Bulletin
Queering Black History
Chicago’s black LGBT community is the focus of Queering Black History, an evening of story-sharing at the Chicago Urban League hosted by oral history project StoryCorps and Affinity Community Services, a social justice group that has served Chicago’s black LGBT community for two decades. The event will be emceed by Kai M. Green, a writer active in the black trans community and a Postdoctoral Fellow in Sexuality Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern. Attendees are asked to RSVP to Chicago@StoryCorps.org. Chicago Urban League, 4510 S. Michigan Avenue. Thursday, February 26, 6pm-8pm. (773)285-5800. storycorps.org (Osita Nwanevu)
Nielsen’s S.A.B.L.E.
To celebrate Black History Month, Nielsen’s S.A.B.L.E. (Sustaining Active Black Leadership & Engagement) division will stage a panel this Thursday, February 26, with three African-American business and community leaders to discuss “their journey of taking chances in a challenging environment and persevering to reach a level of business success through their passion.” The three participants will be Clifford Rome, Lamont Robinson, and Andre Guichard, whose Gallery Guichard, located in Bronzeville, will also provide the venue. Rome, for his part, currently owns and operates Rome’s Joy Catering, and has worked at the Cannes Film Festival and under Wolfgang Puck. Lamont Robinson is Nielsen’s Vice President of Supplier Diversity, and the recent author of TransformNational: Journey of a Bastard, a memoir detailing his personal journey from Chicago’s projects to Nielsen. Gallery Guichard, 436 E. 47th St. Thursday, February 26, 5:30pm-8pm. Free. Refreshments will be served. (Christian Belanger)
WTF Is the IWW
The International Workers of the World have spent more than a hundred years playing an important role on the left wing of the labor movement. Their goals include creating “One Big Union” and abolishing the wage system. The Chicago branch of the IWW is conducting a roughly three-hour, presumably well-run, workshop on how “to hold meetings that are shorter, democratic and more productive.” The workshop will also provide content for the meetings by introducing attendees to the IWW and the group’s arguments for the importance of class consciousness and workplace organizing. Chicago IWW Office, 1700 S. Loomis St. Saturday, March 14, noon-3pm. Free, donations encouraged. iww.org/branches/US/IL/chicago (Adam Thorp)
Stage and Screen
1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed
The societal collapse of the late twelfth century BC is a sort of locked room murder mystery, allowing for a very large room. The occupants of the Eastern Mediterranean—Babylonians, Egyptians, Mycenaeans, and more—had spent three centuries building sophisticated and interwoven civilizations, but the opening of the eleventh century found these civilizations disappeared or dispersed. The metaphorical gun of civilizational destruction has been traditionally placed in the hands of the mysterious Sea People, who supposedly swarmed across the region, upending all that came before. At this free event at the Oriental Institute, Eric Cline, a classics professor at George Washington University, will argue that the blame has been unfairly pinned on the Sea People, rather than a more realistic collusion of environmental catastrophes and human conflicts. The Oriental Institute, 1155 E. 58th St., Breasted Hall. Wednesday, February 25, 7pm-9pm. Free. (773)702-9520. collapse.eventbrite.com (Adam Thorp)
Missing Pages Lecture Series
Did our high school history textbooks cover everything we needed to know? The DuSable Museum doesn’t think so. Aiming to reveal the people, places, and events that haven’t gotten proper credit for shaping history, the lecture series “Missing Pages,” which started November 20 and runs through March, is designed to address larger themes of politics, culture, race, and personal identity. The largely unknown figures and topics will be presented and discussed by nationally known speakers, and while their subjects never received much recognition in common memory or the media, now they take center stage. All this series asks of its audience members is that they remain open to what they might not have known and be willing to pick up a pencil and fill in history’s forgotten pages. DuSable Museum, 740 E. 56th Pl. Through March. Various Thursdays, 6:30pm. $5. dusablemuseum.org (Emiliano Burr di Mauro)
Space Is the Place & The Last Angel of History
