon 6/23 7:30 PM, no shows Thu 6/19 or Fri 7/4; Howard Street Theater, 721 Howard, Evanston, 773-939-4101, theo-u.com, $50-$60
Chicago’s breezeways inspire the short plays of Footholds Vol. 6 with the Impostors.
Chicago’s breezeways, ever-evocative in films about Chicago (I’m looking at you, Michael Mann), now
inspire an evening of short plays from the Impostors Theatre Co., who return to their Footholds format for the sixth time. “A lamp-lit alley, fringing the noise— before, during, or a er the party” is the inspiration for the seven plays comprising Footholds Vol. 6. The setting is apt, as we watch the plays’ twenty- and thirtysomething characters pass from one point in their lives to the next. The plays, by Conlan Carter, Alex Fortune, Jared Goudsmit, Matt Schutz, Samantha Hurley, Stephen Gerrie, and Chels Morgan, make the most of their limited runtimes and are both intensely personal and generous to the audience.
Covering intimacy, dead-end jobs, and friends moving away, the plays brim with earnest wit, and the cast of seven is well-directed by a cadre of Impostors ensemble members. Ethan Gasbarro’s meticulous, surprise-filled set is a highlight. For better or for worse, the “anthology play” format of the Footholds series requires brevity of its plays. Many of the plays are comic, blurring formal lines between anthology play and sketch show. When the work turns dramatic, however, the format shows its weak spots. The time and room a serious play deserves just aren’t present here, so a lot of information and big emotions get squeezed into a small footprint. However, despite some format issues, Footholds Vol. 6 is the work of a group of artists experimenting and having fun; it’s an admirable and energetic piece of theater. —ROB SILVERMAN ASCHER FOOTHOLDS VOL. 6 Through 6/21: Thu–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, 773-697-3830, theimpostorstheatre. com, $20 ($25 reserved) v
Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou made waves on film Twitter and with horror diehards alike in 2022 with the release of their first feature, Talk to Me. Their newest, Bring Her Back, heightens their uncompromising approach by fusing the requisite scares with a sober drama about two colliding broken families. A er Andy and Piper’s father dies unexpectedly, the stepsiblings are thrown into Australia’s foster care system and placed in the care of Laura, played by Sally Hawkins. As Laura, Hawkins deploys her signature bohemian kookiness to great effect, masking her deeply deranged behavior. Laura also fosters a strange, mute boy named Oliver. Preteen actor Jonah Wren Phillips stands out as the neglected, catatonic boy—his sheer oddness serves as a pivot point for the entire film. Billy Barratt and Sora Wong are excellent as Andy and Piper, respectively, traumatized teens thrust into something much bigger and scarier than they bargained for. Yet Bring Her Back has a glaring representation problem. At a time when three in every one thousand U.S. kids enter foster care, is it responsible for yet another film to advance its plot via a duplicitous foster parent’s abuse? Laura’s manipulation of the kids, particularly of Piper’s visual impairment, comes dangerously close to being tropey. At the same time, her mistreatment of the children gives the film—which doesn’t skimp on blood, guts, and spectacle—its emotional stakes. Bring Her Back is horrific perfection, sure to be one of the bleakest films of the year. —ROB SILVERMAN ASCHER R, 104 min. Wide release in theaters
Wes Anderson is o en accused of prioritizing his exceptionally composed images and uniquely twee dialogue over narrative and emotion. His two most recent features, The French Dispatch (2021) and Asteroid City (2023), seemed to directly respond to this by using framing devices to consider how their main stories were told. In The French Dispatch, things felt more academic but interesting, and in Asteroid City the reflexivity became the emotional heart of the film.
The Phoenician Scheme gives all that up, throwing itself headfirst into the criticisms of Anderson’s work to the film’s detriment. A barrage of information is delivered in perfectly clear and concise language, accompanied by close-ups of the relevant players and objects in the first ten minutes—but it’s almost impossible to hold onto any of it. As narrative comes into place, it’s difficult to see The Phoenician Scheme as anything other than a filmmaker having fun with his repertory company, plus a few new, very recognizable faces. There’s nothing wrong with that; the film’s o en funny and looks fantastic throughout, but it just never coheres into anything more resonant than a charming object.
In fact, The Phoenician Scheme almost plays like a sketch comedy movie. It tracks arms dealer Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro), his nun daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), and his tutor/secretary Bjorn (Michael Cera, delicately balancing the annoying–funny line with a Norwegian accent) through meetings with various capital “C” characters to finance a major project. Riz Ahmed, Bryan Cranston and Tom Hanks, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, and Benedict Cumberbatch all have their own sections of the film with their own bits. But
by the end, it’s more tiring than exciting to spend time with yet another beloved actor delightedly playing a silly character. —KYLE LOGAN PG-13, 101 min. Wide release in theaters
A er the success of Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey (2022), the most recent entry in the Predator franchise, Disney decided to make him the creative head of the series. This year, Trachtenberg is credited as director of two Predator films: the live-action Predator: Badlands, set to release theatrically in November, and the animated anthology film Predator: Killer of Killers, which debuted June 6 on Hulu.
Trachtenberg’s first foray into animation, with help from codirector Joshua Wassung, proves that Disney’s bet has paid off. Killer of Killers delivers on the promise of alien yautja fighting some of human history’s greatest warriors with brilliantly choreographed and executed action. We see alien hunters engage a Viking raider in 841, a ninja and samurai brother in 1629, and an American squadron of fighter pilots in 1942.
It takes a bit in each segment for the yautja to engage the humans, allowing for surprisingly resonant if not perfectly scripted moments of family drama
and some introductory human-on-human violence. That less-than-stellar writing makes the feudal Japan section shine brighter than the others, as it’s almost entirely dialogue-free except for a few words at the start and close (and the fact that it’s about ninjas and samurai also just ups its cool factor). But once the fighting begins, no matter the combatants or dialogue, Killer of Killers is a joy to watch.
