- Issue of
- Dec 13-19, 2018
- Vol. 48, No. 11
It’s alive! Inside SAIC’s bio art lab,
where poetry turns into viruses and yeast into music. By Paul Dailing
Plus: The soon-to-be mayoral also-rans worth a closer look
News & Politics
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- Comics Feature
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Film on fire
A 1983 science fiction film fuels ongoing discussion on racial and gender justice.
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- Feature
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The problem with the “public health” approach to ideological violence
The Countering Violent Extremism program is meant to stop terrorism and hate crimes before they happen, but critics say it’s yet another excuse to spy on Muslims.
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- Politics
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Overlooked mayoral hopefuls share bold visions for Chicago
They may have little name recognition and no campaign funds, but the regular people running for mayor are committed to making the city thrive.
Food & Drink
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- Restaurant Review
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Filipino meets Cuban at Bayan Ko
A snug Ravenswood mom-and-pop with postcolonial synergy.
Columns & Opinion
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- On Politics
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Celebrating Acero's successful teachers' strike—and the belated victory for Karen Lewis
Chicago's City Council hates taking from the schools and giving to the rich but sometimes they do it anyway.
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- Savage Love
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How to deal with sex-shaming family members over the holidays
Dan gives advice to a couple on tumblr, a "free sexual woman," and the younger half of an age-gap couple, all dreading upcoming gatherings.
Arts & Culture
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- Art Feature
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Inside SAIC’s Bio Art Lab, where art is life—literally
In a basement below Michigan Avenue, poetry turns into viruses and yeast into music.
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- Comedy
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The Second City’s Algorithm Nation or, The Static Quo feels stuck in the system
The 107th mainstage revue features talented performers, but it’s strictly by the numbers.
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- Comics
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Beauty under duress
Movement studies of a woman with multiple sclerosis.
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- Dance
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In Stomp, power comes not from being the loudest but from sharing what you have
And just about anything can be an instrument—even the kitchen sink.
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- Lit Feature
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Lit recs to dismantle violence, both the personal and systemic
The current book obsessions of Reader staff writer Maya Dukmasova and activist Mariame Kaba.
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- Performing Arts Feature
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Isaac Gomez wanted to know more about the women who were abducted on their way to work in Juarez. So he wrote La Ruta.
The El Paso-born playwright’s newest work premieres this week at Steppenwolf.
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- Theater Review
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Hellcab's appeal remains just as mystifying now as it was in 1992
Despite the update to a female cabdriver, the script's fundamental flaws remain unaddressed.
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- Theater Review
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A lot goes right in The Play That Goes Wrong
But it's the set that steals the show.
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- Theater Review
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The Santaland Diaries hilariously exposes the ugly underbelly of the holiday season
Though maybe the script could stand a few updates.
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- Theater Review
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The Winter Wolf is so delightful, with its infinite capacity for wonder
Otherworld Theatre presents a cozy, nourishing holiday story.
Film
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- Movie Review
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In Shoplifters, the sharpest insights are blurred by sentimentality
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s film about an impoverished makeshift family won the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
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- Movie Review
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This year’s Animation Show of Shows amuses more than astonishes
The 15 international selections use a variety of forms, from pencil to clay animation.
Music
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- Gossip Wolf
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Joyride Records leaves Ukrainian Village, destination unknown
Plus: The original Mannequin Men reunite to celebrate the band’s 15th anniversary, and sound artist Jeff Kolar pipes music into pedway phone booths as part of the Short-Cuts series.
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- In Rotation
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Racetraitor guitarist Dan Traitor on connecting hardcore and union organizing
Plus: Fern X Decline on his inspiration as a front man, the Reader’s Jamie Ludwig on the outsiders who seeded the Australian punk scene, and more
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- Music Feature
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Honoring the vanishing musical culture of Wicker Park
In some ways, Dorian’s is just one more boutiquey bar and restaurant. But its record store and music bookings connect it to the neighborhood’s 1990s arts community.
Reader
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- Digital Editions
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Print issue of December 13, 2018
Volume 48, Number 11
Blogs
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- Bleader
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Chicago rockers share their Mutiny memories, foggy and otherwise
Eulogies for the notoriously debauched punk bar from members of Sweet Cobra, Montrose Man, the Functional Blackouts, and more
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- Bleader
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Archive dive: How Soul Train, the show that put black music on TVs across America, got its start in Chicago
Even after it moved to LA, Chicago kept its own version running daily for nearly a decade.
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- Bleader
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Buzzcocks front man Pete Shelley grappled with metaphysical questions as eloquently as he wrote about physical desire
He most perfectly captured this dichotomy between the carnal and the philosophical on the 1979 B side "Why Can't I Touch It?"
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- Bleader
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See it now: 'The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold'
There's time to catch "The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold" at the Museum of Contemporary Photography
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- Bleader
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A guitar transfigured into liquid cheese on the gig poster of the week
This week's featured gig poster was designed by local artist Ryan Duggan.