“Asian American” is a difficult identity to define. Culturally speaking, the term “Asian American” is tasked with the near-impossible job of representing people with origins in nations as disparate as India and South Korea, who speak languages ranging from Japanese to Tagalog. Routes of immigration to the U.S. vary widely among Asian Americans: some came to this country as refugees of the Vietnam war, while others can trace their history back to the building of the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s....

Chicago Hot Dog Fest A celebration of the Chicago dog and Vienna Beef featuring bites from local vendors along with live music from JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound. 8/5-8/7: Fri-Sat 11 AM-9 PM, Sun 11 AM-8 PM, Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark, 312-642-4600, chicagohotdogfest.com. Free Case/Lang/Veirs Talk about supergroups! Neko Case, K.D. Lang, and Laura Veirs perform songs from their new collaborative album. Sat 8/7, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre, 175 N....

Big media companies have long since figured out that they can extend the profitability of their film assets by turning them into stage shows. Disney alone has recycled properties from Beauty and the Beast to Aladdin. We’ve seen theatricalizations of Kinky Boots and Shrek, School of Rock and Once. Hairspray and The Producers both started out as movies, transmuted into musicals, and then morphed back into movies. A scored version of Groundhog Day will premiere at London’s Old Vic this year....

Every election cycle I find myself confronted by the memes that say, “If you don’t vote, then you can’t complain,” or my personal favorite, “Our ancestors died for the right to vote.” These are frequently written by black people aimed at other black people, “reminders” by way of guilt trips. There’s usually a lot of disgust that comes with reading those statistics. But I get it. I mean, think about all the wrongheaded rhetoric and political tactics black people are subjected to every election cycle....

This election cycle’s first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton occurs on Monday, September 26, exactly 56 years after Kennedy and Nixon sat down at the CBS Studio in Chicago to be televised, pioneering the use of the broadcast medium for the event. FitzGerald’s 8 PM, 6615 W. Roosevelt, Berwyn, IL, 708-788-2118, fitzgeraldsnightclub.com, free. Wise Owl Drinkery & Cookhouse Debate screening and discounted food. 8 PM, 324 S. Racine, 312-623-0776, wiseowlchicago....

Public interest and enthusiasm for abolishing Illinois’s prohibition on rent control is growing. In Bronzeville last Thursday night, a crowd of around 200 people packed a church auditorium to hear presentations organized by the Lift the Ban Coalition. The group of 20 community groups has formed in recent months to push for a repeal of the state’s 1997 Rent Control Preemption Act and subsequently lobby for a rent regulation ordinance in Chicago....

Like a lot of privileged people I know, I’ve been able to make sweatpants a new staple in my work wardrobe. My general appearance, whether it be polished or not, has very little to do with my job anymore, save for the occasional shave and haircut for the benefit of my coworkers. My clothes are mostly for comfort. And when I want to dress anything but the most casual, it’s for myself....

At 5 PM Saturday, March 21, Governor J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 Executive Order No. 8, aka the Stay at Home order, took effect. Here’s a daily-ish journal of how Reader staff, our friends, family—and our pets—are spending our time. More freaking rice, so much rice Fondue Boogers Punch Baking red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting Lunchables Hot Pockets Spicy noods Up trouble With gas, so much gas What we’re drinking:

ARTIST: Stavros GiannopoulosSHOW: The Atlas Moth, Northless, and Rollo Tomasi at Cobra Lounge on Fri 4/24MORE INFO: getinthepink.blogspot.com

British rapper Simbi Ajikawo, who records as Little Simz, jumps right into your ears with her distinctive beats and fluid style on “Might Bang, Might Not,” the first song on the new Drop 6. “You ain’t seen no one like me since / Lauryn Hill in the 90s, bitch,” she raps, laying down the law to anyone who might question her abilities or commitment. “I am a one-woman army / I am the force that we speak of....

Maya Dukmasova’s report on last week’s lecture by activist Angela Davis at Rockefeller Chapel has generated a lot of interest. We’ve been asked about where the full address can be read or watched online. Event sponsor Haymarket Books streamed the lecture and conversation live on Facebook, where it is now archived. We are embedding it here so you can watch the full program.

Andy Kang is the executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago, a nonprofit committed to building power through collective advocacy and organizing to achieve racial equity. In the 1980s, the American auto industry was severely struggling and many politicians and business leaders aggressively blamed Japan, publicly saying things like “little yellow men” were “taking over the country” and engaging in nothing less than an “economic Pearl Harbor.” This sort of rhetoric resulted in the brutal murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American who was celebrating his upcoming wedding in Detroit before he was chased down and bludgeoned by two white men who claimed that Americans were losing their jobs because of people like him....

This review contains spoilers. Everyone remembers Travis Bickle’s demented voice-over in Taxi Driver, but none of Ramsay’s films contain voice-over narration—she doesn’t need it. This is not to say that Scorsese, an oft-imitated master of the device, spoon-feeds the audience, but Ramsay seems more trusting of her viewer to pick up on visual clues. Joe’s trauma is dramatized through abrupt, elliptical flashbacks that intimate horrific childhood abuse and relate his distressing experiences in the line of duty, first as a soldier and later as an FBI agent....

For the past few years that we’ve put out our Best of Chicago issue, we’ve asked our readers to submit photos via Instagram that express what’s best about Chicago—and every year we receive photos that beautifully capture the spirit of the city. Our critics’ picks and the results from our readers’ poll may be debatable, but one thing’s for sure: the best things about Chicago are the people who call it home....

With The Official Body (FatCat), the third album of tuneful, wiry, and crudely funky postpunk from British trio Shopping, the group have maintained their foothold on a sound that’s nearly four decades old while sounding more contemporary than on past material. Producer Edwyn Collins—who once covered vaguely similar terrain in his Scottish pop band Orange Juice—expertly accentuates the rudimentary postdisco grooves of drummer Andrew Milk, the rude yet propulsive bass lines of Billy Easter, and the scratchy guitar licks of front woman Rachel Aggs with a straightforwardness that lends the music extra frantic urgency....

ARTIST: Scott WilliamsSHOW: Soul Summit five-year anniversary at Double Door on Sat 1/17MORE INFO: scottwilliamsdesign.com

It’s balmy in the Children’s Garden of the Garfield Park Conservatory, a welcome respite from the blustery chill of winter. It’s Sweet Saturday, so visitors can sample coffee beans, lemon, papaya, and prickly pear, among other edible treats, and there’s the tumult of children playing. There’s yelling and the clanging of the metal grating where children play above us and wait for a twisted slide that empties right by the poets’ table....

Editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin, whose bedraggled “Willie and Joe” characters famously represented the lowly “dogface” foot soldiers of World War II, won two Pulitzer Prizes, the first when he was only 23. For those who actually don’t know, the show will be a strong introduction. And for those who only remember him for Willie and Joe, it’ll be a reminder that he went on to have a near 50-year, nationally syndicated career that spoke truth to power and championed every kind of “little guy” in the face of injustice....

White Sox fans love their team almost as much as they love their dogs. Photographer Adam Jason Cohen swung by Guaranteed Rate Field on Dog Day to capture baseball’s fuzziest fans. v White Sox Dog Day