The animation, which blends 2D and 3D elements in a style directly inspired by Netflix’s Arcane is more interesting than anything else. It sometimes looks cheap and awkward, and the most eye-popping aspects are o en the purely 2D elements, especially the fires, which are beautiful throughout. Yet the 3D is justified by the “camera moves” within the animated world that add a real dynamism to the action sequences, particularly the dogfights of the World War II segment.
It’s a shame that despite the uproar about releasing Prey directly to Hulu in 2022, Disney’s decided to drop Killer of Killers on streaming without a theatrical release, as its spectacular battles would benefit from a big screen. And at the same time, it’s just nice to see the world’s most powerful and o en most creatively stagnant media corporation trying something new with some of its IP. —KYLE LOGAN R, 90 min. Hulu v
Color continues to be a theme in my moviegoing, starting this week with a Chicago Film Society presentation of Maurice Tourneur’s 1915 silent film Alias Jimmy Valentine on Sunday at the Music Box Theatre, with live musical accompaniment by David Drazin.
It’s a gangster-goes-good tale shot with Gallic lyricism (Maurice, father of Jacques Tourneur, was from Paris after all, having moved to the U.S. in 1914 to direct films for the Eclair company’s American branch) and projected on a beautifully tinted 35-millimeter print from the Library of Congress. Just as silent film was never truly silent, color was never completely o the table; rather, it was sometimes added to blackand-white film in myriad ways, such as tinting, toning, hand-coloring, and stenciling.
Real life is in color, yet the impulse to make black-and-white film somehow replicate its vibrancy often resulted in something uncanny, more akin to a work of art than reality. This is doubly so with Tourneur’s adaptation of the 1909 play of the same name, which was based on O. Henry’s 1903 short story A Retrieved Reformation , in which he portends the poetic realism of French film in the 1930s. The pièce de résistance is an extraordinary scene in which the main character, a notorious safecracker, is seen breaking into a bank vault; it’s shot from above with a view of the bank’s layout as if it’s a diorama, with all of the action in view, from the safecracking itself to the security guard on the gang’s tail. This bird’s-eye view provides an expansive tableau yet, like the tinting, reminds one of cinema’s inherent artifice, something that poetic realism frequently achieved to existential e ect.
Camp—about which I wrote an essay for last week’s issue on the occasion of the Summer Camp series playing at the Gene Siskel Film Center—is all about artifice. In her “Notes on ‘Camp,’” Susan Sontag proclaims that “the
convertibility of man into artifice is the heart of Camp.” The films of Douglas Sirk are often considered exemplars of camp, so naturally I was thinking about all of this as I watched Written on the Wind (1956) at the Film Center. Both Alias Jimmy Valentine and Written on the Wind contain elements of artifice—arguably the latter more than the former, though color tinting and the aforementioned stylized shot are the embodiment of artful contrivance—but Tourneur’s film is considered more serious. Yet whenever I watch Sirk’s melodramas, I’m struck by their sincerity and thus inclined to take them as seriously as they take themselves; though extravagant in their emotional tenor, Sirk’s films are still no less genuine than something like Alias
Jimmy Valentine in their deliberate embrace of the artificial.
I also randomly decided to watch Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s 2024 documentary Grand Theft Hamlet on Mubi, in which Crane and another out-of-work actor friend attempt to mount a production of the Shakespeare play within the game Grand Theft Auto. I was inspired to watch this by an exhibition I saw in Rochester, New York, at the Visual Studies Workshop, “SEQUENCEBREAK// Experimental Arcade,” featuring “works by artists who challenge mainstream commercial video game culture through genre-expanding experimental play, radical aesthetics, and the use of DIY, counter-capitalist methodologies,” per the exhibition summary. Video games are the height of artifice and perhaps examples of camp, yet they’re still something people take very seriously, even in spite of those sensibilities. I’ve hardly mastered my thoughts on the matter, but it’s been an interesting thread of inquiry. 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.
BREWSTER MCCLOUD
June 11 & 14
MCCABE & MRS. MILLER
June 18 & 21
IMAGES
June 25 & 28
CALIFORNIA SPLIT
July 2 & 5
NASHVILLE 4K
July 9 & 12
3 WOMEN
July 16 & 19
POPEYE
July 23 & 26
COME BACK TO THE 5 AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN
July 30 & August 2
THE PLAYER
August 6 & 9
SHORT CUTS
August 13 & 16
GOSFORD PARK
August 20 & 23
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
August 27 & 30
35mm
siskelfilmcenter.org/altman
Behind his skits and viral tweets is a cultural archivist preserving the soul of Black Chicago, one story at a time.
By JOSHUA EFERIGHE
City of Win is a series curated by Isiah “ThoughtPoet” Veney and written by Joshua Eferighe that uses prose and photography to create portraits of Chicago musicians and cultural innovators working to create positive change in their communities.
He smoked a blunt onstage during a 2017 Chaka Khan performance at Essence Fest. He was there that night in 2009 when Lupe saved Drake’s life at House of Blues. He live-tweeted Amber Rose’s 2015 appearance at Adrianna’s, and he partied at East Room with streetwear star Joe Fresh goods—before it became Easy Does It five years back. The Hon-
high school with some of the writers and stars of South Side and popped up in an episode of the 2021 season. He’s been viral since 2016, when the #StopRappingCampaign sketch got featured on BET and The Fader. And on Twitter he’s blocked by Keyshia Cole, Lloyd Banks, and Mya G. BJ the Chicago Kid? Cousin. Rick Robinson? Big bro. Most of Kanye’s OGs? His people.