Science fiction fans, rejoice! On March 6, Black Cinema House will be showing a double feature: the 1974 movie Space is the Place followed by short documentary The Last Angel of History. Space is the Place, written by and starring Sun Ra, begins when the Chicago jazz legend mysteriously disappears while on tour, eventually landing with his “Arkestra” on another planet. He decides it’s well suited for an African-American colony, and so he “returns to earth in his music-powered space ship to battle for the future of the black race and offer an ‘alter-destiny’ to those who would join him.” After Space, director John Akomfrah’s The Last Angel of History—an exploration of the relationship between Pan-African culture and science fiction—will be shown. Originally released in 1996, the movie digs into the works of black cultural figures such as Sun Ra and Octavia Butler, discussing the ways in which their works emerged as centerpieces of the Afrofuturism movement. Black Cinema House, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. Friday, March 6, 7pm. Free. RSVP recommended. blackcinemahouse.org (Christian Belanger)
Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable Day
Jean Baptist Pointe DuSable was the first nonnative settler of Chicago and now, nearly two hundred years after his death, the DuSable Museum of African American History is hosting a celebration of his life and look back at the development of Chicago. Though little is known of DuSable’s life, he is believed to have been born in Haiti, and he spent time as a fur trader and manager of an Indiana trading post before, in 1790, he was recorded as Chicago’s first settler, living on a farm on the bank of the Chicago River. The event will include a Native American drumming workshop and cuisine samples, an archery demonstration and lesson, historical reenactors, and Illinois habitat exploration. There will also be a showing of several short films by Studio A Chicago, including Leaving New Orleans, Council House, Meeting Kittihawa, and DuSable meets Clark. DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Pl. Sunday, March 1, 1pm-4pm. Free. dusablemuseum.org (Clyde Schwab)
Task of the Translator
Google Translate is not an infallible tool. Though handy for words and short phrases like “Hi!” and “Where can I find the bathroom?”, when asked for more complex grammatical structures with subjunctives and relative clauses, what it spits back may not make much sense. That’s why David Bellos, professor of comparative literature at Princeton University and award-winning author, thinks that translation has a greater future in the pencil-wielding hands of humans than in the cyber-hands of computer programs like Google Translate. After all, scholars have been translating the works of ancient writers for thousands of years and don’t show signs of stopping any time soon. A steadily growing field that often goes overlooked, translation lies at the foundation of more than just the humanities. Bellos’s lecture “The Task of the Translator” promises a thorough treatment of just how translation keeps the world running smoothly and how it is at the heart of all we do. Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Thursday, March 5, 6pm. Free. (773)702-2787. arts.uchicago.edu (Emeline Posner)
Precious
In Lee Daniels’s film Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, life seems to buffet sixteen-year-old Claireece “Precious” Jones like a ship in a gale. Outwardly, she seems wooden, indifferent, despite her mother’s emotional and physical abuse; despite the difficulty of getting through high school while being illiterate; and despite her father’s having assaulted her multiple times, leaving her with a young daughter and pregnant with a second child. But there’s a lot going on in this thoughtful, perceptive young woman’s head. A masterful cast anchors the story of how Precious’s life changes—how she changes it—after she is sent to an alternative school and begins to find her voice as a writer. Black Cinema House is screening the film this Friday: both the deftly handled narrative and first-time actress Gabourey Sidibe’s powerful, evocative performance as Precious are well worth the trip. Black Cinema House, 7200 S. Kimbark Ave. Friday, February 27, 7pm. Free. RSVP recommended. blackcinemahouse.org (Olivia Stovicek)
An Evening with Ernie Gehr
Ernie Gehr has had an illustrious, varied career. One of the most influential and boundary-pushing artists of the structuralist tradition of the late 1960s and 1970s, Gehr began working with video in the early 2000s. In this digital medium, he still applies the same playful curiosity of his older work. Gehr’s films have screened internationally everywhere from the Museum of Modern Art in New York to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Musée du Cinéma in Brussels. On Friday, Ernie Gehr will visit the Film Studies Center at UofC to screen and discuss his latest work in HD, including Photographic Phantoms, Picture Taking, Winter Morning, Brooklyn Series, and A Commuter’s Life (What a Life!). Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Friday, February 27, 7pm. Free. (773)702-2787. filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu (Meaghan Murphy)
