THE PRiDE ISSUE
Recorded in Chicago
THIS WEEK
04 Editor’s Note Not one second of peace
06 Street View Sustainable fashion
08 Feature | McFadden Chef Alvis Huynh is “queer as hell, Viet and Lao as hell, and unapologetic.”
10 Make It Make Sense | Mulcahy SAIC nontenure-track faculty’s first contract; state lawmakers break for the summer; CHA sells off more land
ARTS & CULTURE
12 Feature | Caporale Wrightwood 659 explores the early history of how homosexuality was depicted in art.
14 Art of Note Recommended exhibitions at Ivory Gate Gallery and Soccer Club Club
16 Feature | Reid Nonbinary casting director Catherine Miller advocates for more inclusive representation on Chicago stages.
17 Rhinestone Digest | Renken A new column explores the local draglesque scene.
20 Feature A June screening series at the Gene Siskel Film Center explores camp as it relates to queerness, drag, and beyond.
22 Moviegoer A colorful weekend
24 Chicagoans of Note | Ludwig Beverly Rage, punk musician and drag queen
26 Preview | Collo-Julin The Chicago Blues Festival brings out the best in the local scene—and we’ve rounded up a few dozen shows to prove it.
28 Shows of Note Previews of concerts including the Chicago Blues Festival, Dragged Into Sunlight, and Grace Jones & Janelle Monáe
30 Savage Love May wants to leave December; getting better at topping
PUBLISHER AMBER NETTLES
CHIEF OF STAFF ELLEN KAULIG
EDITOR IN CHIEF SALEM COLLO-JULIN
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR
SAVANNAH RAY HUGUELEY
PRODUCTION MANAGER AND STAFF
PHOTOGRAPHER KIRK WILLIAMSON
SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER AMBER HUFF
GRAPHIC DESIGNER AND PHOTO RESEARCHER SHIRA
FRIEDMAN-PARKS
THEATER AND DANCE EDITOR KERRY REID
MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO
CULTURE EDITOR: FILM, MEDIA, FOOD AND DRINK TARYN MCFADDEN
CULTURE EDITOR: ART, ARCHITECTURE, BOOKS KERRY CARDOZA
NEWS EDITOR SHAWN MULCAHY
PROJECTS EDITOR JAMIE LUDWIG
DIGITAL EDITOR TYRA NICOLE TRICHE
SENIOR WRITERS LEOR GALIL, DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, MIKE SULA
FEATURES WRITER KATIE PROUT
SOCIAL JUSTICE REPORTER DEVYN-MARSHALL BROWN (DMB)
STAFF WRITER MICCO CAPORALE
MULTIMEDIA CONTENT PRODUCER SHAWNEE DAY
SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
ASSOCIATE CHARLI RENKEN
VICE PRESIDENT OF PEOPLE AND CULTURE ALIA GRAHAM
DEVELOPMENT MANAGER JOEY MANDEVILLE
DATA ASSOCIATE TATIANA PEREZ
MARKETING ASSOCIATE MAJA STACHNIK
MARKETING ASSOCIATE MICHAEL THOMPSON
SALES REPRESENTATIVE WILL ROGERS
SALES REPRESENTATIVE KELLY BRAUN
Shake a martini, drop a fresh platter on the hi-fi, and sink into the sultry sounds of the cover of this year’s Reader Pride Issue. As inspiration, I chose the aesthetic of late-50s and early-60s romantic hi-fi album covers, always awash in soft pinks and baby blues and bubbling over with a new sensuality, long suppressed in postwar American society. This was a cultural precursor to the budding sexual revolution, informed and guided by queer people—but severely lacking in their mainstream representation. This imagery rights the ship retroactively with coy genderfuckery and unabashed sexiness. Take a sip.
— Kirk Williamson, production manager and staff photographer
ON THE COVER
MEDIA SALES ASSOCIATE JILLIAN MUELLER
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ADS@CHICAGOREADER.COM, 312-392-2970 CREATE A CLASSIFIED AD LISTING AT CLASSIFIEDS.CHICAGOREADER.COM
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CHAIRPERSON EILEEN RHODES
TREASURER TIMO MARTINEZ
SECRETARY TORRENCE GARDNER
DIRECTORS MONIQUE BRINKMAN-HILL, JULIETTE BUFORD, DANIEL DEVER, MATT DOUBLEDAY, JAKE MIKVA, ROBERT REITER, MARILYNN RUBIO, CHRISTINA CRAWFORD STEED
READER (ISSN 1096-6919) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY
(Clockwise from top le ) Charli Renken
COURTESY OF RENKEN; “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939,” at Wrightwood 659 COURTESY DANIEL EGGERT (@DESIGNINGDAN); Beverly Rage CAMILA CEDIEL PHOTOGRAPHY Chef Alvis Huynh KENI ROSALES
Jordan Albano (Instagram: @jordanpalbano). Photography and design by Kirk Williamson.
THE PRiDE ISSUE
P. 8 P. 17 P. 24
P. 12
Care that’s as unique as you.
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POETRY CORNER
“Graduation Fits”
June 9th came and the stage was crossed
Wrote words across pages in my assigned seat
We threw caps and then went back to cappin/ All us had hoopin clothes
The question lies what happens when we choosin captain/ Cypherin we chose captain of the hook
In between games/ Rose jersey and Nike Shorts
Cuz everybody wore Nike shorts
Temperature rose higher than my Elite socks/ I— graduated scholar
Turned elevated baller
Turned ball Park frequent
Turned uncle remus familiar face
Turned bound to get a degree
He who hooped in fires degrees/
June 9th
When caps were thrown
Before niggas said no cap
We graduated/
The pioneers carryin hoopin shorts under the khaki pants
Under the slacks
That matched the vest AND blazer
The Rose jersey that smiled at me from under the blazer/ Graduate
Piece of paper holdin nigga
Turned student
Turned “you reach I teach”
Turned “6 piece wing wit mild sauce and lemon pepper and don’t forget the strawberry kiwi mystic for the culture” connoisseur/
By Triiip
EDITOR’S NOTE
Much has been written about the Stonewall riots, the series of demonstrations and spontaneous uprisings that happened following a 1969 police raid at NYC’s Stonewall Inn. Stonewall was technically a private club (due to the venue’s lack of a liquor license) owned by mafia associates who saw a business opportunity in catering to LGBTQ+ clientele shunned from other bars.
Prior to the 1970s, the New York State Liquor Authority often revoked or suspended liquor licenses for establishments that served openly gay patrons. The lack of oversight of a club like Stonewall meant that the owners could keep things cheap, but also resulted in a general lack of care (fire doors and safety measures ignored, for example). Still, the Stonewall Inn’s a ordability and the fact that dancing was allowed made it a popular meeting spot for homeless gay youth, sex workers, and drag queens, who were often not allowed at other bars.
The shaky relationship between bar owners and the NYC police department resulted in constant bar raids in which patrons were harassed and detained. The most famous of those raids happened in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. At that point, the community had built up so much anger and resentment over their treatment that they just couldn’t take it any longer. Their resistance provided the spark that lit o the next steps in an ongoing movement.
They are able to determine their own gender expression in any way they see fit. But these victories have not been won for all, and in the current state of the world, any of them could be quickly taken away. The Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ+ workers from employment discrimination. But in March, a federal judge in Texas struck down Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidance on workplace protections, which advised employers against deliberately misgendering or deadnaming employees or barring them access to bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.
Illinois communities have also experienced recent violence. In Carpentersville, a 19-yearold was attacked last month while waiting to use the bathroom at a McDonald’s. (Two people have subsequently been charged with felony counts of committing a hate crime, mob action, and aggravated battery.) This week, a drag queen story hour at the Beverly branch of the Chicago Public Library was protested. Christian Maxwell, a Republican candidate for the First Congressional District, went so far as to post an email template on her website for her followers to send to library o cials.
Triiip is a young poet for the south west side of Chicago with a passion for words and people.
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
Opening Hours
the Chicago Reader and sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.
Wednesday - Saturday: 11 AM - 5 PM
Power Through: A Poetry Reading
Featuring Midwest-based authors Oliver Baez Bendorf, Imani Elizabeth Jackson, Nathanael Jones, Vi Khi Nao, and Ruben Quesada.
June 5, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Learn more at PoetryFoundation.org
In 1970, activists Brenda Howard, Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes coordinated a rally and subsequent march to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. They came up with an idea for a weeklong series of events which we now count as the inspiration for global LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations. Pride, as they say, started as a riot.
We in the LGBTQ+ community have had a long haul, and it’s not over. Some in our community have met their goals of acceptance. They feel free to be out at work. They walk down the street holding hands with a same-sex partner without fear of retaliation.
Activist and writer Mariame Kaba, in an appeal to raise money for the National Network of Abortion Funds, coined the phrase “Not One Second of Peace” in reference to the importance of “confronting those who are working overtime to strip us of human rights.
“This is a time for consistent and constant protest and disruption,” Kaba wrote. “We must make ourselves ungovernable.” Celebrate this month. Embrace the joy of Pride and the delight of dancing in the streets. But keep your wits about you because the people who want to take away your freedoms don’t care what month it is. Being truly and authentically yourself, out and proud, loud and unapologetic, is a radical act. v
—Salem Collo-Julin, editor
in chief m scollojulin@chicagoreader.com
weekly series curated by
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
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).
STARTS JUNE 21
1448 N Milwaukee Ave - Wicker Park
CITY LIFE
STREET VIEW
From plastic to purpose
Eco-conscious fashion takes center stage.
By ISA GIALLORENZO
In April, a flock of local fashion enthusiasts and professionals made their way to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (MSI). The Blue Paradox Sustainable Fashion Show lit up the venue in connection with “The Blue Paradox,” an immersive exhibition exploring the crisis that the use of plastic has caused for our oceans.
The show, presented by fashion organizations the Curio and Sustainable Fashion Week Chicago (SFWC), featured 20 students and recent graduates of five Chicago-area fashion-school programs: the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Columbia College Chicago, Dominican University, Harper College, and College of DuPage. The designers presented their eco-friendly creations at the center of MSI’s monumental pavilion.
The program allowed guests time to view the exhibition before a discussion featuring panelists Nigel Barker and Kristin Mariani and mediated by NBC Chicago reporter and host Cortney Hall.
Barker, a fashion photographer and TV personality, is the chief marketing o cer for Ecofashion Corp, a supply-chain platform for apparel and home textiles. He shared insights from the industry, such as the possibility of a fully transparent supply chain via blockchain technology. He also suggested simpler measures for people in fashion: We can buy less if we appreciate and take care of what we have “and actually slow down and smell the roses.”
“The older I get in my life, the more I’ve realized how I’ve rushed through so many things. We always want the next thing; the grass is always greener. The grass isn’t greener. The clothes aren’t better,” Barker said.
Mariani, an associate professor at SAIC and the designer behind the brand RedShift Couture, also championed supply-chain transparency, slower fashion consumption, and striving for progress rather than perfection.
“Every design has its implications. Even
Top: installation view of “The Blue Paradox”; middle: Auriel Banister’s purse, Brenda’s Black Berry Jewels clutch; bottom: designs by Tukii Tucker, Kelsey Gibson, and Emma Mendell ISA GIALLORENZO; BOTTOM LEFT
CITY LIFE
zero-waste fashion has a degree of waste. And right now it’s, ‘Well, you’re either a sustainable designer or you’re not,’” said Mariani. “More guidelines could be set up just to get
companies to take small steps, change one thing. Start with that.”
SFWC founder Macaila Britton echoed Mariani’s “one step at a time” philosophy. “I firmly
believe in and advocate for imperfect sustainability,” Britton said. “If we wait for the right moment or for something to be perfect, we may never begin at all or create the positive impact we want.”
After the discussion, guests sat down to a farm-to-table–style dinner. The night culminated in the fashion show, a vibrant display of designs constructed primarily from recycled, upcycled, or sustainable materials. Whether outlandish or down-to-earth, the looks demonstrated that sustainable fashion doesn’t have to mean sacrificing style or creativity.
Guests also incorporated sustainable choices into their outfits. Brenda, a style coach and creator of the social media series The Chic City Girl, was carrying a clutch made of recycled rubber by local designer Rhonda Berry of Black Berry Jewels. Chicago entrepreneur Auriel Banister, owner of Bani’s Beets coldpressed juicery in Beverly, was wearing a perfectly cut vintage Lord & Taylor blazer she inherited from her stylish great-aunt. Hall was draped in a blue sequined cocktail dress, its color reflecting the ocean theme, that she “stole” from her mother’s closet. “So I am sus-
tainable tonight,” she said.
Chicago’s fashion scene may still be finding itself, but sustainability is starting to look like its signature. Many upcoming events feature local sustainable fashion. The Curio’s annual Fashion’s Night Out event (Wednesday, July 23, at Roof on theWit) and SFWC’s anchor programming (from September 27 to October 5) will be focused on sustainable design. SFWC also o ers complementary events year-round, such as the Sustainable Fashion Supper Club, a monthly networking dinner (the next one is scheduled for Thursday, June 26, at the Chicago Diner’s Logan Square location).
“Designers in Chicago are particularly thoughtful and resourceful when it comes to how they produce collections,” said the Curio principal Maggie Gillette. “Many designers here rely on deadstock fabrics and are highly conscious of waste and overproduction. Speaking with the students, I can confidently say this ethos is also part of the next generation of Chicago designers as well, which is wonderful.” v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
Chicago Reader’s new biweekly column from Chicago historian Shermann
“Dilla” Thomas
Chicago is sponsored by Clayco, a full-service 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.
Dilla’s
The exhibition is open at MSI during regular hours (daily from 9:30 AM until 4 PM). ISA GIALLORENZO
THE PRiDE ISSUE
CHEF ALViS HUYNH iS ‘QUEER AS HELL, ViET AND LAO AS HELL, AND UNAPOLOGETiC’
The founder of Về Lại reflects on food and identity.
By TARYN MCFADDEN
Alvis Huynh pretty much always knew he was queer, the same way he pretty much always knew we wanted to be a chef. The 31-year-old has taken winding and introspective journeys in both his identity and his career. Among other work, Huynh owns the Vietnamese Lao food pop-up V L i. “V l i” means “return home,” a reference to the way Huynh’s parents ask him, "Ch ng nào con v l i?" or, “When are you going to return home?” But it’s not a literal return home he’s striving for. Through food, community, and some impressive manifestation, Huynh has found joy and success here in Chicago, celebrating a homecoming to himself.
Huynh was born in Arlington, Virginia, and grew up alongside two sisters in Loudoun County. The D.C. suburb constantly ranks among the wealthiest counties in the U.S., but his parents, Gioi Huynh and Melissa Nguyen, are blue-collar workers and first-generation refugees; they worked long hours and graveyard shifts to put food on the table.