He’s the connector of dots—the man behind the scenes who everyone knows. He’s Larry Legend, the most interesting man in Chicago.
Larry is more than his collection of stories, though. He’s a modern-day griot and oral historian archiving Chicago’s soul. In West African tradition, griots preserve the cultural memory of their people through speech and song. Born and raised on Chicago’s south side, Larry carries on that lineage digitally. Whether he’s calling out the bump by Soldier Field on Lake Shore Drive or reminding the world that Lil Wayne borrowed his flow from Mikkey Halsted, he curates the city’s canon—one social media skit, one festival, one tweet at a time.
As to how he always ends up in the right rooms, Larry credits his famous father’s legacy—and timing so lucky it might as well be divinely ordained. “My dad, man. I don’t want to disclose who he is—I like to separate myself from him—but he did a lot in the city, and a lot of it comes from that,” Larry admits.
In any case, Larry has built his own name. Fans of his online comedy don’t often know about his dad, and when they run into him, they’re surprised to learn they’re meeting the son of a pillar of Black Chicago.
called Legend Is. “We did how to roll up a Backwood, we did the one when I was addicted to Harold’s, hood Scrabble—we did a lot of little skits. They were coming out once a month for like six months,” Larry says. A year later, he went viral as the face of the #StopRappingCampaign, a PSA that riffs on the #NoMore campaign against domestic violence by imploring go-nowhere rappers to face reality and give it up. It marked the start of his run as one of Chicago’s most distinct online voices.
“I was crying in the video—it was everywhere. BET, MTV. My pops hit me up like, ‘What’s this about you on the Internet, crying all over the place?’ I was like, ‘Damn . . . I know I made it.’”
The virality was validating, but maintaining that momentum proved exhausting. Sketches took time, and Jason Boulware, who handled the technical filmmaking aspects of the operation, sometimes had scheduling conflicts.
“We were like, ‘What are we gonna do? We don’t always have Jason. How do we get something out?’ I knew that people were watching me and looking at whatever I was going to do,” Larry says. “We knew at that moment that we needed to keep having content out.”
orable Minister Farrakhan and the Reverend Jesse Jackson didn’t just visit his childhood home—they broke bread there. In the early 2000s, he once passed on dinner with Michael Jackson because his mama said it was a school night.
The names that have lit up his caller ID include Dave Hollister of Blackstreet and gospel king Kirk Franklin, and he’s one of the few people in Chicago whose contact list includes Adam Levine, former mayor Richard M. Daley, and Lucki. He’s an uno cial spokesperson for Harold’s Chicken, and he appears in BJ the Chicago Kid’s “It’s True” video shot at the Dro City Harold’s—where guest star Schoolboy Q eats straight from the bucket. He went to
“Half the people I know are from growing up,” Larry says. “We went to school with people from the hundreds who just ended up doing something. I feel blessed.” Raised in Beverly and Washington Heights—“a hunnids kid at heart”—he also spent time on the east side and in the suburbs, namely Matteson. As far as his sense of humor? The 34-year-old, whose Twitter bio just says “comedian,” credits his upbringing.
“I liked watching In Living Color when I was little—that was my favorite,” Larry says. “Then just making fun of people at church, mimicking them. I didn’t play instruments, so I was like, ‘I’m just gonna make niggas laugh.’”
Larry’s a nity for laughter led him to join the content collective Good Times TV in 2015 with his friends Terry Hogun, Mani O., Brandon Guy, and Jason Boulware. They produced a comedy show around Larry
The team rebranded as Paper Transfers in 2018, where they created the new show Smoked Out Saturdaze. They described it as “a band of brothers brought together by beautiful smoke while discussing current events in pop culture,” and it showcased the entire crew rather than focusing on Larry. With Boulware less available, everybody stepped up, and their production process got tighter. “That’s why we did the show. Everybody you see on the show does the skits with me,” Larry explains.
Smoked Out Saturdaze ran for four seasons, featuring guests such as musicians Vic Lloyd, Rockie Fresh, and Vic Spencer; cannabis entrepreneur and former pro basketball player Al Harrington; Chicago actor Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale from The Wire); writer and editor Jamilah Lemieux; and Van Johnson of Black Ink Crew Chicago. Larry says Paper Transfers almost brought the show back this year. “The date was 4/20. It was supposed to be the drop; what happened was, we were high and forgot about it,” he explains, laughing.
Larry works a day job he needs to keep separate from his comedy, and he DJs under the name No Request. He’s also teamed up with his cousin Arielle to build the Culture Cellar, a digital imprint and content house dedicated to documenting hip-hop and other Black culture. “We got writers, interviewers, skits—we did a year in review too. If you’ve already got a
vision, we’ll help polish it,” Larry says. The Culture Cellar also has a new project he’s excited about but wants to keep under wraps for now. “It’s a show that’s still coming. It’s a show you’re familiar with. It’s going to be under this umbrella.”
Larry also produces Kheemerfest with his brother La-Kheem, drummer for Chicago indie band Gorilla Social. What started during the early days of COVID as a way to create work for gigging musicians has evolved into a full-scale festival in Dolton, Illinois. This year the fest returns on July 19, with Grammy-nominated R&B singer Avery Wilson headlining.
“It’s like a younger version of Essence Fest,” Larry says. “It’s just, we smoke weed there, and it’s BYOB. We’re trying to get where we can have di erent stages for di erent times.”
“I look at myself like a spokesman of the city, especially from the Black perspective. I’ve been around the world, but being able to bring it back to our people and speak it the way we speak is almost like keeping them up-to-date with what we be on—because it’s a way to eat
Harold’s, it’s a way to order your Home of the Hoagy,” Larry says. In many ways, he’s doing what museums, newspapers, and other media institutions have historically failed to do: capture Black life with nuance, humor, and care.
