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Atop an imaginary Tennessee hill, poet Wallace Stevens famously placed an imaginary jar, which “took dominion everywhere” and tamed a wilderness that “rose up to it.” In Stevens’s philosophy, the most commonplace object holds adequate wonder to create a new, poeticized world order. Chicago monologist and playwright Barrie Cole has long been placing imaginary jars atop imaginary hills. Her ambiguously concrete work layers childlike simplicity over seasoned melancholy to produce piercing, wondrous images of charming, discomfiting transformation....

A friend was eating lunch with family in Kuala Lumpur a few weeks ago when he received a tweet announcing a brand-new Malaysian restaurant had opened in Chicago. It came with a photo of the restaurant’s mango chicken—a sweet-spicy stir-fry of poultry, bell peppers, and onions served in a hollowed-out mango. As the phone was passed around the table loaded with homemade dishes, the family had a good snort. That’s Malaysian food, eh?...

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, November 16, 2017. Chicago Police Department superintendent Eddie Johnson is expected to announce Thursday that Englewood shootings and homicides “are on pace to reach historic lows in 2017,” according to the Sun-Times. Recent data refutes Englewood’s reputation for being one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city and even in the U.S. There were only 158 incidents of gun violence reported in the neighborhood as of October 31, compared to 302 during the same time period in 2016....

In the past two weeks alone, I’ve found myself at Wrightwood 659, the Renaissance Society, the Leather Archives & Museum, and the Smart Museum. All varying in public prominence, I feel lucky to know these spaces, to really get inside of them, to see show after show come in and out. And these are just a few of the hundreds of impressive DIY spaces, commercial galleries, and large museums that we have in this City of the Big Shoulders....

There are certain very specific types of art I cling to, like Eva Hesse’s fiberglass and latex work and Lynda Benglis’s wax sculptures. Their choice to work with carnal, fleshy, and corporeal materials makes their pieces evoke the fragility and vulnerability of the body. The Smart Museum of Art’s “Allure of Matter” taps into those characteristics that scratch my creative itch and takes to a whole new scale. The Smart-commissioned piece Civilization Pillar is something that you can smell when you enter the exhibition space....

Nina (Jazzma Pryor) and her estranged father, Kenyatta (Marc A. Rogers), a former activist in the Black Liberation Movement, face a volatile reunion following the death of her mother in Dominique Morisseau’s stunning play. He comes seeking access to valuable letters his wife wrote to him while he was incarcerated, but also to repair his relationship with Nina. Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre’s production, directed by Tim Rhoze, is driven by the passion of the three actors, who together embody the characters’ desires to transcend their circumstances....

Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt has made a career out of the saying “Wherever you go, there you are.” A naturalist at heart, she observes her characters intently as they roll into new environments, size up their surroundings, and try to conquer them. Her breakthrough film, Old Joy (2006), follows two old pals on a road trip to a wilderness hot spring, where their friendship blooms again, and back to the city, where it withers....

Power Trip have long produced crossover thrash for the tattered, sleeveless Cro-Mags T-shirt wearer in all of us—and with their recent sophomore album, the Dallas dudes prove it. Since its release in February, Nightmare Logic (Southern Lord) has been universally regarded as a triumph of dystopic metal, a record that has brought together all adrenaline junkies who require a little grime and sweat in their riffs. Its core message is that the world is a few nudges away from resembling a scorched and abandoned industrial compound, with track titles like “Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe)” and “Waiting Around to Die” playing into that mantra....

courtesy of the artist John Patitucci Back in the early 90s, when I was a clerk at Jazz Record Mart, all I knew about bassist John Patitucci was his fusion work, both on his own and as a member of Chick Corea’s band (in fact, all you had to know about Corea’s work at the time was that he spelled the group’s name the Elektric Band). Unfairly, I pretty much wrote the bassist off until he turned up as a key member of the Wayne Shorter Quartet, for which he remains a crucial member, playing upright bass....

In mid-March, there were no cases of COVID-19 at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet. By April 6, some 85 people were infected, with 29 staff members among them. Two inmates have died of complications from the virus. The infection is now spreading so rapidly through the prison that it is reasonable to expect its entire population could be suffering from the novel coronavirus before April is over. At AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, the intensive care unit is already filled with patients from Stateville....

