Drag, in all of its glorious forms, has been a locus of revolt throughout the decades. In 2023, we are in a time when the very concept of “dressing in the mode not of one’s essential sex’” is in the bull’s-eye of crypto-fascist Republican lawmakers in many states. That’s why it seems like winning when […]
Tag: Vol. 52 No. 16
Issue of May 18, 2023
On the cover: “Inmates are extremely manipulative”
Hundreds of lawsuits against Wexford Health Sources, a for-profi t medical corporation operatin inside Illinois prisons, allege substandard care. An employee handbook describes how clinicians were trained to be skeptical of incarcerated patients.
Illustration by John Garrison.
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Posted inChicagoans of Note
Czarina Mirani, founder and editor of 5 Magazine
In 2005, Czarina Mirani launched 5 Magazine to spread the word about the house-music scene she loves so much. Along with managing editor Terry Matthew and a pool of contributors, Mirani has published indispensable documentation of Chicago’s house history, including interviews with key players such as Frankie Knuckles, Paul Johnson, and Phuture’s DJ Pierre. Whenever […]
Posted inMusic
Shawnee Dez lives the dream she’s been waiting for
Thom Yorke’s soundtrack for Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Suspiria is as stark, haunting, and unpredictable as the film itself. On the track “Has Ended,” reverberant drums and bass meld with a meditative tanpura drone and Yorke’s compressed voice, which drifts into the music layered two or three times over. His words are barely distinguishable, […]
Posted inMusic
Los Angeles electronic artist Mareux soaks in gloomy romanticism on the new Lovers From the Past
Mareux is the project of Los Angeles producer and vocalist Aryan Ashtiani, whose music incorporates postpunk, goth, and the European electronic styles he heard via Polish MTV during his summers in Iran as a youth. Mareux’s 2013 debut, the four-song EP Decade, is full of sun-flecked synth-pop that mixes bouncy moods with its wistfulness, but […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
Soul artist and freshly minted Chicagoan K.Raydio drops a gorgeous, generous new EP
Ever since singer, producer, and songwriter Krysta Rayford, aka K.Raydio, moved to Chicago from Minneapolis in summer 2022, Gossip Wolf has been on the alert for every bit of her soulful music. She has an endlessly alluring voice, a keen melodic sense, and a knack for beats that combine classic R&B and soul from the […]
Posted inBook Review
‘Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair’
In Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care, Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba ask organizers to retire their inner cynic and imagine what could exist instead. Out this month through Haymarket Books, Let This Radicalize You is filled with lessons from Hayes and Kaba, both longtime organizers and movement educators. The […]
Posted inMusic
Enterprising Chicago rapper Kayo drops an optimistic, ambitious debut
If you like hip-hop that foregrounds reflective lyrics, sumptuous production, and a heady mix of youthful optimism and ambition, Kayo may be your new favorite emerging rapper. On his debut full-length, January’s It Was Fun While It Lasted (released via Kayo’s label and streetwear company, Southside Blue Hearts), he raps over relaxed beats built from […]
Posted inMusic
Pinksqueeze poke fun at indie rock’s status quo
Chicago four-piece Pinksqueeze should be in the rotation of any local indie-rock connoisseur, and not just because of their skill with their instruments. Sure, these twentysomethings play with the confidence of seasoned veterans who’ve been gigging since before they were born. And sure, their musical chemistry gives an affable warmth to everything they play, whether […]
Posted inMusic
Y La Bamba return home with fresh self-knowledge on the new Lucha
The first song I heard from Y La Bamba was the title track from 2016’s tender and expansive Ojos del Sol. The music had a transformative quality that made it feel at once like the nostalgia of returning home and an imagined comfort yet to come. Singer-songwriter and guitarist Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos, the leader […]
Posted inArts & Culture
‘One beautiful action won’t magically change the complex problem’
Editor’s note: Coco Picard spoke with Chicago artist Amanda Williams about her art project “Redefining Redlining” and how art can help inspire action. Edited text from the comic is transcribed here to ease readability. In October 2022, artist Amanda Williams organized a massive community tulip planting event, in which volunteers planted 100,000 red tulips in […]
Posted inThe Secret History of Chicago Music
The Austin High Gang helped birth Chicago jazz in the 1920s
In nearly 20 years of writing the Secret History of Chicago Music, I’ve never tackled prewar jazz. The Windy City has been an important center for bebop and avant-garde jazz, and it was also a major player in jazz’s early history. The “Chicago style” has meant different things to different jazz musicians over the decades, […]