It can be hard to wrap your head around the complex ecological makeup of the areas surrounding the Calumet and Little Calumet rivers. Formerly heavily concentrated sites of industry, parts of these southeast neighborhoods are now in the slow process of getting cleaned up, via the green development of places like the Marian R. Byrnes […]
Category: Arts & Culture
Best local stage director ready for next big steps
A few years ago, I wrote a story for American Theatre on Chicago as a great town for stage directors. One name that wasn’t totally on my radar then has since become a top favorite. Georgette Verdin, who has been managing artistic director for Interrobang Theatre Project since 2015, has a special gift for bringing […]
Best midnight screening of an iconic early-2000s movie
On a cold November night, as the clock struck midnight and the movie theater lights dimmed, the audience broke into raucous, hooting-and-hollering applause, and I knew that movie-going etiquette was out the window. Sipping Mystery Machine Margaritas—the Music Box’s featured cocktail for the occasion—longtime fans of 2002’s cult classic Scooby-Doo watched with giddy anticipation as […]
Best internationally known drag pageant system based in Chicago
The art of drag has been around for centuries, and today’s drag ball scene can trace its roots to post-Civil War Harlem, when Hamilton Lodge No. 710 began hosting regular competitions. The modern drag pageant evolved from one-off nights in bars, clubs, and rented banquet halls, to several pageant systems throughout the country; if you’ve […]
Best film series that interrogates the meaning of ‘high art’
“Cinema was born with the intention to fulfill the needs of spectacle for the working classes—the mainstream.” So exclaims the thesis posted to the metaphorical door that’s the Music Box Theatre website. “Yet, as time pressed on, and the cinematic form grew, so did the separation of cinema from its origins, from the people and […]
Best movie theater to relive your teen years
It’s something special to see a movie at the New 400, Chicago’s longest-running movie theater. Up in Rogers Park, the New 400’s tickets are half the price of any AMC, their concessions are astoundingly affordable (go for it and get the popcorn), and their day-glo interiors are reminiscent of an 80s arcade or Jerry Garcia’s […]
Best porn at a short films screening
Last June, I interviewed emerging filmmaker Henry Hanson about his short Bros Before, a funny 20-minute hyperpop fever dream where two trans men struggle to understand their changing friendship after they begin hooking up. At the end of July, it made its hometown debut at Facets following eight shorts by trans filmmakers from the United […]
Best under-the-radar movie trivia contest
I thought I could’ve been a contender. But all too soon, I was knocked out at the fun but challenging event known as Music Box Trivia and Brunch. It’s held every Sunday in the Music Box Theatre’s lounge from 1–3 PM, but get there early because people start claiming seats just after noon. It’s BYOB—and […]
Best place to pretend you’re running an art salon in your eccentric aunt’s basement
Some of Chicago’s coziest theater lobbies are in Wicker Park. Upstairs at the Den, overstuffed leather chairs and an electric fireplace provide a great place to warm up on a cold night. But the Chopin Theatre’s basement lobby has always been my favorite weird place to hang out before a show, especially when the show […]
Best way to combine theater, exercise, and history
In 2017, the members of Theatre Y completed the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain—a 500-mile route followed by pilgrims for centuries. That sparked the company’s annual ambulatory “Camino” productions, which invite audiences to walk through different Chicago neighborhoods while experiencing a series of environmental performances. In 2019, the Camino Project focused on neighborhoods surrounding […]
Best arts education programming
PlayMakers Laboratory (PML) stands out among other theater and arts education programs for its unique approach to teaching creative writing—and so much more—to Chicagoland area students (grades three to six). What sets PML (founded in 1997) apart is that the adult actors and musicians in the program adapt the students’ written stories into sketches and […]
2022 Arts & Culture poll winners
The people, places, and things voted Chicago’s best—and runners-up: street artist, mural, museum, comics illustrator, comics writer, zine, independent book publisher, poet, new poetry collection by a Chicagoan, poetry organization, nonfiction writer, new nonfiction book by a Chicagoan, novelist, new novel by a Chicagoan, reading series, lecture series, storytelling series, open mike, dance production, original digital content (dance), dance studio or training program, dance troupe, dancer, choreographer, venue for dance, new local opera production, opera company, performing arts festival, drag performer, venue to see drag, stand-up comic, venue for stand-up, comedian (non standup), sketch/improv troupe, venue for improv, filmmaker, film festival, movie theater, movie theater bar, film programming, drive-in movie programming, theater production, original digital content (theater), new play, virtual play, musical, new theater company, established theater company, off-Loop theater company, theater training program, stage actor, stage director, playwright, theater designer (sets, light, sound, etc.), venue for theater, theater bar or lobby, and more
Best book about women in punk by a local author
History is supposedly written by the victors. Most devotees of early American punk and hardcore could probably rattle off the travails of Henry Rollins’s time in Black Flag or Ian MacKaye’s memories of the 80s D.C. hardcore scene, as the two have told their stories ad nauseam. But how many know the story of the […]
Best artist who won’t be buying new art materials
In our age of overwhelming hyperconsumption, time scarcity, and environmental concerns, few artists are more inspiring than Selina Trepp, 49. In October 2012 she stopped acquiring new art materials and created “I Work With What I Have,” a concept that permeates all her work. “Work with what you have. If it doesn’t work one way, […]
Best art show that flexed on Chicago’s place in the new media landscape
Every Chicagoan knows this city is the underdog of major metropolises. There’s no shortage of things we don’t get enough credit for. When it comes to art, I’m of the mind that our most unsung heroes right now are our new media artists–creators who are pushing technology’s creative applications and imagining new ways to blur […]