New City

2026-02-13 New City

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 10:03:12 GMT

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Though we lost our shot at a Chicago Calatrava building when the Spire expired in 2015, we only have to go ninety miles north to the Milwaukee Art Museum to experience the way the architect turns steel into an organic material, making you believe a building is alive.

I (finally) got to visit his Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro this week, and my second Calatrava building affirmed the special magic of this architect. And the museum itself—a science museum dedicated to the future—surprised me with its metaphysical character.

I found myself choked up so many times, not by a polemical vision of the future but one grounded in simply pointing out our place in the world at this time–not about politics, but as a species. Here is the museum's manifesto:

Tomorrow is today. And today is the place for action. The Museum of Tomorrow is a very different kind of science museum. An environment of ideas, explorations and questions about the time of great change in which we live and the different paths that lead to the future. Tomorrow is not a date on the calendar. It is not a place at which we simply arrive. It is something that we all build together, as people, as citizens, as members of the human species.

And why a Museum of Tomorrow? Because we live in a new epoch in which all human activity has become a force of global impact. We are capable of intervening at the molecular and continent levels. We deal with atoms and create artificial microorganisms. We divert the course of great rivers, change forests, influence the atmosphere and transform the climate. We inhabit a planet that is being deeply affected by our actions. What tomorrows will arise out of our own choices?

The Museum of Tomorrow offers a narrative about how we can live and shape the next 50 years. A journey towards possible futures, grounded on questions Humanity has always asked itself. Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we? Where are we going? How do we want to get there?

Guided by the ethical values of Sustainability and Coexistence, essential to our civilization, the Museum also seeks to promote innovation, disseminate the advances of science and publish the vital signs of the planet. A Museum to expand our knowledge and transform the way we think and act.

The headline of the New York Times the next day? "Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation." New tears fell.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

The biggest issue in Newcity's history is out now. Order a copy here, or take advantage of our extended cutoff date for new subscribers to get the February/March Fortieth Anniversary Issue as your first here.

And don't forget our audience survey here.

STAGE

“Holiday” Blends the Past and Present at Goodman Theatre

The play is primarily a family drama, webbing together the relationships of the fabulously wealthy Seton family with those who pass in and out of their lives on New York City’s Upper East Side. (Charles Kenney)

DESIGN

Inspired by Grandmother’s Heirlooms: How Jenna London Jewelry Balances Memory, Meaning and Wearability

Rooted in memory and refined through a contemporary perspective, Chicago-based designer Jenna Mendelsohn’s jewelry is lived with—not saved for special occasions, but for the in-between moments, too. (Vasia Rigou)

ART

How Fredrik Værslev Loosens Up Abstraction at Neubauer Collegium

The artist's first institutional solo sheds modernism’s conceptual weight in favor of sly play, perception and everyday connection. (Lucas Gómez-Doyle)

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MUSIC

Power Pop Band Time Thieves Are Not Stealing Time, But Earning Listener Ears

The band is combining two recent EPs into one LP, released on vinyl for the first time this month. They'll celebrate the album with a show at the Empty Bottle. (Craig Bechtel)

BRAZIL

Antonio Obá Paints Rebirth in “Nascimento” at Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo

Antonio Obá allows us to understand that to live is, at every moment, to find a way to be born again. (Luiz Armando Bagolin)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Nick Cave And The Bones Of "Mammoth"

Nick Cave's "Mammoth" "is the [Smithsonian American Art Museum's] largest-ever single-artist commission," writes Elly Fishman at the Sun-Times. "Mammalian puppets" are "the stars of Cave’s new film installation, 'Roam,' one of several works the artist has created for his exhibition." Says Sarah Newman, the acting head curator, “Nick is proposing a way to navigate through that change, a way to look at our environment and our heritage, take solace in it, honor and learn from it, and look toward creativity as a way to locate your place in the world." The Smithsonian's page for "Mammoth" is here.

Also: Cave and Bob Faust tell Art in America about collaborating as a couple. For “Mammoth,” Cave "is excavating his own ancestry and the psychic weight of his family’s material history... Faust, who has worked to design a book for 'Mammoth' and assisted with a new wall work for the show, is investigating alongside him. Since they met in the late 1990s, the couple have collaborated on projects ranging from books to installations to merchandise."

SoNa Presents Jack Poker's "Beneath An Economy Of Sky"

SoNa Chicago will present “Beneath an Economy of Sky," an exhibition featuring the artwork of Jack Poker, "who blends painting and collage to make unique and moving works." Poker "is a Chicago-based artist whose work examines memory and how it is tied to the history of a place. His current body of work explores the economic and environmental impacts on communities of removals of buildings and transformations of spaces. Jack’s paintings, collages and sculptures depict what happens to abandoned or demolished buildings, city blocks, suburban neighborhoods and commercial sites as urban and rural landscapes change with economic development or neglect." Opening Friday, February 20 at SoNa Chicago Contemporary Art, 1527 North Ashland. More here.

Marina Ross' "Countdown" At Chicago Athletic Association

"Marina Ross paintings return obsessively—and deliberately—to the visual universe of 'The Wizard of Oz,' not as homage or nostalgia, but as a site of rupture. The film’s saturated imagery, collective familiarity and promise of escape become raw material through which Ross explores grief, displacement, and the fragile construction of identity," curator and Newcity design editor Vasia Rigou writes. "Raised in Chicago after being born in the former Soviet Union, the artist approaches American cultural mythology both as insider and outsider, drawing on its most enduring symbols to question what permanence, belonging and fantasy can actually offer in the face of loss." Ross was a 2025 Newcity Breakout Artist. More on the exhibition here. Details on the February 19 opening here.

Afton Battle Appointed General Manager At Theaster Gates' Rebuild Foundation

Afton Battle has been appointed director of The Land School and general manager of the Rebuild Foundation. She arrives from the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she was vice president of Lyric Unlimited and artistic operations for the organization. "Afton will add leadership, management capacity, and a deep belief in artists to our organization,” said Theaster Gates. “As The Land School demonstrates the vivacity of the creative soundand music scene on the South Side and develops innovative ways to share our archives, I couldnot think of a better person to support the operations of this grand ambition with care, rigor and purpose.”

Old Masters Teach New Tricks With Record Sales

Christie’s and Sotheby’s hosted major sales during the recent Old Masters week in New York, records ARTnews. "The week, which ran concurrently with Art Basel Qatar, generated records for Artemisia Gentileschi and Michelangelo. It also saw the sale of the most expensive drawing by Rembrandt van Rijn." Exulted Dutch Old Master dealer Salomon Lilian, “Old Masters are back!” New York adviser Laura Paulson "was particularly impressed with a ca. 1500 Franco-Flemish tapestry from the holdings of Chicago philanthropists Cindy and Jay Pritzker that was estimated at up to $500,000 but sold for $1.9 million after a ten-minute contest."

Jersey City Mayor: "Non" To Centre Pompidou Museum

"A Centre Pompidou satellite museum that was expected to open in Jersey City is officially not happening anymore, the city’s Mayor said on Wednesday," posts ARTnews. "The museum, officially known as the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City, would have been the only North American satellite operated by Paris’ biggest museum of modern and contemporary art, which is currently closed for renovations. The Pompidou also runs international satellites in Shanghai and Málaga, Spain. Others are expected to open in Seoul, and Paraná, Brazil, yet both pale in comparison to the most ambitious Pompidou satellite in the offing: Kanal, a new museum in Brussels." Many years have passed since its first proposal, with tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money potentially at stake.

DESIGN

70 East Lake Is The Latest Loop Building Looking Toward Residential Redevelopment

The longtime owner of a ninety-nine-year-old, seventeen-story office building near the northeast corner of the Loop "has put the property up for sale, marketing it as a candidate to be turned into something else amid weak demand for workspace," reports Crain's. "A venture of Chicago-based Ansonia Properties has hired brokers from Cushman & Wakefield to seek a buyer for the 141,593-square-foot vintage office building at 70 East Lake." Among other tenants, the building was "the former site of private film screenings used by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert during the early years of the duo's famous film review show." It's just east of the Stanley Tigerman-designed parking garage featuring a cartoonish car-grill façade.

CAB Projects Seek Good Homes Following Biennial

"In the spirit of community and in an effort to reduce waste, the Chicago Architecture Biennial is offering a selection of its 2025 installations to cultural partners for installation and/or collection at no cost," advises the Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange. "Shipping and installation support may be provided as needed." See the list of available works here.

Boffo Baggu Plans Second Chicago Store

Baggu is opening its second Chicago store in Lincoln Park at 2118 North Halsted, tips B Talent. This follows the opening of its Bucktown store in 2024. The brand also maintains outposts in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The Langham Noted As One Of Three Most Beautiful US Hotels

According to the U.S. News & World Report's 2026 best hotels ranking, "The Langham now sits just behind the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai in Hawaii, which took the top spot for the second year in a row, and Four Seasons Resort Lanai, which ranked number two," notches Time Out Chicago. "The Langham outranked major coastal competitors, including Mandarin Oriental, New York (number four) and Mandarin Oriental, Boston (number five), underscoring Chicago’s growing reputation as a luxury travel destination."

DINING & DRINKING

Noble Thai Takes Former Parson's Spot In Andersonville

Noble Thai will be the fourth restaurant to occupy the Andersonville storefront most recently home to Parson's Chicken in recent years, noshes Block Club. "Noble Thai opened in West Town in 2021 and serves dishes like Tiger Cry ($13.95), chicken satay ($8.95), pad Thai ($12.95) and gaeng panang ($12.95). It made Eater Chicago’s list of best Thai restaurants in 2025."

FILM & TELEVISION

Does "The Bear" Sit In The Village? Fifth Season Location Spottings Begin

"Actors Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Matty Matheson were spotted in Ukrainian Village, where several residential streets were blocked off with filming notices," points the Sun-Times. "Dozens of production vehicles displaying the name 'The Fugitive,' a code name for the series, lined both sides of Cortez Street on Tuesday... Previous code names... Include 'Windy City Law' and 'Kubelik,' named after a Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director."

Illinois Film Office director Peter Hawley said "the show’s impact on the local dining scene has been significant. Chicagoans and tourists alike have flocked to popular restaurants that appeared in the show, from Grant Achatz’s Alinea to the bustling Filipino bakery and restaurant Kasama, just around the corner from this week’s filming location." Said Hawley, "I’ve heard people who have in-laws from foreign countries, who come here to go have an Italian beef sandwich and to go to other places that have been featured in 'The Bear.'"

LIT

Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Plans Ceremony For Poet Ed Roberson

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, Poetry Foundation, American Writers Museum and Guild Literary Complex will honor Ed Roberson with the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame's Fuller Award at the Poetry Foundation in June. The Fuller Award will be presented to "Chicago poet and 2016 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize recipient Ed Roberson" for his lifetime contributions to literature. The ceremony is part of the Poetry Foundation’s spring 2026 season, "No One Can Afford To Lose Love." The evening will be emceed by avery r. young, which will include special tributes by other writers and a conversation between Roberson and CM Burroughs. More here.

Midwest Literary Luminaries Appear At Door County Writing Conference

Write On, Door County hosts the third annual Writing On The Door Conference on April 24 and 25 at Stone Harbor Resort and Conference Center in historic downtown Sturgeon Bay. "The conference welcomes those who are new to writing, as well as those who have been writing for years. Among the panel discussions are an inside look at publishing with author [Kathleen] Rooney, who is also the co-founder and publisher of Rose Metal Press; literary agent Chris Fischbach, formerly editor and publisher at Coffee House Press; and Katie Dublinski, managing editor at Graywolf Press." Rooney will also serve as the keynote speaker for the conference. Tickets and more details here.

MEDIA

ICE Coverage Drives Traffic To Community Papers

"From Somalis in Minneapolis to Nepalis in New York City, immigrant communities turn to trusted local news sources," measures NiemanLab, looking at bursts of traffic and reader interest during recent events. "There’s been a consistent trend: Wherever ICE unleashes its controversial deportation tactics, the audience’s attention follows." For example: "In October, the biggest percentage increase in traffic any site saw was at NepYork, a site that covers the Nepali community in New York City, where visits skyrocketed from around 20,000 to 289,000. "

MUSIC

Could The Smashing Pumpkins' Origin Story At Club 21 Be Preserved?

In 1988, The Smashing Pumpkins "performed their first show at Chicago 21 Club, a Polish nightclub on the Far Northwest Side. Nearly four decades later, a local historian wants to save the... ornate front doors," sounds Block Club. Despite falling into disrepair, "Northwest Side historian Dan Pogorzelski hopes to preserve a piece of Chicago music history by saving the wooden doors of the Chicago 21 Club, which feature ornate carvings of apes, suns, stars and more. Pogorzelski said the doors were created by sculptor Julian Harr and that they need a bit of 'TLC' but are in fairly good condition. 'So many amazing artists all began their careers here [in Chicago] but so much of it has been destroyed and lost over the years.'"

Shawn Okpebholo Plans A World Premiere With UChicago Symphony Orchestra

The University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra will present the world premiere of Shawn Okpebholo’s "The Sky Between," a concerto for violin and orchestra featuring Heather Wittels. Commissioned by the University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Okpebholo’s three-movement work “explores the intersections of time, motion and memory—how the steady pulse of life can both structure and blur our experiences.” The title "The Sky Between" "points to our life under the sky, a shared presence that connects us all, even though we all experience it differently." Free. Mandel Hall, Saturday, February 28. More here.

STAGE

Center Stage Fest Celebrates Ruth Page With A Weekend Of Performances

Center Stage at Ruth Page is a two-day dance festival celebrating the birthday of the center's founder, dance icon Ruth Page (1899-1991). The event features a lineup of performances by Chicago-based dance companies along with Ruth Page resident organizations. In-residence artists include Giordano Dance Chicago, Hedwig Dances, Porchlight Music Theatre and Pilates Practice Chicago, while guest artists from the Chicago community include Boykin Dance Project, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Leveldance, The Seldoms and The Jazz Hoofing Quartet. More here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Get Your "Passport To Illinois"

As Illinois communities prepare for the nation’s 250th birthday on July 4, the Illinois America 250 Commission has unveiled a Passport to Illinois to explore places, people and events in Illinois that have shaped the nation’s history. Among the fifty historic sites, museums and monuments featured are the Kaskaskia Bell State Memorial and the Elijah P. Lovejoy Monument in southern Illinois; the Western Illinois Museum in Macomb; the Project XV Voting Rights Museum in El Paso; the Ulysses S. Grant Home in Galena; the Jacksonville African American History Museum and Woodlawn Farm and the McLean County Museum of History in central Illinois; the Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum and the Radium Girls Monument in northern Illinois; and the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture and the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum in Chicago. More about the limited-edition Passport to Illinois here.

State Sets $1.6 Million For DuSable Museum Building Improvements

State money for renovations at the DuSable "comes during Black History Month and as the museum is under investigation after a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former employee," reports the Sun-Times. "The funds will go to updating bathrooms, the museum’s Harold Washington wing, and the theater... The improvements made to the wing and theater will allow the museum to increase revenue via facility rentals."

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2026-02-16 New City

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 10:02:34 GMT

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On Friday night, we went to see "the greatest spectacle on Earth," that is the Carnaval parades at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí in Rio de Janeiro.

It is a truly astonishing event, one that words fail, as do photos and videos. So too, does this human body, which over the years has seen the soul of a night owl fly into the body of an early bird. So just to correct the record, we saw about half of the parades that night, heading home a bit after 1am from an event that started around 9pm and was scheduled to run until about 6am.

This is not the only experience that I can't enjoy the way I did decades ago. The other thing I miss most about nightlife is house music, and electronic music in general. Even in my forties I could take a "disco nap" and head to the dance club at midnight and leave as the sun was coming up.

Now, most nights, I am content to sleep until sunrise.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

And don't forget our audience survey here.

ART

Patron Gallery's Tenth Anniversary Show Is All About the Patron

The exhibition's title borrows the dictionary definition of the gallery’s namesake to speak to the connections between groups that have cohabited their space. (Lucas Gómez-Doyle)

STAGE

Get Ready to Rumble With the Greasers and the Socs in “The Outsiders”

Broadway In Chicago presents this Tony Award-winning musical based on the classic book and film. The production is both a nostalgic trip for existing fans and a powerful introduction for a new generation. (Tristan Bruns)

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LIT

Anne Fadiman Ponders the Mysterious Reality of the Vast and Small in “Frog”

The writer's new essay collection absorbs readers in subjects they never thought to think of, from Antarctica’s only magazine to a poignant history of an old Hewlett-Packard printer. (Scott Pfeiffer)

BRAZIL

Sérgio Sister and Karin Lambrecht Confront Body and Color at Galeria Nara Roesler New York

The two artists don't merely present different styles, but two ways of understanding what it means to make a painting exist. (Luiz Armando Bagolin)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Expo Chicago Removes Sections: Special Exhibitions And Editions + Books

Expo Chicago organizers "say they want to create a more curated, accessible experience, but some local art nonprofits feel excluded as their section is cut from this year’s fair," reports Block Club. "The fair is downsizing its main installation at Navy Pier in an effort to be 'more focused and curated,'" says Kate Sierzputowski, Expo's new director and former artistic director. "Two noticeably absent sections this year are Special Exhibitions, which featured a slew of Chicago nonprofits, and Editions + Books, featuring an array of print media like publications and photography."

The report mentions that Chicago Artists Coalition is among the nonprofits that will no longer have an exhibition at the fair due to this change. "Other groups featured in last year’s Special Exhibitions include Arts of Life, Center for Native Futures, Hyde Park Art Center, School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Wrightwood 659."

Dread Scott Left Out Of Exhibition On Black Artists Reinterpreting The Flag

"An exhibit of Black artists reinterpreting the U.S. flag opens at the University of Maryland’s Driskell Center without Dread Scott's 'What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?'" reports The Art Newspaper. According to the center's director, "there was no formal loan agreement [for the artwork] and her original letter to Scott in February 2025 was an 'initial inquiry.' She emphasizes that 'What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?' was one of several works considered for but not ultimately included in the exhibition." (More.)

MoCP's Darkroom Benefit Auction Is Online

The Museum of Contemporary Photography's annual Darkroom Benefit Auction features "emerging and established artists whose works contribute to the medium of photography. Auction purchases support a year of groundbreaking exhibitions, innovative programming and educational opportunities dedicated to contemporary photography." View the list of available artworks and put in your bids here.

New Judy Chicago Work In Venice

"Timed to coincide with the 2026 Venice Biennale, Alberta Pane presents 'The Materiality of Judy Chicago,' a solo exhibition by the pioneering American artist at its Venice gallery," reports FAD magazine. "Curated by Allison Raddock, the exhibition runs from May 8 to November 22... and offers a rare, material-led reading of Chicago’s six-decade career, alongside the debut of a new body of work created specifically for the occasion."

Hancock Center Home Of Art Collectors Gael Neeson And Stefan Edlis For Sale

"A North Michigan Avenue condo where a pair of eminent art collectors lived for decades among numerous canvases and sculptures is on the market," reports Crain's. "The condo, about 5,900 feet in the landmark tower formerly called the John Hancock Center [is listed] at $1.8 million. It's the longtime home of mega-collectors and philanthropists Gael Neeson and Stefan Edlis, whose philanthropy has supported the Art Institute, the Museum of Contemporary Art, WBEZ, the Lyric Opera and Chicago Opera Theater... Among the couple's major gifts was a collection of forty-two contemporary artworks by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons and others that was valued at $400 million when they gave it to the Art Institute in 2015." The report notes that the apartment is composed of seven combined units.

Edra Soto's “Bad Bunny Chairs” Show In New MCA exhibit

"Interdisciplinary artist Edra Soto created more than a dozen 'BB (Bad Bunny Chairs)' that will be featured in an upcoming MCA exhibit about the visual, political and spiritual histories of dancehall and reggaetón," reports WBBM 870. "Soto has been using plastic lawn chairs in her artwork long before they appeared on the cover of Bad Bunny's most recent album 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos.'"

Elmhurst Art Museum Brings Art Out On The Road

"The new Mobile Museum program created by the Elmhurst Art Museum" brings art out into local community centers, reports the Daily Herald. A recent "traveling exhibit made a stop at the Roosevelt at Salt Creek senior living community in Elmhurst," where about two dozen residents attended the event. "The result of a 2025 Illinois Arts Council grant, the Mobile Museum was designed to expand access to art education to students, community groups and Elmhurst residents by bringing artwork to them for a couple of hours."

Artforum Editor Out

Artforum editor-in-chief Tina Rivers Ryan, "a curator and essayist who joined the publication as its top editor in 2024, will be replaced by two staff members, Daniel Wenger and Rachel Wetzler," reports the New York Times. "They will be promoted to a new joint role of co-editors." Wenger is currently an editor at Artforum, and Wetzler is the magazine’s executive editor. (More.)

DESIGN

SAIC Hosts Discussion On The Future Of Biennials

The School of the Art Institute is hosting a discussion on the state of architecture biennials, with guests Nora Daley, co-chair of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and Richard McCoy, founder of Exhibit Columbus. "The discussion comes at a pivotal time for both the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Exhibit Columbus—two premier North American venues for interpreting urbanism and design—as they both conclude their first decade. The discussion will focus on what’s in store for these signature events: how their purpose and programs have matured over the past ten years and what public and professional audiences can expect in the years to come." LeRoy Neiman Center at SAIC, 37 South Wabash, Wednesday, February 18, 6pm. Details here.

Amtrak New Fleet Is System's Largest Revamp In Fifty-Five Years

"Airo, Amtrak’s name for its new [train] arrivals, is set to bring the railroad company out of the 1970s and eighties, when much of its current equipment was built," reports the New York Times. "Airo trains will soon replace a painfully outdated fleet that lacks many modern conveniences and has become increasingly difficult to maintain."

Chicago Loop Synagogue Gets Emergency Grant

Landmarks Illinois has awarded an emergency grant to the Chicago Loop Synagogue at 16 South Clark through the Preservation Heritage Fund. "The $5,000 grant will help the synagogue replace a broken boiler, allowing the congregation to continue providing daily religious services and community cultural programs. The Chicago Loop Synagogue was founded in 1929 to provide a space for Jewish professionals working downtown. Its current home was designed by architects Loebl, Schlossman and Bennet and completed in 1958." (More.)

DINING & DRINKING

The Matchbox's Founder David Gevercer Was Seventy-Eight

"I see David Gevercer behind the bar at the Matchbox, shoulder to shoulder with some of the most engaging bartenders I have known. I see him greeting the regular Thursday afternoon floral delivery," chronicles Dave Hoekstra in an extended personal remembrance. "And most of all I see him with his wife Jackie, his forever Valentine. Their crowning cultural achievement was in March 2002, when they relocated a 1947 Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Silver Palm dining car on a 125-foot-long tractor-trailer from the Metra yards at Grand and Western to its current spot next to the Matchbox." He was "a big dreamer in a world of Goliaths." (More.)

Thai Dang Takes Up TenGoku Aburiya’s Bento Collaboration Series

Crying Tiger chef Thai Dang brings the Vietnamese flavors of his sister restaurant, HaiSous, to the West Loop through TenGoku Aburiya’s Bento & Co. guest chef lunchtime series. Beginning February 17, the izakaya will welcome Dang to the kitchen to put his own spin on a limited-time bento box. For two weeks, they'll serve a Thit Heo Kho bento, which includes braised pork belly in a coconut nuoc cham sauce paired with a soft-boiled marinated egg, plus a futo shrimp spring roll and a water spinach and garlic salad. It's $20 from February 17-27 during weekday lunch hours (11:30am-1:30pm). A portion of the proceeds from each Bento & Co box sold will benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

ICE Presence Endangers Restaurants In Chicago And Elsewhere.

With about 70,000 immigrants in custody, many restaurant owners say "that ICE has become a constant and alarming presence in their neighborhoods. The fear of detention among customers and employees—in an industry in which more than one-fifth of the workforce nationwide was born abroad—has taken a toll. That fallout is felt especially in immigrant neighborhoods that have been targeted for ICE enforcement. In the Little Village area of Chicago, known as the 'Mexico of the Midwest,' a spokeswoman for the neighborhood Chamber of Commerce estimated that local business sales have fallen fifty to seventy percent since 2024," reports the New York Times (gift link).

Seven Restaurants Capone Liked

Some of the spots Al Capone liked to hit are still standing, lists Mashed. The piece takes a look at a few of Scarface's favorites, from The Green Mill and Exchequer to Luna Cafe in Mitchell, Illinois.

FILM & TELEVISION

Facets Executive Director Karen Cardarelli Sets Exit

Facets is searching for a new executive director, with Karen Cardarelli's departure about six months from now. "I've decided that this is the time for me to step down from my executive director role at Facets, which has been a career high for me for the last six years. My husband is dealing with some health challenges," Cardarelli tells us, "and we want time for more long walks and long trips. Just stepping back, this is a really good moment for Facets and for its next leader."

Facets was founded in 1975 by the late Milos Stehlik, who died in 2019; Cardarelli took the reins as the second head of the 125-seat nonprofit institution in February 2020, just at the onset of the pandemic. Like other local art houses, Facets has seen in recent years an upswing in attendance, and with growth in its traditional audiences as well as younger viewers. “A few wonderful things all came together, like our yearlong celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of this organization,” says Cardarelli. “Every Chicagoan should be proud when one of its arts organizations gets to that point. And we just exceeded our million-dollar fiftieth anniversary fundraising goal, and we exceeded it by ten percent. So that’s a great thing to leave to the next executive director. We doubled the number of donors giving under $1,000. We also completed a five-year strategic plan.” (More here.)

Uptown Movie Palace Talk Tuesday

Author Robert Loerzel will talk about his book "The Uptown: Chicago's Endangered Movie Palace" at the Chicago Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians at Kyle’s Place, 65 East Huron. Free. Tuesday, February 17, 5:45pm. More here.

LIT

Partners In Crime Brings Romance And Mystery To North Center

Married couple Amanda and Jeff Morse will bring a new bookstore called Partners In Crime to 4105 North Lincoln on February 21, shelves Block Club. "The shop’s name comes from the couple’s love of the mystery and romance genres. Its interior is divided into two sections: romance books on the right, curated by Amanda Morse, and mysteries and thrillers on the left, curated by Jeff Morse." View their Instagram here.

MUSIC

Andrew Bird Makes Music For Fictional Hospital

Andrew Bird released a new song for season two of HBO series "The Pitt" last week. "Grammy-nominated Bird collaborated with 'The Pitt' composer Gavin Brivik on the song 'Need Someone,' which can be heard at a pivotal moment in episode six of season two... Bird, who now lives in Los Angeles, cut his teeth writing and performing in Chicago clubs like The Hideout and the Green Mill. He's graduated to bigger venues like Chicago Theatre and his annual holiday residency at Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue," overheard Axios.

Local H And Label Battle Over Thirtieth-Anniversary Vinyl

Enjoy the Ride Records announced a thirtieth-anniversary vinyl reissue of Local H’s sophomore album, "As Good As Dead" on February 6, records Block Club. "The album remains Local H’s most successful record... the original pressing has long been out of print; and vinyl copies had been known to be priced in the $200 range." Local H posted the first comment on the label's Instagram post: "Well, this is news to us. Especially since we were in the process of acquiring the rights from the label for our own official reissue. But—y’know—who the fuck are we, right? (By the way—the remaster we commissioned sounds terrific. Too bad no one will get to hear it.)"

Canadian Opera Names Lyric Veteran To Leadership Role

Trained baritone Ian Derrer, who had been general director of Kentucky Opera and spent eight years at Lyric Opera of Chicago, is the new general director of the Canadian Opera Company. Derrer "currently serves as Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO of the Dallas Opera, a position he has held for the past eight years." Ludwig Van has more here.

STAGE

Lookingglass Hosts Costumed Benefit Chaired By David Schwimmer

Lookingglass Theatre Company will present "Come As You Aren’t Ball," a costumed benefit celebrating and supporting the Ensemble, relays Broadway World Chicago. "Co-chaired by founding ensemble member David Schwimmer and board member Nancy Ali, the event invites guests to arrive in imaginative 'character couture,' drawing inspiration from the costume designs that have defined Lookingglass productions." Act I of the event "welcomes an exclusive group of 170 guests into a vibrant, immersive costumed cocktail and dining experience," while Act II "transforms the night into a dazzling dance party and celebration for 400 guests."

Director Danya Taymor Speaks For "The Outsiders"

Director Danya Taymor wants “The Outsiders” "to feel elemental," reports the Trib. "The 2023 musical, based on S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film adaptation, boasts a production design that incorporates earth, fire, water and air—literally, in some cases, such as the rain-soaked rumble between rival gangs from 1960s Tulsa... When the first national tour comes to the Cadillac Palace Theatre this month, it will retain many of these raw details (blood, gravel and, yes, rain), though no live flames are used in the touring version." (More.)

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Rainbow Flag Raised Once More At Stonewall After Federal Removal

New York politicians raised the rainbow flag at the Stonewall National Monument that had been taken away by the federal government, reports AP. "The flag had flown for several years on a flagpole in the park at the heart of the National Park Service-run site. The park is across the street from the Stonewall Inn, the gay bar where a 1969 police raid sparked an uprising." Adds journalist Mark Harris, "When they come at us, we come back at them twofold. Raise that Pride flag every time they take it down."

Angel Reese Builds An Empire Beyond Basketball

Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese "has shown a knack for turning her interests and hobbies into lucrative opportunities," profiles The Athletic (gift link). "Reese, twenty-three, has manifested a busy life on and off the court as she establishes herself as a multi-hyphenate: basketball star, model, businesswoman, actor." Says Jeanine Ogbonnaya, founder of the agency The Clearview Group, "Angel's twenty-four hours are much different than a normal person’s twenty-four hours."

Smoking Still A Lingering Problem On CTA

Writer John Greenfield isn't fearful on the CTA, he writes at Streetsblog Chicago. "My main pet peeve is people illegally smoking inside railcars. When I ride the twenty-four-hour Red and Blue lines at night, it seems like there's... a fifty-percent chance I'll encounter this," noting how rare the phenomenon is in peer cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The resulting piece is a series discussing smoking on trains with transit riders in Chicago as well as other cities. In 2022, Greenfield wrote about spending an entire night riding the CTA, which included eight separate encounters with smokers on trains.

South Suburbs Will Soon Get Amazon Drone Deliveries

"Amazon’s fully autonomous drone delivery service will be coming to areas this summer near fulfillment centers in Markham and Matteson," reports the Sun-Times. Drones are expected to drop off packages of five pounds or less "that are as large as a shoe box in an eight-mile radius of the two suburban sites. Each site will have twelve to twenty drones... Amazon Prime members will pay $4.99 per delivery. Shoppers might also get an option for free shipping for orders of more than $50." Drone deliveries are already ubiquitous in some areas of China, notes the New York Times.

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2026-02-17 New City

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The French art curator Marc Pottier, who has lived in Brazil for decades, described Paulista Avenue as the Champs-Élysées of São Paulo when we saw him last week. Or think of it as Tropical Michigan Avenue.

I am staying close by, in the Rosewood Hotel, and went for a short run yesterday through Trianon Park, which is a lush forest, about a half-million square feet in size, adjacent to the busiest street in South America. The juxtaposition conjures up New York's Central Park, where the sense of being in a natural oasis is framed by the skyscrapers of an urban colossus.

But what caught my attention was its use of pedestrian bridges to traverse a busy street below, which is a feature sorely needed in my usual habitat near Lake Shore Drive. The newly announced Grant Park Framework Plan includes pedestrian walkways over the expressway, so I am hopeful.

On my run in São Paulo, the flow of traffic was unimpeded below, as was the tranquility above.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

FILM

With "Mouse," the "Ghostlight" Team Takes Its Act to Berlin

Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson, partners in filmmaking and life, discuss the process of creating their next feature film, an early-2000s coming-of-age story set in Arkansas, which will premiere at the Berlinale. (Ray Pride)

ART

Explore the Interiority of Childhood in Joy Machine’s “World in My Eyes”

It’s a triumph of a show that gives depth and meaning to real depictions of childhood. (Elisa Shoenberger)

MUSIC

Frequency Festival Returns with Six Nights of Experimental Sound

From a percussion masterclass to speculative opera, expect a citywide program of new music, electronics and genre-defying performance. (Teddy Sandler)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
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STAGE

Trinity Irish Dance Company Brings Rhythm and Roots to the Auditorium

Trinity founder Mark Howard challenges tap dancer Michelle Dorrance to "create a piece that’s a rhythmic tour de force, that is difficult, that could not be performed by any other company in the world." (Eileen B. Fisher)

NEWCITY

Free Will Astrology: Week of February 19, 2026

Big bright transitions are at hand. (Rob Brezsny)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Sculptor Diane Simpson As Shape-Shifter

"Seeing a sculpture by Diane Simpson is nothing like seeing a sculpture by any other artist," writes Lori Waxman at Hyperallergic, in a survey of how Simpson's bodies of work vary across the years. "Chicagoans can experience this in person on the rooftop terrace of the Art Institute of Chicago, where her first three outdoor sculptures ever are on display, and at the gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey, which features two classics in a group show."

The Elmhurst Art Museum Hosts Magic And Sculptural Design This Summer

This summer, the Elmhurst Art Museum will present solo exhibitions by Jeanette Andrews and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford. Andrews "applies sensory illusion techniques and her interest in the bounds of perception to create artworks that explore magic, multiple realities and the human psyche, often inviting audiences in as co-creators in her illusory performances." "On Wonder, Mind, & Magic" will be her first solo museum exhibition. Hulsebos-Spofford presents "a series of outdoor sculptures in Wilder Park as well as an immersive installation within the iconic McCormick House." The exhibition "Near Immortality" will feature new sculptures "created from 3D scans of important design items in EAM’s collection, including Mies’ Barcelona Chair and a leg splint designed by Charles & Ray Eames." The exhibitions run May 30-August 23. More here.

London's National Gallery Latest Integral British Institution To Face The Lash

"The National Gallery is to make serious cuts, with a significant number of staff expected to leave, in the face of a $11.17 million deficit in the coming year," marks The Art Newspaper. Cuts are expected to affect the exhibition program as well. "Running costs have increased considerably in recent years, with income now stagnant... Until today’s news of cuts there was little indication of the growing deficit. This was because the financial results for 2024-25 received a major boost from the gallery’s Van Gogh exhibition, which attracted a record 335,000 visitors."

DESIGN

Rick Owens Plans First Chicago Store, A Fulton Market Outpost

"Global fashion designer Rick Owens plans to open a shop in Chicago’s Fulton Market, adding an ultra-luxury retailer to the once-gritty former meatpacking district," reports CoStar. The "2,832-square-foot flagship store" marks "the district's first ultra-luxury retail tenant," adds The Real Deal. "The Paris-based fashion house signed a lease at Shanna Collective," the name given to the development project at 919 West Fulton, which combined a former Schwinn bicycle factory building with a new mid-rise office building.

Judy Chicago's Parting With Google Sheds Light On Thompson Center Plans

The creative differences with Google described by artist Judy Chicago "are the public’s first look behind the glass walls of the $300 million development, beyond the news releases and architectural renderings released by Google," writes Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey. "Along with the floor, [Chicago's] Google job included a new decorative skin—possibly a mix of vinyl and stained glass—to adorn the atrium’s exposed seventeen-story elevator system." Chicago and her husband and collaborator Donald Woodman "said a litany of problems with Google prompted their departure," which were brought to light "in an opinion piece on Artnet."

Said the eighty-six-year-old Chicago, "I started [as an artist] when I was a little girl and... used to go downtown to the Art Institute of Chicago, where I started taking art lessons... And so to come back to Chicago, at the end of my career would have been, like, completing a circle. And a wonderful kind of ending to what started in Chicago.”

Curbed's Archive Of American Architecture Goes Dark

"Opinionated, passionate, thoughtful, thorough: Curbed, a publication devoted to real estate, urban life, architecture and design, strove for decades to detail how the literal streets and neighborhoods of our cities evolved and changed, for better and worse," records The Architect's Newspaper. "Vox Media, the owner of Curbed, allowed a large portion of the site’s archives to go dark and currently has no plans to restore them. It cites a change in its content management system as the reason for pulling the plug." (More.)

Sparrow Named Chicago's Best Hair Salon

Ranking Chicago's best salons, Time Out Chicago charts Logan Square's Sparrow: "Stylists Suki McAdams and Bathsheba Nemerovski opened Sparrow in 2009, and over the years it’s become the it-girl salon of this artsy corner of the city. Proudly branding itself as a salon for 'sensitive people,' Sparrow is a refuge for clients who want high-end artistry without the sensory overload. As a clean-air, Amazon-free space, it has quietly built a reputation as one of Chicago’s most thoughtful destinations for sustainable beauty services."

DINING & DRINKING

Can Chicago's Food Halls Survive In A New Era?

"After a heyday" for food halls, the pandemic arrived, "subduing office occupancy and killing several food hall concepts—including, on January 23, Fulton Market’s once-thriving Time Out Market," surveys WBEZ. "Despite the headwinds of hybrid work and the less-than-cool image of the Loop, a few stronger currents still favor the concept. Office tenancy is creeping back up, and coworkers want compelling lunch options and perhaps some wallet-friendly social connections before heading home. Such spaces also remain incubators for promising concepts and are getting more savvy about marketing themselves to tourists, who appreciate local options close to the sights without the hassle of booking tables."

Great Lake "Still Makes Profound Pizza"

"Great Lake makes the most profound and puzzling pizza in Chicago, but it is not a pizzeria," tastes Louisa Kung Liu Chu at the Tribune. "It’s a small grocer and small bakery," said Nick Lessins, co-owner and co-operator with Lydia Esparza. The spouses' reopened business in Andersonville "is more of a reinvention" of the earlier establishment that closed thirteen years ago. The "magnificent" mushroom pizza "needs no introduction for those who’ve willed its return. Showered with feathery shavings of earthy cremini mushrooms, over buttery bits of aged Gouda cheese, and pops of heat from Tellicherry black peppercorns, it is their signature creation. The crust, though, is different, even better."

When Did Chicken Fry The Coop?

"The once-humble plate of poultry has been elevated to luxury status, with prices hitting $50 or more," writes Frank Bruni at the New York Times Style Magazine (gift link). "It’s peak chicken in America’s dining capital. The Indian restaurant Adda in the East Village promotes the Butter Chicken Experience, served to parties of up to six for $42 a person. The clubby, champagne-forward Coqodaq in the Flatiron district peddles caviar-bedecked fried chicken for $28 a nugget. Chicken’s glow-up means a big markup, and while that’s explained in some cases by its glamorous accessories—here a sliver of foie gras, there a tangle of porcini or chanterelles—the real novelty is the reinvention of what’s essentially basic roast chicken as a splurge. How did a meal once coded as quintessentially middle-class and used by Republicans in the 1920s to symbolize freedom from want (a 'chicken in every pot') become emblematic of discernment and privilege? When was the menu’s reliable understudy reborn as the star?"

Funkytown Awarded City Grant For New Brewery

Logan Square's Funkytown Brewery, one of the few Black-owned craft breweries in the nation, is planning a brewery and tap room on the near West Side, thanks to a $3.7 million-dollar grant from the city, reports CBS News Chicago. Says co-founder Greg Williams, "Less than one percent [of breweries] are Black-owned in the industry, so it's very important for us to continue to grow and show that, you know, everyone drinks beer, and we want to be in that space as well."

FILM & TELEVISION

Bobby Duvall Was Ninety-Five

Robert Duvall was as great an actor as America ever produced, and he liked horses and the tango, and he liked chefs and restaurants. In interviews, you could tell from the squint if Bobby—"Call me Bobby. Call me Bobby D!"—was in the mood that day to talk. If he narrowed his eyes to take you in, you had best have a fresh avenue of conversation to keep the words going. He liked to talk, and then he liked not to talk.

There were several times from the Toronto Festival forward he was open to talking about his great labor of love, "The Apostle." We had spoken before in Toronto and in New York, and that afternoon in Chicago, his eyes were narrow. He said he had gone the night before to see "Chef Charlie," and the meal was wonderful. The publicist, he said, had said I knew about restaurants, and he wanted to talk about local kitchens. I offered up a couple, and he said, "Tell me what you like." I described a dish, an ingredient. "Mm," he said, "that sounds good. Chicago is a lot more than steak. Tell me another." I took a moment to tell him about how "The Apostle" reminded me of men I had known when I was a child in Kentucky and services that I had attended. "Were they good men or bad men?" There were both, I said. "I appreciate that," he said, meeting the eyes and pausing a long moment. "Have you been in Charlie's kitchen?"

There was an older woman, an old guard junket journalist who Duvall knew well, who had been part of the interview in New York City. Luanne led, as she would, leaning into her own Southern accent. They spoke in genial minimalism, a familiar tenderness. "Bobby," Luanne said, "When was the hardest time?" Now, that might sound like a softball, but not in her lifetime's intonation, nor in his. "Well, ma’am. Do you mean work? Do you mean life?" They held the gaze. "The hardest time." "Well, ma’am," Duvall said, drawing himself up and telling a story about a long walk along the dirt road at night when he was a boy, and how the stars looked in the black sky as he imagined what life might be in his many years to come, sweetly burning through the remainder of the interview time.

The late distributor Bingham Ray told me about Duvall's expression on his face when October Films prepared to buy "The Apostle" for over $6 million and the final cut. Bingham tried to imitate Duvall's smile but cracked up instead. "It never made me so happy to see a man so happy," Bingham said, laughing. Eighty-one-year-old Clyde Haberman's New York Times "morgue" prepared obituary is here (gift link).

LIT

Keir Graff Writes An Homage To "The Fugitive"

Chicago writer Keir Graff, whose Newcity feature on the Fine Arts building was turned into a coffee table book by Trope Publishing last year, has a new project in the works. "I Did Not Kill My Husband?" is the fifth book he's written with Linda Joffe Hull, published under the name Linda Keir. The novel is set in California, but is described as an homage to the Chicago-set thriller film "The Fugitive." The Book Cellar is hosting a book release on March 5.

Gillian Flynn Discusses Writing As A Career

Northwestern alum Gillian Flynn spoke at the School of Communication and Radio, Television and Film last week, reports the Daily Northwestern. "Flynn emphasized that a career as an author requires discipline and unpacked the craft behind her psychologically complex female characters. She said it is essential to treat writing as a job. 'Writing is not something that you wait to happen... There’s no such thing as "the muse" that’s going to come down and give you the gift of writing.' ... Flynn said effort is what separates mediocrity from greatness."

MEDIA

Michael Ferro Missed A Fateful Jeffrey Epstein Meeting

"Michael Ferro, the former chair of the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, was set to meet with Jeffrey Epstein at the disgraced financier’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 15, 2019, according to emails published online by the Department of Justice," reports the Trib. "There is no implication of wrongdoing," notes the report. "On the morning of the scheduled meeting with the convicted sex offender, Ferro’s assistant emailed an eleventh-hour cancellation. 'I found out who he was, canceled immediately,' Ferro told the Tribune. 'Never met the guy in my life, never talked to him.'"

New On Substack: George W. Bush Paints A Portrait

George W. Bush has held his tongue for a very long time, but he's just published a Substack entry, with George Washington as his first venture. The ten-minute audio version sounds like it's read by the man himself. Sample: "Few qualities have inspired me more than Washington’s humility. I have studied the corrupting nature of power, and how retaining power for power’s sake has infected politics for generations. Our first president could have remained all-powerful, but twice he chose not to. In so doing, he set a standard for all presidents to live up to. His life, with all its flaws and achievements, should be studied by all who aspire to leadership."

MUSIC

The Record Store That's Spun The West Side For Forty Years

Founded by Marie and Charlie Joe Henderson, Out Of The Past Records "has endured for four decades on Madison Street. Their granddaughter carries on the family’s legacy amid efforts to revitalize the corridor," reports Block Club. "It’s believed to be the oldest record shop on the West Side, and it is one of few Black-owned businesses on the once-thriving business corridor" as "the city looks to revitalize Madison Street after years of disinvestment."

STAGE

Tracy Letts On Why It's A Better Time Than Most For "Bug"

Tracy Letts grew up "in a time when conspiracies were passed person-to-person 'urban legend-style.' Then, in the 1990s, as the internet became commercially accessible to households, the spread of information—and misinformation—changed," writes Mike Davis at WBEZ. Says Letts, "With the internet, we found a new way to pass these theories along... So conspiracy theories have become much more mainstream in the intervening years since I wrote ['Bug.'] And so, I thought, it seemed like time for revival." Letts' thirty-year-old "Bug" is now on Broadway.

David Byrne Talks "Theater Of The Mind"

Marty Lennartz met with David Byrne in a dressing room at the Goodman for an extended video conversation about this innovative theatrical experience coming to Chicago March 11. "Peer behind the curtain of the physical realm as you move through a series of rooms with your guide, where you’ll participate in thought-provoking experiences—and marvel at the wonders of your mind." Link here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

150-Year-Old Luxury Steamer Rises From The Great Lakes

The wreck of luxury steamer Lac La Belle, which "sank in a Lake Michigan gale nearly 150 years ago, has been discovered," charts AP. The discovery completes "a quest that began nearly sixty years ago... A team led by Illinois shipwreck hunter Paul Ehron found the wreck of the Lac La Belle in October 2022," about twenty miles offshore between Racine and Kenosha, reports CBS News. "Ehron, whose interest in the Lac La Belle dates back decades [says] the announcement of the discovery was delayed because the team wanted to include a three-dimensional video model of the ship but poor weather and other commitments kept his dive team from going back down to the wreck until last summer."

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2026-02-18 New City

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 10:03:13 GMT

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Forty years ago this month, we started Newcity. I was, by many standards, still a Chicago novice. I'd lived in the city only six years, and in the Chicago area only about half of my then-twenty-three years. I was infatuated with New York, where I'd just spent two tours of duty, adding up to about a year, training for the Wall Street firm I was still working for. Not only did I visit New York multiple times each year, but I'd fallen in love with the breadth and swagger of its media.

So if you were to tell me that the little South Loop neighborhood newspaper we were starting would mean that I'd end up not only spending most of my life in Chicago, but that the city itself would be the subject of my life's work, I would tell you you were crazy. I was like George Bailey in "It's A Wonderful Life," ready to see the world.

But we have seen the world, it turns out, from our vantage point here in Chicago. Eventually we'd even launch a scaled-down sister operation in Brazil, and soon after that, enter the motion picture production business, which would take us all over the place for festivals.

And though we're marking this milestone from a more senior point on life's continuum, we're far from finished.

Continue reading the February/March 2026 issue Editor's Letter here.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

NEWCITY

How Newcity Got Its Start in 1986: An Oral History

"You have to be naive and delusional." We recently reunited the four people who started Newcity for a conversation—two left Chicago for long stints far away after their service to Newcity, but both are back in Chicago, and this was their first conversation in nearly forty years. (Brian Hieggelke)

STAGE

The Royal Shakespeare Company's “Hamnet” Shows How Grief Inspires Art

The lead character in this U.S. premiere at Chicago Shakes is not the playwright, but his wife, Agnes. The play is about her union with the Bard and the family they create, as well as Will’s attempt to resurrect a beloved lost child through his art. (Mary Wisniewski)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
FORTIETH
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ART

Malian Photographer Hamdia Traoré Depicts Spiritual Leaders at the Block Museum

The portraits from the "Des Marabouts de Djenné" series are very well crafted and invite an extended closer look. (Susan Aurinko)

STAGE

Porchlight Music Theatre Celebrates Irish American Saga in Sorrow & Song

What makes “Irish” work is that no matter how sad things may get, there is always an aura of celebration in the production. (Dennis Polkow)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Fiber Arts Advance In Irving Park

"The fiber arts have gained more popularity, particularly after the pandemic, as the trend of an analog life—less phones and more human experiences—gains traction this year," ravels the Sun-Times. "Since opening in November, a 600-square-foot space in Irving Park has been home to people looking to slow down thanks to wooden tools used to spin raw wool into yarn. Inclement Craft, 3436 West Irving Park Road, is a fine fiber retailer and studio space that has created its own community for people, from experienced spinners and fiber artists to those curious about working with yarn. The studio frequently hosts classes such as Handspinning 101 and events like indigo dye parties."

