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Now that Chicago’s been granted, in quick succession, two full-scale, well-acted productions of Lolita Chakrabarti’s biodrama Red Velvet (Raven Theatre’s 2016 version closed a year and three days before Chicago Shakespeare Theater opened its current staging), it’s clear how singular an anti-achievement Chakrabarti’s play is. She manages to take the fascinating, complicated life of Ira Aldridge, perhaps the 19th century’s only African-American international theatrical star, and drain from it most everything that makes it fascinating and complicated....

During this week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, photographer Joeff Davis documented the good, the bad, and the ugly (lots of ugly, actually). The result is a fascinating look at the GOP elites (Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich), D-list celebs (Scott Baio, Don King), regular Trump supporters waving signs with slogans like “Hillary for prison,” and protesters outside Quicken Loans Arena chanting “Stop Trump!” And then there’s the candidate himself in all his fake-tanned and wispy-haired glory, quick on the draw with finger guns, posed next to his VP pick, Mike Pence, his wife Melania, and his gang of slick progeny....

It may be tempting to sink into a post-victory slump, but there’s plenty to do this weekend. Here’s some of what we recommend: Through 11/6: Those are generally excited by the tangibility of objects: rejoice! SOFA Chicago—the Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design Fair—returns to Navy Pier (600 E. Grand). This pop-up exhibition produced by Urban Expositions features lectures and discussions on glass, metal, bamboo, and everything in between. Fri 11/4: Cartoonist Jessica Campbell comes to Quimby’s (1854 W....

In Mohsen Makhmalbaf‘s political drama The President, the brutal dictator of an unnamed country (the movie was shot mainly in the Republic of Georgia) is deposed in a popular rebellion and goes on the run with his five-year-old grandson. Disguising themselves as refugees, they melt into the general populace, and as they cross paths with ordinary citizens, the old man begins to reckon with all the misery he’s caused and the boy begins to see through the grandfather he once revered....

Beyoncé has her Beyhive and Taylor Swift fans call themselves Swifties, but no current pop fandom rocks ski masks or face paint quite like the Skeleton Clique—the devotees of Twenty One Pilots, the Columbus-based duo famous for obscuring their faces with dramatic skeleton makeup and other disguises onstage. Members of the Clique follow the band from concert to concert and sometimes camp out overnight—even in extreme weather—to snag prime tickets to their shows....

Q: I used to be a fan of your column, Dan, but something happened to you. Maybe it’s stress, the current political climate, or some other issue—I don’t know. I used to look forward to your columns because they were fun, smart, and helpful—but I don’t enjoy what I’m seeing now. If something did happen to you, reach out for help. You’re on the verge of losing a loyal reader. —Reader Enquiring About Dan’s Enervating Responses...

When the Obama administration announced May 13 that it would be taking groundbreaking steps toward transgender equality, the decision may have signaled the end of a controversial bill in Illinois. On May 4, Vanita Gupta, principal deputy assistant for the U.S. Department of Justice, sent a letter to North Carolina governor Pat McCrory arguing that HB 2 is not only dangerous, but violates federal law. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, which Gupta argued should be extended to gender identity....

By early February, many Chicagoans don’t wanna do anything more adventurous than curl up under a blanket with a book and a mug of something hot. But Metro, WBEZ, Vocalo, and Young Chicago Authors could lure even the most cold-weather-averse hip-hop fans to Wrigleyville for Winter Block Party X: This Is Chicago. Unlike summer block parties, with their street-side bounce houses and water-balloon fights, the Winter Block Party moves its attractions—which include music performances, poetry, live art, and even a pop-up barber shop—indoors out of the elements....

One of the major misconceptions about Abraham Lincoln is that he ran for president with the full intent of ending slavery in the United States. It’s nice to think that it was once possible for someone with so much moral sense and the courage of his convictions to get elected to, well, anything. But the true story of Lincoln’s evolving feelings about slavery and racial equality, chronicled in “Lincoln’s Undying Words,” a new exhibition opening at the Chicago History Museum on Saturday, is far more complicated, and also far more interesting....

First he marinated the kidneys in oil with dried chiles, herbs, garlic, and spices. “I was thinking of how with wine you get descriptors like ‘barnyard,’” he says. “Working on a farm growing up, ‘barnyard’ had these hay and urine connotations, horse shit—I thought about how you twist something off-putting into something romantic.” A few months back, a bartender at the restaurant made a cocktail with hay-infused mescal, and Trahan used some of that to make borracho bean puree with kidney beans (“because that’s kind of funny”)....

