Binga: The Rise and Fall of Chicago’s First Black Banker By Don Hayner Northwestern University Press, 312 pages, $24.95 Reviewed by Patrick T. Reardon A hallmark of the black nationalism […]
The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook Edited by Martha Bayne Belt Publishing Chicago’s neighborhoods are one of its most distinct yet indefinable elements. Despite what those ubiquitous neighborhood maps in every other […]
The Art of Regret By Mary Fleming She Writes Press Reviewed by Terry Galvan While 1990s Paris wavers between its stupendous past and uncertain future, failed US-born photographer Trevor McFarquhar […]
Walls of Prophecy & Protest: William Walker & the Roots of a Revolutionary Public Art Movement By Jeff W. Huebner Northwestern University Press Reviewed by Patrick T. Reardon Bill Walker was […]
Long Walk Home: Reflections on Bruce Springsteen Edited by Jonathan D. Cohen and June Skinner Sawyers Rutgers University Press He’s called the Boss—and a new book out from Rutgers University Press aims […]
Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater is a book you can enjoy in two ways. You can read it from beginning to end, as you would any narrative of […]
Minus By Lisa Naffziger Iron Circus Comics We’re living in a golden age of comics. Even better, we’re living in a golden age of comics for all ages. In my […]
On occasion, we’ll revisit and run reviews of books published in the past, both near and far. This week, guest author Patrick T. Reardon looks back at Adam Levin’s The […]
Compliments of Chicagohoodz: Chicago Street Gang Art and Culture James “Jinx” O’Connor & Damen “Mr. C” Corrado Feral House Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit gets most of the attention, but the […]
Trust Exercise Susan Choi Henry Holt and Co. If high school didn’t exist, writers would have to invent it. A writer’s job is to articulate what others feel; and what […]
Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson By Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow Chicago Review Press Robert Johnson is a definitive legend, though the dead-at-27 bluesman […]
Chicago is home to 200 to 250 theater companies, depending on who’s counting. Most of them are what we might call traditional theaters that stage scripted productions, both new works […]