Review: Chicago’s Lost Boys: Mother Chicago, by Martin Billheimer
Mother Chicago: Truant Dreams and Specters Over the Gilded Age By Martin Billheimer Feral House Chicago is a dark place. All cities are. The more humans you pack into a […]
Review: Where Dylan Grew into His Genius, Bob Dylan’s New York By June Skinner Sawyers
Bob Dylan’s New York By June Skinner Sawyers The History Press,142 pages, $21.99 First of all, a story: In April 2010, I was in downtown Duluth on a freelance writing […]
Review: In Neil Young on Neil Young, the Musician Opines on Other Musicians, Politics, and Being Canadian
Neil Young on Neil Young: Interviews and Encounters By Arthur Lizie Chicago Review Press “Serious, intense, with hooded, blue-gray eyes that always seem capable of pinning you to the wall, […]
Review: It Is What It Is: Guide to Chicago’s Twenty-First-Century Architecture
Guide to Chicago’s Twenty-First-Century Architecture Chicago Architecture Center and John Hill University of Illinois Press As packed with tacky tourist traps as any city, Chicago has one irreproachable draw: its […]
Review: Messy Cities, Monstrous and Full of Hope, Metropolis, by Ben Wilson
Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind’s Greatest Invention By Ben Wilson Anchor Books In the 1850s, Swedish writer Fredricka Bremer visited Chicago and, to say the least, was not […]
Review: Donna Seaman’s Book on Female Artists Explores That Old Problem: Invisibility
Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists By Donna Seaman Bloomsbury USA I discovered this book about female artists who never received proper recognition after seeing the Newberry Library exhibit […]
Dialogs: Critical Race Queries from Nikole Hannah-Jones at the Chicago Humanities Festival.
“We’ve been taught the history of a country that doesn’t exist.” Nikole Hannah-Jones is today’s Ida B. Wells, both fearless females and groundbreaking African-American journalists (Hannah-Jones’ Twitter handle is Ida […]
Dialogs: Actor/Performer/Etc. Alan Cumming Brings Charm and Stories to Chicago Humanities Festival
By Carr Harkrader With its dramatic palazzo ornamentation, twinkling star-lit ceiling, and mischievous cherubs nuzzling within insets, the Music Box Theatre was perhaps the perfect place for a talk with […]
Interview: In Olde Chicago: A Talk with David Anthony Witter about His Book Oldest Chicago
David Anthony Witter was born in Miller, Indiana—“across the lagoon from Nelson Algren’s summer home,” as he puts it—but has spent most of his life in Chicago. Growing up in […]
Review: What Played in Peoria—Punks in Peoria, by Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett
Punks in Peoria: Making a Scene in the American Heartland Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett University of Illinois Press I told a friend I was reviewing a book called Punks […]
Dialogs: Qian Julie Wang and Greta Johnsen Discuss Beauty, Secrecy, Fear, and Freedom at CHF panel
We all carry secrets, but not everyone has the courage to sit under stage lights, before an audience awash in shadows, and tell them to the world. But immigration attorney […]
Review: Literary Festivals, Salons, and Words Aloud in Ellen Wiles’s Live Literature
Live Literature: The Experience and Cultural Value of Literary Performance Events from Salons to Festivals Ellen Wiles Palgrave Macmillan With music, open mics, and more—live performance is slowly coming back […]