Culture Mon Mar 31 2014
Chicago's vibrant and diverse arts scene is undeniable; from theater to visual art to dance and beyond, the city boasts something for everyone, from all artistic walks of life.
Looking South of Roosevelt Road, a whole other cultural collective is firmly intact with venues including the South Side Community Art Center (SSAC), DuSable Museum of African-American History, Gallery Guichard, the Harold Washington Cultural Center and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, all off whom, in their respective right, serve as an integral part of the city's arts community.
For Heather Ireland Robinson, the new executive director of the Beverly Arts Center located in the Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood, Chicago's arts and culture environment is simply part of her roots. "It's in my blood, said Robinson. "I love the arts in Chicago."
Robinson came on board the Beverly Arts Center in February; recently, I sat down with her to talk about her new position, support for the arts on the city's South Side, and her vision for the future of the BAC.
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— LaShawn Williams
News Sun Mar 30 2014
"Lifescape: A Video Portrait of Marshall Bennett," a multimedia installation honoring one of Chicago's real-estate pioneers, will open to the public Friday at Roosevelt University's Heller College of Business and Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate.
The installation and the institute honor Bennett, now 92, a major force in real estate development and planning in Chicago and around the world. "Marshall is a true legend in real estate and urban planning and development, not just in Chicago but on an international scale," says Jon DeVries, founding director of the institute.
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— Nancy Bishop
Preview Fri Mar 28 2014
The performance gallery, Defibrillator, will be presenting their annual April Fools Day fundraiser, the Lyp Sinc Show, on Tuesday, April 1. This unique art gallery focuses on performance art. The gallery hosts an International Performance Art Festival annually, entitled, RAPID PULSE, June 1-10. The festival presents a total of 28 international and local performance artists for a series of 10 days. The Lyp Sinc Show occurs as a fundraiser for the artists meals, materials and housing for RAPID PULSE. There will be a total of 13 artists/groups at the Lip Sinc Show, which kicks off at 7pm.
Silky Jumbo will be the host for the evening and Jordan Jaymes will be the DJ.
Defibrillator Art Gallery is located at 1136 N. Milwaukee Ave. The gallery requests a $10 donation at the door, refreshments are included. Call 773-609-1137 for more information.
Additional events include No Lights, No Lycra, a weekly dance party in the dark. The next one will occur Monday, March 31 at 8:15pm.
— S. Nicole Lane
Column Fri Mar 28 2014
Noah
There's a sequence in director and co-writer (with Ari Handel) Darren Aronofsky's Noah in which the title character (Russell Crowe) is relaying to one of his children the story of creation, pretty much word for word right as we know it from the Bible — six days, ending in the creation of man and woman. But the visuals that accompany this telling are what makes the sequence so magnificent, and in many ways, best explain Aronofsky's take of his version of Noah, his ark, the great flood, and the restart that humanity and civilization got as a result of said event.
What we see when being told the creationism version of life on Earth is actually the scientific version, including evolution — a creature crawls up out of the water, stands upright and takes on human qualities. It's all shown in an accelerated manner, but there's no doubt that Aronofsky isn't so much placating both sides of the discussion; he's attempting to find a way to see if both versions would exist in the same universe. It's as if he's saying, "Let's assume all of these events happened as written in the Bible. How would that be possible?" In some cases, the answer is simply, "It isn't." But in other cases, he attempts to find ways in which religious mysticism and hard fact work together to create circumstances and beings that might be easier to accept.
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— Steve Prokopy
Art Tue Mar 25 2014
Photo courtesy Gil Leora.
To demonstrate that an office building can become an art gallery, King Art Collective has curated an exhibit of large-scale paintings by three Chicago artists at 300 S. Riverside Plaza from now through June 2.
The artists whose works are shown are:
Jen Evans, a Chicago native, is a multi-media artist and educator. She describes her current paintings as "a process of creating and discovering history. I use wood, plaster, wax, epoxy and paint to accumulate layers; I sand, carve, scrape, highlight and cover up elements to find balance in the chaos."