And that food was formative. Huynh’s parents are ethnically Vietnamese, and his mother was born and raised in Laos, so he grew up surrounded by both cultures and cuisines. Parties, potlucks, and celebrations were all about Lao food. Huynh fondly recalls the delectables served on holidays or after worship at the Lao temple, like sai oua (Lao sausage), sup nor mai (bamboo shoot salad), sticky rice, and fresh-pressed sugarcane juice. Most days, however, his parents cooked homestyle Vietnamese dishes like th t kho (braised pork belly and eggs), bò kho (beef stew), canh bí đao (winter melon soup), canh khoai môn (taro and shrimp soup), and bún riêu (crab, pork, and tomato noodle soup).
“My parents are great cooks,” he says. “They’re honestly the best chefs that I know.” Huynh had a deep love of food from a young age, but because his parents were always working, they never directly taught him to cook. At best, he remembers following his mom’s guidance over the phone as she
instructed him to assemble soups or stews while she worked.
In spite of—or perhaps because of—his absent parents, Huynh was a good kid, a high-achiever who stayed busy with school, extracurriculars, and a part-time job. He felt his parents’ unspoken pressure to succeed, but as Huynh was growing up and discovering his sexuality, he also put pressure on himself: Even before he came out, he felt this determination to prove that gay people could do anything. By his senior year of high school, Huynh had only ever told a couple friends he was queer, but many more found out when he was outed by a bigoted classmate in the comments of a Facebook post. It shook his peers, and it shook Huynh.
“High school was really good up to a point, but it felt like my queer identity took it all away from me,” he says. “Not to an extreme, but that’s how it felt.” (In response to condolences about the situation, Huynh quipped, “It’s OK. It’s part of the lore at this point.”)
He was ready for a clean slate. It was still his ambition to become a chef, but his parents would not have endorsed culinary school.
“They didn’t say no, but they didn’t say yes,” he says. He found a compromise in the field of food science, which includes food analysis, microbiology, chemistry, quality assurance, processing, and more.
“I forgot about it—the dream of becoming a chef. It wasn’t laid out for me.”
In college at Virginia Tech, Huynh excelled at his major, and he found an a rming queer community for the first time on the school’s dance team. He specifically recalls a formative class on the foundations and history of waacking, a street dance style that emerged largely in Black and Brown LGBTQ+ spaces in the 1970s. It felt like home.
“I remember being like, ‘I can be whoever I want here,’” he recalls. “I finally felt like I could grow into my queer identity.”
After graduating in 2016, Huynh spent a stint in Colorado at a food science internship,
but he felt drawn back to Virginia. “I had a lot of things that I needed to deal with back home, especially growing up in a household with absent parents,” he says.
So he moved back in with his parents—and went back into the closet. Unable to find a food-related job, Huynh worked as a biologist and bacteriologist at the American Type Culture Collection, where he stayed for nearly five years. What saved him during this time in Virginia was food and dance. At home, his connection to food was once again Vietnamese and Lao, but he also spent this period falling in love with fine dining, eating out at Michelin-starred restaurants in D.C. Concurrently, he danced with a group called Capital Funk, a mostly queer postgrad team that taught him about radical love, unconditional community care, and chosen family. For a while, it was a haven for Huynh.
But over time, the dynamics of the dance team changed, his lab work became mundane, and he found himself losing track of the reasons that had drawn him home after college. He craved autonomy, and hiding his queer identity was also taking a toll. “Sometimes I show people pictures of me from 2018. It’s ridiculous, honestly—I look so di erent,” he says somewhat mournfully. “It was a very repressed version of myself.”
Yearning for change, Huynh found a food science job in Beloit, Wisconsin, and moved to Madison in December 2020. For the first time in his life, he was truly independent, but Madison wasn’t what he expected.
“I quickly realized that I didn’t fit there. I stuck out like a sore thumb,” he recalls. Aside from university students, there wasn’t a large Asian population in Madison, and it didn’t seem like many people were visibly queer. His new workplace, too, was majority white, unsupportive, and overwhelming, with an abusive boss. “I had to water down my identity and queerness to participate in this very oppressive corporate structure.”
Huynh was at a low point. He’d been clos-
eted and weary at home, but Wisconsin left him wondering why he’d thrown away his life in Virginia. After nine long months, Huynh took a medical leave for mental health. He booked a trip to visit his sister in LA for a week and ended up staying for six. Amid the rest and recovery, he waited desperately for a sign of what to do next; California wasn’t home, but he couldn’t go back to Wisconsin or Virginia.
“I was like, ‘I’m gonna leave it up to the ancestors.’ Because I was praying hard to them. ‘Every decision that my ancestors made before me has led me to this point. So the work is already done; now only I can control what I can control, so let me just focus on that.’” And the ancestors, thankfully, guided him to Chicago.
Huynh’s first turn of fate was meeting his roommate, Keni Rosales, through Facebook. Rosales is a queer Filipino photographer who was also moving from Madison, and the pair clicked instantly. Their queer and Asian identities fostered an immediate, intimate friendship. “It’s not just love; it’s an understanding of where you’ve been and the kind of love that you need,” says Huynh. “That’s really special, whether that’s platonic or romantic. It’s not something I feel I can share with everybody.” In December 2021, he moved into Rosales’s tiny second bedroom in Chicago. He told himself he’d start applying for food science or chef jobs—but he only really applied for the latter.
“I got really lucky, because I feel like the moment I made that decision—to choose myself, not even just the job thing—everything just started to fall into place. So I felt very protected. And I felt like the spirits, whoever,
Chef Alvis Huynh KENI ROSALES
R E XTRA MSG: AAPI PRIDE PARTY BY VỀ L Ạ I AND HAIBAYÔ
Sat 6/ 7 7 PM–midnight, 1132 W. Argyle, $23 18, 21+, eventbrite.com/e/extra-msg-aapi-pride-party-by-ve-lai-and-haibayo-tickets-1372016240509
were looking out for me.”
Three months after Huynh moved to Chicago, a friend referred him for a chef job at Heritage Restaurant & Caviar Bar, an expansive restaurant in Humboldt Park. Thanks to his background in food science, he was hired almost immediately.
After his profoundly negative experience working in Madison, Huynh was fearful of workplace abuse and wary of being out at work. Fortunately, “They hired me on, and lo and behold, everyone is queer as fuck,” he says. “Everyone was trans and queer and poly, and I was just like, ‘This is amazing.’” The long hours and grind of the kitchen were grueling, but they were still a respite for Huynh, who felt supported and seen by Heritage leadership, Guy and Ti Meikle.
“It was hard, but at least I didn’t have to be someone else.”
And he excelled quickly: his food science knowledge, his exposure to his parents’ cooking, and his cultural identities married well with the traditional Western cooking techniques he was taught at Heritage. In the year and a half he spent there full-time, Huynh worked the caviar bar, moved to the hot line, and then was promoted to research chef.
“That’s kind of where I realized that being queer and Asian was a superpower, in a way,” he says. “Those intersections give you life experience that nobody else has, that will get
make contemporary Vietnamese food, and to bring Lao barbecue to the people of Chicago. She told him, simply, to go make it happen. Huynh returned to Heritage, but his heart wasn’t in it. He was teaching more than learning, and this idea of a Vietnamese Lao food pop-up was nagging at him. He started taking local classes about business and finance, including a class at the Hatchery on how to start a food business. When he got a scholarship for west-side residents to do the Hatchery’s food business incubation program, he couldn’t turn down the opportunity. Encouraged by Chef Seng, industry peers, and local pop-up owners, Huynh quit his job at Heritage, and V L i was born.
In considering and creating this “v l i,” or “return home,” Huynh knew Virginia was no longer home to him, but in so many ways, his parents’ cooking was. His goal was to cook his own versions of the Vietnamese and Lao food he grew up with—dishes one wouldn’t find in a restaurant, like canh kh qua (bitter melon soup) or the th t kho his parents used to make—but also, as he told Chef Seng, to bring Lao barbecue to Chicago.
THE PRiDE ISSUE
the meaning of V L i, Huynh felt the power of what he’d created as a chef.
“I really feel that—that yearning that comes with being a Vietnamese person,” he says. “Especially with Vietnamese people being displaced from the war. We’re only one generation away from this very genocidal, imperialist movement that Americans brought to Vietnam. That feeling of wanting to go back home and wanting this homestyle food was very important to them, and I could see it on their faces.”
And with that, Huynh knew—at least for now—that he was in the right place.
Today, V L i keeps him busy, but master manifester Huynh also just accepted a fulltime gig as a research and development chef at Home Chef, a local meal kit delivery service. The job, in his words, “fell out of the sky.”
“With this stability, I can do what I want for V L i,” he says. “Now it’s not this entity that is a means to a living. It’s this creative and intimate outlet that I get to pour a lot of love and radical care into, that I can share with other people.”
you that much further in life and make you think in a way that nobody else has.”
It took him a while to beat the impostor syndrome of being called Chef Alvis, but he had earned the title. Within a matter of months, he ushered in a new era for himself as a queer chef, far from the oppression and hopelessness he’d felt in Madison.
“I learned that you can literally do whatever you want. You don’t have to wait for someone to give you permission to be a chef,” he says.
“I’m such a master manifester. I feel like every time I say something, it comes true. It’s like this law of hidden abundance, if you’ve heard of that. Everything you want is just right under the surface; you just have to position yourself in a way to receive it. That’s kind of the way that I’ve been living my life since I started cooking.”
Huynh used his growing confidence to continue his culinary education. While working at Heritage, he reached out via Instagram to the chefs of some of his favorite restaurants in D.C. He ended up staging for a few days each at Moon Rabbit, Chef Kevin Tien’s contemporary Vietnamese restaurant, and Thip Khao, a Lao spot run by Chef Seng Luangrath, the “godmother of Laotian cuisine in America.”
Huynh’s time at Thip Khao was particularly formative; Chef Seng fed him well, even shared her recipes, and asked him about his dreams for the food industry. He told her that his goals were to own a Vietnamese Lao food pop-up, to
“I was kind of between two concepts, but when I started V L i, I was like, ‘I’m just gonna do whatever the fuck I want.’”
For Huynh, V L i encompasses a return to community, to culture, to oneself.
“I want [V L i] to be me to its core. I want it to be queer as hell, Viet and Lao as hell, and unapologetic. I want it to be rooted in my values so it couldn’t be taken away from me, and that it wouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that behind this food pop-up is this queer Viet Lao kid who likes to shake his ass and have fun. I was tired of hiding that part of me away.”
V L i debuted as a pop-up in December 2023 at Ludlow Liquors, and Huynh immediately had momentum. He booked other pop-ups and residencies at Nine Bar, Easy Does It, Marz Community Brewing, Amber Agave, and Side Practice Coffee. He planned a gay barbecue event at Apero and accepted a slot at Monday Night Foodball, the Reader’s weekly pop-up series. The Vietnamese Lao cuisine was well received across the city—but nowhere as strongly as in Uptown, home of Chicago’s “Little Vietnam” on Argyle Street. Through a connection with Haibayô, a cultural hub working to revitalize Uptown and support its multigenerational and immigrant Asian communities, Huynh booked V L i for the neighborhood’s Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in 2024. There, surrounded by a local Vietnamese community who deeply understood
The perfect product of this mindset is Extra MSG, an upcoming Pride party hosted by V L i and Haibayô. The queer Asian American and Pacific Islander celebration, taking place June 7 on Argyle Street, was largely inspired by a Year of the Dragon Pride event that Huynh attended in LA with his partner, Henry Duong. Huynh wants Extra MSG to feel like a night market turned dance party, with photos by Rosales, waackers, DJs, art installations, tattooing, tarot, and more.
“I know V L i is a food concept, but I wanna have a celebration,” he says.
And there’s so much to celebrate. With V L i, Huynh is exploring himself as an Asian person, a third culture kid, a queer person, a chef, an organizer, a Chicagoan, and whatever he dreams of next. He’s finding and creating the intersections of his communities, carving out a home for others as much as himself.
In cooking, as in queerness, Huynh describes: “There was just this calling that was always within me. I feel like if you have that, it’s gonna keep calling until you answer it.”
He adds, “There’s a version of me that’s still back there [in Virginia], growing bacteria, dressing like a straight man, maybe dancing, I don’t know.”
We’re just lucky that the version of Huynh we got is the innovative chef and the queer Viet Lao kid who likes to shake his ass and have fun. v
A spread of Huynh's Lao cooking for a pop-up dinner, including jeow (dips), thum mak thang (cucumber salad), a barbecue platter, sticky rice, and more KENI ROSALES
NEWS & POLITICS
First contract for SAIC nontenuretrack faculty
After nearly two years of negotiations, nontenure-track faculty members at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) approved their first union contract in late May. Passed unanimously, with 342 eligible faculty voting in favor of ratification, the contract stipulates annual wage increases over the next four years, health-care provisions, greater course guarantees, and longer contracts, among other wins.
Importantly, the contract also enshrines academic freedom for nontenure-track faculty, ceases to classify them as at-will employees after they complete their probationary period, and lays the groundwork for a more robust grievance process.
“By improving compensation and protecting their rights, this historic agreement lays a rock-solid foundation on which adjuncts and lecturers can continue to build,” said American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 executive director Roberta Lynch in a statement.
Nontenure-track faculty voted to join Art Institute of Chicago Workers United (AICWU), a liated with AFSCME Council 31, in December 2022, following the unionization of the staff from the school and the Art Institute of Chicago. The unit is made up of SAIC adjuncts and lecturers, who together represent more than 80 percent of the school’s faculty.
—KERRY CARDOZA
Springfield’s out for summer
State lawmakers adjourned for the summer on Saturday after they squeaked through a $55 billion spending plan just minutes ahead of a June 1 deadline.
The budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, projects $55.3 billion in state revenue, including more than $1 billion from new taxes and other income. Funding sources imposed by state lawmakers this year include a levy between $0.25 and $0.50 on sports betting transactions, an increase to the tax on nicotine products—which has also been expanded to include vapes and nicotine pouches—and a requirement that all businesses, not just those with physical locations in Illinois, pay state sales taxes.
Democrats had planned for a tighter budget than in previous years, thanks to expiring COVID relief money and widespread uncertainty about federal funding under President
Donald Trump’s administration. The 2026 budget sets aside $100 million for Governor J.B. Pritzker to use “in the event of unanticipated delays in or failures of revenues.”
Crucially, the spending plan approved by lawmakers ends a popular program that provided health insurance to more than 30,000 noncitizens between 42 and 64 years old—which cost Illinois about $330 million per year—though it keeps intact a similar program for residents ages 65 and older.
