Bulletin
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. Wednesday, April 6, 7pm–8:30pm. Free. Register in advance at bit.ly/25p2EBc. (773) 583-7884. haymarketbooks.org
A concern with race and a concern with class are sometimes presented as contradictory. Academic and activist Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor suggests instead that class power cannot be unsettled until racial hierarchies are demolished; at this event she will advance her understanding of the modern moment in black liberation. (Adam Thorp)
Education Conference: Global Literacy
International House, 1414 E. 59th St.. Friday, April 8, 8am–2:30pm. Free. (773) 753-2274. arts.uchicago.edu
Calling all teachers! Spend the day participating in workshops, lectures, and dialogues that will provide techniques to help your students use broad stories to understand the world. Don Belt, a professor of journalism at the University of Richmond, will give the keynote address. (Anne Li)
Human Rights and the War on Drugs: Local and International Perspectives
Roosevelt University Auditorium Library, 430 S. Michigan Ave. Friday, April 8, 3:15pm–6pm. Free. (312) 341-4336. roosevelt.edu/icdp
Later this month, the United Nations will turn its attention to global drug policy for the first time in nearly two decades. For people convinced that the various fronts of the drug war have done huge damage to human rights, the UN special session on drugs, and this forum a couple of weeks beforehand, represent a huge opportunity to register their views. (Adam Thorp)
Con Justicia Para Todos
Uri Eichen Gallery, 2101 S. Halsted St. Opening reception Friday, April 8, 6pm–8pm. Free. Through May 5, by appointment. (312) 852-7717. uri-eichen.com
See, explore, and engage at this art exhibition focused on the theme of justice (and injustice) in Latino communities. The exhibition features artists from Pilsen and Little Village, and is hosted in partnership with UIC’s Latino Art Conference and the (In)Justice For All Film Festival. (Anne Li)
Spring Fling for Autism Awareness Resource Fair
Bogan Computer Technical High School, 3939 W. 79th St. Saturday, April 9, 8am–12:30pm. Free. (773) 329-0375. chicagoautism.org
The annual Spring Fling Autism Resource Fair will be dedicated to equipping the public with important information about autism. Experts in the field as well as various exhibitions will be present in both English and Spanish to give individuals opportunities to learn, network, and grow. (Chigozie Nwachukwu)
Public Accountability Illinois Recall Governor
Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, 3436 S. King Dr. Saturday, April 9, 1:30pm–4:30pm. Free. (312) 939-5105. iviipo.org
525,746 signatures, the equivalent of fifteen percent of the last gubernatorial election’s total vote. One hundred signatures each from at least twenty-five counties. 150 days to get it all done. The paralysis of Illinois’s hard-edged budget crisis might make a recall of Governor Rauner attractive, but that doesn’t make it easy. This meeting of election lawyers and activists will consider the prospect. (Adam Thorp)
Visual Arts
Latino Art Now! Re-imagining Global Intersections Conference
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. Thursday, April 7, 3pm. UIC Conference Center, 750 S. Halsted St; Friday and Saturday, April 8–9, 9am–5pm. $50 general public. $10 with student ID. iuplr.uic.edu
Chicago, a city that has championed Latino visual art, continues that long and rich tradition by hosting the fifth biennial Latino Art Now! Conference. Artists, critics, educators, directors, and art enthusiasts come together to discuss, debate, and examine the state of US Latino art. (Bilal Othman)
Open Forum: A Visual Conversation on Latinx Contemporary Art
ACRE, 1345 W. 19th St. Thursday, April 7, 8pm. Free. (847) 778-5946. acreresidency.org
Stick around after the Latino Art Now! Conference for a casual conversation with Latinx artists and art enthusiasts that will be sure to inspire. Participants are encouraged to present two-to-three-minute visual presentations showcasing the cultural productions of their own or others’ creation. (Sara Cohen)
Brown Profile Art Exhibit
Benton House, 3052 S. Gratten Ave. Friday, April 8, 6pm–10 pm. Free. iuplr.uic.edu/springoflatinoart
Part of UIC’s Spring of Latino Art, this exhibition features interdisciplinary artwork by local artists Joseph Josue Mora, Yvette Mayorga, and Ricardo “Naco” Gonzalez. The work creatively explores the modern status, everyday experience, and both positive and negative depictions of Mexican Americans, accompanied by music from Roho Garcia. (Sara Cohen)
Propaganda Familiar : Alberto Aguilar
Antena, 1755 S. Laflin St. Opening reception Friday, April 8, 6pm–10pm. Through May 6. Free. antenapilsen.com.