Bruce Riley, a self-taught painter, has studios in Chicago, where he lives, and in Cincinnati, where he was born. He has participated in several group shows recently. Recent exhibitions include two solo shows: "Psychedelic" at Packer Shopfs Gallery and "Science Fiction" at Miller Gallery.
Melody Saraniti holds an MFA degree from the School of the Art Institute. Her work evokes abstract expressionist energy. However, her drips and splashes are not the result of a spontaneous hand. Each "drip" is carefully painted with bands of color in order to investigate how different painterly gestures convey emotional energy.
The 23-story curving, glass-walled structure, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, was constructed in 1983. The building, on Jackson just west of the river, and its Riverside Plaza siblings were formerly known as Gateway Center.
The exhibit is free and open to be public from 6am-6pm daily except for national holidays. For more information, contact kingartcollective@gmail.com.
— Nancy Bishop
Film Mon Mar 24 2014
CNN Films' Documented.
The charge of the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media (FAAIM) is "to spotlight the rich, diverse voices of Asian American independent artists from Chicago and across the nation; and through its annual Asian American Showcase, the spotlight shines on writers, filmmakers, and artists are celebrated for their contributions to the world of film and media. Now in its 19th year, the Asian American Showcase is recognized as the "oldest film festival dedicated exclusively to Asian American film" and is well-known for featuring an exciting lineup of shorts, as well as feature-length and independent films and documentaries.
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— LaShawn Williams
Preview Fri Mar 21 2014
Starting April 18, The Museum of Contemporary Photography will be presenting the works of nine photographers in an exhibition entitled, Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood. The opening reception, held from 5 to 7pm will introduce gender roles, domesticity and identity.
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— S. Nicole Lane
Column Fri Mar 21 2014
Divergent
There are times while watching Divergent where I felt like I needed a flow chart to keep track of all of the various factions that exist in this tiny corner of the earth that looks a lot like a run-down, grown-over Chicago, where Lake Michigan and the Chicago River have all but dried up, and apparently it's possible to zip line from the top of the Hancock Building to somewhere in the Loop. That part of the film is actually pretty cool. But basically all you need to know (and accept) about this caste system is that this existence is divided into five groups, including ones made up of the intelligentsia, warriors, truth tellers, hippies and the selfless, who are for whatever reason deemed the most worthy to be the leaders of this weirdly utopian society formed after some vague war. At the age of 16, all youngsters much choose what group they want to be a part of, and if they are rejected by their chosen group, they are cast out of society.
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— Steve Prokopy
Theatre Mon Mar 17 2014
August Wilson's King Hedley II is a stroll down the memory lane of America's nightmare; you know, when "The Dream" — Horatio Alger's and Martin Luther King's — began the stroll down the sugar-to-shit American boulevard. For poor and working class blacks, most of whom had spent the '70s making catch-as-catch-can attempts to grasp the book-ended economic and social stability, as if those things were swirling money in one of those game show cash blowing machines. Some grabbed a little, some grabbed a lot, but then the Republican Southern Strategy, white flight/urban blight, Alan Bakke's anti-affirmative victory, and the election of Ronald Reagan roll in on a tsunami wave of hatred of "others" (no matter that the "others" ancestors built this nation-for free). Oh, and then came the crack and the Rockefeller drug laws. Yes, there were those that fought, and continue to fight, the good fight. But most gave up and gave in, turning over body and soul to the political and social ravages customized and perfected just for them.
King (Rob Connor) is scarred for life in every way imaginable. He's done prison time for killing a casual acquaintance who started off by "joking" with King (think Frank Vincent's Bobby Batts "joking around" with Joe Pesci's Tommy in Goodfellas) and a few days later delivers the punchline by slicing King's face open. Of course King responds with a hail of bullets. Black life and death (or, as Don King coined the phrase, "nigga' tragedies") not being worth much, King does seven years of time, and gets out to find the woman who raised him is dead. Neecy, his one true love, is also dead, but the woman who gave birth to him, the party girl who's gone to seed Ruby (Taron Patton), is still around. King moves in and makes do with consolation-prize wife Tonya (Tiffany Addison), a woman cursed with fighting against the ghost of the past in Neecy, and quite possibly a ghost of the future, her King.
