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Chicago rapper Matt Muse grows the way he wants to with Nappy Talk
At the end of May, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, creative director of local youth mentorship nonprofit Donda’s House—which has since been rebranded Art of Culture Inc.—went through a heated Twitter debate...
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Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm reunites with his Chicago improvising trio...
Multigenerational improvising trio J@K@L is one of the more exciting ensembles to emerge in Chicago over the last few years. Fueled by the energy of the young drummer Julian Kirshner, the group...
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Why does a sea mammal evoke more sympathy than a black man?, asks Tilikum
Kristiana Rae Colón's new play, inspired by the documentary Blackfish, tells the tragic story of an orca whale imprisoned at Sea World. The orca Tilikum was taken from the remote waters of Iceland at...
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Not One Batu feels torn directly from life
The goal, as with all Nothing Without a Company performances, is total immersion. The word batu in the title of Hannah Ii-Epstein's powerful play is a slang term in Hawaiian drug culture for...
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Growing up furry on Avenue Q
Aimless college grads still need their own Sesame Street. This clever 2003 Broadway hit by songwriters Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez and playwright Jeff Whitty, now in a breezy, intimate staging by...
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Triplets ripped from family in a Nazi-like experiment, probed in Three...
This true story of brothers separated at birth in the name of science hits like a thunderbolt. In this age of identity, when so many people are obsessed with their ethnic, racial, religious, or sexual...
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All hail Hunanese dry hot pot at Sizzling Pot King
The city’s singular expression of food from China’s southern province reigns in Greektown. I've often wondered: Who is the king of Hunanese-style dry hot pot in Chicago? Until last March there was no...
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Chicago Shakespeare’s Peter Pan is a soaring delight for both kids and adults
You may have to explain afterward that flying without a harness should not be attempted at home. Chicago Shakespeare Theater's production of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe's musical based on the J.M....
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Leave No Trace approaches homelessness on the most intimate terms
Ben Foster stars in this superb drama by Debra Granik (Winter's Bone), as a traumatized war vet living off the grid with his 13-year-old daughter. One of America's greatest filmmakers, Debra Granik...
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Chicago DJ and producer Fess Grandiose shows why he’s a beat-scene leader...
In May, the New York Times reported on a surge of teenage Europeans who run YouTube channels that live-stream music 24 hours a day, operating in a legal gray area reminiscent of 20th-century pirate...
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Iconic Trombonist Willie Colón brings his Nuyorican sounds to Millennium Park
Trombonist Willie Colón was something of a teenage salsa sensation when he signed to Fania Records in 1965 at age 15. He made his recording debut two years later with El Malo, which featured vocalist...
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Two Chicago pianists perform a pair of rarely heard masterpieces by Morton...
Despite its profound and ongoing influence across a wide spectrum of musicians, the work of composer Morton Feldman is rarely performed in Chicago. That dearth can be explained in part by the...
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Chicago rap group Hurt Everybody reunites as its members build bright solo...
If you're well-versed in Chicago hip-hop, then you should certainly know the name Hurt Everybody, a rare group that landed like an asteroid in 2014 and vanished just as quickly. While outsiders...
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Caleb Willitz perpetually refines his pensive folk-rock sound by working with...
Singer and songwriter Caleb Willitz has forged a beguiling sound that seems like it only could have emerged from Chicago. With each performance he works with a shifting cast of musicians and ends up...
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Indie-rock vets Wilder Maker craft dense art-pop in which Paul Simon’s...
Wilder Maker is a sophisticated New York quintet helmed by a crew of indie-rock veterans with broad interests, including songwriter and front man Gabriel Birnbaum, who’s previously played with the...
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Raw Chicago trio No Men bask in horror movies and pray for doom
The band name of aggressive and exciting Chicago outfit No Men refers to the opposite of “yes men” rather than throwing down a “misandrist” gauntlet—though their abundantly queer and confrontational...
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Jazz drummer Nate Smith comes into his own as a bandleader with a sleek...
Drummer Nate Smith has taken his time as a bandleader. Last year the 43-year-old musician dropped Kinfolk: Postcards From Everywhere (Ropeadope), his second album and debut as a bandleader, which...
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Chicago rap phenom Phoelix does it all on his own with his latest...
Township will be remembered as a punk hub, but arguably the most important show the intimate Logan Square venue and restaurant hosted before it mysteriously shuttered last year was an all-ages rap...
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Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee's real-life affair yields a trio of films about...
The South Korean director and his actress lover are back with the somber drama The Day After. South Korean writer-director Hong Sang-soo sparked a minor scandal in 2016 when tabloid journalists...
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Love conquers all in The Csárdás Princess
But what else can you expect from a Viennese operetta? Composer Emmerich Kálmán was a Hungarian Jew who found fame in Vienna during the 1910s and '20s with such operettas asDer Zigeunerprimas (The...
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