The Chicago Feminist Film Festival began with an enthusiastic Yes!-the exclamation Susan Kerns gave Michelle Yates, her fellow assistant professor at Columbia College, when the latter reached out with her idea. Now in its fourth year, the fest, which is free and open to the public, aims to expand and explore gender equity in filmmaking, pulling from a variety of styles and narratives to forge connections between underrepresented artists and audiences....

This original Christmas show (story by Larry Little, music by Dylan MarcAurele, book and lyrics by Jaclyn Enchin and Jennifer Enchin, with additional lyrics by Mike Ross) is no worse, and no better, than your average holiday children’s fare. The story, charming and silly, follows Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey: a young woman, unhappy with her dreary life, is transported to another world where she performs a heroic deed (saving Santa Claus), before she returns to the ordinary world, changed by her experiences....

Christian K. Lee/ For Sun-Times Media Jesus Garcia accepts the endorsement of Willie Wilson (right) this morning at the Chicago Baptist Institute. At left is Reverend Greg Seal Livingston, who managed Wilson’s campaign. At a south-side church this morning, Willie Wilson formally announced his endorsement of Jesus “Chuy” Garcia for mayor. As of this writing, Wilson has yet to rescind it. Four days later, Wilson told CBS 2 Chicago he’d vote for Garcia, but possibly endorse Emanuel....

Quenchers Saloon will close for good next Sunday, June 17, and one artifact of the decades it’s spent in the building at Western and Fullerton is already gone: the original 1991 Wesley Willis drawing of Quenchers. In the back of the live room, on the wall where the drawing was displayed, there’s now a strip of masking tape that says “Prints available now.” At least until Quenchers shuts its doors, you have an easy way to buy a reproduction of Willis’s drawing—for $20 you can just order one over the bar with your beer or sandwich....

In an undated clip that recently surfaced on Twitter, poet Gil Scott-Heron explains his intentions behind the song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” “The first change that takes place is in your mind,” Scott-Heron said, at ease in casual conversation. “You have to change your mind before you change how you’re living and how you move. The thing that’s going to change people is something that no one will ever be able to capture on film....

It’s hard to square the armload of prestigious international awards and nominations garnered by playwright Florian Zeller’s 2012 dementia drama with the show that’s currently on stage at Theater Wit. Zeller focuses on semi-doddering Andre, a member of the Parisian haute bourgeoisie whose mental acumen has begun to wane. He insists he’s perfectly fine. Except he keeps losing his watch. And confusing the names of his recently dismissed home caretakers. And forgetting whose apartment he lives in....

The play that has given the Chicago theater world all its excitement this summer is Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over at Steppenwolf. I bought a ticket to get in on the action. Not too much has happened yet when shots ring out and the two young black protagonists, Moses and Kitch, throw themselves to the ground. The shots come from nowhere—without warning and from no visible source—but we think we know (well, I thought I knew; maybe you knew better) what they signify....

The Block Beat multimedia series is a collaboration with The TRiiBE that roots Chicago musicians in places and neighborhoods that matter to them. Written by Arthur E. Haynes IIPhotography by Morgan Elise Johnson Video by Alex Y. DingShot at Fishman’s Fabrics, 1101 S. Desplaines The Sheila Rashid Brand attracted interest around the world in 2016, when Chance the Rapper wore a pair of Rashid’s now-famous drop-crotch overalls at the MTV Video Music Awards....

Dungeons & Dragons’ 45-year history has had its volatile moments. Remember the 1980s moral panic when the role-playing game was widely criticized for encouraging suicide (not to mention witchcraft, murder, rape, homosexuality, insanity, and cannibalism, at least according to the international activist group Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons)? Through all the turmoil, one stereotype has remained constant: D&D players are oddballs and misfits holed up in their parents’ basements letting their nerd flags fly free and proud....