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— Alice Singleton
Preview Sat Mar 15 2014
Photo by UChicago Arts
Are you intrigued by anatomy and art? Are you interested in (literally) looking inside of yourself? This spring, UChicago Arts will be hosting a multi-venue exhibition entitled Imaging/Imagining that incorporates both the artistic and the scientific history of the body.
This exhibition will be held in various locations across the campus, including the Special Collections Research Center (The Body as Text), the Smart Museum (The Body In Art) and the Crerar Library (The Body as Data). Each space will introduce the history of anatomy in a specialized and organized category. The Body as Text explores the history of medical illustration as well as when the partnership of art and science were separated due to the invention of the x-ray. The Body as Data focuses on modern anatomy and the introduction of computers. The exhibition at the Smart Museum, The Body as Art, focuses on the subjective imagination within the medical illustrations that were once incredibly important for anatomists.
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— S. Nicole Lane
Art Sat Mar 15 2014
Photo by Nicole Lane
The Chicago Arts District in East Pilsen opens its galleries, artists studios and neighborhood shops for local people every second Friday of the month.
Last night, Rooms, a performance space, had its final performance from an ongoing series entitled, RITUAL NO. 10:WAVES. The ritual included two male performers--one was seated and one was pouring water from one bucket to the other. The seated man beat a steady dream-beat while the standing performer transitioned from a platform to the wooden floor. As pictured above, the individual poured water from one bucket to another for three steady hours.
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— S. Nicole Lane
The Chicago Architecture Foundation is celebrating its 125th anniversary by providing rare access to all parts of the landmark Auditorium Theatre. The first event in the CAF's new "Behind-the-Scenes" program will give guests exclusive access to the theater, including views from the 6th floor balcony, tours of the costume shop and dressing rooms and a walk onto the actual stage.
The National Historic Landmark building, designed by the famous architectural team of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, was built in 1889. It was the tallest building in the country at the time and was sometimes called the "eighth wonder of the world." The theater is known for its perfect acoustics, stunning ornament and design, and its innovative architecture.
Hosting the event and describing the history of the building will be Dawn Schuette, architectural expert and treasurer of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects. She formerly taught in the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Schuette will describe the characteristics of the building that make up the innovative structure and sound quality.
Chicago Behind-the-Scenes: Auditorium Theatre will be held from 6pm to 8pm on Tuesday, March 25, at the theater, 50 E. Congress Pkwy. Cost is $30 to CAF members and $35 for nonmembers, including one drink ticket. Reservations can be made here. For more information, see the CAF website or Facebook page.
Photo by James Steinkamp.
— Nancy Bishop
Contest Fri Mar 14 2014
The Air Sex World Championships are coming (ahem) to the Abbey Pub next Friday.
Not coincidentally, Love & Air Sex is also hitting town next weekend. The film, which stars Michael Stahl-David from Cloverfield as lovelorn Stan, who flies to Austin, TX in hopes of running into his ex-girlfriend Cathy. Friends Jeff and Kara are in the middle of a bad breakup when Stan arrives, and the Air Sex World Championships end up being the setting for a battle of the sexes.
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— Andrew Huff
Theater Fri Mar 14 2014
Photo by Liz Lauren.
A woman arrives alone at a roadside motel somewhere in Iowa. She pays the motel manager for a week with a wad of cash. "Really? No credit card?" he says. She has luggage and immediately orders in a large supply of snacks and wine coolers -- and pays the delivery guy with cash.
She's Clem, played by Elizabeth Birnkrant, and she isn't explaining why there are two child car seats in the back of her Volvo SUV. Step Up Productions' new world premiere of Darlin' by Chicago playwright Joshua Rollins begins with Clem as the mystery woman, who meets the other denizens of the no-name motel and learns that each deals with questions like, "How did I get here? How did this become my life?" Later we learn that Clem is fighting these same questions.
