Kokandy Productions’ “Into The Woods”/Photo by Evan HanoverGet Chicago & Midwest culture news sent to your inbox every weekday morning. Subscribe to Newcity Today here.ARTBeing Theaster“Theaster Gates’ business dealings and art making are not at odds: Salvage from the buildings goes into his art installations; proceeds from his art sales fund his building renovations and community programs,” cover-stories T Magazine. ” He hopes to demonstrate ‘an open model for what an artist can be.’ … More than any other artist working today, Theaster Gates—ceramist, urbanist, archivist, sculptor—has earned the title ‘multidisciplinary.’ … For years, Gates has acquired archives, and he sees their stewardship as integral to his work. Many preserve Black American cultural memory, like the roughly 20,000-volume library that once belonged to the Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of Ebony and Jet, and the 5,000-record vinyl collection of Frankie Knuckles, the Chicago D.J. at whose late-seventies parties house music was born.”DESIGNFormer Chicagoan Ken Griffin Sells Another Unfinished Local PenthouseKen Griffin has put “another of his unfinished penthouse floors on the market,” reports Crain’s. “A flight down from the $11 million unit that landed a buyer (with a contingency) Monday, this one is $9 million, priced to lose over $3 million, as he paid $12.65 million for it in 2017.” Griffin holds two more unfinished penthouse floors in the Walton Street skyscraper.DINING & DRINKINGNorth Center Loses Sticky Rice After Two DecadesSticky Rice, local specialists in Northern Thai food, announced their closing on Instagram: “After twenty incredible years of serving our community, Sticky Rice will be closing its doors. We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to each of you for your unwavering support and for allowing us to share our family’s recipes with you.”Mexico’s Handshake Speakeasy To Pop-Up at Four Seasons“Mexico City’s Handshake Speakeasy, which was number one on North America’s Fifty Best Bars 2024 rankings, is coming to [town] in collaboration with the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago,” reports Time Out Chicago. “The acclaimed bar will curate the menu at the Mile High Cocktail Club, the intimate forty-seat lounge located in a converted suite on the forty-sixth floor of the hotel.” The dates are November 14-March 1.Brewpub As Tribute To Juice Wrld Opens Briefly Today“Homewood Brewing Co., a brewpub created by Carmela Wallace as a tribute to her son, the rapper known as Juice Wrld, will have a grand opening Friday and be open for a short window before regular operating hours begin,” reports the Tribune. The brewery and restaurant “has been under construction for nearly two years at the site of the former Bogart’s Charhouse. It will be open to the public only from 2pm-5pm today following a ribbon-cutting event.”Ferrero Opens $214 Million Kinder Bueno Facility In Bloomington“Ferrero North America, part of the global sweet-packaged food company the Ferrero Group, celebrated the opening of its new Kinder Bueno production facility in Bloomington, Illinois,” reports Food & Beverage. “The $214 million dollar investment creates approximately 200 new jobs and will help drive Ferrero’s continued market expansion.”FILM & TELEVISION“Hoop Dreams” At Thirty“Ambition can provide fulfilling yet fragile windows of opportunity,” suggests The Athletic. “Few basketball odes embody that notion better than the critically acclaimed film ‘Hoop Dreams,’ which celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its release on Monday. Though the documentary follows the path of then-aspiring hoopers and Chicago natives William Gates and Arthur Agee, who remain respected in the game’s culture despite not achieving their dreams of playing in the NBA, it remains an enduring encapsulation of life’s toughest breaks for underprivileged people with goals.” “Hoop Dreams” “examines a variety of socioeconomic issues, including poverty, racism, drug addiction, domestic violence, teen pregnancy, education and family mental health.”The filmmaking trio of director Steve James, producer Frederick Marx and cinematographer-producer Peter Gilbert “planned for ‘Hoop Dreams’ to be a thirty-minute PBS special about two future NBA stars. The crew captured more than 250 hours of footage over five years after ultimately broadening its scope to study how inner cities impact aspiring basketball players and their support systems.”Talking To Bozo The Clown Fans Before Billy Corgan’s Jamboree Weekend“This weekend brings a memorabilia-packed Bozo’s Circus jamboree at Billy Corgan’s