“That’s why my words resonate: Because if you’ve hit the bump [on LSD], you know what I’m talking about,” Larry says. “If you’ve been in the Harold’s or you’ve seen the cluck—you can relate to it.” v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
Larry isn’t just a commentator. He’s a convener, linking Chicago to national culture. He recalls Chicago lore—that local rap group the Cool Kids changed hip-hop fashion, for instance, and that Michael Jordan “used to pull up in his red Ferrari and hoop in the alley with real hood niggas off 115th and Halsted right before a game.” He reminds us that the city’s soul lives in its details—and in the people who won’t let them fade.
Photos by ThoughtPoet of Unsocial Aesthetics (UAES), a digital creative studio and resource collective designed to elevate communitydriven storytelling and social activism in Chicago and beyond THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT SHED THE SALT
14
WITH BAND OF SKULLS
JUNE 13 SMINO .
THE SHED WITH SAMARA CYN
JUNE 15 JESSIE REYEZ .
. THE SHED WITH RAAHiiM
JUNE 18 MJ LENDERMAN .
. THE SHED WITH COLIN MILLER
JUNE 19 JAMES ARTHUR
. THE SHED WITH KATE PEYTAVIN
JUNE 20 JACK’S MANNEQUIN . . .FAIRGROUNDS WITH THE EARLY NOVEMBER
JUNE 21 CHASE RICE . . . . . . . . . . . . THE SHED WITH TYLER HALVERSON
JUNE 23 JAMES BLUNT . . .
. . . . THE SHED WITH FOREST BLAKK ON SALE NOW
Despite powering classics by the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Chuck Berry, this innovative drummer is fading into obscurity.
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.
The Secret History of Chicago Music likes to throw a spotlight on music’s hardworking timekeepers. Drummers in general don’t get the love that singers and guitarists do, but I didn’t decide to cover Fred Below just to address that imbalance—his skills were so remarkable and diverse that he’d be worth writing about even if this column were exclusively about drummers. He played on tons of jazz, soul, doo-wop, rock, and blues records, including some timeless hits, so you’ve almost certainly heard him—even if you don’t know it. Frederick Below Jr. (pronounced “BEElow”) was born in Chicago on September 6, 1926. Like many Windy City musicians, he studied under the great Captain Walter Dyett at DuSable High School in Bronzeville, starting on trombone but quickly switching to drums. His classmates included tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons, trombonist Bennie Green, bassist Eugene Wright (who later played with Dave Brubeck), and tenor saxophonist Johnny Gri n (who sat next to him in school).
Running with that crowd, Below had decided by age 14 that he wanted to be a professional musician. When he served in the army in 1945 and ’46, he was an infantry soldier, but he kept up his chops by drumming on helmets and boxes. After he returned home, he got a wide-ranging and intensive musical education at the Roy C. Knapp School of Percussion, founded in 1938 by the so-called dean of American drum teachers.
Below enlisted again in 1948, and this time he was stationed in Germany. While serving, he played jazz with the famous allBlack 427th Army Band, leaning heavily on the vibraphone skills he’d picked up in school. “Every weekend I used to leave Germany and go to Paris on a weekend pass,” he told Scott K Fish, who interviewed him in ’81 and ’82 while working as managing editor of Modern Drummer magazine. “Erskine Hawkins and Coleman Hawkins and James Moody, Kenny Clarke—I met all these guys and I played with them when I was in Europe.”
Below returned to Chicago in the early 1950s to discover that his jazz friends had joined successful bands and/or moved out of the city. He saw more opportunities for blues gigs, but he didn’t know the style. Thankfully an older friend from the Knapp school, swing drummer Elga Edmonds (sometimes given as Elgin Evans or Elgie Edmond), had been playing with Muddy Waters. He introduced Below to the local blues scene.
The first blues players Below worked with were guitarist brothers Dave and Louis Myers, who brought him into their band the Aces and helped him get comfortable in a genre where songs tended to be passed along rather than written down. “What made blues fascinating with me was because it was a type of music that I wasn’t familiar with—and they didn’t teach it in school!” Below told Fish in 1981. “So, I had to play it in a way that it would make sense to me.”
In 1952, the Aces’ harmonica player, Junior Wells, joined Waters’s band, replacing Little Walter—and then Walter replaced him in the Aces (variously billed as the Four Aces, the Jukes, or Little Walter & His Nightcaps). Walter also helped Below land other blues gigs. “My style was very familiar with all the harp players,” Below told Fish. “So by me playing with one of the best—which was Little Walter—that set me a little apart from the rest. Because I had established a style that was from a jazz musician interpreting the blues in a di erent way. And I established a beat.”
Fish has called Below “arguably the father of Chicago electric blues drumming.” Below said he’d arrived at his style by regularizing the rhythms of the blues, which were often played by feel with phrases and bars of no consistent length. “See, I had gone in and started playing jazz, but I had to play it in a way that the blues musicians were able to feel it,” he told Fish in 1981. The following year, he unpacked that further: “They call it rock ’n’ roll or that syncopated rhythm. Well, I had been playing that since about 1949 or ’50.”
Below left the Aces in 1955, but he’d already begun picking up session work—including
on Little Walter’s records. Below became a de facto house drummer for Leonard and Phil Chess (who ran the Chess, Checker, and Argo labels), and as he put it in his 1982 interview with Fish, “I was making recordings just like pancakes.” Over the years, Below would record with soul singers such as Dinah Washington and Etta James, doo-wop groups such as the Platters and the Moonglows, and of course a long list of blues and R&B artists. He plays on two Muddy Waters tunes from 1954, “Just Make Love to Me” and the hugely influential “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man,” and on two Howlin’ Wolf cuts from 1960, “Spoonful” and “Wang Dang Doodle,” both covered by a million rock bands. Below also backed Elmore James, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Ruth Brown, and many more.