Lawmakers also left for the summer break
without taking action to shore up a $700 million shortfall faced by Chicagoland’s transit agencies. O cials had warned for months that, without action from the General Assembly, they would be forced to make drastic service cuts and agency-wide layo s. The senate voted 33–22 to approve a wide-ranging transit reform bill shortly before midnight on June 1—after significant negotiations between policymakers, transit o cials, labor unions, and other advocates—but it was never called to the house floor. Lawmakers and transit advocates will head
back to the drawing board for the fall’s veto session, however, any legislation will require approval from two-thirds of lawmakers, rather than the simple majority required during the legislature’s regular session. —SHAWN MULCAHY
CHA sells more public land
The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) approved the sale of yet more public land to a private developer—the latest in a string of public land sales that come even as the embattled agency faces a backlog of more than 200,000 people waiting for housing.
On May 27, the CHA board voted to sell 23 plots of land on the near west side to real estate company Related Midwest for an estimated $460,000, which will be developed into townhomes, according to the Chicago Tribune At least four of the units will be “a ordable”— available to people who make 120 percent or less of the area median income ($143,880 for a family of four), the Tribune reports.
Community members have long fought against the sale of land earmarked for public housing to private developers, especially given that wait-lists for current CHA properties can top 25 years. In 2000, under then mayor Richard M. Daley, the agency launched the Plan for Transformation, which displaced thousands of residents and tore down many of Chicago’s high-rise public housing buildings. More than a quarter century later, the CHA sits on blocks of vacant land while thousands wait for a promise that may never be fulfilled.
In 2022, under former mayor Lori Lightfoot, the CHA leased 23 acres of land—formerly the ABLA Homes—to the Chicago Fire, owned by the politically connected billionaire and founder of investment firm Morningstar, Joe Mansueto. Despite significant community pushback, the city approved the deal to allow the soccer team to build a new training facility on the near west side.
Separately, on Tuesday, the Fire announced plans to construct a privately funded stadium in the 78 megadevelopment. Related Midwest, which purchased the property in 2016 and received city funding for its development, has been pitching the 62-acre South Loop plot’s potential as a mixed residential, business, and entertainment district. —SHAWN MULCAHY v
Make It Make Sense is a weekly column about what’s happening and why it matters.
Governor J.B. Pritzker STATE OF ILLINOIS
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R“ THE FIRST HOMOSEXUALS: THE BIRTH OF A NEW IDENTITY, 1869–1939”
Through 7/26 : Thu–Fri noon–7 PM, Sat 10 AM– 5 PM, Wrightwood 659, 659 W. Wrightwood, wrightwood 659.org/exhibitions/the-first-homosexuals-the-birth-of-a-new-identity-1869-1939, $15, advance purchase required
FEATURE
THE COMPLiCATED GENESiS OF ‘HOMOSEXUAL’
Wrightwood 659’s newest exhibition serves as a timely cautionary tale.
By MICCO CAPORALE
Is heterosexuality natural? In his 1995 book The Invention of Heterosexuality, sexuality scholar Jonathan Ned Katz established the idea of “heterosexual” as a historically recent concept. First entered into the lexicon in the late 19th century, “heterosexual” served a very specific social and political function: “Heterosexuality is not identical to the reproductive intercourse of the sexes,” he writes. “Heterosexuality does not equal the eroticism of women and men.”
Rather, it formed the basis for a legal and medical hierarchy of sexual behavior and gender expression that rigidly privileged heterosexual conformity—and posed dangers to everyone who didn’t comply. In “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity,
1869–1939,” on view at Wrightwood 659 through July 26, over 300 works of art explore homosexuality, most of them made in the first 70 years after the term “homosexual” was coined and popularized.
The exhibition is being rightly celebrated for its ambition. Over seven years in the making, occupying all four floors of the museum, and showing art from around the world (including some making its U.S. debut), “The First Homosexuals” is no small feat. It was organized by Wrightwood curatorial fellow Johnny Willis and their mentor, Jonathan D. Katz, who began establishing the field of queer art history in the 90s and has devoted his life’s work to expanding scholarship on “the homosexual” in 20th-century Western art. But the
exhibition’s real strength lies not in how it explores its premise—an idea so profound that it defined the academic careers of not one but two Jonathan Katzes. What makes the show worthwhile is its timing.
“The First Homosexuals” is not a very meaningful look at how same-sex desire or gender expansiveness in art changed as a result of these categorical distinctions. In 2022, the Wrightwood mounted a smaller version called “The First Homosexuals: Global Depictions of a New Identity, 1869–1930.” Writing for Art in America, critic Jeremy Lybarger described it as having “the tone of a sociology textbook.”
“It is not as if 1869 were a eureka moment that launched queer artists, en masse, into careers of self-representation,” he concluded. “In-
creasing secularism, urbanization, and mass media did more to define homosexual identity than did the invention of the word itself, yet those realities remain either unexplored or oblique here.” The current show elides similar questions on a larger scale, but with one caveat: it places a greater emphasis on homosexuals’ nuanced relationship to white supremacy and fascism.
Through all kinds of art, viewers are reminded that there’s nothing “natural” or “inevitable” about racism or homophobia—these are structural choices. And when the Nazis rose to power over the course of the 1930s—a context that defines all nine years of additional material in this version, plus much of the 1920s art—racial and class privileges only offered queer artists or subjects so much protection from white supremacy’s heterosexist death cult. What starts as an interesting, albeit very scattered, telling of modern queer history through art objects closes as a timely cautionary tale. Floor one is a section called Before the Binary. Viewers are introduced to the etymology of “homosexual”—a word that German judicial scholar and gay liberationist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs began using in 1869 in pamphlets designed to push back against the growing influence of the 1851 Prussian penal code, which criminalized same-sex erotic activity in a way other governing bodies didn’t. In context, the term was meant to emphasize the naturalness of same-sex desire, but it ended up emphasizing the biological sexual characteristics of the people expressing the desire, rather than the acts they performed, which had previously been criminalized or pathologized.
This distinction is unpacked at length in The First Homosexuals’s catalogue but is more jumbled in the show itself, which rushes to demonstrate various ways homosexuality was—or wasn’t—acknowledged through-
Installation view of “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939,” at Wrightwood 659, 2025 COURTESY DANIEL EGGERT (@DESIGNINGDAN)
out the world before now-Germans became uniquely fixated on the idea and collapsed it into a colonialist thirst to subjugate “the other.” Same-sex desire and gender expansiveness are seen in everything from neoclassical Greek drawings to early 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints, as well as paintings and watercolors of Indigenous communities throughout the Americas. The show argues that gender and sexual variance have manifested similarly across times and places, but Western empires have used it to suggest a weakness or decadence that justified cruelty and dominance.
Then the show jumps around with sections such as Portraits, Relationships, Colonialism and Resistance, and Performance. With so much material, it has a range of moments spanning from boring to profound. How could it not? It’s almost too much to contend with, except that it’s fun to revel in how much really fucking gay art is out there. The show is organized less chronologically and more thematically, which makes its takeaways a bit vague beyond that queerness is timeless and enduring. Its premise shouldn’t feel radical or even especially compelling (gay art: who knew!).
Yet, as Web Behrens reported for Block Club, the Wrightwood, a museum that relies solely on private rather than state funding, was the only institution in the Americas or Europe willing to host it. While most of the show was finalized by the end of 2024, when Trump became elected, D. Katz pushed to conclude the exhibition with the Nazi burning of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science, a robust archive of sexuality scholarship and the first acknowledged clinic to provide genderaffirming medical care to the trans community. Sensationalized in newsreels projected throughout Germany, that fire was one of the first book burnings; it destroyed over 20,000 titles, including many rare manuscripts and countless health-care resources. It sent a profound message about Hitler’s priorities and what he was willing to do to achieve them.
Some of the show’s most fascinating moments are when it reveals queer people lacking a unified sense of political consciousness. In Romaine Brooks’s Self-Portrait (1923), the artist shows herself in her signature chilly gray scale, the only hints of warmth on her lips and a buttonhole, her eyes barely visible beneath a black brimmed hat, and her hands hidden in gray gloves. The background is austere and industrial-seeming, and the text emphasizes that Brooks, a trust-fund lesbian who rooted her identity in some idea of eccentric genius
that exempted her from rules more often applied to commoners, had fascist sympathies. In a series of elegiac photographs and paintings by Elisàr von Kupffer, viewers are introduced to an artist who sees transness and homosexuality as an expression of God’s infinite imagination—provided one is white and able-bodied. Kup er’s works hold a tender reverence for Eastern influences on Christian art, and they are excitedly androgynous, meditating less on scientific essentialism and more on gender and sexual transcendence.
Kup er was a vegetarian and, along with his live-in partner Eduard von Mayer, cofounded a spiritual community in the Weimar called the Sanctuarium Artis Elisarion (the faith is referred to as “Clarism”). Over the years, he wrote a lot of texts about man-on-man love, and also a lot of fan letters to Hitler. Ben Miller, cohost of the Bad Gays podcast, calls the subjects of Kup er’s paintings—which all bear the faces of him, his lover, or a sexy local named “Gino” Luigi Taricco—his “fascist femboys.” One could easily see his body of work as a nonsecular antecedent to Twinks4Trump and its corollary photography trend.
One of the undercurrents of the exhibition is that giving new language to qualify certain types of people was both liberatory and oppressive, but it’s less explicit about in what ways. And while “The First Homosexuals” makes it implicit that gay rights have always umbrellaed trans rights—that these things are historically one and the same—it sidesteps the history of “transsexual,” a term Hirschfeld began using in 1923 to describe patients looking for gender-affirming medical care like hormones and surgery. It wasn’t used in English until 1949, just two decades before the gay liberation movement began. Right as the preferred terminology switched from “transsexual” to “transgender”—a linguistic nuance that shifted the emphasis away from medical transition to something more abstract—the gay liberation movement began to separate trans rights (like gender-affirming medical care) from its larger emancipatory goals.
Despite its challenges finding a home, “The First Homosexuals” has already sold more tickets than any Wrightwood show in the museum’s seven-year history. It follows a broader curatorial trend in art museums: catering to viewers’ desires to see themselves represented through the work rather than challenging them. At the same time, the museum has taken extra security precautions against potential backlash, including subjecting guests to a metal detector upon arrival. As a queer person, it feels tedious
to have to prove you’re safe to experience your own history—but then why is a textbook-style approach to gay art even controversial?
Conservatives have long eyed gutting the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in part as a way to throttle gay artists. At its height in 1992, the NEA awarded over $175 million in arts funding, which would be over $400 million today. When Trump began his second term, the NEA budget had been reduced to $207 million per year (0.003 percent of the federal budget). In March, Trump added provisions that made applicants attest funding would not be used in any way that can be construed “to promote gender ideology,” and by May, he announced his intention to eliminate the program completely.
But even before Trump was reelected, institutions were getting increasingly skittish about queer art—just look at the Felix Gonzalez-Torres controversy at the Art Institute in 2022. Mentions of Gonzalez-Torres’s partner Ross Laycock and his HIV diagnosis were removed from the wall text for Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) (1991), a piece where
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candy equivalent to Laycock’s ideal healthy weight is laid out, and as viewers take pieces over time, the pile slowly disappears, similar to how Ross’s body was ravaged by complications from the virus.
Part of what makes “The First Homosexuals” a little frustrating is that it feels like it’s trying to do too much, almost like it’s attempting to make up for other institutions’ failures. But given the stakes—how the political and institutional winds have been blowing in recent years—it’s easy to see why. Despite ending by emphasizing how homosexuals were treated by fascists, the exhibition does not mention that not all gay people sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust were liberated afterward. Many remained incarcerated through the 60s, and anti-homosexual violence was not acknowledged as part of the Nazis’ reign of terror until 1970. “The First Homosexuals” is not a cultural revelation; it’s a desperate shriek to carry the lessons of those generations’ experiences forward. v
m mcaporale@chicagoreader.com
ARTS & CULTURE
EXHIBITIONS
RRaw material
Chicago artist Michael Smith has made a career out of lampooning the absurdities of life.
I agonized over what present to bring Baby Ikki, the character that artist Michael Smith has been performing for over 30 years, for Ikki’s 50th birthday. Gi s were encouraged. The Ikki performance, featuring the artist as a genderless and diapered baby, was only a part of Soccer Club Club’s “Return to the Rec Room,” a retrospective of Smith’s multivalent and decades-long career poking fun at the absurdity, frustration, and sometimes heartbreaking sincerity of life under late capitalism. Coinciding with the release of Mike’s Box, an eight-DVD box set of Smith’s performances and interviews alongside a catalog of the artist’s work from the 70s to the present day, the show features an assortment of Smith’s drawings, video pieces, and installations.
the bottle bag. Babies, like all of us, need clean hands. —ANNETTE LEPIQUE “A Return to the Rec Room” Through 6/21: Mon–Fri 10 AM–6 PM, Soccer Club Club, 2923 N. Cicero, soccerclub.club
60 WRD/MIN
In the project 60 wrd/min art critic, writer Lori Waxman explores how art writing can serve an expanded field of artists—including those incarcerated, trying to gain visas, working to establish themselves professionally, or just wanting feedback for a secret hobby. For this iteration, Waxman reviewed a Chicago exhibition curated by Michelle Alexander.
RFemale trouble
ensemble members Cliff Chamberlain, Amy Morton and Namir Smallwood with Jordan Arredondo and Sadieh Rifai
Smith uses his characters, like Ikki and “Mike”—an everyman with many ideas who fails at most all of them—to navigate (or perhaps more aptly fuck with) the strictures we all encounter as we grow up, age, and try to be a person in the world. Sometimes it can be hard to tell Smith’s exact thoughts on his subject. The artist is an inheritor of Buster Keaton’s style of doomed humor, as in his 1980 video Secret Horror in which Mike is invited to a party in his own house all while not understanding why or even how he’s there. Mike is often not in on the joke, which makes me wonder, are we? It’s this shared second-guessing, this not-so-secret cluelessness, that lies at the heart of Smith’s work, the realization that “I know that guy . . I might be that guy.”
These ideas of second-guessing, ritual, and repetition pervade Smith’s performances, especially those featuring Ikki. Even though Ikki is positioned as a tabula rasa (see Ikki’s blank amazement at Burning Man in the 2009 video A Voyage of Growth and Discovery, made with Mike Kelley), I don’t think that’s the whole story. I’m of the mind that babies, like all of us, are swirling, messy little bundles of chaotic impulses and bodily functions. Ikki’s not so much a blank slate but the raw material of being afraid, kinda stupid, kinda scared, and doing your best to make your way through life.
P.S. Michael, if you’re reading this, I had a stuffed animal ready for Ikki, but I forgot it at home. I’m the one who dropped the watermelon hand sanitizer into
At Ivory Gate Gallery, Michelle Alexander curates a show highlighting the resilience of women.
