Commemorating the birthdays of figures who helped shape the destiny of the nation is not something we do well. After naming buildings, byways and bridges for them, remembrance devolves into speech making and, in the case of Martin Luther King Jr., concerts. Both are acceptable, even laudatory and enjoyable. But they suffer from a predictable …
The Blues Ain’t a Color – MLK Tribute Speaks Frankly about Race Read More »
“He’s a genius” kept passing peoples lips when the lights went up for intermission at Hamilton in the old Schubert Theater last night. Even the jaded and sophisticated had to nod to agreement. That one man could both write and compose such a feat of ingenuity strains comprehension. Despite being a well-seasoned two-year-old, the musical …
Everyone possesses the capacity to imagine. Artists are blessed with the ability to use their imaginations to create. At the top of the stairs on the 4th floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art, a small exhibit is dedicated to the creativity and imagination of women artist who work in the medium of photography. For …
Woman with a Camera – Catch it While You Can at MCA Read More »
No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks played to a packed house Saturday night. The play, commissioned by the Poetry Foundation to commemorate Gwendolyn’s Brooks centennial year, proved both ambitious and highly successful in its effort to express the breath of the poet’s impact on city of Chicago and the country. Staged in Harold …
How alien is rail travel to the average American? In an age of instant everything, how relevant is the passenger train? Headed to San Francisco from Chicago, with stops in Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Vegas and Yosemite, I was about to find out. Union Station may be one of a handful of truly grand passenger …
Given the number of people who regularly show up at Tuesdays on the Terrace, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s weekly treat of free jazz during summer, you can’t call it an undiscovered treasure. By 6:30pm, it’s usually teeming. Deceptively large and divided into several tiered levels, the space meanders peacefully over an acre of developed …
About to fold camp in one of city’s many unheralded treasures, the Civil Rights Photography of Maria Varela has a mere four weeks left at the National Mexican Arts Museum in Pilsen; ending its five-month run. Varela, a native Chicagoan baptized in activism in high school, captured images that freeze history and drip with intimacy. …
Time to Get Ready: Revisiting Courage Through the Lens of Maria Varela Read More »
Very few people would likely think of the word “power” when considering the work of Takasi Murakami. This is the man whose renown is wrapped up in anime and comic books (manga). And for creating the marvelous artwork on the cover of Kanye West’s Graduation album showing a teddy bear being blasted out of …
Despite it being around a couple of years now, Harris Theater’s Mix at Six doesn’t seem to have been fully discovered yet. If it had, its 1500 seats would have been brimming over like beer suds on a frosted glass Thursday night. In its coupling of Happy Hour to the performing arts, they’ve hit …