Newcity

It's a heartfelt, if somewhat breathless, recounting of the gay rights movement’s signal moments, interspersed with era-appropriate songs made famous by the kind of divas to whom gay fans refer by first name alone (Dolly, Bette, Diana, and so on).

A comic about comic conventions.

Druid Theatre Company's production of Beckett's most well-known work, produced by Chicago Shakespeare Theater as a part of their WorldStages initiative, begs the question: what exactly are we waiting for?

High-octane dance abounds in June, from The Seldoms' "Marchland" to Chicago Tap Theatre's dedication to divas to Hubbard Street's full length rendition of "Minus 16."

Gomez doesn't just ask tough questions. He guides conversation through his writing and activism.

The history of the Chicago Artists Coalition and its role in supporting Chicago artists parallels the city’s artistic growth over the years. How does a non-profit arts organization survive in Chicago for nearly half a century? By constantly adapting to the changing needs of artists and the cultural conditions of the city.

CUFF turns 25, "Incredibles 2" hopes to beat the recent PIxar curse; movies shine in Millennium Park and Fred Rogers, with red sweater and without, dares you not to cry.

June brings tension, vengeance, tragedy and rebellion to the Chicago stage.

Khecari creates a customized experience in their one hundred sixty-eight hour performance "The Retreat: One Week."

Why does “Solo” exist at all? That's the essential existential question that rears its shaggy head early on.

They are a big-hearted bunch, concerned about the state of the nation and the plight of humanity.

Writers like those you’ll meet in this issue help us find meaning in a seemingly meaningless world.

For this year's weekly summer film series, the city of Chicago’s 2018 Millennium Park Film Series, takes a fresh turn, sharing its programming with film festivals from around town.

The prints displayed here pre-date the concerted turn to intellection that characterized French art after the middle of the seventeenth century, but they convey something of the time’s ambition.

Fourteen artists fashion images of Afrofuturism, bringing together African mythologies, science fiction, technology and mysticism together in a diverse an aesthetic and philosophical movement.

Her ambitious new novel is an epic that cements Makkai’s reputation as one of our significant writers.

Gemini: Call on your gut wisdom and track down tricky, elusive truths.

John Strand's equivocating biographical play on Antonin Scalia, currently receiving its Chicago premiere at Court Theatre, unconvincingly pits the thirty-year Supreme Court Justice's entrenched conservative ideology against the remote possibility that he was perhaps a decent fella.

War and women and holding down the farm in France.

Context is crucial though not enough makes it into this world premiere, based on true events, at TimeLine Theatre.

Like the best of the horror genre, the newest play from Ike Holter, in its world premiere at Jackalope Theatre, is equal part scares and scathing social commentary.

Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" debuted at the Cannes Film Festival fifteen years ago today, leading to a colorful feud between the filmmaker and Roger Ebert. Here's a story of the resolution and an hour of Gallo's mind.

"Chiraq" unpacked by young Chicago literary artists and activists—"a vexed term and a space of possibility."

The band doesn’t cover songs—it covers albums. When the group performs, in its entirety, an LP like Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks” or Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” it’s no different from classical ensembles that come together to perform song cycles like Schubert’s “Die schöne Müllerin” and Berlioz’s “Nuits d’Été.”

Performances with fractions of grace.

The joy of a masterpiece, once lost, now found, is rare joy. And Fassbinder’s elemental craft: good lord, will anyone ever be this good with the framing of space, the blocking of action, the movement of bodies?

I’ve just finished listening to the first thirteen episodes of season one of “I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats,” each edition of which is devoted to one song of the 2002 album, “All Hail West Texas.”

Taurus, you're partway through your own process of generating a very practical marvel.

Expertly curated by Allison Glenn and staged throughout Chicago at the DePaul Art Museum, Gallery 400 and the Stony Island Arts Bank, "Out of Easy Reach" brings together twenty-four female-identifying artists from the Black and Latinx diasporas who push the bounds of abstraction.

Playing a set that touches on most all of the group's albums—including those dauntingly difficult and complex early works—Utopia has proven that there's plenty of life left in the band's concept.

The variations are subtle, but undeniably there

The story is, the band recorded its debut album twice: first as a scrappier indie-rock record, then two years later as a maximal pop statement attuned to the sound they’d honed on tour. They’ve edited their material into engulfing sing-alongs that’ll thrill audiences at small clubs (like the Empty Bottle this month), but that wouldn’t be out of place on Top Forty radio.

Barbara Rossi, one of the original Chicago Imagists, is showing works that have never been publicly exhibited.

Curated by Sabrina Greig, this group show of three CAC HATCH residents challenges our digital present with figurative pictures with an analog feel.

Taurus: Diversify your interests.

Brown writes with remarkable clarity and insight about her rollercoaster of mania and depression.

Boundaries cleave edges and predicate intimate knowing.

It’s like camping out in some remote mountain valley where you never feel warm, and there is no one to keep you company.

Enjoy mint juleps, a beer or a pinot at May events.