The Disappearing Art Gallery At Your Local Post Office

"The U.S. Postal Service is home to thousands of historic works of art in post offices nationwide," but "hundreds have been lost, sold or destroyed," reports the Washington Post (gift link). During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt thought that the nation "needed art. So his White House built a national gallery and museum, then scattered the works around the country, placing dazzling murals and sculptures in hundreds of post offices. The works brought visibility—and crucial paychecks—to the artists, and lifted morale during the depths of the Depression and the Second World War... The vast majority of the works survive nearly a century later, but hundreds are missing or have been destroyed, sold or donated, according to U.S. Postal Service records."

DESIGN

IKEA's Expansion Leads To Third Chicago-Area Store, In Gurnee

"The Chicago area will be getting its third IKEA retail outlet this year when the Swedish retail giant opens a new store in the Gurnee Mills mall in the region's far northern suburb," locates Crain's. "The upcoming 66,000-square-foot store is part of the Swedish retailer’s U.S. expansion plan, which includes ten new stores spreading from California to Washington, D.C." The expansion "builds upon how the Swedish company built an additional fourteen stores and nine 'plan and order points' in the United States and Canada during its 2025 fiscal year, for a total of fifty-five stores in the United States and sixteen in Canada. The company has more than 500 stores worldwide." No word on a store located in the city, as the brand expands its "downtown" format in other cities.

How Nature's Metropolis Birthed The Residential Hotel

"Developed from a theory seminar and a design research studio at the UIC School of Architecture, 'All Magnificent and Wild: Notes on Chicago Residential Hotels,' reconstructs the controversial history of Chicago’s residential hotels through forty case studies," writes Francesco Marullo at The Brooklyn Rail. Residential hotels "emerged at the turn of the twentieth century, when Chicago consolidated its economies of scale—lumber, meat, grain, steel—and cemented itself as the nation’s principal wholesale market and railway hub, binding East and West. Although the city was built and powered largely by migrant labor, Chicago was not prepared to accommodate the workers arriving from across the continent and overseas. And so, below the glowing office towers, warehouses and wholesale stores—buildings designed to stock the growing accumulation of commodities—the city developed a second, more generic inventory of buildings for housing low-income, transient workers: a nomadic architecture that could inhabit different forms." (More.)

Watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne Opens Chicago Boutique

Glashütte, Germany-based watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne has opened a location in Tribune Tower "to explore the many facets of German fine watchmaking," they offer in a release. The design of the "boutique exemplifies the watchmaker’s philosophy to ensure an exclusive and intimate experience for every client interaction and encourages unhurried exploration of the brand’s mechanical masterpieces," noting that "every detail of the boutique reflects the Saxon manufacturer’s vision of fine watchmaking as an understated expression of contemporary luxury."

DINING & DRINKING

Beef Tallow Is Big Business For One Chicago Family

"Animal fat is making headlines, but it’s old news to South Chicago Packing, a fifth-generation, family-owned business located near the former Union Stockyards," reports Block Club. "South Chicago Packing has been singing tallow’s praises since 1972, when the Miniat family acquired the company." More recently, it's become "well known among chefs and barbecue enthusiasts as the maker of Wagyu beef tallow, which went viral during the pandemic."

Flag From Lincoln's Casket Will Adorn Keen's Steakhouse In NYC

"A one-of-its-kind flag that draped former President Abraham Lincoln’s casket during his funeral procession has found a new home in the Big Apple — at a Midtown steakhouse," reports the New York Post. "Keens Steakhouse, the 141-year-old white tablecloth joint known for its extensive collection of Americana memorabilia, unveiled the gargantuan, half-million dollar auction find during a private unveiling ceremony Thursday." The New York Times has scenes from the unveiling party here (gift link).

Lizard's Liquid Lounge Lasted Eighteen Years In Albany Park

Lizard's Liquid Lounge, a lively neighborhood bar in Albany Park, "will host a joint anniversary and closing celebration its final weekend, [April 10-12]," charts Block Club. "Owner Liz Kavanagh is working out the details, but there will be Chicago bands playing live music all weekend... Since closing temporarily during the pandemic, Lizard’s hasn’t been able to fully recover business over the past few years, Kavanagh said. Reopening felt like starting all over, and Kavanagh hasn’t been able to bartend recently due to mobility issues."

FILM & TELEVISION

Revered Nonfiction Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman Was Ninety-Six

Frederick Wiseman made almost fifty observational documentaries across fifty years about American life as lived through community. Alissa Wilkinson surveys his life at the New York Times (gift link). "To put it in the simplest terms: Wiseman loved to see what people did when they got together to do things, and to figure out why they did those things. His movies are full of meals, sports, conversations, church services. He showed us whispered bedside conversations in hospitals, salespeople patiently waiting on indecisive buyers, doctors tossing around gallows humor, artists rehearsing for performances... Wiseman’s movies are loaded with meetings of every sort—bureaucratic, administrative, curatorial, educational, disciplinary, medical, I could go on forever. Meetings, it seems, are the basic unit of human interaction in the modern world, and watching them can be shockingly fun." (More.)

Warner Bros. Discovery Reopens Talks With Paramount

"Paramount’s takeover bid was rejected in favor of Netflix, which wanted only the streaming and studio businesses. Paramount said it would pay more if negotiations were reopened," reports the New York Times. The WBD board still prefers the Netflix offer, and Netflix has the opportunity to match the advance of the Ellison family and its investors. (More.)

LIT

Rhino Poetry's Next Issue Commemorates A Half Century

Rhino Poetry, the Chicago-based “print journal featuring well-crafted, diverse poetry, flash fiction, and translations,” is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year. To commemorate the milestone, the literary organization is publishing a fiftieth anniversary issue, with poems by Anne-Marie Oomen, Samuel Ace, Timothy David Rey and many more. The issue can be pre-ordered here. More on the organization here.

MEDIA

GQ's New Editor Is Adam Baidawi

"Adam Baidawi recalls being enthralled by GQ magazine the first time he pored through an issue as a teenager in suburban Melbourne, Australia. Some two decades later—and on the other side of the world—Mr. Baidawi will now take the helm of the men’s magazine as its next global editorial director," reports the New York Times. "Condé Nast, the publisher of GQ and other brands like Vogue and The New Yorker, on Tuesday announced Mr. Baidawi’s promotion to the top job, effective immediately."

Anderson Cooper Exits "60 Minutes"

"Anderson Cooper will exit CBS News' '60 Minutes'" after nearly twenty years of contributing to the program, records Variety. His departure is "the latest blow to the revered Sunday-night newsmagazine after it has been undermined repeatedly by management at Paramount Skydance and its predecessor company." It's also "a new blow to CBS News under the tenure of its editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss. Since arriving at CBS News last year, installed at the unit’s news leader after Paramount Skydance acquired her conservative opinion site, The Free Press, for a reported $150 million, Weiss has worked to overhaul the operation—but has also made a number of gaffes."

CBS Bars Broadcast Of Political Guest On Colbert For Fear Of FCC

Stephen Colbert said on "The Late Show" Monday night that CBS lawyers prevented him from airing an interview with Democratic Texas state Representative James Talarico, over "equal time" fears, reports Variety. Addressing FCC chair Brendan Carr, Colbert said: “FCC you… because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself, sir. Hey, you smelt it ’cause you dealt it. You are Dutch-ovening America’s airwaves."

MUSIC

Is The World's Busiest Orchestra Right Here?

"Bachtrack, a classical music online publication, placed the CSO atop its 2025 list of the world’s 'busiest orchestras,' counting 140 performances by the orchestra last year," reports the Tribune (gift link). "The publication also rounded up the year’s 'busiest performers' and 'busiest conductors,' with CSO music director designate Klaus Mäkelä placing fourth in the latter list... When presented with the Bachtrack listing, CSO representatives on both the musician and management side agreed that the ensemble is very, very busy, as far as orchestras go. But their reactions were tempered by some skepticism."

The Imminence Festival Features Ken Vandermark And Damon Locks

A long weekend of music "made in the moment," presented by Elastic Arts’ Improvised Music Series, takes place over three days at Elastic Arts this April. The Imminence Festival lineup features Ken Vandermark, Damon Locks, Chris Corsano, Jason Roebke Quartet, Potliquor with Ben Hall and Macie Stewart, Hearts & Minds, Jim Baker (solo), Bill Mackay, Katinka Kleijn, Dave Rempis and many more. Tickets and more here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson Was Eighty-Four

"My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised. They are restless and seek relief," said the Reverend Jesse Jackson. "An impassioned orator," Jackson "was a moral and political force, forming a 'rainbow coalition' of poor and working-class people and seeking the presidency. His mission, he said, was 'to transform the mind of America,'" writes the New York Times (gift link). Charting his career, the Times chooses seven points as he "entered the national spotlight during the civil rights movement and ran for president twice. He also courted controversy while in the public eye."

The Tribune editorial board positions Jackson here (gift link). Jackson delivers "I Am Somebody" in a bold, striped sweater on "Sesame Street" here. He also performed Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs And Ham" on Saturday Night Live here. His SNL opening monologue is here.

Illinois Suffers Lincoln Copper Shortage

"Illinois citizens and retailers are grappling with the slow disappearance of the penny," reports Capitol News. "The lack of fixed guidance at the state and federal levels on how to address the scarcity of new pennies has left some businesses at a loss. Many retailers have resorted to rounding their prices up or down when selling or making change."

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2026-02-19 New City

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:03:28 GMT

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Those of us living in Chicago for a long time had a front-row seat to the life, career and influence of Jesse Jackson, whose obituary Tuesday morning occupied a deep and lengthy well on the front page of the New York Times.

That meant we maybe had a less pollyanna-ish view of the man than those who knew him best for his failed but inspirational runs for the U.S. presidency. Some of the stuff that used to rile up the media and other folks around here seems tame when measured by the standards of the current man in the Oval Office.

The closest I ever got to meeting Jackson was getting to know his niece, the movie producer Brenda Robinson. And, of course, "meeting" him as so many did in what most consider something of a roman à clef, Steppenwolf's masterful, Tony-winning production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' "Purpose."

No filling those shoes.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

ART

A Decade of Dangerous “Yellow Water”: Teresa Montoya at the Block Museum

Teresa Montoya's documentation of the aftermath of the environmental disaster—the Gold King Mine Spill—is yet another reminder of the harm we sow upon our earth. (Susan Aurinko)

FILM

Talking Screens: "Kokuho" Is a Beauty About Beauty | Harry Lighton's Debut Feature, "Pillion" | New Leadership at Facets

Also: Remembering Robert Duvall and Frederick Wiseman; a biopic on Paul McCartney; Polly Findlay's "Midwinter Break"; thrillers "How To Make a Killing" and "Psycho Killer"; an Oscar-nominated short films showcase and more. (Ray Pride)

LIT

Yasmina Din Madden on Finding the Psychic Distance to Write "You Know Nothing”

The author discusses her extraordinary debut, which includes both flash fiction and longer stories. The collection is rich with striking characters and unexpected situations. (Christine Sneed)

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STAGE

“Come Back, Little Sheba” Merits a Return Engagement

American Blues Theater’s intensely intimate revival shows that William Inge’s 1950 family drama still packs a wallop. (Hugh Iglarsh)

MUSIC

Alyssa Allgood Takes the Leap as a Jazz Vocalist and Composer

The Chicago jazz multihyphenate recently released a new EP, and will perform interpretations of Beatles songs at Winter's Jazz Club soon. (David Witter)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

DESIGN

Governor Pritzker Proposes Statewide Zoning Overhaul

"During his State of the State address on Wednesday, Pritzker endorsed legislation that would strip municipalities of the ability to ban certain types of multi-unit housing, allowing the construction of larger buildings in areas typically zoned for single-family homes. It also calls for allowing accessory dwelling units statewide," reports The Real Deal. "The plan, called 'Building Up Illinois Developments' and first reported by Capitol News Illinois, is aimed at addressing Illinois’ persistent housing shortage."

"The proposal would set a statewide standard that allows building multi-unit buildings on lots zoned for any residential use of 2,500 square feet or more... with eight-unit buildings allowed on the largest lots without the need to seek zoning approval." It would also "allow accessory dwelling units to be built on any land zoned for residential use." Beyond these reforms, "Pritzker’s plan aims to address the soft costs of development. The plan calls for a uniform standard for impact fees—charges levied by local governments on new development to pay for public services."

Studio Gang Announces New Leadership For Coastal Offices

Studio Gang has announced that design principal and partner Weston Walker will relocate to lead the firm's San Francisco office. "With a nearly twenty-year tenure at Studio Gang, Wes plays a key role in design leadership and, as part of the firm’s partner group, shaping the strategic direction of the Studio globally. He established the Studio’s New York office in 2013 and grew it to a team of nearly forty architects with a diverse portfolio of work across the East Coast and beyond... Design principal Arthur Liu will assume leadership of the New York office." (More.)

Vertical Farm Proposed For Vacant State Street Building

A vertical farm and housing redevelopment of a historic structure at 401 South State is planned, reports Chicago YIMBY. "Located across the street from the Harold Washington Library and the shelved Assemble Chicago development, the project would bring much-needed life to an area of downtown plagued by vacancies. The block-long, eight-story building was designed by the 'father of the skyscraper,' William Le Baron Jenney, in 1891 as a department store for Siegel-Cooper. After Siegel-Cooper’s demise, it became a Sears store for decades before being designated a landmark and later converted into a campus for Robert Morris University."

Despite Department Store Gloom, Bloomingdale's Shows Record Year

Bloomingdale’s "comparable sales rose nine percent in the third quarter last year—the upscale department store’s biggest gain in thirteen quarters" and "a new high watermark" for the store, reports WWD. "Bloomingdale’s recent performance provides some affirmation that with proper execution, the department store model is still viable, despite what have been decades of consolidation and skepticism dogging the sector."

One area of growth has been in-store dining, of which the CEO said, "'It’s a very important complementary service for our customers.' He suggested possibly opening additional restaurants in the department stores... At [New York's] 59th Street [store], there are three restaurants: Forty Carrots for frozen yogurt and salads; Flip for burgers, and Studio 59 for sophisticated cocktails and quick bites like tuna tartare or avocado toast." They're considering adding a fourth.

A Diner In Leipzig Was Oscar Niemeyer’s Final Building

An "extraordinary diner is the final wonder of the great Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who dreamt it up at the age of 103," relays the Guardian. The building was completed in 2020. "Perched among old brick buildings in an industrial neighbourhood of Leipzig in eastern Germany, a giant white sphere appears to hover over the corner of a former boiler house." The diner is "probably the most surprising creation by a visionary who valued the sensation of newness in art above all else." (More.)

DINING & DRINKING

It's A Stretch: Dining Blooms On Chicago Avenue

In 2019, pre-pandemic, "we made the argument that Chicago Avenue—between Noble Street and California Avenue—is probably the best two-mile dining stretch in the city," slots Crain's. Now "that vibrancy is back as more places including Brasero, Omakase Shoji and Michelin-starred Feld have opened, drawing even more diners to this West Town stretch." New sites they're scoping: recently delayed Bar Bambi, by award-winning bartender Katie Renshaw, at 1703 West Chicago; Gilda, a "Basque-inspired forty-five-seat restaurant [opening] sometime this spring," at 1421 West Chicago; and Guillotine Bakery, created by three Parisian bakers who relocated "to open the best French bakery in town," at 1711 West Chicago.

The New Cocktail Hideaway Near Union Station

Caché 310, which replaced Afterbar, "is serving French-inflected cocktails in a moody, hidden lounge just steps from the Chicago River," quaffs Eater Chicago. "Santiago Leon is the operating partner at Chicago-based group Spearhead Hospitality, behind the Robey Hotel, the Up Room, Valedor, Canal Street Eatery & Market inside the BMO Tower, and now, Caché 310." Leon says "he’s hoping to bring something 'special' to the neighborhood that appeals to both residents in the building and everyday customers looking for a good drink... Leon looked to the annual trips he and his wife take to Paris as well as his love for French culture and history, especially the small bars in Montmartre where artists used to gather in the 1920s."

One London Restaurateur Says "Enough Is Enough" To Influencers

Surveying the baleful influence of influencers on the dining experience, London restaurateur Jeremy King recounts a signature move from the late painter Lucian Freud: "Lucian Freud possessed an uncanny and impressive aim with a breadstick. He used them as a weapon against perpetrators of flash photography in my restaurants over the years and perfected his skill at The Wolseley, when I would see him hit his offending target at several yards distance. His fear was not solely the invasion of his privacy but also the blinding effect of the flash itself. His retribution was quickly followed by my staff explaining the 'no flash' rule to the offending guest." (More.)

Illinois Judge Makes The Final Ruling On Boneless Wings

"In an opinion heavy on chicken puns, a district court judge ruled Tuesday that the boneless wings at Buffalo Wild Wings could indeed be called wings," bites the Trib. The order "was dripping with skepticism at the claims that the chain was misleading consumers about its boneless wings. Judge John J. Tharp Jr., of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, dismissed the claim by Aimen Halim, saying it 'has no meat on its bones... Despite his best efforts, Halim did not "drum" up enough factual allegations to state a claim,' Tharp said in his ruling."

FILM & TELEVISION

Will "The Bear" End With Season Five?

"Finished strong!" posts Jamie Lee Curtis on Facebook. "Surrounded by an extraordinary crew and group of writers and producers and scene partners on the show that Chris Storer created, completing the story of this extraordinary family that we have all fallen in love with."

Academy Will No Longer Show Oscar-Nominated Movies On Screen To Membership

The Academy of Motion Picture "says its post-nominations screenings, which reportedly cost thousands of dollars a pop, drew 'an average of five members' over the last years, leading to the decision to eliminate them," writes the Hollywood Reporter. "The Academy has long hosted screenings of Oscar-hopefuls for its members throughout the year in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, New York and London, and then again after the announcement of the Oscar nominations. But in recent years—particularly over the seven years since the Academy introduced its members-only streaming service, the Academy Screening Room, through which members can watch films at home—attendance at all of these screenings has markedly declined."

LIT

DePaul Humanities Center Hosts Panel On Censorship

As part of this year’s Present Tense Series, the DePaul Humanities Center invites registrants for an upcoming public conversation, "Censorship," exploring censorship as a persistent issue affecting culture, politics, academic discourse and public expression. Speakers include UCLA professor Michael Berry, Northwestern professor and cultural critic Sarah Schulman and communication researcher Brenda Azucena Muñoz Yáñez. Thursday, February 26, 6pm. Register here.

Evanston Public Library Executive Director Resigns After Two Years

Yolande Wilburn was appointed executive director of the EPL in November 2023 after a more than fifteen-month search, reports Evanston Roundtable. Earlier, "Wilburn and the Board of Trustees clashed with unionized library employees over working conditions." Said the board president, "While the Board... has full confidence in [her] abilities as library director, we respect her decision and are working on an orderly transition."

MEDIA

Is There A "Reviewnaissance" In Publishing?

"A new generation tries its hand at publishing the unusual, the difficult, the lengthy," measures the Columbia Journalism Review. "The past few years have not been kind to critics. The Associated Press stopped publishing book reviews last year; Vanity Fair fired its chief critic; the New York Times reassigned four arts critics. Most recently, amid... mass layoffs, the Washington Post shut down its books section. And yet there’s a world where the art of the review is alive and well—and printed on cheap, single-color newsprint. If the review sections of newspapers are closing down, there’s a sense that this moment could make room for a meatier, weirder kind of criticism."

Hearst Thrives In Turn Away From Consumer Media

Hearst, which owns magazines like Harper's Bazaar, Esquire and Elle, "has grown its business by investing in business software and trade journalism," reports Axios. "The 138-year-old media giant saw record revenues and profits last year." Of its various B2B ventures, the piece notes that "Hearst invested in Fitch in 2006 and acquired the entire company by 2018. It is the single biggest contributor to the company's profits."

MUSIC

Limited Tickets For Intimate Glen Hansard Show

"Hot off the heels of the new album announcement, Glen Hansard and his band will be embarking on a short run of gigs in North American cities in March and April," Glen Hansard's Instagram posts. "Due to the intimate nature of these venues, tickets for these shows will be in limited supply and available first to mailing list members only, starting Tuesday, February 24 at 10am local time. The members sale ends on Thursday, February 26 at 11:59pm, and any remaining tickets will be put on general sale on Friday, February 27 at 10am." More here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

The Fifty Most Powerful Chicagoans, Ranked

JB Pritzker stands at number one on the latest local power list, as ranked by Chicago magazine, followed by reactionary pasteboard billionaire Richard Uihlein. Of the governor, the magazine writes: "Pritzker could soon become the state’s first three-term governor since Jim Thompson, but he has his eyes on an even bigger office: the presidency." Also included on the list: Fed governor Austan Goolsbee; Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle; white nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes; GCM Grosvenor chair and CEO Michael Sacks; Morningstar executive chair and Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto; architect Jeanne Gang; visual artist Theaster Gates and many more. Read the full list here.

Could A "Hindenburg-Style" Disaster Derail AI?

A leading researcher warns that a "scenario such as deadly self-driving car update or AI hack could destroy global interest" in the technology, records the Guardian. “It’s the classic technology scenario,” said Michael Wooldridge, a professor of AI at Oxford University. “You’ve got a technology that’s very, very promising, but not as rigorously tested as you would like it to be, and the commercial pressure behind it is unbearable." Plus, a leading Chinese industry CEO expresses concern that AI's voracious appetite for computer memory endangers the entire consumer electronics industry: "Many system vendors will go bankrupt or exit product lines due to a lack of memory. Mobile phone production will be reduced by 200-250 million units, and PC and TV production will be significantly reduced," records PC Gamer.

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2026-02-19 New City

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:03:18 GMT

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Talking Screens, A Week In Chicago Film, February 20-26, 2026

by Ray Pride

"Kokuho" is lapidary, a beauty about beauty, a three-hour bounty of the forging of art amid loneliness and a fear of compromise. The Japanese have endorsed its character, making Sang-il Lee's spectacle, at over $130 million, the highest-grossing live-action film in that country. Beginning in Nagasaki in 1964, two young men ride the carpet of sacrifice and exaltation to become the best in the tradition-rich theater arts of kabuki, and resist the challenges faced, across fifty years, with many figures helping and hurting, so few peers, so many rivals. Ryo Yoshizawa and Ryusei Yokohama captivate. "Kohuko" is gorgeous and touched with poetry; the theatricality sustains genuine heights. "Kohuko" opens Thursday, February 19 at Webster Place, River East, Newcity 14, River East and outlying theaters.

"Pillion"

In writer-director Harry Lighton's debut feature, "Pillion," writes A24, "a timid man (Harry Lighton) is swept off his feet when an enigmatic, impossibly handsome biker (Alexander Skarsgård) takes him on as his submissive." Based on the novel "Box Hill" by Adam Mars-Jones, the film follows "two men who express desire in ways rarely depicted on the big screen. When hyper-dominant Ray takes on the inexperienced Colin as his submissive, the improbable duo becomes partners in a complex arrangement that forces both parties to test the boundaries of what may or may not be real love." "Pillion" opens Thursday, February 19 at River East, Drafthouse and Friday, February 20 at The Davis; it goes wider Friday, February 27.

The annual compendia of Oscar Nominated Short Films are everywhere, including screenings at the Music Box of the Animated and live-action nominees, starting Friday, and Documentary shorts next Saturday, February 28. The Academy provides some trailers here. Check local listings for additional screens, including The Davis.

Also this week in film: new leadership coming to Facets and the passing of nonagenarian masters Robert Duvall and Frederick Wiseman.

Polly Findlay's "Midwinter Break" adapts Bernard MacLaverty's novel about a midlife couple (greats Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds) whose lives change after a trip to Amsterdam. Trailer here. Opens Thursday, February 19 at River East, Newcity 14, Webster Place and other screens.

Another date has been added for Morgan Neville's portrait "Paul McCartney: Man On The Run," before its Amazon Prime berth on February 27. Neville's two-hour telling of the 1970s in the life of the indefatigable eighty-three-year-old Sir Paul in his post-Beatles moment is fleet and effective, is rich with archival footage, partially courtesy of his late wife, Linda Eastman, as well as strong interviews, including his knowing confession that he's always been a "play-aholic." Trailer here. "Man on the Run" plays Thursday, February 19 and Sunday, February 22 and Landmark Century, Webster Place and outlying screens.

"Psycho Killer"

Also opening: "How To Make a Killing," with mild it-man Glen Powell and the vibrant Margaret Qualley in a murder-making black comedy; and sequel "I Can Only Imagine 2," taking on the life of a country music star after their lifetime breakthrough; and from Twentieth Century, "Psycho Killer," advertised as from the producers of "Barbarian" and a producer of "Weapons," but also screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker ("Seven," "8mm") and debut director, blunt agent-turned producer Gavin Polone, whose work includes co-producing six seasons of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as well as "Panic Room" and "Zombieland."

"Following the brutal murder of her husband, a Kansas highway patrol officer (Georgina Campbell) sets out on a journey to track down the perpetrator. As the hunt progresses, she comes to realize the man responsible (James Preston Rogers) is a sadistic serial killer, and the depth of his mental depravity and his sinister agenda is more twisted than anyone could have imagined." Uh-huh. With Grace Dove, Logan Miller, Malcolm McDowell. Teaser here.

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HOLDOVERS

Facets' indie move-overs from first-run this week include limited showings of Park Chan-wook's "No Other Choice"; the animated "Little Amélie or the Character of Rain"; "The Secret Agent" and "Arco"; as well as a chat-tastic Nicole Kidman double-feature of Jonathan Glazer's "Birth" and Gus Van Sant's "To Die For."

REPERTORY & REVIVAL

"Space Is The Place"

Music Box attractions also include "Blade"; "Safe” and a preview of Oliver Laxe's "Sirat." Barbara Stanwyck in Anthony Mann's 1950 "The Furies" (35mm) and Sun Ra's film of "his pioneering Afrofuturist vision" "Space Is The Place": "It’s a wild, kaleidoscopic whirl of science fiction, sharp social commentary, goofy pseudo-blaxploitation stylistics, and thrilling concert performance, in which the pharaonic Ra and his Arkestra lead an intergalactic movement to resettle the Black race on their utopian space colony." Saturday-Sunday, February 21-22, 11:30am.

"L'Atalante"

The Film Studies Center and Logan Center offer a free showing of their 35mm print of Jean Vigo's singular, oneiric romantic masterpiece, "L'Atalante" (1934). Friday, February 20, 7pm.

Siskel attractions this week include the 4K digital restoration of Godard's "Alphaville"; and Shane Carruth's "lo-fi sci-fi" "Primer."

Doc Films this week highlights Milkyway Image's 1997 "Too Many Ways to Be No. 1" (35mm), from Wai Ka-Fai; Eric Rohmer's "The Aviator's Wife"; Scorsese's "Raging Bull"; and from the Godard-Miéville domicile, “The Book of Mary” and “Hail Mary”; Bette Gordon's 1983 "Variety" (35mm), capturing Times Square of the time, co-written by Kathy Acker; and Agnès Varda's "Vagabond." The Davis features the restored edition of Tsui Hark's 1995 "The Chinese Feast." Sunday, February 22. Also: Martin Scorsese's "The Age Of Innocence." Wednesday, February 25.

CHICAGO SEEN

Karen Cardarelli/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Facets Executive Director Karen Cardarelli Sets Exit

Facets is searching for a new executive director, with Karen Cardarelli’s departure about six months from now. “I’ve decided that this is the time for me to step down from my executive director role at Facets, which has been a career high for me for the last six years. My husband is dealing with some health challenges,” Cardarelli tells us, “and we want time for more long walks and long trips. Just stepping back, this is a really good moment for Facets and for its next leader.”

Facets was founded in 1975 by the late Milos Stehlik, who died in 2020; Cardarelli took the reins as the second head of the 125-seat nonprofit institution in February 2020, just at the onset of the pandemic. Like other local art houses, Facets has seen in recent years an upswing in attendance, and with growth in its traditional audiences as well as younger viewers. “A few wonderful things all came together, like our yearlong celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of this organization,” says Cardarelli. “Every Chicagoan should be proud when one of its arts organizations gets to that point. And we just exceeded our million-dollar fiftieth anniversary fundraising goal, and we exceeded it by ten percent. So that’s a great thing to leave to the next executive director. We doubled the number of donors giving under $1,000. We also completed a five-year strategic plan.”

Cardarelli will continue with organizing the Independent Exhibitors Conference, which will bring film festivals and art house cinemas to Chicago, June 22-25, co-produced by Film Festival Alliance and Art House Convergence. Cardarelli will continue as board president of the Film Festival Alliance. Facets board co-chairs Tamara Bohórquez and Rich Moskal have engaged the Maneva Group to lead a national executive search.

THE WEEK IN FILM

Academy No Longer Showing Oscar-Nominated Movies On Screen To Membership

The Academy of Motion Pictures, posts the Hollywood Reporter, " says its post-nominations screenings, which reportedly cost thousands of dollars a pop, drew 'an average of five members' over the last years, leading to the decision to eliminate them," which they alerted membership to in a letter. "The Academy has long hosted screenings of Oscar-hopefuls for its members throughout the year in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, New York and London, and then again after the announcement of the Oscar nominations. But in recent years—particularly over the seven years since the Academy introduced its members-only streaming service, the Academy Screening Room, through which members can watch films at home—attendance at all of these screenings has markedly declined."

BENEDICTIONS

"The Apostle"

Bobby Duvall Was Ninety-Five

There were several times from the Toronto International Film Festival forward he was open to talking about his great labor of love, "The Apostle." We had spoken before in Toronto and in New York, and that afternoon in Chicago, his eyes were narrow. He said he had gone the night before to see "Chef Charlie," and the meal was wonderful. The publicist, he said, had told me I knew about restaurants, and he wanted to talk about local kitchens. I offered up a couple, and he said, "Tell me what you like." I described a dish, an ingredient. "Mm," he said, "that sounds good. Chicago is a lot more than steak. Tell me another." I took a moment to tell him about how "The Apostle" reminded me of men I had known when I was a child in Kentucky and services that I had attended. "Were they good men or bad men?" There were both, I said. "I appreciate that," he said, meeting eyes and pausing a long moment. "Have you been in Charlie's kitchen?"

There was an older woman, an old guard junket journalist who Duvall knew well, who had been part of the interview in New York City. Luanne led, as she would, and had for many years, leaning into her own Southern accent. They spoke in genial minimalism, a familiar tenderness. "Bobby," Luanne asked, as she had for years, to many figures, once, twice or more, "When was the hardest time?" Now, that might sound like a softball, but not in her lifetime's intonation, nor in his. "Well, ma’am. Do you mean work? Do you mean life?" They held the gaze. "The hardest time." "Well, ma’am," Duvall said, drawing himself up and telling a story about a long walk along the dirt road at night when he was a boy and how the stars looked in the black sky as he imagined what life might be in his many years to come, sweetly burning through the remainder of the interview time.

Frederick Wiseman/Photo: Zipporah Films

Revered Nonfiction Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman Was Ninety-Six

Frederick Wiseman made almost fifty observational documentaries across fifty years about American life as lived through community. Alissa Wilkinson surveys his life at the New York Times (gift link). “To put it in the simplest terms: Wiseman loved to see what people did when they got together to do things, and to figure out why they did those things. His movies are full of meals, sports, conversations, church services. He showed us whispered bedside conversations in hospitals, salespeople patiently waiting on indecisive buyers, doctors tossing around gallows humor, artists rehearsing for performances… Wiseman’s movies are loaded with meetings of every sort—bureaucratic, administrative, curatorial, educational, disciplinary, medical, I could go on forever. Meetings, it seems, are the basic unit of human interaction in the modern world, and watching them can be shockingly fun.”

Writes Matt Zoller Seitz at RogerEbert.com: “His work would be considered essential even if it did nothing more than capture specific places and people at specific points in history. But it’s much more than that. Taken as a whole, Wiseman’s features exemplify nonfiction filmmaking at peak originality and exactness.” The British Film Institute quotes filmmaker Errol Morris in their notice, “His movies are stylistically ur-vérité, but Wiseman’s films prove a simple principle. Style does not determine content. Wiseman has never been a straight vérité ‘documentarian.’ He is a filmmaker and one of the greatest we have.” AP considers Wiseman’s legacy here. In winter 2025, the Film Center hosted “Worlds Of Wiseman,” a thirty-three-film retrospective screened from restorations drawn from the original 16mm negatives.

With "Mouse," the "Ghostlight" Team Takes Its Act to Berlin

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We were at the beginning of our tour of the Rosewood Hotel São Paulo when the art concierge Priscilla Chien mentioned that the hotel's creator, Alexandre Allard, believed in the idea that "without culture, there is no luxury." She then proceeded to show us how integral art was to the hotel, from the magnificent Regina Silveira carpeting that we walked on every day, to the amazing Vik Muniz stained-glass piece in the restored chapel of this onetime maternity hospital, to the rooftop infinity pool created by Sandra Cinto. And so much more. This is not a hotel that hangs a few pieces of art in prominent places but rather one that weaves it into the soul of the institution.

When you combine this with the unparalleled level of personal service—at one point, when they found out I was under the weather, they reached out to offer to bring me tea or even send a doctor to my room— a new idea of hospitality emerges. One that is not about sleek design and fancy rooms, though they have that in gorgeous interiors designed by Philippe Starck; but rather one that was expressed by Paulo Viegas, one of the hotel's managers, when he checked on me again the next day. In conversation he mentioned the philosophy that they instill in the staff that it is not a hotel, but rather a place to treat like your own home and the guests like your own family.

I've stayed in some nice hotels over the years, but never one like this. It's a destination unto itself. And they have an art concierge.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

DESIGN

Mood: Chairs

Chicago design objects to seat you. (Vasia Rigou)

STAGE

Court Theatre Stages August Strindberg's Famous Study of Class and Gender

A noisy start and a murky finish are among the choices that obscure "Miss Julie"'s timely relevance for a divided America. (Mary Wisniewski)

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ART

The Art Institute’s “On Loss and Absence” Shows the Rich Culture of Textile Art Honoring the Dead

The exhibition reveals how people have used textiles for mourning throughout the ages, from ancient Egypt to the present day. Most of the pieces come from the museum's own collection. (Elisa Shoenberger)

BRAZIL

The Return of the Troublesome Beautiful: Hélio Oiticica at Dia Beacon

The celebrated artist reminds us that art, when taken seriously, rarely accommodates itself to the forms of recognition that are offered to it. (Luiz Armando Bagolin)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ARTT

In New York, Kwamé Azure Gomez’s Abstract Ode to Dance

"As a member of the Church of God in Christ, the artist Kwamé Azure Gomez grew up performing in a liturgical praise dance group, which sparked a lifelong interest in music and movement," newsletters the New York Times' T Magazine. "When she left her hometown, Akron, Ohio, to attend graduate school in Chicago, she became immersed in queer nightlife, learning about the origins of house music and the history of ballroom... 'Set the Atmosphere,' her debut New York solo exhibition opening at Marianne Boesky Gallery on March 5, features twelve new paintings that draw on her personal experience as well as on the work of Black radical theorists like Fred Moten." March 5-April 18. More here.

The Counterpublic Triennial Says It's "Coyote Time"

"The third Counterpublic Triennial, one of the largest public art exhibitions in the United States, spans St. Louis, foregrounding equity and grassroots change with over fifty new artist commissions." The title "derives from artist Alice Bucknell’s 2026 Triennial commission, marking the moment in a video game when a character leaps off a cliff and is suspended in midair, unsure of what comes next. This moment of anticipation guides the exhibition, positing uncertainty as a space for experimentation and possibility."

The Triennial will engage "five key St. Louis sites," including the Mississippi Riverfront, the Ville neighborhood, the International Institute and the National Building Arts Center, which is "housed in a decommissioned steel foundry in the former company town of agrochemical company Monsanto," along with museums and galleries across the city. September 12-December 12. More here.

DESIGN

Jesse Jackson: Style Icon

"The Rev. Jesse Jackson was always a standout in the way he dressed. But whom he dressed for, and why, are what made him exceptional," observes Robin Givhan at the New York Times (gift link). "By 2008, when he was an elder statesman in the fight for social justice tearily celebrating Barack Obama’s election, Mr. Jackson looked like most of the gray-haired men who’d entered the ring in the 1960s... He had become a man in a suit—or at least a sports jacket. But worn by him, establishment tailoring looked more like camouflage or perhaps a considered costume, rather than a uniform of convenience or acquiescence or a case of prideful dressing up." But "when he was rising through the activist ranks during a time of respectability politics in the 1960s, he didn’t adhere to the prescribed, sober attire of the time. As a young man, he didn’t dress for gravitas; he dressed for urgent upheaval."

Mother Cabrini Statue To Grace Arrigo Park

Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, "easily won a public vote to determine a replacement statue for the Columbus bust that was controversially removed by the city in 2020," posts Block Club. The Park District "selected Cabrini after whittling down 157 nominated figures to eight candidates. In a public vote, nearly 1,500 of the 3,900 votes were cast for Cabrini. Other nominations included Renato Dulbecco, Enrico Fermi, Phillip Mazzei, Maria Montessori, Florence Scala, Antonin Scalia and Amerigo Vespucci," tallies the Sun-Times. "The city will begin its search for artist proposals for the statue in the next two weeks," writes the Trib.

Site Near Harold Washington Library To Get Perkins & Will Tower

The city announced Wednesday "it has selected DL3 Realty to redevelop a cluster of city-owned parcels into a twenty-five-story apartment building in the Loop," records the Sun-Times. "The Roseland-based real estate firm will build the $162.2 million high-rise, called Acoda, at 331-35 Sourth Plymouth Court. The 0.35-acre site includes a city-owned parking structure that will be demolished, as well as three parcels of vacant land... The project, designed by architecture firm Perkins & Will, is eligible for up to $5 million in grant funding from the city." Previous plans for the site included a tower by Studio Gang.

Murdoch's NY Post Trawls Social Media To Criticize Obama Center

"The bizarre design of former President Obama’s presidential center in Chicago is being mocked once again," harvests the New York Post, "this time over complaints that a new inscription on the side of the building is nearly impossible to read. The words recently added to the $830 million monolith are from a 2015 speech Obama delivered in Selma to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the historic civil rights marches, but the way the text is laid out and wraps around the building has left some people squinting and confused."

Gap Looking At Return To North Michigan

The Gap left North Michigan in 2021 "during a devastating downturn," leaving a dedicated building that is now occupied by Aritzia. But, like Uniqlo, the brand "is plotting a return, as the city’s best-known retail corridor appears poised for a comeback," reports Co-Star. "Gap is in advanced talks to fill an 8,325-square-foot vacancy at 700 North Michigan," formerly home of the Chicago Place mall's entrance.

Foundry Park Gets City Council's Blessing

"Though it’s scaled back from the Lincoln Yards megadevelopment, Foundry Park will bring thousands of new housing units plus retail, office and park space to the former industrial site along the Chicago River," reports Block Club.

More Fulton Bond Renderings Revealed

"New renderings have been revealed for the multi-tower Fulton Bond development at 1325 West Fulton in the Fulton Market District," reports Chicago YIMBY. "The project is led by Sulo Development, working with architecture firms KPF and ParkFowler Plus and received city approval in early 2025."

DINING & DRINKING

Abuse By Former Face Of Warlord Was Open Secret

"Trevor Fleming, the star chef and co-owner of Warlord has, for years, abused women, shared nude photos of romantic partners without their consent and created a toxic work environment by... berating staffers for years," reports Block Club. "It was an open secret in the industry." His co-owners, Emily Kraszyk and John Lupton, have “remove[d] him from the partnership." Former employees "said Fleming was verbally abusive and threatening, often yelling at kitchen staff, throwing things and belittling front-of-house employees. Two former employees said Fleming liked to brag about which employees and restaurant patrons he’d had sex with."

Burl Brings Wood-Fired Farmers' Food To Evanston

Industry veterans chef Tom Carlin (formerly of Michelin-starred Galit, Publican Quality Meats, and Dove’s Luncheonette) and Rachel Canfora-Carlin (director at Hogsalt) have opened Burl in Evanston. "This wood-fired, farmer-driven concept marks the duo's first solo venture, emphasizing an eighty-percent locally sourced menu and a communal, hearth-driven dining experience... The debut winter menu features shareable dishes such as creamy ricotta and chicken liver pâté with hearth-baked breads. Larger dishes will showcase Midwestern produce at its peak, beets in a chocolate vinaigrette or roasted cabbage with two different moles." Instagram here. More here.

Chicago Notes The Month's Hottest Restaurants

For February, Chicago magazine calls out The Radicle ("With $10 cocktails, a raw bar, and pizza, it checks all the 2026 cool boxes"); Deliz ("Plenty of Italian influences, like housemade pastas and amaro cocktails, set this place apart"); Piccadilly Pub ("The Green Post reconcepts into a British pub with a chippy menu"): Gale Street Inn ("After closing last June, the iconic sixty-three-year-old restaurant has returned under new owners"); and more.

What Happens Without Negative Restaurant Reviews?

"A positivity-focused culture, influencers who are actually advertisers, and economic pressures all create a bubble of hype. We need to bring tough love back," considers D magazine. "Dallas food saw just one bad review all of last year... Obviously, restaurants are not the best they’ve ever been. There is a lot of overpriced, overhyped disappointment out there. Our city is swamped with boring national chains that spend all their money on wallpaper, then charge $30 for the same bowl of rigatoni alla vodka everyone else already has. So, if I don’t spend my year in a state of near-perpetual grouchiness, am I failing?"

FILM & TELEVISION

Why Does Everyone Think We're Living In A Paul Verhoeven Movie?

"People often compare imagery of the Trump administration to films like ‘Starship Troopers’ and ‘Total Recall.’ What comfort does the analogy offer?" essays the New York Times (gift link). Verhoeven "has been on a lot of people’s minds." His 1980s and 1990s science-fiction movies, including “RoboCop,” “Total Recall” and “Starship Troopers," "all lampooned the widening gap between the haves and have-nots in American society. 'Starship Troopers,' in which impossibly good-looking soldiers battle a horde of killer space bugs, has become an especially popular point of reference online." Verhoeven "decided to subvert the fascistic themes [in Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel] by making them cartoonish, seeming to have drawn on his memories of growing up in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

"'Starship Troopers' was his attempt to show how warped the world becomes from inside the imperial core, where people don’t notice that their humanity is being hollowed out. He even cast the cherubic Denise Richards and the anvil-jawed Casper Van Dien for the film 'because I wanted them to look like the people you see in Leni Riefenstahl’s movie "Triumph of the Will,"' he told an interviewer. 'What fascism proposes is a dream and what fascism gives you is a nightmare,' he said in 2017."

Art House Label Neon Looks To Sell Stake

Department M, "a production company founded two years ago by Mike Larocca and Michael Schaefer, is in talks to acquire a significant stake in the Oscar-winning studio behind 'Anora' and 'Parasite,'" reports Variety. "Schaefer was formerly the president of New Regency and Larocca co-founded AGBO with the Joe and Anthony Russo, the filmmaking brothers behind 'Avengers: Endgame.'"

DOJ Summons Theater Owners To Talk Studio Merger

"The U.S. Justice Department has summoned some of the country's major theater chains to private conversations about the potential impact of a sale of Warner Bros. Discovery," reports Bloomberg via Reuters. "Government lawyers are seeking information on how a sale would [affect] the movie-going public and whether it could result in fewer films being released in theaters... The news comes after Warner Bros. on Tuesday rejected Paramount Skydance’s latest $30-a-share hostile bid, but gave the rival Hollywood studio seven days to submit a 'best and final' offer to top the existing agreement with Netflix."

MEDIA

Publishers Hit Hard By Intentional Delays By Postal Service

Newspaper delays, reports NiemanLab, "are just one consequence of cost cuts and changes" to the 250-year-old U.S. Postal Service. "Especially for weekly publishers in smaller, rural markets, USPS delivery has long been the cheaper, lower-lift alternative to the carriers many metro dailies still pay to perform the classic morning ritual of tossing newspapers onto porches and lawns. Some newspapers have been delivered by mail for decades, some for centuries, and some have only switched from carrier to USPS in the last few years, looking to cut costs at the margins, reduce print days, and sidestep the challenges (and management headaches) of the changing carrier labor market."

Pritzker Outlines Proposed Social Media Tax

"Chiding social media sites that 'profit off of surveilling youth, creating addictive algorithms, and abandoning their responsibility to keep kids and consumers safe,' Governor Pritzker’s plan would charge the companies a monthly fee based on the number of users in Illinois they have beyond 100,000," reports the Sun-Times. "That would be at rates of ten cents per user up to 500,000 users; $40,000 plus twenty-five cents per user up to a million; and $165,000 plus fifty cents per user over a million."

Pinterest Struck By AI Slop

"Pinterest has gone all in on artificial intelligence, and users say it's destroying the site," reports 404 Media. "Since 2009, the image-sharing social media site has been a place for people to share their art, recipes, home renovation inspiration, corny motivational quotes... but in the last year users, especially artists, say the site has gotten worse. AI-powered mods are pulling down posts and banning accounts, AI-generated art is filling feeds, and hand-drawn art is labeled as AI-modified."

MUSIC

Springsteen Returns To Chicago In April

Tickets go on sale today for Bruce Springsteen's April 29 show at the United Center, writes Block Club. Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off the “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” next month in Minneapolis. He recently performed “Streets of Minneapolis” in the city, which was "recorded and released in the aftermath of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti."

United States May Have Broken World-Class Venezuelan Classical Training

"Alums of Venezuela’s El Sistema program perform everywhere from the Berlin Philharmonic to our own Chicago Symphony," reports WBEZ. But "last June, the State Department stopped issuing visas, including student visas, to Venezuelan nationals, with limited exceptions. Those exceptions were narrowed further in January. That spells uncertainty for Venezuelan musicians who might have otherwise moved to Chicago to pursue their career, whether at the city’s many top-tier conservatories or through early-career opportunities at the Chicago Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago or Grant Park Music Festival."

STAGE

A Play About Henry Darger World Premieres In Manhattan

"Visionary director Martha Clarke brings us inside the mind of one of the twentieth century’s most startling outsider artists, Henry Darger—a reclusive janitor whose extraordinary body of paintings and writings was only fully discovered after his death," announces Vineyard Theatre. "With text adapted from Darger’s own writings by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley, featuring an unforgettable visual and aural landscape, and starring Obie Award-winning performance artist John Kelly, Bughouse offers an intimate examination of a self-taught artist’s compulsion to create—even when no one is watching." February 24-March 29. More here.

Chicago Children’s Theatre Celebrates Two Decades

Chicago Children's Theatre has created "A Piece of Cake," an immersive sensory theater experience for the very young. Performances kick off a day celebrating Chicago Children's Theatre's twentieth birthday on Saturday-Sunday, February 28-March 1, 9:30am and 11:30am. Tickets ($10) and more here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Jeffrey Epstein And Ghislaine Maxwell's Connection To One Midwest Arts School

"Years before they were convicted sex offenders, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell used his wealth to gain access to a prestigious boarding school for young artists in Michigan, using a rental lodge Epstein donated to the school as a base from which to recruit some of their earliest victims, according to Department of Justice records and former campus administrators," reports NPR. The school is the "nearly century-old Interlochen Center for the Arts, tucked between two lakes south of Traverse City."