Does every little girl dream about her future marriage? I did not, but amid the wedding industrial complex, it is not hard to find sympathy for those beset by related expectations. In any case, there is a plethora of burdens placed on womankind from which to choose. “Connective Thread,” currently on view at Ivory Gate Gallery in Chicago, gathers works by a mixture of emerging and veteran women artists that acknowledge these trials and artfully transcend them. Michelle Grabner elevates common cleaning products—scrubber, rag, aerosol bottle, plastic bucket—by casting them in minimalist porcelain. Sam Jaffe’s I’ll Pick You clusters a hundred-odd crochet daisies onto a wooden board, an ode to young love, old love, being chosen, being forgotten, and a few other tortuous romantic modes in between. Michelle Alexander, who also curated the show, hangs a nightmarish wedding dress of her own making—think staples, visible black threads, lots of glue—next to elegant photographs of its inspiration, the dresses worn by her mother and sister on their wedding days. Lauren Seiden’s Ultimate Shield (no. 6), a large piece of heavy, crumpled paper metallicized with intense penciling, suggests artistic dedication as a general means of defense. —Lori Waxman 2025-05-30 1:05 PM “Connective Thread” Through 6/8: open by appointment, Ivory Gate Gallery, 44 E. Cedar, instagram.com/ivory_gate_gallery v
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BEHIND THE SCENES
TRANSFORMiNG LOCAL STAGES
Nonbinary casting director and dramaturg Catherine Miller advocates for representation and support for trans and BIPOC performers.
By KERRY REID
Catherine Miller remembers the night they came out as nonbinary. They were coming home from a 2017 Lizzo concert at Thalia Hall with Chicago actor and musician Em Moda and some other fellow performers they’d met through the Fly Honey Show
“I got into a car with Em to get back home, and I just turned to them and was like, ‘I think I’m nonbinary,’ and Em turned and said, ‘I’m nonbinary too.’”
As a casting director, Miller has long advocated for nonbinary and trans representation in theater, and their commitment to LGBTQ+ visibility had deep roots even before they identified as nonbinary—or took up casting as a career. “My aunt is gay, my uncle is trans. I’ve always had trans people in my life,” says Miller, who attended the Theatre School at DePaul University for dramaturgy, then fell into casting through an internship at Redtwist Theatre in their last year. The two fields are intertwined in their view. As Miller says in the bio on their Substack about casting, From Behind the Table, “Good casting is good dramaturgy.”
Postcollege, Miller says they noticed that a lot of their trans theater peers “were constantly getting pigeonholed into roles with harmful or toxic stereotypes. I just realized that there was very little advocacy happening around that type of work.” Even when they are cast, Miller notes that sometimes necessary accommodations, such as chest binders, are not always made readily available for nonbinary and trans actors.
“If you’re hiring a trans person, then these are the things that you should be aware of,” they say. “When we’re not bound by legalese, it feels like, ‘Oh, this is just something extra we have to do.’ So maybe theaters just don’t hire the trans person, or maybe they do, but push back on things that they’re asking for.”
Miller has worked regularly as a casting director for companies around town, including About Face Theatre (where they are also the social media coordinator and an artistic associate), Raven Theatre, First Floor Theater, and Jackalope Theatre. They have also served
as a gender consultant at theaters large and small, including Paramount Theatre in Aurora, and as a dramaturg for several companies and artists, including rising Chicago playwright Omer Abbas Salem.
Over their ten years in the field, Miller has seen some positive changes, but with the current political landscape, they feel it’s even more vital for theaters to stand up for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC artists as well as others from marginalized communities under assault. They’ve created a spreadsheet to track casting patterns in Chicago, and in their most recent Substack piece on their findings, “Chicago Theatre SOOOOOO White, Still: Part 1,” they note, “I can estimate that over the past eight months, the majority of shows produced in Chicago have featured majority white or all white casts.”
In an email, Miller notes to me, “When we’ve been lucky enough to see TGNC [trans and gender nonconforming] representation on Chicago stages, it often is of a white person. And to be honest, that is also the case for the bulk of the film and television representation we see too. Black and Brown trans and gender nonconforming folks have always been at the forefront of the LGBTQIA+ movement since it began, often putting their lives and livelihood on the line to pursue liberation for all.”
American classic Our Town as one of the first times they were able to “flex my muscle and really push for trans representation onstage.”
The production featured trans actor Jaq Seifert as George Gibbs, along with deaf actor
a running joke within the community that you have one nonbinary role in a show. Every single nonbinary actor is gonna get called in for that single role. Even if they’re not right for that role, even if they’re right for another role in the show.”
“From the outside, I think especially depending on the theater company’s audiences, the audiences may think that we’re trying to push an agenda by doing this type of casting work,” says Miller. “But we’re just trying to reflect what the world we live in actually looks like. Visibility is such an important thing right now. Especially in our country, where we’ve had ongoing attacks on trans folks for years.”
As nonbinary performer Will Wilhelm notes in their show about queerness and Shakespeare, Gender Play, or What You Will, Elizabethan audiences could easily accept the convention of young boys playing women who would then disguise themselves as men. So why can’t theater today take bolder steps in gender representation? And what does it look like when they do? Miller notes that popular musicals featuring cross-dressing, such as Mrs. Doubtfire and Tootsie, don’t really move the needle on trans representation, as they focus on characters who are pretending to be women in order to achieve something they want. (Trans people as untrustworthy tricksters is its own old and toxic trope, of course.)
But some shows seem tailor-made for reimagining through a trans and nonbinary lens. Miller notes that they’re already working with director Lucky Sti on Raven’s 2026 production of Caryl Churchill’s feminist classic Top Girls to think about ways to incorporate trans representation. (The piece will run in repertory with queer-oriented Story Theatre’s Pot Girls.)
Part of what Miller’s work entails is helping companies and directors see new ways to envision characters and storylines that can include trans artists and perspectives, as well as other diverse communities. They cite a 2017 Redtwist production of Thornton Wilder’s
Richard Costes as the Stage Manager and Black and Latine actors in other roles. Reader critic Tony Adler wrote, “Seeing such variety onstage heightens our awareness of the many constituencies Wilder didn’t contemplate referencing back in 1938—the people who couldn’t have a home in Grover’s Corners.”
But Miller still finds that tokenism is a problem when it comes to trans casting. “It’s
Miller says, “When you create the opportunity for visibility in a role that maybe isn’t written for a trans person, you’re giving not only an opportunity for an actor to feel seen and also get to play maybe a role that they’ve always wanted to play, but never been given the opportunity to partake in. You’re also giving the opportunity to someone, maybe a young person, to see themselves onstage for the very first time.”
“If you don’t put trans folks onstage, are you being complicit in what is happening in our country?” asks Miller. “Yeah, it’s a bold statement, but also, I am constantly thinking about ‘What does complicity look like right now?’” v
m kreid@chicagoreader.com
Catherine Miller COLLIN QUINN RICE
DRAGLESQUE PRiDE
ANEW!
Introducing the Rhinestone Digest: a drag and burlesque culture and industry column
By CHARLI RENKEN
t nearly every drag and burlesque show, I get asked the same question: How long have you been doing this? I never really know how to respond. The easy, sort of o cial answer is that I had my draglesque debut as Vicious Mockery at the variety show Glamorama this past January, but that’s not really where my story starts.
I often tell people I did drag and a few stripping numbers ten years ago in college as part of Pride events and Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcasts, but I didn’t have a name or brand back then. That’s not exactly the start of it either, though.
dress as male characters. I remember using YouTube to teach myself “crossplay” makeup techniques and scaring my mother with my total transformations. Still, that doesn’t really go back far enough.
“BOTH ART FORMS DRAW ON HUMOR, SATIRE, HYPERBOLE, AND GENDER EXPRESSION TO TELL A STORY.”
In high school, I was an avid cosplayer, dressing up as fictional characters and running around convention centers with my friends, and I performed in talent shows. Very often— not yet knowing I was trans—I preferred to
The truth is, I often feel like I’ve been doing drag in my bedroom since I was a little kid. I would bounce around my room as a child (or stomp dramatically to the park if I was “running away” again), lip syncing to the stylings of Hilary Duff, the Beatles, Avril Lavigne, and JoJo (not to be confused with Ms. Siwa). Little queer Charli would tell my mother, “I’m half a boy and half a girl” and then gallivant o to flop around on my bed in what some might identify as early attempts at death drops. As a kid, I needed the storytelling outlet that music, costumes, and makeup provided. It helped me process my emotions when my
Vicious Mockery holds up the author’s Reader story on the Book Drag Kings project. MIKE THOMPSON
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continued from p. 17
family’s house burned down, when my parents were fighting, when my dad was drinking too much, and when he died. It helped me dig deep to understand what I was feeling in ways I couldn’t by talking to a trusted adult—though I had very few of them, anyway, given the transphobia and homophobia of the 2000s. I used cross-dressing and lip-syncing as therapy and expression throughout my childhood and adolescence, but it wasn’t until adulthood that it clicked: I’ve always been a drag performer.
I mention this not to proclaim my expertise in drag or burlesque (far from it) but because both art forms are under attack across the country under the guise of “protecting children.” Here’s the thing, though: Drag is for kids. It was for me, and it is for other kids, too. Not every drag show is appropriate for children, just like not every play or every TV show is, but drag as an art form is for everyone. Drag is expression. Drag saves lives.
Of course, drag and burlesque bans aren’t actually about keeping children safe, but I’ll go deep on that in a future column.
The author channeling their inner fairy as a young child; the author’s drag persona Vicious Mockery performing in their show
Helluva Cabaret at the Newport Theater COURTESY
CHARLI RENKEN; KIRK WILLIAMSON
“DRAG AND BURLESQUE HAVE ALSO HiSTORiCALLY BEEN PERFORMED BY PEOPLE ON THE OUTSKiRTS OF SOCiETY: MARGiNALiZED FOLKS WHO, FOR A LONG TiME, COULD ONLY EXPRESS THEMSELVES PUBLiCLY THROUGH PERFORMANCE.”
While most of my experience is in drag, I’d be remiss to not include burlesque in this monthly column. Drag and burlesque have long existed in tandem. They have a lot in common. Both art forms draw on humor, satire, hyperbole, and gender expression to tell a story. You’ll often see drag and burlesque performed side by side in cabaret shows. Drag and burlesque have also historically
CHUCKLE HEAD DRAG COMEDY COMPETITION: SEASON 5
Open run Tue 8 PM beginning 6/3, Otherworld Theatre, $ 8
BURLESQUE HALL OF FAME WATCH PARTIES
Fri 6/6 9 PM, Sat 6/ 7 3 PM, and Sun 6/8 6 PM, Newport Theater, $10 -$20 donation
NOTES ON MASCULINITY, A KING-CENTER CABARET
Tue 6/ 10 8 PM, California Clipper, $10 at the door only. (This night of the bimonthly show will celebrate coproducer and drag king Switch the Boi Wonder’s birthday!)
been performed by people on the outskirts of society: marginalized folks who, for a long time, could only express themselves publicly through performance. Drag and burlesque performers have long experienced similar censorship and legal issues that forced both art forms underground. For instance, drag and burlesque were popular forms of entertainment in speakeasies during Prohibition, a legacy that continues today in modern speakeasies and bars. The underground ballroom scene—founded and maintained by queer Black and Latine artists—also laid the founda-
JUNETEENTH JUMP OFF!, PRESENTED BY BAWDY SUIT
Thu 6/ 19 6 and 9 PM, Den Theatre, $ 31-$268
CHICAGO PRIDE FEST
Sat–Sun 6/21- 6/22 11 AM-10 PM, Northhalsted (Halsted between Addison and Grace), $20 suggested donation
WITCH-O-RAMA MARKET & DRAG SHOW: PILSEN EDITION
Sun 6/22 ; market noon- 5 PM, drag show 3 PM, Hoste, $ 3 at the door
THE PRiDE ISSUE
BROWN BOTTOM BURLESQUE: YOU DON’T F*CK ME!, PRESENTED BY BODY CONFIDENCE FOR QUEENS
Thu 6/26 7: 30 PM, Newport Theater, general admission $ 30, VIP $ 45
FREAK FLAG: PRIDE POLE SHOW
Presented by Black Skrippa Brigade
Sat 6/28 6 : 30 PM, Little Village location TBA, $20 -$25
KING OF DRAG WATCH PARTIES Uptown Taproom
Sun 6/29-7/20 7: 30 PM, $10
tion for much of the drag scene today and have been fundamental gathering spaces for queer and trans people for over a century, including through the gay liberation movement. With the Rhinestone Digest, I hope to discuss the local drag and burlesque scene as well as showcase performers and productions doing interesting work across the city. I’ve done a ton of jobs in the scene—performer, producer, tip kitten, door person, stage manager, promoter, graphic designer—but I’m by no means an expert. I’m still learning, and I hope to learn alongside you, dear reader, as
we delve into what makes the local scene tick (or not!) and what the future of the scene may look like.
With every installment of this monthly column, I’ll leave you with a list of local shows and events I think are worth checking out. (Check venue listings for information about age restrictions, etc.) If you’re producing a show and want to get the word out, drop me a line either by email or DMing @vicious.mockery.drag on Instagram. v
m crenken@chicagoreader.com
THE PRiDE ISSUE
SUMMER CAMP FiNDS ‘SUCCESS iN CERTAiN PASSiONATE FAiLURES’
The June screening series at the Gene Siskel Film Center explores camp as it relates to queerness, drag, and beyond.
By KAT SACHS
What do the Bible, Torah, Quran, Bhagavad Gita, Book of Mormon, and Susan Sontag’s “Notes on ‘Camp’” have in common? Other than the fact that all of the former texts could be described as the latter, they’re canonical texts to their respective religions. Sontag’s is that of cinema, and “camp” is a distinct sensibility within it, one that she defines so eloquently in her 53-
RS UMMER CAMP
Through Mon 6/30, Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, $13 general admission, $ 8 students and youth, $ 6 50 Film Center members, $ 5 SAIC students and faculty, and staff of the Art Institute siskelfilmcenter.org/summercamp
As Sontag writes, “The pure examples of Camp are unintentional; they are dead serious.”
taste is homosexual taste, there is no doubt a peculiar a nity and overlap. Not all liberals are Jews, but Jews have shown a peculiar affinity for liberal and reformist causes. So, not all homosexuals have Camp taste. But homosexuals, by and large, constitute the vanguard—and the most articulate audience—of Camp.”
Despite not being about a gay subject, Writ-
point manifesto. (Camp being in quotations is intentional; to cite Sontag, “Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It’s not a lamp, but a ‘lamp’; not a woman, but a ‘woman.’”)
In wordplay too self-aware to be camp but amusing nevertheless, the Gene Siskel Film Center hosts Summer Camp, a ten-film series running through the end of June. It’s an appropriate month, being Pride and all. Though not specifically centered on the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community, camp is queer adjacent; as Sontag professed, “The peculiar relation between Camp taste and homosexuality has to be explained. While it’s not true that Camp
ten on the Wind (1956), which screens Monday, June 9, at 6:15 PM, was directed by a gay filmmaker, Douglas Sirk (whose Technicolor melodramas are now synonymous with camp), and stars gay actor Rock Hudson. Hudson plays Mitch, best friends with Texas oil heir Kyle (Robert Stack), both of whom are in love with Lauren Bacall’s Lucy. For the Reader , critic Fred Camper wrote, “Sure, [Sirk’s] colors are alluring, and his exaggerations have a certain bleak humor. But ultimately Sirk wasn’t in it for the laughs: he was a fatalist, someone who once said that ‘happiness exists, if only by virtue of the fact that it can be destroyed.’”
