- Issue of
- Dec 22, 2016 - Jan 4, 2017
- Vol. 46, No. 12
It's our annual Year in Review, featuring our critics' picks for the best of the year in restaurants, transportation, music, theater, comedy, culture, bookstores, and alcoholic beverages.
Arts & Culture
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- Art Feature
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Where progress was made in 2016: In Chicago’s museums
During the past year, the city’s biggest institutions exhibited more overtly political work.
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- Art Feature
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The year in Reader photos
The best photos that ran in the Reader in 2016.
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- Feature
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2016 was the year of women in comedy
More than ever it's important to recognize the women who stand out among bland stand-ups.
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- Lit Feature
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The year in Chicago bookstores
Amazon is coming, but the indies have built a true community for the city’s readers
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- Performing Arts Feature
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2016 in theater was wildly convulsive on- and offstage
Controversies over abuse, alleged druggings, and “whitewashing” roiled even as Shakespeare 400 Chicago soared.
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- Performing Arts Feature
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The Phantom of the Opera and four more new stage shows
The longest-running musical on Broadway returns to Chicago as impressive as ever.
City Life
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- Space
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This Prince-themed Christmas lights display will help you get through this thing called life
A Tudor-style house in Park Ridge is a seasonal spectacle dedicated to the late, great Purple One.
Food & Drink
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- Food & Drink Feature
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The best new Chicago restaurants of 2016
Or: How I spent the year eating the pain away
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- Food & Drink Feature
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Chicago’s best new beer, cocktails, and spirits of 2016
The top quaffs of the year from local breweries, bars, and distilleries
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- Food & Drink Feature
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The 151 best things I ate and drank in 2016
Purge the bitter taste of this year with these dishes and drinks.
Columns & Opinion
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- On Culture
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Ten surprising stories from the year in Chicago culture
From Theater on the Lake to spaceship on the park, 2016 was a weird time in the city.
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- On Politics
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What Trump could learn from Chicago’s kleptocracy
Politicians making a buck on their offices is nothing new here.
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- Savage Love
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How common is it for women to squirt? and other burning questions
More from the live Savage Lovecast Christmas Spectacular
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- Savage Love
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Righteous anger or ‘freak-out’?
A jealous girlfriend feels her trust has been betrayed. Plus: a foot fetishist and a trans enthusiast share their own dilemmas about honesty.
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- On Transportation
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Despite high-profile deaths, 2016 was a good year for Chicago transportation
Equity became an increasingly important concern for decision makers and activists.
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- Identity & Culture
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By helping young black fathers, Sheldon Smith has become a ‘hero’
The founder of the Bronzeville-based Dovetail Project is honored by CNN Heroes.
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- Identity & Culture
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Don’t blame ‘identity politics’ for what went wrong in 2016
We marginalized folks didn't start this garbage fire.
News & Politics
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- Feature
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Attorneys: Cook County eviction court proceedings are ‘black box’
The odds of winning in eviction court are stacked against tenants; a lack of transparency is part of the problem.
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- Politics
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2016 was the year Chicago finally got serious about police reform
But it was also the year many citizens became convinced that reform is impossible.
Film
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- Movie Feature
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The best films of 2016
The Reader’s J.R. Jones picks his favorite movies of the year.
Music
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- Gossip Wolf
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Guitarists Ryley Walker and Bill MacKay whip up some sorely needed holiday cheer
Plus: Timbuck2Forever returns to Metro to honor the fallen Chicago DJ, Macabre host their 19th annual Holiday of Horror at Reggie’s, and more.
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- Music Feature
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The best live metal of 2016
Metal shows remain a great way to drive hostile occupiers out of your head—whether you prefer the bitter catharsis of False or the galloping rush of Tengger Cavalry.
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- Music Feature
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Five local labels that had excellent years in 2016
These modest Chicago operations have gotten so good at what they do that they’re shaping music scenes far and wide.
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- Music Feature
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The year Chicago hip-hop beat the haters
For ages, local rappers tore each other down, as though the city could produce only one star at a time—but in 2016 the whole scene seemed to grasp the value of community.
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- Music Feature
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The ten best jazz records of 2016
The cream of this year’s crop includes a large-ensemble concept album about conspiracy theories, a tug-of-war between loops and live-band grooves, and an amazing hybrid of jazz and hip-hop.
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- The Secret History of Chicago Music
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The Trouble Boys brought dumb punk fun to the U. of C. in the late 70s
The Trouble Boys never made a record, but guitarist and singer Don Hedeker went on to play in Algebra Suicide and the Polkaholics.
Reader
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- Digital Editions
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Print Issue of December 22, 2016
Volume 46, Number 12
Blogs
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- Bleader
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Fact vs. fiction: Which gets us closer to the truth?
Are journalists the only people left who care about facts?
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- Bleader
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The Reader’s Made in Chicago Holiday Market, Jim Jarmusch’s Gimme Danger, and more things to do this weekend
Shop Sensual, “Riot Grrrls,” and more happenings from December 16-18
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- Bleader
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Report: President Barack Obama is planning to say farewell at McCormick Place, and other Chicago news
Also, who knew that being the city's "harbor boss" was such a challenging gig?