Columbia College Launches Two Online-Only Grad Programs

Columbia College Chicago has set "two new, fully online graduate programs: the Master of Arts in screenwriting and development in the School of Film and Television and the Master of Arts in global beauty management in the School of Fashion," they relay, saying "Both programs are designed for working professionals and entrepreneurs and reflect growing demand in the entertainment and global beauty industries."

WBEZ Aggregates Arts Organization Diversity Data

Last year, reports WBEZ, "we surveyed the city’s largest cultural players on diversity of their full-time staff and boards." Now, "fresh data from Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Architecture Center and Goodman Theatre help paint a broader picture," adding to the twenty or so previous respondents. "People of color make up more than two-thirds of the city’s population, with Black and Latino people representing twenty-six percent and thirty percent of residents, respectively, according to the 2024 American Community Survey. Yet our findings last year showed that many of the city’s largest arts groups don’t have boards or staff that reflect city demographics."

Illinois Freezes Data Center Tax Incentives

Governor Pritzker "is halting tax incentives for new data centers being built in Illinois," reports Axios Chicago. Pritzker has "called for a two-year suspension of tax incentives to build data centers in Illinois," which " has at least 222 data centers—the fifth-highest in the country." Pritzker: "We need to think critically about our future energy usage with the needs of Illinois households at the forefront... With the shifting energy landscape, it is imperative that our growth does not undermine affordability and stability for our families."

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2026-02-23 New City

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:03:17 GMT

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The response to our Fortieth Anniversary Issue, the biggest in Newcity's history, has been deeply humbling. If you have not seen a copy, today is the final day for new subscribers to get the issue as your first. You can sign up here.

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You can also order a copy of the Fortieth Anniversary Issue here. And our audience survey ends this week, on Friday, so please complete it if you have not yet done so here.

LIT

Camille Bordas on “One Sun Only” and the Art of Deleting

The Chicago-based writer discusses the pleasures of editing, writing in English versus French and the narrative power of anxiety. (Ruby Rosenthal)

ART

"Transforming Legacies" Demonstrates the Breadth and Depth of South Asian Stories Through Art

South Asia Institute’s latest exhibition explores the power of storytelling through thirty-six story paintings. (Elisa Shoenberger)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
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STAGE

"Top Girls" and Living in a Man’s World

Raven Theatre presents Caryl Churchill's 1982 play about women across time and space united by one reality. (Amanda Finn)

BRAZIL

An Appetite for the Invisible: Two Exhibitions at Gomide & Co Examine How Value Is Produced

In “Antonio Dias: Image + Mirage” and “Trama: Lygia Pape & Porangatu,” paintings, prints and objects expose the perceptual and institutional systems through which artistic value takes shape. (Luiz Armando Bagolin)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ARTT

Gray Presents Roger Brown's "Weathervane"

Opening at Gray Chicago on March 19, "Roger Brown: Weathervane" is the gallery’s first monographic exhibition dedicated to Brown since announcing exclusive representation of the artist’s estate. "Featuring eleven paintings from the 1980s and 1990s, the exhibition reflects Brown’s clarity of vision as an artist both unafraid to face sociopolitical headwinds and unable to ignore ecological destruction. Playing with shifts of scale, Brown communicates reverence and awe for the power of nature while his perspective on human plight sees a fraught and tenuous future. For example, in the 1980 painting 'Lake Effect,' Brown paints the grand high-rises of Chicago, one of the world’s most famous skylines at the time, as a minuscule strip of skyline against alarming concentric arcs of red storm clouds." More here.

The Milwaukee Art Museum's New Director Shares Her Vision

"Kim Sajet, newly appointed director of the Milwaukee Art Museum aims to expand access and reimagine what a truly inclusive museum can be," reports Milwaukee magazine. MAM faces challenges: "the museum cut staff last July, attendance has not rebounded since the pandemic, costs are rising and the competition for private funding is fierce. But Sajet—born in Nigeria, raised in Australia and a citizen of the Netherlands—seems up for the challenge." Says Sajet, "The museum should not be an island. It is part of this wonderful city. One of the things I’m interested in is, how do we partner together? When Summerfest is going on, what can we be doing at the same time? How can we be partnering so all boats will rise together?"

Alison Ruttan's Submerged Suburban Neighborhood At Hyde Park Art Center

Hyde Park Art Center will present a major solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Alison Ruttan. "Visualizing the catastrophic impact of global warming on coastal communities, the immersive installation places visitors at the center of a submerged suburban neighborhood to invite reflections on the climate crisis." The exhibition takes up 2300 square feet of gallery space with over 160 cast ceramic forms. (More.)

DESIGN

South Side Community Art Center Discusses Renewal Underway

As the South Side Community Art Center embarks "on the biggest transformation in [its] storied eighty-five-year history," they're holding a conversation at the Chicago Architecture Center to discuss the institution's preservation and expansion work currently in progress. "This public program brings together lead architect Ann Lui of Future Firm, preservation architect k. kennedy Whiters of wrkSHäp kiloWatt, and SSCAC executive director Monique Brinkman-Hill, moderated by architecture critic Lee Bey. Together, they will reflect on SSCAC’s legacy and share insights into the design and preservation work guiding its $15 million redevelopment." Chicago Architecture Center, 111 East Wacker. Tickets ($10) here. February 25, 5pm.

Ravenswood Sees Fresh Stationery Shop

Samantha Rekas, "owner of Paper Bunny Press, has opened the doors to her first brick-and-mortar shop after nearly four years of pop-up markets across the city and selling her products online," inventories Block Club. The Ravenswood shop at 4956 North Damen, down the street from Winnemac Park, is filled with "surprisingly snarky stationery" for all occasions. More here.

DINING & DRINKING

Espiritu Takes Former McCormick & Schmick's Space On East Wacker

Espiritu, "an upscale restaurant offering classic Chicago dishes with a Mexican twist," is "taking the place of the recently shuttered Loop steakhouse McCormick & Schmick’s," reports Crain's. Espiritu "will occupy the 10,000-square-foot ground-floor retail space at 1 East Wacker, as well as 2,200 square feet of adjoining patio area along Wacker Drive... The team behind Espiritu includes Chicago Cut Steakhouse co-founder Matt Moore and Emidio Oceguera, who launched the restaurant Cerdito Muerto in Pilsen in 2024."

FILM & TELEVISION

Utah's Big Move After Losing Sundance: $2 Million To AI-Driven "Film Ecosystem"

Even before the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, "a $2 million grant for a new company, Nuovo Film Festival, was approved during a January 8 meeting of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development in Utah," reports Variety. "Nuovo is described as a 'film ecosystem' that will include a filmmaking lab designed to use 'technology and AI'; the creation of an AI soundstage that could allegedly help to create blockbuster films at a fraction of the cost; enhanced state incentive programs to bring filmmakers to Utah; and film craft education and certification in the state’s high schools and colleges."

LIT

What We Lose When Spaces Like Volumes Bookcafe Close

"I measure a full-fledged bookstore by its discoveries, its hand-written recommendation note cards, and the checkouts that turn into runaway conversations about what we’re reading and what’s going on in the neighborhood that week," writes Michael Welch at Literary Hub on the recent closing of Volumes Bookcafe in Wicker Park. He recounts the history of the neighborhood's literary community as well as an authors' night at Volumes before the store's closing. There Mary Wisniewski, author of "Algren: A Life" (and a Newcity contributor), mentions a recent visit to the nearby Barnes & Noble, where she discovered that there were no Nelson Algren books on their shelves. "What we lose when our independent bookstores close is our community."

MEDIA

Growing Community Media Publications Gifted To National Nonprofit

This week, news titles operated by Growing Community Media, including Wednesday Journal and Austin Weekly News, "will become the inaugural Chicago-area news titles to join Newswell, a nonprofit consortium dedicated to sustaining community journalism," reports Wednesday Journal. "GCM is gifting its news titles to Newswell because we believe this will give GCM’s titles the best opportunity to navigate a challenging local media landscape in which more than a third of all U.S. newspapers have shuttered since 2005." (More.)

Berkshire Hathaway Invests Major Stake In New York Times Stock

Warren Buffett, a longtime supporter and investor in newspapers, "sold his newspaper holdings to Lee Enterprises for $140 million in 2020," records Publishing Insider, but "his firm Berkshire Hathaway [has] bought five million shares of New York Times stock for $352 million... 'It’s a full circle moment for Berkshire Hathaway in reinvesting in news and a huge vote of confidence by Berkshire in the business strategy of The New York Times,' Tim Franklin, a professor and chair of local news at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, told Associated Press."

STAGE

David Schwimmer Beefs Up Lookingglass Involvement

David Schwimmer, "long a close friend of the Lookingglass Theatre, is re-engaged, reenergized and determined to coax the struggling Chicago theater company where he began his career back to life," reports Chris Jones at the Tribune. "The fifty-nine-year-old actor, who shot to fame [on] 'Friends,' has joined the Lookingglass board of directors, grabbed a spot on its finance committee, started taking meetings with everyone from the arts booster Lou Raizin to the mayoral candidate Alexi Giannoulias and brought in a... website development team. He’s co-hosting an upcoming gala, dreamed up new Lookingglass merch, planned events with his longtime pal Billy Dec, walked into corporate boardrooms to raise money, and generally put himself out there in service of what can reasonably be called a major Lookingglass rebrand—with Schwimmer as the de facto chief marketing officer."

Robert Falls On Taking "Holiday"

"When I was sent this play, I just sort of fell in love with it, and went, this is something I haven't really done, I haven't really done a sort of a romantic comedy," veteran Chicago stage director Robert Falls tells Channel 7 News. "For a comedy, it goes in some complicated places about human relationships and family. I thought, this will be really fun, and that's exactly what it turned out to be... If I'm excited by the play I can tell because it starts forming visually in my mind, I start to see what a set might look like, I start to see what the world might be, I start making notes, I start writing notes to myself, I start researching."

Women-Led Eos Theatre Company Launches With "The Trojan Women"

"A dynamic new storefront theatre has emerged in Chicago with the launch of Eos Theatre Company, a women-led theatre company dedicated to shining light into the darkness of the human experience through transformative storytelling. Founded by theatre artists Ashway Lawver, Rachel Sledd, Morgan Burkey and Morgan Lavenstein, the company aims to create work where women’s perspectives are not only included but centered," advises the theater. The company’s inaugural production, "The Trojan Women," by Caroline Bird after Euripides, will perform at the Bramble Arts Loft in April. More here.

Grand Rapids Ballet Eliminates Executive Director

"Grand Rapids Ballet has dismissed executive director Mary Jennings after less than two years in the role, replacing her with an interim CEO as the ballet rethinks its leadership strategy," reports Crain's Grand Rapids.

Broadway Musicals Scarce This Season

"Without the usual flood of new musicals, the playwrights of works like 'Becky Shaw,' 'Dog Day Afternoon' and 'Giant' are getting a chance to shine," tallies the New York Times, sensing a "downtown vibe." In the first third of 2026, "we’ll see eleven plays and only six musicals on Broadway. And many of the musicals that will open share a certain downtown sensibility instead of, say, a stately Sondheim import or Disneyfied cheer."

Met Opera Season Smallest Since 1960s; "Lincoln In The Bardo" Production Planned

"Despite encouraging box office figures for the season’s first half, the financially strapped Metropolitan Opera scaled back its 2026-27 schedule," reports AP. The Met "will present seventeen productions, its lowest total in a non-truncated season since the company moved to Lincoln Center in 1966. There are just five new stagings, and revivals of three popular operas account for seventy-one of the 187 individual opera performances: Puccini’s 'Tosca' and 'La Bohème' and Verdi’s 'Aida.' Said Met general manager Peter Gelb, 'It makes more sense for us, and this is an experiment—to present these works in extended runs. And by double-casting them, it also is more economic in terms of how many different shows are playing in one week.'"

George Saunders’ “Lincoln in the Bardo,” composed by Missy Mazzoli, is one planned production. The novel, "taking place between planes of existence and written like a script for an ensemble cast, seems an ideal fit for the dreamy world of opera," previews the New York Times. (More.)

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Vernon Hills Toy Seller Sparked Supreme Court Case Striking Down Tariffs

Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Vernon Hills, Illinois-based educational toy company Learning Resources, set off the landmark Supreme Court challenge against Trump administration tariffs, reports CNBC. "'We’re excited to stand on the right side of history here,' Woldenberg said after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of his educational toy company’s challenge to President Trump’s tariff policy. 'We believed it was an unlawful tax.'" Woldenberg "scoffed at the Trump administration’s warnings that having to refund what is estimated now to be more than $175 billion already collected under the illegal tariffs would be a burden to the government. 'They’re pretty good at taking the money from us. I think they just got to reverse the gears and send it back.'" (More.)

Fed Pressure Leads UChicago To Cut Ties With Program Helping PhD Candidates Of Color

The University of Chicago, reports the Sun-Times, "is among thirty-one universities that will no longer work with the PhD Project after the Trump administration said the program’s focus is racially discriminatory."

Trib To Bears: Enjoy That Hoosier Sojourn

"The Chicago Bears of Hammond, Indiana, is bad news for Illinois. But what about Chicago?" editorializes the Chicago Tribune. The proposed deal "could still fall apart. That’s true of any unclosed deal of this magnitude. But we’ll say this, if the Bears leave their quickstep dance of seduction with Indiana with any other than the state who brung ’em, they’d better not ever go east of Calumet City. They will have played Indiana for fools. And we [thought] Indiana most likely was smarter than that."

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2026-02-24 New City

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 10:03:32 GMT

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I grew up in a suburban world where a radio station built a reputation for a war on disco music—I once proudly wore the black "The Loop" T-shirt. But my affection for dance music was present even then, even if it was a personal secret. How could anyone resist John Travolta's tour de force moves in "Saturday Night Fever?" Was there anything better than when you were on the dancefloor yourself, grabbing your special person when the DJ played Donna Summer's "Last Dance?"

In college, we may have sung Bruce Springsteen in the shower, but without Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall" the parties would have been sedentary affairs. So it was natural for Newcity to put Frankie Knuckles on our cover in 1987, and to cover house music ever since.

All this to say that this major feature in Bloomberg this weekend really rocked me: "The Dance Floor Is Disappearing In a Sea of Phones: Electronic music’s club culture is facing an existential moment as bigger venues, higher ticket prices and social media turn dance floors into spectator events." The article chronicles an increasingly bigger business that thanks to technology and, well, the younger generation's aversion to uninhibited fun, has lost touch with its foundation.

This story reached me in Brazil, where the culture of dancing is baked into the soul. During the just-concluded Olympics, Brazil won the first Winter medal ever for any South American country when Lucas Pinheiro Braathen took the gold in the giant slalom.

Written on the back of his helmet? "Vamos dançar,"' or "let's dance."

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

P.S. Jan insists that, for editorial integrity, I need to disclose what a bad dancer I am. In my head, though, I am Fred Astaire.

Our audience survey ends this week, on Friday, so please complete it if you have not yet done so here.

MUSIC

Dance Yourself Clean with LCD Soundsystem Under a Starry Ballroom Ceiling

With a new album slowly taking shape, James Murphy and company return to the historic Aragon for another four-night stand. (Dylan Weinert)

FILM

Film Top 5: March 2026

A digital 4K restoration of Satyajit Ray's 1970 masterpiece of the commonplace and the mysterious, plus four other films to see in March. (Ray Pride)

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ART

Finding Hope at the End of a Horizon at Cochrane-Woods Art Center

In this group exhibition curated by Anju Lukose-Scott, artists stretch, fold and politicize the idea of the horizon, transforming a fixed boundary into a site of endless possibility. (Lucas Gómez‐Doyle)

NEWCITY

Free Will Astrology: Week of February 26, 2026

Sufi mystics tell us that the heart has "seven levels of depth." (Rob Brezsny)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Meet The Curator Overseeing The Obama Center's Art Boom

"The Obama Presidential Center won’t open until June, but its curator, Virginia Shore, has been commissioning art for more than seven years in preparation for the big day," reports Puck. Says Shore, "What will differentiate the O.P.C. is that it will include commissioned, site-specific work by contemporary artists who share a commitment to art as a civic and ethical practice. O.P.C. is the first presidential center that foregrounds community as an integral part of its mission." How involved are the Obamas in this process? "Very involved. Ultimately, every commissioned artist was considered and confirmed by President Obama," says Shore.

Could Free Entry To British Museums End?

"The National Gallery’s latest financial woes have brought the possibility of charging visitors back into the frame," reports the Guardian. "For a quarter of a century, visitors to the U.K.’s national museums and galleries have enjoyed universal free entry to see permanent collections. The policy, introduced by the New Labour government in 2001, has been widely credited with improving access to culture and significantly increasing footfall to some of the country’s best-known attractions. But as funding pressures deepen across the sector, and running costs increase, a policy once treated as untouchable is under renewed scrutiny."

DESIGN

Chicago Park District Reveals Plans For Soldier Field's Post-Bears Future

The Chicago Park District has "laid out a $630 million plan to remake it into a major concert venue and events space," reports CBS Chicago. "The plan includes $130 million in renovations to the stadium itself, including a new sound system and new dressing rooms. Another $500 million would go toward upgrading infrastructure and parking." "The current lease prohibits the stadium from hosting any non-Bears event within five days of a home game. That means a Bears loss could open the door for a busier August and September, and a more accessible Soldier Field all year," notes Fox Chicago.

Could Foundry Park Have The Greatest Flatiron Building Of Them All?

"Most American cities are organized on an unrelenting grid, an artifact of early European settlers’ simple and unimaginative approach to land surveying and real-estate speculation. While most of Chicago’s well-noted architecture has been built on this grid, our major diagonal streets create... 'flat iron' sites across many neighborhoods," Edward Keegan writes at the Tribune. "The term flat iron building can be applied to any triangular-shaped structure with an acute angle," writes Keegan in a short survey of Chicago flatirons, before noting the opportunity for another: "The latest plans for Foundry Park, previously the north portion of Lincoln Yards, include two enticing opportunities for new flat iron structures—at the corners of Cortland and Kingsbury streets and Sheffield." Keegan calls it "the logical place for Foundry Park’s signature structure."

Leading Architects On Bruce Goff At The Art Institute

The co-curators of "Bruce Goff: Material Worlds," Alison Fisher and Craig Lee, will speak with architects from the firms New Affiliates and Norman Kelley "to explore how Goff’s life and work inform their practice. This discussion features two architects from each firm—Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb of New York-based New Affiliates, who designed the Goff exhibition, and Thomas Kelley and Carrie Norman of Norman Kelley, based in Chicago and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Both firms have launched their own explorations of Bruce Goff’s work to produce new projects and pedagogical ideas." More here.

A Vacant Beverly Storybook House Could Become An Arts Center

In Beverly, writes architecture critic Lee Bey at the Sun-Times, "the 132-year-old Eugene S. Pike House might end up happily ever after, as the first phase of stabilization and repairs—initial steps toward turning the building into an arts center—is likely to begin this spring." The vacant building should see its first phase of stabilization and repairs then, following a $1.5 million state grant. "The American Institute of Architects Guide to Chicago said the house looks as if one could 'expect Hansel and Gretel to come tripping past.'" Once more work is completed, contingent on additional funding, the Beverly Area Arts Alliance "will have discussions with the community about the building’s future use," envisioning the home "hosting exhibitions, classes and an artist-in-residence program."

National Public Housing Museum Voted One Of Nation’s Best New Museums

A year after opening, the National Public Housing Museum has been named number three on USA Today’s list of the country’s best new museums, reports Block Club. Says associate director Tiff Beatty, “We’re very proud of the accomplishment. To actually have a space where people can come and really see the full vision, and all of the exhibits and stories we’ve been working on with residents and preservationists to pull together to create the museum, it’s definitely been a big year for us." Read Vasia Rigou's Newcity feature on the museum here.

Vegas Sphere, First Of Many, Generates $1.22 Billion

"Sphere Entertainment, the company behind the Sphere concert venue in Las Vegas, has published its fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2025 financial results," records Music Business Worldwide. "The firm posted revenues of $1.22 billion for 2025, up eight percent year-over-year." As for what's next, "last month, Sphere Entertainment shared plans for its first small-scale Sphere in the United States... the firm intends to develop a ‘mini Sphere’ at National Harbor in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area."

DINING & DRINKING

More Suds Gone Flat: Whiner, Alarmist, Illuminated

Southwest Side "Le Tub saison-makers Whiner Beer announced Friday that they will close March 29 after a decade. It’s one of three Chicago breweries to announce closures this year as the industry struggles," reports Block Club. Their announcement "comes just weeks after Sauganash’s Alarmist Brewing closed its Far Northwest Side brewery... after ten years in business." On Friday, Norwood Park’s Illuminated Brew Works said it would close on June 28.

The History Of Chicago's Creamy Garlic Sustenance

Creamy garlic dressing "usually consists of mayonnaise and/or sour cream as the base, plus garlic and lemon juice or vinegar—but there is much variation," flavors Block Club in a deep dive on the sauce. "Part of creamy garlic dressing’s magic is that it’s made fresh and has to be eaten fresh." The story includes a 1950 tale of its first Chicago incarnation: Conrad “Nicky” Hilton Jr. "is seated at a table at Alexander’s, a white-tablecloth steakhouse on 63rd Street in Woodlawn. It’s his first time there, and he’s waiting for his salad. When it arrives, Hilton looks down at the plate of chopped lettuce tossed in the eatery’s house-made creamy garlic dressing. 'He took a bite and said, "Oh my God, what is in my mouth?"'" He handed it to his fiancée, Elizabeth Taylor, who also "went crazy" for it. Much more at the link.

FILM & TELEVISION

CUFF Launches "The Underground" With Screening Series

The Chicago Underground Film Festival launches The Underground, a new membership screening series, with four titles from the 2025 edition. The titles span "speculative fiction, archival excavation, political documentary and hybrid nonfiction." A virtual version of the program will also be available exclusively to members of The Underground. The in-person screening is at Facets on Friday, March 6 at 7pm. More on The Underground here.

LIT

A Pilsen Artist Shares Poetry On Sidewalks

"The Pilsen artist known as Boots, whose real name is Kimberly Brown, has painted thousands of her original poetry snippets on sidewalks and elsewhere around Chicago since she began sharing her words with the world just before the pandemic," reports the Sun-Times. "Now, you can find her painted poetry while walking through towns in all fifty states, part of a project that Brown says has 'become bigger than me at this point.' All of them are tagged @poetrybyboots, which is her Instagram handle. The biggest number by far is in Chicago."

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

The Midwest's Nascent Turnaround

"For the first time in seventy years, more Americans are coming [to the region] than going," reports The Economist. Why the change? Demographer Hamilton Lombard has a "convincing explanation. It is about the cost of living. He contrasts Phoenix, a fast-growing city, with Chicago. The Arizonan metropolis 'used to be relatively affordable. It’s just not at all anymore,' he says. Rents in Chicago are around $150 a month cheaper. On top of this, it is possible to live without a car and see a decent show at the theatre."

Pritzker Budget Proposal Leaves Art Funding Flat

Governor Pritzker’s "funding plan comes as the arts face a precarious moment. Advocates worry Illinois could fall behind in its support for the sector," accounts WBEZ. "In the state budget released last week, Pritzker proposed $25.9 million for the Illinois Arts Council, up just slightly from the $25.7 million allocated in fiscal year 2026." Arts Alliance Illinois "is calling on the General Assembly to increase the arts budget by twenty percent, which it says would restore state funding levels to where they were twenty years ago."

Foundation For Contemporary Arts Grants Go To Three Chicago Artists

The Foundation for Contemporary Arts has noted twenty-four artists, who will receive its $45,000 Grants to Artists awards, the largest group of grantees in its history. These unrestricted awards recognize experimental artists working in dance, music/sound, performance art/theater, poetry, and visual arts, providing "financial support for increased freedom in their lives and practices." Three of this year’s grantees—Olivia Block, Edgar Garcia and Nyeema Morgan—are based in Chicago, with rigorous experimental practices in music, poetry and visual arts, respectively. More on the grants program here.

"Abolish ICE" And "Svencoolie" Take Top Spots In Snowplow Naming Derby

"The Department of Streets and Sanitation announced the six winning names for the fourth annual snowplow-naming contest," reports the Sun-Times. Along with "Abolish ICE," the top snowplow names included “Stephen Coldbert,” “Pope Frío XIV,” “The Blizzard of Oz,” “Svencoolie” and “Caleb Chilliams." The winners "were pulled from more than 13,300 entries and 39,000 voters."

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2026-02-25 New City

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 10:03:32 GMT

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We've been beating our chest a fair bit about our fortieth anniversary but we're far from alone in reaching this milestone in 2026.

Here are some other fortieth birthdays being celebrated right now, and I no doubt have missed a few: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Uptown Poetry Slam, Experimental Sound Studio and HotHouse.

And we're all just pikers compared to Steppenwolf Theater and Museum of Contemporary Photography at fifty, the Joffrey Ballet at seventy and Goodman Theatre, an elder statesman of culture, at one-hundred.

But I'm still going to eat some cake while I can.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

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STAGE

Kurt Weill's "Der Silbersee" Gets Its Chicago Premiere Nearly a Century Later

Chicago Opera Theater is staging the opera that premiered in Germany in 1933 before being banned by the Nazi party. (Ted Fishman)

ART

Tuan Andrew Nguyen Honors the Ngurrara Communities' Maps Against Erasure

At the Art Institute, Nguyen’s film installation “We Were Lost in Our Country” explores the cultural and physical dislocation of Aboriginal communities in Australia. (Elisa Shoenberger)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
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STAGE

In the Social Media Era, “Dear Evan Hansen” Matters More Than Ever

Paramount Theatre stages the Tony-winning musical that explores teen loneliness, social platforms and the lies we tell to survive. (Noel Schecter)

BRAZIL

SP-Arte Tracks Rising Artists in Brazil

Plus Andrea Pinheiro reelected president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo and other stories from the intersection of art, crime and controversy. (Brian Hieggelke)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Louvre Director Out Months After Rudimentary Heist

Director Laurence des Cars’ departure from the Louvre "is the latest setback for the world’s largest museum. Her tenure was marred by labor strikes, water leaks and security lapses that led to the heist in October," reports the New York Times. Her resignation comes a day before "she was scheduled to testify before the French Parliament about the security lapses that led to the theft of a collection of jewels, which were valued at more than $100 million." President Macron "accepted Ms. des Cars’ resignation 'as an act of responsibility at a time when the world’s largest museum needs both stability and a strong new impetus to successfully complete major security and modernization projects.'"

DESIGN

Pritzker Architecture Prize Delayed After Tom Pritzker Named In Epstein Files

The announcement of the next Pritzker Prize laureate, usually named in early March, will be delayed, reports the New York Times. "The award has come to be known as the Nobel of architecture and the profession’s highest honor. So when the release of the files on Jeffrey Epstein made clear the extent of the contacts between the director of the foundation that awards the prize, Tom Pritzker, and the disgraced financier, some wondered whether the Pritzker Prize would be affected." A statement released to The New York Times says "that the Hyatt Foundation’s role as benefactor allows it 'to remain assured in the strength of its process and focus entirely on the celebration of architectural excellence.'" (More.)

Jeff And Lauren Sánchez Bezos Named Honorary Chairs Of Met Gala

In a press release on "the dress code for its Costume Institute fund-raiser on the first Monday in May... generally described as 'the party of the year,'" a key detail was "buried on the second page," records Vanessa Friedman at the New York Times (gift link): "Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos will serve as honorary chairs for the evening.” The couple had already "been named as the lead sponsors of both the event and the exhibition it celebrates, but this was the first time they had been anointed as honorary chairs of the party, a position that often comes with a place in the receiving line and a position at the top of the Met steps... This is the rare instance in which the lead sponsors will also be the honorary chairs."

Could It Be An Overture For Bezos To Acquire Vogue Parent Condé Nast?

"Increasingly, the relationship between the couple and Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of Vogue, global chief content officer of Condé Nast and mastermind of the Met Gala, is being treated as a sign of the times, for good or ill. It started when Ms. Wintour put Ms. Sánchez Bezos at her wedding on the digital cover of Vogue in June, after publishing an equally laudatory profile in 2023... It seemed as if Ms. Wintour was selling the magazine, or at least its stylish soul, to Mr. Bezos—with an eye, perhaps, to selling Condé Nast... Mr. Bezos has long been rumored as a potential purchaser-savior of Vogue’s parent company, in part because he has long been trying to woo high fashion to Amazon, and Vogue is the classic conduit to high fashion."

A New Mid-Rise Comes To Bucktown Near The 606

Plans have been revealed for a residential development at 1820 North Winnebago, posts Chicago YIMBY. "Located at the intersection with West Moffat, the wedge-shaped lot currently sits vacant just steps away from the 606 trail and the recently announced 1801 Winnebago, which also received new renderings." The plans, designed by Eckenhoff Saunders, call for thirty residential units across five stories.

MIT Finds A Way To Map Foot Traffic In Any City

MIT researchers have "mapped New York City foot traffic for the first time ever," reports Fast Company. "The effort could supply data that finally gives pedestrian infrastructure the funding it deserves. This complete model of pedestrian activity is replicable in any U.S. city, and it has huge potential benefits for city planners."

DINING & DRINKING

Vegas Celebrates Alinea ResidencyAt

"One of the most important restaurants of the twenty-first century, a place swagged with Michelin stars and James Beard Awards and World’s Fifty Best recognition, where modernist cooking... meets maximalist presentation and dining as spectacle, is touching down in Las Vegas for six weeks," posts the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Alinea, from chef and co-founder Grant Achatz, will take up residence at the Michael Mina restaurant in the Bellagio from April 16-May 31." It's the final stop on the restaurant's twentieth anniversary tour, which has also included stops in "Brooklyn, Miami Beach, Beverly Hills, Tokyo and Big Sky."

Sliced: Bacci's, Ukrainian Village's Former Late Night Pizza Place, Will Be Demolished For Condos

"A zoning change to construct a five-story, six-unit condo building was approved by the City Council," scarfs Block Club. The new development will replace the closed Bacci's pizza on Chicago Avenue at Western.

The Question Of Whether To Open For Business In A Blizzard

When Mayor Mamdani "announced a travel ban on Sunday afternoon, it set off a chain reaction of rapid-fire calculations among the city’s small businesses, particularly for thousands of restaurants and bars," writes the New York Times in a rich report (gift link). "After weeks of harsh weather and the usual wintertime slump in business, New York City restaurateurs had to decide in just a few short hours whether to close, adding to the losses of an already slow winter, or risk staff safety and meet the demands of customers trapped at home and eager to buy food and drinks nearby." (More.)

FILM & TELEVISION

"60 Minutes" Ticks Down; Ellison's CBS Vision Doubted

"As Bari Weiss pursues her reimagining of CBS News, insiders are wondering how the network's flagship newsmagazine will manage the transition," delves the Hollywood Reporter. Earlier, Anderson Cooper announced his exit after nearly twenty years, in favor of family and CNN. "The past few months have seen a flurry of events that portend a very different '60 Minutes'... Network-wide layoff plans... will reshape CBS News as Weiss puts her imprint on new areas of focus and adds to the mix her own contributor hires." One of the first hires, a "longevity researcher and health influencer," left several days after connections to Jeffrey Epstein were revealed.

"Recent incidents involving Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert suggest things are not well at the network after the acquisition financed by Trump supporter Larry Ellison," analyzes Margaret Sullivan at the Guardian. (More.)

Sarah Jessica Parker Will Address Northwestern Class Of 2026

Actor-producer-entrepreneur Sarah Jessica Parker will address Northwestern’s Class of 2026 at the University’s 168th commencement on Sunday, June 14 at the United Center, the university relays. Parker will also receive an honorary degree of doctor of arts at the ceremony.

Sundance Boulder Announces Eleven Theaters And Four Venues

For its Colorado debut edition next January, the Sundance Film Festival finds breathing room it never had when overlaid on the village of Park City, Utah. (It's also a drop from 7,000 feet above sea level to 5,430.) “Working closely with the Colorado community, the 2027 Sundance Film Festival is already in our sights as we build towards an exciting debut in Boulder, where our programming will meet audiences next January,” Eugene Hernandez, director of Sundance Film Festival and public programming writes in a release. (More.)

Warner Bros. Has A Couple More Days To Rebuff Latest Paramount Overture

Paramount Skydance has proffered another offer for the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, but the terms remains secret, reports Variety. "The WBD board will review it while still recommending the Netflix transaction that is up for a vote on March 20. Netflix now has four days to match Paramount’s new offer, or it could bail out of the bidding process. Netflix's bid for Warner Bros. and HBO Max is valued at nearly $83 billion, while Paramount has fielded a $108 billion offer for the entirety of WBD, including its cable channels" such as CNN.

LIT

International Booker Prize Longlist Includes Chicago Translator

The International Booker Prize, which has become "the world’s most influential award for translated fiction," has announced its longlist. It includes "thirteen books translated from eleven original languages, by authors and translators representing fourteen nationalities across four continents." Among the nominees, "She Who Remains," by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Chicago-based Izidora Angel (Newcity Lit 50). The shortlist of six books will be announced at the end of March, and the winning book will be announced in May.

Chicago Humanities Names Spring Festival Events

Chicago Humanities has announced the festival's spring programming. A few highlights: R.F. Kuang in Conversation at First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple on April 11; "Michael Pollan: A World Appears," at Francis W. Parker School on April 15; and "Dr. Ibram X. Kendi: Chain of Ideas" as a mainstage event on the festival's Bridgeport Day on April 18. Also, on April 20 at Francis Parker, "Rick Steves: On the Hippie Trail." (More.)

How Book Bans Are Bad For Creativity

As part of its legal work challenging book bans, PEN America spoke to authors "about the impact book bans have on their creative processes. While many said they refuse to self-censor—it would constitute 'a kind of death,' remarked author Kyle Lukoff—bans are still impeding their writing processes by stifling their creativity and causing them to doubt choices they otherwise wouldn’t. One author, overwhelmed by the censorship they’ve faced, felt as though they had no choice but to stop writing children’s books altogether."

MEDIA

Chicago's Very Own Layoffs: Eight At WGN-TV Axed

Eight veteran reporters and anchors were laid off Monday at WGN-TV: Sean Lewis, Ray Cortopassi, Bronagh Tumulty, Judy Wang, Julian Crews, Paul Lisnek, Chris Boden and Dean Richards, tallies the Trib. "The massive downsizing is casting a pall over the newsroom [as] Dallas-based owner Nexstar Media is reducing the station to a shell." Last week, activist FCC chair Brendan Carr placed his thumb on the merger of Nexstar and sister local-broadcaster conglomerate Tegna, shortly after a Trump pushed for the mass merger in a social media post. Adds the Sun-Times, "The layoffs are an apparent effort to cut costs in anticipation of the excessive debt Nexstar will incur from [the $6.2 billion] borrowed to buy Tegna." (More.)

Sun-Times Goes To The Hot Dogs In Wiener's Circle Crosswords Promo

The Sun-Times will be at the Wiener’s Circle on Chicago's birthday to promote its Games & Crosswords section next week. Passersby can win a hot dog if they successfully complete the Chicago Sun-Times’ Chicago Mini Crossword in ninety seconds or less—"while being roasted by the Wiener’s Circle’s Ragen Eggert." Wednesday, March 4, from 1pm-2:30pm. More here.

MUSIC

Double Door Folds Uptown Vision

Double Door plan for Uptown's Wilson Theatre has been canceled, posts Sean Mulroney on Facebook. "We’re actively exploring other locations and opportunities that better align with our vision. And we think we have found one!" But "we’re keeping the brand alive through pop-ups, collaborations and special moments. Our first step is a collaboration with Gallery Cabaret in Bucktown. For almost forty years, Gallery Cabaret has been a haven for artists and musicians looking to showcase their craft in an eclectic neighborhood setting. We are updating the sound, the music calendar, and the overall vibe that made Double Door the best place to see music." The Gallery Cabaret reopens at 2020 North Oakley, March 1, 5pm. (A history of the storied Wilson Theater is here.)

Buddy Guy Believes Chicago Needs A Blues Monument

"I get a little jealous when I go to Nashville, Texas and New Orleans," Buddy Guy told City Council while receiving honors for his ninetieth birthday, "where leaders have created monuments to their musical roots," profiles Axios Chicago. "But I don't see a picture of [anyone] that made Chicago what it is today—Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williams—I could go till tomorrow, but I'm not going to do that... But I'd like to see statues or something here to let the world know that Chicago is the world capital of the blues." Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, who sponsored Guy's honor, says "he's working on the request through both Chicago Public Schools and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events."

STAGE

Broadway In Chicago To Present Kokandy's "Jekyll & Hyde" This Fall

Broadway In Chicago and Kokandy Productions announced that the revival of the ten-time 2025 Jeff Award-nominated musical "Jekyll & Hyde" will make its Broadway In Chicago debut at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place from September 8-October 25. "The engagement follows last year’s completely sold-out and extended Chicago run—which marked the musical’s first staging in the city in more than fifteen years.""Jekyll & Hyde" is directed by producing artistic director Derek Van Barham, with music direction by Nick Sula and choreography by Brenda Didier. "The entire original cast will return for the Broadway Playhouse run, including Jeff Award nominees David Moreland (Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde), Ava Lane Stovall (Lucy Harris), and Emily McCormick (Emma Carew)." More here.

Legendary Drury Lane South Impresario John R. Lazzara Passes

"I am old enough, and have done what I do long enough, to remember the old Drury Lane South in Evergreen Park," the Trib's Chris Jones posts on Facebook. "I saw many musicals there and had lots of contact with John R. Lazzara, an impresario of the very old Chicago school, fur coat, wrinkled face, gold bling and all. He was Mr. Hospitality and knew how to bring a touch of starry glamor to his mostly blue-collar audience... Kind to a young critic, too. We won't see John's like again in the Chicago theater biz again." From a 1992 Trib profile: "When John R. Lazzara took over the reins of the slumping Drury Lane Dinner Theatre as executive producer in 1988, his total experience consisted of a marketing degree from Indiana University and a night out at Drury Lane in the 1970s to see a Sonny Bono show."

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

United States Tourist Slump Count At Eleven Million And Rising

"Last year, the United States was the only major destination to see a decline in international travelers. With increased scrutiny at the border, ICE violence and unpredictable policies, the new year isn’t looking better," tallies the New York Times. "Visitors from Canada, usually the second-largest source of U.S. tourism after Mexico, plunged by twenty-eight percent in January compared to January 2024... The United States was the only major destination to see a decline in foreign visitors, recording a six-percent drop."

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2026-02-26 New City

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 10:03:15 GMT

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The presence of American chains is thankfully small in São Paulo, at least in the neighborhoods I inhabit. But to the extent we see American brands, they usually represent a Chicago company: McDonald's. In fact, not far from where we are staying, the company has turned a historic Avenida Paulista mansion into a fast-food joint on steroids, complete with its own branding, Méqui1000, an homage to its status as the thousandth location of the chain in Brazil.

Journalism called, so we visited for lunch yesterday. Unlike the World McDonald's in Chicago's West Loop that offers samples of a few rotating items from locations around the world, here we got the truer international experience. More meat-forward in general, if you can believe that, and more cheese on the burgers. Less packaging. I ordered the Brabo Brabíssimo Carne. Brabo translates to angry, which I was (sort of) when it was not spicy in spite of the name.

Bottom line? It's a McDonald's.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

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Our audience survey ends tomorrow, so please complete it if you have not yet done so here.

ART

Western Exhibitions' New Show Maps Cities, Bodies and the Spaces Between

Featuring fifteen artists, the group exhibition examines infrastructures, frameworks and the urban or social designs that hold cities together. (Zara Yost)

STAGE

"Bernadette, The Musical" Blessedly Asks More Questions Than It Answers

The Athenaeum Center's audience included priests, nuns of various orders, and even the Pope's brother for this tale of a nineteenth-century French peasant girl who claimed to have visions of “a beautiful lady” in a grotto. (Dennis Polkow)

LIT

“Every Exit Brings You Home” Is A Novel Suspended Between Two Worlds

Naeem Murr’s new novel follows a young couple trying to have a child in post-9/11, pre-Great Recession Rogers Park, with flashbacks to their lives in Gaza a decade earlier. (Matthew Richardson)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
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FILM

Talking Screens: John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow" | The Elvis Presley Musical Atomic Bomb | Suzannah Herbert's "Natchez"

Also: "Scream 7"; a preview of "Dolly" at Music Box; Michel Franco's atmospheric sex drama "Dreams"; Amy Landecker's midlife romcom "For Worse"; "The Revenant" in IMAX, and more. (Ray Pride)

MUSIC

Electronic Wizards Bring "A Strange Party" to Smartbar

Skee Mask, Max Watts and Leesh are among the headliners in this showcase of storied musicians from the electronic dance community. (Teddy Sandler)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

65Grand Presents "Carlos Rolón: The Division Street Riots"

"The Division Street Riots," a new exhibition by Chicago-based artist Carlos Rolón, will feature "new graphite and charcoal drawings, works on aluminum, a DIY bicycle sculpture with audio, and a hand-embroidered textile inspired by the 1966 Division Street uprising in Humboldt Park and West Town," 65Grand announces. "On June 12, 1966, one day after Chicago’s first Puerto Rican Day Parade, police shot twenty-year-old Arcelis Cruz near Damen and Division. The incident ignited three days of protest, marking the first major U.S. riot attributed to Puerto Ricans... It became a turning point in Puerto Rican civic life in Chicago, catalyzing grassroots political organizing and the transformation with the likes of the Young Lords into a civil rights movement. Nearly sixty years later, Rolón revisits this history through a restrained, material language that foregrounds memory, dignity and collective witness." The exhibition opens March 6.

Naomi Beckwith Talks Art, Culture And Tokyo

At last November's Art Week Tokyo, Guggenheim chief curator and Chicago native Naomi Beckwith "used a classic protest song to ask what art can do in fractured times—and why Tokyo's tightly knit, globally connected art scene is well placed to lead those conversations," posts Tokyo Updates. Her question, borrowed from Marvin Gaye: "What's going on?" "For Beckwith, art and everyday life are inseparable. 'Art is not separate from the real world—just a very special place within it,' she says. It is a space where people can try out new ways of seeing and feeling. 'Art can educate, build community, and help you engage with your inner thoughts. When your mind is expanding through art, you can change the world.'"

Venice Biennale Names 111 Artists For Koyo Kouoh’s Posthumous Exhibition

This year’s Venice Biennale, the sixty-first, opens to the public on May 9, announces ARTnews. Curator Koyo Kouoh "died suddenly last year during the making of the exhibition, a first in the 131-year history of this storied exhibition. To see through her vision, she appointed a set of advisers that includes curators Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Helene Pereira and Rasha Salti; Siddartha Mitter, a critic who will serve as the editor of written materials; and Rory Tsapayi, who will act as an assistant to the team. Kouoh’s Biennale is titled 'In Minor Keys' and appears to focus on art with a decidedly understated vibe—a sensibility all the more notable in a world riven by violence and tension." The full artist list, viewable at the link, includes Nick Cave and Ebony G. Patterson.

Crystal Bridges Museum Names Deputy Director, Curatorial Affairs

Crystal Bridges' chief curator Austen Barron Bailly has been promoted to deputy director, curatorial affairs. In this role, she "will continue to support the institution as it expands access to all through a complete gallery transformation and substantial expansion set to open June 6 and 7." Bailly has been chief curator since 2019, and "will continue to guide curatorial strategy while expanding her leadership across departments, including oversight of the Crystal Bridges Library and Archives and research and scholarship programs." (More.)

Epstein Trove Illuminates How The Wealthy Borrow Against Their Art Collections

"A $484 million art loan secured by billionaire Leon Black was disclosed in the latest Epstein files," reports CNBC. "The loan made headlines for its size and the exotic collateral, which included blue-chip works by Picasso, Giacometti, Titian, Matisse and others. Art loans are typically used by the wealthy to provide ready cash, leverage financial investments and avoid hefty tax bills."

DESIGN

Congress Theater Rebuild Begins Within Weeks

A long-planned overhaul of the Congress Theater in Logan Square is expected to start soon "after the city secured a $25 million loan," reports Block Club. "The revival of the century-old theater at 2135 North Milwaukee [is expected to] be complete by December 2027... Built in 1926 by Fridstein & Co., the Congress is one of the last remaining theaters associated with famous 'moving picture theater' operators Lubliner & Trinz. Years later, it was refashioned into a music venue." The renovation design work is being overseen by Woodhouse Tinucci Architects.

Pullman's Historic Hotel Florence Awarded $100 Million Renovation Grant

"Developers of Pullman’s historic Hotel Florence and the surrounding area announced plans to create a 'mind-blowing entertainment experience' that is mixed with history and a new hub for local artists to showcase their talents—all headlined by a 'world class' music venue," reports the Sun-Times. "The roughly $100 million revitalization project will transform the nearly 145-year-old hotel within the Pullman National Historic Park into a boutique hotel with new restaurants. The hotel’s annex will be rehabilitated and a concert hall will be added in the old Pullman Factory across the street." Construction is set to begin in March 2027, with completion expected in late 2028.

Waymo Begins Mapping Chicago With Human Drivers

"Waymos are coming to Chicago—but they’re not driving themselves yet," reports the Tribune. "The self-driving taxi company is deploying about ten vehicles in Chicago to start mapping the city’s streets—thus 'laying the early groundwork' for future operations here—Waymo said... The cars will be driven by people. State officials say legislative change is likely needed to give the green light to self-driving cars in Illinois, and Waymo’s Chicago soft launch comes as a battle over the issue is heating up in Springfield."

Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Gets Grant From National Trust

"A West Side Baptist church—once documented by photographer Gordon Parks and listed on the National Register of Historic Places—has received a $500,000 grant to help fix up the 125-year-old building," reports the Sun-Times. "The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund announced that it had awarded the funds to the architecturally significant" church, which Gordon Parks photographed in 1953. (More.)

Now Evanstonians Can Name Their Bike Lane Sweeper

The City of Evanston has launched a community-wide contest to name its new Bike Lane Sweeper: "This specialized machine is crucial for maintaining the functionality of our bike lanes and sewers. We encourage all residents to use their creativity and civic pride to suggest a name that reflects the spirit of Evanston." More here.

DINING & DRINKING

James Beard Foundation's Taste America Series Returns

The James Beard Foundation is bringing its Taste America series back to Chicago with a dinner at Bar Sótano. James Beard Award winner Rick Bayless will serve as honorary chair for the Chicago dinner. The intimate evening will feature TasteTwenty chef Jaqueline Hernandez of Bar Sótano—one of the Foundation’s 2025-2026 “ones to watch”—collaborating with chef Stephen Gillanders of S.K.Y., Apolonia and Valhalla on a multicourse menu celebrating contemporary Mexican cuisine, paired with wines and cocktails. Highlights include Cordoniz Rostizado and Calabaza Rellena. Tuesday, March 10. Tickets ($160) are sold out, join waitlist here.

Trader Joe's May Finally Land In Logan Square

Trader Joe's "is taking over a long-vacant CVS building on Milwaukee, according to Ald. Daniel La Spata," stocks Block Club. "A Trader Joe’s spokesperson said the company is planning to open a store in Logan Square in 'the next few years,' but declined to confirm a location or timeline."

The Reservation Platform Wars Are Heating Up

"The battle to bring restaurant reservations online has been brewing for more than a decade between Resy and OpenTable," writes CNBC, noting that it could escalate soon thanks to DoorDash's entry. "Delivery giant DoorDash announced in June its $1.2 billion acquisition of SevenRooms, a reservation platform focused on direct bookings through a restaurant’s own website. Several months earlier, UberEats and Booking Holdings’ OpenTable announced a partnership to integrate reservations on Uber’s app. And in 2024, American Express, already the owner of Resy, bought Tock, a reservation platform focused on upscale restaurants, for $400 million." Tock was founded by Alinea co-founder Nick Kokonas, which he sold to Squarespace in 2021. The company is still headquartered in Fulton Market.