Infamous as much for what went on behind the scenes, Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Their offscreen detestation for one another would be further immortalized in Ryan Murphy’s 2017 show Feud, in which they played aging actress sisters with a similarly complicated relationship. What makes Baby Jane camp is that, with its grotesque emotional intensity, it’s not quite tragic, but rather excruciating. “Camp and tragedy are antitheses,” Sontag proclaims. “There is seriousness in Camp (seriousness in the degree of the artist’s involvement) and, often, pathos. The excruciating is also one of the tonalities of Camp . . . But there is never, never tragedy.” The film screens Sunday, June 22, at 2 PM.
Crawford is something of a camp icon, though more so of an excruciating e ect than anything softer. An even more lurid depiction of her real-life extremity, Frank Perry’s Mommie Dearest (1981) stars Faye Dunaway as Crawford, who adopts two children and
film critic Richard Knight Jr. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer’s 1975 documentary Grey Gardens is about Big and Little Edie, the reclusive cousins of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, amid their decaying estate in East Hampton. It’s the embodiment of the camp tenet in that it’s “a tender feeling. . . . Camp taste is a kind of love, love for human nature. It relishes, rather than judges, the little triumphs and awkward intensities of ‘character.’ . . . Camp taste identifies with what it is enjoying. People who share this sensibility are not laughing at the thing they label as ‘a camp,’ they’re enjoying it.” A genuine appreciation for the mother–daughter duo, from their persisting glamour to their still-gregarious personalities, emerges from a serious yet tender assessment of the pair; we’re not laughing at them but rather with them, at all of life’s absurdities. See it on Sunday, June 15, at 2 PM.
“To start very generally,” Sontag writes at the beginning of her missive, “Camp is a certain mode of aestheticism. It is one way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon. That way, the way of Camp, is not in terms of
subsequently terrorizes them. The refrain “No wire hangers!” has since become an iconic example of onscreen histrionics; Sontag states that camp occurs when we “can enjoy, instead of be frustrated by, the failure of the attempt,” something which applies to the profane intensity of Dunaway’s performance, aiming for seriousness but falling just within grasp of it. The film screens Sunday, June 8, at 4 PM and Monday, June 16, at 6 PM. The former screening will be followed by a talkback with A. Ashley Ho , author of With Love, Mommie Dearest: The Making of an Unintentional Camp Classic, moderated by screenwriter and
beauty, but in terms of the degree of artifice, of stylization.” This would be what unites, against improbability, the Pope of Trash himself, John Waters, and the six-film collaboration between filmmaker Josef von Sternberg and his muse-cum-coauteur Marlene Dietrich. Their films Female Trouble (1974) and The Devil is a Woman (1935), respectively, screen as part of the series, the former on Friday, June 6, at 8 PM and Friday, June 27, at 6 PM, and the latter on Monday, June 23, at 6:15 PM and Saturday, June 28, at 6 PM. To summarize the plots of either would be pointless. Neither is demarcated by its content; both are the
From L: Stills from Female Trouble (1974), Grey Gardens (1975), and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) COURTESY GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER
most prominent examples of pure form. In her formative essay, Sontag provides many an example of what constitutes camp. One wonders, had Waters been making films then, if he’d have been mentioned. Von Sternberg, Dietrich, and especially The Devil is a Woman are cited specifically in point 23: “The hallmark of Camp is the spirit of extravagance. Camp is a woman walking around in a dress made of three million feathers. Camp is the paintings of Carlo Crivelli, with their real jewels and trompe-l’oeil insects and cracks in the masonry. Camp is the outrageous aestheticism of Steinberg’s six American movies with Dietrich, all six, but especially the last, The Devil Is a Woman. . . . In Camp there is often something démesuré in the quality of the ambition, not only in the style of the work itself.”
Speaking of Waters, he who facilitates camp is also an arbiter of its virtues in other films. Among his favorites is Joseph Losey’s Boom! (1968), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, which Waters says is “the best failed art film ever, so genuinely beautiful and awful that it’s perfect.” This is the only film in the series I haven’t seen; considering this endorsement, I eagerly await seeing it, on either
THE PRiDE ISSUE
the other hand, appears somewhat randomly in a list of “random examples of items which are part of the canon of Camp,” sandwiched between certain turn-of-the-century picture postcards and the Cuban pop singer La Lupe. I understand how and why Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 film Showgirls, a 4K digital restoration of which screens Saturday, June 7, and Friday, June 20, at 8:30 PM, is perceived as being camp, but I rather believe it to be a cunning satire à la the filmmaker’s 1997 sci-fi film Starship Troopers . Akin to Sirk if he were being political, its visual splendor and excessive melodrama are but glossy sheens atop something much darker, much more critical of its sociopathic-capitalist setting, Las Vegas, and the lurid characters within. But, “Why would any Hollywood studio encourage a film’s transformation into camp, in effect joining in the mockery of its own product?” opined the New York Times in 1996. The studio declined to comment, but when asked about the rerelease of his own film, about which he was not consulted, Verhoeven remarked, “There was so little to be joyful about when the film came out, at least this appreciation is better than nothing.”
Friday, June 13, at 8:15 PM or Saturday, June 21, at 8 PM.
And among other films specifically mentioned in Sontag’s essay, Lloyd Bacon’s 42nd Street and Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s King Kong, both released in 1933, also screen as part of the series. 42nd Street which screens Saturday, June 14, at noon and Monday, June 30, at 8:30 PM—aligns with the assertion that “Camp is art that proposes itself seriously, but cannot be taken altogether seriously because it is ‘too much.’” King Kong (which screens on Saturday, June 14, at 8:30 PM and Sunday, June 29, at noon) on
“Camp taste is, above all, a mode of enjoyment, of appreciation,” Sontag writes toward the end of her holy text, as if writing exactly that—commandments for a certain sensibility. “Not judgment. Camp is generous. It wants to enjoy. It only seems like malice, cynicism. (Or, if it is cynicism, it’s not a ruthless but a sweet cynicism.) Camp taste doesn’t propose that it is in bad taste to be serious; it doesn’t sneer at someone who succeeds in being seriously dramatic. What it does is to find the success in certain passionate failures.” v
m letters@chicagoreader.com
FOODBALL MONDAY NIGHT
The Reader’s weekly chef popup series, now 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.
THE LINEUP
June 9 Wood-fired pies with Raza’s Pizza @razas_pizza
June 16 The return of all-Indigenous Ketapanen Kitchen @ketapanenkitchen
June 23 Sweet and savory spice route pastry with Umami From Scratch @umamifromscratch
June 30 Innovative Latin-fusion cuisine from Mother Prepper @mother_prepper
July 7 Submit to Pizza Dom with Death by Dough @deathbydough
July 14 Piscine xuisine of Xicágoland with Xicágo Cevicheria @xicagocevicheria
July 21 A delicious haunting by Eat Ghosts @eat.ghosts
July 28 The re-eruption of FilipinoHawaiian Panlasa @_panlasa
Aug. 4 The Foodball debut of Windy City Burger Social Club @windycityburgersocialclub
Aug. 11 Return of the Boricua Jedis Moncho Moncheo @monchomoncheo
Aug. 18 Annual pizza carb load with Belle and the Beast of Bad Johnny’s @badjohnnysgoodtimes
Aug. 25 Panza llena, corazón contento con Hija de Maria @hija_de_maria
Head to chicagoreader.com/foodball for weekly menus and ordering info!
FILM
Iattended the ninth annual Nitrate Picture Show at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, this past weekend. Fast becoming my favorite weekend of the year, this edition was no less illuminating than the previous two years I went. Though I didn’t quite have the ecstatic experience with any of the films this year that I did last year with King Vidor’s Stella Dallas (1937), I enjoyed the eclectic selection, which began with Rouben Mamoulian’s Becky Sharp (1935), starring Miriam Hopkins as the heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair.
A significant theme of this year’s festival was color processes. Becky Sharp was the first feature film entirely shot in three-color Technicolor, though, per the festival’s program, “‘Natural colors’ were introduced to motion pictures in the late 1900s. The palette, however, was limited, and reproduction of such colors as yellow and blue was impossible until Technicolor Process IV came into play in the early 1930s,” making this the first truly “all-color” feature-length film in cinema history. Hopkins, one of my favorite actresses, is magnetic; though many critics felt her performance here to be crude, she and the brilliant colors become one, perhaps at times too intense in their dazzlement. The shorts program is always a standout, and this year’s compilation, which represented seven di erent color processes, was no di erent. It opened strong, with Les Destructeurs de nos jardins (1916), or The Destroyers of Our Gardens. Just as brilliant as its subject—the mighty caterpillar—are its colors and the process used to achieve them: “Pathécolor by Pathé . . . a complicated and multi-step process.” Again per the program notes, “First, stencils were made for each intended color, with the pertinent areas of every frame removed. This involved the use of a pantograph, which allowed the technician (usually a woman, due to cheaper labor costs) to cut each stencil frame by tracing the desired areas on a magnified image. After stripping the stencil of its emulsion to avoid potential scratching of the black and white print, the two elements were registered together precisely and ad-
vanced across a rotating velvet band carrying the acid color dye. After repeating these steps for each color stencil, a final Pathécolor print was produced.”
The craftsmanship involved is mind-blowing and also speaks to the oft-invisible contribution of women in cinema history. Hopkins made the colors dazzle, but the women cutting the stencils made it happen.
Another standout was a collection of Czech animations from the 1930s, which included three advertisements made by the husband–wife duo Karel Dodal and Irena Dodalová (and which were actually animated by Karel’s ex-wife, Hermína Týrlová). In terms of features, I also enjoyed Mikio Naruse’s Wife! Be Like a Rose! (1935), Gregory La Cava’s My Man Godfrey (1936), and Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Mother Joan of the Angels (1961). Note the year on the latter; nitrate stock was used in every film production before 1951, after which it stopped being manufactured by Kodak (founded by George Eastman). “Though most of Western Europe and the United States had long since phased out nitrate film stock in favor of acetate safety film,” the program explains, “the Soviet Union and some Central and Eastern European countries continued to use it well into the 1960s.”
The only downside of the festival was the introduction of assigned seating for patron passholders. This resulted in a majority of the theater being reserved, with only random enclaves for us regular passholders. I’m hoping next year they’ll rethink this part. Otherwise, I had a blast at the festival and in Rochester (which is home to one of the most unusual but, in my opinion, one of the most delicious regional delicacies, the garbage plate—look it up).
But now I’m back to my regular Chicago moviegoing. I can’t wait to see what this week has in store.
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.
A still from Becky Sharp (1935) COURTESY
GEORGE EASTMAN MUSEUM
SAMIA
THE BLOODLESS TOUR
+ RAFFAELLA
× CHIRP RADIO
ITS ALL GONNA BREAK
SCREENING + VIRTUAL Q&A WITH STEPHEN CHUNG & KEVIN DREW
ANNIE DIRUSSO
BACK IN TOWN TOUR + DAFFO
GALLANT ZINC TOUR
+ JUSTIN NOZUKA
I’M WITH HER WILD AND CLEAR AND BLUE + MASON VIA
PUB CHOIR
SOMETHING TO DO TOUR
PROVOKER IN THE ROUND MAUSOLEUM TOUR
+ RIP SWIRL / FAERYBABYY
DOG NATION
AN EVENING WITH THE DOGIST + SPECIAL GUESTS
LIFEGUARD
CAP’N JAZZ + COFFIN PRICK / JENNY PULSE DJ SET
EZRA FURMAN + THE OPHELIAS
SON ROMPE PERA
THE FLY HONEY SHOW WEEKEND ONE
HUNG UP ON A DREAM
MURDER BY DEATH FAREWELL TOUR
+ LAURA JANE GRACE
THE FLY HONEY SHOW WEEKEND TWO
SCENE QUEEN
HOT SHOWS IN YOUR AREA + GIRLI / DEADLANDS × KICKSTAND PRODUCTIONS
KIM DEAL
THE FLY HONEY SHOW WEEKEND THREE
PELICAN + COALESCE / PORCELAIN
OF MONTREAL
THE SUNLANDIC TWINS 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR + BIJOUX CONE
ROYEL OTIS + DANCER
AMAARAE
+ BLACK PARTY
ROLE MODEL
+ JADE LEMAC
THE PRiDE ISSUE
CHICAGOANS OF NOTE
BEV RAGE & THE DRINKS
Part of Midsommarfest; see andersonville.org/midsommarfest for full schedule. Sat 6/14, 6:30 PM, Swedish Stage (festival runs Fri 6/13, 5–10 PM; Sat 6/14, noon–10 PM; Sun 6/15, noon–9 PM), Clark between Foster and Gregory, $10 suggested donation, all ages
BEVERLY RAGE, PUNK MUSiCiAN AND DRAG QUEEN
“In 2025, we’re basically trying to toe the line between making sure that we are being very political and aware of the situation but making music that still allows people to have fun.”
As told
to
JAMIE LUDWIG
Vocalist, guitarist, and drag artist Beverly Rage began playing in punk and garage bands as a teenager in Cleveland’s DIY scene and took up drag soon after moving to Chicago about 18 years ago. In 2015, Bev combined those two interests in the queer garage-pop band Bev Rage & the Drinks, which he fronts in full drag. The four-piece has grown a following in the city and beyond for unmissable shows and witty, approachable songs that merge political awareness, queer empowerment, and full-on unbridled fun. Bev Rage & the Drinks are wrapping up work on their third full-length album, the follow-up to 2022’s Exes & Hexes. They’re recording it at Electrical Audio, and they expect to release it in early 2026. In the meantime, they plan to drop some new singles this summer, and later this month they play Midsommarfest and Chicago Pride Fest.
Igrew up listening to a lot of punk bands, and I’d always gravitate toward the queer ones or the strange or unusual. I also always admired strong women in music; I have a really deep admiration for what they do and the additional struggle that women have in music. I obviously can’t relate to that struggle as a cis man, but I can relate to the struggle of being a queer person in music—especially a very outwardly queer person navigating the scene as such.
When I moved to Chicago, I was out of the music scene for a little while, trying to get my bearings. Around that time, I started dabbling in drag. So I had these two interests that were kind of working separately from each other, and eventually it just hit me—they were not dissimilar. Drag is rooted in anti-authority, and that’s exactly what punk is. Drag is punk rock, and punk rock is drag in some ways. So I was like, “Why am I not combining these two interests?”