Dear White People
What started as a concept trailer has since made its way to the big screen, and Justin Simien’s debut film Dear White People is both comedic and thought-provoking in its portrayal of “being a black face in a white space.” The DuSable Museum will be having a special screening of the film that follows the lives of four very different students: Sam, a biracial girl struggling with her identity and her controversial radio show; Troy, the dean’s son with dreams of being a comedic writer; Coco, the diva met with rejection due to the color of her skin; and Lionel, a writer assumed to be an expert on black culture just because of his race. Met with critical acclaim after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, Dear White People explores issues with identity and differences in mass culture due to race through the lens of an Ivy League school. DuSable Museum, 740 E. 56th Pl. Friday, February 27, 6:30pm. $10. (773)947-0600. dusablemuseum.org (Shelby Gonzales)
Visual Arts
Nacelle
Do you like watching train tracks speed by out of the window of a train car? Do you like staring wistfully at large bodies of water? Do you like bridges, industrial landscapes, and large boats? Well, Marco Ferrari, a video artist who creates “video essays” in and of Chicago, does too. In the past few years his lens has captured elevators, train tracks, the Skyway, and that body of water with which the city has a never-ending fascination: Lake Michigan. His newest video, “Nacelle”—a word which, according to the artist, refers to the “streamlined car of an aircraft”—promises to be equal parts abstract and mesmerizing. Blanc Gallery, 4445 S. King Dr. Saturday, February 28, 6pm-9pm. Free. (773)373-4320. blancchicago.com (Robert Sorrell)
Bridgeport Art Center’s Third Annual Art Competition
For the past month, Chicago artists-turned-judges Amanda Williams and Monika Wulfers have taken off their smocks and put on their critic’s caps for the Bridgeport Art Center’s third annual art competition. The judges have now selected a number of the works submitted by amateur and professional artists living and working within one hundred miles of Chicago, to be put on display at the Bridgeport Art Center. The selected pieces, which include a full array of media—photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, and mixed media—will be unveiled on Saturday evening alongside a spread of prizes of up to $3,000, drinks, and food. Come see the artwork for yourself and size up these Chicagoans’ talent. Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W. 35th St, 4th floor. February 28-April 5. Monday-Saturday, 8am-6pm; Sunday, 8am-12pm. Awards ceremony Saturday, February 28, 7pm-10pm. Free. (773)247-3000. bridgeportart.com (Lauren Gurley)
ArtShop
Every year, the Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) dedicates Gallery 5 to ArtShop, and every year Gallery 5 is filled with the artistic creations of kids from all across the South Side. The ArtShop is an extension of Pathways, an arts education program based out of HPAC that serves CPS students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The program aims to enrich students with rigorous art training and provide them with the opportunity to refine their talents and showcase their work to large audiences. ArtShop is one of the showcasing events for teens involved in the Pathways program. Every work is entirely self-directed: the artists execute their vision with no source material. The title of this year’s ArtShop is Collective Possibilities—each piece is inspired by a myth of each student’s choosing, including their own imagination. Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Avenue. March 1-April 19. Monday-Thursday, 9am-8pm; Friday-Saturday, 9am-5pm; Sunday, noon-5pm. Free. (773)324-5520. hydeparkart.org. (Kanisha Williams)
The Density of the Actions
Density is the distribution of a mass per unit of volume or, for London-based, Argentine-born artist Varda Caivano, the substance of labor that can be packed into each square inch of canvas. Her first solo exhibition in the states, The Density of the Actions, will open at the Renaissance Society on February 22. Each piece in the series presents a rumination on the physicality that it took to make the painting—layers of paint are “rubbed, scratched, and reworked” so that each stroke is dense with time, invoking not just one moment, but many. The exhibition is sure to be dynamic, the paintings “vulnerable, unfolding, failing, becoming, and disappearing.” The Renaissance Society, 5811 S. Ellis Ave. February 22-April 19. Tuesday-Friday, 10am-5pm; Saturday-Sunday, noon-5pm. Free. (773)702-8670. renaissancesociety.org (Kristin Lin)