FILM & TELEVISION

Christian Bale Hints That Michael Mann's Shooting "Heat 2" in Chicago

Christian Bale tells a Fox reporter he will be back in Chicago for the filming of Michael Mann's "Heat 2," aggregates IGN. "I’ll be back in Chicago soon for 'Heat 2'!” says Bale, who previously filmed in the city for "Public Enemies" and "The Dark Knight." "The 'Heat 2' novel tells the story of the main characters before and after the events of the first movie... Star Wars actor Adam Driver is rumored to be playing a younger version of De Niro’s character, while Elvis star Austin Butler is reportedly playing Chris Shiherlis, the late Val Kilmer’s character." Jake Malooley recently wrote about the Chicago story that inspired the original film.

Physical Media Attracts A New Generation

As streaming dominates the film and television industry, "Gen Z is reviving DVDs and Blu-rays, with video rental shops reporting record months and membership numbers as young people embrace physical media," shelves the Los Angeles Times. "Physical media sales declined just nine-percent in 2025, compared to drops of over twenty-percent in 2023 and 2024, marking a dramatic shift in a shrinking market. Young customers cite frustration with subscription fatigue and content scattered across platforms, viewing physical media ownership as a form of cultural rebellion."

MUSIC

Andrew Bird To Make CSO Debut

Chicago-area native Andrew Bird will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of his album "The Mysterious Production of Eggs" with an orchestral collaboration in November, reports the Sun-Times. The performances are November 13-14 at Symphony Center. "It will mark Bird’s first time performing the album in its entirety alongside a full orchestra."

Third Coast Percussion Adds Performance For Sold-Out Bill With Tigran Hamasyan

Third Coast Percussion, the Chicago-based percussion quartet and composer collective, has set an additional performance of its double bill program with jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan. Logan Center for the Arts, Friday, March 13. Tickets ($12 and up) here.

North Side DIY Space Hightails To Louisville

"Chicago rocker Ryan Ingham announced that his DIY space, My Place Ohio, is relocating to Louisville," writes Leor Galil at the Reader. Ingham "began hosting occasional shows in the backyard of his North Side home in 2022, and the following year, as bookings ramped up, he started hosting them in his basement, too. My Place Ohio showcased touring bands and plenty of locals, and the space briefly endured national attention due to its penultimate concert: a May 2025 backyard set by 2000s pop-punk poster boys All-American Rejects on their well-publicized tour of unconventional venues."

STAGE

Chicago Shakes Premieres Star-Studded "Fault"

The world premiere of "Fault" has been added to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater season. The production's cast includes Enrico Colantoni, Teri Hatcher and Jack Ball. "Directed by Jason Alexander and written by Scooter Pietsch, 'Fault' is a wickedly dark comedy, full of blistering humor and searing revelations. All’s fair in love and marital warfare as Lucy and Jerry Green go head-to-head after thirty years of marriage in a late-night tangle of lies, ambition and betrayal." "Fault" replaces the postponed spring production of "Ain’t Misbehavin’." The Yard, April 18-May 24. Tickets ($64 and up) and more here.

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2026-02-26 New City

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:03:15 GMT

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Talking Screens, A Week In Chicago Film, February 27-March 5, 2026

by Ray Pride

John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow," one of the first of his fraternal-conflict cops-and-crime bullet ballets, was a blast when it came out in 1986 in 35mm release, and even in its bootleg editions and later physical releases. I'm almost fearful of seeing the 4K digital restoration: certainly a hallucination, but is there any way it would disappoint? Trailer here. "A Better Tomorrow" plays March 1, 2, 4 at River East, Drafthouse, Newcity 14, City North and outlying screens.

The found a new Ghostface killer? In this market? The two-hour, small-town-set "Scream 7" is directed by original writer Kevin Williamson and features Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox. Opens Thursday, February 26.

"EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert"

Baz Luhrmann's archival seance "EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert" is lightning and thunder on the IMAX screen, where it debuted last weekend. Still, yeah, yeah, pay for the biggest screen you care to: drawn from the vaults of two G-rated concert films made for MGM, audio and other archives, this is both a celebration and an elegy, through Presley's presence, a mounting of the prodigious musical talents one of the greatest American screen stars who ever lived, but also a cultural figure who was held back by a rapacious manager and indifferent presentation, which are dispensed with in quick, witty fashion. Luhrmann's movie is about the man's music, and skirts the personal crises that forged his earlier, fictional "Elvis." It's a ninety-six-minute musical atomic bomb; ever-loquacious Baz has aired the idea of ever more Elvisumentaries for years to come, keeping the hillbilly king from languishing in salt-mine storage."EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert"goes into wide release Thursday, February 26.

The Music Box features a preview of "Dolly," Shudder's latter-day riff on "Texas Chain Saw Massacre," with writer-director Rod Blackhurst & Max The Impaler in person for a post-film Q&A. Saturday, February 28, 10:45pm.

"Dreams"

Mexican auteur Michel Franco's atmospheric sex drama "Dreams" posits Jessica Chastain as an icy, conniving socialite who conducts a heated affair with a younger ballet dancer (Isaac Hernández), a Mexican immigrant. Franco's films can as often seem incoherent as mysterious; "Dreams" stays close to the physicality of his performers to distressing effect. With Rupert Friend. "Dreams" opens Thursday, February 26 at River East.

"Natchez"

The weight of history hangs in the air in a small Mississippi town in the prickly "Natchez" where antebellum homes are an industry, where tourists and wedding celebrants consume a romanticized vision of life then, life now. A generational reckoning is coming amid the scented scenery: beneath the lush looks are never-settled, ever-simmering conflicts that are now spoken aloud. Filmmaker Suzannah Herbert will appear after selected screenings. Opens Friday, February 27 at the Film Center.

The 2026 Oscar-Nominated Shorts, introduced by Taika Waititi, continue on screens across the city, including the Music Box, River East, Landmark Century and Wayfarer in Highland Park. Theaters and more here.

There's also a single showing of Amy Landecker's midlife romcom "For Worse," with Bradley Whitford and Landecker, followed by a Q&A with Landecker and Whitford, moderated by John "Records" Landecker. "A newly divorced mom attends a wedding with a much younger date. What starts as a fun fling and wild weekend reclaiming her youth leads to something more when she unexpectedly sparks a connection with a fellow divorcee." Music Box, Thursday, March 5. 7pm.

"Nollywood Babylon"

Also at the Film Center: Hlynur Pálmason's extravagantly beautiful Icelandic relationship drama, filled with landscapes, interior and exterior, "The Love That Remains"; Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han's Oscar-nominated 1960s-Japan-set animation "Little Amélie or the Character of Rain"; Jocelyne Saab's 1982 'The Beirut Trilogy"; and the Canadian doc "Nollywood Babylon," on Nigeria's burgeoning film industry.

In honor of Women's History Month, and on the fiftieth anniversary of the strike that led to establishing women's rights in Iceland, Doc10 presents a screening of Pamela Hogan and Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir's 2024 "The Day Iceland Stood Still." Associate producer Grima Irmudóttir will appear. Film Center, Tuesday, March 3, 6pm.

"The Revenant"

"The Revenant" gets a tenth-anniversary refresh as the studios become accustomed to raiding the shelves for product to invigorate the halls of underpopulated multiplexes. Here's part of my 2016 take:

Brrrrrrrr. Brr. Brrrrrrrutal. Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s epic “The Revenant,” which does not reach toward but lunges for greatness, is assuredly more than the Emperor’s new furs. But what is it, exactly? After a second viewing, I might side with filmmakers versus critics: “'The Revenant' is a film Erich Von Stroheim made after getting drunk with Terrence Malick,” film-critic-turned-filmmaker Paul Schrader annotated on Facebook. “It’s kind of rescuing what cinema is about,” Iñárritu told the Financial Times’ India Ross. “Show and don’t tell.”

What “The Revenant” shows is the travails of fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) in dragging his broken body back to civilization after his crew in the wilds has abandoned him after being mauled by a grizzly bear. But the work by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (“To The Wonder”), production designer Jack Fisk (“Tree of Life”) and costume designer Jacqueline West (“The New World”) demonstrates the determination of Iñárritu as well. Contemplating particular shots, of vistas, of expanses of virgin wood and water photographed at great cost and exertion in chronological order, in natural light at dusk in the winters of British Columbia and the furthermost tip of Argentina, the eye widens and the mind marvels.

These were the majesties explored, exploited, diminished or destroyed in the centuries since. Iñárritu and Lubezki enact their play of manly avarice amidst its steely beauty and icy harm. Wrote Iñárritu’s lifelong friend Guillermo del Toro, “There is a pernicious misapprehension [regarding] the difference between story and plot, between filmic storytelling and stage dramaturgy. ‘The Revenant’ is overwhelmingly cinematic… tells its story with superb filmic tools.” Each shot means to shock with elemental beauty: the simmering immanence of Tarkovsky in a frosted glade, mist materializing between bare, thin-trunked trees. The warring fury and irrational tumult of Klimov. The dark-on-darker screen of Philippe Grandrieux. Iñárritu has watched well. (As he tells David Fear in the January 2016 Film Comment: “I was looking toward things like ‘Dersu Uzala’ by Kurosawa, Tarkovsky’s ‘Andrei Rublev’—which is maybe my favorite film ever—Herzog’s ‘Aguirre, the Wrath of God’ and ‘Fitzcarraldo,’ even ‘Apocalypse Now.'”) February 26 and March 1, IMAX-only. Locations and times here.

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REPERTORY & REVIVAL

The Music Box and the Goethe Institute present "Female Misbehavior: The Films of Monika Treut." Facets has Elaine May's great "A New Leaf" on Thursday, March 5.

Also: John Sayles' immigration-plus comedy "Brother From Another Planet" (35mm). Music Box, Saturday-Sunday, February 27-28, 11:30am.

Doc Films (calendar here) continues its Hong Kong studio Milkyway retrospective with 1997-handover gangster drama "Trivisa"; Bette Gordon's 1983 Times Square grime capsule "Variety" (35mm); Aki Kaurismäki's heartfelt 2017 immigrant drama, "The Other Side of Hope"; Anne-Marie Miéville's 1997 "We're All Still Here"; and Mati Diop's "Atlantics."

THE WEEK IN FILM

Sundance Boulder Announces Eleven Theaters And Four Venues

For its Colorado debut edition next January, the Sundance Film Festival finds breathing room it never had when overlaid on the village of Park City, Utah. (It’s also a drop from 7,000 feet above sea level to 5,430.) “Working closely with the Colorado community, the 2027 Sundance Film Festival is already in our sights as we build towards an exciting debut in Boulder, where our programming will meet audiences next January,” Eugene Hernandez, director of Sundance Film Festival and public programming writes in a release. “Nestled at the base of Colorado’s iconic Flatirons, venues across the city and CU Boulder’s campus provide an ideal setting for festivalgoers from across the world to come together, revel in art, spark conversation and create unforgettable memories.” The event blogs more here.

Will “The Bear” End With Season Five?

“Finished strong!” posts Jamie Lee Curtis on Facebook. “Surrounded by an extraordinary crew and group of writers and producers and scene partners on the show that Chris Storer created, completing the story of this extraordinary family that we have all fallen in love with.”

Academy Will No Longer Show Oscar-Nominated Movies On Screen To Membership

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences “says its post-nominations screenings, which reportedly cost thousands of dollars a pop, drew ‘an average of five members’ over the last years, leading to the decision to eliminate them,” writes the Hollywood Reporter. “The Academy has long hosted screenings of Oscar-hopefuls for its members throughout the year in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, New York and London, and then again after the announcement of the Oscar nominations. But in recent years—particularly over the seven years since the Academy introduced its members-only streaming service, the Academy Screening Room, through which members can watch films at home—attendance at all of these screenings has markedly declined.”

Film Top 5: March 2026

A digital 4K restoration of Satyajit Ray's 1970 masterpiece of the commonplace and the mysterious, plus four other films to see in March. (Ray Pride)

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2026-02-27 New City

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 10:01:38 GMT

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Our audience survey ends today, so it's now or never if you have not done it yet. Find it here.

Business reasons make it valuable to us, as donors, grantors and marketers like to know about our audience.

But if you're someone who wants to see culture thrive in Chicago, there's a larger reason to complete it. The results of our survey are going to be anonymously aggregated with others, including WTTW, Block Club, and so on. I expect that this aggregate portrait of Chicago media audiences, and their priorities, will be shared in the nonprofit world where funding allocations are made at the top level, and where the arts fight for a share of the total pie with other worthy non-cultural causes.

A few questions in the survey ask about the priorities of audiences, including arts and culture. Most of the other media entities feeding into this aggregate audience are not so culture-focused.

So even if you think Newcity does not need your information, the arts might.

Here's that link again.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

DESIGN

When Will Singular Artist Edgar Miller Finally Get His Due?

Miller, a true Chicago original, has been called the city's "forgotten Renaissance man." A new graphic novel seeks to tell his story, highlighting two of the remarkable "handmade homes" that give sparkle to Old Town. (Hugh Iglarsh)

ART

Art Top 5: February/March 2026

Regional museums make a winter road trip compelling with must-see exhibitions. (Brian Hieggelke)

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STAGE

“Kubrickian” Teeters Between Cosmic Drama and Spacey Oddity

Factory Theater’s overlong production has its moments, but it struggles to pull us into its sci-fi scenario. (Hugh Iglarsh)

BRAZIL

Almeida & Dale's "Vetores" Engages Modernity as Perpetual Experimentation

What unites the works shown in this group show is not a common style, but the refusal to accept tradition as a set given. (Luiz Armando Bagolin)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

DePaul Art Museum Closing In June

The DePaul Art Museum "will close at the end of its current fiscal year, on June 30. The school, which faces considerable financial challenges, announced the closure in an announcement to the community Thursday morning," reports ARTnews. Said one unnamed source from the art community, "It has come to be viewed as a surprisingly important museum in the ecosystem. It is small and willing to do things other museums and even other university museums are not so readily able to do.” The report notes that it is "unclear what will become of the collection, though the school’s announcement does not indicate it will be sold." Two spring exhibitions, featuring the work of painters Alice Tippit and Barbara Nessim, will be the last at the institution.

Art Institute Hosts Carolyn Lazard Artist Talk

Carolyn Lazard, "an artist whose primary medium is iteration," will speak at an upcoming Society for Contemporary Art event hosted at the Art Institute. "They also work across video, sculpture, installation and performance. Their practice remembers the generative incapacity of debility." AIC Fullerton Hall, Wednesday, March 4, 6pm. "After the talk, SCA members and their guests are invited to join the artist for dinner at Sofi." More here.

Almeida & Dale Announces Representation Of Michael Rakowitz

"Almeida & Dale is pleased to announce the representation of [Chicago-based artist] Michael Rakowitz," the São Paulo-based gallery shares on Instagram. "Through a multidisciplinary practice, the Iraqi-American artist addresses history, the official memory apparatus, and the social and geopolitical conflicts imbued in urban space and everyday objects. Colonialism, imperialism, the repatriation of objects, and alternative modes of accountability and compensation are all tackled in his works, which emerge from the uncovering of historical and biographical event—what he calls 'material etymology.'"

Hamza Walker Honored At Bard

Bard College's Center for Curatorial Studies has announced Hamza Walker as recipient of its Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. The award honors "outstanding curatorial achievements of individuals bringing innovative thinking, bold vision and dedicated service to the field of exhibition-making. An independent panel of leading curators, artists and museum directors selected Walker to receive the annual award, which is accompanied by a $25,000 prize." The gala is Monday, April 13, at The Lighthouse at Pier 61, Chelsea Piers. Tickets and more here.

DESIGN

How Chicago Became The Nation's Cycling Center

"Illinois lays claim to one of the great episodes in American cycling history, and historian Christopher Sweet brings that era vividly to life, an era when Chicago proudly billed itself as the 'bicycle center of the United States,'" pedals the Active Transportation Alliance. In "'A History of Bicycling in Illinois: 160 Years of Booms and Busts,' Sweet uncovers the state’s central role in the 1890s bike boom and the ways that movement shaped modern cycling culture, [showing] how Chicago became the manufacturing hub of the nation’s bicycle industry—a city that produced a quarter of all U.S. bikes and claimed more than 200,000 riders at the height of the boom."

The Holiday Club Is Closing, Soon Set For Demolition

The lease on Uptown's The Holiday Club ends in April, tombstones Block Club, "and its home is slated to become a seven-story apartment building." The complex will also replace "an adjacent apartment complex and the storefronts containing El Palmar restaurant and Roots Smoke & Vapor Shop."

Boutique Hotel For Gay Travelers Proposed In Northalsted

"An LGBTQ nightlife and hospitality company that bought a Northalsted bar in 2024 wants to redevelop it into a gay luxury hotel, leaning on one of the nation’s most famous gay-friendly neighborhoods to expand its portfolio," charts Crain's. The hotel is from Tryst Hospitality, which plans a five-story, twenty-one-room boutique hotel. More from CBS Chicago here.

Century-Old Kenosha Eagles Club Could Become Latest Midwest Loss

"Nearly a hundred years ago, a three-story brick building complete with arches and columns was built overlooking the shores of Lake Michigan in downtown Kenosha," reports Wisconsin Public Radio. "Countless weddings, dances, banquets, proms, concerts and events have been held inside the building over the years. Maybe most notably, it was the site of one of Buddy Holly’s last concerts days before he died in a plane crash in 1959." A 2024 burst water pipe caused damage that "co-owner Dan Madrigrano said the 'rough estimates' to repair the building are $4-$5 million."

DINING & DRINKING

Two Chicago Chefs Try To Cook Up A Million Bucks

Chicago chefs Diana Dávila of Mi Tocaya Antojería and Beverly Kim of Parachute Hi-Fi are among the featured contestants in a new cooking competition show called "America’s Culinary Cup," writes the Sun-Times. The winner will win a million dollars, "the highest ever offered by a food competition TV show." The show, hosted by Padma Lakshmi, starts March 4 on CBS.

Portillo's Slows Forced Growth As Sales Slump

Portillo's says "it has a loyal following in Chicago, but it’s still trying to 'crack the code' outside of its home market with people unfamiliar with the brand," reports the Sun-Times. The Oak Brook-based company, which has seen multiple recent executive shakeups, "reiterated it will slow down new restaurant openings nationwide... The company underscored smaller-format new restaurants to help lower costs. In fiscal year 2025, food, beverage and packaging costs rose 4.1 percent due to inflation, including higher commodity prices for beef and pork."

West Loop Sees First "Sober" THC Bar

Heritage Hospitality Group, the team behind Froth, will launch Bar None, "a THC-infused, zero-proof evening" in The Duncan, reports Time Out Chicago. "Instead of vodka sodas and IPAs, Bar None is built around premium alcohol-free cocktails and hemp-derived THC microdoses. It will run Friday-Sunday, 5pm-11pm, transforming the daytime café into a sleek after-dark hangout."

How Can You Be A "Pop-Up Dive Bar"?

In Alexandria, Virginia, "Del Ray's Pop Up Bar is bringing in a juke box, darts and pitchers of beer" to a brand new watering hole, reports Washingtonian magazine. "'How can you have a dive bar that’s been there for generations, but it’s really only been there for, like, three weeks?' says owner Bill Blackburn. 'That’s a good question. That’s a fair question. I guess it’ll be a fair critique. But we’ll do our best.' Blackburn says his original idea was to create a throwback to the old Del Ray, when it was a more blue-collar neighborhood full of 'drown your sorrows with a shot and a beer-type bars.'"

FILM & TELEVISION

Netflix Will Not Match Paramount's Raised Offer For Warner Bros.

In a press release, Netflix announced it will not raise its offer to acquire Warner Bros. after receiving notice earlier from Warner Bros. that “its board of directors has determined Paramount Skydance's latest proposal constitutes a ‘Superior Proposal’ under the terms of WBD's existing merger agreement with Netflix.” Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters issued the following statement after the development: “The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we've always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance's latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.

"We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.' iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S. But this transaction was always a 'nice to have' at the right price, not a 'must have' at any price.” If the merger with Paramount Skydance is completed, massive job cuts are anticipated, and Trump supporters Larry and David Ellison would control TikTok, Paramount, CBS, Warner Bros., CNN and HBO.

IMAX: It's Getting Bigger

"Amid an industry attendance slump, IMAX saw overall Q4 revenues soar thirty-five percent to $125.2 million on an 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' lift," measures the Hollywood Reporter. IMAX "is looking to increased contributions from Hollywood blockbusters shot with its proprietary cameras and local-language films to drive what it touts as a Big Bang moment for the company in 2026." Notes IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond, "The year is highlighted by huge, IMAX-centric tentpoles—including Christopher Nolan’s 'The Odyssey,' the first theatrical feature shot entirely with IMAX film cameras; and Filmed For IMAX releases including Denis Villeneuve’s 'Dune: Part Three,' Jon Favreau’s 'The Mandalorian and Grogu,' and Greta Gerwig’s 'Narnia.'"

LIT

Chicago Public Library Foundation Names Interim Chief

The Chicago Public Library Foundation has named its board chair, Bob Wislow, to run the organization until a new chief executive is hired following the sudden passing of previous CEO Brenda Langstraat Bui, relays Crain's. Wislow has served as the Foundation's board chair for the past fourteen years. Michael Fassnacht, who's served on the board since 2015, will assume this role.

MEDIA

Podcasts Now Have More Listeners Than Talk Radio

Podcasts have overtaken AM/FM talk radio "as the more popular medium for spoken-word audio in the United States," reports TechCrunch. The finding comes from Edison Research’s Share of Ear survey. "For the first time this year, podcasts eclipsed spoken-word radio with forty percent of listening time, as opposed to thirty-nine percent for radio."

MUSIC

Klaus Mäkelä On His Favorite Art Institute Pieces

Whenever Klaus Mäkelä comes to Chicago, "he spends precious free moments across the street, at the Art Institute of Chicago," reports Hannah Edgar at the Sun-Times. "On afternoons when Mäkelä can slip across Michigan Avenue, he finds himself revisiting the same favorites in the Art Institute’s vast collection." The article focuses on a few of the conductor's favorite pieces in the collection, like Akseli Gallen-Kallela's "Ad Astra": "Mäkelä was born and raised in Helsinki, so, naturally, the hugely influential Finnish artist... makes the maestro’s Art Institute shortlist."

Lollapalooza And Sueños Festival Plan A Job Fair

The organizers behind Lollapalooza and Sueños will host their fifth annual festival job fair, a recruitment event "to increase access to seasonal festival positions for Chicago residents and provide local businesses with opportunities to connect with festival teams." Malcolm X College, March 4, 3pm-7pm. Register here.

STAGE

The Joffrey's Annual Fête Celebrates Disco

"Celebrate seven decades of rhythm, reinvention, and revolution at the Joffrey Celebration—Chicago’s most anticipated event of the year," the Joffrey announces. "Studio Joffrey transforms into a disco-era dream where sequins shimmer, cocktails sparkle and the fearless spirit of 1978 comes alive. Join us on May 30 to toast seventy years of The Joffrey Ballet and thirty years in Chicago." Tickets ($1,000 and up) here. Cinespace, 1501 South Rockwell, Saturday, May 30, 7pm.

Improv Director Mick Napier On What Makes Him Laugh

"I don’t like to watch comedy if I don’t have to," improv director Mick Napier tells Chicago magazine. "I’m jaded. If there’s something that’s supposed to make me laugh, like a film or a television show, it’s hard for me to laugh. I laugh at torture porn films. I remember getting high and seeing 'The Human Centipede 2' at midnight at the Music Box and just laughing my ass off. It was horrifying, but oh my God, it was so fun."

Milwaukee Rep Clews Citywide Agatha Christie Fest

Milwaukee Rep announces the Agatha Christie Festival, a citywide celebration of Agatha Christie and her legacy, which will incorporate experiences exploring the art of mystery for all ages. The festival launches at MKE Film with a special screening of the 1978 classic "Death on the Nile" at Milwaukee's Oriental Theatre on Tuesday, March 31. The festivities center on Milwaukee Rep's final plays of its season, "Mrs. Christie" and "And Then There Were None." More here.

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2026-03-02 New City

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:01:46 GMT

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We were invited to the press opening of an art triennial last week, and figured, why not? It was a rare alignment of time and place that we could actually attend it.

But it was complicated. First we had to get to Sesc Pompeia. But it's an iconic work of architecture by Lina Bo Bardi that I'd never visited, so I did not mind. Then we boarded a small bus to take us to Sorocaba, a city sixty-miles outside of São Paulo, which was estimated to be a two-hour ride. Until an accident shut down the highway and the ride became more than three hours.

When we arrived at Sesc Sorocaba for the press opening of the Frestas Trienal, after a snack and coffee, we sat for a very long press conference. Two bureaucrats, six curators, a Q&A. In Portuguese. But when we finally saw the show, it was worth all of this. An expansive survey of a place and a moment that was completely new to us. (My review is linked below.)

And the ride home was perfectly fine. We arrived at Sesc Pompeia before midnight, in a light rain.

The things we do for art, right?

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

ART

Freedom and Its Limits in Micah Schippa-Wildfong’s “Liberté”

Go to see “Liberté” at Twelve Ten and find out for yourself how your own worldview is ordered by the same oily frictions. (Annette LePique)

STAGE

“The Play That Goes Wrong” Does Everything Right

Metropolis Performing Arts Centre's new production pays homage to comedies of the early twentieth century. (Tristan Bruns)

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LIT

Dorothy Tse Paints a City Submerged in Kaleidoscopic Memories

Memory is a throughline in Dorothy Tse's short dystopian novel, “City Like Water." (Amanda Norton)

BRAZIL

The Frestas Triennial Expands the Art Universe

The exhibition features 188 artworks from 102 artists. Its title, "A Prayer Along the Way," speaks to understanding "the act of walking as a political, spiritual gesture of affirmation, construction and projection of knowledge." (Brian Hieggelke)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

DESIGN

South Side "Space Age Spectacle" Pride Cleaners Closing Down

The recent closing of Pride Cleaners on 79th Street "creates an uncertain future for one of Chicago’s most unique modernist sites—an absolute showstopper of a building with its original sign, neither of which are under city landmark protection," writes Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey. "Pride Cleaners is a Space Age spectacle in Chatham, with its radically tilted concrete roof and colorful freestanding Vegas-style sign beckoning customers—and devotees of modernist architecture—for nearly seventy years." In 2009, David Witter inventoried Chicago's "space-age" architectural eruptions of the future for Newcity here.

Freedom For Blind Tenants In Chicago's Foglia Residences

The Foglia Residences, a nine-story, seventy-six-unit affordable housing unit in Chicago's Illinois Medical District, was "built specifically for people who are blind and visually impaired," reports the New York Times. "It was financed in part by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and built on the property of The Chicago Lighthouse, a nonprofit that provides services for the blind and visually impaired. The City of Chicago also funded a portion of the project. Developers say the building, which opened in October 2024 and has been fully occupied since March 2025, is one of the first of its kind in the country, and they hope it acts as a model for future buildings."

High-Rise Proposal Revealed Near Diversey Harbor

Antunovich Associates, Chicago Development Partners and Continuum Capital have proposed a zoning change at 2800 North Sheridan, Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th) announces with a rendering of their proposal. "This development would include a 303-unit building with approximately 10,500 square feet of retail space, 150 parking spaces, and 414 bike parking spaces. Sixty units (twenty-percent) would be designated as affordable." Ryan Ori reported on the developing plans at CoStar late last year.

Perkins&Will Brings "People-Focused Workplace" To Madrid

Chicago-headquartered Perkins&Will "has revitalized a former 1970s corporate complex, focusing on well-being and ecological regeneration in Madrid," records World Architecture. The project is the "new worldwide headquarters of Acciona, [which works worldwide] in infrastructure and renewable energy." The project created "a lush landscape and new facilities for 4,000 workers on the site of a corporate campus that had been abandoned for decades."

DINING & DRINKING

Avondale Gets A Tune-Up

Tune-Up, a new neighborhood bar, has opened in Avondale at the intersection of Belmont and Milwaukee, in a 3,500-square-foot space that had been the Tepco Tune-Up auto shop. It's the eighth spot for Four Entertainment Group, which includes Central Park Bar, aliveOne, Easy Bar, Estelle’s, Remedy, The Getaway and The Owl (Logan Square). The 125-seat space was designed by Deconstruct Architecture and BLDG Projects, and includes "a moody palette of dark green, mustard yellow and pale blue," with design elements that recall the space's former use. More here.

Sweet Bean Finds Chinatown

South Loop Taiwanese cafe and bakery Sweet Bean is planning a second location, which will be located in Chinatown. It will be at 2154 South Archer in Chinatown Square, sniffs B Talent on X. "This takes over the former B Salon space, which closed in late summer 2022." It's next to Chicha San Chen, which opened in January.

The Purple Pig Plans Second Location In Oak Brook

The Purple Pig, a longtime favorite of tourists on Michigan Avenue, is planning to open a second location in Oak Brook. "Led by Marianna Bannos and Tom Shubalis, alongside James Beard Award-winning and Michelin-starred chef Tony Mantuano and wine and hospitality expert Cathy Mantuano, the new restaurant brings the Mediterranean-inspired dishes that made the Chicago location a standout to the western suburbs." "The Pig Oak Brook" Instagram here.

Sunday Brunch Begins At Ox-Bar & Hearth Next Weekend

Chef John Asbaty and restaurateur Alain Uy will begin Sunday brunch on March 8 at Lincoln Park's Ox-Bar & Hearth. The "hearth-focused menu of elevated Midwestern cuisine" is served at the 125-year-old space at Clybourn and North, which had been home to the Golden Ox restaurant for eighty years. The establishment's brick hearth will use "live-fire cooking and locally-sourced ingredients to craft modern interpretations of classic comfort foods." Brunch includes cornbread made with stone-ground blue Hopi corn accompanied by cultured butter, blueberry preserves and the option of foie mousse... (More.)

Retro Pizza Brings Roman Style To Former Hero's Space

Retro Pizza at Western and Addison will sell Roman-style pizza, croissants, doughnuts and coffee in the former Hero’s sandwich shop across from Lane Tech, reports Block Club. "When you bite into it, you feel the crunchiness on the bottom. And inside it’s airy, like a pillow,” owner Vincent Colombet said. And unlike "after you eat some other pizzas, you don’t feel like you need to take a nap."

Forty-Two Percent Of Restaurants Did Not Turn A Profit In 2025

In its State of the Industry report for 2026, the National Restaurant Association projects that sales will only grow moderately this year, rising just over one percent, reports WTOP News. "It’s been a pretty challenging year for restaurants,” said the chief economist for the NRA. “We’ve seen costs rise pretty significantly for food, for labor costs, just a whole host of costs across the board.”

MEDIA

A Surprisingly Sunny Picture At Condé Nast

In an interview with the Financial Times, Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch said the company "increased revenue in 2025, despite search traffic declining more than expected, thanks to strong growth in subscriptions and other areas. Revenue in 2025 was similar to the roughly $2 billion reported in 2021, but the company is 'far more profitable now,' he said... Seven of Condé Nast’s largest brands—Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker, Wired, Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest and Condé Nast Traveler—now account for eighty-five percent of the company’s revenue. The New Yorker reached record revenue, profits and subscribers last year, according to Lynch."

Second Wave Of WGN Layoffs Includes Producer Detained By ICE

The second round of layoffs at WGN-TV last week included "three creative services employees getting the axe," reports the Trib. This group included "Debbie Brockman, the producer whose aggressive detainment by immigration agents in October became a symbol of urban enforcement clashes. Brockman, a fifteen-year employee at WGN, rose to national fame after a video captured her being forced to the ground, handcuffed and placed in a van by federal immigration agents while on her way to work at the station from her Lincoln Square home."

Reading The ParaSkyBros. Tea Leaves In Hollywood And Beyond

Netflix did not increase its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery after they "declared Paramount Skydance's latest bid a 'superior proposal' to the agreement it already had in hand with Netflix," timelines Variety. "'There were tears of exhaustion and happiness,' said one exec, who said it had been hard to focus on the business at hand inside Paramount Skydance when there was so much work to be done in trying to win the derby for Warner Bros." No champagne at CNN, however. Variety's lede: "Anderson, cooped. Jake, tapped. Erin, burnt. Kasie, hunted. Wolf, blitzed." Video of the moment the deal was announced is here. (More here.)

MUSIC

Behind The Double Door's Decision Not To Open In Uptown

"With estimated costs ballooning to $9 million, co-owner Sean Mulroney said 'the price tag just didn’t make sense' to renovate the former Wilson Theater" as the reincarnation of Double Door, records the Sun-Times. This marked a 200-percent increase from earlier estimates. "Our original cost estimates were $2-$3 million, but post-COVID, with the increase in everything and the fact that it’s a historic building, costs moved up into the $9 million range,” Mulroney told the paper. The Wilson Theater, "which had been a vaudeville theater and bank during its 117-year history," required extensive renovations to ready the space.

Buddy Guy Performs Tiny Desk Concert

"Buddy Guy displays a youthful spirit during his Tiny Desk that makes you question if he really turns ninety this year," NPR Music writes, introducing the twenty-one minute performance. "Once the music starts, his subtle speaking voice transforms into a mighty instrument, demanding your attention. Guy wails on his polka dot Stratocaster, reminding us of his skill and showmanship." Meanwhile, Block Club talks to today's local blues musicians about sustaining the sound.

Influential Chicago Composer Margaret Bonds Gets A Gravestone

"From spiritual arrangements to symphonic works, pioneering composer Margaret Bonds wrote it all," chronicles the Sun-Times. She "was a trailblazer. In 1933, she became the first Black musician to solo with the Chicago Symphony. She composed spiritual arrangements that became favorites of the superstar opera singer Leontyne Price, and had her music performed on prime-time television and by major American orchestras." Malcolm J. Merriweather, a specialist in Bonds’ music who leads the New York Philharmonic Chorus, discovered last year that she did not have a headstone, and along with a descendant of Bonds, he "used his personal funds to pay for the headstone outright, which included proceeds from his own arrangements of Bonds’ music."

Radiohead Demands ICE Remove "Let Down" From Violent Video

Radiohead is demanding that ICE remove a social media video, reports Rolling Stone, "featuring a version of the band’s 'OK Computer' song, 'Let Down.'" Says Radiohead, "We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take [the video] down. It ain’t funny, this song means a lot to us and other people, and you don’t get to appropriate it without a fight." The video in question was shared on ICE’s social media accounts last month, as well as accounts belonging to the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and Trump.

STAGE

Steppenwolf Announces 2026 Gala

Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s ensemble and board of trustees will host Steppenwolf Gala 2026, an evening to celebrate the theater’s fiftieth anniversary celebration and "raise a glass to the trailblazers and risk-takers" of the theater's past, present and future. This year’s gala is at Rockwell on the River where a "star-studded evening includes cocktails and a progressive dinner followed by a live auction featuring once-in-a-lifetime experiences with Steppenwolf’s artists." Saturday, May 9, 6:30pm. Tickets ($1,500 and up) and more here.

Jane Lynch Pilot Shoot Forces "Trouble With Angels" Cancellation

Steppenwolf's April engagement of "The Trouble with Angels," with Jane Lynch, Kate Flannery and The Tony Guerrero Quartet, has been cancelled. "To my fellow Chicagoans and live-theater enthusiasts," says Lynch, "so very sorry that we can’t make these shows at my beloved Steppenwolf Theatre. I’m shooting a pilot in LA and the schedule shifted. Not only is my family mad at me, but Kate Flannery and the boys aren’t speaking to me. They’ll all get over it. And we will be back! Thank you for supporting live theater and can’t wait to see you all soon!"

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Anne Frank Exhibit Comes To MSI

Starting May 1, the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry will present “Anne Frank The Exhibition,” an "immersive experience" created by the Anne Frank House, reports Time Out Chicago. The exhibition "features a full-scale, fully furnished recreation of the secret annex, the hidden rooms in Amsterdam where Anne Frank, her parents, her sister Margot and four other Jewish refugees lived in hiding for two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands," and where Frank composed her diaries. (More.)

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2026-03-02 New City

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:03:26 GMT

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TOO DANGEROUS FOR ITS TIME.
TOO RELEVANT TO IGNORE.

A groundbreaking, long-suppressed work by the composer of The Threepenny Opera and Street Scene, Der Silbersee (The Silver Lake) blurs the lines between opera, operetta, and musical theater, and stands as both a testament to artistic defiance and a timeless reflection of humanity’s struggles and hopes.

Premiered in 1933, just weeks before Weill fled Nazi persecution, Der Silbersee brims with humor, sharp social critique, and aching lyricism. This allegorical fairy tale, written for a country in the midst of a moral winter, tells the story of Severin, a destitute man shot while stealing a pineapple, and Olim, the policeman whose journey from violence to compassion becomes an act of redemption. At its heart, this deeply human tale asks a question that resonates urgently today:

How can we find reconciliation and hope in a fractured world?

Don’t miss this Chicago premiere
March 4th–8th at the Studebaker Theater

(Performed in German with English Supertitles)

SAVE UP TO 40% OFF TICKETS

WITH DISCOUNT CODE NEWCITYWEILL

Save 40% off Opening Night

Wed. March 4 @ 7:30pm

Save 20% off Weekend Matinee Performances

Sat. March 7 and Sun. March 8 @ 3pm

GET TICKETS

2026-03-03 New City

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 10:01:51 GMT

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The first thing I do every morning is read four newspapers on my phone, almost always in this order: Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune (print facsimile), Folha de S. Paulo (using the translate feature) and the New York Times. With coffee of course.

It's one of the really great advances of the internet age that I can be just as connected to Chicago whether at home on my sofa or here in São Paulo, sitting on the patio on a warm sunny day.

So it was super weird this weekend when I leisurely started my third newspaper of the day, the Brazilian publication, and discovered that the United States had attacked Iran. (The New York Times had the story, too, but it was next in the queue.) It's pretty surreal in general to be far away when your country is at war, but I wonder if I would not feel the same mix of confusion and anxiety if I was on my Printers Row couch.

Would I? Do you?

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

FILM

Michael Glover Smith Makes the Case for Bob Dylan as Filmmaker

The Chicago filmmaker and Dylanologist's new book considers the legendary musician's output as a maker of the moving image. (Scott Pfeiffer)

MUSIC

Blooming Sounds: Classical Music Picks for Spring

What to see and hear in Chicago's classical music world as winter ends and the new season begins. (Dennis Polkow)

ART

"Mountain Call" by Hai-Wen Lin and Ivan David Ng Arranges Its Own Harmony

The duo exhibition at Roots & Culture offers a fresh conversation between distinct entities, from one mountain of knowledge to another. (Yi Cynthia Chen)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
FORTIETH
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STAGE

The Seldoms' Postponed "Floe" About Climate Change Premieres in a Hotter World

There is clear urgency and a call to action in Carrie Hanson’s piece, which is even more relevant now, six years after its making. (Sharon Hoyer)

NEWCITY

Free Will Astrology: Week of March 5, 2026

Architect Antoni Gaudí spent over forty years designing Barcelona’s Sagrada Família cathedral. He knew he wouldn’t live to see it finished. (Rob Brezsny)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Post-Museum Closing Announcement, DePaul's Student Paper Argues For The Arts

"Economic constraints that suffocate creative expression and access to artistic skill and imagination are now at the front door of DePaul University," writes student Jessica Saunders at the DePaulia. "Now, more than ever, is the time to support arts and culture. Government funding has historically proven to fall short when it comes to these disciplines. This opens an opportunity for investors and philanthropists to step in and champion the arts. What could be more important to this value proposition than the reason to believe in the human spirit expressed through the arts? By pulling back on its funding for the arts and culture, DePaul University’s reputation as a liberal arts university is weakened." A letter opposing the closing of DPAM can be read and signed here.

Dont Fret Park Could Come To Bucktown

"Longtime friends and family of the late Chicago artist known as Dont Fret have launched a campaign to rename a Bucktown park in his honor, almost one year after his death," reports Block Club. "For years considered an art legend in Chicago, especially around his native Wicker Park, Dont Fret was well known for his wheat paste characters, drawings and musings that he placed on city streets and buildings, often including bits of social and political commentary." The proposal is for Park No. 567, "a small Bucktown park on Milwaukee Avenue that’s connected to The 606’s Bloomingdale Trail."

DESIGN

Chicago Loop Alliance Announces Arts District, Plan To Fill Vacant Stores

The Chicago Loop Alliance is planning an arts district in the Loop, reports the Sun-Times. "The district will be supported by nearly ninety Loop arts organizations that will develop the neighborhood as an arts and culture destination." Loop Alliance board chair Kemena Brooks "said the Loop Arts District will elevate the cultural institutions in the neighborhood and reimagine State Street as 'a playful, experiential cultural spine.'" The organization also received "an $800,000 two-year grant from the Department of Planning and Development to help fill vacant storefronts through community investment."

It's Groundbreaking Season For The Big Stuff

Today's groundbreaking of the Chicago Fire's new stadium in the South Loop "comes more than two years before the stadium will see Fire matches, but marks another step in the team's move to a permanent home," reports the Sun-Times. "The team expects the facility to be ready in time for the beginning of the 2028-29 season." The new stadium, located in The 78 development, is designed by Gensler.

Meanwhile, the Blackhawks just unveiled their new Ice Center addition as the 1901 Project nears a spring start, allows Crain's: "As the owners of the United Center prepare to kick off construction on a $7 billion megadevelopment surrounding the arena, the Chicago Blackhawks are debuting a project they see as a key piece of the future campus."

After 144 Years, The Central Tower Of Sagrada Familia Is Finished

Completion of a glass cross brings Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona to its final height, 144 years after work began, accounts the Guardian. "After several days when it has been too windy to work, the upper section of the seventeen metre-high four-sided steel and glass cross was winched into position at 11am on Friday, completing the tower dedicated to Jesus Christ. At 172.5 metres, the Sagrada Familia, to which the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí devoted the later part of his life, is Barcelona’s tallest building and the world’s tallest church. As the Catalan and Vatican flags were raised, Jordi Faulí, the chief architect for the project, said: 'It’s been a joyful day, wonderful for all the people who have made it possible.'"

A Look At The Past And Present Of Super-Tall Buildings

"In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright designed The Illinois—intended to be the world’s first mile-high skyscraper," puffs up the New York Post. At 528 stories, "The Illinois, which was planned for Grant Park on Lake Michigan, would have been four times the height of the Empire State Building (built in 1931) and five times taller than the Eiffel Tower (finished in 1889)... The Illinois would also have been almost twice the verticality of the world’s current tallest building, the 2,379-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and some 2,400 feet taller than Jeddah Tower—which will be the first-ever kilometer-high (3,300 foot) skyscraper when it’s finished next year in the Red Sea city of Jeddah." Chicago super-tall architect Adrian Smith talks to the paper about the history and motivation behind these towers.

DINING & DRINKING

A Big Bite Of The Red Apple

"The Red Apple Buffet weekend buffet, which claims to be the nation’s largest Polish buffet, is so vast, homey and engorging you must, must wear your stretchy pants," grazes Christopher Borrelli at the Trib (gift link). The buffet "generally offers about eighty-four different options for $33, and which changes seasonally, a meal so large and endlessly tempting that I heard not one but two strangers discreetly fart."

Txa Txa Club Grows Out Of Lula And Into An All-Day Cafe

“We often exist either in vibe or in function in these more liminal or interstitial gaps,” says co-owner Daniel Parker on the draw of turning pop-up supper club operation Txa Txa Club into a new all-day spot. “All of our food isn’t just one category. It fits in these in-between spots of the various Venn diagrams." He and his wife Liz Bendure started floating dinners "after meeting while working at Lula Cafe, not far from the Txa Txa Club location, Parker as a bartender and Bendure as a hostess," profiles WTTW. "They began hosting supper clubs in their backyard during the pandemic, eventually graduating to larger venues. By the summer of 2023, they had built up enough business to commit to Txa Txa full-time." Txa Txa Cafe opens Friday in Logan Square.

Doubting The Tasting Menu

"Despite diner exhaustion and critical condemnation, the precious multicourse format stubbornly hangs on in many top restaurants," assays Jaya Saxena at Slate. "The tasting menu, the staple format of fine dining, is almost begging you to roll your eyes at it. I’m guessing you’re picturing too many forks in prim rooms with overdesigned bites of food that still leave you hungry. And you don’t need to have been served a tasting menu to know how exactly it could go wrong." (More.)

FILM & TELEVISION

"Spinning Home Movies" With South Side Home Movie Project

As part of its twentieth anniversary celebration, the South Side Home Movie Project will present "Spinning Home Movies Episode 20: Quiet Still with Jason Campbell," a weeklong exhibition "that showcases the materiality, architecture and temporality of home through archival films and architectural design." Architect Jason Campbell will "transport 'The Linen Closet,' originally exhibited as part of the Chicago Architectural Biennial, to the Arts Incubator gallery. An open cedar frame carries donated quilts and comforters, creating a monument to the ritual, improvisational practice of homemaking," with images from the Ramon Williams Collection projected onto it. More here.

Milwaukee Film Buys Historic Downer Theatre

Milwaukee Film and Bridge33 Capital announced "the sale of the historic Downer Theatre to Milwaukee Film," relays Screen magazine. This will mark "the preservation of one of Milwaukee’s most cherished cultural landmarks and ensures the theater will permanently remain under the stewardship of the local film nonprofit. This sale also kicks off Milwaukee Film’s multi-year capital campaign to raise funding for historic preservation, renovation, and improvements" at the building.

AMC Theaters Refuse AI Short After Online Fracas

"AMC has opted out of screening an award-winning short film during its third-party programmed pre-show, and it’s unclear if other chains will follow suit," writes the Hollywood Reporter. "When word leaked online that an AI short film contest winner was going to start screening before feature presentations in AMC Theatres, the cinema chain decided not to run the content."

"Home Alone 2: Lost In New York" Live In Concert For Christmas

The Auditorium and The Chicago Philharmonic continue the Auditorium Philms Concert Series with "Home Alone 2 Lost in New York Live in Concert." The evening will feature John Williams’ score performed live-t0-film by a full orchestra, led by conductor Thiago Tiberio. Saturday, December 19, 7pm. Tickets on sale March 6 here.

MEDIA

AP To Provide "Gold-Standard" Election Data To Betting Site Kalshi

Moving forward, the Associated Press "will provide its U.S. elections results to Kalshi, the world’s largest prediction market," press-releases AP. They'll "provide Kalshi with its vote count data and race calls for national and major state elections, making AP’s election information available on the platform. Kalshi, which is credited with creating and establishing the predictions market category as a financial asset class, joins a global network of news organizations, technology companies and other customers who rely on AP’s elections data and information." Asks journalist Marisa Kabas: "Is everyone on glue[?]"

MUSIC

A Billboard Nod To The Metro As Indie Venue Of The Month

"As Metro approaches its forty-fifth year, founder Joe Shanahan reflects on the club's roots, Chicago's defining music moments, and the artists who shaped its legacy," profiles Billboard. On its origins: “Prior to Smart Bar, Joe Shanahan had flown out to see R.E.M. play the Big Apple’s Danceteria and fell in love with the band’s sound. 'Being the Chicago, South Side Irish hustler that I am, I walked backstage. I had a business card that had my name on it, had a phone number on it, but didn’t say anything about Metro, didn’t say anything about Stages. Because they didn’t exist yet,' he says. To R.E.M., 'I was like, "Hey, if you ever get stuck and don’t have a gig in Chicago and don’t have a promoter or don’t have a venue, call me. I will help. I will be there for you."' (More.)

"American Football's True Confessions"

"When an album they'd made in college became an unlikely inspiration to generations of young rock bands, American Football got back together and hit the road—but can the reluctant Midwest-emo heroes survive midlife?" Grayson Haver Currin observes in an epic profile at GQ. "On a Thursday afternoon in mid-January, Mike Kinsella is seven chicken wings and two tall gin-and-sodas into lunch at Lottie’s, a favorite sports pub in Chicago, where trash collectors in neon vests belly up to the bar beside servers from far more ostentatious restaurants." (More.)