Prolific South Side artist and Arts + Public Life residency alumnus Alberto Aguilar brings his multidisciplinary practice to Antena, a project space in Pilsen. “Propaganda Familiar” features a series of hand-painted signs, similar to those found in grocery stores, that use bilingual wordplay “as a bridge of communication to the private and the public viewer.” The exhibition will also include objects (both found and created) and additional signs in shops and displays throughout Pilsen. (Juliet Eldred)
Latitude
Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery, 1538 W. Cullerton St. Opening reception Friday, April 8, 6pm–9pm. Through April 16. Free. (773) 580-8053. carlosanddominguez.weebly.com
This Pilsen gallery’s newest show, “Latitude”, features the work of Eric J. Garcia, Salvador Jimenez-Flores, Nicole Marroquin, and Gabriel Villa, four artists who navigate the liminal zones between American and Latino identity with their artwork. (Christopher Good)
Analog Ram
Research House for Asian Art, 3217 S. Morgan St. Opening reception Friday, April 8, 7pm–9pm. Through Friday, April 29. Free. (312) 361-3208. researchhouseforasianart.org
When you hear Analog Ram, what comes to mind: wool and horns, or random access memory? Billed as “the return of active memory,” this massive SAIC-curated exhibition uses art to ask whether we’ve outsourced parts of our humanity to technology—and what remains to be done about these “prosthetic memories.” (Christopher Good)
The Bridge
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. Opening reception Tuesday, April 12, 5:30pm–8:30pm. Through March 19. Monday–Saturday, 8am–5pm; Sunday 8am–4pm. Free. (773) 702-2100.
This exhibition crosses borders, creeds, and cultures in an effort to unearth the structures that connect and support those on any side. Forty-seven self-identifying Arab, Persian, and Jewish contemporary artists come together to bridge the ocean in this East/West traveling exhibition, carrying with them a message of intercultural and inter-religious harmony. (Corinne Butta)
Music
David Banner
The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. W. Thursday, April 14. Doors 9pm, show 9:30pm. $20 general admission, $35 VIP. 17+. (312) 801-2100. promontorychicago.com
Idiosyncratic Mississippi rapper and activist David Banner, whose remarkable oeuvre includes both 2005’s impeccably filthy single “Play” and the outspoken “F La Policia” from last month’s Before The Box mixtape, comes to The Promontory in a show presented by Chicago nonprofit Creative Cypher, the self-described “Curators of Cool,” as well as the 2016 Chicago International Movies and Music Festival. For Banner, promoting his upcoming album The God Box, it marks a return; he’s been largely unheard from since his 2012 mixtape Sex, Drugs & Video Games. (Sam Stecklow)
Artemis Quartet
Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St. Friday, April 8. Lecture 6:30pm, show 7:30pm. $35 public, $5 students. (773) 702-2787. chicagopresents.uchicago.edu
After cementing their international reputation as world class classical musicians, Berlin-based music group, Artemis Quartet, will make their Chicago debut this coming Friday at the UofC. Expect a riveting program, including classical performances of Beethoven, Janáček, and Wolf. (Bilal Othman)
Denzel Curry
Reggies Chicago, 2105 S. State St. Saturday, April 9. Doors 6pm, show 6:30pm. $13–$17. All ages. (312) 949-0120. reggieslive.com
Twenty-one-year-old “Ult” god Denzel Curry, a Miami Gardens native and former schoolmate of Trayvon Martin, comes to Reggies in the South Loop on the heels of his sophomore album Imperial. Curry occupies a unique space in between trap, OutKast-era Atlanta hip-hop, drill, and Tupac-inspired lyricism that mysteriously has yet to break big nationwide, though it is only a matter of time. He should expect to win new fans in Chicago. (Sam Stecklow)
The Dojo Presents: PETRICHOR
The Dojo. Saturday, April 9. Gallery opens 7:30pm, music at 8:45pm. $5 suggested donation. (312) 631-8139 (call for address on day of show). facebook.com/thedojochi
Petrichor, as defined by Oxford dictionaries, is the “pleasant smell [that] accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather.” It’s a good phenomenon, and the perfect name for the Dojo’s newest event: April showers to end a musical drought. Featuring live sets from The Phone Calls, Doublespeak, Corral, and more. (Christopher Good)
The Residents
Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St. Monday, April 18. Doors 6pm, show 6:30pm. $26 show, $36 show and film screening. 17+. (312) 526-3851. thaliahallchicago.com
It’s been forty-one years, and western civilization is still trying to figure out what to make of the Residents. Why not give it a try? The enigmatic, prolific, and bizarre collective of eyeballs in top hats is back to screen The Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents and to perform live. (Christopher Good)
Stage & Screen
body ±