Nicknamed “blond poison” by the Nazis (her “Aryan” good looks—blond, blue-eyed—belied her Jewish heritage), Stella Kübler-Isaacksohn was a “catcher” for the Gestapo during World War II. Using her cunning, charisma, and connections she ferreted out fellow Jews—people who had gone into hiding in Berlin—and turned them over to the authorities. For this she was promised a bounty of 300 Reichsmark for each person apprehended, and the continued safety of her parents, a promise the Nazis eventually broke (her parents died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp)....

The weaponization of nerd culture has been a nightmare. From the outset, satirical representations like the Revenge of the Nerds series were riddled with toxic misogyny, but the modern-day real-life versions (GamerGate, Milo, 4chan) are so much worse. Under the stage name Mega Ran, rapper Raheem Jarbo defiantly counters all of that, lovingly extolling nerdy pursuits with the welcoming air of an older sibling handing down his Nintendo tips. His early Mega Man-centered work earned him a licensing deal with Capcom, and eventually a chance to meet Mega Man cocreator Keiji Inafune, who’d recently left the company to pursue other opportunities....

In late June, after three years of negotiations and with considerable relief, members of AFSCME 3506, the union representing the adult education faculty at the City Colleges of Chicago, ratified a contract that gave them modest salary increases. Roumbanis says there’s plenty of research showing that for ESL programs, more instruction time amounts to greater success. With the changes, he says, ESL courses that previously consisted of 170 to 250 hours of class time will be reduced to 96 hours....

Boneflower Mead, located in northwest Indiana, has a rating of 4.7 out of a possible 5 on Untappd, a social networking app for beer aficionados that allows them to rate what they’re drinking. The rating is impressive for a fledgling meadery—but so is the fact that Boneflower, which has yet to sell a single bottle of mead, has more than 150 reviews. Schavey himself cut his teeth on craft beer well before he knew anything about mead....

COVID-19 couldn’t stop the 2020 Dance for Life. But it did turn the annual benefit performance, produced by Chicago Dancers United to raise money for its Dancers’ Fund and other charities, into a Zoom event. Pate’s position, as the organization’s only staff member, was abruptly eliminated May 19. On June 9 she posted a “Dear Chicago dance community” letter on Facebook, suggesting that the entire CDU board of directors resign, to be replaced by a smaller board with financial and operations expertise, plus an advisory board of dance professionals....

Kat Hawkins Assistant General Manager & Beverage Director, Shaw’s Crab House In 2019, she was named one of America’s “Best New Sommeliers” by Wine & Spirits Magazine. Hawkins is a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers and a Certified Specialist of Wine and Spirits through the Society of Wine Educators. Prior to her residency as the assistant general manager and beverage director at Shaw’s, Hawkins fine-tuned her skills in Detroit’s bustling restaurant scene....

Despite the pandemic raging across the city, state, and country, the Chicago Public Library (CPL) system remains open. Other city services have made the jump largely online, such as the Cook County court system. The city has designated libraries as essential services, but some library staff say the current COVID-19 measures are not enough to protect the patrons and employees, and those measures also hinder the very services the staff are expected to perform....

A friend in Houston recently described multidisciplinary artist and space goddess Lisa E. Harris as a “force of nature” in the Texas scene and beyond. Upon investigation, I had to concur. Harris channels the Afrofuturism of Sun Ra, the transcendent devotionals of Alice Coltrane, and the deep-listening experiments of Pauline Oliveros—all while maintaining her own unique vision. Harris is trained in opera, and she can often be found playing theremin or synthesizers, but she also brings theater, spoken word, and dance into her colorful cosmic performances....

Jack Cooper, best known as half of the UK guitar-pop combo Ultimate Painting, turns inward on his solo debut, Sandgrown (Trouble in Mind). The album is charming and low-key, with songs that reflect on his teen years in Blackpool, England—specifically the summers he spent working menial jobs in the seaside resort town. Observing how tourists came and went with little thought to the town’s life and experiences during its long off-seasons, Cooper conveys a sense of broken-down hopelessness with unadorned beauty....

Ms. Jody is one of the leading lights on the southern soul-blues circuit, but she’s virtually unknown among mainstream fans in other parts of the country. A large part of the singer’s appeal, at least in the south, is her deft balance of provocativeness and propriety. She’ll tongue-bathe the microphone with a lasciviousness that might make Tina Turner blush: “I take that joystick into my hand, y’all—and I like to call it a joystick because it brings me so much joy....