STAGE

What's On David Byrne's "Mind"

"Now seventy-three, the modern-day Renaissance man—musician, visual artist, film director—nurtured his curiosity [about consciousness] into a decade-long creative quest," writes Web Behrens at Chicago magazine. "It led him across two continents and, now, to Chicago, where he’s teaming with Goodman Theatre to present 'Theater of the Mind,' a boldly interactive show opening March 11... His partner in this adventure is Mala Gaonkar, a rock star herself in the world of hedge funds and investment management; she also writes short stories on the side, one of which was shortlisted for a Pushcart Prize." (More.)

What It Takes To Run A Broadway Show Every Night

"Broadway has long been a place where audiences come to put their fears aside and sit together to be entertained, even in times of war, recession and uncertainty," posts the Wall Street Journal style magazine (ten-minute video). "Today, it’s also a billion-dollar industry powered by thousands of workers across forty-one theaters in New York’s Times Square theater district. WSJ spent a day in the life of a Broadway electrician in the lead up to a 'Chicago' show to reveal the machine behind this American art form—from the factory floor to a nearly sold-out curtain call."

Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell—The Musical" Comes The Auditorium In April

The Auditorium will present "Bat Out Of Hell—The Musical" direct from London’s West End for one night only, featuring the music of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf. The one-night-only presentation is Thursday, April 9. Tickets ($73-$246) here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Mamdani Names New York Culture Czar

"Diya Vij, the incoming commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, said she wanted to make 'open, accessible and sometimes radical cultural activities possible,'" reports the New York Times. "She is president at Powerhouse Arts, the Brooklyn-based nonprofit organization. A veteran of the city’s creative communities, Vij will be the first person of South Asian heritage to hold the position. The department is the largest municipal funder of culture in the country, supporting 1,000 nonprofit cultural organizations and providing $245 million in funding in the last fiscal year."

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2026-03-04 New City

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 10:01:48 GMT

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One of the things that really distinguishes the Brazilian spirit is a sense of "que será, será," a way of always staying calm even in the face of life's small adversities. Relax, they say. It will be okay. And they are right—eventually it is.

As you read this, we are somewhere between São Paulo and Chicago, God and Trump willing.

When we planned our trip months ago, going through New York's JFK airport seemed like a great idea. But that was before war in Iran made the nation's highest-profile international airport well, high profile. And the capricious shutdown of global entry added an extra dose of anxiety to the situation.

I will be doing my best to channel the Brazilian character of calmness as I wait in line to go through customs, hoping we can still make our connecting flight.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

STAGE

The Science Behind “Theater of the Mind”

David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar's immersive theater project combines neuroscience experiments, art and storytelling. (Mary Wisniewski)

ART

Sarah Nguyen's "In Paper & Shadow" Explores the Interplay Between Shadow and Negative Space

At the Evanston Art Center, Nguyen uses shadow and absence to probe spirituality, displacement and belonging. (Elisa Shoenberger)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
FORTIETH
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BRAZIL

The São Paulo Biennial Hits the Road

Plus Gabriel Branco Joins Galatea. (Brian Hieggelke)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Milwaukee Art Museum Presents "Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is A Mystery"

Opening later this month, Milwaukee Art Museum will present "Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery," which brings together nearly eighty of her paintings, "reveal[ing] an artist whose spare, dreamlike imagery including moons, owls, cats, solitary figures and doors leading to unknown places, become a language of introspection and imagination." It's the only planned Midwest venue for the exhibition. "Known as the 'Queen of Chicago,' Abercrombie (1909-1977) hosted legendary salons in her Hyde Park home, where musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker performed late into the night. Her art, like her life, was infused with rhythm, humor, mystery, and quiet rebellion." March 27-July 19. More here.

Plus: The Museum Hosts A Floral Weekend In April

If you're looking for a weekend to see the Gertrude Abercrombie exhibition, the museum hosts its annual floral event, "Art in Bloom," just a few weeks after Abercrombie's opening. "Step inside and feel winter melt away as the galleries come alive with floral arrangements inspired by favorite works of art—airy, vibrant and full of movement. This year, visitors won’t want to miss exploring the newly installed Modern Wing, featuring works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Helen Frankenthaler and Alex Katz." April 16-19. More here.

Plucking Museum Shows And Biennials To See This Spring

Taking stock of the museum shows and biennials happening across the globe this spring, ARTnews offers it highlights, including the upcoming Venice Biennale and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Raphael retrospective. "At the Louvre, another titan of the Renaissance takes center stage: Michelangelo, whose sculptures will be shown alongside Rodin’s. In Vienna, the Kunsthistorisches Museum is giving a big show to Canaletto and his nephew, Bernardo Bellotto." Biennials are sprouting beyond Vienna: "New York alone is getting two this spring: the Whitney Biennial and Greater New York, at the Whitney Museum and MoMA PS1, respectively."

Midwest shows featured in the roundup include "And I Saw New Heavens and a New Earth: The Partnership, Art, and Activism of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore" at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, plus "Matisse’s Jazz: Rhythm in Color” at the Art Institute, Martin Wong at Wrightwood 659 and "Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón" at the MCA .

DESIGN

Court Rules Against Trump In New York Congestion Pricing Case

A federal judge has "ruled that the federal government’s attempt to end New York’s congestion pricing toll was illegal, handing a major victory to the state in its defense of the first-in-the-nation traffic reduction plan, which the Trump administration had tried for more than a year to kill," reports the New York Times (gift link). "The program has already had wide-ranging effects on city life. About twenty-seven million fewer vehicles have entered the tolling zone in its first year, a reduction of about 73,000 vehicles per day. Not only were foot traffic and businesses in the zone not adversely affected, as some critics had feared, but the reduction in congestion has helped improve commute speeds for drivers far beyond Manhattan. The program is also on track to help finance more than $15 billion in transit improvements over several years."

DINING & DRINKING

What Portillo's Bit Off But Couldn't Chew

"Local favorite Portillo’s had ambitious plans to go national. But the restaurant chain’s rapid expansion has left it choking," reports Robert Reed at Chicago magazine. "The sixty-three-year-old company has stumbled in its attempt to expand well beyond its home turf, hitting a rough patch serious enough to raise doubts that it has the business chops to become a successful national brand. Of late, it has had to contend with turnover in the C-suite, flagging sales, anxious investors and a stock price that’s plummeted to a tenth of what it was at its 2021 peak. 'Portillo’s is a hometown hero,' says Sharon Zackfia, an industry analyst at William Blair. 'But "iconic" is a dangerous term to use outside of the Chicago area.'"

Chef Joe Randall, Who Celebrated Black Cooking Traditions, Was Seventy-Nine

Joe Randall "helped bring the African American cooking of the Carolina Lowcountry to the world and became known as the 'dean of Southern Cuisine,'" chronicles the New York Times. He "spread the gospel of red rice, fried whiting, she-crab soup and other Lowcountry delicacies to generations of students who passed through his cooking school in Savannah" and "was among the first wave of chefs and writers to highlight Southern cooking as a cuisine worthy of critical attention" and "was among the first professional chefs to highlight the cooking traditions of the Gullah Geechee, a once-isolated community descended from enslaved people whose culinary traditions draw heavily on West African cuisine." (More.)

FILM & TELEVISION

True/False Names Farihah Zaman Artistic Director

Columbia, Missouri's Ragtag Film Society has appointed filmmaker Farihah Zaman the artistic director of the True/False Film Fest. "Farihah brings more than twenty years of experience as a documentary filmmaker, curator, critic and leader of artist development programs to this dynamic role. Her innovative curatorial vision and deep commitment to supporting artists will help shape the future of the Fest’s film, art and music programs," Ragtag posts on Facebook. (More.)

Chicago's Joan Cusack As "Best Supporting Energy"

In an appreciation of Joan Cusack's comic gifts at Roger Ebert, Jen Johans offers "five scenes I love in five likely unexpected movies to illustrate what makes her such an awesome joy to watch." Among them is one scene from "Addams Family Values": "Going from narcissistic self-pity to murderous rage in two seconds flat, Cusack gives one of the film’s most memorable, uproarious monologues, recounting Debbie’s evil origin story, which began when she was given a Malibu Barbie for her birthday instead of a ballerina."

What's Unfolding In Paramount's Warner Bros. Takeover

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr tells CNBC "that Paramount’s offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery is a 'good deal' that will be approved 'quickly.' ... Carr said that a previous Netflix bid would have 'raised a lot of competition concerns.'" Paramount "will pay a $7 billion breakup fee if the deal doesn’t get regulatory approval." HBO could be briefly safe, reports Variety: "Without many details, Ellison told analysts that he plans to give HBO autonomy even as he aims to merge HBO Max and Paramount+." Ellsion told analysts, "We do plan for that to be able to operate with independence, so that HBO can, candidly, do what it does incredibly well. Our viewpoint is HBO should stay HBO.” An HBO staffer "said Ellison’s statements were 'encouraging, but basically meaningless, because we don’t really have any concrete plans.'"

LIT

On Finding A Secret World In Highland Park

Novelist Gayle Brandeis and her husband built Highland Park's Secret World Books "into a fiercely independent space for connection, resistance and hope," publishes Yahoo. "The name of this bookshop carries its own mythology. 'We were thrilled to discover a secret garden was hiding behind the building that became our bookstore. I had written a little novel when I was eight years old named "The Secret World," inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s "The Secret Garden," and Michael suggested we name the shop Secret World Books in honor of my little childhood novel, the book that had sparked it and the garden behind the shop.'"

MUSIC

De Niro Narrates Philip Glass' "Lincoln" At Carnegie Hall

Robert De Niro appeared last night at Carnegie Hall, where he recited "excerpts from a Philip Glass symphony about Abraham Lincoln that the composer once intended to stage at the Kennedy Center," tunes AP. "Glass announced in January that he called off a scheduled premiere of Symphony No. 15, 'Lincoln,' in protest of President Trump’s ouster of the center’s leadership. Glass’ symphony was part of a benefit for Tibet House US, a nonprofit educational institution that announced the participation of De Niro, a prominent critic of Trump. Glass and Laurie Anderson are the evening’s artistic directors. 'Lincoln' is based in part on one of Lincoln’s earliest major speeches, the 1838 'Lyceum Address,' when the future president assailed mob violence and warned of its dangers to democracy."

Music Of The Baroque Sets Season, Including Third Chicago Water Music Concert

Music of The Baroque has announced its fifty-sixth season, "Heights of Genius," including Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Mozart’s Summit, featuring the final Chicago performance of pianist Imogen Cooper, all led by music director Dame Jane Glover; the Music of the Baroque debut of guest conductor David Bates and the return of conductor Marc Minkowski; Vivaldi & Beyond, a sweeping orchestral journey from Vivaldi through Haydn with principal guest conductor Nicholas Kraemer; "Celestial Voices," a choral showcase featuring Renaissance and Baroque music in intimate Chicagoland churches; and the ensemble’s annual Holiday Brass & Choral Concerts led by chorus director Andrew Megill.

A highlight will be Music of the Baroque’s first performances of Bach’s Markus-Passion in a critically acclaimed production by Concert Theatre Works and director Bill Barclay featuring the British actor Joseph Marcell, known popularly in the United States as the butler in "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” The ensemble will also continue its Chicago Water Music on the Chicago River. Subscriptions and more here.

Live Nation Monopoly Trial Begins In Manhattan

"A jury will decide whether the music colossus, which owns venues, represents artists and operates Ticketmaster, is a monopoly, as the Justice Department contends," records the New York Times. "For Live Nation, the stakes are high—a possible breakup of the company, or at least a disruption of the lucrative business model that over the last sixteen years has made it a colossus of the music industry. For the Justice Department and the smaller companies that say they cannot compete with Live Nation, the case has the promise of leveling the playing field, which they say has been tilted since the government allowed Live Nation and Ticketmaster to merge in 2010."

"Building American Pop" With Geoffrey Baer

Chicago a cappella continues its season with "Building American Pop," a musical time capsule revisiting the pop classics that evoke the songwriting genius of the Brill Building era of the 1950s and sixties, with WTTW’s Geoffrey Baer. Touring throughout the Chicago area April 19-26, the "Building American Pop" concert series kicks off on April 19 at the Studebaker Theater, then turns to Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston on April 25 and to the McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn on April 26. "Building American Pop" is a full-length concert program. Tickets and more here.

STAGE

The Joffrey's Upcoming Season Includes "The Sleeping Beauty" And "Liliom"

Ashley Wheater, artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, has announced that the ballet company's upcoming season will include the North American premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s "The Sleeping Beauty," "a timeless fairy tale transformed into a theatrical spectacle, featuring Jerome Kaplan’s lavish costume and set design and Tchaikovsky’s greatest score." The season also includes the Chicago premiere of John Neumeier’s landmark narrative ballet, "Liliom," "a haunting story of love and redemption set against the faded glamour of a Depression-era amusement park, featuring an evocative score by multi-Academy Award-winning composer Michel Legrand." (More.)

A Look At Collaboraction's New House of Belonging

The construction of Collaboraction's space "cost the community-driven theater between $800,000 and $1 million," reports the Sun-Times. "In addition to the new ninety-nine-seat black box theater, the space includes a forty-nine-seat lounge with a full-service bar and a small stage for variety shows, live-band karaoke, pre- and post-show community conversations and youth programming. [CEO Darlene] Jackson and [artistic director Anthony] Moseley are betting, too, that the building itself will become a destination." (More.)

Husband-And-Wife Nick Offerman And Megan Mullally Will Co-Star In Goodman's "Iceboy!"

"Nick Offerman will star in the world premiere of 'Iceboy! Or The Completely Untrue Story Of How Eugene O'Neill Came to Write The Iceman Cometh' at Chicago's Goodman Theatre," reports Playbill. "The new musical from the creators of 'Urinetown' and 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' will run June 9-July 16 in the company's Albert Theatre. Marc Bruni is directing. Offerman joins the previously announced Megan Mullally, who will star as Vera Vimm, with Offerman starring as Eugene O'Neill." "We are thoroughly excited to bring the heat of our marriage back to Chicago, the city where we both cut our theatrical teeth many years ago," wrote the couple in a statement.

Chicago Shakes' Edward Hall Leads "Demystifying Shakespeare"

Chicago Shakespeare announces a course developed in partnership with the Newberry Library, where artistic director Edward Hall and the Newberry Library’s Jill Gage will lead several salons on Shakespeare, his poetry and his world. The sessions are "Shakespeare’s World," Monday, March 30; "The Verse," Monday, April 6; and "From Page to Stage," Monday, April 13, with an added session at the Newberry, Saturday, April 25. Registration ($125) here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Chicago Named A Finalist For 2028-2032 Democratic Conventions

Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Denver and Philadelphia have been chosen as finalists "to host the events in 2028 and 2032. The DNC last came to Chicago in 2024," marks the Sun-Times. “With our extensive track record of safely and successfully hosting large-scale events, our vibrant and diverse culture, and our status as a world-class destination—we’re confident that Chicago is best positioned to put on a convention that matches the enthusiasm, success and energy of the 2024 DNC,” the Chicago Bid Committee wrote. “The team that brought Democrats the best political convention is ready to do it again.”

Pride Parade Theme: Free To Be Proud

PrideChicago, the volunteer organization that produces the fifty-year-old Chicago Pride Parade, has announced the theme of this year's parade is "Free to Be Proud." "The theme emphasizes freedom, visibility, justice and community, reflecting the history of the LGBTQ+ movement and ongoing advocacy efforts." The Chicago Pride Parade is one of the oldest and largest Pride parades in the United States. More here.

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2026-03-05 New City

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:02:53 GMT

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I love looking out an airplane window as we approach a city. When I get back to Chicago, the view has extra resonance, since it is home.

Yesterday, as we approached O'Hare Airport on a gray, sunless day, I was struck by how dreary the "sightscapes" of the airport's periphery were as we approached the landing. This visual malaise continued as we taxied on the runway through the "neighborhood," such as it is.

I realize it's a pie-in-the-sky notion, but I don't understand why cities, and their tourism bureaus especially, don't pay more attention to the first thing visitors see when arriving in the city, before they even enter the airport. It might not have to be insanely expensive: I could imagine that land artists and other public art creators could turn blight into spectacle.

Cities once understood this. Union Station epitomizes the majesty of a metropolis in an unforgettable way. And it's not unique in that: during the reign of rail travel, all stations were temples of urban grandeur.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

FILM

Talking Screens: Maggie Gyllenhaal's 1930s Chicago Film | Óliver Laxe's "Sirat" | "Mr. Nobody Against Putin"

Also: Satyajit Ray's masterpiece, "Days And Nights In The Forest"; "Dolly," the doll-faced forest horror; and "Beyond Chicago" lands at the Music Box. (Ray Pride)

ART

Chicago Cultural Center's "Not a Soft Thing" Shows Multifaceted Views of Mother Artists

It’s a thoughtful group exhibition that really tries to show the diversity of experiences of motherhood. (Elisa Shoenberger)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
FORTIETH
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LIT

Timothy J. Hillegonds' Memoir Revisits Addiction, Ambition and a Complicated Rescue

"And You Will Call It Fate" begins and ends in Chicago, where the writer goes from scrounging grocery money to dining at the members-only Tower Club, struggling with addiction along the way. (Donald G. Evans)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Why Chicago Artist Bethany Collins Transcribed "Moby Dick"

"For four months, beginning in the summer of 2024, the Chicago-based artist Bethany Collins woke up every day before dawn, brewed coffee and sat down at her dining table to copy out Herman Melville’s 'Moby-Dick' (1851) with a nib pen," writes Elly Fishman in a short profile at T Magazine (gift link). "Writing in midnight blue acidic ink on onionskin paper, she made her way through the book’s 900-plus pages ten at a time." Read more about the work in a Newcity review from last October here.

Driehaus' Summer Show Presents Eighteenth-Century Satirical Prints

This summer, the Driehaus Museum will present "Ink & Outrage: Eighteenth Century Satirical Prints in London & Dublin," an exhibition "that explores the wit and graphic brilliance displayed by English graphic satirical artists such as James Gillray (1765-1815) and Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) to lampoon civics, society, and culture in Georgian London. The exhibition places original prints in dialogue with plagiarized works by artists in Ireland, evoking conversations about piracy, originality, and reproduction that have become more relevant than ever today." "Ink & Outrage" will run May 15-September 13. More here.

DESIGN

The Most Endangered Chicago Buildings, Including Pope Leo's Childhood Church

Preservation Chicago has announced their annual list of the most endangered buildings. This year's list includes the Chicago Stock Exchange trading room and McKinlock Court at the Art Institute of Chicago; the Chicago River's bridges and bridge tender houses; St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church and School (which was Pope Leo XIV’s childhood church); Chicago’s labor union halls; the Chicago Loop Synagogue; South Park Terrace apartments; the Yukon Building; and St. Mark Roman Catholic Church Campus. More here.

Why The Art Institute's Chicago Stock Exchange Room Could Be Endangered

"The old Chicago Stock Exchange Building trading room—Adler & Sullivan’s gilded age space rescued from demolition fifty-four years ago—could be uprooted from its longtime Art Institute of Chicago home under preliminary expansion plans being considered by the museum," writes Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey. No decision has been made, but the Art Institute says "the east side of the building—where the Trading Room is located—represents the area where gallery space could increase the most." The room was originally constructed when, ahead of the building's 1972 demolition, "a team lead by architect John Vinci deconstructed the trading room piece-by-piece, then oversaw its reinstallation at the Art Institute."

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill's "Yacht-Like" Skyscraper In Miami

Chicago architecture studio Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture design the recently completed "the forty-seven-story Una Residences skyscraper in Miami, which features wraparound terraces and sleek façades," records Dezeen. "In the design, the architecture studio wanted to 'reinvent South Brickell,' which it called the '1970s birthplace of modern high-rise living in Miami.' And the skyscraper is much taller than the 1970s and 1980s condo buildings in the immediate vicinity."

City's First Automated Public Toilet Comes to Algren's Turf

In Wicker Park's Polonia Triangle, the Nelson Algren Memorial Fountain will soon be joined by the city's first self-cleaning public toilet, writes Block Club. "It will be supplied by JCDecaux, which provides street furniture like bus shelters as well as other services to the city... The restroom is free under the city’s existing contract with the company, La Spata previously told Block Club, but its installation and associated costs will be paid for through the 1st Ward’s annual menu funds."

The Chicago Avenue Bridge Is Gone

But not for too long. The bridge over the river at Chicago Avenue has been removed ahead of its replacement's construction, reports Chicago YIMBY with a suite of images. "The city estimates closures will be in place until summer 2026 on Halsted, and through December 2026 on Chicago Avenue [as] Bally’s Casino construction continues."

Preservationists Shine Light On Chicago's Last Thirty Mid-Century Neon Signs

"There’s about thirty mid-century neon signs remaining in Chicago," accounts Block Club, "but not clear incentives for owners to keep them up when their small businesses close, preservationists said." Bob Gottfred "can’t help but feel 'very blue' after selling his ninety-two-year-old family business, Erie-LaSalle Body Shop, for what he would only call 'an offer we couldn’t refuse.' The new owners, a national auto chain, have no use for Erie-LaSalle’s mid-century neon sign—featuring the shape of a 1957 Plymouth—that’s been a bright anachronism presiding over River West for decades."

What's Ahead For London's Barbican Centre

"British architecture studios Allies and Morrison's plans for the Barbican Renewal Programme have received planning approval from the City of London Corporation," reports Dezeen. "The $309 million upgrade will involve restoring and improving accessibility in the brutalist landmark, including in its foyers, lakeside terrace and conservatory... Working with engineering studio Buro Happold, the revamp is expected to commence in 2027 in preparation for the Barbican's fiftieth anniversary in 2032. The Barbican Centre is set to close most of its activities between 2028 and 2029 to allow for building works. It is hoped that the retrofit will attract a greater audience and help facilitate the performing arts center in hosting a wider range of events."

DINING & DRINKING

DineAmic Debuts Pan-Mediterranean Naia On Chicago Riverwalk

This spring, DineAmic Hospitality will debut Naia, a sweeping 12,000-square-foot pan-Mediterranean riverfront destination spanning nearly a full city block at 300 North LaSalle on the Chicago Riverwalk. Helmed by internationally acclaimed chef Athinagoras Kostakos, Naia will bring "global Mediterranean culture, cuisine and design to the heart of downtown Chicago in a dramatic indoor-outdoor setting designed for year-round waterfront dining. With 150 feet of river frontage, a seafood-forward raw bar, expansive event space for up to 500 guests and immersive, river-centric design, is poised to become one of downtown Chicago’s most anticipated and transformative openings in recent history." More here.

FILM & TELEVISION

Beyond Fest And Music Box Announce "Beyond Chicago" In April, Including Restoration Of "Speed Racer"

Beyond Fest, the biggest genre festival in the United States, has announced a Chicago program of over thirty features from global genre cinema from April 2-5, including "Faces of Death"; "Obsession"; "Normal"; "Over Your Dead Body"; "The Furious" and guests Bob Odenkirk, Meiko Kaji, RZA, Lilly Wachowski, Jorma Taccone, Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary. Repertory screenings include the world premiere of the 4K restoration of "Speed Racer" with co-director Lilly Wachowski in attendance.

Also: a late-night 3D screening of "Flesh For Frankenstein" in remembrance of Udo Kier. Plus: the pairing of "Boorman And The Devil," on the making of John Boorman's extravagantly strange sequel, "Exorcist II: The Heretic," also shown, in 35mm. Tickets go on sale to Music Box members today. More here.

iPic Theater Bankruptcy Includes Barrington Location

Upscale movie chain "iPic Theaters never fully recovered after emerging from bankruptcy in 2019. It pointed to drops in theater attendance and a not-so-viable arrangement with studios on box office splits," writes the Hollywood Reporter. The company is "pursuing a sale through Chapter 11 reorganization in Florida federal court. It has notified employees that it anticipates mass layoffs, including more than 160 workers at an Atlanta location slated for closure. Other theaters may close if a buyer isn’t found." Its nearest location to Chicago is in Barrington.

LIT

American Writers Plans Pop-Up Exhibition On Declaration Of Independence

This summer, the American Writers Museum will present programming "commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence as an official partner of Illinois America 250—a statewide effort to bring together Illinoisans’ diverse perspectives about our history and future," the museum advises. A pop-up exhibit titled "Declarations: 250 Years of Writing Toward Independence" will include "an 1823 William Stone print of the Declaration of Independence, as commissioned by then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, along with a 1776 British first edition of 'Common Sense' by Thomas Paine advocating for the independence of the U.S. colonies.

"The exhibit will also invite visitors to reflect on works by writers throughout American history that are thematically related to the Declaration, including President Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harvey Milk and Martin Luther King Jr. Interactive elements will include a Declaration of Independence erasure poetry section, allowing visitors to edit the founding document into their own words." More on the exhibit here.

MEDIA

Associated Press Boss To Reporters On AI: "Resistance Is Futile"

"One of The Associated Press’ leaders on AI had a blunt message for the publication’s staff: Resistance to AI is 'futile,'" reports Semafor. The manager, "who oversees the wire service’s AI initiatives, suggested that in the future, reporters could go to events, get quotes, plug them into a large language model, and have the model generate a story, saving them time on writing stories they don’t feel passionately about. She also noted that some editors told her that they would 'prefer to have reporters report and have articles at least pre-written by AI.' ... One AP reporter said in a message that the 'dismissiveness and disdain some of you have shown for human writing are insulting and abhorrent.'"

MUSIC

Why New Music Releases Are Struggling To Break Through

"In a letter to shareholders today, Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl noted that just twenty-seven percent of U.S. music streaming consumption in 2024 came from new releases, versus forty-five percent a decade ago," writes Darius Van Arman, the founder of Bloomington, Indiana-based record label Jagjaguwar. In an essay recent republished on Substack, the music entrepreneur goes long on the state of the independent music business from his perspective, and why new music is having a harder time breaking out than in years past.

Taking The Temperature Of CSO Conductor Klaus Mäkelä

"The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has placed a huge bet on Klaus Mäkelä for its future. It’s still too soon to tell whether that will pay off," opines critic David Allen, who followed the CSO's tour stops in New York and Boston for the New York Times (gift link). "The arguments for the prosecution have become familiar. 'He’s an empty suit! He’s taking on way too much! He’s so young!' So, too, have those for the defense. 'He’s a real artist! His musicians adore him! He’s so young!' This is not a debate that will be resolved quickly. Partly, that’s due to the almost imperial manner with which Mäkelä, thirty, has plotted out his career." (More.)

STAGE

Steppenwolf's Fifty-First Season Includes Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' "The Comeuppance"

Steppenwolf has announced its fifty-first season, featuring two world premieres, a Chicago premiere, an English-language premiere and "a modern masterpiece." The season begins with Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer-winning drama "Topdog/Underdog," more than two decades after the company’s 2003 production. Directed by Kenny Leon, ensemble members Glenn Davis and Namir Smallwood "go head-to-head in this fast-paced and ferocious thrill ride." The season continues with the world premiere of Chicago playwright Stephanie Alison Walker’s satire "Adirondack Chair Circle," directed by Tony Award-winner Pam MacKinnon and featuring ensemble member Audrey Francis.

This will be followed by the Chicago premiere of "The Comeuppance," a dark comedy from Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning playwright of "Purpose." Ensemble member Tina Landau directs this co-production with American Conservatory Theater, featuring a cast including Celeste M. Cooper, Caroline Neff, Karen Rodriguez and Namir Smallwood. Next spring, Steppenwolf presents the English-language premiere of "Ellen B.," a psychological thriller by playwright Marius von Mayenburg, translated by Daniel Brunet and directed by Whitney White. Concluding the season, ensemble member Terry Kinney directs the world premiere of Adam Rapp’s "The Night Fawn," featuring ensemble member Cliff Chamberlain. More here.

City Lit Announces New Season, Featuring Two World Premieres

City Lit Theater has announced programming for its forty-sixth season. The four-play season will include one world premiere adaptation, two world premieres of new plays, and a new staging of August Wilson’s "King Hedley II." The world premieres include Chicago actor and playwright Jillian Leff's "Shadows of Truth," "inspired by Lillian Hellman’s play 'The Children's Hour,'" and Chicagoan Brynne Frauenhoffer's "Disillusioned," "a heart-warming story of ambition, pursuit of passion and—dare we say it?—the magic of friendship." See the full season here.

Jeffs Recognize Chicago's Non-Equity Stage Managers

"When the non-Equity Jeff Awards are awarded on March 23, one stage manager will get some much-appreciated recognition," nods the Sun-Times. "The stage manager is the glue that holds the production together, taking copious notes in their 'prompt book'—detailing the places and movements of actors on stage, the sound and light cues and the set changes (among many other things). They also schedule and run rehearsals." The non-Equity stage manager award is now in its second year.

Call A Broadway Show To Your Ritz-Carlton Suite In Manhattan

The Central Park Ritz-Carlton is "offering in-suite performances by two Broadway stars," mitts Robb Report. The "Curtain Call" package "includes a private concert during which two acclaimed Broadway artists will belt out your favorite show tunes." The hour-long in-suite performance "includes songs from your musical of choice. Guests may choose from a curated selection of award-winning productions, including 'Wicked,' 'Hamilton,' 'The Lion King' and '& Juliet.'" (More.)

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Chicago Staycation Ideation

Chicago magazine rounds up a few ideas for excursions within the metro area that feel like traveling. One idea is the "Enchanted Garden Treehouse" in Schaumburg: "This Airbnb favorite (open, astonishingly, year-round) sits above a leafy backyard layered with a koi pond, stream, and waterfall, which explains why some guests stretch and call it Bali. The treehouse itself is small (about fifteen by sixteen feet, porch included) but features heat, running water and a compost toilet. When the wind picks up, the structure sways just enough to remind you you’re sleeping in a tree." Read the full list here.

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2026-03-05 New City

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:03:23 GMT

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Talking Screens, A Week In Chicago Film
March 6-12, 2026

by Ray Pride

New reviews this week: Óliver Laxe's "Sirat"; Satyajit Ray's "Days And Nights In The Forest"; doll-faced forest horror "Dolly"; Hong Sangsoo's "What Does That Nature Say to You?"; “André Is An Idiot"; and "Mr. Nobody Against Putin."

And "Beyond Chicago" lands at the Music Box.

Lasers in the wilderness, unscalable rock faces, ravines, beats in the heart, a search to satisfy unspoken or even unspeakable loss: In the vast Moroccan desert, the characters of Óliver Laxe's "Sirat" (35mm)—middle-aged ravers in vans, a father and his child in search of a missing daughter—move forward. The groove tapers off, becomes inaudible for a while, the groove is existential, the groove is fateful. I won’t say nihilistic. But as in the misbegotten landscapes of road movies at the turn of the 1970s like Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point" or Sarafian's "Vanishing Point," (by the Cuban novelist C. Cabrera Infante), the characters are on a chase, the road being life, death, fate.

Can we call the punishing journey "existential"? The horizon is always receding. There is a vanishing point. Even if you survive. Laxe's origins, like in a radical filmmaking collective, and the spare "Sirat," reaching toward the infinite, do not compromise on its asperity. There's one last beat, and... boom.

"Cinema is a place for catharsis," Laxe told Interview in one of his agreeable perambles around his relentless picture. "Like the Greeks, they didn’t go to the theater to have fun. They were going to purge, to clean, to protect society from itself. I think cinema can cure the collective imaginary in that sense. We can connect with this wound that all of us have. That is a healthy thing. We have to die before dying, I think." Laxe and screenwriter Santiago Fillol will appear for a Q&A after the Friday 7:15pm screening. Opens at the Music Box, Friday, March 6.

"Days And Nights In The Forest"

Satyajit Ray's light-not-so-light masterpiece "Days And Nights In The Forest" is one of those "go-go-go" movies to recommend—if you care about indelible filmmaking. Ray's seriocomic adaptation, from Sunil Gangopadhyay’s 1968 novel, plays as a modern folktale about four male friends who drive from Calcutta to a rural retreat. They can't leave the city behind, nor their own limitations. Its comedy, charm and elemental lyricism sing. Go, go, go! Wes Anderson offers his one-minute FaceTime appreciation here. "Days And Nights In The Forest" opens Friday, March 6 at the Film Center.

"Dolly"

Timeless horror, Rod Blackhurst's short, elemental gore-morsel "Dolly" looks back (the 16mm American era of "Texas Chain Saw Massacre") and forward (the bloody, viscid European horror of recent years) and lands right in the middle of collective capture of children to be raised by misguided adults (a raft of North American religious cults; Putin plucking a generation of Ukraine's kids). Deadly dolls dangle in a forest: why dawdle? A dollhouse as tall as you are? Nasty people do things out there. Let the exploitation begin. "Dolly" opens Thursday, March 5 at Roosevelt, Newcity, River East and outlying screens.

"What Does That Nature Say to You?"

Hong Sangsoo's "What Does That Nature Say to You?" is the unstanchable South Korean's thirty-third feature, or maybe his thirty-fifth, or hundred-thirty-fifth. I like them very much. Filmmakers including Robert Altman have tossed off the observation that a successful filmmaker's work is a single, long novel and each movie is just a chapter. Themes and variations, fixations and fetishes, love and hate, they recur despite the artist's aims toward superficial "difference." Simplifying his means again and again, writer-director-producer-photographer-editor-composer Hong arrays triangles, meditations, the most modest of plots the put an artist figure's preconceptions to the test. "What Does That Nature" is as lo-fi as his work has gotten, but the elegance of the SAIC graduate's modest comedies can be as refined as Rohmer's, as precise as a frame by Chris Ware. "What Does That Say About You?" opens at the Film Center, Friday, March 6.

"André Is An Idiot"

In the funny, aggravating and moving “André Is An Idiot," hailing from Sundance 2025, filmmaker Tony Benna follows the rush toward death of his friend, San Francisco adman and loudmouth André Ricciardi, who has Stage 4 colon cancer he should have been able to forestall. Live life always in the moment, “André” says, but the moral of the goddam story: “Get a fucking colonoscopy.” Benna appears for a Q&A. Music Box, Sunday, March 15, 2pm; opens at River East, Thursday, March 19.

"Mr. Nobody Against Putin"

A first-person chronicle of resistance, David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin's witty, fear-filled Oscar-nominated "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" is an imperative act of witness of a feat of witness, as a thirty-three-year-old small-town Russian schoolteacher (and school videographer) keeps track of the pro-Putin propaganda visited upon his school and his community as the 2022 "special military operation" wore on into grinding invasion and the relentless genocide against Ukraine it was always intended to be. Soon, Pasha must escape.

"We set out to create a film that captured the reality of life for ordinary people during this extraordinary moment in Russian history," writes Borenstein. "We wanted to show how the war traumatizes communities, but more than that, we aimed to celebrate the joy and beauty Pasha cultivated at his school. By depicting this life in Karabash, we could convey the true devastation of Russia’s all-encompassing militarization. Pasha as a whistleblower [gives] us an unprecedented inside look into Russia’s full-scale militarization that has occurred since 2022.

"There’s more and more voices, including from the incoming U.S. administration, for an 'end to the war in Ukraine.' But this film shows how naive this is. Putin is greatly expanding the military, creating a hitler youth style organization in all schools, and cultivating a nationwide curriculum centered around war and empire. If we watch this film and take what Russia is telling its own children seriously—and I think we have every reason to do so—then it is clear that Russia's warfare on the European continent is only just beginning." Trailer here. "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" opens Friday at the Film Center.

"Hoppers" is Pixar's tale of a young woman whose consciousness "hops" into a robot beaver."Hoppers" opens wide Thursday.

Beyond Fest, the biggest genre festival in the United States, has announced "Beyond Chicago," a Chicago program of over thirty features from global genre cinema from April 2-5, including "Faces of Death"; "Obsession"; "Normal"; "Over Your Dead Body"; "The Furious" and guests Bob Odenkirk, Meiko Kaji, RZA, Lilly Wachowski, Jorma Taccone, Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary. Repertory screenings include the world premiere of the 4K restoration of "Speed Racer" with co-director Lilly Wachowski in attendance. Also: a late-night 3D screening of "Flesh For Frankenstein" in remembrance of Udo Kier. Plus: the pairing of "Boorman And The Devil," on the making of John Boorman's extravagantly strange sequel, and "Exorcist II: The Heretic," also shown, in 35mm. Tickets go on sale to Music Box members today. Details here.

"The Bride"

Writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal's sophomore movie, "The Bride," set in a stylized 1930s Chicago gangland, stars Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Penélope Cruz, with Annette Bening as "Dr. Euphronious," Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal's husband, Peter Sarsgaard. Shot by Lawrence Sher ("Joker," "Garden State"), with a score by composer Hildur Gudnadóttir and threads fashioned by three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell, advance word is exuberant. Opens Thursday, March 5 in IMAX and other formats.

AMC and other exhibitors are showing Oscar Best Picture nominee marathons this week. Check listings.

Netflix briefly showcases its feature-length "Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man" directed by Tom Harper and written by Steven Knight, with Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby, as well as Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Sophie Rundle, Barry Keoghan and Stephen Graham. Opens Friday at Drafthouse, Landmark Century and outlying screens.

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REPERTORY & REVIVAL

There's a single showing of Alex Phillips’ second feature (after "All Jacked Up And Full Of Worms," the shot-on-Super 16mm “Anything That Moves" (35mm), variously described as a “rust belt giallo" and "an avant-gutter psychedelic dream," with Hal Baum, Jiana Nicole and Ginger Lynn Allen. Phillips will be asked to explain himself afterward. Trailer here. Music Box, Tuesday, March 10, 6:45pm.

From a month of selections from their own cache of 16mm and 35mm prints, Chicago Film Society presents Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" (35mm) with live accompaniment by Whine Cave (Kent Lambert & Sam Wagster). Free screening for Music Box members. Music Box, Sunday, March 8, 7pm.

Two sets of shorts: The Chicago Underground Film Festival begins its quarterly screening series, "The Underground," with four award winners from the 2025 festival. "Collectively, these films examine labor, memory, disappearance and resistance—using cinema as a tool for cultural inquiry and historical recovery," says CUFF. Facets, Friday, March 6, 7pm.

And at the Davis, Joe Swanberg presents "NoBudge in Chicago," a fistful of ten shorts made in recent years, with Chicago filmmakers—Tanner Masseth, Charlotte Geissler, Jon Plester, Bashir Aden, c.r.u.d., Kyle LeLand Cullerton, Clare Ruddy, Brandon Daley, Katelyn Douglass, Justin Senkbile—present for Q&As with streaming platform NoBudge's founder, Kentucker Audley. Davis Theater, Monday, March 9, 7pm.

The Davis also features Ang Lee's 2000 "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which I had twenty minutes to file an insta-review for Indiewire, which read, in part: "How best to describe 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'? It's a musical comedy! Instead of moments of dynamic dancing or heartfelt, expository lip-syncing, the characters instead pick up swords or machetes, pirouette in the air, fly across rooftops, tumble and counter-tumble in battle with those who might stunt their learning; dip their toes like pebbles skimming across placid ponds on their way further into this impossible past. These scenes dazzle in their own quiet way, with even a barroom brawl turned into an abstraction of aggression and masochistic determination." Davis Theater, Tuesday, March 10, 7pm.

Doc Films closes out its quarter with Patrick Yau's 1997 Milkyway production "The Odd One Dies" (35mm) as two contract killers fall in love; and Kon Ichikawa's complete 170-minute "Tokyo Olympiad" (1965), his documentary record of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

THE WEEK IN FILM

True/False Names Farihah Zaman Artistic Director

Columbia, Missouri’s Ragtag Film Society has appointed filmmaker Farihah Zaman the artistic director of the True/False Film Fest. “Farihah brings more than twenty years of experience as a documentary filmmaker, curator, critic and leader of artist development programs to this dynamic role. Her innovative curatorial vision and deep commitment to supporting artists will help shape the future of the Fest’s film, art and music programs,” Ragtag posts on Facebook.

“The creative, social, and political ethos of True/False has shaped how I think about art and community building since I first attended in 2012,” Zaman writes. “I believe the importance of cultural institutions, particularly in times of upheaval, cannot be overstated. True/False remains so vibrant and vital because it evolves to meet the moment, year after year, while also staying true to—and drawing strength from—its distinct local identity.”

Physical Media Attracts A New Generation

As streaming dominates the film and television industry, “Gen Z is reviving DVDs and Blu-rays, with video rental shops reporting record months and membership numbers as young people embrace physical media,” shelves the Los Angeles Times. “Physical media sales declined just nine-percent in 2025, compared to drops of over twenty-percent in 2023 and 2024, marking a dramatic shift in a shrinking market. Young customers cite frustration with subscription fatigue and content scattered across platforms, viewing physical media ownership as a form of cultural rebellion.”

AMC Refuses AI Short After Online Fracas

“AMC has opted out of screening an award-winning short film during its third-party programmed pre-show, and it’s unclear if other chains will follow suit,” writes the Hollywood Reporter. “When word leaked online that an AI short film contest winner was going to start screening before feature presentations in AMC Theatres, the cinema chain decided not to run the content.”

Michael Glover Smith Makes the Case for Bob Dylan as Filmmaker

The Chicago filmmaker and Dylanologist's new book considers the legendary musician's output as a maker of the moving image. (Scott Pfeiffer)

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2026-03-06 New City

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:02:02 GMT

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I was waiting in line to go through United States customs at JFK Airport the other day—it went much faster than I had feared!—and I started thinking about the idea of the "border."

Up until the advent of transcontinental flight, the border was easy to comprehend: a physical line where two countries intersected, or perhaps a coast along an ocean. But now a border exists more as a metaphor; an arbitrary line drawn in the customs area of an airport.

I understand the concerns that make it unlikely, but I would prefer a world without borders. Or at least a world without borders for artists and musicians. Because that world, eventually, might break down all the walls anyway.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

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DESIGN

The National Public Housing Museum’s New Exhibition Reimagines Affordable Housing, Then and Now

“Breakthrough: Housing Futures” is an ambitious and timely exhibition inspired by Operation Breakthrough, a 1968 initiative by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to build affordable housing. (Elisa Shoenberger)

STAGE

“The Shape of the Bones” Has Promise but Needs To Be Fleshed Out

Playwright Spencer Huffman’s religious drama—and New Theatre Project’s first production in a conventional theater space—boasts some excellent performances in a story that doesn’t quite satisfy. (Hugh Iglarsh)

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ART

How a Person’s Trash Sparked an Upcycler’s Art Show, Inspiring a Community of Inventive Artists

Featuring over thirty reimagined pieces, “The Garage Sale” at the Zhou B Art Center presents art made without a traditional canvas. (Paulina Czupryna)

BRAZIL

“Escuta Aqui!” Turns Brazilian Sound Art into a Collective Listening Experience at Paço das Artes

Curated by Renato de Cara, the exhibition brings together instruments, recordings and installations that blur the boundaries between music and visual art. (Ivi Brasil)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

MCA's Next "Chicago Works" Features Mike Cloud

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has announced that the next show in its "Chicago Works" series will be a solo exhibition by Mike Cloud titled "Worldless Obstruction." Opening May 2 in the MCA’s Turner Gallery, "the exhibition presents a series of newly commissioned works that continue Cloud’s experimentation with abstraction, symbolic language and the sculptural dimensions of painting." The "Chicago Works" series "features artists who are shaping contemporary art in the city and beyond." More here.

Art Institute Hosts "Korean National Treasures: 2,000 Years of Art"

The international touring exhibition of late Samsung chairperson Lee Kun-hee’s art collection will open at the Art Institute on March 7, says the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. "Korean National Treasures: 2,000 Years of Art" features 257 works from 140 holdings, "including thirteen masterpieces of modern and contemporary Korean art by artists such as Kim Whanki, Park Soo-keun and Chang Ucchin from the collection of the MMCA in Seoul, as well as seven National Treasures and fifteen Treasures from the National Museum of Korea." The D.C. stop notched 80,000 visitors.

The Vibe Of The Whitney Biennial

"An aural atmosphere, not a visual image, is the signature of the 2026 Whitney Biennial," vibes Ben Davis at Artnet. "This is a show of clickings, and whooshes, and droning sounds—susurrating soundtracks that sprout from many sculptures and blend into a pleasant, moody background burble. Is the show good? It’s not bad! I rank it a little better than the last one, a little worse than the one before that. It has a lot of the same tics, but they are evolving. The line I’ve heard, that this is a 'post-identity politics' show, reflects less a real deep change of themes and more a loss of a surrounding tone of confidence... Outside the art world, there’s been a much-noted turn from facts to vibes, a reaction to the literalness that defined millennial social-justice culture and informational overload. Tracking this, the 2026 Whitney Biennial continues recent museum art’s journey from message to mood."

Guadalupe Maravilla and Emery Blagdon At Kohler Arts Center

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center will debut an exhibition uniting the work of artists Guadalupe Maravilla and Emery Blagdon on May 30. "Blending sound ceremonies, sculptural installations and immersive environments, the show transforms the gallery into an activated space centered on communal restoration, care and shared experience." On view through December 6, "Guadalupe Maravilla with Emery Blagdon: The star exploding in the body" "highlights resonances between Blagdon’s sprawling 'Healing Machine,' a decades-long assemblage of kinetic materials and found objects he believed could channel curative energies, and Maravilla’s 'Disease Throwers,' interactive works activated through vibration and sound." (More.)

Hundreds Of Ohio State Students Call For Removal Of Wexner Name Over Extensive Epstein Ties

During a walkout, reports Ohio Capital Journal, "hundreds of Ohio State University students, alumni and community members called on the university to remove billionaire donor Les Wexner’s name from buildings because of his association with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein." Wexner’s name "is on three buildings at Ohio State: the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Les Wexner Football Complex at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center." (More.)

DESIGN

Country Mouse City Mouse Bridges Camp Wandawega And Chicago

In December, Camp Wandawega owners David Hernandez and Tereasa Surratt launched Country Mouse City Mouse. "Chicago native Hernandez is the city mouse, and Surratt, having grown up on a farm in southern Illinois, is the country mouse," writes JWC Media Group. "The new company pulls together three properties—Camp Wandawega, the Bureau of Tourism, and the couple’s Chicago house, known as the Brickweave House, architect-designed by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang and the site of shoots for Porsche and Valspar—into a portfolio available for photo and video shoots. 'Actually, our relationship with Studio Gang sort of exemplifies how we bridge Chicago and Wisconsin,' Surratt says. 'Jeanne comes to camp and rolls up in shorts and a T-shirt with her whole team. She’s building these world-famous museums, but she’s in the literal weeds, birdwatching.'"

World Business Chicago Seeks Visions For Chicago in 2050

"Horizon Lines," is a newly announced "design and civic competition that positions architectural and creative engagement as a way for anyone to play a role in driving Chicago’s economic growth. 'Horizon Lines' marks a shift from strategy to activation." The competition "invites architects, designers, planners, community leaders, artists, innovators and interdisciplinary teams to propose bold ideas that explore how Chicago could grow, evolve and lead over the next twenty-five years." More here.

"Goff" Video Gets Showing

The UIC School of Architecture, Mas Context and Tulsa Artist Fellowship will co-present a screening of Britni Harris' "Goff," which "explores the life of Bruce Goff, an iconoclast, one of the most innovative yet forgotten American architects of the twentieth century, and chronicles the events that lead to the destruction and renewed interest in his memory and dwellings," relays the UIC School of Architecture. More on the documentary here. The free showing will be introduced by Art Institute curator Craig Lee, followed by a Q&A with Harris, professor Penelope Dean, and Art Institute curator Alison Fisher, moderated by Karl Jones. Room 1100 A+DS, 845 West Harrison, March 10, 6pm.

