This Friday’s ‘Bandcamp day’ benefits more than the artists

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/3 5:40P Leor Galil

Many musicians and labels will donate the day’s Bandcamp money to support the fight for Black lives. At the end of April, Bandcamp announced that it would waive its revenue share on the first Fridays...

Remembering Conrad Worrill

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/3 11:05A Ben Joravsky

It’s hard to summarize all of what Conrad accomplished in his life; among other things he was a Black nationalist, coach, political activist, professor, scholar, and sports enthusiast. One of the sad...

COVID-19 is sending people Early to Bed

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/3 7:13A

A local sex shop on what business looks like when everyone's stuck at home. Sponsored advertisement …

Making A Change

Sequins and Stripes 6/3 4:14A Liz

artwork by Daria Rosen I think we can all agree that the past few days have taken a heavy toll on our emotions. The racial injustice happening in America right now is tragic and what s even more...

Essays as group therapy

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/3 1:00A Derrick Clifton

How are Black writers coping? We’re chanting, fact-checking history, and envisioning a tiny future. Karen Hawkins…

DJ and producer Jordan Zawideh drops an homage to oddball old-school house

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/3 1:00A J.R. Nelson

DJ and producer Jordan Zawideh drops an homage to oddball old-school house, sheet-music institution Performers needs help to survive the pandemic, and more. Chicago DJ and producer Jordan Zawideh has...

Pivot Arts Festival switches it up online

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/2 10:50A Kerry Reid

The annual celebration of multidisciplinary performance adjusts for the times. Pivot Arts has been an incubator for multidisciplinary performance for nearly a decade, and its annual festival, which...

Inside the intricate worlds of Polly Pocket

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/2 10:05A Megan Kirby

An interview with collector and Instagrammer Julia Carusillo Oh, to quarantine inside a Polly Pocket, safe and enclosed, all the comforts of home sculpted in colorful plastic. Browsing the Instagram...

Michael Salvatori’s long, strange trip

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/2 9:10A Steve Krakow

In 1982 Michael Salvatori recorded a sought-after private-press folk LP, and 19 years later he cowrote the score for genre-defining video game Halo . Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow)...

Rhymefest’s greatest moment in Chicago music history

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/2 8:05A Che "Rhymefest" Smith

Veteran rapper and activist Rhymefest remembers an all-star festival by and for the community. Not only is 2020 the Year of Chicago Music, it's also the 35th year for the nonprofit Arts & Business...

Evanston’s Road to Reparations

Chicago Magazine 6/2 6:19A

Compensating African Americans for the wrongs of history has been a political nonstarter for decades. Then, last November, one Chicago suburb made it a reality.

Dinner at the Grotto and Black Cat Kitchen make staying at home deliciously weird

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/2 4:00A Mike Sula

A supper club and a caterer turned on a dime during quarantine. Some of the rare bright moments in this slow terror are the random porch presents from masked bandits bearing treasures. Last month,...

Police abolitionists find fuel in the protests

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/1 12:30P Maya Dukmasova

As more people lose faith in the state, community organizers offer alternatives. Here's what's true no matter how you look at the events of the last week:…

The Reader's stay-at-home chronicles: day 73

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/1 11:10A Reader staff

What we're reading, watching, listening to, etc. At 5 PM Saturday, March 21, Governor J.B. Pritzker's COVID-19 Executive Order No. 8, aka the Stay at Home order, took effect. Here's a daily-ish...

Poetry at a distance

Chicago Reader (Style) 6/1 10:05A Ariel Parrella-Aureli

Poets come together to share the joy, pain, and hope from the pandemic in a new video project. Open mikes have gone dark amid the pandemic, but creativity has taken to a virtual stage. For local poet...