Mashaun Hendricks is only 30 years old, but he says that he’s “retired.” For the average 30-year-old, that professional status would be ridiculous, but Hendricks boasts an unusually extensive resumé: he’s been an economics teacher in Chicago, a restorative justice specialist at Chicago Public Schools, and a mentor for juvenile offenders. However, “none of that was really intentional” Hendricks says. “The only intentional thing I’ve done is Trap House Chicago.”...

—William Chyr On a chilly Friday night last October, William Chyr is standing in the center of the Pilsen art gallery Mana Contemporary, a beer in one hand, a PlayStation controller in the other. A mix of well-heeled art patrons and casually dressed twentysomethings has crowded into the compact space for an offbeat exhibit, “Manifold Garden,” a sneak peek at the still-unfinished puzzle-based video game of the same name that Chyr’s been toiling at for years to design and build for PC and Sony’s PlayStation 4....

The Reader‘s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds. Such sentiments did not necessarily stem from compassion so much as fear. It may be no coincidence that the country’s first urban playgrounds—piles of sand deposited at strategic locations by the city of Boston—were placed in 1886, a few months after Chicago’s Haymarket affair excited public hysteria about foreign anarchists....

Acoustic guitar music has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance over the past decade or so, thanks to an ever-expanding armada of emerging fingerstyle players. To my mind, this activity stems from the late-90s comeback of guitarist John Fahey. He’d managed to overcome serious health issues and briefly began touring and making records again, though he largely turned his back on the American Primitive sound he invented in the late 50s and 60s....

For 25 seasons, ShawChicago has been entertaining lovers of classic Anglo-Irish comedy with readers’ theater renditions of the works of George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, J.M. Barrie, and Noel Coward, among others. The company will cease operations this year following the death of its longtime artistic director Robert Scogin; for its last production, it’s presenting the same play with which it debuted in 1994—The Doctor’s Dilemma, one of Shaw’s sharpest works—in a beautifully spoken performance under the direction of Gary Alexander....

Afrofuturist big-band leader Sun Ra left the planet 24 years ago, but his legacy has never been in better shape. Many of his classic sides have been remastered and reissued on vinyl, CD, and file formats, and the Sun Ra Arkestra, which plays his tunes in classic and alternate arrangements, still tours regularly. The celestially attired Arkestra is currently led by 93-year-old Marshall Allen, who’s been a member of the band since it first formed in Chicago in the 1950s....

Magic has long been known as a boys’ club. It’s estimated that only between 5 and 10 percent of professional magicians are women. But now a new generation of female magicians is poised to seize the spotlight and stand shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. When Alba began studying at a magic school in Buenos Aires, her father initially discouraged her hobby. One day, he came to see her perform at a restaurant....

I used to struggle to keep up with the number of restaurants that opened each week in Chicago. It was thrilling but exhausting, and, putting aside the expense of opening a brick and mortar, it was downright amazing given how difficult the city made the process. “I brought my own experience as a Vietnamese American and presented lesser-known Vietnamese dishes to restaurants I’ve worked for,” says Pham. “But since the people above me weren’t familiar with them or didn’t understand, they didn’t really see the potential....

A Reader staffer shares three musical obsessions, then asks someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn. Laurence Crane/Asamisimasa, Sound of Horse Extraordinary Norwegian chamber ensemble Asamisimasa applies a pitch-­perfect touch to the minimalist marvels of British composer Laurence Crane. On this survey of his pieces, long tones and repetition create unexpected beauty, tenderness, and excitement. A quiet masterpiece. Robeson was targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (which Newt Gingrich wants to revive), his passport was revoked, and his U....

One of the best, if slightly exasperating, things about taking stock of the year in music is discovering things that you missed previously, which certainly applies to a killer archival title from Uptown Records that dropped quietly in October and that I only became aware of when I started noticing it on multiple year-end lists. Chicago April 1951 is a remarkable live recording of the Lennie Tristano Sextet made during the peak of the pianist’s creativity, when he was working with a rich front line that included his two most famous acolytes: saxophonists Lee Konitz (who will be in town on February 20 to play in a duet with pianist Dan Tepfer at Constellation) and Warne Marsh (trombonist Willie Dennis is also an acolyte, though not on the level of Marsh and Konitz)....

ARTIST: Bill Roe SHOW: White Mystery, Steal Shit Do Drugs, Greg Ashley, and Easy Habits at Cole’s on Sat 11/18 MORE INFO: troubleinmindrecs.com

The long hot summer is winding down, according to the calendar, but youth theater ensembles are examining a season of protest and pandemic through three shows, created in collaborative (though remote) processes and available online. “They were tasked with interviewing people in the neighborhood and asking them questions about their dream job. And then they would come back and have to transform into the person that they had interviewed and kind of embody the interview they had conducted from the perspective of the person they had interviewed....

I had trouble finding a mask that conformed to my face at the start of the pandemic. The ones I did have at my disposal at first tended to either be loose enough to slide around and reveal parts of my face I intended to conceal, or were tight enough to fold my earlobes over and press down on the tip of my nose with an intensity that left a mark....

Many years ago, an alderman offered me some words of advice that I’ve been following ever since. “Hitler was right.” As criticism of her remarks poured in, Miller’s office tweeted out a clarification that was almost as outrageous as her initial comments: “Congresswoman Miller’s statement was a denunciation of evil dictators’ efforts to re-educate young people and similar efforts by left-wing radicals in our country today.” In other words, own up to what you did or said that was wrong and stop acting like you’re the victim....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, June 30, 2016. Starting this week, you’ll have to be 21 to buy tobacco in Chicago It’s the final day for 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds to buy tobacco products in Chicago. The age requirement for buying cigarettes and other items with tobacco jumps to 21 on Friday. Other cities, including New York City and Boston, and states like California and Hawaii have already raised the age requirement to discourage teens from smoking....

Norwegian saxophonist Håkon Kornstad has long been a deeply curious musician. Throughout his career, which began in the late 90s, he’s pursued disparate creative ventures with unbending rigor and imagination. I first encountered him in 2000, when he performed at the Empty Bottle as a member of fantastic improvising trio Tri-Dim with Swedish guitarist David Stackenäs and Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach, but at the same time he was creating a vibrant post-Miles Davis fusion with his group Wibutee....

No one else plays the pedal steel guitar like Susan Alcorn. She combines a command of the instrument’s orchestral range with an improvisational fluency that lets her take the instrument far beyond its usual idiomatic settings. She began playing professionally in Chicago country bars in the mid-1970s, then went on to hone her chops in Texas western-swing and country bands. But in 1990 she tapped into another Lone Star sound—the “deep listening” philosophy of Houston-born composer Pauline Oliveros—and she’s been courting unpredictability ever since....

Q: As you can see by my signature, Dan, I’m a linguist. On your podcast you frequently ask researchers “whatchyougot” on all kinds of sex- and romance-related questions. I thought maybe you’d be interested in some expertise on linguistic matters too. And I have some on “cum,” “cumming,” and (shudder) “cummed.” A: Thank you for taking the time to write, Professor Newman, and please forgive me for peeving you. But the sticky issue for me—if you’ll pardon the expression—remains the seemingly unnecessary and arbitrary use of an alternate spelling in this one instance....

The gridded city is ancient, popularized by the Romans but not prevalent globally until the 18th century. When land is subdivided into equal—or by a factor divisible—parcels, it helps with both administration of the area and wayfinding through it. Gridirons are imposed over topography and are unresponsive to local organization. The curve of waterways, soil-born connective tissue of place, desire paths of mammals and migratory trajectories of birds are invisible to us....