Path Linking Obama Center, Griffin Museum Gets $1.2 Million

The Chicago Park District is "getting $1.2 million for a path linking the Obama Center with the Museum of Science and Industry," steps Block Club. " The federal grant will allow for repaving, surveillance cameras, lighting and wayfinding materials along a path linking the museum, Obama Center and Garden of the Phoenix on the park’s north end." No word on funding to repair the nearby Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge, which has been closed for over a decade and was featured in Preservation Chicago's 2025 list of most endangered structures.

FILM & TELEVISION

"The Bear" Officially Ends With Upcoming Season

"The Bear" will end with its upcoming fifth season, reports Deadline. "The move is not much of a surprise given that White’s character Carmy Berzatto tells Syd, played by Ayo Edebiri, and Richie, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, that he’s leaving the restaurant and signing over his stake at the end of season four. FX has largely always allowed creators of hit shows to determine how and when their final season is announced." The report notes that Jamie Lee Curtis "let the cat out of the bag."

Chicago Film Archives Preserves 1982 Tom Palazzolo Feature "Caligari's Cure"

Chicago Film Archive has completed of a fully photochemical preservation of "Caligari's Cure," Chicago filmmaker Tom "Tommy Chicago" Palazzolo's 1982 "underground" film. "While Palazzolo is most well-known for his experimental and darkly comedic documentaries about Chicago oddballs, this semi-autobiographical narrative is a significant work of highly personal, distinctly Midwestern underground filmmaking... Heavily inspired by Palazzolo’s newfound interest in performance art, the film features burgeoning talents Carmela Rago, Andy Somma and Ellen Fisher.

"'I was getting a surge of great ideas from them,' Palazzolo later reflected. 'In a sense, we started a local culture to produce local fantasies.' Palazzolo filled the rest of the cast with non-actors, including his students and Chicago film scene stalwarts like Heather McAdams and John Heinz. Avant-garde cinema historian P. Adams Sitney even makes an appearance as Dr. Arthur Vision, a blood-splattered surgeon philosophizing about death." The complete sixty-five-minute 16mm feature and more here.

Chicago Native Tunes Up Oscars

"Mentored by Quincy Jones, the Emmy-nominated music industry veteran Michael Bearden promises to bring earworms and emotion to Hollywood’s biggest night on March 15," reports the Sun-Times. The music director of the 2026 Academy Awards "will be responsible for conducting and co-arranging nearly sixty pieces of music, including live performances." This will be his second time leading the music for the award show.

Warner Bros. Chieftain Zaslav Cashes In $114 Million In Stock, With More To Come

Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav "is selling stock worth north of $114 million," tallies Deadline, "with the company’s sale to Paramount pending and the cash starting to flow. The CEO filed to sell just over four million shares." Still more to come after the sale closes: "A filing in December detailed potential transaction-related compensation that valued his unvested equity awards at $537 million based on Paramount’s previous $30 a share offer. It would be higher at $31."

Trump Bought Netflix Debt During Paramount-Warner Dealings

Financial disclosures released Wednesday show that President Trump "acquired Netflix bonds as Paramount was trying to pry WBD away from the streaming giant," records the Hollywood Reporter. "The disclosures show that President Trump bought between $600,000 and $1.25 million worth of Netflix debt in January, adding to the $500,000 to $1 million in Netflix bonds that he purchased in December, shortly after Netflix’s megadeal for Warners was announced."

LIT

The Future Of DePaul’s Loop Library

DePaul University administrators informed library board member Megan Heffernan of a “possible Loop Library closure around the time of the quarterly library board meeting [last] December,” reports the DePaulia. “[A] library board document [from the meeting] states that they were told by university higher ups to 'eliminate' three out of the four full-time staff. The rationale behind this is to sunset services offered in the Loop campus and move them to Lincoln Park, the document said... University Communications continues to insist that no decision about a potential Loop Library closure has been made.”

A Highland Park Reading With Illinois Poet Laureate Mark Turcotte

Illinois Poet Laureate Mark Turcotte will read poetry at a free reading on Saturday, March 14, 4pm, in Highland Park. Register here.

Secretary Of State Joins Illinois Literacy Foundation, YMCA to Celebrate National Read Across America Day

"In recognition of National Read Across America Day, Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Alexi Giannoulias has announced a coordinated literacy initiative that distributed thousands of children’s books and brought volunteer readers into YMCA sites across Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, reinforcing the importance of reading as a shared, lifelong activity. The Illinois Literacy Foundation, in partnership with the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, hosted a Day of Service on Monday as part of National Read Across America Day—widely recognized as the nation’s largest celebration of reading." (More.)

MUSIC

CSO's Next Season Features Yo-Yo Ma, Beethoven, Klaus Mäkelä, Andrew Bird

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra season includes performance from Yo-Yo Ma, Andrew Bird, a world premiere from composer Mason Bates and "a season-long deep dive into Beethoven, [along with] a healthy showing of Finnish music," reports WBEZ. "That last part is thanks to CSO’s incoming music director, Klaus Mäkelä. Although the thirty-year-old Finnish conductor and cellist will not officially be in the role until the following season, Mäkelä is already helping shape what gets played inside Orchestra Hall."

Billy Corgan: Did The CIA Come For Rock ‘n Roll?

"I think rock has been purposefully dialed down in the culture" since the late nineties, rock musician and opera frontman Billy Corgan told the Magnificent Others podcast. (Stereogum recounts the interview here.) "I saw the gravity shift. If you were at MTV or around MTV, 1997, 1998, suddenly they decided rock was out when rock was still very, very high up in the thing. And it was replaced by rap... So some people assert that the CIA was involved into that—again, above my pay grade. But I saw it happen." (More.)

STAGE

DePaul May Close The South Loop's Merle Reskin Theatre, Too

Since 1988, the Merle Reskin Theatre in the Loop has hosted DePaul's theater and music performances, relays The DePaulia. "Now the theater is 'being evaluated' by the Loop redesign task force, and the Theatre School will move all operations to Lincoln Park after the Reskin’s last scheduled show in May, [Theatre School dean Martine] Green-Rogers said." The last scheduled production at the theater, “Mirror of Most Value: A Ms. Marvel Play,” runs May 14-30. "University Communications said The Theatre School is working to determine the future use of the Merle Reskin Theatre."

TimeLine Announces First Season In New Home, With World Premiere Of Jonathan Eig Adaptation

TimeLine Theatre "has announced its inaugural full season in its first-ever permanent home at 5035 North Broadway, currently under construction and slated to open with much fanfare in May," reports Chris Jones at the Trib. The first show is Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” (May 6-June 7). The season also includes "the world premiere of 'The Birth of the Pill' by Jessica Huang, based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago author Jonathan Eig, directed by Sandra Marquez—a bold and eye-opening story about the controversial creation that reshaped women’s lives."

"Hamilton" Producer On Walking Away From Kennedy Center Back To Chicago

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” has returned to Chicago through April 26 at the CIBC Theatre, Chris Jones reports at the Tribune. Producer Jeffrey Seller spoke about "how it landed here after canceling a planned engagement at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. 'Chicago saved us,' Seller says. But 'the decision to walk away was easy. It should always be easy to make a decision that honors your ethics and values.'" (More.)

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2026-03-09 New City

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:03:07 GMT

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Years back, the Art Institute of Chicago would hold elaborate press lunches to introduce its major exhibitions. Given the number of attendees, I am sure they included museum board members and other civic leaders, but even so, the number of journalists attending far outnumbered the number of art writers in the city. But even so, these events really galvanized excitement and attention around the exhibitions.

That they were held in the elegant Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room only heightened their sense of importance, as it was a space that most of us rarely visited. And since they ended the lunches, I have to admit to rarely visiting it since. I think it's mostly used as an event-rental space these days. So as disturbing as the news last week that the Art Institute might look to jettison the iconic Sullivan and Adler-designed room was, it was not surprising.

But other than the general sense of revulsion that the news brought, I did not see much constructive response. Where might it go? The Chicago Architecture Center? Somewhere in Sullivan and Adler's Auditorium Building or their Sullivan Center? A standalone space somewhere else?

And what would such a move cost? Could those likely substantial funds be better used by the Art Institute? If the impetus for a move is to capture it as an exhibition space, why not do so now without moving it? Many exhibitions might benefit from dialogue with the room's design. Think about how the Driehaus Museum puts contemporary art into juxtaposition with its Victorian spaces. Or, when necessary, put up temporary white walls inside it. Or hang art on freestanding pedestals instead of walls, in the way that the architect Lina Bo Bardi innovated exhibition design at the MASP in São Paulo in the late 1960s.

Now that the idea has been floated and outrage given, it's time for civic imagination to take over.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

STAGE

"Hamilton" Still Brings Hope In America's Age of Caligula

The production moved its planned spring run to Chicago after Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center. It's a tonic in a troubled time. (Mary Wisniewski)

ART

Michelle Wasson Paints Liminal Territories at Andrew Rafacz Gallery

In “Songs of the Marauder,” Michelle Wasson constructs luminous landscapes that hover between hopeful and ominous. (Jefferson Godard)

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LIT

Elizabeth Zaleski Tallies Life’s Disappointments in “The Trouble with Loving Poets”

The debut essay collection turns breakups, lost faith and literary letdowns into sharply funny reflections on failure. (Brendan Tynan Buck)

BRAZIL

Frantz Fanon’s Radical Legacy Inspires “Imaginação Radical” at Museu das Favelas

More than forty artists explore decolonization, identity and resistance in a sweeping exhibition marking the centenary of the Martinican thinker. (Ivi Brasil)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Western Exhibitions Adds Journie Cirdain, Nanako Kono, Olivia Zubko

Journie Cirdain, Nanako Kono and Olivia Zubko are new to the roster at Western Exhibitions, the gallery announces on Instagram. "Journie Cirdain’s large allegorical drawings exist at the intersection of the human and animal, internal and external, magic and reality, and ultimately, life and death. Our partnership with Cirdain follows her second solo show 'The Gloaming' at the gallery in fall 2025... Nanako Kono is inspired by the structure of comic strips, employing intrinsic elements of that format—panels, speech balloons, animated objects, recurring characters, text—in her humorous paintings, taking visual and material cues from the Chicago Imagist tradition." (More.)

DESIGN

Saks Closing Michigan Avenue Store

"Saks Global plans to close twelve more Saks Fifth Avenue stores and three Neiman Marcus locations in what it says may be its last big round of slashes to its brick-and-mortar footprint as part of its bankruptcy," reports CoStar. While Chicago's Saks and Neiman stores were spared from the last round of cuts, this round includes the close of the Saks Fifth Avenue store at 700 North Michigan. The Neiman Marcus store across the street will remain.

When The Museum Devours Its Own

"Great art museums are both amazing treasures and amoral empires," writes architecture critic Lynn Becker. "Unchecked ambition can tempt these esthetic empires into releasing their inner Mr. Hyde. [Last] week, Preservation Chicago announced Adler & Sullivan's Stock Exchange Trading Room as one of their Seven Most Endangered places for 2026." The Art Institute is "contemplating ridding itself of the Trading Room to make way for their wet dream of another mega-wing... Preservation Chicago learned of this possibility a year ago, and decided not to go public with the news on the chance the museum might, by way of extended contemplation, come to its senses and let a putrid idea die a natural death. Instead, spurred by a $75 million gift last year to jump-start a new building program, it's apparently blossomed into an idée fixe. Put simply, this is nuts. Suicidally, reputation-killing nuts."

Hear About The Fight To Save Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower

Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, will speak on the fight to save Frank Lloyd Wright's only skyscraper at an event hosted by the Society of Architectural Historians and the Charnley-Persky House Museum. "Since spring 2024, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has been leading an urgent advocacy campaign to safeguard the future of the iconic Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Discover how this Chicago-based nonprofit protects Wright’s legacy nationwide—and how it stepped in during one of the most critical moments in the history of Wright’s only realized skyscraper." Charnley-Persky House Museum, Thursday, March 19, 5:30pm-8pm. Tickets ($25 plus fees) here.

Zaha Hadid Successor Wins Right To Rename Firm

"Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher has won a legal battle with the Zaha Hadid Foundation over the use of the late Zaha Hadid's name," reports Dezeen. Britain's Court of Appeal "overruled a High Court judgment from 2024 over a licensing agreement that required the architecture studio to retain Hadid's name and pay a fee to use it." A justice "ruled that the licensing agreement, which requires Zaha Hadid Architects to pay the foundation six percent of its revenue each year, could be ended as it could not have been intended to be in place indefinitely."

DINING & DRINKING

Midway Gets Original Mr. Beef

River North beef stand Original Mr. Beef, beloved by viewers of "The Bear," has opened its second location near Midway's Gate B14, dips Block Club. The new beef stand is open 7am-8pm daily. The Original Mr. Beef, at 666 North Orleans, "has been a River North mainstay since it opened in 1979."

Bar Bambi Opens Its West Town Doors

Bar Bambi, Katie Renshaw’s "whimsical new bar features twists on classics and upscale bar food," writes Chicago magazine. "Renshaw earned her stripes at some of the best bars in town, including Moneygun, GreenRiver, The Aviary and Billy Sunday, but she... started out as a software developer. 'I’m an enthusiast turned bartender,'" she says. "She’s always dreamed of opening her own spot, though watching bars and restaurants close during the pandemic gave her... pause. But the post-pandemic recovery, especially in the bar space, inspires her." Says Renshaw, "I’m watching my friends open bars and start to build up Chicago again to its glory in the mid-2000s, when Chicago was the place for craft cocktails. That inspired me to take the leap."

Eater Chicago Alights On Hot New Restos

Here are the hot new Chicago eateries, mapped by Eater Chicago. Topping the list is the South Loop's Buttercup: "By day, guests can sip Sparrow Coffee and nibble on pastries; in the evening, the intimate space transforms into a cozy Italian-leaning bistro serving truffle pizzettas, roasted pork collar and creative amaro drinks."

Customers Retreat From "Slop Bowls"

"Sales and traffic at restaurant chains like Cava, Chipotle and Sweetgreen are falling, as customers grow tired of both salad bowls and their rising price tags," reports the New York Times. "A debate has been brewing around the end of 'slop bowls,' social-media slang for healthy-but-kinda-mushy bowls of grilled chicken, quinoa, kale and the like. Customers are either weary of them or, more likely, balking at paying $14 for a burrito bowl or $16 for a salad." (More.)

FILM & TELEVISION

Music Box Notches In List Of World's Hundred Greatest Movie Palaces

Time Out’s local experts "collaborated on a celebration of the best cinemas from across the globe," lists Time Out. "With its golden interior, projected clouds drifting across the auditorium ceiling like a daydream on a loop and a lounge stocked with film memorabilia and cocktails inspired by cinema’s glory days, the Music Box Theatre is a Chicago institution. Operating since 1929, the main auditorium blends Italian and Spanish architectural flourishes with unapologetic confidence, anchored by a lovingly restored organ played by house organist Dennis Scott, who accompanies silent films and special screenings and remains a beloved constant of the annual Music Box Christmas singalong." (More.)

Paramount-Warner Merger Would Equal "Jobs Apocalypse"

The present Paramount Skydance deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, writes David Dayen at the American Prospect, "is tied up with so much debt that it virtually guarantees layoffs the likes of which Hollywood hasn’t seen before. That’s going to mean far less output from the suite of properties under Paramount and Warner’s control. And it will mean that the production apocalypse which has been brewing since the pandemic, the end of Peak TV, and the contraction of... streaming networks will grow still more apocalyptic, playing into one of the key arguments antitrust enforcers can make about this deal: that it will greatly lessen competition in the entertainment sector." (More.)

With Iran War, Middle East Sovereign Funds Could Withdraw Western Investments, Including Paramount-Warner

"Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery is not just a Hollywood deal," posts Variety. "Powered by $24 billion from sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the proposed merger is sparking debate over soft power, influence and media independence at a company that includes CNN and HBO." But the continuing war against Iran endangers all investments by these funds, reports the Financial Times. "Pressure on the Gulf states’ budgets could cause them to review their overseas investments and future commitments as they consider options to ease the financial strain caused by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran." (More.)

Billionaire Megan Ellison's Annapurna Revs Up Again

Meanwhile, Megan Ellison, daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison and sister of David, has been emboldened to return to producing movies under her Annapurna banner, hiring production executives. (Her previously produced films include "Her," "Booksmart," "Spring Breakers," "The Master" and "Zero Dark Thirty.") "The Invite," the Annapurna-produced and Olivia Wilde-directed comedy-drama, was Sundance 2026's biggest sale. Boots Riley’s "I Love Boosters," another Annapurna entry, opens SXSW 2026 this week.

LIT

Storytelling Week Begins Today

As part of Columbia College's Storytelling Week, running through March 14, the institution "invites members of the public to join the Columbia community for the following events that celebrate the art of storytelling": the Efroymson Creative Writing Reading Series features "prestigious, award-winning fiction writers, poets and nonfiction writers," and includes appearances by Dan Sinker, Joe Meno, Hafizah Geter and Marguerite Harrold, while Veteran Storytelling Across the Arts explores "how veterans use storytelling across art forms" and features "Giselle Futrell, executive director of the National Veterans Art Museum, and Chris Lyke, co-founder of the Chicago-based literary journal Line of Advance." All programs are free.

MEDIA

Radio Station Owner Cumulus Files For Bankruptcy

Cumulus Media, "an audio entertainment company which owns 394 radio stations, a radio syndication business and a podcast network, has filed for bankruptcy protection," reports Reuters, "with a restructuring deal that would eliminate most of the company’s $697 million in debt." Cumulus' Chicago holdings include WLS-FM, WLS-AM and WKQX-FM. The company also filed for bankruptcy in 2017.

Axel Springer Continues Its Acquisition Push

German media group Axel Springer "has agreed to buy the owner of Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper for $766 million," reports AP. "The agreement ends a long saga over ownership of the Telegraph Media Group, which publishes the 171-year-old, conservative-leaning Daily Telegraph, its Sunday sister paper and the Telegraph news website." (More.)

David Ellison Promises CNN Will Get The Same Latitude As CBS News

Paramount Skydance topper David Ellison sat for an interview with CNBC but did not volunteer his plans for CNN, reports Status (newsletter). "Since making the winning offer for the David Zaslav-led empire, Ellison had been absolutely mum about the future of the globally recognized news brand... Describing the bloodletting set to occur when the companies merge with billions in so-called 'synergies,' [the host] asked Ellison whether he plans to combine CBS News and CNN... Ellison declared he's 'going to invest in the news business' and lauded CNN as an 'incredible brand with an incredible team.'

"Ellison reiterated his vow to protect CNN's 'editorial independence,' claiming 'it's maintained at CBS'—a questionable answer after he installed an anti-woke warrior and staunch supporter of Israel as the outlet’s top boss, charging her with reshaping the network." (More.)

MUSIC

What's The Future Of Chicago's Hip Hop Museum?

Abe Beame writes at Defector about "the sorry state of hip-hop media archives and the fight for the future of hip-hop’s past." Block Club measures the future in Chicago: "The future home of the Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum is part of a proposed multimillion dollar project aimed at revitalizing the State Street corridor. The $126 million Technology Renewable Energy Command Center Global Campus for Youth & Families is being proposed for the site of the former McCorkle Elementary School... Brian Gorman, who is president of the center’s board and also co-founded the hip-hop museum, [says] that the site would also include a mutual aid community center, a sports and tech hub, workforce center and 111-room hotel."

STAGE

Filament Theatre Announces World Premiere Of “Farewell Opportunity”

Filament Theatre, the Northwest Side theater for young audiences, presents the world premiere of "Farewell Opportunity." Commissioned by Filament Theatre in 2019 from Chicago playwright Georgette Kelly, "Farewell Opportunity" tells "the story of Halley, who visits the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and meets the Opportunity Mars rover. The two have something in common: a curious spirit and a shortened life expectancy." (More.)

Leading Seattle Theater Company Lays Off Staff

The nonprofit 5th Avenue Theatre Company, "Seattle’s primary producer of Broadway-scale musicals, is eliminating about fourteen staff positions and pausing some education and engagement programs amid cash flow problems, the nonprofit announced Friday," reports The Seattle Times.

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2026-03-10 New City

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 10:03:10 GMT

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Jan and I took my mom to see the new Baz Luhrmann movie, "EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert," this past weekend for her birthday. We left absolutely blown away by how great the experience was. My mom proclaimed, "everyone should see this movie!" and I agreed.

But I wonder how a film like this plays for a younger generation, one for which Elvis is just distant history. Even when I was young, Elvis was past his prime, as the Beatles and all the other bands from the sixties and seventies took over.

Though Elvis was from my parents' generation, he was still very much around—in Vegas and on TV—as I was growing up. To today's teenagers, though, maybe he's like Al Jolson was to me back then: just an obscure name from history, with no trace of his once-megastardom still left in the culture.

I came to appreciate Elvis as an adult, when box sets of his recordings were posthumously released. I later bought an Al Jolson record too. Today's kids can listen to all of music history with the flick of a thumb. So maybe they're already down with the likes of Elvis or perhaps the onetime bobby soxers' teen idol, Frank Sinatra.

Either way, I do think everyone should see this movie in a theater, with a big screen and big sound. Even the Swifties. Especially the Swifties.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

ART

Cecilia Beaven Explores Mythology and Folklore in "Inflorescence"

The artist's solo exhibition at Zolla/Lieberman is a delightful, life-affirming show that leaves the viewer wanting even more of Beaven’s cosmos. (Elisa Shoenberger)

FILM

Clouds, Naples, Pompei: Gianfranco Rosi's City Symphony of Modern-Day Naples

"Pompei: Below The Clouds" shows how Rosi's notions are temblors beneath a flow of relentlessly gorgeous imagery. (Ray Pride)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
FORTIETH
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MUSIC

Malibu Brings Her Ethereal Sound to Sleeping Village

Ambient French musician Barbara Braccini has the genius to turn a melody into a story and a feeling into a sound. (Teddy Sandler)

NEWCITY

Free Will Astrology: Week of March 12, 2026

Can you compel acts of grace to intervene in your destiny? (Rob Brezsny)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

MoCP's Darkroom Sets Record

MoCP’s Darkroom benefit auction and party was a record-breaking evening for the institution, with fifty-five artworks and experiences auctioned, including pieces by Regina Agu, Alia Ali, Dawoud Bey, Vera Lutter, Uta Barth, and 2026 Silver Camera Award recipient Joel Sternfeld. Through donations, sponsorships, ticket sales, auction purchases and artist events, the MoCP raised nearly $445,000.

Theaster Gates Opens In Paris

The Theaster Gates exhibition, "And Other Paintings," through April 4 at the Paris space of White Cube Gallery, "presents a compelling new body of work in which the Chicago-based artist continues his long-standing investigation into how industrial materials can reshape the language of contemporary painting," posts Hube magazine. "Bringing together monumental canvases, sculptural objects and archival references," the exhibition concentrates "on Gates’ distinctive tar paintings, a series that transforms the humble material of roofing tar into a medium of expressive abstraction." (More.)

Spring Performances For Driehaus' "Brendan Fernandes: In The Round"

The Driehaus Museum has announced spring dates for "Brendan Fernandes: In the Round," from the museum’s first artist-in-residence. "Fernandes transforms the Museum’s 1926 Murphy Auditorium into a dynamic site for dance, movement, sound and sculptural installation. The April and May programming includes the world premiere of Fernandes’ performance commission 'Score for the Murphy Auditorium,' and 'Concerts of Dance,' which spotlights performers within Fernandes’ ensemble and emerging work from Chicago’s independent dance community. 'In the Round' will return in Fall 2026 with additional performance dates and public programs.

"Organized by guest curator Stephanie Cristello, 'Brendan Fernandes: In the Round' is part of the Museum’s 'A Tale of Today' series that places contemporary art in dialogue with the art, architecture and design of the Museum." Free with museum admission. More here.

DESIGN

Obama Sets Juneteenth Opening For His Presidential Center

"After a decade of planning, fundraising, delays and construction," a dedication ceremony is set for June 18 before the Obama Presidential Center opens to the public in Jackson Park on June 19, reports the Sun-Times. "Additional community celebrations will be held on campus June 20-21." Obama has invited George W. Bush, but not Trump. The Root considers the site's "construction drama."

Chicago And Housing's "Missing Middle"

"As part of Chicago’s $75 million Missing Middle Housing Initiative, five two-flat residential buildings will be going up on West 34th Place," reports Crain's. "[Ald. Julia] Ramirez grew up just blocks away... and hopes the project is the beginning of better days ahead for this working-class, immigrant-heavy community. Finding a home they can afford that also provides the wealth-building opportunity that homeownership offers has become a bigger challenge in today’s high-flying market for working- and middle-class families: Their incomes are too low for the booming luxury home market but too high to qualify for traditional subsidized affordable housing programs."

DINING & DRINKING

History Of Abuse Alleged Against Chef René Redzepi, Of World-Lauded Noma

"Punching, Slamming, Screaming: A Chef’s Past Abuse Haunts Noma, the World’s Top-Rated Restaurant," headlines the New York Times of Julia Moskin's extensive report (gift link). "Dozens of former employees say René Redzepi inflicted physical and psychological violence on the staff for years... While Mr. Redzepi and those who now work with him say the abuse is in the past, the former employees contend that he has never been held truly accountable... But in recent weeks, Noma’s upcoming pop-up in Los Angeles, a $1,500-per person dinner series that begins on March 11, has sparked a public conversation about Mr. Redzepi’s past behavior.

"The Times has independently interviewed thirty-five former employees, whose accounts trace a pattern of physical punishment Mr. Redzepi inflicted on his staff. Between 2009 and 2017, they said, he punched employees in the face, jabbed them with kitchen implements and slammed them against walls. They described lasting trauma from layers of psychological abuse... Redzepi, they said, threatened to use his influence to get them blacklisted from restaurants around the world, to have their families deported, or to get their wives fired from their jobs at other businesses."

French Laundry's Thomas Keller Takes Stand Against Affordable Housing

"Restaurateur and celebrated chef Thomas Keller scolded a small Napa Valley town council this week, reprimanding the Yountville Town Council for... spending too much money on a proposed affordable housing project," reports SFGate. "Keller owns several restaurants in Yountville, including the three-Michelin-star French Laundry. The housing project is planned for a site two blocks away from his luxury restaurant." Dressed in his chef's whites, Keller told the council, "I am all for employee housing. Because I know some of you have been sending out the wrong message about, 'I'm against employee housing.' I am not. I am for employee housing, but I am for employee housing that is actually going to work."

Lakeview Gets Fizz Location For Soda Pop Store

Pop/Culture opens April 4 in Lakeview at 2937 North Clark. The pop shop will offer over "sixty different regional brands" and "over 2,500 bottles" of soda, notes B Talent.

LIT

A New Indie Comic Store Opens In Wicker Park

Indie comics store and event space Sheep Cult Comics holds its grand opening this Friday, March 13 at 1632 North Milwaukee in Wicker Park. The store will specialize in independent comics, self-published zines, poetry, unique books and anything else in print. The design of the space "itself is a one-of-a-kind sculpture created to take you down a rabbit hole!" More here.

Who's Up To Read At The Next Sunday Salon

Sunday Salon Chicago's next edition takes place at Roscoe Books on March 29. The reading will feature writers like Elise Paschen, Melissa Fraterrigo, Eileen Favorite, Judith Valente and Tim Hillegonds. 2142 West Roscoe. More here.

A Fresh Start For Minneapolis Rare Books Store

"Last year, the husband-and-wife owners of James and Mary Laurie Booksellers were vexed with a problem: After their North Loop building was sold and new landlords set the proposed rent impossibly high, would they face the Herculean task of moving a colossal collection of rare, out-of-print, and collectible books that’s taken more than fifty years to build? Or would they close up shop and call it a career?" shelves Mpls. St Paul magazine. "While many might have found the latter more appealing for a number of reasons, from skyrocketing rents to a general desire for an actual retirement, Jim, eighty, and Mary, seventy-six, weren’t ready to say goodbye. They would, however, set one boundary: 'This is our last move,' Mary tells me firmly among the leather-bound-edition-stuffed bookcases in their new location."

MUSIC

Live Nation Gets To Keep Ticketmaster In Settlement

An agreement which still requires a judicial sign-off would allow concert giant Live Nation and Ticketmaster to avoid a breakup, reports the New York Times (gift link), "but states who joined the suit object to the terms." Live Nation "would agree to change how it makes ticketing deals with venues, allowing those businesses to use multiple vendors to sell tickets to fans, rather than work with Ticketmaster exclusively. In addition, the company would allow touring artists to use other promoters when performing in its amphitheaters. Live Nation would also pay financial damages to the states that join the settlement."

Bon Iver's Eaux Claires Festival Returns

"Bon Iver’s Eaux Claires Festival is back after an eight-year hiatus," reports Milwaukee magazine, and will run July 24-25 at Carson Park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. "The lineup includes Dijon, Daniel Caesar, Lil Yachty, Aimee Mann, Kevin Morby and Wisconsin’s Bizhiki. Mann will be performing her 2000 album 'Bachelor No. 2 Or, The Last Remains Of The Dodo.' 'Bon Dylan' is also listed to perform. (Who precisely that is remains unclear—Bon Iver performing Bob Dylan covers seems like a reasonable possibility)."

National Symphony Leader Quits Kennedy Center

"The executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra announced that she was stepping down, the latest blow to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as it struggles with declining audiences, artist cancellations and the departure of its opera company in the wake of President Trump’s effort to put his imprint on the center," reports the New York Times. Jean Davidson "had long wanted to run an arts center like the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, where she is headed in May. But she said that her decision to move less than three years after she took the Kennedy Center job reflected frustration at the turmoil that has engulfed the center since Mr. Trump named himself as chairman, installed a loyalist, Richard Grenell, as its president, and renamed it the Trump-Kennedy Center."

STAGE

Steppenwolf Sees "Windfall"

Steppenwolf has announced full casting for its world premiere of "Windfall," a new work by Academy Award-winning ensemble member Tarell Alvin McCraney, directed by Awoye Timpo. "Windfall" reunites ensemble members Alana Arenas, Glenn Davis and Jon Michael Hill, from Steppenwolf’s Tony and Pulitzer-winning drama "Purpose," joined by ensemble member Namir Smallwood. Esco Jouléy and Michael Potts make their Steppenwolf debuts. "Windfall" plays April 9-May 31 in Steppenwolf’s Ensemble Theater. Single tickets and more here.

The Metropolitan Opera's Desperate For Cash

"The Met has looked to a foreign government, to new strategies, even to outer space, in its scramble to find money to sustain the country’s largest performing arts organization," reports the New York Times. The Metropolitan Opera has spent down a third of its endowment, "traditionally a sacrosanct rainy day fund." General manager Peter Gelb "sought a cash infusion from Saudi Arabia, a much trumpeted effort that has dragged on for months... Gelb even courted Elon Musk, promising only half jokingly to help." (More.)

Victory Gardens Names Interim Artistic Director

Edward Torres, who directed the most recent Victory Gardens production, the Chicago premiere of David Mamet’s “Henry Johnson," is the Lincoln Avenue theater's new interim director, reports Broadway World. The Chicago actor is also former artistic director of Teatro Vista Productions.

Ballet Folklorico Students In Avondale Threatened With ICE

Police are investigating an incident, caught on video, "in which a woman yells and a man throws liquid on students and their families leaving the Avondale dance studio," reports Block Club. "About 10pm Friday, dance students and their families were leaving Ballet Folklorico de Chicago, 3006 North Pulaski, when two residents of a neighboring apartment building attacked them... In the video, a woman yells at the families to leave while a man pours a container of clear liquid from a balcony onto the families. 'You’re lucky ICE is not here,' the woman says to the families."

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

A Call For Public Officials To Recognize The Arts As Economic Powerhouse

"If public officials can mobilize with such fierce dedication around a stadium, they can do the same for cultural institutions that operate year-round, employ local workers and strengthen neighborhoods," writes Jorge Valdivia, executive director, Chicago Latino Theater Alliance in a letter to the editor of the Sun-Times. In Governor Pritzker’s proposed 2026-2027 state budget, "arts funding remains flat. In an inflationary environment, flat funding amounts to a reduction in real support, as rent, labor and production costs rise." (More.)

How DOGE Attacked The Humanities

Documents show AI "was used to cancel most previously approved grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities as the agency embraced President Trump’s agenda," tallies the New York Times (free link). "Instead of looking closely at funded projects, they pulled short summaries off the internet and fed them into the AI chatbot. The prompt was simple: 'Does the following relate at all to D.E.I.? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with "Yes or "No."' The results were sweeping, and sometimes bizarre." (More.)

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2026-03-11 New City

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 10:02:57 GMT

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Every once in a while, the subject of Newcity's movies comes up in conversation, and someone asks me how they can see them. And I usually have to look it up, because it changes. So here are Newcity's four movies, and where you can see them today, for those of you who have already completed your pre-Oscar movie watching.

Signature Move (2017): Amazon Prime plus many of the major free AVOD platforms like The Roku Channel and Tubi.

Knives and Skin (2019): MUBI plus various online rental options.

Dreaming Grand Avenue (2020): Amazon Prime plus many of the major free AVOD platforms like The Roku Channel and Tubi.

Relative (2022): Amazon Prime plus many of the major free AVOD platforms like The Roku Channel and Tubi.

Have you seen all four?

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

STAGE

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" Shows Our Lives Are What We Make Them

The Goodman Theatre's production is an enchanting exploration of the self, by way of Oscar’s life and his Dominican-American family’s fukú (curse) connected to the brutal dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina. (Amanda Finn)

ART

Hunter Foster Sounds a Muted Alarm at Good Weather

“Involition” reflects the current climate through sirens, propellers and church steeples. (Zara Yost)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
FORTIETH
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MUSIC

Symphony Center Loosens Its Collar: Nubya Garcia and Somi Bend Tradition in Chicago

Garcia arrives as a defining voice of London’s future-facing jazz movement, while Somi has built her career bridging continents and customs. (Irene Monokandilos)

BRAZIL

Casa Bola Opens to the Public as Part of Aberto Series

Plus Marcel Broodthaers Signs with Gomide. (Brian Hieggelke)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

A New Exhibition Links The Artist Communities Of Chicago And Vienna

"Ornament & Information" presents work by a group of artists who live and work in either Chicago or Vienna, the city announces. "Through direct or indirect means, these artists' practices engage and expand upon a historic intercity dialogue that spans the realms of modern architecture and mid-century free-market economics." Exhibiting artists include Gaylen Gerber, Heimo Zobernig, Benjamin Hirte, B. Ingrid Olson, Miriam Stoney, Devin T. Mays, Micah Schippa Wildfong, Nora Schultz, Valentina Triet, Max Guy, Josef Strau, Anna Sophie Berger, Walter Pichler, Isabelle Frances McGuire and Diane Simpson. The exhibition, co-sponsored by Gertie, is at the Cultural Center, April 10-July 19.

Hyde Park Art Center's Spring "Center Day"

Hyde Park Art Center will host the spring installment of its quarterly "Center Days" in April, with public access to art viewing and artmaking as well as the first open studios from the Art Center’s 2026 roster of resident artists. Planned activities include John-Michael Korpal guiding "a joyful and creative workshop dedicated to building pop-up flowers in books or cards" and Rhona Wheatley leading "a collage-making workshop inspired by new exhibitions" at the institution. The next "Center Days" is Saturday, April 4, from 1pm-4pm. Registration and more here.

Logan Square Arts Fest Returns After Construction

"With a bigger, renovated plaza, the Logan Square Arts Fest will be able to double the number of local makers and artists in its vendor marketplace," situates Block Club. The Logan Square Arts Foundation, "which has put on the Logan Square Arts Fest since 2009, announced this year’s festival is 'coming home' after skipping 2025 due to major construction on the Logan Square traffic circle." June 26-28. More here.

"New Michelangelos" Doubted

Works newly attributed to Michelangelo "had exciting stories behind them. But experts say they are unlikely to be by his hand," reports the New York Times. "Is it possible that, so many centuries after the Italian Renaissance artist created his marble David in Florence and the Sistine Chapel ceiling at the Vatican, completely unknown creations are finally coming to light? Did Michelangelo hide some works because they expressed heretical ideas and he was afraid of retaliation from the pope? ... It is an exciting prospect, but Michelangelo scholars say the truth is far more mundane: These are unlikely to be real Michelangelos." (More.)

DESIGN

One Central Megaproject Resurfaces Near Soldier Field

Developer Bob Dunn wants "to revive his One Central megaproject and is gaining traction in Springfield through legislation that would create an economic development incentive in Chicago with up to $1.6 billion in bonding authority," charts Crain's. "Many of the details remain under wraps, but Dunn has discarded plans to build over the Metra tracks and is no longer calling for a transit hub that would connect to the CTA. Instead, the plan calls for the Metra tracks to move westward on the site to allow a collection of smaller structures built directly on land rather than decked-over rail lines."

Fate Of Adler & Sullivan Trading Room Highlighted By Preservation Groups

The Art Institute of Chicago "is considering a new wing to its eastern edge, where the Beaux Arts Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room by Adler & Sullivan is," reports the Architect's Newspaper. Preservation groups are "concerned the historic, 5,700-square-foot interior housed within the museum may be in jeopardy." Says Preservation Futures cofounder Elizabeth Blasius, "The Art Institute has been careful not to announce any specific plans for the Stock Exchange Trading Room, but both the Art Institute and James Rondeau, the president, has confirmed that the east portion of the campus, the Art Institute’s Columbus Drive wing, where the room is located, is the most probable site for the museum’s $75 million expansion." (More.)

Toast Pops Up In Lincoln Park

Toast, a Britain-based clothing brand, plans to open its first store in the Midwest this spring at 908 West Armitage, C0Star reports. "The retailer has leased 2,340 square feet within the two-story building as part of ongoing U.S. expansion. The men’s and women’s clothing seller will be the latest overseas or domestic retailer to arrive on the street in Lincoln Park."

Stepping Into The Doorways Of Chicago

"Tour guide and photographer Ronnie Frey is the creative force behind the Instagram feed 'Doorways of Chicago,'" profiles Midwest Living. Fine Arts Building tenant Frey "has spent the past five years wandering the city’s neighborhoods, documenting its most expressive doorways." His new book "gathers more than 140 of his images into an architectural love letter to the city."

Division Street's Velvet Goldmine Furniture Stalwart Shifts To Threads

Owner Jon Gorske "opened Velvet Goldmine in 2015 at 2001 West Division, bringing Mid-Century modern furniture and other styles to the prominent Damen and Division intersection next door to Rainbo Club," reports Block Club. "[A more recently opened] Pilsen warehouse location has proven to be a big success for Velvet Goldmine, Gorske said—so much so that it has taken away business from his Ukrainian Village location." He plans to reopen the Ukrainian Village location as a vintage clothing store, "with a wide range of masculine and feminine clothing, accessories and vinyl records." It will reopen on April 17.

DINING & DRINKING

Craft Beer Brands Half Acre And Maplewood Brewery Will Combine

“Half Acre Beer Co. in Bowmanville and Maplewood Brewery & Distillery in Logan Square are combining to form a ‘unified beverage company’ that will keep their respective brands active amid turbulent economic times for local craft breweries,” reports Block Club. "Half Acre owner Gabriel Magliaro and Maplewood co-owner Adam Cieslak told Block Club Tuesday that they expected the merger to yield a stronger market position for bulk orders of ingredients and trucking costs, among other advantages.”

Warlord "On Brink Of Ruin"

Warlord co-owners Emily Kraszyk and John Lupton "are suing Trevor Fleming, claiming the former star chef’s conduct has resulted in $1.4 million in lost revenue for the Avondale restaurant. Fleming faces charges of sharing explicit photos of a woman without her consent," reports Block Club. "The lawsuit—which also alleges Fleming took money from the restaurant’s company accounts even while he wasn’t working... provides a more detailed look into the tension at the restaurant, which had been one of Chicago’s trendiest."

Paul Kahan And One Off Open Two Spots At Blackhawks Training Facility

Rocky’s Table & Tap and Raise the Cup Café, both from chef Paul Kahan and One Off Hospitality, have opened to the public at the team’s expanded practice facility on the Near West Side, reports Block Club. "Raise the Cup Café, on the ground floor of the Blackhawks’ rink, formerly Fifth Third Arena, is an all-day hub serving Colombe coffee drinks, smoothies, Publican Quality Bread pastries and sandwiches... Upstairs, Rocky’s Table & Tap, a tribute to late Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz, features a full bar and a menu of gussied-up bar fare." Said Kahan, who has known Danny Wirtz, CEO of the Blackhawks and Wirtz Corporation, for about eight years, "I’m a chef and I had all these ideas in my head. He pretty much said, ‘We want to do stadium food, but we want it to be the best stadium food.’"

Mfk Under New Ownership

Scott and Sari Worsham, who founded Mfk in 2014, have passed the reins to long-time employees Matt Ginsburg, Taryn Shaw and Neal Neumann, the restaurant announces. "It was always a hope of ours, from the very beginning, to be able to pass the restaurant on to the right people, and this team is better at this than we are, honestly. It feels great to know that we’re leaving it in the right hands." Mfk's name comes from the great food writer, M.F.K. Fisher, chronicled by Ruth Reichl here.

Fatback Butcher Opens Doors

Fatback Butcher, "a gourmet sandwich shop and European-style market combo," opened on Wacker across from the Chicago River on Monday, writes Eater Chicago. "The project is a partnership of chef Charlie McKenna (Lillie’s Q, Roux), and Scott Weiner and Greg Mohr, both of the Fifty/50 Group (The Alston, Kindling, The Berkshire Room, and West Town Bakery)." Our favorite from a tasting last week: the steak sandwich, "a cross between Chicago’s Italian beef and a French dip, features seasoned ribeye, slow-roasted to medium rare. A blast of high heat at the end achieves that Maillard effect. It’s shaved into thin slices. The chef mixes caramelized onions into aioli for the spread; a traditional au poivre sauce reduced with bourbon instead of cognac becomes a dipping sauce. The sandwich is topped with homemade potato chips for crunch, and comes on toasted sourdough bread." (More.)

Windy City Smokeout Names Pitmasters

Windy City Smokeout, the music and BBQ festival from Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants, has named its lineup for its thirteenth year outside the United Center. The event hosts more than twenty pitmasters from across the country and local to Chicago. Making their Smokeout debuts are Terry Black’s Barbecue out of Austin, Richmond’s ZZQ Texas Craft Barbeque and Tennessee’s Blake’s at Southern Milling. Visitors can also tuck into Bub City, Chef Art Smith’s Reunion, Dayne’s Craft BBQ, G-Que BBQ, Green Street Smoked Meats, Hogapalooza, Hoodoo Brown BBQ, Hurtado Barbecue, Lexington Betty Smokehouse, Little Miss BBQ, Meat Mitch Barbecue and more. Tickets $69-$321. July 8-12. More here.

Zaab E Lee Brings Thai Street Flavors To Albany Park

Family-owned Albany Park newcomer Zaab E Lee "delivers thoughtful and vibrant street-food-influenced northern Thai dishes," tastes Eater Chicago. Dishes "come layered with complexity: fragrant herbs, toasted spices, punchy chilies, and a balance of heat, acidity and sweetness."

We Got Your 20,000 Pounds Of Corned Beef Right Here

Sixty-year-old County Fair Foods in Morgan Park "is known for its fresh corned beef, displayed and sold in bulk right out of the barrel," orders Block Club. Owner Tom Baffes says "the business will sell close to 20,000 pounds of corned beef out of barrels in the lead-up to St. Patrick’s Day. County Fair sources its corned beef locally, requiring fresh shipments to keep up with purchases by customers of anywhere from a few pounds to as much as forty pounds or more."

Bridgeview's Yemeni Coffee Shops Are Ramadan Late-Night Spots

For many café owners in Bridgeview, "the late-night crowds are about more than coffee. They serve as a reminder that hospitality, connection and community transcend cultural boundaries—the very spirit of the holy month marked by reflection, prayer and fasting," sips WBEZ. "During Ramadan, the energy intensifies. When the sun goes down, the crowds line up at the already-popular coffee shops known for their viral drinks and desserts like for qahwa (Arabic coffee); adeni chai, a velvety black tea made with cardamom, milk and cinnamon; and honeycomb bread."

Chinese Coffee Chains Change The Definition Of Asian Drink Shops

"Giant brands like Cotti, Luckin and Mixue are coming for indie coffee and tea spots around New York City’s Chinatowns," sups Eater NY. "These shops have eliminated the need to choose between sitting down at a cafe or a grab-and-go boba shop. These chains market themselves not on cultural authenticity or boba’s Taiwanese roots, but on scale—how many people they can reach and how efficiently they can reach them."

California Winemakers Face A Glut Of Supply

California wine producers have announced "major layoffs and facility closures amid an oversupply crisis, declining consumer demand and trade tensions threatening the state’s wine industry," reports the Los Angeles Times. "Grape growers are leaving fruit to rot as harvest costs exceed market prices, while younger consumers abandon wine for beer and spirits. Canadian boycotts of American wine triggered by tariffs eliminated $360 million in exports, though some nimble small producers thrive by targeting younger wine drinkers."

LIT

AWP's Annual Conference Lands In Chicago Next Year

The AWP has set its 2027 conference in Chicago. The major literary gathering will be held March 17-March 20, 2027 at McCormick Place Lakeside Center, "where the organization and its community of literary champions—writers, readers, presses, publishers and literary educators—will gather to celebrate AWP’s sixtieth anniversary." More here.

Longlist Named For Carol Shields Prize For Fiction

The literary prize named for Oak Park author Carol Shields, one of the biggest money writing awards for women and non-binary writers in the United States and Canada, has just named its longlist. The prize has bases in Chicago as well as Canada. The winner of the prize receives $150,000 and a five-night stay at Fogo Island Inn, and four finalists will receive $12,500 each. The fifteen-title longlist is here.

MEDIA

Bill Kurtis Retires As "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" Judge

The executive producer of "Wait Wait... Don' Tell Me!" has sent a memo to his staff, records NPR: "Legendary anchorman and America’s favorite judge and scorekeeper, Bill Kurtis is retiring from his role... capping off a phenomenal twelve-year run with the show." Writes the Sun-Times, "The eighty-five-year-old former CBS anchorman will lend his sonorous, familiar voice to a final show on May 23." "I’m eighty-five, and I’m a healthy eighty-five, thank God, but it is about time I started living like it,” Kurtis said, "noting that he gets more positive interaction from being on the show than he has for anything else he’s done in his career."

STAGE

New Theatre Project Moves From The Titanium Factory To Storefront Stage

After staging early productions at a Servi-Sure titanium factory in Bowmanville, Chicago theater maker "Spencer Huffman has finally graduated to a formal stage with his new play 'The Shape of [the] Bones,'" profiles WBEZ. At the Tribune, Chris Jones is ecstatic: "Not to be missed by this city’s committed storefront fans, 'The Shape of the Bones' is filled with the kind of intense scenes that serious Chicago actors live to play. The stakes in director Emily Blanquera’s relentlessly tense production, which do not let up for so much as a millisecond, start out high and range yet higher. Not only will you not be bored for a moment, you may have to remind yourself to breathe." Read our review by Hugh Iglarsh here.

Physical Theater Festival Chicago Sets Lineup

The Physical Theater Festival, will return for its thirteen edition in June, just announced its 2026 lineup: "Artists and companies scheduled to perform during the seven-day special event include: the Chicago return of Argentinian’s physical chameleon Luciano Rosso; the United States premiere of Peruvian mask theater ensemble Compañia de Teatro Físico; Korean-American powerhouse Sora Baek and Portland’s all ages clown duo A Little Bit Off. The Physical Theater Festival of Chicago also announces a new partnership with The Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago, which will host the premiere of award-winning Belgian company Chaliwaté."

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Retirees Seek Big City Life Instead Of Florida?

