Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 5/5 and Beyond
It’s looking like one hell of a weekend with Cinco de Mayo and Mother’s Day landing right around each other! And with it looking like the last cool/rainy weekend we’ll […]
Review: Cedille Records Continues to Release Excellence, Including a Grammy Award Winner by Jennifer Koh
Chicago’s classical music label Cedille Records has continued to release compelling CDs highlighting our city’s deep musical talent, both performers and composers. Two recent Cedille releases include compositions inspired by […]
Preview: Ian Maksin to Host Cello for Peace, a Concert Benefiting Humanitarian Efforts in Ukraine This Saturday
Russian-born American cellist Ian Maksin will be joining Ukrainian pianist and vocalist Sofi Fraser and other friends in Cello for Peace, a concert to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. In […]
Review: House Theatre Unearths the History of Haiti with The Tragedy of King Christophe
If we depended on the news media to learn the history of the island nation of Haiti, we would not know a lot of substance. Various dictators, earthquakes, and humanitarian […]
Book Review: A Kind of Poetry, The Fact of Memory, by Aaron Angello
The Fact of Memory: 114 Ruminations and FabricationsBy Aaron AngelloRose Metal Press In a piece titled “Think,” Aaron Angello tells of two conversations about what makes a poem a poem. In […]
Review: In Red Orchid’s Tense Last Hermanos, Two Brothers Are Desperate to Escape Across the Border
Last Hermanos by Exal Iraheta is a play about two brothers, set at some time now or in the recent past or near future, in an abandoned visitor center in a […]
Review: Porchlight’s Excellent Spring Awakening Rings an Alarm
Just over 130 years ago, when the German Empire was young and the 19th century was old, the German expressionist playwright Frank Wedekind wrote eine Kindertragödie (the play’s subtitle) called […]
Review: Chicago Opera Theater’s Quamino’s Map Pulls the Curtain Back on Black Life in the Georgian Era
Quamino’s Map is the 22nd opera by the Belizean-born composer Errollyn Wallen who trained at the University of London and Cambridge. The libretto is by playwright Deborah Brevoort and the […]
Review: Shana Cooper’s Direction Adds Zest to All’s Well That Ends Well at Chicago Shakespeare
Helen is a bright, attractive young woman, but, sad to say, she’s not royal. So Bertram/Count of Rossillion, the man she loves for reasons not clear, scorns her. The daughter […]
Review: Glad to Have the Time Together—Carol Burnett at the Chicago Theatre
Back in 2020, comedy icon Carol Burnett was scheduled to bring her one-woman show, “An Evening of Reflection and Laughter,” to the equally iconic Chicago Theatre. Then a global pandemic […]
Review: Eating Cheap Without Eating Poorly, The Poorcraft Cookbook
The Poorcraft Cookbook By Nero Villagallos O’Reilly Iron Circus Comics If there’s one thing old people know it’s that young people are dumb. Selective amnesia makes each generation’s youth-haters forget […]
Review: A Breezy French Romantic Comedy, Anaïs in Love Finds Honesty, Authenticity
Perhaps because I just saw Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World for a second (and just as impressive) time, Anaïs in Love, the feature directorial debut from actor […]