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- Bleader
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Looking for certainty in allegations against the Wash U. men's soccer team
Indignant male commenters react to the suspension of Washington U.'s men's soccer team.
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- Bleader
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Two more 2016 surprises: The end of Oracle Productions, and the end of the Hypocrites as we know them
Two more culture-beat surprises from 2016: the end of Oracle Productions, and a radical revamp at the Hypocrites.
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- Bleader
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Illinois's prison population dropped 9.1 percent under Rauner, and other Chicago news
Also, it was so cold Sunday that Chicago Bears QB Matt Barkley was wearing a wet suit under his uniform.
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- Bleader
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A lantern lights the way for an ax murderer on the gig poster of the week
This week's featured gig poster was created by designer Rick Leech for High on Fire's two-night New Year's celebration.
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- Bleader
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Dearborn Denim & Apparel keeps it local, affordable, and exceptional
Dearborn Denim & Apparel cuts out the middle man and offers locally manufactured premium denim at low prices.
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- Bleader
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Die Hard heckling, a holiday Nerdette, and more things to do in Chicago pre-Christmas week
A Very Ladylike Christmas, Logan Square Holiday Farmers Market, and more happenings from December 19-22
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- Bleader
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WCIU premieres Chicago’s One Night Stand-Up on New Year’s Eve
Rebecca O'Neal hosts the local televised stand-up showcase.
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- Bleader
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Forty people were shot over the weekend despite bitter cold and snow, and other Chicago news
Also, midyear budget cuts are looming again for Chicago Public Schools.
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- Bleader
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A Q&A with Fences costars Stephen McKinley Henderson and Jovan Adepo
Henderson and Adepo join Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in the film adaptation of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, directed by Washington.
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- Bleader
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Bicolor hair channels a songwriter’s single about split personalities
Singer-songwriter Tatiana Hazel shows off her eclectic style and bicolor hair.
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- Bleader
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Remembering Carrie Fisher's Blues Brothers time in Chicago, and other news
Also, a billionaire actually asked Rahm to close Monroe Street in the Loop during his daughter's wedding.
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- Bleader
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Bathsheba Nemerovski’s style reflects the spirit of the times
The Logan Square hairstylist and keyboardist made an appearance at a screening of a documentary about Rick Owens, along with a few other fashionable attendees.
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- Bleader
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Y: The Last Man is given the Absolute Edition treatment—is it worth $125?
Brian K. Vaughan's dystopian masterpiece is given DC's highest honor.
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- Bleader
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A workshop on ‘cop watching’ shows Chicagoans how to safely document police stops
The People’s Response Team recently taught a class on the monitoring of interactions between citizens and police officers.
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- Bleader
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A True/False Film Fest event at the Music Box will incorporate live, local music
A performance by the instrumental band Mar Caribe will precede screenings of the short Balloonfest and the documentary feature Thy Father's Chair.
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- Bleader
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Stuff we read—and liked!—in 2016
A list of the books that surprised, enlightened, and delighted Reader reviewers
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- Bleader
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The Chicago Police Department is recruiting black and Hispanic candidates, and other news
Also, a study of local high school students shows that studying music changes the teenage brain.
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- Bleader
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Mendoza and Munger continue to spar even though the comptroller's race is over, and other Chicago news
Also, former Mayor Daley is scheduled for deposition in January in a Jon Burge-related torture lawsuit.
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- Bleader
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The gig poster of the week comes with a wall of sound
This week's gig poster was designed by local artist Scott Wiliams.
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- Bleader
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The Showcase Showdown wish you the happiest of holidays with ‘Merry Christmas, I Fucked Your Snowman’
O come all ye faithful and enjoy the classic "Merry Christmas, I Fucked Your Snowman" by the Showcase Showdown.
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- Bleader
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A former Chicago bartender returns from Cambodia to mix cocktails from her Phnom Penh bar
Annemarie Sagoi brings drinks from Le Boutier, her craft cocktail bar that celebrates Cambodia's "golden age" of rock, to Bar DeVille for one night only.
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- Bleader
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Blagojevich is appealing his prison sentence again, and other Chicago news
Also, a few police officers have reportedly received subpoenas from the Laquan McDonald investigation grand jury.
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- Bleader
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Things to do in Chicago on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2016
Restaurants, films, parties, exhibits, and more to help you avoid holiday-induced cabin fever on December 24-25
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- Bleader
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Angered by homicides, activists leave coffins at Rahm Emanuel’s home
“Behind each of these deaths is a failure,” activists said.
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- Bleader
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Rahm Emanuel releases several years’ worth of e-mails, and other Chicago news
Also, outgoing Republican senator Mark Kirk laments the lost of the moderate establishment in the age of Trump.
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- Bleader
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Records dump reveals Rahm's millionaires-only e-mail club
Wealthy and powerful men had direct access to the mayor, while activists and ordinary citizens were kept at bay.
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- Bleader
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Court forces CHA to replace public housing lost at Lathrop on the north side
But remaining residents still worry about how long replacement units will be kept affordable.
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- Bleader
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Seeking meaning in the Poem of the Day
Maybe poetry can't help but protest.