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— Nancy Bishop
Column Fri Mar 14 2014
Need for Speed
So I guess there's a video game called "Need for Speed" that in at least some versions involves driving across the country, not unlike the plot of the new film version, made by former stuntman and Act of Valor director Scott Waugh. Much as he did with Act of Valor, Waugh has emphasized authenticity. In his military movie, he used real members of the military. And in a film that recalls quite frequently the great muscle car films of the 1960s and '70s, the new film features no computer-enhanced stunt work, instead allowing real cars to race at top speeds, often wrecking spectacularly. And anyone who thinks it doesn't make a difference is fooling themselves. The stunts in Need for Speed look and feel undeniably dangerous.
Granted, a film featuring grown men sitting around revving their engines as loud as they can, as well as a sequence involving a character forced to take an office job suddenly strip naked and walk outside in just his socks clearly isn't emphasizing character development, but anything would have helped make me care about these gear heads. I never quite understood why guys who race cars in movies also have to prove they they can beat another driver up, or why any of the drivers or mechanics insist on constantly measuring each other's penises to see whose has the most horsepower. There's a whole lot of posing in Need for Speed, and it borders on distracting.
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— Steve Prokopy
Theater Thu Mar 13 2014
Parrish Morgan & Keith Cavanaugh in SAVIOUR?; photo: Kenneth Simmons.
With the inaugural election of President Obama and thereafter, the term "post-racial America" was forcefully integrated into our country's cultural and political lexicon; many, from television news pundits to academic professionals to average voters, supported the notion, especially since the nation's first black president had been elected.
For playwright and frequent MSNBC political commentator Esther Armah, this notion of a "supposed" post-racial America is the subject of her latest work, SAVIOUR?. "In the age of Obama, 'post-racial' means as a playwright I get to look at white privilege--white identity," said Armah.
Directed by Jonathan Wilson, SAVIOUR? is the story of a black attorney (Parrish Morgan) who represents a white client (Keith Cavanaugh) in a case involving reverse discrimination; along the way, the play explores the lives of these characters who are from two different worlds, navigating through the complex world of "class and privilege" in America.
SAVIOUR? opens March 21 and closes May 11 at eta Creative Arts Foundation, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave.; performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and 3pm Sundays. Tickets are $30; senior, group and student discounts are available. For more information, call 773-752-3955.
— LaShawn Williams
Art Sat Mar 08 2014
The weather, warming up slightly this week, urged a substantial amount of Chicago makers, gallery goers and visual arts lovers, to the Flat Iron Arts Building last night. I, finally wearing something that wasn't reminiscent of a Christmas Story, trekked out to Wicker Park for the open studios, refreshments and socializing. This was my first time "First Fridays" at Wicker Park; I usually frequent Pilsen for "Second Fridays," instead. However, I am a fan of the area and decided to wander down for a peek at how they run things down at the Flat Iron Building.
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— S. Nicole Lane
Australia's literary salon, Women of Letters, arrives in Chicago for one performance on Friday, March 21, at the Mayne Stage in Rogers Park. Seven female writers and performers will read letters they have written in advance on the topic: "A letter to the moment the lights came on."
Australian shows have been such a literary phenomenon that three collections have been published by Penguin--the most recent released in November 2013. This year's Women of Letters US tour features additional events in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and New York.
Scheduled to read at the Chicago salon are:
- Tavi Gevinson, writer, actress and founder of Rookie Magazine
- Claire Zulkey, author and blogger
- Kate Harding, author of Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture
- Wendy McClure, author, columnist and children's book editor
- Kristen Toomey, comedian and actress
- Kyra Morris, actor, physical theatre artist and director
- Arlene Malinowski, solo artist, writer and instructor
Women of Letters was created to revive the lost art of letter-writing. Co-curators are writers Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire. Hardy is a writer, broadcaster, columnist and television producer. Her first collection of essays, You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead, was published in 2011. McGuire is a journalist and the author of Apply Within: Stories of Career Sabotage. Her second full-length nonfiction book, an examination of gambling culture in Australia, will be published by MUP in 2014.