Below likewise made huge contributions to the early sound of rock ’n’ roll, though assigning credit for those innovations is rarely straightforward. Below played sessions with Bo Diddley, but his claim that drummer Clifton James learned the famous “Bo Diddley beat” from him is harder to verify. (James, unsurprisingly, said he came up with it himself.) Below recorded with Chuck Berry as well,
beginning with a session on April 16, 1956, that produced the classic hits “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” and “Too Much Monkey Business.”
Below claimed to have drummed on Berry’s first hit, the ageless “Maybellene,” though that performance is pretty consistently credited to Ebby Hardy. It’s much more likely that Below played on the late-50s Berry tunes “School Days,” “Rock & Roll Music,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Back in the USA,” and “Memphis, Tennessee.”
As Below became an in-demand drummer, he got more work, including gigs out of town and overseas. By the 1960s, he was traveling to Europe, where he joined the backing band
Canned Heat) and keyboardist Barry Goldberg (who played with Dylan at Newport). Below would later join Musselwhite and Louis Myers in the Chicago Blue Stars, who released one album, Coming Home, in 1970.
In 1977, Below backed guitarists Eddy Clearwater and Eddie Taylor in separate sets that were eventually combined on the 1986 album Direct From Chicago, released by French label MCM Blues. The A-side features Clearwater (and guitarist Jimmy Dawkins) at Ma Bea’s at 3001 W. Madison, while the B-side features Taylor at the Golden Slipper at 345 S. Pulaski.
Below became a de facto house drummer for Leonard and Phil Chess (who ran the Chess, Checker, and Argo labels), and as he put it in his 1982 interview with Fish, “I was making recordings just like pancakes.”
of the touring American Folk Blues Festival, launched in 1962 and based in Germany. An LP compilation from the 1965 festival, recorded live in Hamburg, includes Below backing the likes of Big Mama Thornton, Buddy Guy, and John Lee Hooker. On a similar festival comp cut in 1966 in Berlin, Below drums with Otis Rush, Roosevelt Sykes, Big Joe Turner, and others.
On a European trip in 1965, Below happened to play a Sonor kit, and when he returned to the States, Sonor o ered him a sponsorship. (He’d previously played drums made by Ludwig, Slingerland, and Gretsch.) The company gave him a kit, and he ended up taking it all over the world, including to Africa. He was particular about his gear, and he’d earned the right to be.
“I’m a jazz drummer and I like sound,” Below told Fish in 1981. “I don’t like to play on no one else’s drums. I know how mine’s going to sound when I touch them. See, I tune my drums. . . . I learned that from going to school. I didn’t spend all that time going to school and not paying attention to what they was telling me.”
In 1967, Below played on the Charlie Musselwhite LP Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite’s South Side Band, an influential early blues-rock record featuring stars from a rising crop of young white blues players, including guitarist Harvey Mandel (later with
Judging by the Fish interviews, Below continued to play and record at least into the early 1980s, but in the years since, that trail has gone cold—I’m not able to find any detail about his activities. Compilations of early recordings by stars such as Guy, Waters, and Wolf have kept Below’s drumming in the public ear, but he didn’t live to enjoy that. Below died from liver cancer in Chicago on August 13, 1988.
I almost can’t believe how few people seem to know about Fred Below today—and how many of those who do know him think of him as “merely” a blues drummer, as though that were a reason to dismiss him. “The blues, if played correctly, is not easy to master,” Below said in a Modern Drummer story published in 1987. “People who say it’s a simple music form never played the blues. If they did, they probably didn’t play it right. It’s very hard to play somebody’s feelings, and that’s what the blues is.” Below’s varied, emotional playing deserves to be appreciated by everyone who understands the meaning of the blues and its connections to jazz and rock ’n’ roll. Below mastered them all. 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.
and CDs at dustygroove.com or in-store 9 AM–7 PM, 1120 N. Ashland.
june 14
4:30 at the Chicago Reader Panel with Salem Collo-Julin & Philip Montoro
Chicago Soul Panel with Renaldo Domino, Jackie Ross, & Aaron Cohen 5 pm 6 pm 7 pm 7:30 pm
Avant Garde 80s Chicago Panel with P. Michael and Travis of Ono, & Bil Vermette Bil Vermette
The Reader’s weekly chef pop-up series at Frank and Mary’s Tavern, 2905 N. Elston, Avondale
Follow the chefs, @chicago_reader, and @mikesula on Instagram for weekly menu drops, ordering info, updates, and the stories behind Chicago’s most exciting foodlums. Head to chicagoreader.com/foodball for weekly menus and ordering info!
PICK OF THE WEEK
Yasser Tejeda boldly reimagines Afro-Dominican roots music
This concert kicks off the Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series, a project of the International Latino Cultural Center. Sat 6/14, 3 PM, Gage Park, 2411 W. 55th. F b
BROOKLYN-BASED DOMINICAN composer and guitarist Yasser Tejeda has explored myriad ways to mesh Afro-Dominican roots music with sophisticated modern arrangements while maintaining its cultural authenticity. On his three albums, most recently 2023’s La Madrugá, he pulls threads from both sides of the Atlantic. At times, you can hear rippling, rhythmic echoes of joyful Congolese soukous woven into beats played by the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit of the Congos de Villa Mella (a long-running Dominican ensemble that UNESCO has declared part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity). Other moments nod to Haitian kompa, flirt with Nigerian Afrobeat, or evoke New Orleans’s hot, bluesy jazz. Working with an ensemble that includes guitar, bass, drums, and percussion, Tejeda creates musical stories born from centuries of cultural exchange between Africa and the Caribbean: On the uplifting “Todo Va a Marchar,” from La Madrugá , Congolese grooves intertwine with Haitian kompa before landing in beats that
recall Juan Luis Guerra’s sweet, contemporary merengue. Tejeda’s performance at Gage Park kicks o the Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series, a project of the International Latino Cultural Center that centers Latine music for more than two months of free weekly concerts held in public parks across the city. (This year’s edition runs into August and also includes concerts at La Villita Park and Riis Park.) He’s joined by openers Los Rakas, the Oakland-based duo of Panamanian first cousins Raka Rich and Raka Dun, who refract the raw energy of reggaeton and Latin trap through a bicultural lens. In this cultural and political moment, when members of the Latine community are in the crosshairs of anti-immigration policies, the Levitt VIBE series resonates with new urgency and o ers space to build solidarity. It will be a treat to enjoy all the performances in the series while embracing the legacy of celebration and resistance baked into Latine arts and music.