Highland Park tea shop Madame Zuzu’s. Ahead of the event, WBEZ asked Chicagoans about their most memorable Bozo the Clown moments.” More Zuzu’s Bozo’s here.LITDandelion Books Grows In Oak Park“Locals mourning the loss of The Book Table on Lake Street can get excited about a new place to find a favorite book; Oak Park residents Jamie and Kurt Ericson are opening the Dandelion Bookshop at 139 South Oak Park Avenue,” reports Wednesday Journal. The store is slated for a December opening to take advantage of holiday shopping. “When they heard The Book Table was closing, after Centuries & Sleuths in Forest Park, they came up with the idea to start their own.”MEDIAWFMT Morning Host Dennis Moore Says He Was FiredSixty-eight-year-old Dennis Moore, morning host at WFMT for over thirty years, “returned from a medical leave earlier this year and asked for schedule or other changes as an accommodation for a sleep-related issue. When station management declined and Moore rejected a buyout, he says, he was fired,” reports the Sun-Times. “To continue in the field of hosting classical music, I would have to look outside of the Chicago market to be able to do that. I’m not sure I want to relocate from Chicago at this point in my life,” Moore said.Naperville Sun Columnist Hilary Decent Was Sixty-Seven“Hilary Decent, who wrote for the Naperville Sun as both a reporter and a columnist on and off for more than fifteen years,” was sixty-seven, reports the Naperville Sun via the Trib. She “knew everyone, and everyone knew her.”Amazon Prime Running Election Night Coverage Featuring Former News Anchor Brian WilliamsAmazon Prime Video will make “its first-ever foray into live news coverage with ‘Election Night Live,’ a one-night special delivering election results and analysis on November 5,” reports Axios. “Tech firms have invested billions in live sports rights to bolster their streaming services, but live news has proved a more elusive customer acquisition tool.” The program is “a co-production between Amazon Prime Video and White Cherry Entertainment, the production team behind the Tony Awards.” Williams left NBC News in 2021 after twenty-eight years and a 2015 suspension for misrepresenting his experience during the Iraq War.MUSIC“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” In Concert At Symphony CenterThe Harry Potter Film Concert Series returns to Symphony Center for two performances, Friday, May 16 and Saturday, May 17, 2025, with “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” in concert, the second film in the Harry Potter series. The program features John Williams’ score performed live by the CineConcerts Symphony Orchestra while the entire film plays on a forty-foot screen. More here.No More Minnesota Sinfonia“Known for improving students’ and low-income people’s access to classical music, Minnesota Sinfonia will take final bows this weekend,” reports MinnPost. “Support for the arts from foundations is diminishing and the ‘people’s orchestra,’ as it is known… plays sixty or seventy concerts a year on a modest budget of $400,000-$700,000 but doesn’t charge admission for its concerts and whose audience, in part, is low-income.”Music Fests Falter In California“Why have so many reputable events been folding?” SFGATE investigated “the crisis facing the California music festival circuit… The culprit, it turns out, isn’t as simple as inflation or a tight economy. Promoters faced a perfect storm of high hopes and terrible conditions—one that shattered a fragile equilibrium.”STAGEBecoming A Blue Man“For the first time, the popular and eclectic theater production’s eight-week training course took place in Chicago. We followed three prospective Blue Men,” reports WBEZ.Remy Bumppo Names Associate ArtistsFall 2024 additions to Remy Bumppo Theatre’s associate artists include John Boesche, Mikael Burke, Jean E. Compton, Addoris Davis, Liz Gomez, Gregory Graham, Amanda Herrmann, Kotryna Hilko, Lauren M. Nichols, Abhi Shrestha and Anna Vu. More on the company here.Hedwig Dances Sets Fortieth SeasonHedwig Dances, one of Chicago’s longest established contemporary dance companies, has announced its fortieth-anniversary season led by founder-artistic director Jan Bartoszek. The lineup includes the Ragdale Next Celebration, October 20, performing excerpts of Bartoszek’s “Meta | mor | phos”; an artistic residency on the Ragdale campus, November 18-20; “Hedwig + The Bauhaus” spring concert, April 26-27, 2025 at Ruth Page Center, reprising iconic Bauhaus-inspired works created by Bartoszek; and the fortieth-anniversary gala, June 20, 2025 at the MCA, featuring an evening of work