MacArthur Fellow (genius award) writer Ta-Nehisi Coates launched the Chicago Humanities Festival’s impressive 30th anniversary “Power” season with an engaging and lively discussion on October 2 at UIC’s Dorin Forum. The festival […]
Mike “McBeardo” McPadden is truth in human packaging. A beard is indeed present, bristly, with streaks of grey—suggesting wisdom in matters strange and arcane. I’ve seen McPadden in action as well, on-stage, […]
By Ariel Parrella-Aureli Eve Ewing knows how to pack a room and capture the moment. With her goofy humor and charismatic energy, the local author, poet, and professor pleases anyone she encounters. […]
T.J. Martinson’s debut novel, The Reign of the Kingfisher (Flatiron Books) came out March 5. Born in Kankakee, IL, and a current Bloomington, IN resident, he is currently pursuing a PhD in […]
Plenty of writers have mastered their craft, but few have fostered a genre. Howard Phillips Lovecraft—purveyor of pulp fictional cosmic terror—did both. Dying at age 46 on March 15, 1937, in penniless, […]
What’s the status of art in state of the art video games? Do pixelated citizens have a sense of aesthetics? Will we find a Van Gogh or Basquiat skin among the boogying […]
Mary Gibbons, co-owner of Pilsen Community Books says her store had a bevy of books… Nay—a surfeit of books… Strike that—a profound profusion, if not potential plethora of books in storage, doing no […]
I wish I could describe Edward McClelland in legendary terms—it would be so damned apropos. I’d tell you he’s as tall as a redwood, as strong as a herd of wild […]
By Liz Mason Chicago Zine Fest is one of my favorite yearly events: a major gathering of people into what I’m into—zines. Don’t know what a zine is? Don’t worry about it! […]
The evening opened with DJ Cash-Era playing some tunes as the audience gathered in the elegant ballroom of the Richard Driehaus Museum, that mansion of the Gilded Age. The ballroom’s coffered ceiling, […]
When former astronaut Captain Scott Kelly took his first flying test for the U.S. Navy, he nearly crashed when he landed. His instructor asked, “are you sure this is a career for […]
Two Countries: US Daughters & Sons of Immigrant Parents is a new anthology published by Red Hen Press. We sat down with the editor of the collection Tina Schumann to discover what […]
