Ash Dye, music scene photographer
“I felt like part of the music community pretty early on. I’m just now starting to feel like I’m part of this photo community.”
Podcasts
Listen to The Ben Joravsky Show
Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls.
Latest Stories
The city in bloom
A note from our Theater and Dance Editor for the Reader’s 2023 Spring Theater and Arts Preview issue
Steeped in history
S. L. Wisenberg’s essays explore Jewish identity and modern womanhood.
The ladies who sing from the back
These Chicago background vocalists have helped the likes of Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Otis Clay sound their best. Here their own voices take center stage.
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Interactive inclusivity
Filament’s Think Fast, Jordan Chase! helps kids navigate difficult social scenarios.
News & INVESTIGATIONS
“Voices from inside”
An oral history of the prison publication Stateville Speaks
The news in Gary
Capital B, a Black news organization, establishes a local newsroom.
Queer gun owners are ‘American as fuck’
A sense of freedom connects Dina Simone’s music and their work as a firearms instructor.
Columns & Opinion
Spring awakening
In a challenging time for opera, a weekend orgy
Mr. Self-Promotion
Paul Vallas looks to bring back the bad old days of high-stakes testing.
Hello, Dalí
The Art Institute mounts its first-ever solo show of the surrealist icon.
Film
The Harper Theater is putting up a fight
Despite the hurdles faced by local cinemas, the Hyde Park institution is remodeling and reopening this spring.
Review: John Wick 4
The fourth film in this Keanu Reeves franchise is the best one yet.
Review: Country Gold
This fantasy-comedy freezes country music in its own authentic silliness.
Arts & Culture
Bed to crime to bed
Theo’s The Threepenny Opera doesn’t quite add up.
Woven tales
The Shroud Maker needs more room to breathe.
Edra Soto’s Graft project comes to the Hyde Park Art Center
The Puerto Rican artist treats her roots as a blueprint.
BCAM brings diversity to the circus
“We want to create spaces for artists of color to be at the forefront.”
So you think you know dance
DCASE’s Open Studio gives artists and audiences space to reimagine the form.
Music
Late jazz pianist Bob Dogan gets a tribute show at Elastic Arts
Plus: Eli Schmitt’s New Now online performance series makes its live debut at Color Club, and Che Arthur of Pink Avalanche drops his first EP as Ha Subliminal.
CITY LIFE
Perfection from the pieces
Offcut turns scrap lumber into custom designs.
M is for Mariano’s
With cheap drinks and familiar company, a grocery store bar is the hidden oasis in downtown’s Lakeshore East development.
Food & Drink
With elegant dumplings and meaty mountains of rice, Helmand channels the cradle of Afghan culture
Wahid Tanha’s Albany Park restaurant reintroduces the city to Afghan fine dining.
Better Boy reveals an easygoing, fine-dining future at the next Monday Night Foodball
Check out Adam McFarland and Tom Rogers’s nightshade-free menu at the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Ludlow Liquors.
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The YWCA and Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline support Chicagoland’s sexual assault survivors
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