BULLETIN
Sound of the Black Metropolis
Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave. Thursday, August 4, 4pm–6pm. Free; registration required. Includes reception with food and drink. Register online at bit.ly/2aqaFB5. (773) 702-2388. bmrc.lib.uchicago.edu
Two fellows of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium present their work: Ayinde Jean-Baptiste’s audio documentary explores how Haiti and black Chicago have interacted since Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a black Haitian, became the city’s first permanent resident; Rami Gabriel looks into “the Sounds of Chicago, Black Metropolis.” (Adam Thorp)
Violence and Race Relations In America: Where Do We Go From Here?
Chicago Citizen Newspaper, 806 E. 78th St. Friday, August 5, 7pm–9pm. Free. RSVP by calling (773) 783-1251 or at chicagocitizen.eventbrite.com
In 1966, MLK was confronted and violently attacked by angry white protestors during a fair housing demonstration in Marquette Park. Fifty years later, the Chicago Citizen Newspaper will hold a panel discussion on the violence that persists today, asking what we can do to overcome it and build stronger communities. (Joe Andrews)
Takin’ It to the Streets
Marquette Park, 6734 S. Kedzie Ave. Saturday, August 6, 10am–8pm. $5 suggested donation. (773) 434-4626. streets2016.com
Be a part of the nation’s largest Muslim-led international festival! This year’s Streets festival will commemorate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., replicating a part of his historic march into Marquette Park. The event features critically acclaimed artists and inspirational speakers. (Adia Robinson)
4th Annual Chicago Southside Mini Maker Faire
Ford City Mall, 7601 S. Cicero Ave. Saturday, August 6, 11am–5pm. Free. RSVP online at bit.ly/2arBhij. chicagosouthsidemakerfaire.com
Producing the world’s most diverse Mini Maker’s Faire is a tall order, but if anyone is capable, South Siders are. From telepathic computer science magicians to 3D printed hands, it’s all created by local makers of different ages and backgrounds and sponsored by Black Creativity. (Bridget Gamble)
Workshop on Black Organizing
PUJA, 728 W. Maxwell St. Wednesday, August 10, 5pm–8:30pm. Free. RSVP at bit.ly/2aAOQOa. (312) 355-5922. sji.uic.edu
Charlene Carruthers of BYP100 will lead a workshop on black organizing for economic justice and police accountability. She will discuss competing models for organizing, offering a variety of perspectives and concepts to those interested in community-based organizing and social justice movements. (Joe Andrews)
Play For All: For Families with Children with Disabilities
Chicago Children’s Museum, 700 E. Grand Ave. Saturday, August 13, 9am–10am. $14. Free for first 250 registered. RSVP at bit. ly/2aGIKyI. (312) 527-1000. chicagochildrensmuseum.org
Before the museum opens to the public at 10am, children with disabilities and their families are invited to explore exciting multisensory exhibits for one private hour. Don’t wait; the first 250 registrants receive free admission. Pre-registration is required. (Bridget Gamble)
Social Security and Women Summit
Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd, main lounge. Wednesday, August 17, 11:30am–2pm. Free. Lunch and parking provided. Register at bit.ly/2ajuxnA. (202) 216-0420. ncpssm.org
This program, put together by the AARP and the National Commission to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, brings together a panel of experts to look at how to protect the program’s fiscal health while growing coverage for women and pushing expansion for all. (Adam Thorp)
VISUAL ARTS
Artist Talk: Basim Magdy
Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave. Wednesday, August 3, 6pm–7:30pm. Free. (773) 324-5520. hydeparkart.org
Starting as a visual artist primarily concerned with paintings, current HPAC artist-in-residence Basim Magdy has since moved to film, constructing extended images with Super 8 and 16mm film. His talk will feature a focused discussion about his film practice, as well as his residency in Chicago. (Isabelle Lim)
Black Fashion Week: Pop-Up Shop and Networking
South Side Community Art Center, 3831 S. Michigan Ave. Saturday, August 6, 11am– 3pm. Tickets $12; $20 at the door. (773) 373- 1026. sscartcenter.org
If you love supporting local business, but would love it even more while listening to live music and with the taste of the Purple Ribbon Chef ’s fine cuisine on your lips, then you’re in luck. Stop by Black Fashion Week’s Pop-Up shop to explore an array of styles from Chicago’s up-and-coming designers. (Corinne Butta)
Amir Berbić: On Branding Places
Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave. Thursday, August 11, 6:30pm–8pm. Free with $20 museum admission. artic.edu