There has been drag and gender-bending
and playing with gender and queer people all throughout punk-rock music [history]. But when I started the band, I wasn’t really seeing it as much. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t exist, but I wasn’t seeing it. No one [in punk] was really doing what I call “high drag.” When we started, it was a little roughand-tumble. We were playing very lo-fi basic pop-punk, Ramones-type music. We were a three-piece, and I was playing bass, which is not my instrument of choice. I think we were seen almost as a gimmick, like, “Oh, that dragqueen band.” Eventually we had some lineup changes, and that was positive, and I moved to guitar.
We stopped more of the jokey songs and started to evolve our songwriting into things that were more important in the world. Right after the band started, the first Trump administration [came into power], so it felt very dire that we become more political. We were able to navigate this band in a changing world in a way that felt needed and necessary. That’s evolved to a place now where I feel a moral responsibility. This band is my passion project, and I feel like there are people who really need something like this: to see an unapologetically queer drag queen screaming about politics and the danger of religion and how queer joy is really needed in a music industry that is inherently straight. I’ve tried to balance being very political with having a lighthearted approach and making accessible music that anyone can enjoy.
“IF YOU CAN’T ALLOW YOURSELF TO RELEASE THE STRESS AND THE ANGER, YOU’RE NOT GOiNG TO BE AN EFFECTiVE PROTESTER OR ACTiViST iN THE WORLD.”
When I formed the band, I thought about, “Why do I need to combine drag and punk rock?” I’m very gay, so I’m like, “I need theatrics. I need some sort of fun out of a show.” And I’d go to shows and be kind of underwhelmed by the live-performance aspect every now and then. So that became my mission: I never want to bore anyone. I want to put on an incredible show and make
BEV RAGE & THE DRINKS
Part of Chicago Pride Fest; see northalsted.com for full schedule. Sat 6/21, 2:30 PM, South Stage (fest runs 11 AM–10 PM, Sat 6/21 and Sun 6/22), Halsted between Addison and Grace, $20 suggested donation, all ages
sure people are taking away an impression. Like, they thought the show was really fun and exciting, or they’ve never seen drag before, and they were feeling very positive about that and maybe taking away that drag is not just RuPaul’s Drag Race . Drag is and can be way more than that. And drag queens don’t have to lip-synch.
Drag is a very hard art form: It’s hot, it’s sweaty, it’s uncomfortable. It hurts. You have to figure out how to go to the bathroom. You have to understand that heat rises—but when you have ten pounds of plastic on your head, that heat can’t go anywhere, and you have to figure out how to navigate that. So there was a huge learning curve, to try to figure out how
bit and make sure that I’m giving them a message and telling them about who we are and why we do what we do.
[The experience] is almost transformative in many senses—individually, emotionally, spiritually, whatever. My confidence level is very high in drag; I’m very confident in what I look like and what I do. I don’t get nervous onstage when I’m in drag. If I’m out of drag, I do. A lot of drag performers will put on a voice or change their personality, and that’s cool. But for me, drag is an elevated version of myself where I can truly be. . . . How do you explain it?
It’s hard to explain how you feel when you have a costume on, but it kind of feels natural. My gender expression is not really too di er-
punk-rock dudes will come up to me afterwards. . . . I don’t like being called “man” or “dude” or “buddy” or things like that when I’m in drag, but I get that a lot. I usually give them grace, because I understand that they do not necessarily understand the world that I’m in, but sometimes I will correct them, like, “Please don’t call someone that looks like me those terms.” I don’t get offended because I’m old and grizzled, but someone else doing something similar might.
Usually they’ll take it fine, and generally we’ll get compliments on our music from people like that. It’s cool to be complimented on the art outside of the drag, because this really is about making good music.
“IT’S REALLY HARD TO BE BEV SOMETiMES BUT ALSO SO REWARDiNG, BECAUSE YOU SEE PEOPLE EXPERiENCE DRAG FOR THE FiRST TiME AT EVERY SiNGLE SHOW, AND YOU SEE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF UNAPOLOGETiCALLY QUEER PEOPLE TAKiNG UP SPACE.”
to do drag in a really elevated way while being able to play guitar without nails, sweat without being drenched, and cinch your body while moving around and playing an instrument. But with that comes a really valuable life experience or way to evolve your art in a way that a lot of other musicians don’t have. So it’s really hard to be Bev sometimes but also so rewarding, because you see people experience drag for the first time at every single show, and you see people understand the power of unapologetically queer people taking up space.
When I say “drag in an elevated way,” first of all, I want to put that out there that “drag” is a very loose term. Drag can be anything. Drag can be genderless. It can be drag king, drag queen, drag monster, drag whatever. But the way I like to do drag is that I like it to be big and over-the-top. I like to take up as much space as possible. I like my makeup to be huge. I like people to see me first. Especially in a dark nightclub, it’s really important for me to be tall and big and take up space. Doing drag for as long as I’ve done it, you improve in ways. I style my own wigs almost 100 percent. I make a lot of my costumes. My makeup skills have improved dramatically. [That’s all] allowed my drag to improve visually quite a bit. It’s also made my confidence level skyrocket. It’s not just about playing music. You also have to be a host, in a way, at our shows. I try to talk to the audience a little
ent in and out of drag. I always feel like the same person, but the ability to put on this costume and just feel powerful is really incredible. You see people light up when they see you, and you can feel people really allowing themselves to ask questions that they wouldn’t ask if I looked like I do [out of drag]. That’s really powerful. Our audience changes depending on the venue and the city we’re playing in and who we’re playing with. We could be playing a show for a 75 percent queer audience some days and a 5 percent queer audience other days. The feedback we get depends on who the audience is, but generally it’s positive.
It occurred to me eventually that so many people out there can see a band like mine and get some sort of positive meaning from it, so why not try to push it
THE PRiDE ISSUE
portant for people to know who we are and understand that I’m just a normal person making music and doing drag. Being accessible is really important, especially when you do what we do.
The band has grown up through this authoritarian right-wing push in the U.S. government, and in 2025, we’re basically trying to toe the line between making sure that we are being very political and aware of the situation but making music that still allows people to have fun. I always reference this concept during the AIDS epidemic in the 80s and 90s, where a lot of the activists would say—and it’s a sad moment—but they’d bury their friends in the morning, protest in the afternoon, and party and dance all night. These three things can [describe] almost exactly what Bev Rage & the Drinks does. We mourn the things that are going on. We make sure that we’re being activists and politically minded and pushing for the things that are important in the world—locally, nationally, and globally. And we make sure that
Young queer people coming up [after a show]—like, “Seeing you onstage makes me feel like I could potentially do something like that as well”—is the most incredible thing, because that was me 25 years ago. Being able to be an inspirational figure to young queer people who are trying to navigate their world and gender expression and how to fit in while liking heavy music is really cool, because there’s a lot of pressure in the queer community to assimilate.
On the flip side, sometimes older, straight
out to more people? Most of the videos I make on TikTok or Instagram are just silly short videos that try to highlight the music that we make and the drag that I do and maybe put a few other humorous things in there. I feel like, as queer people, we’re inherently drawn to humor and self-deprecation and making fun of the situations we’ve gone through. Humor is a very important tool in my life.
The videos can also show more of the personality of the band; I think it’s really im-
we’re making good music that people can enjoy.
So you can go to a Bev Rage & the Drinks show and allow everything to wash out of you—all of the stress, all of the angst, all of the anger—and just be able to have fun for 45 minutes while we play. If you can’t allow yourself to release the stress and the anger, you’re not going to be an e ective protester or activist in the world. v
m jludwig@chicagoreader.com
Beverly Rage with the Drinks: drummer Mary Rose Gonzales, bassist Sam Westerling, and guitarist Dan Jarvis
MUSIC
All the blues that fits in print
The Chicago Blues Festival brings out the best in the local scene all weekend—and here are a few dozen shows to prove it.
By SALEM COLLO-JULIN
The Chicago Blues Festival reliably offers a constellation of opportunities to explore an original American music genre in the city that made it great. Chicago has recently lost some venues to bankruptcy, pandemic woes, or family issues (thinking fondly of Harlem Avenue Lounge and B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted), but the local blues community is still hustling and going strong. And if you don’t want to deal with getting in and out of downtown, you can share in the action throughout the festival by checking out afterparties, daytime shows, and related events around the city and suburbs. Blues Fest weekend is prime time for new and memorable experiences, and whether you’re a novice or a veteran, I recommend you visit a venue you’ve never been to before. Bring cash, and be sure to tip your bartenders and servers.
THURSDAY5
All-Star Harmonica Blast with Omar Coleman, Matthew Skoller, Rob Stone, and Martin Lang Backed by Tom Holland, Joey J. Saye, Kenny Smith, Andrew Diehl, Lee Kanehira, and Mike Scharf, with surprise guest stars. 8 PM, Reggies Music Joint, 2105 S. State, $39.83, 21+
BTS Express with Shirley Johnson 9 PM–1:30 AM, Blue Chicago, 536 N. Clark, $15 with one-drink minimum, 21+
Chess Records 75th Anniversary Review Part of the Blues Heaven Foundation’s Record Row Concert Series. 6–7:30 PM, Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation garden, 2120 S. Michigan, free, all ages
Rico McFarland Blues Band, Joanna Connor Band Gerry Hundt plays acoustic at 6 PM, and then the bands trade hour-long sets. 7:30 PM–2 AM, Kingston Mines, 2548 N. Halsted, $18, door discounts for students, seniors, active military, police, and firefighters, 21+
Open jam hosted by Big Lew 8 PM–midnight, Lee’s Unleaded Blues, 7401 S. South Chicago, free, 21+
Rosa’s All-Stars Band featuring Lil’ Ed Williams 9:30 and 11 PM, Rosa’s Lounge, 3420 W. Armitage, $21.50, 21+
Morry Sochat & the Special 20s Matt Hendricks plays acoustic at 5:30 PM. 9 PM, Buddy Guy’s Legends, 700 S. Wabash, $16.99, 21+
Dave Weld & the Imperial Flames 7:30 PM,
Bourbon ’N Brass Speakeasy at Des Plaines Theatre, 1476 Miner, Des Plaines, $5 with twodrink minimum or food purchase, all ages
FRIDAY6
Fran Banish Trio 8:30 PM, FitzGerald’s Sidebar, 6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn, free, 21+
Chicago Blues SuperSession With Bob Stroger, Billy Flynn, Dave Katzman, John Kattke, Omar Coleman, Rodney Brown, Amy Lowe, Patrick Seals, and Mike Scharf 10 PM, Reggies Music Joint, 2105 S. State, $33.65, 21+
Joanna Connor Band, Nora Jean Wallace Blues Band Gerry Hundt plays acoustic at 7:30 PM, and then the bands trade hour-long sets. 9 PM–4 AM, Kingston Mines, 2548 N. Halsted, $23, door discounts for students, seniors, active military, police, and firefighters, 21+
Fernando Jones 8 PM, Epiphany Hall, Epiphany Center for the Arts, 201 S. Ashland, free, 21+
Eddie Levert 6 PM and 9:30 PM, City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph, $48–$75 plus $25 food and drink minimum, all ages
Mud Morganfield 8:30 PM, FitzGerald’s, 6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn, $24.38–$189.70, 21+
Joe Pratt & the Source One Band featuring Louisiana Al 9 PM–1 AM, Lee’s Unleaded Blues, 7401 S. South Chicago, free, 21+
John Primer, Stephen Hull Patrick Gemkow plays an acoustic set at 5:30 PM. 8 PM, Buddy Guy’s Legends, 700 S. Wabash, $27.30, 21+
Mike Wheeler Blues Band with Demetria Taylor 9 PM–1:30 AM, Blue Chicago, 536 N. Clark, $20 with two-drink minimum, 21+
Sheryl Youngblood Band 9:30 and 11 PM, Rosa’s Lounge, 3420 W. Armitage, $26.50 both shows, $21.50 for 11 PM only, 21+
SATURDAY7
Chicago Blues Angels 7 PM, FitzGerald’s (outdoor patio), 6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn, free, all ages
Joanna Connor Band, Nora Jean Wallace Blues Band Gerry Hundt plays acoustic at 7:30 PM, and then the bands trade hour-long sets. 9 PM–4 AM, Kingston Mines, 2548 N. Halsted, $23, door discounts for students, seniors, active military, police, and firefighters, 21+
Chris Duarte, Alastair Greene, Kris Lager Band 8 PM, Des Plaines Theatre, 1476 Miner, Des Plaines, $46.75–$78.75, all ages
Ivy Ford Band, Frank Bang 3 10 PM, Reggies Bananna’s Comedy Shack, 2105 S. State, free, 21+
Stephen Hull, Hanna Simone, Sin., Charlee Grider 8 PM, Reggies Music Joint, 2105 S. State, free, 21+
Blues Brunch featuring Gerry Hundt 11 AM–3 PM, Reggies Music Joint, 2105 S. State, free, 21+
Blues Brunch featuring Nigel Mack & Andon Davis 12:30 PM, FitzGerald’s (outdoor patio), 6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn, free, all ages
Gerald McClendon With burlesque by Gaea Lady between sets as well as a latenight DJ set. 8 PM, Untitled Supper Club, 111 W. Kinzie, $5 plus food or drink purchase, 21+
Mississippi Heat, Ivy Ford 4:30–9:45 PM, Navy Pier Beer Garden, 600 E. Grand, free, all ages
John Primer & the Real Deal Blues Band 9:30 and 11 PM, Rosa’s Lounge, 3420 W. Armitage, $31.50 both shows, $26.50 for 11 PM only, 21+
Kat Riggins, Derek Caruso Billy Flynn plays acoustic at 5:30 PM. 9 PM, Buddy Guy’s Legends, 700 S. Wabash, $27.30, 21+
Carlos Showers & Ron Simmons, Paolo Apuli, Matt Hendricks Presented by Buddy Guy’s Legends. Noon (Hendricks), 2 PM (Apuli), 4:15 PM (Showers & Simmons), 57th Street Art Fair, Kenwood at E. 57th St., free, all ages
Soul Message Band 4:30 PM, FitzGerald’s (outdoor patio), 6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn, free, all ages
Bob Stroger and friends Tickets are available at the Blues Heaven Foundation booth at the Blues Festival or via the foundation at 312808-1286 or info@bluesheaven.com. Admission to the concert includes a studio tour, food, and
Kat Riggins (le ) headlines at Buddy Guy’s Legends on Saturday; Pierre Lecocque performs with Mississippi Heat at Navy Pier earlier that day.