—CATALINA MARIA JOHNSON
8-Bit Creeps Ovef Ow and Chicken Happen open. 8:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $15, $12 in advance. 21+
Chicago four-piece 8-Bit Creeps make music for people who want to have fun even when they’re morbidly concerned about the future. The synthheavy Chicago rock band formed in 2016, incorporating three members of local outfit the Van Goghs who wanted to try something new. Since then, 8-Bit Creeps have released about a dozen singles and EPs as well as an impressive debut full-length, 2022’s Dress for the Future . Weird jagged edges abound in their songs, but 8-Bit Creeps smooth them over with fuzzy hooks that flow like water from the group’s deep well of affection for 60s and 70s psych-pop, postpunk, and new wave. Even when the songs indulge in surface-level levity, it never undercuts the gravity at their heart: On the Dress for the Future track “Madness,” for instance, video-game synths and melancholy guitars accompany an agonized depiction of police aggression toward people protesting George Floyd’s murder.
On 8-Bit Creeps’ brand-new second album, Sunset From the Shallows , peppy rock and pop flecked with absurdity dance through a cloud of despair. Vocalist, guitarist, and synth player Mick Kong says
continued from p. 30
SUNDAY, JUNE
the record’s songs are about “watching the sun set on an empire” and the pushing of products and technologies that falsely promise progress to the masses. Opener “Talk in the Kitchen” uses a driving rock beat to suggest an anxiously ticking clock, while the narrator holds onto hope that things will get better as their mental health and the state of the world hang in the balance. “Ar·ti·fi·cial” sounds more upbeat, but its plucky new-wave melodies and spacey effects accompany lyrics suggesting that the best escape from a world filled with Frankenfoods and cryptocurrency might be a collision with an asteroid. That’s not to say 8-Bit Creeps are nihilists: The pristine pop tune “The Silver Medal” yearns to fix the world for a generation whose future leaves them little to hope for. —JAMIE LUDWIG
SATURDAY14
Samantha Crain Quinn Christopherson opens. 8 PM, Schubas, $27, $24.30 in advance. 18+
Choctaw singer-songwriter Samantha Crain has many strengths and stories. Raised in Shawnee, Oklahoma, she comes from a family of champion powerlifters and won several titles herself before turning her attention to music in her late teens and releasing her first recording in 2007. She’s since been celebrated in folk-rock and Americana circles for her imaginative, heartfelt songwriting and soulfully velvety voice. Crain has also produced records and worked in TV and film, including contributing songs to the series Reservation Dogs and scoring a couple documentary shorts and the 2023 drama Fancy Dance. Crain’s new seventh album, Gumshoe, is her first since 2020’s A Small Death, written and recorded after three car crashes in the space of three months in 2017 temporarily cost her the use of her hands—she not only had to cope with trauma and grief but also had to fight through tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other painful medical issues.
Where A Small Death primarily looked inward, Gumshoe turns outward, toward the possibilities of connection in intimate relationships and the greater community. Crain had long considered herself a solitary, self-reliant person, but she developed its songs during a time when she settled into a quieter pace of life away from the tour circuit while helping her partner navigate addiction. That gives the record an unhurried energy and openness, and Crain broadens her folkie palette into more experimental and psychedelic territory. “Dragonfly” starts the album with a chill alt-rock rhythm and electronic flourishes reminiscent of krautrock, while “Neptune Baby” centers acoustic and slide guitars in its ebbs and flows, which feel like gentle swells on a moonlit ocean. Not knowing what the next track has in store is part of the fun of Gumshoe. “B-Attitudes” asserts itself with horns as Crain dreams of a place to contentedly live out her days— and her full- throated voice rings out from deep in her chest to cast her deepest wishes into the sky. On the intimate “Melatonin,” she sings about bringing supplements and mint chocolate chip ice cream to her partner in rehab, and you can almost see her smile as she recalls these acts of care and unconditional love.
—JAMIE LUDWIG
Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/musicreviews
Yasser Tejeda See Pick of the Week on page 30. This concert kicks off the Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series, a project of the International Latino Cultural Center. Los Rakas open. 3 PM, Gage Park, 2411 W. 55th. F b
WEDNESDAY18
Colleen Green Rozwell Kid (who also joins Green for her set) and Tweens open. 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $24.90. 17+
A decade ago, singer-songwriter and visual artist Colleen Green burst into the indie-rock sphere with I Want to Grow Up , her third album and the first she’d recorded with a band in a studio. Its smart, charming blend of punk, bubblegum pop, and lo-fi indie rock proved her to be a rising talent who knew her way around a melody—and she could also have fun with inside jokes without resorting to gimmick or parody. (The titles of I Want to Grow Up and her 2010 debut full-length, Milo Goes to Compton, both riff on the names of Descendents albums.) On Green’s most recent full-length, 2021’s Cool , she applies her glorious songwriting chops and witty lyrics to disaffected slacker rock and jangly indie
pop, sometimes dri ing into darker strains of psychedelic rock, postpunk, and garage. The evenkeeled “I Believe in Love” closes with a moment of fuzzed-out guitar ecstasy, while “I Wanna Be a Dog” pays homage to the Stooges’ famous 1969 single by echoing its iconic chant-along chorus. On the verses, Green imagines an easier life—if only she were a carefree house pet instead of a disaffected human. Green’s current tour celebrates the tenth anniversary of I Want to Grow Up, and Hardly Art has reissued the album on clear pink vinyl for the occasion. Expect Green to play the album in full, along with some deep cuts from her catalog.