In a global moment of mass migration and population change, what can graphic design do? In talking about his practice, artist and professor Amir Berbić delves into this question to explain how place identity is established through design, and works to build bridges between spaces and the people who travel within them. (Corinne Butta)
Saul Aguirre: Reload
Antena, 1755 S. Laflin St. Opening Friday, August 12, 6pm–10pm. Through Friday, September 9, by appointment. Free. antenapilsen. com
Artist Saul Aguirre’s upcoming solo show, Reload, will make you do exactly that: pause, consider, and reconsider the opinions and positions you held before you walk in the door. His performances and paintings depict his responses to social issues and investigate the way our society manipulates images. (Corinne Butta)
The Great Migration in Three Movements: The First Movement
Blanc Gallery, 4445 S. King Dr. Friday, August 5, 6pm–9pm. Free. (773) 373-4320. blancchicago.com
David Anthony explores the history of The Great Migration, the movement of over six million African-American people from the rural South to the urban Northeast, Midwest and beyond from the 1910s to the 1970s. Using the portrait as his focal point, Anthony incorporates avian allegory and gives a face to the mass movement that shaped America. (Isabelle Lim)
Income Inequality: A Cartoon Exhibit
Uri-Eichen Gallery, 2101 S. Halsted St. Opening Friday, August 12, 6pm–10pm. By appointment through Friday, September 2. Free. (312) 852-7717. uri-eichen.com
While cartoons may not be the first thing that come to mind when exploring income inequality, editorial cartooning has long been a platform for confronting national issues. Uri-Eichen Gallery will be showing works from a star-studded list of cartoonists—including multiple winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning— in this show, the fourth in a five-month series examining income inequality. (Carrie Smith)
MUSIC
Wye Oak
Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Wednesday, August 3. Doors 7:30pm, show 8:30pm. $20 standing room, $23 seats. 17+. (312) 526- 3851. thaliahallchicago.com
Wye Oak comes to Chicago off the surprise release of Tween about a month and a half ago—a muscular doubling down on the sound they consolidated on 2011’s Civilian, and a temporary detour from the guitarless mood they explored for 2014’s Shriek. It’s anybody’s guess which sound they’ll bring to Thalia Hall on Wednesday, but regardless, the show is sure to get heads bobbing and feet moving. (Austin Brown)
Planning For Burial
Reggies, 2105 S. State St. Wednesday, August 3, 10pm. $7 in advance, $12 day of show. 21+. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com
Coming off their exciting 2014 album Desideratum, Planning for Burial comes to Reggies this Wednesday. Expect slow-moving songs, a little bit of crying mixed with headbanging, and mumbled lyrics that nevertheless hit deeper than your average Death Cab line. Don’t worry about it being excessively doomy, though—as if on cue, the piano lines help balance the guitar crunch right when it’s most needed. (Austin Brown)
6th Annual Greatest Enterprize House Picnic
Jackson Park, 60th St. and Stony Island Ave. Saturday, August 6, 10am–10pm. Free. All ages.
It’s all been leading up to this—some of the biggest and best names in South Side dance (including Teklife legend Corky “Traxman” Strong) are putting on the Greatest Enterprize House Picnic once more in Jackson Park. This year promises to outdo even the last few, with eye-catchers like Paul Johnson and Mike Love, host of Soul 106.3 FM, on the lineup. Get there early: you’ll want some time to set up the grill. (Austin Brown)
Jody Digital
ChiTown Futbol, 2343 S. Throop St. Saturday, August 6, 9pm–2am. $10. 18+. chipandyfest16.eventbrite.com
Jody Digital, member of footwork crew The Era (profiled in the last issue of the Weekly), will be spinning a set at ChiTown Futbol on August 6. DJing since he was fifteen, Jody’s also affiliated with the late, great DJ Rashad’s Teklife crew, and loose Chicago collective Stack or Starve. (Christian Belanger)
Alice Bag
ChiTown Futbol, 2343 S. Throop St. Sunday, August 14, 8pm–1am. $7. All ages. alicebag. com
In which the Weekly’s music editor dismisses all attempts at neutrality to say: go see this! Really! As one of the originators of punk itself back in the mid-1970s, Alice Bag also holds the honor of being one of the most prominent female punk progenitors, holding her own against bands like Black Flag, X, and the Germs as the 1980s rolled in. I’m serious, though: go! As far as raucous and essential punk goes, this is as good as it gets. (Austin Brown)
STAGE & SCREEN
Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night
Marquette Park, 6743 S. Kedzie Ave. Wednesday, August 3, 6:30pm; Dvorak Park, 1119 W. Cullerton St. Friday, August 5, 6:30pm; Hamilton Park, 513 W. 72nd St., Wednesday, August 10, 6:30pm; Ping Tom Memorial Park, 1700 S. Wentworth Ave., Sunday, August 14, 4pm. Free. (312) 595-5600. chicagoshakes.com
