Arts
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Do This Arts Reader's Agenda Thu 5/23: Mavado, Esther Newton, and DanceWorks Chicago
Posted by Drew Hunt today at 06.11 AM
"For the past few years Mavado has been in the same predicament that’s afflicted so many other dancehall superstars: he’s practically a demigod in Jamaica, but barely anyone in the U.S. knows who he is," writes Miles Raymer in Soundboard. Catch Mavado's set at the Shrine.
LGBTQ scholar Esther Newton appears alongside her partner, performance artist Holly Hughes, at the University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. "Newton trained as an anthropologist and made her name with ethnographic studies of drag queens and of Cherry Grove, the village on Fire Island that became America's first queer town," writes Aimee Levitt.
At Old Town School of Folk Music, DanceWorks Chicago presents an informal showcase featuring work by choreographers including Paige Cunningham Calderella, Joshua Blake Carter, and Brandon DiCriscio.
For more on these events and others, check out the Reader's daily Agenda page.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Behind Our Scenes Do This Arts Music Food & Drink News What are you waiting for? Today's the last day to vote for Best of Chicago!
Posted by Tal Rosenberg on 05.22.13 at 01:49 PM
There's one category you won't find on the ballot. Like last year, we're asking you to vote for Chicago's Best Chicagoan to Follow on Twitter . . . on Twitter. Tweet your suggestions using the hashtag #boctwitterer. The deadline for that category is the same as the ballot, so tweet away!
Apropos of nothing, here's a 14-year-old girl owning Eddie Van Halen's solo on "Eruption."
Books On Video Arts Booze Film History Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby is not the first movie to insult F. Scott Fitzgerald
Posted by Ben Sachs on 05.22.13 at 01:24 PM
Gig Posters Arts Music Visual Art Gig poster of the week: Pokey LaFarge's runaway train
Posted by Luca Cimarusti on 05.22.13 at 07:35 AM
SHOW: Pokey LaFarge and Al Scorch & the Country Soul Ensemble at Lincoln Hall on 5/23
MORE INFO: maryclarebutler.com
Do This Arts Reader's Agenda Wed 5/22: Denese Neu, "Ghost: Rhythms," and Lunch Talks @ CAF
Posted by Drew Hunt on 05.22.13 at 06:10 AM
- Courtesy of Kavi Gupta
- "Ghost: Rhytms"
Learn about Chicago's beer history while sipping some local brew with Denese Neu, author of Chicago by the Pint, at the Fireside.
McArthur Binion is a painter who doesn't use a brush. Instead, he presses the tip of an oil stick or a crayon onto his canvas. In her review of Binion's latest exhibit, "Ghost: Rhythms," Reader contributor Claudine Isé writes, "When viewed from across the room, many of his paintings appear placid and nearly monochromatic. Draw nearer and you'll see that's an illusion." It's at Kavi Gupta Gallery.
Zurich Esposito, the executive director of AIA Chicago, alongside the nine Small Project Award winners, discusses small scale architectural design at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, part of Lunch Talks @ CAF.
For more on these events and others, check out the Reader's daily Agenda page.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Arts Poetry History "This is not a Holocaust story, this is a war story": The life of Hannah Senesh
Posted by Aimee Levitt on 05.21.13 at 05:15 PM
- collection of the Senesh family
- Hannah Senesh and her brother Gyuri in Tel Aviv, 1944
Except that "Fire In My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh" just went on display at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie.
Nonetheless, it's true that "Fire In My Heart" does not bear any of the hallmarks of a Holocaust exhibit. There are no yellow stars, no striped uniforms, no photos of starving concentration camp inmates. Hannah Senesh spent most of World War II in the relative safety of Palestine. Though she did die at the hands of the Gestapo, it was while facing a firing squad, not in a gas chamber.
"She was not murdered," says Levine. "She was executed. She was given a soldier's death. She was buried in a Jewish cemetery, not dumped in the Danube. She was executed because she was a traitor to Hungary. For these reasons, this is not a Holocaust story."
It is, however, one of the most remarkable stories that came out of the Holocaust era.
Arts Visual Art Print may be dying, but art is alive and kicking
Posted by Sarah Nardi on 05.21.13 at 02:09 PM
- J. Howard Miller
- Rosie the riveter
Theater Arts Politics News ArtPlace America ignites Great Chicago Fire Festival with $250,000 grant
Posted by Deanna Isaacs on 05.21.13 at 01:33 PM
- Lin Ye
- A ritual burning is coming to Chicago.
There's no mention in the announcement of previously revealed plans to build, float, and burn effigies representing the thing each Chicago neighborhood most wants to get rid of.
Artplace America is "a collaboration of leading national and regional foundations, banks and federal agencies" that funds projects using art as a catalyst for community revitalization.
The Fire Festival grant is one of 134 Artplace is making this year.
Do This Arts Reader's Agenda Tue 5/21: Israeli jazz, immigrant stories, and a JC Brooks listening party
Posted by Tosten Burks on 05.21.13 at 06:11 AM
- Clayton Hauck
- JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound
If there's one group of people who know how to throw a jazz festival it's the . . . Israeli consulate to the midwest? Swallow your surprise and catch rising New York guitarist Gilad Hekselman at the Anshe Emet Synagogue.
Anchee Min discusses The Cooked Seed: A Memoir, her follow-up to the best-selling Red Azalea, at the Harold Washington Library Center. It's a story about coming to America after growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution. Happy Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.
"Postfunk soul" is quite a self-description for JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound's brand of simple, nostalgic blues-pop. Hear them earn it at the listening party at Saki for Howl, their new album on Bloodshot. WXRT's Marty Lennartz hosts a Q&A and Brooks spins a DJ set.
For more on these events and others, check out the Reader's daily Agenda page.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Do This Arts Reader's Agenda Mon 5/20: Dinosaur improv, Charlie XCX, and architecture
Posted by Tosten Burks on 05.20.13 at 06:09 AM
- Caitlin Mogridge/Getty Images
- Charlie XCX
Links Hall hosts an improv show that involves Nerf gear, PVC pipe, Wiffle balls, and dinosaurs. Dan Jakes calls it "special." We'll let you come up with your own adjective.
After writing Icona Pop's invincible platinum hit, "I Love It," Charlie XCX is set to be 2013's next Brit to blow up. She's a sublime balance of "pop success" and "art-damaged weirdness," writes Miles Raymer in Soundboard. At the Riviera Theatre, she opens for Marina & the Diamonds.
Seminary Co-op Bookstore completed its relocation in Hyde Park last week when it opened its new 8,900-square-foot space. Stanley Tigerman and Margaret McCurry, the architects behind the project, visit the store to discuss their design process.
For more on these events and others, check out the Reader's daily Agenda page.