"A growing number of older transplants are undeterred by the city’s high costs and are connecting with young neighbors over brunches, birthday parties and running clubs," reports the New York Times. "In 2023, an estimated 15,705 people age sixty-five and up moved to New York City, a forty percent increase from 2019... These older New York transplants often followed their children to the city, and may help out with grandchildren. Others come for better medical care, or the convenience of not having a car, or for museums, shows and restaurants they cannot get anywhere else. Some are new to the city, while others have returned after decades away."

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2026-03-12 New City

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 10:03:01 GMT

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The news coming out of DePaul about the arts has been heartbreaking for all Chicagoans, especially the closure of the essential DePaul Art Museum.

The news that the school is evaluating the future of the Merle Reskin Theatre, which was historically known as the Blackstone Theatre, is also disheartening, though not as surprising. DePaul's theater program, which was originally the Goodman School of Drama due to its connection to the Art Institute of Chicago—when all those institutions were in one place—has long been known as one of the best in the country. In the late eighties, they acquired the Blackstone, a seminal part of the Loop's theater history, for their student productions.

It's an amazing, historic space—Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" had its pre-Broadway tryout there—but perhaps too much for a student theater, with seating capacity well over a thousand, putting it in the range of the Harris Theater. I live close by and rarely see much activity around it, unlike the nearby Auditorium and Studebaker theaters, which seem to always buzz with activity under their marquees.

When DePaul acquired the theater, the South Loop was just in its earliest days of a renaissance, and Broadway in Chicago was more than a decade away from its invention. I don't know who gets it next, but I look forward, with hope, to finally getting to spend some time in the seats of the Blackstone Theatre, or whatever its next name might be.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

STAGE

City Lit’s “Changing Channels” Finds Comedy in the Shadow of the Blacklist

John Reeger’s witty new play set during the golden age of television follows a variety-show performer forced to choose between career success and political conscience. (Mary Wisniewski)

FILM

Talking Screens: "Pi" on Pi Day at Pi O'Clock | Chicago Critics Film Festival | Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's First Feature in Twelve Years

Also: More punk aesthetic at Facets, the ninety-eighth Academy Awards, selections from the Vinegar Syndrome Film Archive and more. (Ray Pride)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
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LIT

Bill Hillmann Is Fightin’ in the Ring and on the Page

The author of the novel "White Flight" talks about his quest to help the next generation of students, writers and boxers flourish. (Jordan McClements)

MUSIC

Rhiannon Giddens Brings the Silkroad Ensemble to the Harris Theater

Giddens is the artistic director of the group founded by Yo-Yo Ma, which performs folk musical traditions from all over the world. (David Witter)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

"Neighbors" Is A New Satellite Art Fair, Set In A Gold Coast Mansion

Collector Mirka Serrato and dealer Jonny Tanna will launch a micro-art fair, Neighbors, during this year's edition of Expo Chicago, reports ARTnews. The fair "will take place across four rooms over just 1,200 square feet of the apartment, about seven minutes from Navy Pier, which Expo has long called its home. No booth walls, no white cubes; the space is full of feminine touches." Says Serrato, "Art used to live in domestic spaces before it was institutionalized. I hope the space will hold the galleries the way the space held me." The exhibitor list includes Gathering (London), Hans Goodrich (Chicago), Post Times (New York), Shanghai Seminary (Chicago), and Tureen (Dallas). April 6-12.

Chatham's Modernist Pride Cleaners Iconic For South Side Artists

"I’ve always been inspired by the building and the sign,” artist Brandon Breaux says of Chatham's Pride Cleaners. "In 2022, Breaux created a well-received and visually powerful work depicting the daringly modernist 1959 dry cleaners at 79th Street and St. Lawrence, showing its slanted roof and multicolored exterior electric sign. The word 'Dignity' rises behind the building like the sun," writes architecture critic Lee Bey at the Sun-Times. "Take a quick trip through social media and you’ll see a host of visual artists, photographers and others whose work showcases the building." (More.)

Milwaukee Art Museum Hosts Widline Cadet's First U.S. Museum Show

The Milwaukee Art Museum will exhibit "Currents 40: Widline Cadet," the first solo museum exhibition in the United States by the artist and the first full presentation of her ambitious, nearly decade-long project "Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance)." "The exhibition marks a defining moment in Cadet’s career and a major contribution to contemporary photography and media-based art. Working across photography, video, and installation, Cadet explores Black diasporic life through themes of migration, memory, absence, and belonging." (More.)

DINING & DRINKING

What's The Adalina Team Opening In The Former Fred's Space?

A new restaurant from the group behind Adalina will go into the 8,400-square-foot space on the sixth floor of the former Barneys at Rush and Oak, posts B Talent on X, who believes the new concept will be called Arla. The space formerly housed Fred's until 2019, when the Barneys location closed following the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Craft Brew Crash: Five Breweries Drained In Six Weeks

"There’s dramatic change afoot in Chicago’s craft beer industry," quaffs the Sun-Times. "Alarmist Brewing & Taproom in Sauganash permanently closed February 1, and not long after, Berwyn’s Flapjack Brewery and Forest Park’s Casa Humilde turned off their taps. Two more are shutting down: Whiner Beer Co. in Back of the Yards will close March 29, and Illuminated Brew Works in Norwood Park will close June 28. A steady decline in drinking is partially to blame... But the recent string of local closings was accelerated by rising operational and production costs, including aluminum tariffs, and what many feel is an oversaturated market." (More.)

FILM & TELEVISION

Festival Passes On Sale For Chicago Critics Film Festival

The Chicago Critics Film Festival is an annual event that features a selection of the most sought-after and anticipated films of each year, hand-picked by members of the Chicago Film Critics Association. The festival, hosted at the Music Box Theatre, features filmmakers, cast and crew in attendance to celebrate their work and connect with local audiences. This 2026 edition opens on May 1, and films and guests for the festival will be announced in coming weeks. More here.

Harvey Weinstein’s Jailhouse Of Denial

"In his first major sit-down from behind bars, disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein fumes for an hour about life at Rikers Island ('I’m dying here'), his wrecked legacy and his delusions about the future ('I will be proven innocent. That I promise you')," writes the Hollywood Reporter. Weinstein claims that he’s still rich even after paying millions to lawyers. "We all have a tablet that plays movies," Weinstein jabbers. "Each one costs $4.95 to watch. Mostly it’s all big, mainstream hits—not art house stuff. But occasionally some little movie will sneak out of nowhere and be amazing. I just saw 'The Ballad of Wallis Island'—Carey Mulligan executive-produced it—and it’s the most wonderful movie. I wish I was around so I could have distributed that." (More.)

Ellison Family's Foreign Funding Contested

If the Ellison family finances its Warner Bros. Discovery deal with billions from foreign states, asks Oliver Darcy at Status, "would CNN and CBS News have to disclose in all of their pieces that they are partly owned by nation-states with a vested interest in the conflicts?" Democratic senators "are raising fresh concerns... about Paramount’s expected use of foreign money in the deal... Notably, one of Paramount’s earlier proposals to purchase WBD included $24 billion from the Middle East, split among Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Company, and the Qatar Investment Authority—though it remains unclear how involved those petro-states are now." (More.)

LIT

Celebrate Nelson Algren's Birthday At The Green Mill

The Nelson Algren Committee will hold its thirty-sixth annual Algren birthday celebration at the Green Mill. The annual gatherings celebrate "the life and writing of the Chicago author whose books like 'The Man With the Golden Arm' and 'The Neon Wilderness' capture the true, often dark character of post-WW II Chicago." Presentations and readings include musical performances by 1940s-style chanteuse Melodie Magnuson and Dave Gordon; folk and modern protest music featuring committee member David Witter and the group Tipsy Town; readings from Algren by actor Gary Houston; and presentations from Algren scholars and Mike McColly, author of "Walking Chicago’s Coast."

The Nelson Algren Award will be presented to Robert Loerzel, co-author of "The Uptown: Chicago’s Endangered Movie Palace," whose work has also appeared in Chicago magazine, the Tribune, WTTW’s Chicago’s Stories and WBEZ’s Curious City. Algren books and mementos for sale, including signed copies of Mary Wisniewski’s biography, "Algren: A Life." Plus, a birthday cake will be served for Nelson. $10 donation. The Green Mill, Sunday, March 29, 1pm-3pm.

Kathleen Rooney On Why Book Reviews Still Matter

"As I tell my students, art is the transmission of the human spirit. Literature is made by human beings. Presumably, if you want to make art, then you are interested in the human spirit, not just your own, but other people’s," writes Kathleen Rooney in an extended narrative at Chicago Review of Books. "Therefore, doing a review or a podcast or a TikTok video about a book you want to talk about is not cynical, but a natural offshoot of your affection for literature and the humans who create it. Reaching out to an author you appreciate to invite them to do an interview is not obsequious resume-building, but an organic move that feeds your own growth as a participant in the arts." (More.)

MEDIA

Former Trib Critic Maureen Ryan On The Latest AI Thefts

"You just wanted to steal, so you stole. You wanted to take things without permission, so you did. It’s wrong. It’s so enragingly wrong," writes former Tribune TV critic Maureen Ryan in an essential cry as she unleashes her rage at the purveyors of the rampant AI plagiarism engine. "A business built on theft is not a business, it’s a scam... I am writing a book right now, a really challenging endeavor that no doubt someone in Silicon Valley will think it’s fine to steal the day it’s published." (More.)

Playboy Names New Editor-In-Chief

Phillip Picardi joins former Chicago-based publication Playboy as the new chief brand officer and editor-in-chief amid the latest push for a broader editorial revival of the legacy brand, reports AdWeek, "In his first turn in the editorial world, he repositioned Teen Vogue as an arbiter of the Gen Z zeitgeist, founded the queer-focused publication, them, at Condé Nast, and served as editor-in-chief of Out Magazine."

MUSIC

Arc Music Festival Tunes Up Four Days Of Electronic

Techno music Arc Music Festival returns to Union Park over Labor Day weekend for a four-day stint, reports Block Club. The lineup includes "the futuristic soundscapes of Anyma, peerless electronic legacy act Underworld, beloved global champion Michael Bibi, unifying Chicago dance icon Honey Dijon, and high priestess of hard techno Sara Landry." This year's festival will have four stages, "including the debut of a new stage, The Midway, named for the city’s historic Midway Plaisance with a nod to Midway Airport." September 4-7.

Chance's Yearslong Legal Battle With Former Manager Comes To Court

Former Chance the Rapper manager "Pat Corcoran, who was fired in 2020, is seeking millions in unpaid commissions and other expenses," reports the Sun-Times. "At the heart of the dispute are Pat Corcoran’s claims that he is owed $3 million by the hip-hop star, born Chancelor Bennett, in unpaid commissions after he was let go from his managerial role in 2020. According to Corcoran (aka. Pat The Manager), the two had a 'sunset clause' in place that entitled him to royalties for a period of three years post-termination, although the two former friends famously operated on a handshake deal with no written contract that defined the terms of their working arrangement."

Driehaus And CSO Set Murphy Concert Series

The Driehaus Museum and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association have announced the 2026 dates for their popular chamber concert series hosted at the Driehaus Museum's Murphy Auditorium space. The series kicks off on Tuesday, April 28, with "a captivating ensemble performance exploring the artistic movements that laid the groundwork for the design and aesthetics of the museum’s historic buildings and collection." Tickets ($50) and more here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Chicago Arts Organizations Seek Funding Increase

"Leaders of Illinois’ top cultural organizations advocated for more state funding amid economic headwinds at a state hearing on Tuesday," sketches the Sun-Times. "Specifically, the arts leaders expressed support for pending legislation sponsored by [state rep Kimberly] Du Buclet. That proposal, House Bill 4593, allocates $5 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Natural Resources for capital grants to public museums. And House Bill 4594, an amendment to the Department of Natural Resources Act, removes the requirement for public museums to match state funding for capital development."

The Battle Against Pilsen's Gentrification

"Vivid blues, yellows and reds make the brick facades along West 18th Street pop," records the Trib (gift link). "Paintings of faces, birds and other subjects draw foot traffic into alleyways and eyes onto the side of buildings, which house a mix of mom-and-pop shops, taquerias and chains like Dunkin’. The paintings are evidence of Pilsen’s mural movement, which began in the 1960s and cemented the Lower West Side neighborhood’s future as a hub for Mexican art."

"The movement was not in a museum and a fancy gallery. It was in the streets, in the alleys," says Alejandro Romero, a seventy-seven-year-old muralist "who has been based out of the neighborhood for over forty years." But now, "rising property values and taxes on the Lower West Side have brought affordability struggles for artists. Some feel the strain of keeping arts spaces open, and others have been pushed out altogether."

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2026-03-12 New City

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:03:23 GMT

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Talking Screens, A Week In Chicago Film March 13-19, 2026

by Ray Pride

The ninety-eighth Academy Awards are presented on Sunday; some contenders could pop up on local screens.

The Chicago Critics Film Festival each year features a selection of the most sought-after and anticipated films of the year, hand-picked by members of the Chicago Film Critics Association, with filmmakers, cast and crew in attendance to celebrate their work and connect with local audiences. Films and guests will be announced in coming weeks. More here.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's first feature in twelve years, the goofy, oft-giddy Ryan Gosling sci-fi tearjerker "Project Hail Mary," previews in 70mm Friday night. Friday, March 13. at Music Box.

Also at the Music Box: "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"; "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me " (with Sheryl Lee meet-and-greet and Q&A); and "Cannibal Orgy."

A24 thriller "Undertone"—"The host of a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way"—opens wide Thursday, March 12.

"Pompei: Below The Clouds"

We talked to master filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi about observation, frames and lenses for his swooningly beautiful "Pompei: Below The Clouds" here. Opens Friday, March 13, at the Film Center.

Facets and Optical Noise debut a new picture by Jon Moritsugu and Amy Davis, "Numbskull Revolution" ("a punk rock 'Blade Runner' for artists") followed by "My Degeneration." More here.

The scathingly hilarious shout at death, "André Is An Idiot" (review here) opens Friday for a week at the Music Box.

"The Fugitive"

Former Chicago Film Office head Rich Moskal revisits "The Fugitive" for St. Patrick's Day—he was the movie's location manager—with tales to tell. Facets Chicago On Screen, Saturday, March 14, 6:30pm.

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REPERTORY & REVIVAL

The Davis features the digital 4K restoration of Darren Aronofsky’s grainy, black-and-white 16mm head-borer “Pi." Saturday, March 14, 3:14pm.

Along with first-run attractions, the Lincoln Square room is showing "What's Up, Doc?" and "The Mask."

On Sunday, Chicago Film Society presents at the Music Box, "Selections from the Vinegar Syndrome Film Archive," and on Wednesday at Constellation, a new 16mm restoration of Bruce Baillie's hour-long 1970 "Quick Billy," preserved by Anthology Film Archives.

HOLDOVERS

"Die My Love"

Catch "Hamnet," "Seeds" and "Die My Love" at selected showtimes at Facets.

THE WEEK IN FILM

Beyond Fest And Music Box Announce “Beyond Chicago” In April, Including Restoration Of “Speed Racer”

Beyond Fest, the biggest genre festival in the United States, has announced a Chicago program of over thirty features from global genre cinema from April 2-5, including “Faces of Death”; “Obsession”; “Normal”; “Over Your Dead Body”; “The Furious” and guests Bob Odenkirk, Meiko Kaji, RZA, Lilly Wachowski, Jorma Taccone, Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary. Repertory screenings include the world premiere of the 4K restoration of “Speed Racer” with co-director Lilly Wachowski in attendance. Also: a late-night 3D screening of “Flesh For Frankenstein” in remembrance of Udo Kier. Plus: the pairing of “Boorman And The Devil,” on the making of John Boorman’s extravagantly strange sequel, “Exorcist II: The Heretic,” also shown, in 35mm. More here.

Clouds, Naples, Pompei: Gianfranco Rosi's City Symphony of Modern-Day Naples

"Pompei: Below The Clouds" shows how Rosi's notions are temblors beneath a flow of relentlessly gorgeous imagery. (Ray Pride)

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2026-03-13 New City

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 10:03:28 GMT

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Today is D-Day for Newcity's April issue, which is traditionally one of our two biggest of the year, and would have tied for the biggest ever if not for our recent Fortieth Anniversary issue, which set a new standard for us.

We don't go to press until next week, but today is the day that we put the stories into a final layout—we call it a "dummy," but it's far too complicated for that name, if you ask me. And we figure out what last-minute ads we can fit into the magazine and where. (If you're still procrastinating, now's the time to place that order!)

Forty years in, deadlines are still crushing events. Especially on my waistline, thanks to a long-running habit of stress eating. (Sadly, I love sweet and salty, both.)

All of which is to say that the life-changing little story I might have shared here today will have to wait until the fog of deadline clears.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

ART

“The Heresy of Legacy” Opens Volume Gallery’s New West Hubbard Space

The gallery’s inaugural show in its new space brings together sixteen designers and collectives exploring the future of sculptural designs. (Teddy Sandler)

DESIGN

Bringing Camp Wandawega Home

The Into the Woods collection translates a century of camp life into objects that feel inherited. (Vasia Rigou)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
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STAGE

“Two Sisters and a Piano” Hits the Right Notes

Writers Theatre presents a tale about the struggle for liberty and love amidst political oppression. (Tristan Bruns)

BRAZIL

The Interval of Painting: Guilherme Gallé Observes the Interior of the Medium

At Galeria Galatea, the painter explores small interruptions within chromatic fields, revealing painting as a space of internal negotiation and perceptual possibility. (Luiz Armando Bagolin)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Global Art Market Slump Arrested By Top-End Auction Sales

"The art market is on the up again—at least at the top end," hammers the New York Times. "After a two-year slump, global art sales increased four percent to an estimated $59.6 billion last year, according to the latest annual Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report... The improvement was mainly driven by auction sales, said Clare McAndrew, the founder of the Dublin-based research company Arts Economics, who wrote the 245-page report. New York’s marquee week of auctions in November raised a bumper $2.2 billion and eight-figure sales of modern and contemporary masterworks were achieved at the Art Basel Paris fair in October." View the Art Market Report here.

DESIGN

Pritzker Architecture Prize Awarded To Smiljan Radic Clarke Following Delay

Chilean architect Smiljan Radic Clarke is the winner of this year's Pritzker Prize. "Radic, the second Chilean architect to win the award, has designed dozens of buildings that have earned him a formidable reputation in artistic and intellectual circles," reports NPR. "The New York Times described him as 'a rock star among architects' in 2014, after his contribution to London's prestigious Serpentine Pavilion." "Not imposing or commanding, his projects are instead understated and quiet, content to serve their purpose—be it a bus stop, winery or sculptor’s studio," writes Robin Pogrebin at the New York Times (gift link).

"The announcement of the laureate had been delayed by revelations about the connection between Tom Pritzker, the director of the foundation that awards the prize, and Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier." While the Epstein-affiliated Tom Pritzker "remains director and vice president of the Pritzker Foundation, which administers the prize, 'there will be space between Tom and matters related to the prize including ceremonial activities,' said... a spokeswoman for the prize, which includes a bronze medallion and $100,000."

Illinois State Map Celebrates Route 66

The Illinois Department of Transportation will release a new map of Route 66 in honor of the iconic road’s hundredth birthday. "The new Route 66 map is a must for enthusiasts and road-trippers celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Mother Road,” said Illinois Transportation Secretary Gia Biagi. “You can get your kicks with a detailed overview of the highway that’s the best as it stretches across Illinois, highlighting towns large and small that are perfect for pit stops and Route 66’s legendary roadside attractions.” More here.

DINING & DRINKING

How To Cater An Oscars Party

Wolfgang Puck joined the NYT Cooking studio kitchen "to share three recipes from his menu for the Oscars Governors Ball, the official Academy Awards after-party, that you can make at home." The twenty-four-minute video includes his beloved chicken pot pie (free recipe here), as well as spicy tuna tartare in sesame miso cones, chocolate truffle cakes and, for the especially crafty, chocolate Oscar statuettes. Watch the video here. For the real thing, here's a behind-the-scenes look at how the thirteen-and-a-half-inch statuettes are fashioned in Rock Tavern, New York.

René Redzepi Exits Noma

After twenty-three years running Copenhagen restaurant Noma, "widely considered one of the most innovative and important in the world," chef René Redzepi is leaving, reports the New York Times. "The move came after recent reports in The New York Times and on social media about his abuse of employees at Noma in the 2000s and 2010s. The allegations overshadowed the debut of Noma’s sixteen-week pop-up in Los Angeles, where protesters gathered Wednesday, waving signs and chanting." (More.)

Eater Chicago Anticipates Twenty Spring Openings

"Steakhouses continue to reign supreme, while all-day cafes prove a restaurant can be more than one thing," notes Lisa Shames and Jeffy Mai at Eater Chicago. Included in a list of upcoming openings is West Town's Guillotine Bakery: "French baker Vincent Didry spent his formative years at Paris’ top bakeries, including macaron specialist Ladurée. Those pastry skills will be front and center at this West Town bakery—think a trifecta of boulangerie, patisserie, and yeast-leavened Viennoiserie—working with partner Alizé Bikard and head baker Vince Le Bec." Also: a new spot from the Oriole team, dining at The Hand and the Eye's magic mansion, Gibsons Tavern in Fulton Market and much more. See the full list here.

Chef Curtis Duffy Plants A Flag In The Keys

Private island resort Little Palm Island in Little Torch Key, Florida, is partnering with chef Curtis Duffy for its culinary offerings. "The partnership ushers in a defining new chapter for the three-Michelin-Key resort, further establishing Little Palm Island as one of the country's most compelling culinary destinations... The partnership brings together chef Duffy and executive chef Rodrigo Albornoz in a shared vision to shape the next era of dining on the private island," the private resort says in a release.

"Hot Ones" Host To Deliver UIC Commencement Address

Sean Evans, a 2008 graduate of UIC and host of the YouTube series “Hot Ones,” will deliver the commencement address at Gies Memorial Stadium on May 16, reports NBC Chicago. "You walk out on the Quad, and it looks so quintessentially college,” said Evans in a statement. “It looks like a college out of a film. There’s a scale and a history to it that really smacks you in the face. Walking onto the Main Quad for the first time, I had this feeling of being in a totally different place in my life and feeling a lot of comfort in it.”

McDonald's Looks To Expand Value Menu

Chicago-based burger chain McDonald's "will introduce a lower-priced menu and new $4 breakfast meal deals, as it seeks to reclaim its value image," reports the Wall Street Journal. "McDonald’s new value effort includes a menu of items costing $3 and less, meant to provide more flexibility and choice" following recent inflation in fast food menu prices.

Closures Don't Mean "Doom" For Chicago Plant-Based Dining

Four vegetarian or vegan restaurants closed in eight days in Chicago, reports CBS Chicago. "But despite the closures, veterans of the plant-based food business pushed back against prophecies of doom and, in one case, argued that, such closures notwithstanding, plant-based eating is only growing."

FILM & TELEVISION

Vanity Fair's Oscar Party Becomes More Exclusive

Vanity Fair's "rookie editor Mark Guiducci is slashing the guest list, banning the press, and changing the venue from its longtime home in Beverly Hills to the still-under-construction LACMA," observes the Hollywood Reporter. "Guiducci is prioritizing movie stars, nominees and [Oscar] winners while clearing the room of outside media, reps, sponsors and the assorted industry suits who’ve long treated the party as a networking event. The goal: an exclusive environment where stars can 'really let their hair down.' That means no reporters scribbling down who’s canoodling with whom at the bar... Also out: social media posts from inside the event. Organizers are reportedly considering covering smartphone cameras with stickers." The report notes that outside press will be welcomed "with open arms—and in larger numbers" outside on the red carpet.

Oscars Respond To FBI Alert About Drone Attacks

Oscars producers promise they “want everybody to feel safe and protected” at the 2026 Academy Awards on Sunday, "amid reports of an FBI alert about Iran‘s plan to attack California with drones," reports the Hollywood Reporter. "We want everybody that is coming to this show, that is witnessing the show, that is even a fan of the show when they’re standing outside the barricades, we want everybody to feel safe and protected and welcome," says Oscars telecast co-executive producer Raj Kapoor. "So it’s our job as a producing team to make sure that that translates." Governor Newsom says, “It’s all about a posture of preparedness for a worst-case scenario,” reports the New York Times.

Over Half Of Americans Went To A Movie Last Year

According to a Pew Research Center survey, "fifty-three percent of U.S. adults said they had seen a movie in theaters in the prior twelve months. A small but notable seven percent said they had never seen a movie in a theater at all," tickets Variety. "The findings reflected a domestic box office still fighting to regain its footing since the pandemic, when ticket sales collapsed eighty-one percent in 2020 due to theater closures. In 2025, moviegoers in the United States and Canada bought 769.2 million tickets, less than half of the all-time peak of roughly 1.6 billion tickets sold in 2002." The survey is here.

Universal Pictures Extends Movies' Theatrical Windows

"Universal Pictures is lengthening the time that its movies will play exclusively in theaters," marquees Variety. "It’s a major change from the pandemic era when Universal was aggressive in brokering deals that shortened the theatrical window to roughly seventeen days, or three weekends. Now the studio is committing to longer runs, promising a minimum of five weekends in 2026 and seven weekends in 2027 before a film moves to home entertainment. The extension is a huge win for movie theater owners, who have long argued that audiences wouldn’t pay to see movies on the big screen if they could wait a few weeks to watch them at home." Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman has recently called for a restoration of a longer theatrical window from fellow movie studios.

MUSIC

Ravinia Announces Summer Slate, Under New Shell

"The Ravinia Festival will showcase its newly redesigned Hunter Pavilion venue this summer," reports WTTW. "The privately funded $75 million renovation includes a bigger stage with a new acoustic shell for orchestral performances and new seating with increased accessibility, along with improvements to the audio and lighting system and production facilities." This summer's lineup at the outdoor festival in Highland Park includes Paul Simon, Chance the Rapper, Gladys Knight, Ricky Martin, Brandi Carlile, Kool & The Gang, Alabama Shakes, Los Tigres del Norte, St. Vincent, Rod Stewart and many more. "The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will also be returning for the ninetieth anniversary of its Ravinia residency, performing six programs under Ravinia chief conductor Marin Alsop." CSO music director designate "Klaus Mäkelä will make his Ravinia debut in August." The full summer lineup can be viewed here.

Fugazi Releases Scrapped Albini-Produced Sessions

Legendary post-hardcore band Fugazi traveled to Chicago in 1992 to record with Steve Albini, and the effort grew into the album "In On The Kill Taker," records Block Club. "Twelve songs were recorded and mixed at Albini’s then-basement studio at his Chicago home. The music from these 1992 sessions was not easily available to the public, outside of bootleg copies passed around by fans." The band has released its digital version of the sessions, posting "a lengthy history of how those sessions came about and why they weren’t officially released until now. It was after Albini had recorded the Pixies’ 'Surfer Rosa' but a year before he would serve as the engineer for Nirvana’s 'In Utero.'" (More.)

Brigitte Calls Me Baby Back On The Road

The sophomore release of local band Brigitte Calls Me Baby is out today, ahead of two sold-out shows at Thalia Hall in April. "A January album preview at Schubas Tavern sold out within fifty-five seconds," reports Block Club. Read Anne K. Ream's 2024 profile of the band for Newcity here.

Pearl Jam Guitarist Announces "Grunge Opera" On Seattle's Nineties Scene

"Mike McCready is here to make people care about opera again. The Pearl Jam guitarist announced 'Farewell To Seasons,' a 'graphic album' and rock opera set in 1990s Seattle about a fictional grunge musician named David Williams," reports Stereogum. Says McCready, "It’s a story I’ve been developing for many years, inspired by the creativity, community, and chaos of the Seattle music scene."

STAGE

The Impossible Dream: Obamas Are Broadway Producers Now

Barack and Michelle Obama "are making their Broadway producing debut with the upcoming revival of 'Proof' through their Higher Ground production banner," reports Variety. "Don Cheadle and Ayo Edebiri are making their Broadway debuts in David Auburn’s Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The limited engagement will be directed by Tony winner Thomas Kail and also produced by Mike Bosner and Kail."

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

CTA Describes Increased Security Measures

"Chicago Transit Authority officials presented a revised safety plan Tuesday to the Federal Transit Administration, which had been threatening to cut a $50 million grant if the CTA did not revise its security plan to the FTA’s liking," reports the Sun-Times. Policing hours will be increased and "the CTA will test high-barrier entry gates to prevent fare evasion. Such gates, which don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, will be installed at rail stations that typically are staffed but still have high rates of fare evasion... The agency will also begin 'farecard inspection missions' this year. The goal... is to 'uncover the use of free, reduced, or other entitlement fare media by someone other than the authorized holder and revoke the entitlement.'"

Chicago River Swim Returns For Second Year

"Chicago’s open-water river swim will return to the Chicago River Main Stem in September following last year’s success," reports the Sun-Times. Last year, "more than 300 swimmers plunged into the Chicago River for the first organized open-water swim in ninety-eight years. Swimmers will return this September to complete one-mile and two-mile courses along the river’s main channel in downtown Chicago."

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2026-03-16 New City

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:03:02 GMT

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A few weeks back, we covered the news that Vox Media had let much of its extensive archive of its now-defunct Curbed site go dark, meaning that hundreds of stories about architecture and the built environment had effectively gone poof. They blamed it on a transition to a new content-management system.

I can empathize, because we went through several such transitions in the early days of the internet, meaning archives of stories published from the time we went online in the mid-nineties until we switched to our current system (for good, I hope) are no longer available.

It's a topic that haunts us, especially as we mark our fortieth anniversary. Our archives up until 2007 exist only in print copies we have in storage, and on computer disks and drives that are almost certainly obsolete. Thousands of stories documenting the story of Chicago culture for our first twenty years are effectively unavailable.

We're not alone with this problem; it's even greater when publications go out of business, as so many newspapers and alt-weeklies did in the last decade or so. It turns out that print, a centuries-old form of media, was a more stable form of archiving than the digital world that pushed it aside.

And don't even ask me about our personal photographs…

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

ART

Alexa Viscius Photographs the Faces Behind the Music at Epiphany Center for the Arts

The photographer's solo exhibition “Portraits of People Who Make Music” reveals moments of quiet intimacy with beloved indie musicians. (Harrison Knight)

STAGE

Comedian Jimmy Pardo Returns to His Chicago Roots

The quick-witted host of the podcast “Never Not Funny,” brings his improvised stand-up to Zanies Rosemont for a special matinee show. (Carl Kozlowski)

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LIT

Tech Is a Time Rot. Don’t Decay with It

In "Techno-Negative: A Long History of Refusing the Machine," Thomas Dekeyser traces centuries of rebellion against technology, from medieval heresy to computer arson. (Samuel Schwindt)

BRAZIL

Looking Beyond Traditions: Rafael Pereira Reconsiders the Legacy of Brazilian Modernism

Through his solo exhibition at Galeria Estação, the painter reconfigures portraiture to expose the unresolved tensions within the modernist canon. (Luiz Armando Bagolin)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Brooklyn Museum Director Sees Sexism In Museum Leadership Upheavals

During a talk in Washington, D.C., Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak "said she sees …a troubling pattern in museum leadership. In light of recent museum leadership reshuffles, she argued that male museum directors often retire, while women more frequently get fired," reports ARTnews. "I’m petrified about what’s happening to leadership in our country, and particularly in our field,” said Pasternak. “I think that if we were to take a look at the people—the museum leaders—who have lost their jobs, curators and directors in recent years, we would find that men retire and women get fired. And I’m not seeing any data on this. If anybody is in the press here, I’d like for you to study it."

DESIGN

New Ideas For South Shore's Stony Island Corridor

A city-commissioned panel has been assigned "to establish Stony Island 'as a hub for retail, entertainment, tourism and higher education,'" reports Block Club. "Major projects in progress or proposed along the stretch include the Obama Presidential Center, renovations to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, a twenty-six-story hotel and the Regal Mile Studios. The planned Woodlawn Central megadevelopment is also near the corridor. The 'technical assistance panel,' made of eleven experts in urban planning, real estate, economic development and finance, presented preliminary recommendations last week."

Eight Key Projects By Pritzker Prize-Winner Smiljan Radic

Eight feats of experimental architecture by Smiljan Radic are noted by Dezeen. One highlight: "House for the Poem of the Right Angle," built in Chile in 2012. "Radic based the unusual, protruding angles and forms on an abstract painting by architect Le Corbusier. Its twelve-centimetre-thick reinforced concrete walls form an assemblage of skylights, curved walls, harsh right angles and a cantilever, while the interior is lined in wood and encircles a central courtyard."

Cubs Cultivate Car Culture In Request For Hundreds More Parking Spaces

Cubs officials say hundreds of additional "spaces could reduce parking for fans on neighborhood streets, but residents fear the expansion will bring more gridlock on game days," reports Block Club. The Cubs "want to expand a team-owned parking lot near Wrigley Field by hundreds of spaces after buying a neighboring property," increasing "the lot’s capacity from 688 spaces to as many as 947." Meanwhile, notes YouTube creator Stewart Hicks, many baseball teams around the country are looking to replicate the Wrigley Field environment, where the ballpark is enclosed by a neighborhood with transit and entertainment options, rather than a sea of surface parking.

DINING & DRINKING

Oriole Team Plans New Restaurant

"From Oriole to All Well. Larry Feldmeier and Noah Sandoval open their next chapter this spring," announces the Oriole team of their new concept, titled All Well (with an upside-down "A"). Oriole opened in 2017, and is one of a handful of Chicago restaurants with two Michelin stars. Eater's preview of Chicago spring openings notes that the new spot will be located at 111 North Carpenter in the West Loop, and that it "will feature two distinct menus. The fifty-seat main dining room will serve a five-course prix fixe new American menu featuring options such as délice de Bourgogne (a rich, French triple-cream cheese), agnolotti and beets with sake lees and sea buckthorn. For a more casual experience, the thirty-seat bar will offer an à la carte menu where customers can snack on oysters, boquerones toast, and a short rib sandwich."

How Do Restaurants Approach The Disappointed Customer?

"If you don’t like your $46 fillet of halibut for any reason, you should give an honest response," advises John Kessler at Chicago magazine. "You’re not asking them to do anything about it; that’s up to the restaurant, but how they respond shows their true commitment to hospitality. Every restaurant handles it differently. Some comp the dish, some offer a dessert on the house, some register the comment and say they hope we’ll give them another chance. All are perfectly fine responses. This is the act of hospitality, something that can turn a guest into a patron."

Nikkei Dinner By Tanta x Akiro Blends Peruvian And Japanese Cuisines

Tanta and Akiro are bringing together two distinctive culinary perspectives for a special collaborative dinner celebrating the deep connection between Peruvian and Japanese cuisine. The evening commemorates 127 years since the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to Peru, a cultural exchange that would later give rise to Nikkei cuisine. A twelve-bite tasting menu from the restaurants will feature Akiro's most-recognized creations and a series of dishes created exclusively for the occasion by Tanta. Saturday, April 4. Reservations ($105) and more here.

Kincade's Expands To Wrigleyville, Forty Years After Original

"Lucky 13 Hospitality Group’s second Kincade’s will replace the closed Lost Never Found across from Wrigley Field," tallies Block Club. "The two-floor bar is the latest concept from Lucky 13, which also operates Matchbox, Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar and the recently opened Stolen Saddle." They say "the move has been in the works for nearly two years and comes as the original Kincade’s marks its fortieth anniversary."

Times Offers Stock Corned Beef & Cabbage Recipe

"The addition of potatoes and carrots makes this corned beef and cabbage recipe not only great on St. Patrick’s Day but a satisfying meal any day," posts the New York Times' Cooking in their basic near-five-hour approach, plus slow and pressure cooker versions.

FILM & TELEVISION

The Once-Booming Atlanta Film Industry Is Shrinking

"Studios, lured by generous tax credits, turned Atlanta into the 'Hollywood of the South,' the backdrop for hundreds of productions like 'The Hunger Games,' 'Stranger Things' and more than a dozen Marvel blockbusters," reports the Los Angeles Times (free link). "After hitting a peak of $4.4 billion in 2022, spending on film and TV production in Georgia has tumbled, reaching just $2.3 billion in the last fiscal year, as total productions dropped from 412 in 2022 to 245... The decline accelerated after the 2023 writers and actors strikes halted productions for months, dealing a blow to an industry still recovering from pandemic shutdowns... Marvel has left Georgia’s market... and shifted its massive productions to the United Kingdom, where labor and production costs are cheaper. Streamers like Netflix are also increasingly filming abroad, while producing fewer shows in general."

"Bleak Week" Goes Global

"Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair" goes beyond a handful of cities like Los Angeles and Chicago in its fifth year, to seventy-three cities and nearly a hundred theaters across the United States and Puerto Rico, Canada, England, Scotland, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. Details here.

LIT

Midwest Mystery Conference Stalks Chicago In April

The annual Midwest Mystery Conference returns to Chicago in April, a one-day event "ideal for crime fiction readers, writers and publishing pros, with a single track of panels and keynote conversations." Roosevelt University, 430 South Michigan, April 11, 9am-4:30pm. Registration here.

The Newberry's New Exhibition Features Rare Copy Of Declaration Of Independence

The Newberry Library will open their next exhibition, "Free and Independent: The Declaration of Independence and the Words That Made the United States," on April 9. The exhibition features more than two-dozen historic items, "inviting visitors to survey phrases from the Declaration, such as 'All Men are created equal,' and to consider some of the surprising ideas behind those words. Collection items highlight influential figures such as John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. On display will be the only surviving manuscript copy of Jay’s 'Federalist No. 3, ' one of only five surviving manuscript drafts of any of the Federalist essays. The Newberry's copy of the Declaration is a rare broadside from Newport, Rhode Island, mistakenly dated June 13 rather than July 13, 1776, that demonstrates how supporters and opponents of independence might have first encountered the empire-shattering news." More here.

MEDIA

New York Times Employs More Journalists Than Ever

In 2014, future New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger led a small team of Times staffers to produce an Innovation Report, at a time when the paper's future felt threatened by digital upstarts like Buzzfeed and Vice. Twelve years later, the Times newsroom employs "a record 2,300 journalists, publisher A.G. Sulzberger said in his annual 'State of the Times' address to employees... The current Times newsroom is fifty-percent larger than a decade ago," reports The Wrap (free link). "The Times employs more than 3,000 journalists when including staff totals on the Opinion side, its sports newsroom, The Athletic and other journalistic operations. The paper had 2,800 journalists at the end of 2024, its most recent annual report."

Buzzfeed's Future In Danger, Leaving $1.7 Billion Valuation Far Behind

While the Times rides high, fortunes have turned for Buzzfeed: "BuzzFeed rode a wave of VC investment to become a force, but never found a path to profitability. Now it faces a fate like other failed digital-media darlings of the past," reports MarketWatch. "'There is substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,' BuzzFeed said in its fourth-quarter earnings report... The company said it is 'exploring strategic options,' to address its capital needs, but short of finding a solution, 'we anticipate that we will not have sufficient resources to fund our cash obligations for the next twelve months.'"

TikTok's Bad Vibes Push Younger Viewers To YouTube

"Gen Z hasn’t yet reached its thirties, but it's already feeling nostalgic for a simpler time," posts Tubefilter. "That’s one of the takeaways from a Harris Poll survey, which found that TikTok's new features are alienating some members of Gen Z—even as they continue to use the app... 'Gen Z still shows up to TikTok every day, but they’re showing up skeptical, exhausted and nostalgic for a version of the platform that’s already gone,' said Harris Poll Chief Strategy Officer Libby Rodney... The solution, for many, is more time spent on YouTube, [which] is still a favorite among teenagers."

MUSIC

Chicago Symphony Appoints Robert Kahn As Conducting Fellow

The CSO has added Dutch-American conductor Robert Kahn as assistant conductor for the season, reports The Violin Channel. Kahn "will serve as a cover conductor during certain subscription weeks. He will also lead youth concerts in March 2027, as well as conduct the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and young musicians during the CSO Young Artists Competition."

STAGE

Nicole Kidman Talks Chicago Stage

In a pre-Oscars interview at Variety, Nicole Kidman's answer shifts the stock "Do you wanna direct?" question to the Chicago stage: "I’ve circled it. But then I’ve been too busy or too tired. There are still things I want to do as an actor. I want to do theater again. I’ve done Broadway and the West End a couple of times. But I’m interested in Off Broadway and even some regional theater at some point, like in Chicago. Those things are different and exciting; you just need to get your children to a certain age to be able to do it. Right now is not the time for me to do that; I’ve got to take care of these kids. That’s sort of in my 'Future' folder. I’ve got to fill this summer with kid stuff."

Sandy Shinner As Chicago Theater Force

Shattered Globe producing artistic director Sandy Shinner is "stepping down from her leadership role... but her history of championing new work and emerging artists remains unmatched," profiles Kerry Reid at the Reader. The profile offers a dense history of her accomplishments at Shattered Globe Theater, earlier at Victory Gardens and elsewhere.

Chelsea Hoy New Co-Artistic Director Of Trinity Irish Dance

Chelsea Hoy has been named co-artistic director of Trinity Irish Dance Company. The thirty-year-old Hoy has been associate artistic director for the past eight years, also regularly performing with the company, not only in Chicago, but also at the Joyce, Jacob's Pillow and Tokyo's Orchard Hall. She was most recently invited to perform a work at the 2026 Uptown Rhythm Dance Festival (part of the ‘Women Move the World’ series) at the 92nd Street Y.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Southwest Exiting O'Hare

Southwest Airlines sent "emails to passengers Friday morning, saying that all Southwest flights at O’Hare would be canceled starting June 4," reports the Sun-Times, "ending a five-year run at the nation’s busiest airport." The announcement comes as United Airlines and American Airlines continue a fierce competition for gate space and departure slots at the airport. Southwest's service will continue at the airline's Midway hub.

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2026-03-17 New City

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 10:01:40 GMT

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Newcity is looking to hire, which is not something we say very often.

The last time we recruited an editor was three years ago. You can see the details of our new assistant editor opening here.

The last time we recruited a designer was eleven years ago. You can see the details of our new designer opening here.

I am tempted to write about the incredible future we have planned, and how rewarding it is to do work that has meaning to so many people, but I think we'll let the work of Newcity speak for itself. Please share our search with the most outstanding candidates you know.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

MUSIC

Between the Beat: Muti Hands off “Tosca” for Puccini Centennial, but Conducts “Manon” With the Chicago Symphony

Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director emeritus for life Riccardo Muti returns to Chicago for two programs in March, including "An Opera Night" on March 19-21 that will, in part, spotlight a composer not regularly associated with Muti: Giacomo Puccini. (Dennis Polkow)

ART

H.C. Westermann’s "Anchor Clanker" Showcases the Sculptor's Skill and Satire

The Art Institute amasses the largest collection of works in over two decades by H.C. Westermann. (Elisa Shoenberger)

FILM

E.T. Stone Home: Buddy Picture "Hail Mary Project"

Phil Lord and Christoper Miller's film is a cheeky, cheery space karaoke based on a novel by Andy Weir. (Ray Pride)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
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STAGE

Through the Roof: Grelley Duvall Goes for the Statuette with Best Actress

Full-spectrum emotionally gratifying theater, signed and sealed in a love letter to pop culture. (Sharon Hoyer)

NEWCITY

Free Will Astrology: Week of March 19, 2026

"We should lie as empty, open, and choiceless as a beach—waiting for gifts from the sea." (Rob Brezsny)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

Touring The Obama Center's Art Collection

"The Obamas have long said the Obama Presidential Center would be more than relics of the presidency," posts Carrie Shepherd at Axios Chicago. Twenty-eight commissioned works "contribute to the Obamas' goal of the center as a cultural hub—especially for locals... The Obamas were hands-on in all aspects of the center's design, museum director Louise Bernard [says], including the specific artists they wanted to feature, such as local luminaries Theaster Gates and the late Richard Hunt... Artists who were significant to the presidency are also featured, like Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama in 2016."

The Rise And Fall Of Buy-One-Give-One Sales

"A once-popular mechanism that allowed collectors to secure an in-demand work if they gifted a second to an institution, market shifts have made 'bogos' less viable," reports The Art Newspaper. "If you wanted to purchase a painting by a red-hot contemporary artist a few years ago... there was a reliable way to get to the front of the pack: a mechanism known in the art business as 'buy one, give one.'" "Bogo," as the sales tactic was dubbed, was "used by galleries to tamp down speculation while supporting their artists’ long-term prospects. To secure preferential access to an in-demand artist’s work, a collector agrees to buy two paintings (and they are almost always paintings, the most commercial of media) by that artist. The collector then donates one to a museum and keeps the other for themselves."

DESIGN

The Burnham Center Will See Partial Conversion To Hotel

"Mike Reschke is extending his streak of planned Loop office building transformations, taking control of a historic property across from City Hall with plans to convert part of it into as many as 300 hotel rooms," reports Crain's. The 113-year-old building was the last Chicago building designed by Daniel Burnham. Reschke and an investor are planning a "partial conversion of the 585,000-square-foot building into a hotel with between 250 and 300 rooms," and notes it makes a "strong conversion candidate because of its interior courtyard that can accommodate a new column-free ballroom for a hotel."

Drawing On The Architectural Legacy Of Stanley Tigerman

"In the years following Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s death in 1969, large offices like Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Perkins & Will dominated the Chicago architectural scene. But Stanley Tigerman led a small office revolution during this period, spawning a group of young practitioners including Larry Booth, Jim Nagle, Tom Beeby and Stuart Cohen who transformed architectural culture and practice in the city. While building was always of paramount importance, drawing played a crucial role in this endeavor, shown in galleries and publications that brought attention to these then-young architects and their ideas," Tribune architecture critic Edward Keegan writes (gift link). (More.)

Aurora Plans To Turn Old Post Office Into Cultural Center

"As part of a larger plan still in the very early stages of development, Aurora is considering turning the old Post Office and former SciTech museum building into a cultural arts center," reports the Tribune. The city-owned building "has sat empty since SciTech, which had been in the building for over thirty years, moved out in 2022. Aurora asked SciTech to leave so that it could privately develop the building, and at the time, city officials said one interested developer was proposing turning it into a brewery."

Divvy Announces Extended Discounts And Expanded Reach

Mayor Johnson, the Chicago Department of Transportation and Lyft will continue "the popular $99 Divvy annual membership for new and lapsed riders, a price freeze for current members, and the addition of 200 new or upgraded stations this year," posts the mayor's office. "Divvy, Chicago’s bike and scooter share system operated by Lyft, is coming off of a record-breaking 2025 and has already seen more than 500,000 trips in 2026—outpacing previous winter ridership records."

A Streeterville Office Mid-Rise Could Go Residential

"Developer Cubed Real Estate is proposing to turn a five-story office building at 212 East Ohio in Streeterville into twenty-eight residences, part of a growing trend," surveys Crain's. "Office-to-residential conversions have been picking up steam downtown," even beyond the high-profile projects on the LaSalle Street corridor, "as the need for workspace wanes while rental demand remains strong."

How Paris Beat The Car

Paris' "transition away from the car, though fantastically chaotic, has become a global role model," reports the Financial Times. "Under [outgoing] mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris was 'the most influential city in the world,'" says Canadian urbanist Brent Toderian. "Parisian car traffic fell by more than half between 2002 and 2023, while cycle lanes expanded sixfold. Bikes now make more than twice as many journeys as cars. Hidalgo, stepping down after twelve years, exulted: 'The bike beat the car.'" Lessons? "Pushing out cars improves life for most inhabitants. Paris has reduced traffic accidents, noise and air pollution. More than 300 'school streets' have been pedestrianized; kids play there after school. More than ever before, Paris is a sea of terraces: from April to October, cafés and restaurants can put tables on parking spaces outside their premises."