“If music be the food of love, play on,” Duke Orsino extols in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. This traveling tour of the play, part of a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, establishes that appreciation of the playwright’s work continues. (Adam Thorp)
Fidel: The Untold Story
Pop Up Just Art Gallery, 729 W. Maxwell St. Wednesday, August 3, 6pm–8pm. Free. RSVP at bit.ly/29r5EK9. (312) 355-5922. sji.uic. edu
The documentarian Estela Bravo received remarkable access to Fidel Castro for this unabashedly positive portrayal of the Cuban leader and revolutionary. The screening caps a month-long series of films on Cuba. (Adam Thorp)
Touki Bouki
Studio Movie Grill, 210 W. 87th St. Thursday, August 4, 7pm. $6. RSVP at bit.ly/2aa2Gt2. blackworldcinema.net
At its monthly screening, Black Cinema House presents this critically acclaimed 1973 Senegalese film. In it, a pair of lovers dreams about escaping the harsh realities of Dakar for the promise of Paris; the film explores the clash between the traditional and the modern in the colonial aftermath. (Hafsa Razi)
The Bluest Eye Staged Reading
Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave. Friday, August 5, 8pm. $5. hydeparkcommunityplayers.org
The Hyde Park Community Players come together to present a staged reading of excerpts from Toni Morrison’s disconcerting story of insanity, incest, and death. The reading will be directed by Oroki Rice, a newcomer to the Players. (Adam Thorp)
Gordon Parks in Cinema: The Super Cops
Black Cinema House, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. Sunday, August 7, 4pm–6:30pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org
Come to Black Cinema House for a screening of director, writer, and photographer Gordon Parks’s 1974 The Super Cops, a movie based on the real-life story of a pair of free-wheeling, maverick New York policemen famous for their cornucopian drug busts. A panel will follow; in the interest of full disclosure, we should note that it features Weekly affiliates Darryl Holliday (board member) and Maha Ahmed (Managing Editor). (Christian Belanger).
BCH@BING: Diana Ross: Boss— Lady Sings the Blues
BING Art Books, 305 E. Garfield Blvd. Thursday, August 11, 7pm–10pm. Free. (312) 857-5561. bingartbooks.com
BING’s next monthly screening series, of Diana Ross’s cult classic films, starts with her 1972 depiction of Billie Holiday, that inimitable artist of “luminous self-destruction,” as Elizabeth Hardwick wrote. Stick by afterward for a discussion with jazz musician Maggie Brown and Black Cinema House curator Jacqueline Stewart. (Julia Aizuss)
Movies Under the Stars: Beginnings…
Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative, 1456 E. 70th St. Friday, August 12, 7pm–9:30pm. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org
Another night outdoors takes a look at Africa through the lens of the obscure work of famous filmmakers and writers: Black Cinema House and Chicago Film Archives team up to screen short films by Jean Cocteau, Langston Hughes, and Ousmane Sembene. (Julia Aizuss)
BCH@BING: Diana Ross: Boss— Mahogany
BING Art Books, 307 E. Garfield Blvd. Thursday, August 18, 7pm–10pm. (312) 857- 5561. bingartbooks.com
In this Diana Ross vehicle, the famous diva plays a poor Chicago department store worker who finds success as a fashion designer in Rome, ditching her beau, “a proto-Barack activist,” in the process. Come watch Mahogany, if only for the endearingly schmaltzy theme, “Do You Know Where You’re Going To?” (Christian Belanger)
LIT
Word Games, Word Winder
Chicago Public Library Beverly, 1962 W. 95th St. Wednesday, August 3, 2pm–3pm. (312) 747-9673. chipublib.org
Children ten to twelve years of age are invited to spend an afternoon with toy inventor and wordsmith David L. Hoyt. Learn about what inspired him to create Jumble word puzzles, and then play his word game GIANT Word Winder. (Anne Li)
Shakespeare and Gender: Twelfth Night
Chicago Public Library Chinatown, 2100 S. Wentworth Ave. Saturday, August 6, 2pm– 4pm. Free, online registration required. (312) 747-8013. chipublib.org
The Viola Project and Shakespeare 400 Chicago share Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night. Young people ages ten to sixteen who identify as girls are invited to examine the ways gender and gender-bending affect the play, as well as perform a scene. (Anne Li)
Invisible Man and Nobody
Seminary Co-op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. Tuesday, August 9, 6pm. (773) 752-4381. semcoop.com
From Ferguson to Flint, America’s attention has been wrenched towards its forgotten places and people. Mychal Denzel Smith’s memoir and Marc Lamont Hill’s reporting and analysis respond to the shift. Charlene Carruthers, executive director of the Black Youth Project 100, will be the interlocutor. (Adam Thorp)