choreographed by Jan Bartoszek and a special retrospective. More here.Hell In A Handbag Announces Twenty-Third SeasonHell in a Handbag Productions has announced its season, featuring a fan favorite and two world premieres. Now in its twenty-third year, “Handbag continues to serve Chicago audiences with the best camp and parody—thus ensuring the preservation and celebration of this unequivocally queer art form.” The season begins with a twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of artistic director David Cerda’s “holiday classic, ‘Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer (An Unauthorized Musical Parody),’ directed by Anthony Whitaker. This beloved and twisted musical parody of the animated 1967 children’s television special features all your favorite misfits and Rudolph—the cross-dressing reindeer with a penchant for red hose and heels. In trademark Handbag style, ‘Rudolph’ combines parody with heartfelt moments and a splash of scathing social commentary.” More on the season and tickets here.Kokandy Closing Season With “Into The Woods”Kokandy Productions concludes its season with an immersive production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Into The Woods,” the first Chicago storefront production of the musical in over a decade. Directed and choreographed by producing artistic director Derek Van Barham with music direction by Nick Sula, “Into The Woods” continues through December 22 at The Chopin Studio Theatre and features Kevin Webb and Sonia Goldberg as The Baker and The Baker’s Wife, Stephanie Stockstill as The Witch, Madison Kauffman as Cinderella, Kevin Parra as Jack and Anna Seibert as Little Red. Tickets and more here.Forty-Seventh “A Christmas Carol” Starts November 16Rehearsals for the forty-seventh annual production of “A Christmas Carol” have begun under Chicago’s Jessica Thebus, as she returns for her fifth season, directing a thirty-four-member all-Chicago cast that stars Christopher Donahue in his first year as Ebenezer Scrooge, along with Kate Fry (Narrator), Anthony Irons (Bob Cratchit) and Bri Sudia (Ghost of Christmas Present). As Alternate Scrooge, Austin Tichenor steps in for ten performances. A new Tiny Tim this year—Ava Rose Doty (last seen as Young Tommy in ‘The Who’s Tommy’) is joined by young performers Isabel Ackerman, Viva Boresi, Annabel Finch, Xavier Irons and Henry Lombardo. “A Christmas Carol” runs November 16-December 30. Tickets ($25-$149) here.ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.DNC Host Committee Raised Nearly $100 Million; Economic Impact Measured At $371.4 Million“The host committee for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago raised $97 million in cash or in-kind contributions and has spent more than $83 million,” reports the Sun-Times, “with Governor Pritzker and his relatives, unions and Democratic groups among the biggest donors, according to the committee’s first report filed with the Federal Election Commission.” (Reports Crain’s, JB and MK Pritzker gave $5.6 million to put on the DNC.)Choose Chicago and the Chicago 2024 Host Committee have released a comprehensive report detailing the economic impact of the 2024 DNC on Chicago. Commissioned by Choose Chicago and produced by Tourism Economics, “the report shows that the DNC greatly exceeded economic expectations, driving a total economic impact of $371.4 million for Chicago’s economy, the most in Democratic convention history. The convention also supported 3,211 total jobs and generated $28.7 million in state and local tax revenues.” The twenty-two-page report (pdf) is here.A Caution Against Potent Cannabis; Illinois Sales Drop Two Percent“The National Academies’ report is blunt: ‘Congress should refine the definition of “hemp” to state clearly that no form of tetrahydrocannabinol [THC] or semisynthetic cannabinoid [CBD] derived from hemp is exempt from the Controlled Substances Act.’ Meanwhile, health officials should educate potential users that these products also carry substantial risk,” writes columnist Dr. Leana Wen at the Washington Post (gift link). “The bottom line from this report is that the federal government must stop ceding its authority to control these drugs.”Meanwhile, reports New Cannabis Ventures, Illinois sales figures for adult-use cannabis in September “on a per-day basis… fell 4.3 percent. The year-over-year growth was -2.2 percent, the first decline recorded. While revenue fell from a year ago, units sold increased by 8.6 percent, suggesting that revenues fell due to lower prices or substitution of lower-priced products by consumers.”Send culture news and tips to [email protected]