Argentine string band Che Apalache play “Latingrass,” which might at first seem like a sterile hybrid, but even a few minutes of listening to this four-piece are enough to demonstrate how beautifully Latin folk and bluegrass sounds can intertwine. Multi-instrumentalist and North Carolina native Joe Troop is a music teacher in Buenos Aires, and in 2018 he explained the group’s genesis to Bluegrass Today: the Appalachian folk style wasn’t popular in his adopted city when he arrived in 2010, but the instruments used to make it were....

Third Annual 26th Annual Comedy Festival The A.V. Club welcomes headliners Tracy Morgan and Sarah Silverman to town for its third annual comedy festival. Other performers include Reggie Watts, Jenny Slate, and Chris Gethard. Wed 6/1-Sun 6/5, various locations, 26comedy.com, $10-$72.50. Pride Fest A warm-up for the Pride Parade on Sunday, June 26, this Boystown takeover kicks off with a Pet Pride Parade, local street vendors, and three stages of music with performances by Dumblonde, Daya, and Jordin Sparks....

Code-Switched is the thoughtfully curated care package only your fellow South Asian friend from high school can make. The one who’s been to your house for chana chaat and also smoked weed in your parent’s garage while they went to prayer. And then snacked on said chaat in a satisfied frenzy. It’s nuanced, surprising yet familiar at the same time, and delivers the type of unexpected pairings that always hit the spot....

When Drake dropped If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late late last week he further complicated the various terminology given to hip-hop releases. These days there are more and more “EPs” that are as long as full-length albums and “mixtapes” that appear no different than a proper studio album (like If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late). Drake called the 17-song release a mixtape, but when it came out Thursday evening it wasn’t exactly available on any of the major mixtape sites....

Between his tenure with experimental titans Coil and his stint in the equally important Psychic TV, Scottish musician Drew McDowall helped shape the sound and feel of 90s industrial with his Moogs and modular ­synths. By 2012, he’d brought his sound designs—conjured from gloomy, fractured beats and pure dark energy—to New York, where he embarked on a solo career. Last year he released the succinct Unnatural Channel, his second full-length for Dais....

Drummer Mark Guiliana has previously worked mostly in electronic-friendly contexts, playing hard-hitting fusion with saxophonist Donny McCaslin and a hybrid of jazz and techno with trumpeter Dave Douglas’s High Risk project, and contributing to David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar. On Jersey (Motema), his second consecutive album as a bandleader, he embraces an acoustic sound that deliberately cuts against the grain of most of these efforts; still, the music is undeniably the product of a musician who understands what computers can do with rhythm, and challenges himself to translate tricky beats with his own four limbs....

Q: I’m a 33-year-old straight guy with a small dick. I have a girlfriend of seven years. When we met, I was really insecure and she had to spend a lot of time reassuring me that it didn’t matter—she loved my dick, sex with me was great, it was big enough for her, etc. I broke up with her once because I didn’t think she should settle for someone so small....

Michael Gebert Scott Malloy People are always on the move in the restaurant business, and I’ve known plenty of chefs on the way up. But there’s something different about the moves made by a cook named Scott Malloy, who currently works at Momotaro’s izakaya. A Tennessee native, Malloy didn’t have Japanese food till he was nearly an adult, but he’s made up for lost time by being obsessive about it ever since....

Journalists are studying their navels again. As they’re hammered—by readers, partisans, and the candidates’ own camps—for their coverage of the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, they’re asking themselves fundamental questions: Are we being fair? And fair to whom—the candidates, our readers, the needs of the nation, our own principles? And are we even supposed to be fair? Spayd showed some sympathy for this critique, but in the main she believes reporters should simply dig into their stories and let the chips fall where they may....

UPDATE Monday, March 16: this event has been indefinitely postponed. Refunds available at point of purchase. In the painfully honest spirit of Lenny Bruce, let’s begin with a couple of blunt observations. The first is that the very issue Bruce fought and died for—free speech and the right to say anything—has devolved in recent years into a gleeful incivility in which haters, trolls, and fools feel they can say anything, hurt anybody, and then hide behind the First Amendment....