Events This Weekend – Agenda
Lincoln Avenue Live
6/1-6/2: Sat noon-9:30 PM, Sun noon-9 PM
773-868-3010Fairs & Festivals
Chicago’s newest street fest includes entertainment from Wedding Banned, 16 Candles, Mike Wheeler Band, and Chicago Blues Allstars.
$5 suggested donation
57th Street Art Fair
6/1-6/2: Sat 11 AM-6 PM, Sun 10 AM-5 PM 773-234-3247Fairs & Festivals
This alcohol-free fair is packed with photography, prints, sculpture, jewelry, and more. There will also be an "art-buying boot camp" (a guided tour of the booths) to help you navigate the festival finery.
Chicago Jazz String Summit: Musique Noire, Jessica Pavone & Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid Trio, James Sanders's Blue Violin Quartet
Fri., May 31, 7 p.m.Fairs & Festivals
Guitarist Mary Halvorson is duly celebrated for her excellent trio and quintet projects, to say nothing of her valuable work in bands led by the likes of Tom Rainey, Ingrid Laubrock, and Ches Smith; violist Jessica Pavone has become a terrific long-form composer, and last year she released the song cycle Hope Dawson Is Missing (Tzadik). But as much as their long-running duo together has been overshadowed lately, I retain a great fondness for it. It’s always felt relaxed and low-key, like a couple of pals singing songs for kicks—their rigorous improvisations and technical displays are couched in folksy compositions that sometimes include unpolished vocals. They released their fourth and best album, Departure of Reason (Thirsty Ear), a couple years ago, and though it’s got the same easygoing rapport and sense of fun, otherwise Halvorson and Pavone seriously step up their game. The compositions, split equally between them, are stronger than anything they’ve ever done, with more dynamic arrangements, more structured interplay, more sophisticated melodies, and a more forceful, confident feel. The rhythmically strummed guitar, strident viola double-stops, and spooky unison vocals on “The Object of Tuesday” give it a loose, woozy, rustic flavor, and the aggressive give-and-take on the seesawing instrumental “That Other Thing” is an exhilarating example of what distinguishes the new album from its predecessors. This is the duo’s first Chicago date in almost four years; it’s part of the opening-night concert of the first Chicago Jazz String Summit, organized by cellist Tomeka Reid and violinist James Sanders. —Peter Margasak Musique Noire headlines; Jessica Pavone & Mary Halvorson, the Tomeka Reid Trio, James Sanders’s Blue Violin Quartet open.
Veggie Pride Parade
Sat., June 1, 12 p.m.Other Stuff
Some people love vegetables too much to eat them. Those people will not be marching in the Veggie Pride Parade today. The parade is a celebration of the vegan and vegetarian community and the virtues of a plant-based diet. Cheeseburgers are not allowed, unless they come from the Chicago Diner.
One Million Degrees Food and Wine Tasting Event
Fri., May 31, 7 p.m.Food Events
Local chefs and mixologists, including Matthias Merges and Martial Noguier, prepare unique dishes paired with select wines in this fundraising event.
prices vary; see website
Cascade Drive-In
OngoingIllinois
When you go to a movie theater, there's a decent chance someone will sneeze and you'll contract a horrifying airborne monkey disease (or at least that's what I learned from Outbreak). Not a thing you have to worry about at the drive-in. Plus you can make out, it's BYOB, and it's under ten bucks for a double feature. $5-$9, $14/carload on Tuesday
Rising Up: Hale Woodruff's Murals at Talladega College
Through June 16Galleries
In 1938, Talladega College commissioned the Harlem Renaissance artist Hale Aspacio Woodruff to paint six murals to hang in a campus library. Three tell the story of the slave ship Amistad: an onboard mutiny, the trial of the captives, and their eventual return to Africa. Three more depict the Underground Railroad; the first day of student registration at Talladega, one of the country's first all-black colleges, in Alabama in 1867; and the building of Savery Library, the eventual home of Woodruff's work, in 1937. Woodruff's vibrant, large-scale murals were influenced by American regionalist style, a Mexican sojourn during which he apprenticed to Diego Rivera, and the cubism he studied in Paris. He returned from France in 1931 to chair the first art department for African-American students at Atlanta University; also in the 30s, Woodruff, who was born in Cairo, Illinois, painted murals for the Works Progress Administration. He went on to teach at Spelman College, Clark University, and at Talladega before joining the art faculty of New York University, where he taught until his retirement. In 2011, Atlanta's High Museum of Art collaborated with Talladega College on an extensive conservation project to prepare the murals for a multicity your, removing them from Savery Library for the first time. At the Chicago Cultural Center they'll hang alongside other, smaller paintings and prints from throughout Woodruff's career. —Janet Potter
State of Black Chicago Congress
7:30 AM-5:30 PMLectures
A series of panel discussions about the current status of African Americans in Chicago. Ed Gardner and Lupe Fiasco attend.
