December 2021: Reckoning (Digital Download)
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Unapologetic Boldness
A conversation with Ayana Contreras
"'Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago' elaborates on the intergenerational connections between Black artists in the city as a method that has offered hope not just to people who enjoy the work, but the people who create it and seek ways to own what they made. Through interview snippets, analyzing records, magazines and songs, Contreras takes readers on a journey of how that legacy still reverberates in Chicago’s artists." (Tara Betts)
A Beautifully Dangerous Place
The Stockyard Institute surveys its past
"The Stockyard Institute can be read as both a pedagogical collective and a nomadic artist-driven practice. Its activities include experimental arts education, projects rooted in cooperative knowledge-building and cultural production through radio broadcasting, music and performance. For the duration of the exhibition, its practices are presented through a public archive, visual documentation, testimonies and in-situ objects uprooted from communal spaces, in order to compose a relatively holistic view of a lived practice." (Pia Singh)
Is This the End of the Tiki Bar?
We asked local Pacific Islanders
"But amidst all this supposed fun, there have been lingering questions about the genre. For example, is the whimsical use of Pacific Island terminology and iconography —particularly religious imagery like tiki carvings and moai, Easter Island statues—in these establishments sufficiently respectful of actual Polynesian cultures? And does this lighthearted take on Oceania inappropriately gloss over the more uncomfortable aspects of the region’s history and modern-day reality?" (John Greenfield)
“You Will Always be Different”
Ted Ishiwari's Chicago story
"In 1966, my family moved from the far Northwest Side of Chicago to the DePaul University area. While attending Oscar Mayer Elementary School for sixth grade, I was almost immediately “adopted” by a tight-knit circle of friends, and Ted Ishiwari was among them. Our childhood stomping grounds were rougher around the edges back then and a far cry from the affluent neighborhood it is today. But even though there was a sprinkling of derelict houses and street gangs to dodge, in most ways our lives were full of independence." (Shawn Shiflett)
Arts & Culture
Art: The Art Institute of Chicago models thoughtful stewardship of Ray Johnson's practice
Dance: Hyde Park School of Dance and its updated Nutcracker
Design: Chicago handshake is a very Chicago drinking card game
Dining & Drinking: “Don’t be afraid of Italian wine!”
Film: It’s not the end of movies
Lit: Gioia Diliberto talks "Coco at the Ritz"
Music: Beyond livestreaming
Stage: Alaudin Ullah's American dream
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