—JAMIE LUDWIG v
Accountant. Analyze accounting records to prepare financial statements and tax returns. Give advice for clients of a bookkeeping, accounting, and tax preparation firm aimed at individuals and small businesses. Remote job: may work from any U.S. location. Mail resume to CBM Financial, Inc., 665 River Oaks Dr., Calumet City, IL 60409, Attn: Hammad. Refer to Ad#FS.
Asian Restaurant Mgr. sought by Shinju Sushi Japanese Restaurant LLC to supervise daily restaurant operations; recruit, interview, train staff to follow restaurant procedures; maintain safety and quality standards; manage inventory and supplies within budget; handle customer service and resolve complaints. Bachelor’s degree, or its foreign equiv., in Culinary Arts and Food Service Management, and at least 2 yrs exp. managing Asian Restaurant Ops. Salary Range: $79,500 - $85,000 with Standard Benefits; Worksite: 1375 E. 53rd Street, Chicago, IL 60615. Send Resume to Owner, at the worksite address.
Construction Estimator (Chicago, IL), Duties incl: povide cost estimates & cost mgmt & analyze blueprints, specs proposals & various documentation to prep time cost & labor estimates for projects. Perform quantity takeoffs & draft proposals detailing materials costs & project duration solicit pricing from subcontractors & material suppliers contract negotiation review evaluation & markup & provide forcasts & project billing. Reqs:12 mnths of exp & Mstrs’s deg in Civil Engrg or reltd field. Sal $68,515/Yr + bnfts. Send resume & cover letter to HR Dept, Taylor Excavating
and Construction, 3228 S. Wood St., Chicago, IL 60680
Full Stack Developer: (Multiple Openings): Analyze, design, & Develop using skills & technologies like Spring/Spring Boot, Java 8+, SQL, Microservices, REST API, & Angular. Develop Restbased micro-service applications using Java Full-stack technologies to enhance an ecommerce platform. Must be willing to travel & relocate to unanticipated client locations throughout the U.S. Reqs BS in Comp Sci, Sci, Engg or rel w/6 months exp. Salary- $127754. Mail resumes to Cyberbridge International, Inc. d/b/a Creospan, Inc, 1515 E Woodfield Rd, Ste 370, Schaumburg, IL 60173.
Health Care Service Corporation seeks Sr Data Scientist (Chicago, IL) to provide advanced mathematical & statistical methods to solve business problems. Req: Bach + 3 yrs exp or Master’s + 2 yrs exp. Telecommuting: Flex role (3 days in office / 2 days remote). Pay: $87,464-$164,200/yr. Benefits: https://careers. hcsc.com/totalrewards. Email resume to hrciapp @ bcbsil.com, ref R0042180
Huron Consulting Services, LLC has an opening for Digital Consulting Manager in Chicago, IL. Job duties include: Managers in the Enterprise Solutions and Analytics practice assist clients with the planning and implementation of Cloud software. 80% travel to unanticipated worksites throughout North America. Telecommuting allowed when not traveling. Individuals may reside anywhere in the United States. Salary: $124,072 to $144,072/yr. To apply, email resume to apply@hcg.com. Must reference job 21756.49.4
Morningstar Investment Management LLC seeks Associate Director of Automated Portfolio Construction (multiple positions) in Chicago, IL to conduct in-depth asset allocation analysis, portfolio construction analysis, & investment vehicle analysis on retirement products using
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Commonwealth Edison seeks Senior Project Manager, Facility Relocation in Oakbrook Terrace, IL to mng projects rel. to relocation of elec. distribution facilities to accommodate road widening & reconstr. Resp. for mngng scope, schedule, budget, & safety perf. of projects, leading teams through bus. case/capital approval process, dvlpmnt & execution of project plans & closeout, budget approval, scheduling, reqs engr., dsgn & engr. tasks, vegetation mgmt. reviews, project reporting, project financial analysis, major equip. procurement, environmental analysis, obtaining real est. & relationship mgmt. w/ external customers, vendors, townships & regulatory agencies, project qual. assurance, & change mgmt., & interacting w/ key internal & external stakeholders incl. sr. mgmt., customers, & governmental & regulatory officials. Reqs Project Mgmt. Prof. (PMP) cert., & U.S. or foreign equiv. bach.’s deg. in Engr., or a rel. field, + 3 yrs utility ind. project mgmt. exp. Telecomm. 2 days/ wk is perm. from w/in normal commuting distance of Oakbrook Terrace, IL. Up to 20% domestic travel to jobsites in ComEd service territory in Northeast Illinois. Salary range from $104,021 to $146,400. Reply by email w/ resume to jobposting@ exeloncorp.com.
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You can avoid cheating via app if you don’t use a smartphone. PERSONA MOCKUPS/UNSPLASH
Is he really on Bumble or did he just bumble?