Until It Becomes Us
Rituals—actions and beliefs prescribed by traditional, regulatory performance for the sake of individual progress—are both personal and communal. Jesse Butcher, an artist and current photography instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, intends to showcase his investigation of these private rituals, beliefs, mantras, and longings in his solo exhibition, “Until it Becomes Us.” This is Butcher’s first solo exhibition in Chicago since 2010, sure to be a culmination of his most recent exploratory work, which starts from the claim that we are all “cognizant islands longing for a personal Pangaea.” Ordinary Projects at Mana Contemporary Chicago, 2233 S. Throop St., fifth floor. February 20-March 20. Opening reception Friday, February 20, 6pm-9pm. ordinaryprojects.org (Zach Taylor)
Objects and Voices: A Collection of Stories
Rummaging through a family attic, you might find collections of past significance that have accumulated with the long-settled dust. After seeing these disparate objects in the same space, patterns of meaning begin to emerge. “Objects and Voices” is exactly this type of eclectic collection, a celebration of the objects both forgotten and validated by time. Curated by a diverse array of individuals ranging from university professors and artists to graduate students and professional curators, this show is the second of the Smart Museum’s fortieth anniversary exhibitions. Curator Tours, led by some of the twenty-five collaborators featured in the exhibition, will give you a foray into micro-exhibitions like “Fragments of Medieval Past” or “Asian/American Modern Art.” It might be worthwhile to add this exhibition to your own collection of memories. Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave. February 12-June 21. Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm; Thursday, 10am-8pm. Opening reception Wednesday, February 11, 7:30pm-9pm. (773)702-0200. smartmuseum.uchicago.edu (Kristin Lin)
Ground Floor
Marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Hyde Park Art Center, “Ground Floor” features artworks from prominent Chicago MFA programs, creating a biennial showcase of emerging talents so new they haven’t even begun their careers yet. The twenty artists, selected from over one hundred nominations, represent a wide range of mediums, forms, and universities: Columbia College, Northwestern, SAIC, the UofC, and UIC. These artists have also had the chance to exhibit at September’s EXPO Chicago in HPAC’s booth. This unique program, showcased throughout the entirety of HPAC’s ground floor gallery space, offers the chosen artists a helpful push toward a career in the art world; “Ground Floor” alumni include two artists who have recently displayed artwork at the Whitney Biennial. Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave. Through March 22. Monday-Thursday, 9am-8pm; Friday-Saturday, 9am-5pm; Sunday, 12pm-5pm. Free. (773)324-5520. hydeparkart.org (Sammie Spector)
Migrant Files
Life exists in transitory setting—we find ourselves in different places for different reasons, and sometimes not by choice. The Migrant Files presents three studies of the forced mobility imposed upon the modern lower class. Through video, Austen Brown transports viewers to the oil fields of North Dakota, where laborers work on short-term contracts and live in mobile homes, simultaneously transitory and stationary. Billy McGuinness takes us to the kitchen floors of Cook County Jail, where he painted three monochromatic canvases. And, finally, Jaxon Pallas shows us the aesthetics of abandonment in his print works on the great falls of the American economy. ACRE promises an expanded public program to supplement this exhibition. Catch the exhibition before it moves on; travel in discomfort through America. ACRE Projects, 1913 W. 17th St. February 8 through March 2. Sundays and Mondays, 12-4pm. acreresidency.org (Kristin Lin)
The Aesthetics of Struggle
Chicago artist Raymond Thomas brings forward a collection of his recent works in his exhibition “The Aesthetics of Struggle,” an exploration of the idea of art as its own form of activism. Exhibited at the United Foundation for Arts and Technology, these mixed-media presentations seek to understand the connections between identity, religion, race, politics, and culture in the twenty-first century. Drawing inspiration from the impact of AFRICOBRA and the Black Arts Movement of the sixties and seventies, Thomas analyzes collective social existences of our times. United Foundation for Arts and Technology, 1833 S. Halsted St. February 13-March 6. Free. ufat.org (Lauren Poulson)