DINING & DRINKING

Chicago Picks Thirteen Best New Restaurants

Creepies takes top spot among thirteen hot boîtes, cover-stories restaurant critic John Kessler at Chicago magazine: "You need only consider its name to know that Creepies is a fabulous weirdo, a restaurant that has no choice but to be itself. After scouting any number of creepy old sites (hence the name) for a sophomore project to follow the acclaimed Elske, David and Anna Posey began to assemble their oddball vision. The room had to give that Lynchian tingle that historic taverns in Chicago do better than anywhere else, and it had to have the tight bustle of a French bistro. The menu, meanwhile, wouldn’t be a timeworn collection of French clichés and safe bets but that of a Parisian-style neo-bistro showcasing distinctive recipes with a deep sense of place. That place would be the Midwest." See the full list here.

Teens Bring BORGs To St. Patrick's Parade

This past weekend, many teenagers at the St. Patrick's parade left behind their "black-out rage gallon” jugs, reports Block Club. "Every year on the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, thousands descend on Downtown in their best green attire for the dyeing of the Chicago River, the St. Patrick’s Day parade and the associated bar crawls and general debauchery. But in recent years, revelers—particularly younger ones of questionable drinking age—have moved away from Guinness and whiskey in favor of the BORG... A BORG is a brightly-colored beverage typically made up of vodka, water, drink mix and some type of electrolyte formula meant to stave off hangovers. It is made in a gallon-sized jug."

TenGoku Aburiya Brings Gaijin To Bento & Co. Lunchtime Series

Executive chef-owner Paul Virant of Gaijin is "bringing his passion for pickling and preserving to match TenGoku’s izakaya flair." For two weeks, "chef Paul is teaming up with TenGoku’s chef Danny Rodriguez to serve up a Japanese chicken curry bento. The box highlights the duo’s shared love of Japanese flavors, featuring chicken curry with Four-Star mushrooms served over rice and topped with furikake; curry-pickled daikon with marinated tomatoes and pea shoots; and kombu-marinated vegetables. On the side, TenGoku adds shrimp shumai dumplings, ajitama and veggie miso soup." A portion of the proceeds benefits the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Available for $20, weekdays, 11:30am-1:30pm, through Friday, March 27. More here.

Chefs Reflect On René Redzepi's Crash

"In the industry where René Redzepi reigned, fellow chefs are debating how, and how much, restaurant kitchens can change," reports Julia Moskin at the New York Times (gift link). The past week’s events "have lent new urgency to a conversation in the global restaurant industry about how to fix professional kitchens once and for all. Although past scandals and the #MeToo movement have resulted in better conditions at many restaurants, chefs said bullying and abuse still persist at too many others. Dominique Crenn, the first woman in the United States to head a restaurant with three Michelin stars, said it is well past time to change the notion that performing at the highest level in the world’s top kitchens requires humiliation, intimidation or violence. 'We have been talking about this forever.'"

FILM & TELEVISION

Chicago At The Oscars: Amy Madigan, Chase Infiniti And Buddy Guy

Chicago native Amy Madigan took the Best Supporting Actress Oscar on Sunday night for her proudly loud role as the energy-thirsty child-snatching hag-witch Aunt Gladys in "Weapons." In a round of the five nominees for the first Best Casting Oscar, recent Columbia graduate Chase Infiniti introduced Cassandra Kulukundis, casting director for "One Battle After Another," who had brought her to the screen. (Kulukundis won.) ABC has Infiniti's red carpet arrival on YouTube here. Harper's Bazaar admires her ruffled dress, which Vogue says took 750 hours to make and was worn with fifty-seven carats of diamonds. And playing in the number for "Sinners"-nominated song "I Lied To You" (video here) was Buddy Guy in his polka-dot regalia of the evening.

Bob Odenkirk Takes "Normal" To Normal

Bob Odenkirk "is coming to Normal... to visit the Normal Theater... and talk about his new film, 'Normal,'" reports WGLT. Odenkirk will appear April 2 at the Normal Theater, joined onstage by "Normal" screenwriter Derek Kolstad, who collaborated on the "Nobody" films. Tickets here. Odenkirk and Kolstad will appear the next night at the Music Box as part of Beyond Chicago on April 3. Tickets here.

Chicago's Essanay As The Disney Of Its Day

"More than a century ago, Chicago was sparking the fledgling film industry while Southern California had yet to get started making movies," recollects Mark Caro at the Tribune. "The Nestor Film Company opened Hollywood’s first movie studio in 1911, yet Essanay Studios, otherwise known as the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, already had been operating on North Wells and then Argyle since 1907 and would become home to Charlie Chaplin before he, like much of the industry, moved westward."

LIT

New Book Explores The 1930s Vigilantes Who Chased Down Bootleggers

At Chicago magazine, Robert Loerzel looks through "a new book about a vigilante group that chased down local bootleggers and extortionists in the early 1930s." Kevin E. Meredith’s book, "The Secret Six," "is titled after this shadowy syndicate that took matters into its own hands. Formed by the Chicago Association of Commerce in 1930, when the city seemed overrun by mobsters, this outfit of freelance lawmen was supposedly controlled by six anonymous 'business and civic leaders,' though in reality the number was not fixed. The men conducted their own investigations and even apprehensions but worked in collaboration with the police and state’s attorney." (More.)

MEDIA

Print-Only Quarterly "The Pub" Launches Bucktown Space

"The pub," a free, print-only quarterly located in Bucktown, "explores Chicago’s DIY culture. Its new space will host open mics, film screenings and more," reports Block Club. "The newspaper features writing from Chicago and Midwest creatives, covering news, culture and the underground. It’s not easy to find—at least online, as the editors write in their website’s opening note: 'You’re not supposed to find us online. You’re supposed to go out into the real world to find us.' The publication is not on social media, and its issues never go online." But "'The pub'—which is stylized in all lowercase—has a physical presence [as] the staff opened a production and events space, called the pub house, at 2150 West Armitage."

MUSIC

Bluesman Cicero Blake Was Ninety

Cicero Blake, ninety, "was best known for his raunchy blues tune 'Dip My Dipper,'" chronicles the Sun-Times. "'I remember listening to his songs when I was a kid on WVON and DJ Pervis Spann would always say the names of the artists twice, and I just always thought his name was the coolest name,' recalled blues guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks, whose father, the late blues musician Lonnie Brooks, was pals with Mr. Blake. 'And "Dip My Dipper" would come on, and my mother knew the song and would yell, "Turn that off!"'"

Third Annual Evanston Folk Fest's Lineup Announced

Space Presents has set the lineup for the third annual Evanston Folk Festival, with over thirty artists, including Trampled by Turtles, Indigo Girls, Josh Ritter, Valerie June, Sierra Hull, James McMurtry, Mdou Moctar, Kathleen Edwards and The Brudi Brothers across three stages. Dawes Park, September 12-13. General tickets go on sale Friday, March 20, 10am here.

STAGE

The Joffrey Tower Gets A Refresh (With Poetry)

The Joffrey Ballet has completed a major refresh of its Chicago-based home at the Joffrey Tower. The refreshed design features interiors by Rubiostudio and vivid environmental graphics by artist and designer Bob Faust, including works of "Concrete Poetry": "Curated as part of a new collaboration between the Joffrey and the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation, incorporated into the environment are excerpts of work by six local poets: Alfonso Carrara, Tarfia Faizullah, Angela Jackson, José Olivarez, Anne Stevenson, and the former (and inaugural) Poet Laureate of Chicago avery r. young."

Joffrey leadership began rethinking the environment of the Joffrey Tower post-pandemic, "aiming to create an integrated campus within the Tower’s four floors to strengthen engagement between the company artists, its Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet students, community engagement students, and administrative personnel. Key elements of the $2.5 million restoration, funded by Joffrey supporters, include the creation of an industry-leading Health and Wellness center and the installation of new Harlequin wood sprung floors. The project also expanded the Tower’s costume shop, the Grainger Academy lobby, and administrative facilities, adding meeting rooms and workspaces."

David Schwimmer's "Long Relationship" With Lookingglass

"Talk about a long-term relationship: For the past thirty-seven years—from his days as a no-name actor fresh out of Northwestern, there has been one creative constant in David Schwimmer's life: Lookingglass Theatre Company," writes Modern Luxury. "As a co-founder and founding ensemble member of the famously inventive troupe, his attachment to Lookingglass has never wavered, but these days it’s more alive than it’s been in years. 'It’s been thirty-seven years of a labor of love and passion,' Schwimmer says. The actor, who joined the company’s board in November 2024, has stepped back into a hands-on role at a critical juncture."

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Shaping JB Pritzker

"During his two terms as the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker has become a national figure in the Democratic Party and one of Donald Trump’s main antagonists, at one point telling the president to 'fuck all the way off.' That combativeness has created a narrative around Pritzker, whose sister, Penny, was secretary of commerce under President Barack Obama, as a potential contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, even if he’s not saying that yet as he runs for a rare third gubernatorial term," profiles the New York Times magazine (gift link). (More.)

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2026-03-18 New City

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:03:18 GMT

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Dave Hoekstra's fine reminiscence of the year 1986, which I hope most of you read in the anniversary print edition, is now online.

For many of us, it will bring back memories that don't seem that long ago. While for others, it will read like ancient history. but I hope you'll still be captivated by the state of the world Newcity was started in.

For fun, I looked up the top hit songs of that year, to see what was playing on the radio. Talk about ancient history. The ubiquity of Top 40 radio back then meant that I remember all of these songs quite well, even though I did not buy any of the albums. (Except Whitney Houston. Everybody bought that record.)

1 "That's What Friends Are For" Dionne and Friends (Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder)

2 "Say You, Say Me" Lionel Richie

3 "I Miss You" Klymaxx

4 "On My Own" Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald

5 "Broken Wings" Mr. Mister

6 "How Will I Know" Whitney Houston

7 "Party All the Time" Eddie Murphy

8 "Burning Heart" Survivor

9 "Kyrie" Mr. Mister

10 "Addicted to Love" Robert Palmer

To find my tastes at the time, you'd have to go deeper down the list, where artists like Prince, Pet Shop Boys and Simple Minds ended up. And Madonna, of course. Don't judge: I was just a kid.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

Newcity is hiring: Assistant Editor, info here / Designer, info here.

NEWCITY

1986: When Chicago Opened Its Heart to the World

With fresh energy and experimental desire, Chicago opened its heart to the world in 1986. That magical year helped shape America’s landscape. (Dave Hoekstra)

ART

Ann Toebbe Explores Her Mental Map of Hyde Park

The Hyde Park Art Center show will make viewers think about the places they hold in their hearts for their own neighborhoods and towns. (Elisa Shoenberger)

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STAGE

Reimagined “Butterfly” Leaves Sumptuous Score Intact but Turns Reality on Its Head

Matthew Ozawa’s multidimensional staging of “Butterfly” that premiered at Cincinnati Opera in 2023 is now being presented at his home company of Lyric Opera, where he is chief artistic director. (Dennis Polkow)

BRAZIL

Evicted Museu da Casa Brasileira Finds New Home

Plus Chico da Silva gets a catalogue raisonné along with a UK solo, and a new book about Wesley Duke Lee. (Brian Hieggelke)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

MCA Director Madeleine Grynsztejn Exits After Eighteen Years

Madeleine Grynsztejn, director of MCA Chicago, is leaving after eighteen years, reports ARTnews. "She secured millions in funding and staged a Kerry James Marshall show." Grynsztejn says "that next year will mark the MCA’s sixtieth anniversary, and she felt it was time to step aside and allow someone else to take up her mantle." Grynsztejn joined the MCA in 2008 "and has since facilitated a diverse program bolstered by large-scale retrospectives that have drawn acclaim.

"Under her watch, the museum has done surveys for artists such as Doris Salcedo, Takashi Murakami, Howardena Pindell, Virgil Abloh and Luc Tuymans; it has also traveled monumentally sized surveys such as a recent one for Yoko Ono that had not visited the United States before the MCA took it on. Unusually for a museum director, Grynsztejn also took a hands-on approach with her programming, initiating shows such as a 2016 survey for the painter Kerry James Marshall." (More.)

Tate Modern Will Showcase David Hockney-Designed Opera Sets

Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall "will be transformed into an immersive opera house as it plays host to an exhibition featuring the sets David Hockney designed for productions of works by Mozart, Wagner and Stravinsky dating back to the 1970s," reports The Guardian. The show marks the artist's ninetieth birthday. "Better known for his landscapes and portraits, Hockney worked on... opera sets going back to his time in London before he moved to Los Angeles." (More.)

DESIGN

Google Keeps Thompson Center Name

The Thompson Center name will remain, Google announces by way of a website offering commercial leases with soaring prose: "A monumental space, the Thompson Center’s soaring seventeen-story atrium transforms the workday experience every day, bringing people together and inspiring our boldest ideas... With a vision for a mix of anchor food and beverage and retail brands alongside inspiring art and public programming, the Thompson Center will be a new hub for retail and culture." Chicago YIMBY has renderings of the interior revamp here.

Fallingwater's Notorious Indoor Water Falling No More

"Almost ninety years after the house’s completion, conservators are still working on stabilising Wright’s experimental design [for the Fallingwater house]—including endemic leaking problems unrelated to the waterfall," measures The Art Newspaper. "The latest in these conservation efforts, a three-year, $7m project to repair and protect the house, is scheduled for completion in April."

Chicago Housing Authority Names New CEO

A Chicago Housing Authority voted to name Keith Pettigrew, the current executive director of the District of Columbia Housing Authority, as the new CHA head, reports the Sun-Times. "The CHA has been without a CEO for sixteen months, and Tuesday’s vote marks a win for the board over Mayor Brandon Johnson, who pushed for the appointment of retired Ald. Walter Burnett."

David Lynch's Lloyd Wright Compound Takes $13 Million

"Almost six months after it hit the market for $15 million, David Lynch’s longtime home in the Outpost Estates neighborhood of the Hollywood Hills sold," writes Robb Report. "The avant-garde Los Angeles compound assembled and customized over several decades by the legendary filmmaker, who died in January 2025 at age seventy-eight, went to an unnamed buyer for $13 million... Set on five contiguous parcels, amid two-plus hillside acres just below Mulholland Drive, the gated property features seven separate structures anchored by a pink-hued residence originally designed for writer Beverly Johnson in the early 1960s by Lloyd Wright, the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright."

Architect Jordan Hicks Fashions Home After Chicago Imagists

"As an architect, Jordan Hicks dreamed of designing and building his own house from the ground up. In 2022, after years of renting in Chicago, he and his partner, Amanda Goldblatt, thought they had finally saved enough to do so," admires the New York Times. "Mr. Hicks, forty-one, who founded the architecture firm Orders in 2024 after working at Studio Gang for more than a decade, threw himself into designing the couple’s dream house on paper." But it didn't happen, and renovation was now in the cards. "In addition to expressing their personalities while updating the interior, Mr. Hicks and Ms. Goldblatt took inspiration from the Chicago Imagists, artists who created fantastical works in bold colors in the late 1960s and early 1970s." (More.)

DINING & DRINKING

Chicago's Black-Owned Craft Breweries Get Creative During A Tough Time

"Leaning into cultural celebration is one way Moor's and Funkytown Brewery—the city’s two Black-owned breweries set themselves apart in a volatile industry that is seeing increased brewery closings nationwide. In Chicago, at least five have shuttered or announced closures this year," writes WBEZ. "By contrast, Moor’s Brewing and Funkytown Brewery have remained resilient due to contract brewing—producing their beers at other breweries instead of opening a brick-and-mortar location right away. They also have built a following by pairing their beer with cultural experiences and events, and targeting a diverse consumer base. The owners say they hope this approach will sustain them when they eventually open their own space."

Council Vote Today May Bump Tipped Workers Back To Subminimum Wage

"An ordinance to restore Chicago’s subminimum wage for tipped workers is headed for a vote on Wednesday, potentially setting up Mayor Johnson’s signature policy win for City Council’s next veto showdown," reports the Tribune. "Johnson's opponents motioned last week to force a council floor vote on legislation to pause the One Fair Wage policy, passed in 2023 and now in its third year of moving toward full implementation." Their ordinance "seeks to halt the policy that servers be paid the city’s full minimum wage on top of tips starting in July 2028."

Indienne Chef Sujan Sarkar Expands To Manhattan

"An acclaimed Chicago chef is opening not one but three new Indian dining and drinking spots in Manhattan this year," relays Eater Chicago. "Chef Sujan Sarkar is expanding his Chicago Michelin-starred Indian tasting menu restaurant, Indienne, in May, followed by a brand-new British Indian chophouse, Elder, and a cocktail bar, Apas, both in the summer. The three establishments will be found in the luxury residential building Henry Hall at 515 West 38th Street, near 10th Avenue."

Tipple Ripple: Americans Drink Less At Restaurants

"Traditionally a reliable revenue stream for restaurants, alcoholic drinks are down markedly—and the bottom line is, too," reports the New York Times. "A 2025 Gallup poll found that the U.S. drinking rate was at a new low, with only fifty-four percent of respondents reporting that they drank alcohol, and those who did say they imbibed reporting drinking less. The reasons range from increased awareness of health risks from drinking, to a generational shift in habits and about six percent of Americans using GLP-1 medications."

Restaurant Reservations Wars Go On

Restaurant owners "are caught in the middle of a growing battle of new and established reservation platforms vying for their business," reports CNN. "The two dominant players for more than a decade, OpenTable and Resy, are facing a wave of fresh competition from high-end services and even delivery apps—all trying to win lucrative bookings at exclusive establishments. That’s all the more critical as customers dial back eating out: Nearly forty percent of Americans said they’re visiting restaurants less frequently to save money."

FILM & TELEVISION

For The Love Of Film: CEO David Zaslav Will Extract Nearly A Billion Dollars From Studio Sale

Warner Bros. Discovery chieftain David Zaslav is in line for a potential payout of $887 million, "though the actual number could be lower or higher, depending on if Paramount pays a ticking fee, or if a tax reimbursement is lower," tallies the Hollywood Reporter. "Total payout amount for exec includes an estimated $335.4 million tax reimbursement," reports Variety. "Last month, Zaslav sold $114 million worth of WBD stock after Paramount won the bidding war for the company. The company also outlined estimated merger-related compensation for other top Warner Bros. Discovery execs."

LIT

Graphic Novel On Book Bans Had Local Inspiration

Librarian Jarrett Dapier’s young adult graphic novel, "Wake Now in the Fire," "tells a fictionalized account of real-life events in 2013 that restricted access to Marjane Satrapi’s memoir 'Persepolis' in Chicago Public Schools," sketches WBEZ. "Dapier, in an author’s note, notes how the pulling of the book in 2013 'foreshadows our current moment,' when, according to the American Library Association, targeted attempts to censor books continue to grow. 'Censoring literature,' one character in the book, a teacher, explains, 'is often where oppression starts.'"

MUSIC

Lolla Tunes Up 2026 Summer Lineup

Lollapalooza has announced its lineup for this summer. Headlines at this summer's festival include The Smashing Pumpkins, Charli XCX, Lorde, John Summit, Tate McRae, Olivia Dean, Jennie and The xx. Daily rosters will be released soon. The annual Grant Park festival runs July 30-August 2, and sign-ups for ticket presales for the four-day event go on sale Thursday, March 18 at 10am. Signup for alerts and more here.

Vinyl Sales Break A Billion Bucks Annually

"Vinyl‘s resurgence has reached a new milestone, as vinyl revenue surpassed $1 billion in revenue in the United States in 2025, the RIAA reported in its annual year-end report," writes the Hollywood Reporter. "While some record store owners and collectors have expressed concern about vinyl getting consistently more expensive—the average price of a mint vinyl record grew twenty-four percent to $37.22 from 2020 to 2025, per Discogs—so far, the data shows that hasn’t led to waning demand yet." (More.)

Chicago Band Ratboys Extend North American Tour

Chicago band Ratboys' newest album, "Singin’ to an Empty Chair," has earned widespread critical acclaim, "landing a Pitchfork profile and a 'Best New Music' review, a Spin cover story, and love from The New York Times, NPR Music [and] Rolling Stone," among many other outlets. The band is now on tour supporting the album, and continuing from a string of sold-out shows in Chicago, Toronto, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, they've announced they are expanding their current North American tour. The dates include April 18 at the Vic (sold out). Listen here. More here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Chicago Humanities Springs Forward

Chicago Humanities has released the full lineup for its Spring Festival, which spans March through June, and features conversations on the Constitution, social justice, healthcare, literature, food, poetry and architecture. Noteworthy standalone programs include a U.S. Constitution Series guest-curated and hosted by Peter Sagal, plus events with writer Michael Pollan, New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb, author R.F. Kuang, travel writer Rick Steves, the team behind NPR’s Planet Money and author Ann Patchett, among many more. It will also feature "three full 'festival days' of programming in Bridgeport, Lakeview and Evanston’s Northwestern University in Evanston." See the full line-up and get tickets here.

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2026-03-19 New City

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 10:03:02 GMT

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We've just gone to press with the April issue. It's another whopper at 156 pages.

If you want to see the cover, or some of what's inside, we've just put the issue on presale here. You can order a copy in advance—or even better—order a subscription before March 23 and this will be your first issue. Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here.

Brian Hieggelke

Editor & Publisher

Order monthly, annual or gift subscriptions here. Order a copy of the February/March double issue, the biggest print edition we've ever published, here.

Newcity is hiring: Assistant Editor, info here / Designer, info here.

STAGE

"The Drowsy Chaperone" Is A Balm in Giddy Act

Theo Ubique turns small-scale staging into a big-hearted musical escape, where director L. Walter Stearns immerses the audience in the world of the Man in Chair’s imagination. (Ted Fishman)

ART

Bodock's Group Show Considers the American Shift “From Porch to Patio”

In a culture increasingly defined by ownership, privacy and individualism, the exhibition considers the porch as a framework that can build community. (Natalie Jenkins)

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2026:
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FILM

Talking Screens: "Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come" | “Melancholia” at Drafthouse | European Union Film Fest Spotlights Cyprus

Also: "Project Hail Mary" goes wide, "Nadja" plays at the Film Center, Charlie Kaufman's "How To Shoot A Ghost" streams and more. (Ray Pride)

MUSIC

Chicago Band Shredded Sun's “Never Odd or Even” Defies Categories

The trio's new album is an excellent addition to Chicago’s storied catalog of independent music, with standout tracks including “Skyscraper” and “The Moment.” (Dylan Weinert)

TODAY IN CULTURE

By Ray Pride

ART

DePaul Art Museum Advisory Board Calls On University To Reverse Closure

"The members of the advisory board of the DePaul Art Museum have penned a scathing letter to the leadership of DePaul University, which houses the museum, to reconsider its decision to shutter the forty-year-old institution on June 30," reports ARTnews. "The letter is addressed to school president Robert L. Manuel, provost Salma Ghanem and other leaders as well as the board of trustees of the university.

"It is signed by advisory board chair Scott J. Hunter, a retired professor who taught at the University of Chicago, along with other board members including artists Brendan Fernandes, Rachel L.S. Harper and Melissa Leandro; former Expo Chicago head Tony Karman; Sotheby’s senior vice president Gary Metzner; and art adviser Lynn Manilow. Many members of the advisory board have served for more than a decade, and some date their participation to before the museum took up residence in a building opened in 2011."

Theaster Finds "Utopia" In Rebuilding

"The concept of Utopia often arrives as a distant ideal, set somewhere far into the future. In the work of social practice artist Theaster Gates, it is instead an active process and result, driven by existing buildings and the community life they hold. Resisting fixed categories, his practice moves between art, architecture and urban planning. What matters is how space is claimed, and especially how it’s shared," posts designboom. "Across Chicago’s South Side, Gates has spent more than a decade working with structures that many cities would overlook. Vacant banks, shuttered homes and abandoned lots become sites of attention. Within the framework of Utopia, his approach shifts the question from what an urban space could look like to how it can be cared for in real time. The optimism here is tangible, and it’s expressed through repair, reuse and the slow accumulation of cultural infrastructure."

Applications For MoCP Snider Prize And Dammeyer Fellowship Open

"The Snider Prize is a purchase award given to emerging artists in their final year of graduate study," announces the Museum of Contemporary Photography. "Each year, one recipient receives an honorarium of $3,000 with two honorable mentions each receiving $500 in support of artistic practices while acquiring pieces into MoCP’s permanent collection." More on the Snider Prize here.

The Diane Dammeyer Fellowship for Photographic Arts and Social Awareness is accepting applications for the 2026-2027 academic year. "Through MoCP, this fellowship provides support and funding for one artist to create a powerful body of work addressing human rights and social issues while engaging with Chicago-based community organizations and Columbia College Chicago students." More here.

DESIGN

South Loop Rail Yard Bought By Justin Ishbia As Possible White Sox Site

Justin Ishbia "is nearing a deal to buy a forty-seven-acre rail yard near the southwest corner of the Loop from Amtrak, lining up a vision from the Chicago White Sox’s owner-in-waiting for a potential new ballpark-anchored campus along the South Branch of the Chicago River," reports Crain's. "Chicago-based Shore Capital is under contract to buy the 14th Street Coach yard from the passenger railroad giant and is in 'early planning for a mixed-use development on the site'... The outmoded Amtrak maintenance facility is across the river from The 78 megadevelopment site, where Chicago Fire FC broke ground... on a new 22,000-seat venue and where the White Sox have also pitched plans for a new ballpark as they approach a 2029 lease expiration at Rate Field in Bridgeport."

Such a deal "would lay the groundwork for a new stadium-centric district along the southern edge of downtown... The purchase would also send a strong signal about the future home of the Sox from Ishbia, a billionaire who is in line to buy a controlling interest in the Major League Baseball franchise from Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf as soon as 2029—although the decision to sell is Reinsdorf’s until 2034—and has publicly declared his intention to build a new home for the club."

DINING & DRINKING

Susu Steakhouse Takes Former Grace Space

"Susu is pushing the boundaries of what a Chicago steakhouse looks like with a menu that marries Lebanese, Thai and Japanese flavors," writes Eater Chicago. "Chef and partner Alexander Willis, formerly of Dusek’s and Moody Tongue, leads the kitchen with a menu that includes a tabbouleh Caesar salad, potato borek with creamy labne and caviar and a Wagyu confit with preserved lemon and Middle Eastern shankleesh cheese. The location was the former home of Grace, Curtis Duffy’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant" on Randolph. (We've tried a few of the range of bright, tasty cocktails and approve.)

Checking In With The Billy Goat's Sam Sianis

"Sam Sianis inherited a family legacy of legendary billy goats, but he immortalized the mythological Chicago incantation: cheezborger, cheezborger, cheezborger," profiles Louisa Kung Liu Chu in an extended Q&A at the Tribune (gift link). Sianis will celebrate his ninety-third birthday this December. “I learned from my uncle to work hard and always treat the customer like they are your guest. When they come to Billy Goat, they chose to come to your place, where they could have gone anywhere else. Respect that and try to do the best you can to meet their needs. I always choose the best quality product for my burgers and the best service I can give.”

Alinea Co-Founder Nick Kokonas Opens Napa Valley Wine Bar

"When Nick Kokonas went from starting a trading firm to opening Alinea in Chicago, one of the country’s most acclaimed and influential restaurants, he had no restaurant industry experience. When he founded Tock, the reservation system that swept through fine dining, he did so without a background in tech or software development," reports the San Francisco Chronicle. "Kokonas, who sold Tock for $400 million and his majority stake in the Alinea Group, is once again entering an industry he’s never worked in before—wine—but this time, it’s less of a leap. He’s redeveloping a vineyard, launching a wine brand and has partnered with a local chef to open a Napa Valley wine bar. Named Elsewhere, it’s poised to have one of the Bay Area’s most exciting wine lists, featuring 'thousands of choices' from across the globe, when it opens later this year."

Chicago Is A Capitol Of Green Chartreuse Drinkers

"Remedy in Bucktown has carved out a niche as the second-leading seller of the complex liqueur among U.S. bars. Chartreuse soared in popularity during the pandemic," quaffs Block Club. "Made in limited quantities by a cloistered order of Catholic monks in the French mountains, a bottle of the naturally green liqueur fetches a high price at the liquor store—if you can even find it. Availability is less of an issue for bars. Among them, Remedy stands—almost—alone as the second-leading seller by volume of Green Chartreuse in the United States."

Atsumeru x Duck Sel Set Collaboration

At Atsumeru's space in the former Temporis in West Town, Atsumeru chef Devin Denzer is partnering with "one of the city’s most sought-after underground dining experiences": chef Donald Young's Duck Sel. "Expect a fusion of Duck Sel’s signature playful storytelling with Atsumeru’s focus on fermentation and pristine seafood." Atsumeru, 933 North Ashland. Wednesday, April 15. Reservations ($195) here.

A Facelift For Matthias Merges’ Mordecai

"For six years now, Mordecai has been a rare bright spot in the Wrigleyville dining universe, which is dominated by game day bars and fast food spots," writes Chicago magazine. But it "suffered from something of a split identity," torn between being a neighborhood resident destination or a Wrigley game day stop. "A two-month renovation and a new menu have moved Mordecai toward becoming the neighborhood bistro that it probably always should have been... The menu is a bit simpler, a bit more family-friendly, but still interesting and made with high-quality ingredients. You’ll still find a Slagel Farms burger, but now there’s also wagyu tartare with a cured quail egg and bone marrow aioli. Smoked half chicken with morel mushroom cream is simple but rich, and the best part is that it only costs $24."

FILM & TELEVISION

Wall Street Shies From Ellison Family Warner Bros. Discovery Deal?

"Analysts warn that debt, shaky financing and a Middle East war could derail history’s largest test of legacy media," posts The Ankler. "Paramount Skydance will now carry more debt—$79 billion—than almost any media company has ever survived. The next two years will be a live experiment, conducted at an enormous scale. That Ellison has yet to even schedule an investor roadshow suggests he knows the reception won’t be warm." With "the collision between a promised $30 billion in content spend and $79 billion in debt: 'How do you not destroy relationships in Hollywood?'" Said one major media investor, "This should not be a public company. It has too much debt. It’s too hard."

Another View Of What The Movie Studio Merger Would Do To American Creativity

“It’s a signpost on the road to the destruction of Hollywood,” David Dayen, executive editor of the American Prospect tells the Guardian. “Bringing down the number of studios and subsequently the output—even though Paramount claims that won’t happen, but there’s almost no way for that to be true—is going to upset the delicate balance that has been already ravaged by the rise of streaming and the collapse of both cable television and the movie-going experience. If this merger indeed goes through, theater owners are going to have a tough time surviving. The deal makes a giant bet on the dying medium of cable television that is destined to be a failure. The fallout is not going to be good for creatives in Hollywood, continuing what has been a fairly long decline."

CUFF33 Regular Deadline Approaching

Submissions are open for the thirty-third annual Chicago Underground Film Festival with a deadline of Wednesday, March 25. Details here.

Filmmaker Ken Burns And Philanthropist Susan Crown To Be Honored

Filmmaker Ken Burns will receive the Lincoln Leadership Prize and philanthropist Susan Crown the Wayne Whalen "Charity for All" Award, as presented by the co-chairs and board of directors of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation at this year's Lincoln Leadership Prize Dinner, Thursday, April 16. Tickets ($5,000) and more here.

LIT

The Third American Writers Festival Features More Than Eighty Scribes

The American Writers Museum has announced the third edition of the American Writers Festival, taking place this June at the Harold Washington Library Center. "Presented in partnership with Chicago Public Library, the festival will feature more than eighty writers," including "New York Times bestselling author and three-time National Book Award finalist Lauren Groff; New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-nominated producer Reza Aslan; actor, comedian and broadcaster John Fugelsang; New York Times bestselling poet Maggie Smith; award-winning author Tananarive Due in conversation with this year’s Nebula Award finalists; legendary broadcast journalist Bill Kurtis; and Chicago Poet Laureate Mayda del Valle." Free. Harold Washington Library Center, Saturday, June 6-Sunday, June 7, 11am-5pm. Full lineup of authors and updates coming soon here.

Book Output Tops Four Million

"The total number of books published in the United States in 2025 with ISBN numbers jumped 32.5 percent over 2024, to more than four million books," tallies Publishers Weekly. "The increase was led by self-published works, for which the number of print and e-books (including those without BISAC codes) soared 38.7 percent to more than 3.5 million from 2.5 million in 2024... The number of traditionally published books released in 2025 rose 6.6 percent, to 642,242, from 602,428 in 2024. That total includes 310,513 books that were released with BISAC codes, which are used to help classify the categories where books belong. There was a much smaller discrepancy among self-published books, suggesting that self-published authors have recognized the importance of using BISAC for discovery purposes."

Barnes & Noble, Then And Now

"Today, in a world more online than ever, Barnes & Noble is experiencing a revival," writes The Atlantic (gift link). "It opened sixty new stores last year and plans to do the same this year. It is reportedly soliciting banks to handle an IPO—a sign that a turnaround effort by Elliott Investment Management, the hedge fund that took the company private in 2019, has reached its conclusion. Distinctions between chain and local have been superseded by the split between online and in-person shopping. Book-buying Americans, whose support for indie shops was one of the hallmarks of a progressive anti-chain movement that flourished in the 2000s, seem to be less discerning than they used to be." That may be changing in Chicago, where the chain's Wicker Park location led to the closure of Volumes Bookcafe, and where the chain's decision to open in Hyde Park, a neighborhood full of independent bookstores, has been met with skepticism.

"On The Road" Scroll Hitches Millions From Buyer Planning Jack Kerouac Center

"It’s one of the most mythic icons in American letters—and now the most valuable," writes Artnet. "The 120-foot-long scroll on which Jack Kerouac hammered out the 1957 Beat Generation classic 'On the Road' has realized an astounding $12.1 million at auction, setting a record for a literary manuscript." The buyer is "country artist Zach Bryan, reports Rolling Stone. The singer-songwriter is an admitted fan of Kerouac—penning his 2023 track 'Burn Burn Burn' in tribute to the Beat icon—and has plans to transform a historic church in Lowell, Massachusetts, into the Jack Kerouac Center, in partnership with the author’s estate."

MEDIA

Albritton Family Funding Challenger To The Bezos-Gutted Washington Post

"Billionaire media entrepreneur Robert Albritton announced that he is bankrolling 'the next great Washington newsroom,'" observes Dan Froomkin at Press Watch. "It’s a bold attempt to seize the mantle of the Washington Post, which was gutted by its own billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, last month. Albritton, who founded then sold Politico, said he will rename and double the size of his existing fifty-person digital news outlet called NOTUS, which stands for news of the United States. NOTUS was launched in 2024 as a politics-and-policy news site and a training ground for aspiring public affairs journalists." Albritton's memo to his fifty workers about doubling the staff can be viewed here.

MUSIC

Rob Mazurek Releases "Alternate Moon Cycles Live At The Land School"

Last December, Chicago-born record label International Anthem capped off a year of anniversary activities with an event celebrating the label’s actual eleventh solar return at their new South Side Chicago headquarters inside Theaster Gates and Rebuild Foundation’s latest space-based project, The Land School. The evening featured a performance by Rob Mazurek with Matthew Lux and Mikel Patrick Avery (the ensemble behind "Alternate Moon Cycles," the very first album in the IARC catalog, which was originally released December 2nd, 2014), in what Mazurek refers to as “A Polysonic Resonance Field in One Continuous Movement.” More here. Listen here.

Chicago Collector Pays Nearly $12 Million For Jerry Garcia’s "Tiger" Guitar

"The Grateful Dead star’s custom guitar has found a home in Chicago, though collector Bobby Tseitlin has no plans of hiding it away," reports Block Club. "Tseitlin, forty-four, is co-founder of Family Guitars, a Chicago company that collects historic instruments... For the past twenty years, Tseitlin’s passion project has been collecting guitars," which he lends "to musicians to play and keep them alive."

STAGE

Writers Theatre Inscribes Season

Writers Theatre of Glencoe "announced its five-show 2026-27 subscription season Tuesday, highlighting a new play by Matthew Libby about artificial intelligence, fresh productions of 'The Royale' by Marco Ramirez, Emma Rice’s musical adaptation of Noël Coward’s 'Brief Encounter,' August Strindberg’s 'Creditors' and the return of local favorite Hershey Felder, this time with a musical show based on his own life as a writer, pianist and actor," reports Chris Jones at the Tribune.

Lyric Opera Names Five New Members To Board, Including Billy Corgan

Billy Corgan is among five new members of the Lyric Opera's board of directors. Advises the Lyric: "Billy Corgan is best known as the founder and frontman of the Grammy Award-winning band The Smashing Pumpkins. A defining voice in alternative rock, Corgan recently collaborated with Lyric Opera of Chicago on the world premiere of 'A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness,' celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the landmark Diamond certified The Smashing Pumpkins double album 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.'"

Beyond Corgan, the board's new members are: Edmund Lester, senior vice president and regional marketing executive for U.S. Bank; Suzanne Mulshine, a Chicago business leader, attorney and longtime supporter of the arts; John Sabl, senior counsel at Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres LLC, where he specializes in mergers and acquisitions, investment funds and complex transactions; Michael Strautmanis, The Obama Foundation’s chief corporate affairs officer, helping lead strategy to extend President and Mrs. Obama’s legacy through the development of the Obama Presidential Center and civic engagement programming in Chicago.

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2026-03-19 New City

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Talking Screens, A Week In Chicago Film March 20-26, 2026

by Ray Pride

Like its predecessor, the sadism-with-yocks of "Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come" (minus the "2" in the onscreen main title) provides slick, stylish delirium, as well as cheeky cartoon conspiracist nuttiness where one woman must retrieve the world from those who would bring down the usual dark and shadowy order. (David Cronenberg plays "Mr. Danforth," an ailing oligarch approving of ceasefires from a hospital-style bed.) Genially vulgar audience-tickling verbals go "Heathers"-heavy: Young women brag on "A hot-as-fuck boyfriend named Derek"; tight-assed heiress Sarah Michelle Gellar coos that "I still believe in the fundamental goodness of humanity." Too soon, too soon, our protagonist (game, feral Samara Weaving) says she was "shot through the hand and beat to shit by a butler,” but “I made it till dawn, I fucking won.” Uh-huh.

She's still ready, once recovered, to take on a hundred percent of the one percent. But then all the dark powers that be in the most elevated strata of society—including the nasty Le Domas clan—focus their wrath upon her shoulders. The nuggets are plentiful, including the bed-bound Cronenberg's slap to someone's face with the steely yet breathy "Be a fucking man!" With Kathryn Newton, Elijah Wood, Néstor Carbonell, Shawn Hatosy. Trailer here. Opens wide, Thursday, March 19.

"Project Hail Mary"

“Half Nelson” meets “E.T” would have been one of the more unlikely movie pitches of the modern movie era if it weren’t based on a novel by Andy Weir (“The Martian”) in the hands of producers Ryan Gosling and Amy Pascal (the former Columbia studio head entrusted with the “Spider-Man” franchise). Twelve light-years from Earth, with a running time of 156 minutes (the running time of the original “2001: A Space Odyssey” is 160 minutes), Phil Lord and Christoper Miller’s “Project Hail Mary” is cheeky, cheery space karaoke, a $200-million-plus IMAX shot-for-the-box-office stars by Amazon MGM. (The Amazon arrow that goes up and then goes down precedes Leo the Lion on screen.) The charm of the endeavor is the wholesale adaptation of Weir’s subjective “hard sci-fi” storytelling, where process and problem-solving motor the plot of defrocked smart-mouth scientist-turned-Grover Cleveland Middle School teacher Ryland Grace waking from a coma, “several light-years from my apartment.” Our full review is here. "Project Hail Mary" is now playing in large and larger formats, including in 70mm at the Music Box.

"Nadja"

Lush-mouthed, raised-eyebrowed, Lower-East-Side-by-way-of-Romania urban vampire Nadja (Elina Löwensohn) moons for those "nights in which the brain lights up like a big city." She shares her compact, melancholy speeches about "the pain of fleeting joy" as readily as a shrug. At the time of "Nadja" (now in a 4K digital restoration), Michael Almereyda had worked on at least a dozen screenplays, from three weeks on "Total Recall" to an early draft of Wim Wenders' "Until the End of the World." Since "Nadja," his output has included "Hamlet" (2000), "William Eggleston in the Real World" (2005), "Experimenter" (2015), "Marjorie Prime" (2017) and "Tesla" (2020).

The memorably poetic aspect of Almereyda's work is his way with words, or his words with ways—funny, conversational dialogue, filled with as many cross-purposes as Mamet or Pinter but hilariously cadenced and delightfully fresh, like overheard coffeeshop banter. Almereyda is hesitant to separate the savories of the spoken word from the flow of a film. "Dialogue just spills out," he says. "But my films are usually about miscommunication on some more-or-less obvious level. People are usually talking at cross-purposes, either contradicting themselves or each other. So when I think about dialogue, it's really in relation to what's happening in the movie and in terms of what actions are underway.” Trailer here. Opens Friday at the Film Center.

The weeklong booking of the 4K restoration of "Nadja" is accompanied by 2015's "Experimenter," Almereyda's portrait of social psychologist Stanley Milgram and his 1960s behavior experiments conducted testing the "willingness to obey authority by using electric shock." YC Leong, assistant professor of psychology at UChicago will discuss why social context is so powerful and "what modern psychology and neuroscience have learned since Milgram." Film Center, Tuesday, March 24, 6pm.

The Film Center's 2026 Chicago European Union Film Festival spotlights the island of Cyprus for the weekend, March 20-22. More here.

"Off Center: Experiments In Emulsion"

Also at the Film Center, as part of "Science On Screen," "Off Center: Experiments In Emulsion," an hour of celluloid imagery in 16mm and 35mm, after which Julian Antos of the Chicago Film Society will talk about the science of film emulsion after the screening. Monday, March 23, 6pm.

Short films by Charlie Kaufman surface on the Criterion Channel, Kanopy and YouTube. (See below.) Plus, "Melancholia"; "Daisies"; Monika Treut; and Bob Odenkirk takes "Normal" in Normal.

Plus, CUFF33's regular deadline of March 25 is approaching (here).

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REPERTORY & REVIVAL

"Melancholia"

Lars Von Trier starts at the apocalypse and then works his way from there: the planet’s the Titanic. There’s been controversy about jokes-gone-deadly (Nazis) that Von Trier made at the press conference after the debut of the bold, wrenching, relentless, majestic “Melancholia” at the Cannes Film Festival the year it was released, but there’s no dispute he’s one of the few directors who would react to a serious bout of depression by writing an intimate, tear-coursed family melodrama that demolishes the world entirely. That’s not a spoiler, but the primary story element: another planet fills the sky as it rushes toward a collision with ours. (The errant orb is called… Melancholia.) It’s a B-movie conceit put in the service of philosophical musing, an opera built atop the chamber drama of “The Celebration.”

In the best passages of his work, imagery seems to come to Von Trier as readily as speech to others, demonstrating a kind of tenderness that checks other aspects of his movies, such as telegraphic dialogue. His oft-sardonic, superior air dissipates here: Lyric and loving in a way that suggests a kinship to the elder filmmaker Terrence Malick and his “Tree of Life,” “Melancholia” mingles poetry and melodrama.

There is, however, a greater Kino-God in the equation: A specific shot of white fabric floating down a stream evokes spilled milk and blood in Tarkovsky’s “Andrei Rublev,” and Von Trier wishes to sit at the master’s table. And there’s a tincture of Buñuel in the privileged characters’ attempt to ignore onrushing extinction. There are also images at the opening and close (accompanied by—d’oh!—Wagner) that pitch fierce battle against Malick’s most piercing notations in “Tree.”

Set partly at a wedding reception in a location that knowingly echoes Alain Resnais’ time-puzzling “Last Year at Marienbad,” “Melancholia” bristles with fine performances from Alexander Skarsgård, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård and the ever-wondrous Udo Kier. But at the center of it all: Kirsten Dunst. Magnificent. There’s expressive greatness in her performance: quivering, alive, hurt. If you don’t love “Melancholia,” you still can’t help but love her and her character. Not beauty: humanity. The world ends not with a bang, but a human face. Drafthouse, Friday, March 20; Monday, March 23; Tuesday, March 24.

"Daisies"

Eastern Europe: My, what large film vaults you have. “Daisies” (Sedmikrásky), Vera Chytilová’s aggressive, over-the-top, under-the-radar 1966 Czech New Wave, surreal, sexy, socialist pre-Prague Spring daydream: artful anarchy rules with bonus “mod” pop-art eyeball-kick fashion. Two collage-mad, scissors-happy teenage sisters, Jarmilla and Julie, set out to redeem the world from having been “spoiled,” and feminist theory may never have been so consummately crafted as entertainment: Hello, Dada. Free-and-easy shifts in color, tint and tone announce themselves from the first minutes and do not let up. Chytilová made other films but what a full-to-bursting free-for-all is “Daisies." Drafthouse, Friday, March 20; Sunday, March 22; Tuesday, March 24.

"Female Misbehavior"

"Female Misbehavior: The Films Of Monika Treut" continues at the Music Box with "My Father Is Coming"; "Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities"; "Genderation"; and "Female Misbehavior." More from Goethe-Institut Chicago here.

STREAM LIFE

"How To Shoot A Ghost"

The jagged yet impressionistic flow of Charlie Kaufman's half-hour "How To Shoot A Ghost," written and narrated by poet Eva H.D., is more agglutinative than aggregate, a history of life before and after military rule as illustrated by wanderings through Athens by a recently dead couple (Jessie Buckley, Josef Akiki). It's a wistful scribble of the sort that more makers who are stalled should punctuate their careers with. George Lucas claimed such a thing—when he retired, he might go back to his minute-long shorts of raindrops transforming a spot of dust into mud in flight. A basic interpretation of "Ghosts" is that you're allowed to walk this world when dead, once instead some realizations are made; Kaufman alternates scumbled imagery of modern-day Athens with black-and-white footage of Greece's long military occupation and the murderous ways of the military junta.

"Following two recently dead people who wander Athens as ghosts, the film explores mortality: As it interacts with the urge toward belonging, and our human desire to leave something, some trace, behind; and our twin desire for self-obliteration," Kaufman wrote in a director's note for its Venice premiere. "Street photography, historical footage and old home videos interlaced with the body of the film, underscore how the 'now' will become the 'then,' how those of us living today become the ghosts of tomorrow.

"Athens, a city in which the bones of history are always on display—whether it’s living scars from the dictatorship of the 1970s, or the presence of monuments that stood at the time of the plague of two thousand years ago—is the perfect place to explore the tangle of past and present, how the policies and longings of the dead go on living within us... For me, this is a powerful way of experiencing the world: To be present, keep looking, keep experiencing, without the need to hoard one’s experiences in a kind of scrapbook that we will never be able to go back and read. I think of all the photographs we all seem to have now, thousands and thousands of frozen moments that none of us will be taking with us when we go." The duo also explicated their intentions to Scott Macaulay at Filmmaker here. Streaming on Kanopy and the Criterion Channel.

Also by Kaufman, a morsel of a Manhattan city symphony with Eva H.D., reciting her own poetry, shot on phones, the twenty-minute "Jackals & Fireflies."

THE WEEK IN FILM

"Normal"

Bob Odenkirk Takes “Normal” To Normal

Bob Odenkirk “is coming to Normal… to visit the Normal Theater… and talk about his new film, ‘Normal,'” reports WGLT. Odenkirk will appear April 2 at the Normal Theater, joined onstage by “Normal” screenwriter Derek Kolstad, who collaborated on the “Nobody” films. Tickets here. Odenkirk and Kolstad will appear the next night at the Music Box as part of Beyond Chicago on April 3. Tickets here.

E.T. Stone Home: Buddy Picture "Hail Mary Project"

Phil Lord and Christoper Miller's film is a cheeky, cheery space karaoke based on a novel by Andy Weir. (Ray Pride)

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