Posted inCity Life

The Reader’s 2021 Gift Guide

Here are some goods, places to donate, and more ideas to consider for this Chicago gift giving season. And remember, you can always find items that support the Chicago Reader at our gift shop, store.chicagoreader.com. Adam M. Rhodes, staff writer and co-host of Chicago Queer & Now A donation in any amount to Brave Space […]

Posted inBook Review

The chronicles of daily life

Sam Pink makes it look easy and it isn’t. Over some dozen books of poetry, stories, and prose, he’s refined a spare but precise style that reads like truth. He gives alley dwellers, dishwashers, and city wanderers the dignity and gravitas that other writers normally reserve for the upper echelon. Pink continues to write about […]

Posted inArts & Culture

The crossroads that made Chicago

Conceptually, the words “Chicago, Wisconsin” are sure to baffle almost anyone reading them today. The idea that Illinois’s metropolis (and the nation’s third-largest city) could somehow be a part of the Dairy State seems laughable. Too bound to the long and sordid annals of Illinois politics, despite at times feeling a million miles away from […]

Posted inArts & Culture

Lit this month

September brings us a bevy of book-related, word-inspired, and otherwise literary events. Here’s a few to pencil into your calendar.  The Paper Machete has returned to its performance home in Uptown at the Green Mill, to the delight of fans. The organizers describe it as a “weekly live magazine,” and while comedians are regularly featured, […]