High Concept Labs at Mana Contemporary Chicago, 2233 S. Throop St. Thursday, April 7, 7:30pm–9pm. $10. (312) 850-0555. highconceptlaboratories.org
Technology and bodily movement interact hypnotically in these three live dance performances. With beverages from Lagunitas Brewing Company and artwork by James Moreno, Benjamin Rosenthal, Christine Shallenberg, and Carson Reiners, take the night off to delve into the digital dealings of dance. (Sara Cohen)
If Only I Were That Warrior
Chatham 14 Theaters, 210 87th St. Thursday, April 7, 7pm. $6. blackworldcinema.net
Fascism, massacres, war crimes: these are the devastating results of Italian colonialism in Ethiopia, an issue If Only I Were That Warrior traces from the early twentieth century to the present day. The screening will be followed by an open discussion. (Christopher Good)
Seeds of Disunion: Classics in Black Stereotypy Film Series: Imitation of Life
Black Cinema House, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. Friday, April 8, 7pm–9:30pm. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org
This Depression-era story captures the interracial relationship between two widowed mothers who open a business together. Following the screening, local professors and film historians Miriam Petty and Jacqueline Stewart will lead a discussion on common critiques and stereotypes portrayed in the adaptation. (Sara Cohen)
The Chicago Maternity Story
Kartemquin Films, 1901 W. Wellington Ave. Friday, April 8 through April 14. Free. (773) 472-4366. watch.kartemquin.com
In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Jerry Blumenthal and Gordon Quinn’s documentary organization, Kartemquin is offering online streaming, along with the added package of archival and new materials and relevant interviews. Tune in at your leisure this week for an artistic chronicle of a home birth center’s history, defunding, and fight to stay open. (Sara Cohen)
Self + Otherness: Student Screenings
Black Cinema House, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. Sunday, April 10, 4pm–6pm. (312) 857-5561. rebuild-foundation.org
The winter session of BCH’s free film workshop studied the video essay genre and culminated in video essays of the students’ own—come watch these final projects and, if you’re impressed, stay to learn about the spring session, which begins April 13. (Julia Aizuss)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Through April 10. $38, discounts available for seniors, faculty, and students. (773) 753-4472. courttheatre.org
David Auburn directs Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Join aging patriarch James Tyrone at his family home in Connecticut, and watch as the archetypal American dream unravels in the course of an evening. A riveting drama of a couple hours, this journey will no doubt also be long in memory. (Martin Awano)
In the Game
West Pullman Library, 830 W. 119th St. Wednesday, April 13, 5:30pm–7:30pm. Free. (312) 747-1425. onebookonechicago.org
We’ve all seen Kicking and Screaming and Bend It Like Beckham—but In the Game, a 2015 documentary directed by Maria Finitzo and produced by Chicago’s Kartemquin Films, breaks new ground as it tells the story of an underfunded but unwavering girls’ soccer team in Brighton Park. (Christopher Good)
Lit
The Weekly will now use this space to highlight literary events happening across the South Side.
Tan Lin Reading
Logan Center for the Arts, Seminar Terrace 801, 915 E. 60th St. Wednesday, April 6, 6pm. Free. (773) 834-8524. arts.uchicago.edu
“The most beautiful page makes you look away from what you are reading,” writes Tan Lin, the author of books of poetry such as Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe and Seven Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004. The Joy of Cooking. Lin has a point, but it’s hard to look away from his atom-collider synthesis of twenty-first century anomie and cookbook allusions. (Christopher Good)
Better Living Through Criticism
Seminary Co-op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. Saturday, April 16, 2pm. Free. (773) 752-4381. semcoop.com
Join New York Times film critic A. O. Scott for a talk on his recent book Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth. Examine the roles criticism and critical thinking play in our lives, including their ability to enhance our engagement with art. (Anne Li)
Story Club South Side
Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219-21 S. Morgan St. Tuesday, April 19, 7:30-9:30pm. Free. storyclubchicago.com
Light up literature by sharing it live at this monthly open mic. Each of the three performance slots is eight minutes, or enough time for the recommended 1,300 words. The event will be hosted by Andrew Marikis. (Anne Li)
The Frunchroom
O’Rourke’s Office, 11064 S. Western Ave. Thursday, April 21, 7:30pm. Free. thefrunchroom.com
Enjoy the power and potential of Chicago stories with The Frunchroom’s quarterly reading series, in which five local writers give their thoughts on the South Side. Come early or stay late to celebrate the start of the series’ second year. (Sarah Claypoole)