The performances raise funds for an animal rescue shelter, Edgar's Mission.
Women of Letters will be presented at 8pm Friday, March 21, at the Mayne Stage, 1328 Morse Ave.
Doors are at 6:30pm. Tickets are $20 general admission and may be purchased online or by calling the box office at 866-468-3401. For more information, call 773-381-4554. Mayne Stage has $5 valet parking on show nights.
— Nancy Bishop
Art Thu Mar 06 2014
Photo courtesy of UCHICAGOArts
Encircling the Logan Center walls and spreading out like a scroll are the six large projections by the cinematographer and photographer, Yang Fudong. The exhibition, both a film and installation, is titled East of the Que Village, and features a rural area where Fudong grew up.
Upon entering the gallery space, I was struck by black and white film projections on each wall. As I stood in the middle, slowly circling my body to face each screen, I noticed people, rural locations, isolation and most importantly, wild dogs. Lots and lots of ravenous and skeletal dogs--fighting over meat, sanity and space.
As I rotated my body to face each of the projections, I continued to glance back at the dogs. I can't remember if it was their loud growls and bellows that attracted me or their savage existence to simply survive, however, my interest was incredibly sparked for further observation. Once I watched the film for a great amount of time, I began to connect the story between the separate screens. The stray dogs and the humans are all tied together into one, creating a pseudo-documentary which is united because of one young crippled dog.
The East of the Que Village exhibition will be up until to Sunday, March 30 at the Logan Center which is located at 915 E. 60th St. Yang Fudong's film is a documentation of his memories and time spent in his hometown. The dogs were pre-ordered, the locations scouted, but the environment and individuals are very real. Check out more Logan Center events/news on their Facebook and Tumblr page.
— S. Nicole Lane
Theater Wed Mar 05 2014
Photo by Anthony Acardi.
The Artistic Home is staging Les Parents Terribles, a sexy family farce by Jean Cocteau that will warm you up in this long deep-freeze winter. Director John Mossman keeps his five actors moving at a frenetic pace as he tells the story of one family's tangled love lives. The play begins manically and never slows down.
Kathy Scambiatterra plays Yvonne, an unhealthy or hypochondriac mother who wants to keep her 22-year-old son, Michael (Julian Hester), entwined in maternal affection. Possibly too much maternal affection. She's horrified when she finds out that Michael is in love with Madeleine (Allie Long), a bookbinder. Her husband George (Frank Nall) is an inventor who is building an "underwater submachine gun." And he's been having an affair with Madeleine, but doesn't want Michael to know that.
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— Nancy Bishop
Comedian Robin Harris.
Comedian Robin Harris made you laugh -- uproariously -- whenever he touched a microphone. His unapologetic "blue collar" comedic style, comprised of an effortless and expert blend of "signifying" and anecdotes, turned him into a household name.
Harris, a native of Chicago's South Side, put in major work in comedy clubs across the country, eventually landing in L.A.'s famed Comedy Store; however, it wasn't until 1985 when he became the house emcee for the Comedy Act Theater that people really began to take notice.
And boy, did they take notice.
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— LaShawn Williams /
Theater Mon Mar 03 2014
Martin McDonagh's dark comedy, A Behanding in Spokane, will open at Chemically Imbalanced Comedy (CIC) at 8pm Friday, March 7.
The play tells the story of Carmichael, a man who has been searching for his missing hand ever since a bunch of hooligans caused it to be lopped off by a railroad train in his childhood. Twenty-seven years later, he arrives at a hotel in an unidentified town and meets a couple who have a hand to sell.
This is McDonagh's first play set in the US. His work usually features Irish characters and settings, such as Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan and Lonesome West. As one critic put it, McDonagh "seemed to scrape his sentences off the cruddy cobblestones of his parents' bleak, rural West of Ireland." He has written and produced two films (In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths) set in Belgium and the US.
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— Nancy Bishop