Fashion in the Street
noon-10 PMOther Stuff
Have you ever made awkward eye contact with a live mannequin? Now's your chance to try. At Fashion in the Street, local designers and boutiques take their clothes outdoors for a weekend of shopping, fashion shows, and music in the nice warm weather.
$5 suggested donation
Do-Division Street Fest & Sidewalk Sale
5/31-6/2: Fri 5-10 PM, Sat-Sun noon-10 PMMusic Festivals
You know summer has arrived the very first time the hot garbage smell that wafts from the city's alleyways tickles your nose and turns your stomach. A more pleasant herald: Do-Division Street Fest, the season's first legit music street festival. The three days feature a big lineup of national and local acts on two stages—one curated by the Empty Bottle, the other by Subterranean—that includes Disappears, Ariel Pink, Gaslamp Killer, and Tilly & the Wall. There's more Do-Division on the B Side. $5 suggested donation
Blind wine tasting
Ongoiing: Sun 5-9 PMDrink Events
Starting today, Eno Wine Room in the Fairmont hotel will offer blind tastings every Sunday evening; people who can correctly identify five attributes (like age, region, country, and grape) of three wines get their flight for free. There are two levels of difficulty, one aimed at the average wine drinker and the other created for aficionados. —Julia Thiel $25-$30 per wine flight
Scenes from the Stone Age: The Cave Paintings of Lascaux
Through 9/8:Museums
The exhibit transports the viewer to the infamous Lascaux caves, which were covered with prehistoric art nearly 20,000 years ago. Replicas of the cave and a "lifelike stone-age family" are supplemented by artifacts from the museum's collection.
Creditors
Through 6/2: various times, see websiteTheater & Performance
David Greig's 2010 adaptation renders August Strindberg's drama as a sharp ideological and sexual power play. Strindberg's interest in Darwinian theories of survival manifests itself in the battle between a hypersexual writer, Tekla, and her former teacher and husband, Gustav, who's returned to destroy Tekla and her new lover, the ailing artist for whom she betrayed him. Beyond Strindberg's critique of marriage and other nonsustaining frameworks, this naturalistic drama explores notions of artistic salvation and the fluidity of the self. Mark L. Montgomery is hypnotic as Gustav, a man possessed by forces beyond his full comprehension. Under Sandy Shinner's direction, Remy Bumppo delivers a captivating 90-minute production of the Swede's still-gripping psychological drama. —Suzanne Scanlon $27.50-$47.50
Alleys and Ruins
4/18-7/8.Galleries
Photos of urban ruin by Xavier Nuez. Reception Thu 4/18, 6-9 PM.
3033
Open run: Sun 10:30 PMImprov/Sketch
A comedy supergroup consisting mainly of former members of People of Earth, 3033 creates some of the liveliest, most consistently solid improv around. Members Andy St. Clair and Alex Fendrich have been highlights of recent Second City E.T.C. shows; Rush Howell, a lawyer by day, is one of the scene's wittiest performers; and Bill Arnett and Danny Mora are personable comedians with off-beat senses of humor. Unlike most troupes at iO, 3033 doesn't stick with the Harold improv format. Instead, they play it loose, letting an audience suggestion and Jason Chin's playful music and light effects steer them. At a recent show the topic of gangs inspired a hilarious 70s-era game show. --Ryan Hubbard
$5