MUSIC
drink. 9 PM–midnight, Chess Records Studios at Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation, 2120 S. Michigan, $30, all ages
Inetta Visor & the Chris Christmas Band 9 PM–1 AM, Lee’s Unleaded Blues, 7401 S. South Chicago, free, 21+
Mike Wheeler Blues Band with Demetria Taylor 9 PM–2:30 AM, Blue Chicago, 536 N. Clark, $20 with two-drink minimum, 21+
SUNDAY8
End of Bluesfest Super ProJam With Jimmy Burns, Bob Stroger, John Primer, Johnny Burgin, Billy Flynn, Pat Seals, Keith Scott, Melvin Smith, Lee Kanehira, Dave Katzman, and more. 10 PM, Reggies Music Joint, 2105 S. State, $33.65, 21+
Stefan Hillesheim 5:30 PM, FitzGerald’s (outdoor patio), 6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn, free, all ages
Lynn Hilton, Brandye Phillips, Noland/ Tate/Rumback Trio Presented by Buddy Guy’s Legends. 11:30 AM (Trio), 1:15 PM (Phillips), 3 PM (Hilton), 57th Street Art Fair, Kenwood at E. 57th St., free, all ages
Blues Brunch featuring Tom Holland 11 AM–3 PM, Reggies Music Joint, 2105 S. State, free, 21+
Stephen Hull Experience 9:30 and 11 PM, Rosa’s Lounge, 3420 W. Armitage, $21.50 both shows, $16.50 for 11 PM only, 21+
Maxwell Street Blues Series Featuring the Marty “Big Dog” Mercer Duo (11 AM), Omar Coleman & Westside Soul (12:30 PM), and the Harmonica Hinds Duo (2 PM), with sets by DJ James Porter (10 AM, noon). 10 AM–3 PM, Maxwell between S. Halsted and S. Union, free, all ages
Mike Wheeler, John Neafsey & Ron Sorin 5 PM (Wheeler at 9 PM), Buddy Guy’s Legends, 700 S. Wabash, $16.99, 21+
Shorty Mack & the Magnificents 8 PM–midnight, Lee’s Unleaded Blues, 7401 S. South Chicago, free, 21+
Sheryl Youngblood Blues Band 9 PM–1:30 AM, Blue Chicago, 536 N. Clark, $15 with one-drink minimum, 21+ v
MUSIC
Mavis Staples
joins a mix of veteran and up-and-coming
talent at the Chicago Blues Festival
Recommended and notable shows with critics’ insights for the week of June 5
b ALL AGES F
CHICAGO BLUES FESTIVAL
Thu 6/5, 4–11 PM, Ramova Theatre, 3520 S. Halsted, RSVPs closed, admission first-come, firstserved. Fri 6/6, noon–9 PM, Sat 6/7 and Sun 6/8, 11 AM–9 PM, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph. See chronological listings on subsequent pages for more info and visit ChicagoBluesFestival.us for a complete schedule. Thu 18+, Fri–Sun F b
THE 2025 EDITION of the Chicago Blues Festival has one of the stronger lineups in recent memory—its mix of hallowed veterans and up-and-comers suggests that the idiom remains very healthy. The four-day shindig commences on Thursday at the Ramova Theatre, where local harmonica master Billy Branch and his band the Sons of Blues will open for ageless vocalist Bobby Rush, whose amalgam of low-down blues, pumping soul, and roiling funk remains as compelling as it was in 1971, when he scored his first R&B hit with “Chicken Heads.”
The festival loves to salute departed blues greats around their birth years. Friday evening’s headlining set at Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion honors B.B. King’s centennial with a tribute spotlighting three fast-rising young guitarists who combine a contemporary attack with bedrock tradition: pile- driving Christone “Kingfish” Ingram (who recently had a cameo in Sinners ), fullthroated D.K. Harrell (a new signee to venerable Chicago label Alligator), and gospelrooted Jonathan Ellison (former musical director for the late Denise LaSalle). For the second-to-last set at Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago blues guitar mainstay John Primer teams with harpist Steve Bell. Afternoon action on the Crossroads Stage includes southern soul sender Johnny Rawls directly followed by guitarist Eddie Cotton, who mixes tough blues and meaty soul.
On Saturday evening, Ingram headlines Pritzker with his own set. Two slots earlier, three highly promising young bluesmen familiar to Windy City audiences come together on that stage: Stephen Hull of Racine, Wisconsin, whose earthy pipes and crackling guitar are equally at home on funky grooves and jumping house-rockers, will be joined by teenage Mississippi native Harrell “Young Rell” Davenport and Chicagoan Joey J. Saye. Saye has absorbed influences from a broad swath of
blues greats (including Robert Jr. Lockwood, Big Bill Broonzy, and the three Kings) to forge his own eminently swinging guitar technique. Between those two sets, the legendary Latimore takes over; the Florida-based keyboardist was a soul-soaked hitmaking machine in the 70s, topping the R&B singles chart and hitting 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 1974’s sexy, sultry “Let’s Straighten It Out.”
On Sunday, Chicago guitarist Jimmy Burns—a bit of a chameleon who started out as a 60s soul singer before segueing convincingly into blues—commands the Rosa’s Lounge stage in the early afternoon. The smorgasbord of music at Pritzker Pavilion gets going at 3:45 PM, as usual, and for the festival’s final day it begins with a celebration of Chess Records curated by Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation that includes several second-generation artists, including Charles Berry Jr. and Mud Morganfield. That showcase is followed by a blast of high-kicking zydeco from accordionist C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band (he’s a second-generation artist too—his dad, Clifton Chenier, virtually invented the genre). Chicago blues guitar master Lurrie Bell is up next; he’s real-deal traditional blues all the way, though he’s joined here by jazz saxophonist Frank Catalano.
Closing the whole fest is the revered and beloved Mavis Staples, who sings virtually everything but blues. She’s a gospel pioneer and soul legend whose family group, the Staple Singers, are best known for their redhot 1970s Stax classics, including “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There.” Staples launched a successful solo career in 1969, and more recently she’s taken on the mantle of Americana. Whatever material she chooses for this headlining set, though, her throaty growls and seductive wails will definitely make for a spectacular climax to this year’s Blues Fest. —BILL DAHL
Clockwise from top: Mavis Staples, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Bobby Rush DANNY CLINCH, ANTHONY ABU-HANNA, ARNIE GOODMAN
THURSDAY5
Chicago Blues Festival day one See Pick of the Week at le . See also Fri 6/6, Sat 6/7, and Sun 6/8. Thursday’s event begins with a Living Blues panel discussion at 4 PM and a talk with Bobby Rush at 5:30 PM. Bobby Rush headlines; Billy Branch & the Sons of Blues open. See ChicagoBluesFestival.us for a complete schedule. 7:30 PM, Ramova Theatre, 3520 S. Halsted, RSVPs closed, admission first-come, first-served. 18+.
Dragged Into Sunlight Mizmor and Minsk open. 9 PM, Sleeping Village, 3734 W. Belmont, sold out, wait list available. 21+
The first Dragged Into Sunlight show I saw ended up on my Reader year-end list of the best live metal of 2012. “The music roars out of a thick fog lit only by a blood-red glow and a spasming strobe,” I wrote. “It feels like a massive evil seizure—imagine being trapped inside Dr. Jekyll’s brain at the instant he turns into Mr. Hyde.” I doubt I can improve on that line, but I’m for damn sure gonna tell you about this UK band’s imminent Chicago date—not least because they’re on their first North American tour since 2016, when they also made my year-end list.
To quote myself again, Dragged Into Sunlight play “noisome, misanthropic death metal that reconfigures its heaving bulk at the speed of thought, like a Lovecraftian horror that feeds on our terrified imaginings of it.” The band members are anonymous, and they perform with their backs to the crowd. “It wasn’t about hostility,” vocalist T told Australian site Wall of Sound in 2019. “It was just a case of we don’t want communication. . . . You’re just focusing on what’s in front of you, which is a lot of bright light, and a lot of volume.” He likes to see “how long it takes people to let go of their inhibitions I guess and let go of their thoughts.”
I count five people onstage in my photos from 2016, and the promo pic circulating now shows four guys in balaclavas. (“Balaclavas aren’t symbolic of anything, they were just the cheapest
when your albums aren’t your career? “The thing for Dragged was it was meant to be the last band for everyone involved,” T said to Wall of Sound. “It was just, make the best music we can make, and either people like it, or they don’t like it.”
This is another way to say that Dragged Into Sunlight don’t try too hard to be likable. On Terminal Aggressor II , the only comprehensible words are samples of serial killers, a consistent feature of the band’s records: Edmund Kemper, aka the Co-ed Killer, speaks in a 1989 interview conducted via closed-circuit television for the FBI Academy, and career criminal Richard Kuklinski, nicknamed Iceman, tells what might be an invented story about tying people up in caves and leaving them to be eaten by rats. Serial killers fascinate lots of extreme metal bands (long-running Chicago trio Macabre are arguably the most single-minded), and Dragged Into Sunlight have a better excuse than most. One member told the Quietus that he’d worked on Texas’s death row for six or seven months, sharing meals and routines with condemned murderers.
strobe with the kick drum. Metal makes a great outlet for backed-up negative emotions, and the best bands leave everything onstage. When those emotions include angry despair at the state of your whole fucking species, you’ve got to play hard enough to shake the paint off the building—and Dragged Into Sunlight do. —PHILIP MONTORO
FRIDAY6
things around,” the band told the Quietus in 2012.) Dragged Into Sunlight describe themselves as a collective with up to 12 members, living hundreds of miles apart, which helps explain their sporadic activity. (I mistakenly said they were from Liverpool, because one member lived there.) “We all tour together,” T explained to Wall of Sound. “If our merch person can’t come or our sound guy can’t come or our lighting guy can’t come, we don’t go.”
Dragged Into Sunlight likewise make music only when everything aligns. Their most recent album is 2020’s Terminal Aggressor II, which consists of a single 28-minute track. In 2017 they scrapped a followup to 2009’s life-changing Hatred for Mankind , starting over from scratch, and they still aren’t done. They finished the 2015 album NV, a remote collaboration with skull-scouring Dutch noise project Gnaw Their Tongues, at the rate of one or two tracks per year. The band’s slow pace is partly a consequence of perfectionism, but it also reflects an understanding that almost nobody makes a living in extreme metal. Why take a careerist’s interest in hype cycles
Terminal Aggressor II isn’t several songs run together but rather one long composition, with no part that repeats itself—and no drums or riffing till nearly 15 minutes in. The track starts out soaked in seething noise, fizzing static, undulating distortion, and tolling bass, then moves through broken-glass guitar in a dilated melodic incantation and a swarming, smothering buzz that builds to an overwhelming peak. The vocals enter with protracted, tortured screams, followed by shrieking, growling, and gurgling. The full-band passages shift through subgenres: a series of isolated impacts a la Khanate, spidery crawling doom metal, a bestial frenzy of overdriven blastbeats, stair-stepping grind with wiry guitars that rise and fall like a constant gale.
The production on Hatred for Mankind is so redlined and black-hole dense that the whole mix seems to shudder along with the drums, and Terminal Aggressor II departs nearly as dramatically from a naturalistic “band in a room” sound. Its destroyed waveforms and crumpling bass detonations seem to deform space-time—and in concert, Dragged Into Sunlight achieve a similarly disorienting effect by playing in a darkened hall and triggering a blinding
Chicago Blues Festival day two See Pick of the Week on page 28. Today’s Pritzker Pavilion bill includes a B.B. King centennial celebration with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, D.K. Harrell, and Jonathan Ellison (7:30 PM), John Primer with Steve Bell (6:30 PM), and Dawn Tyler Watson (5:15 PM). The Crossroads Stage features Eddie Cotton (4:30 PM), the Johnny Rawls Soul Revue (3 PM), and more; the lineup on the Rosa’s Lounge stage includes the Mike Wheeler Band (6:30 PM) and Sheryl Youngblood (5 PM). See ChicagoBluesFestival.us for a complete schedule. Noon–9 PM, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph. F b
SATURDAY7
Chicago Blues Festival day three
See Pick of the Week on page 28. Today’s Pritzker Pavilion bill includes Christone “Kingfish” Ingram (7:45 PM), Latimore (6:30 PM), and a Women in Blues Tribute to Denise LaSalle featuring Nellie “Tiger” Travis, Thornetta Davis, Nora Jean Wallace, and Mzz Reese with Jonathan Ellison (4 PM). The Crossroads Stage features John Primer & the Real Deal Blues Band (4:30 PM), Vickie Baker, the V Souls, and the Groove Crew (3 PM), and more; the lineup on the Rosa’s Lounge stage includes Theo Huff (6:30 PM) and Lynne Jordan & the Shivers (3:30 PM). See ChicagoBluesFestival.us for a complete schedule. 11 AM–9 PM, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph. F b
Grace Jones & Janelle Monáe Derrick Carter and Michael Serafini bring the Queen! house-music party to the Carousel Stage at 4:30 PM, with hosts Lucy Stoole and Nico. 7 PM, Pavilion, Ravinia, 201 Ravinia Park Rd., Highland Park, $59–$180. b
Grace Jones and Janelle Monáe’s coheadlining summer tour is an intergenerational celebration of gender-expansive Black women for the ages. Monaé has been a pop-culture fixture for nearly two decades. Since they broke out with their trailblazing debut studio full-length, 2010’s The ArcAndroid, they’ve Rubik’s Cubed elements of reggae, funk, R&B, hip-hop, soul, pop-punk, and jazz to build on a rich Black history of Afrofuturism and speculative fiction. Their 2015 single “Hell You Talmbout” has become a staple of revolution-minded playlists: Against drum-line percussion, Monáe joins members of artist collective Wondaland in chanting the names of Black Americans lost to police violence. Monáe has also pushed conversations around
Dragged Into Sunlight COURTESY THE ARTIST
Grace Jones & Janelle Monáe ANDREA KLARIN, JHEYDA M CGARRELL
MUSIC
queerness and gender plurality as part of a larger liberatory project. Outside music, they’ve built an impressive film career (their credits include 2016’s Moonlight and 2022’s Glass Onion ). Everything Monáe touches seems smart, effortless, and cool; it’s why their red-carpet looks at events such as the Met Gala o en inspire so much discussion. But there would be no Janelle Monáe as we know them without Grace Jones.
