Glögg and Carols at Simon’s Tavern
They come every year around this time, gathering at the long bar or huddling around the worn wooden tables. Many stand in the middle of the floor shoulder to shoulder […]
June Sawyers has published more than 25 books. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, New City, San Francisco Chronicle, and Stagebill. She teaches at the Newberry Library and is the founder of the arts group, the Phantom Collective.
Review: Andrew Bird’s Gezelligheid Concert Is a Treat for the Soul
The forceful cheeriness of the holiday season is now upon us but it is not for everyone. Not all Christmas songs are about comfort and joy. Singer, songwriter, violinist, sometime […]
Review: Malört—Chicago History in a Bottle
He had been warned. At a recent house concert in Printers Row, Pat Byrne, a soulful Irish troubadour based in Texas, bravely took a swig of the yellow liquid, scrunched […]
Review: DePaul Art Museum Exhibit Celebrates the Work of Edgar Miller, Renaissance Man
Edgar Miller has been called the forgotten man of Chicago art. But with the new exhibit Edgar Miller Anti-Modern, 1917–1967 at the DePaul Museum of Art in Lincoln Park, he […]
On the Road: Letter from New York—Culture Hopping in the City of Islands
“I’m in a New York state of mind”–Billy Joel New York is a city of islands or near-islands. In all, there are more than three dozen of them, inhabited and […]
Last Call on Southport: Running the Literary Gauntlet of Independent Bookstore Day
We were fast running out of time. At one point, we didn’t think even we would make it. It was our first time joining the annual Independent Bookstore Day’s Chicagoland […]
Talk of the Town: An Eclipse Poem
Everyone looked up On Michigan AvenueOn balconies and rooftopsBy the AdlerWe all looked up. We all felt giddyGrateful even for this momentPeople waved their solar glasses at each otherAs if we […]
Review: Midnight’s Broken Toll …. Girl from the North Country
Girl from the North Country, a musical adaptation of Bob Dylan’s songs by the Irish playwright Conor McPherson, has already appeared in London’s West End, Off-Broadway at the Public Theater, […]
Review: The Lost Subways of North America: A Cartographic Guide to the Past, Present, and What Might Have Been, by Jake Berman
From Atlanta to Washington, DC, Boston to Vancouver, Los Angeles to Miami, Montreal to Toronto, cartographer and writer Jake Berman explores the failures and successes of North American transport through […]
Feature: The Fine Arts Building—A Monument to Dreamers—Celebrates 125 Years
The first things you notice when you get off the elevator or walk up the stairs are the sounds: the tinkle of a piano perhaps or the voice of a […]
Review: Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood—Do All the Good You Can, by Gary Scott Smith
How can someone be so famous and yet so misunderstood? It’s easy if your name is Hillary Clinton. Gary Scott Smith, author of Do All the Good You Can, contends […]
Poem: Taylor Knows
June Sawyers wrote this poem—as a way to record her experience—on a walk over to Soldier Field this weekend during the Taylor Swift The Eras Tour. Taylor knowsyour secretsyour vulnerabilitiesyour […]