In 2019 the Illinois Lottery launched a new Instant Ticket to raise money for agencies and organizations that support people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity throughout the State. The Illinois Lottery gives 100 percent of profits from the ticket to the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), which then utilizes funding for a grant program […]
Tag: Chicago House
Posted inMusic
Global house luminary Honey Dijon returns to her native Chicago to celebrate the new Black Girl Magic
House music never went out of style, but not everybody knows about its culture, its history, or even its existence—and a legion of those newbies fell for house this year, thanks to new dance-oriented albums from superstars Drake and Beyoncé. The latter recruited figures from across house history for Renaissance, including Chicago native Honey Redmond, […]
Posted inMusic
Reading house’s history from its used records
Chicagoans don’t need an excuse to talk about house music, but when the biggest pop star in the world drops a record indebted to house, you can expect more than just a conversation. Beyoncé’s Renaissance has effectively evangelized for this Chicago-born sound since the album came out in July, not least because she shaped it […]
Posted inMusic
Reunited dance group Ten City help make the Chicago House Music Festival a don’t-miss event
Ten City’s fifth album, 2021’s Judgement (Ultra), was a long time in the making—and not just because the crucial Chicago house group’s previous album, That Was Then, This Is Now, came out 27 years earlier. The origins of Judgement arguably go even further back than 1986, when Ten City producer Marshall Jefferson issued the foundational […]
Posted inMusic
David Weathersby, documentary filmmaker
David Weathersby is a filmmaker and founder of video production company City Vanguard, which focuses on documentaries about underrepresented communities of color. In 2018, he received a Black Excellence Award for The Color of Art from the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago, and in 2019, his documentary Thee Debauchery Ball won the audience award […]
Posted inNews & Politics
By the numbers
A local nonprofit, Lighthouse Foundation, is surveying some of the city’s largest LGBTQ+ institutions and will be grading them on just how far their diversity and inclusion goes.
Posted inMusic
Photos: The grill masters of the Chosen Few Picnic
The grill masters of the Chosen Few Picnic are the fans who feed the fans.
Posted inMusic
The Chosen Few Picnic is the homegrown festival every Chicagoan should attend
If you’ve ever wished that more music festivals were like family picnics, then you need to go to this Jackson Park house-music blowout. In the late 80s, DJs and brothers Tony and Andre Hatchett and their families began hosting an annual Fourth of July reunion barbecue behind the Museum of Science and Industry. For the […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago label Still Music rescues decades of house history from a south-side storage locker
Dance-music fiend Jerome Derradji Still is restoring dozens of decaying reel-to-reel tapes featuring unissued tracks and mixes from the genre’s early giants.
Posted inMusic
This weekend’s No Walls benefit helps Chicagoans help the people in Trump’s crosshairs
This weekend’s No Walls benefit helps Chicagoans help the people in Trump’s crosshairs, Bobby Conn answers the inauguration with two sets at the Hideout, and more.
Posted inBlogs
Chicago Teachers Union is taking its planned Friday strike very seriously, and other news
Also, the Blackhawks make the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Posted inMusic
DJ Rashad is gone, but his influence on footwork lives on
The Chicago producer died before the music he helped define could break out, but he’s still inspiring his Teklife crew—which is releasing a compilation to benefit his young son.
Posted inBlogs
A local start-up is tackling transgender unemployment
TransTech Social Enterprises CEO Angelica Ross says: “We’re here to empower.”
Posted inBlogs
Remembering footwork master DJ Rashad
The influential footwork producer passed away at the age of 35 on Saturday.