Born in Jamaica, Jones was raised in a strict Pentecostal household on the east coast. She was a skinny, androgynous kid when she signed with Wilhelmina Models at age 18, but she’d already gotten involved in 60s counterculture and was regularly hitting up gay clubs. By the mid-70s, Jones’s face was internationally recognized as much for her modeling as for her nightlife appearances, and she began transitioning to music. She’s released ten albums since, creating a singular canon distinguished by her moody contralto and incisive lyrics (“Feeling like a woman, looking like a man,” she sings on 1981’s “Walking In the Rain”) and her fusion of the most dynamic club sounds of her generation, including disco, new wave, postpunk, and go-go. Not to be contained to one medium, Jones has also brought her unparalleled ferocity to the silver screen, where she’s elevated films such as 1986’s Vamp and 1992’s Boomerang. Jones’s best-known work is probably her 1985 album Island Life, which collects what she regarded as the best material from her first nine years on Island Records. (Sadly, “Warm Leatherette” is not
Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/musicreviews
leaked “outtake” from a 2009 Complex photo shoot with model Amber Rose and a nod by Nicki Minaj in her 2012 video for “Stupid Hoe.” In Jones’s 2015 memoir, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs , she excoriates Minaj and other performers for aping her without extolling her influence or respecting the underground. Jones is Afropunk royalty, and she walked so that other Black and queer artists could run. Jones and Monáe’s headlining performance follows an a ernoon with the DJs and queens of Queen!, Metro’s longtime house-music party. Seeing them all in one day will be a revelation for club-culture enthusiasts of all ages. —MICCO CAPORALE
SUNDAY8
Chicago Blues Festival day four
See Pick of the Week on page 28. Today’s Pritzker Pavilion bill includes Mavis Staples (7:45 PM), Lurrie Bell & Frank Catalano (6:30 PM), and C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band (5:15 PM). The Crossroads Stage features Ms. Jody (4:30 PM), Jonathan Ellison (3 PM), and more; the lineup on the Rosa’s Lounge stage includes the 3 by 3 Crew with Freddie Dixon, John Watkins, and Maurice Vaughn (6:30 PM) and Sonia Astacio (5 PM). See ChicagoBluesFestival.us for a complete schedule. 11 AM–9 PM, Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph. F b
included.) It also has one of the most iconic album covers of all time: Her partner at the time, JeanPaul Goude, created a photo collage that presents Jones, slicked up and dressed only in a bandeau top, knee sleeve, and armlet, holding a microphone in an arabesque pose. It’s an impossible version of a human put together seamlessly from parts—not unlike Cindi Mayweather, the android alter ego Monáe developed for their long-running Metropolis series of concept records. The cover art for Island Life continues to be referenced in pop culture. Notable examples include a
MONDAY9
Moriah Bailey Andrew Sa headlines; Moriah Bailey and Ava Brennan & Garrett Frank open. 8 PM, Color Club, 4146 N. Elston, $12.36. b
Language can convey a lot, but no matter how thoughtfully and precisely we use it, it can still feel inadequate for expressing emotion. That reality pervades the spacious, somber chamber-folk arrangements and breathy emoting on Moriah Bailey’s most recent album, 2022’s I Tried Words . The Oklahoma- born harpist and vocalist began writing songs as a child, a er her parents divorced when she was five and she began taking turns living with her mother (a lesbian pastor influenced by liberation theology), with her father (a rural conservative and animal lover), and in her grandparents’ small town. She endured abuse and felt isolated and unheard, and on I Tried Words , she examines the way these experiences have affected her life choices and relationships. “So You Say . . . ” grapples with betrayal by a confidant and her guilt at not trusting her instincts, while “The Ocean Life” describes escaping via self-medication and fleeting relationships. Bailey often pairs conversational lyrics with her twinkling harp in a way that evokes childhood innocence and nostalgia, and her voice sometimes sounds like she’s on the brink of tears. But by the album’s triumphant closer, “Not Staying,” she makes it clear that despite the rough roads behind her, she’s set her eyes on a bigger, brighter future ahead. —JAMIE LUDWIG v
SAVAGE LOVE
SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS
From May to December
Should I explore my youthful desires? Plus, becoming a useful top.
By DAN SAVAGE
Q : Gay guy in a May–December relationship. Been with my partner for almost five years now. Moved to his state to be with him, embracing his life and friends entirely. My youthful desires/needs are changing, and I feel as though our paths will eventually diverge. Differences in libido, his unwillingness to open the relationship, a generational disconnect, the fact that we don’t share many common interests. He’s an absolutely wonderful person and I love having him in my life, but a er getting consistent resistance to make some adjustments for me (as I have made for him) I am now questioning the future. I don’t expect a loveable old dog can change and I feel the writing is on the wall. But I want to make sure I give him a fair shot while also being fair to him and to myself. Am I wrong to have these thoughts? Do I need to put in more effort and continue talking about it?
—GAY AND PRESSED
a : You’re not wrong to have these thoughts—you’re a May, GAP, you’re still figuring out who you are and what you want. That’s what Mays do. And Decembers who can’t roll with change would be foolish to partner with Mays. (Bone? Yes. Partner? No.) But if you’ve concluded that monogamy isn’t for you (anymore) and you don’t wanna do the wrong thing (cheat), then you’re gonna have to issue an open-or-over ultimatum to your partner. Issuing an ultimatum is scary because you could wind up breaking your partner’s
heart and blowing up your life—and paying your own rent again—but if your sexual connection is waning and the generational disconnect is growing, your relationship is doomed unless it changes. Which means this very scary, very consequential conversation is the only way to save your relationship.
Q : I’ve been a bottom since my youth. Sadly, my youth is long gone, and I can’t be bothered anymore, so these days I often end up topping by default. And I am very bad at it. It takes an act of god to get me hard enough to get inside, and once I am inside, I come in seconds. It’s embarrassing! I guess the answer is practice, practice, practice, but the fact is I don’t get many opportunities—certainly not repeat opportunities with the same guy. What can I do solo to train myself to be slightly less useless at this?
—OFTEN
LIMP DUDE
a : I posted your question to last month’s Struggle Session at the Savage Love website. (Struggle Session is an ongoing feature where I respond to comments and invite my readers to give advice.)
Jonathan, one of our superstar commenters, had some great advice for you: Men of all ages can bottom, ED (erectile dysfunction) meds can help you get hard when you wanna top, and condoms can help you last longer by decreasing sensitivity. “It’s also not fair to have bottoms go through their prep [if OLD knows he’s likely to fail],” Jonathan
added. “Really, the only place he should be topping is in a bathhouse or during an anon cumdump scene where the bottoms know he’s not their only source of pleasure for the evening.”
My two cents: If you’re not into bathhouses and/or anon cumdump scenes—and not everyone is—consider investing in some high-quality silicone dildos, plugs in different shapes and sizes, and a comfortable harness. Having the freedom to switch back and forth between your dick and your growing collection of toys will take the pressure off your dick, OLD, and taking the pressure off is a highly effective ED treatment all by itself. Lots of gay men enjoy toys and a significant number of gay men actually prefer them. So, having a nice collection of high-quality toys is a selling point, not a consolation prize, OLD, and including pics of your toys in your profile will attract the attention of men who love being pegged as much as, or more than, they love being fucked. And succeeding with toys— instead of failing with dick— will do wonders for your confidence, OLD. Boys you pegged the shit out of will be hitting you up for repeats. P.S. Gay sex doesn’t have to include anal penetration— instead of “defaulting to top,” you could embrace being a side. Jerking off with other guys at JO parties, I’ve been told, is a great way to make new friends. v
Got problems? Record a question for the Savage Lovecast at the URL savage.love/askdan. m mailbox@savage.love
Moriah Bailey COURTESY THE ARTIST
CLASSIFIEDS
JOBS
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago seeks Research Technologists II for Chicago, IL to conduct experimental research lab work. Bachelor’s in Biotech/Chem/related field + 1yr exp req’d. Req’d skills: Edu or exp must incl: Cell culture work; IHC/IF staining; Cloning; Knowledge on biochem processes & tech. necessary for buffers prep. Exp must incl: Western-blot, qRTPCR, Protein & RNA extraction. Background check & drug screen req’d. $56,368/yr- $62,878/ yr. Apply online: https:// careers.luriechildren. org REF: JR2025-1775
Cars.com d/b/a Cars Commerce Inc. seeks Peoplesoft Developer in Chicago, IL. Responsible for coding, testing, and deploying software programs for Peoplesoft Finance modules. Telecommuting permitted. $123,600 / year. Apply: https:// www.jobpostingtoday. com/ Ref #72461.
DBCC Corporation seeks Doors and Windows Installer w/2 yrs exp in job offer or in a constr role incl exp w/wndw instlln, door instlln & usage of a break to mld & bnd alumn trm & flshg. Freq trvl by car to constr sites thrgout IL. Salary $92,768/yr. Apply to HR, 518 N. Maple Ave, Wood Dale, IL 60191
General Dentist (multi) (Pro Dental IL - Chad Wise PC/ Chicago, IL): Reqs DDS or DMD (US/ frgn equiv) & IL Dental License. Slry $79,914/ yr. Email CV to immigration@ prosmile.com.
Human Resources Specialist II (Ehomie Chicago Inc., Chicago, IL 60611) full-time; DUTIES: rcrtmnt, perf eval, + oth HR rltd duties. Reqs:
Master’s in HR Devlpmnt, HR Mgmt, Human Relations, or related. Full job desc & reqs at: https:// placementservicesusa. com/app_detail.php?app_ id=1747275734-29866. To apply, send resume to hr@ehomiegroup.com. hr@ehomiegroup.com
Dentons US LLP seeks Lateral Conflicts Analyst (Chicago, IL). Supprt the firm’s US Conflicts team ensurng effectv compliance controls & procedurs are in place. Degree & commensurate exp. req’d. Sal $73,694 to $75,000/year plus standard benefits. Email resume to dentonsus staffrecruitment @dentons.com and ref. 8285
JDE Technical Delivery Manager position at Silliker Inc. Position located in Chicago, IL. Responsible for leading the problem solving and engineering of software solutions within the JD Edwards Enterprise One software application. Salary: $164,800.
Benefits: Med., Dent. Vis., 401k. Position requires Bachelor’s degree (3 or 4-year degree accepted) in Bus. Admin., Comp. Info Tech. or rltd field (or foreign equiv), Certified Implementation Specialist in JDE Edwards Enterprise One Distribution 9.2 & 5 yrs. relevant exp. Position allows for telecommuting within commuting distance of reporting office in Chicago, IL. Position requires 10% domestic and international travel to oversee projects at company and customer facilities. Apply via the company website: https://mxns.csod.com/ ux/ats/careersite/5/ home/requi sition/7300? c=mxns&sq=req7300
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare seeks Medical Laboratory Scientist (multiple positions) in Chicago, IL to perform test procedures in clinical laboratory & convey results to physician or designee in accurate & timely manner for the purpose of patient diagnosis & treatment. BS in Medical Tech or Lab Sci, Clinical Lab Sci, Chemistry, Biology, or Allied Health, qualifying applicant for req’d ASCP cert exam. ASCP MLS/ MT req’d (ASCPi also accepted). Drug test & background check req’d.
Must be willing & able to work a specified shift. Base salary: $59,997.81$83,996.93/year. For position details & to apply, visit: https://jobs.nm.org ; ref. job ID#: REF80009T
United States Gypsum Company is seeking a Staff Engineer in Chicago, IL w/ the following reqmnts: Bachelor’s deg in Electrical Engg or rel field or foreign equivalent deg. 10 yrs of rel exp. Reqd responsibilities: Provide electrical design prjct leadership & provide technical input to 3rd party engg firms to maintain company standards. 19% domestic & 1% int’l trvl req,d. Must live w/in normal commuting distance of Chicago, IL & near a major airport; up to 90% remote work allowed. Co headqtrs in Chicago, IL. Sal: $132,912-$140,000/ yr. Rate of pay may be adjusted based on the qualifications & exp of the candidate. USG offers benefit options for employees & their families, including two medical insurance options, vision, & dental coverage. The cost of these optional programs varies based on coverage level. Coverage options are offered on day one. USG offers a 401(k) Plan w/ company match, a pension plan, as well as a number of additional prgrms like paid time off, paid holidays, life insurance, accident insurance, legal insurance, just to name a few. USG also offers bonus potential for all employees. Please visit www. usg.com/careers to view the entire job description & apply.
Senior VDC Manager (Master’s in Construction Mgmt or equiv & Bach in Architecture or equiv w/ 5 yrs of exp; Or Bach in Architecture or equiv w/ 7 yrs of exp)Chicago, IL. Job entails working w/ & reqs exp that must be in BIM & incl: developing design documents & reviewing
constructability; assisting in coordinating production team, building systems, code authorities, & specs; maintaining project cost estimates; coordinating bidding process; on-site observation; project delivery; business development; Revit, AutoCAD, BIM360, Navisworks, Autodesk Construction Cloud, & Dynamo; VR, Digital Twins, & AI. Various worksites: relocation or occasional travel to project-based unanticipated worksites within the USA possible. $115,000/year. Benefits: www.viatechnik.com/ who-we-are/careers - Send resumes to VIATechnik LLC, Attn: HR, 200 E Randolph, Ste 5400, Chicago, IL 60601
Senior Business Intelligence Analyst. Ulta, Inc. Bolingbrook, IL. Dev data models & SQL queries to support front end reporting & visualization solutions. BS: IT or rel. 3 yrs IT dev, front end report deve db mgmt or rel exp. Other exp req. Pay $100,006 - $101,006/yr. Apply: https://careers.ulta.com/ careers/ Job ID 352463.
SENIOR DATA ANALYSTS Chicago, IL area. Architecting & refining ETL frameworks. Address & resolve data quality issues using SQL & Python. Some job duties can be performed from home. Salary: $96,741 per year. Send res to: BARCHART.COM, INC. at hrgroup@barchart.com.
SwagatUSA, LLC seeks a Law Clerk in Chicago, IL to prep legal briefs for Imm law cases. Master’s in LLM, JD or reltd field w/ 6 mos exp in Legal Research. $64,730/yr. Res: 2551 N. Clark St., Ste 302, Chicago, IL 60614
Vail (Chicago, IL) seeks Technical Team Lead to manage the company’s infrastructure by building/ automating & optimizing the CI/CD pipeline. Remote work option 60% of the time. Salary: $139,901/yr. Submit resumes to hr@ vailsys.com, ref. Job ID: 202501TTL in the sbj. line.
SERVICES
CHESTNUT ORGANIZING AND CLEANING SERVICES: especially for people who
need an organizing service because of depression, elderly, physical or mental challenges or other causes for your home’s clutter, disorganization, dysfunction, etc. We can organize for the downsizing of your current possessions to more easily move into a smaller home. With your help, we can help to organize your move. We can organize and clean for the deceased in lieu of having the bereaved needing to do the preparation to sell or rent the deceased’s home. We are absolutely not judgmental; we’ve seen and done “worse” than your job assignment. With your help, can we please help you? Chestnut Cleaning Service: 312-332-5575. www.ChestnutCleaning. com www. ChestnutCleaning.com
REAL ESTATE
Own a Restaurant Near the Lake in SW Michigan Dream of owning a restaurant or bar in a charming Lake Michigan town? Multiple turnkey businesses 4 sale just 90 minutes from Chicago. Full-service kitchens, liquor licenses, strong local followings. Exclusive listings. bit. ly/m/LakeBiz4Sale
takes the year 1869 as its starting point, when the word "homosexual" was first used by an activist to argue against the criminalization of same-sex relations. Over 150 years later, queer and trans people around the world are still being targeted. This exhibition invites viewers to consider LGBTQ+ history in a new light and to celebrate the contributions of queer artists amidst the rise of homophobic and transphobic politics across the globe.