Halloween is right around the corner, but one cannot simply spook the neighbors just any day of the year. Here are some things to do this weekend to tide you over before the main event:
Fri 10/21: Wabash Arts Corridor, a project connecting Columbia College students with South Loop institutions, hosts the 2016 WAC Crawl. The walk—or crawl—along Wabash between Congress and Roosevelt features performances, exhibitions, film screenings, workshops, and a live mural painting by JJ McLuckie. 4-9 PM
Through 10/22: What is it to be a black, masculine body? Zimbabwe-born performance artist Nora Chipaumire grapples with this question in the piece Portrait of Myself as My Father at the Dance Center of Columbia College (1306 S. Michigan). In an interview with the Reader‘s Matt de la Peña, she says ”reconciling my relationship with my father means reconciling my relationship with a black man. And that’s a minefield.” 7:30 PM
Fri 10/21: Hags of the world, rejoice: Comfort Station (2579 N. Milwaukee) celebrates the warted and their auras during Vagick: Night of Video Witch Magick. The night features tarot card and palm readings, plus screenings of feminist horror films Colonialtown Babylon, Third Eye of Medusa, Killer Makeover, and St. Francis Hears a Noise. 6-10 PM
Fri 10/21: Central State Brewing comes to the Emporium Arcade Bar (2363 N. Milwaukee) to celebrate the release of Polyjuice Potion, their new ale ”concocted with elderberries, plums, and magical bits and bobbles” at the Harry Potter and the Costume Beer Release Party. 7 PM
Sat 10/22: Bed sheet ghosts and poltergeists alike are invited to join the Field Museum, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Art Institute, and Louder Than a Bomb in the Halloween Gathering Festival and Parade (Millennium Park). The festivities culminate in a spooky nighttime parade along Columbus Drive. 2-8 PM
Sat 10/22: If you’ve been wishing that your vote had the power to put a labradoodle in the White House, the Mutt Strutt (Southport and Newport) is the thing for you. The 13th annual fund-raiser for the Chicago Canine Rescue is ”paw-litically”-themed: cast your ballot for the dog you find most fit for office, and march your own mutt in a parade that leads to the presidential pooch inauguration. 11 AM-3 PM
Sat 10/22: The Graham Foundation (4 W. Burton) hosts Yoshi Wada and Tashi Wada, the Fluxus sound artist and his composer son. This performance, the first for Yoshi Wada since 1993, features sounds from a structure composed of sirens, alarm bells, audio generators, bagpipes, and organs. 8 PM
Sun 10/23: Tonight is the closing show for the Spartan Theater Company production of A Walk in the Woods at Den Theater (1329-1333 N. Milwaukee). This Lee Blessing play regards an American and a Soviet arms negotiator who converse, well, in the woods. The Reader‘s Jack Helbig writes that the dialogue ”perfectly captures the Russian soul.” 3 PM
Sun 10/23: Are you haunted? Are you plagued by some ”spooky fixation?” The Chicago Moth StorySlam wants to know. Come to Lincoln Hall (2424 N. Lincoln) to tell your own spine-tingling story. 7 PM
Sun 10/23:Â ”Bullies often conceptualize themselves as being under attack when they are the ones originating the pain,” writes author and activist Sarah Schulman. She visits Women & Children First (5233 N. Clark) to read from and discuss her new book, When Conflict is not Abuse. 4 PM
For more stuff to do this weekend—and every day—check out our Agenda page.