An old, recognizable poster is visible on the wall of Fox Mulder’s office during the new X-Files miniseries. It shows a blurry image of what appears to be a flying saucer hovering over a forest. Printed in bold type below the shot: i want to believe. It serves as a testament to Mulder’s earnest faith in extraterrestrial or paranormal beings and a deep skepticism towards a heavy-handed federal government that suppresses and obfuscates their existence....

Berwyn born, internationally acclaimed soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is performing an operatic marathon this week at Lyric Opera, singing the difficult final acts of all three Gaetano Donizetti Tudor queen operas: Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux in one fell swoop. If this sounds like opera for short attention spans—well, yes! No need to spend hours watching the tragedy gel: Lyric provides giant projected text (“Henry VIII loves Jane Seymour”) that fills you in on what transpired during the acts you’re not having to sit through....

The comedy of Sarah Sherman, alias Sarah Squirm, is a reclamation of the grotesque. Body functions play a key role in her act, which includes reenactments of bodily fluids—simulations concocted with ordinary groceries—emerging from various orifices. Her ambition is to make her audience cringe—but in a fun way. Her obsession with goo and gore stems from a desire to celebrate her body in all its gross and oozing glory. Growing up on Long Island, specifically in Great Neck, she saw her well-to-do classmates receive nose jobs and breast enhancements during their teenage years....

Few musicians have built as distinctive a sound world as guitarist Bill Frisell. Though he’s ostensibly a jazz guitarist, since the early 80s he’s funneled a wide variety of influences and ideas from country, rock, noise, and various international traditions into an aesthetic as American as anything forged by Sousa, Presley, or Copland. Though specific projects such as film scores or songbooks constantly shift his focus in the short term, a macrosweep of his oeuvre shows how earthy twang, melodic wanderlust, and humid atmospheres infused with the wide-open spirit of the plains meld in his recordings....

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago. “I loved my dress the first time I laid eyes on it,” says Shatara Powell, (above, center) who was photographed at the AMC Dine-in Block 37 theater downtown. She celebrated her 34th birthday with dinner at TAO in River North, followed by a screening of Tyler Perry’s romantic comedy Nobody’s Fool....

To describe the driving ethos of Chicago’s drag house Maison Couleé, you need look no further than the Chicago Black Drag Council’s June 20 town hall on racism at Sidetrack specifically and in Boystown in general. It was here that Bambi Banks-Couleé, drag daughter of Maison Couleé’s founding mother Shea Couleé, let Sidetrack know she was done putting up with the racist bullshit that has long been baked into the culture of Chicago’s north side drag bars....

Ryley Walker closes his new album Deafman Glance (Dead Oceans) with a tune that nails the existential turbulence that ripples through most of his songs: “Whenever I do my best, I will spoil with the rest,” he sings, acknowledging a self-destructive impulse that bleeds into his affairs, romantic and otherwise. In most of the songs the narrator struggles with his decisions and fucks things up more often than not. It’s hard to miss the biting humor when Walker sings, “Tripped over your coat / Quick exit now ruined” in “Can’t Ask Why,” where he can’t even pull off a smooth departure after a breakup....

Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place. Older strips are archived here.

Massachusetts guitarist Wendy Eisenberg has only been releasing music under their own name for two years, but they have already amassed a discography so diverse that no genre can claim them. On their debut, Time Machine (HEC Tapes, reissued on LP by Feeding Tube), they sound like a bedroom-based singer-songwriter who honed their vocal chops singing along with Robert Wyatt and Caetano Veloso records. And on the instrumental power-trio recording The Machinic Unconscious (Tzadik), where they’re joined by drummer Ches Smith and bassist Trevor Dunn, they sound like Nels Cline mashing up the Melvins and harmolodic jazz....

It’s become all too easy to opt out of taking the CTA with the quick, convenient allure of Lyft and Uber just a couple smartphone clicks away. Recent studies have reported that it’s becoming common for those who can afford ride share to substitute it in place of transit, walking, or biking rather than just using it to replace private car trips. The outcome could be a less efficient, safe, environmentally friendly, and just city....