Posted inCity Life

Chris Hayes, off screen

Chris Hayes reaches a larger audience with his MSNBC show All In With Chris Hayes than he did when he first wrote for the Reader in 2001, but his sense of curiosity and sensitivity to the complexities of politics has stayed the same. 2023 has been a year of anniversaries for Hayes at the network. […]

Posted inMusic

The Reader’s guide to World Music Festival Chicago 2023

In July, I attended a community meeting at the Broadway Armory in Edgewater about the city’s plan to turn the Park District facility into a temporary shelter for asylum seekers. A group of protesters, angry that much of the armory’s programming would be relocated or otherwise disrupted, carried bright yellow signs reading “Don’t Displace Us.” […]

Posted inStaff notes

Pride is our reality

The best way to make a TikTok name for yourself is by making constant, short, pithy videos about the same subject, including your possibly controversial opinions (but not, like, in a Mein Kampf way, just in a “Finally! Someone said it, and they said it well!” kind of tone that travels well in social sharing), […]

Posted inBest of Chicago

Best chance to hear an octogenarian tell a story about getting it on

Grown Folks Stories manages to do the thing that other storytelling events sometimes fall short of: center the human experience. At Grown Folks, the five-minute stories from Chicagoans who represent a variety of stages of life, backgrounds, and perspectives are always real accounts from daily life. Each night has a loose theme, but mainly nonprofessional […]

Posted inAgenda

A Night at the Museum, holiday theater, and more

Chance the Rapper’s youth empowerment charity organization, SocialWorks, hosts their annual A Night at the Museum event tonight at the Museum of Science and Industry (5700 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr.). It’s a family-focused evening that benefits unhoused people and organizations that serve them; guests are invited to support the effort by bringing new and/or […]

Posted inAgenda

Tree lighting, seasonal shopping, no coast hip-hop, and more

’Tis the season for unbridled consumerism masking as some of us insisting that “gift giving is my love language!” While we can’t stop the avalanche of gifting that is already in motion (although Reverend Billy would disagree), we can encourage you to check out some local pop-up holiday markets and consider purchasing directly from Chicago […]

Posted inAgenda

‘Ground Floor,’ movie trivia, and more

Since 2010, the Hyde Park Art Center (5020 S. Cornell) has hosted “Ground Floor,” a biennial exhibition featuring work by “Chicago’s most promising emerging talent.” The show is assembled by an esteemed panel of judges including curators, educators, and artists, and it features work from artists who’ve graduated from one of Chicago’s five MFA programs […]

Posted inAgenda

Lucia walking, Manasseh at MCA, Secret History of Chicago Music in person

Join Andersonville residents and celebrate the holidays the Swedish way, with St. Lucia and the Lucia Procession. Lucia girls, in white robes and candle crowns, were crowned at noon at the temporary Nordic House in the Wrigley building downtown. This afternoon a procession walks up Clark Street in Andersonville (starting at the Swedish American Museum, […]