Music
House of the Holy: Zoso at Reggies
Good times, bad times: we’ve all had our share. No one understands that better than Zoso, billed as the Ultimate Led Zeppelin Tribute Experience. The band, hailing from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow, features Matt Jernigan, John McDaniel, Adam Sandling, and Greg Thompson as Plant, Page, Jones, and Bonham impersonators so convincing that audience members are routinely fooled into believing they are at the Riot House in 1971. With eighteen years of touring and 2,400 live shows under their belts, Zoso has the signature chords, riffs, and haunting lyrics down to a science. This Thursday, get as close to The Biggest Band in the World as is possible without an actual stairway to heaven. RIP Bonzo. Reggies, 2105 S. State St. Thursday, February 26, 7pm. $15-$18. 17+. (312)949-0120. reggieslive.com (Olivia Myszkowski)
Beyoncé’s Backup Dancers
Beyoncé is many things: singer, songwriter, inspiration behind Kanye West’s stage invasions. But part of what keeps her performances memorable (and keeps her fans bowing down) are Queen Bey’s dances and the dancers behind them. The “Single Ladies” and “End of Time” dance sequences, which have both become cultural phenomena, could not have been done by Beyoncé alone. This week at the Shrine, you can see two of Bey’s best dancers (and two of the best dancers in show business, period), Ashley Everett and Kimberly Gipson, take center stage. The Beyhive will recognize Everett and Gipson, with their bright red and black Afros, and as two of Mrs. Carter’s most treasured dancers (Ashley was the best friend from Bey’s recent video “Heaven”). Both have gained a fan base of their own and have turned backup dancing into a mainstay in Beyoncé’s art. Come see Everett and Gipson pop, lock, break, slay, turn up, and then slay again on the dance floor. The Shrine, 2109 S. Wabash Ave. Sunday, March 1, midnight. $10-$30. 21+. (312)753-5700. theshrinechicago.com (Jola Idowu)
Aniba Hotep at Promontory
Trapped in the midst of a bitter winter and surrounded by dozens of rhetoric-spouting politicians, Chicagoans may find it easy to believe that capital-S Soul has disappeared from the city (or the world altogether). Concerned citizens are advised to come to the Promontory this weekend for a hearty dose of life from one of the (self-described) “BEST SOUL BANDS TO COME OUT OF CHICAGO SINCE EARTH, WIND & FIRE.” Aniba Hotep, whose voice has been described as resembling “thunderous honey,” will lead her eight-piece Sol (get it?) Collective in a set of half-spiritual, half-futuristic tunes of their own composition. Fellow soul artists Noah the Genius and Erthe St. James will also be in attendance. Promontory Chicago, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. Sunday, March 1, 7pm, doors 6pm. $15-25. (312)801-2100. promontorychicago.com (Jake Bittle)
88 Fingers Louie at Reggies
The punk band 88 Fingers Louie is poised to bring real punk back to the band’s hometown of Chicago. Formed in 1993 by vocalist Denis Buckley, guitarist Dan Wlekinski (aka “Mr. Precision”), drummer Dom Vallone, and bassist Joe Principe, the band disbanded after three years due to fights between band members, reformed in 1998, and disbanded once again in 1999. Punk is punk. Afterward, Principe and Precision formed the popular punk band Rise Against. During their on-again-off-again period, 88 Fingers pumped out various songs and records composed of fast beats, harsh guitar and catchy riffs, all interrupted by wailing vocals not so different from those of their successor. Whether you’re reliving your 1993-96 nostalgia (good times) or in need of any old punk rock show, come check out the re-re-reformed 88 Fingers Louie at Reggies next Friday. Reggies, 2105 S. State St. Friday, March 6, 8pm. 17+. $15-$20. (312)949-0120. reggieslive.com (Clyde Schwab)
The Persian Concert
The Middle Eastern Music Ensemble, affectionately referred to as MEME, is taking the Logan Center stage one more time, back by popular demand. Directed by the brilliant Wanees Zarour, this fifty-piece orchestra celebrates the contemporary, traditional, and folk music of Persia (modern-day Iran and Afghanistan). Compositions by composers such as Majid Derakhshani, Homayoon Khorram, Hossein Dehlavi, and others will be performed. Tender banter will be had between the orchestra members in between the numbers, and hearts will break over the power of a densely ornamental and lyrical music repertoire, the full-bodied representation of a centuries-old culture. Logan Center, 915 E. 60th St. Sunday, March 8, 7pm. Free. (773)702-2787. arts.uchicago.edu (James Kogan)