By DAN SAVAGE
Q : My boyfriend went on a trip abroad with his friend (also a guy). A er he came back, he showed me that he made a Bumble profile while he was there. I didn’t feel like anything was off or ask him to show me: he volunteered. He said that he was just curious to see how popular he would be in the motherland and that he had no intention of meeting any of the women he matched with. He showed me the chats, and the exchanges were short. None of the messages were sexual, flirtatious, or talked about meeting up. I still felt upset about it though, and he apologized profusely. For context, we have been together since college— almost ten years—and I’ve never once suspected him of cheating. I have also made it clear to him many times that
if he’s interested in other people or no longer wants to date me, he should tell me rather than lying. At the time he told me about getting on Bumble, I gave him the benefit of the doubt because he was transparent. I felt like if he did cheat on me, he could have just not told me. It’s been a few months since it happened, but I was reminded of it recently when I found out that you can delete Bumble chats by unmatching. That made me rethink what he told me. What if he just unmatched with people that he was flirting with or exchanged contact info with?
I’m not sure what to think. If I posted about this on TikTok, I’m pretty sure everyone would say I’m being naive and that he was cheating and that I should dump him. Would you take what he said
just to see how he’d do with “the locals”—was dumb. Telling you about it was even dumber and I’m sure he regrets both actions now. But if he’d walked into a bar with his friend and chatted up the locals . . . would that have been worse? Whatever he did on his trip, he did what you’d always asked him to do. He told you no lies, not even one of omission—and you’re thinking about dumping him. Could he have unmatched with women he flirted with more seriously? Sure. That’s possible, HURTS, but your boyfriend still deserves the benefit of the doubt here. And doesn’t his confession— his stupid, guileless, unnecessary confession—make it seem less likely something happened?
with your boyfriend, tell him you heard about this feature on Bumble and ask him for a little more reassurance. But don’t punish him for his honesty—reward it by deleting TikTok.
Q : I need advice. I met a guy on Facebook Dating and we texted nearly every day for a year before meeting this past Christmas. We live three and a half hours away from each other and have been rotating nearly every two weeks since then. It’s been great. We’re both happy and in love. We even had a weekend getaway together in early April. We traveled well together. I see him in my life forever.
an important part of your boyfriend’s life going forward (potentially the most important part), that means Alex is gonna be part of your life, too. So your boyfriend may be mentioning Alex in an effort to normalize Alex’s presence, and he could be testing you. If you’re not the kind of guy who’s comfortable with his boyfriend being close with his ex, NEWBIE, you’re not the right guy for him.
at face value? —HIS UPSETTING REVELATION THAT STUNG
a : Just wanna make sure I’m following you: You’re struggling to take your boyfriend’s word at face value—the boyfriend who’s been with you for nearly a decade, has never given you reason to suspect he’s been unfaithful, and made a full and free confession about getting on Bumble while visiting the motherland— but you would be willing to take the word of strangers on TikTok at face value? People who don’t know you, know nothing about your relationship, and have never met your boyfriend—the guy who made the mistake of telling you he got on Bumble, explained why, and showed you the chats? That guy? Getting on Bumble while he was abroad—even if it was
And you had to know (you had to expect) that he might flirt with other women on this trip. Even if the app was a surprise, wasn’t it a given that he and his friend might chat up the locals or run into (but not through) other tourists? If you can trust your boyfriend when he’s out of your sight at home, and if you can trust him to travel on his own, then it seems to me you can trust that you can take your boyfriend at his word when he tells you he didn’t touch someone else with his penis while he was away.
As for TikTok . . . yeah, the TikTok mob would urge you to dump your boyfriend. Not because they care about you—they don’t know you—but because people love drama. People love telling other people to break the fuck up. And when it comes to other people’s relationships, the TikTok mob demands a level of perfection they’ve never achieved in their own relationships. (Assuming they’ve ever been in relationships . . . when it comes to love, the loudest, most judgmental voices online are inexperienced tweens and bitter incels.) Instead of breaking up
He is still close with his ex, Alex, and considers his ex his best friend. I’m fine with this but one thing that bothers me is he’ll compare our relationship to when he dated his ex or will say things like, “My dog hasn’t seen me having sex with a guy other than Alex,” or, “Alex said if I didn’t fool around with him the first time, he wouldn’t have started a relationship.”
It bothers me when he says these things. I’m not sure he realizes he does this, but it gets annoying. I know one day he’ll want me to meet Alex but how do I tell my boyfriend that I don’t want to hear about the things they used to do together? —NOT ENTHRALLED WITH BOYFRIEND’S IMPORTANT EX
a : Your insecurity is understandable and asking a new boyfriend to be considerate of an understandable insecurity is a good way to figure out whether he’s a “keeper,” as the kids say.
Zooming out for a second: It sounds like your new boyfriend is trying to be matter of fact about Alex (his ex and best friend) because Alex is still an important part of his life. If you’re going to be
You’re feeling what you’re feeling, NEWBIE, and your feelings are valid. It’s possible your boyfriend has been hitting Alex a little too hard. So, here’s what you can say to your new boyfriend that should cut down on the Alex talk without scaring him off: “Hey, I really like you and I’m excited about where this is going. I know it’s common for gay men to be friends with their exes and it’s a good sign about a guy—your friendship with Alex is totally a green flag—but I’m still new around here [point at boyfriend’s crotch] and hearing so much about Alex is making me feel insecure. I’m not asking you to pretend Alex doesn’t exist—not at all. All I’m asking is to ease up on the details about your history with Alex for a bit. I promise I’ll feel more comfortable hearing about Alex once the two of us have built up some history of our own.”
Whatever you do, NEWBIE, don’t make the mistake of ordering your new boyfriend to choose between you and his best friend. And who knows? You might like Alex once you meet him in person. And when you and your boyfriend are ready to start having threesomes—also common among gay men— hot exes make great thirds. P.S. Hot exes make great thirds because your boyfriend is less likely to leave you for someone he’s already left. v
m mailbox@savage.love
