June 2025 Issue: Lit 50 (Digital Edition)

Lit 50 2025

Who really books In Chicago

" Forty years ago, the first Printers Row Lit Fest was staged in the canyon between the old printing houses on Dearborn Street, which had just been saved by a group led by architects Larry Booth and Harry Weese during a particularly precarious era for historic buildings and preservation.  Bette Cerf Hill, the founder of the festival, was staging cultural projects around the district, including an installation of Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” in the Franklin Building’s top floor. She decided the expanse of street would make an ideal location for a book fair, inspired by the outdoor booksellers found in Paris. It would be another year before this publication was founded—our first iteration as a community newspaper for that same neighborhood." (Todd Hieggelke)

The Mystery of Color

Candida Alvarez is having a full-circle New York moment

"Alvarez is acclaimed in part for the expressive energy of her work, the way her compositions emerge through brilliant, bold hues and dynamic, pulsating shapes, which at times seem to form figures and at other times remain opaquely abstract, almost camouflage-like." (Alison Cuddy)

Last Dance

An elegy for Links Hall

"I arrived late to the puppet cabaret, but my friend had kindly saved me a seat. A standing-room crowd filled the larger of two studios housed in an unassuming one-story brick building on Western Avenue—formerly home to the Viaduct Theater (named for the now-demolished Belmont Avenue flyover that once overshadowed it), now for more than a decade jazz presenter Constellation and its tenant: dance and performance-art incubator Links Hall. Tenant, that is, until the end of June, when Links Hall will present live art to the public for the last time."  (Sharon Hoyer)

Fresh Lettuce

How Rich Melman combined quirky with quality to build an empire

"At the same time I moved back to Chicago from Southern California in the early seventies, a man named Rich Melman began opening restaurants that would become a big part of my life. Not just my life, of course; Melman’s brainchildren multiplied rapidly to become a major part of the city’s dining scene. But during the early years, I thought of these quirky places as my discovery, as I introduced friends and acquaintances to the tasty and charming venues. Even then, Chicago offered a lot of dining options, and I took advantage of as many as possible. But as the years passed, even when I stopped seeking out Melman’s creations, I would find myself in his restaurants. He and his associates knew how to create places you wanted to be." (Cynthia Clampitt)

Rolling With Laughter

How Batsu! warriors wrap sushi with silliness

"On the intimate second floor of Chicago’s oldest sushi spot, guests sit at tables positioned in front of a foam-matted stage. From a corner in the back, DJ Charlie spins tracks by Slayyyter, Charli xcx and bbno$. Rhythmic, colorful lights paint the room as smoke machines blanket the floor with a mystic fog. As guests arrive, employees move throughout the space dressed as warriors, enthusiastically shouting “Irasshaimase!”—a common Japanese welcome traditionally heard when entering a restaurant or convenience store." (Paulina Czupryna)

Arts & Culture

Art: Who cares why Gustave Caillebotte painted men?

Dance: The Joffrey Ballet goes down the rabbit hole

Design: Inside the nation’s first museum dedicated to public housing

+ Mood: Office

Film: Outlaw Midwesterner Robert Altman

Lit: An interview with John Pistelli, author of "Major Arcana"

Music: For Giancarlo Guerrero, Grant Park is a homecoming of sorts

Stage: Composer Jeanine Tesori makes works “sing” across genres

Reviews

Start your summer with some art

Poetry