Today In The Culture, April 21, 2022: SOFA Announces Return | Bronzeville Performing Arts Complex Gets Funding | Landmarks Illinois Most Endangered Places
SOFA Chicago returns in-person to Navy Pier November 3-6, again exploring “materiality and meaning in sculpture, objects, functional art and wearable design, along with a curated selection of self-taught and contemporary art.” Details here.
Marwen Celebrates Thirty-Fifth Anniversary In Chicago With Paintbrush Ball
Marwen announces the return of its largest annual fundraising event, Paintbrush Ball 2022, which celebrates the organization’s thirty-fifth anniversary. The theme is “We Are Here,” telling a Marwen story years in the making–”years,” the organization relays, “full of inspiration, imagination, creative voices, and a growing community of thinkers and makers. The event theme was conceived by Creative Sponsor Leo Burnett, and the event was designed in collaboration with The Revel Group.” The event raises funds to support Marwen’s free visual arts courses and creative academic and career pathway programming for Chicago youth in grades 6-12 across the city. The event will be at Revel Motor Row, 2400 South Michigan, Friday, May 20, 6pm-midnight, which is Marwen’s birthday as well. Tickets and more information here.
DESIGN
Landmarks Illinois Names 2022 Most Endangered Historic Places
The list of Illinois’ most endangered historic places leads off with Chicago’s Century and Consumers Buildings; followed by the Eugene S. Pike House, Chicago; the Will County Courthouse, Joliet; Elks Lodge No. 64, Rockford; and Gillson Park, Wilmette. Details here. Meanwhile, the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church was ordered demolished, including the mural of Christ ascending which survived the fires.
Goettsch Partners Designs Anti-Lion Attack Façade For New Lincoln Park Zoo Feline Enclosure
“Combining historic preservation work, zoo design, and the technical expertise that complex façades demand, the Pepper Family Wildlife Center at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago provides a better experience for visitors while protecting them from potentially fatal feline attacks,” reports ArchPaper. “Designed by Chicago-based Goettsch Partners in collaboration with zoo design specialists PJA, the team was tasked with doubling the size of the zoo’s lion habitat while accounting for both lion strikes and animal comfort in the expanded habitat in the 110-year-old building. The renovation also needed to meet standards set by Commission on Chicago Landmarks for work on historic properties.”
Closed Mars Plant Could Mean Austin Gym, Library Or Nature Center
“Mars Wrigley plans to donate its historic factory to the community when it closes the facility in 2024. Residents are working with the company to plan for how the building will be used,” reports Block Club Chicago.
DINING & DRINKING
Making A Beeline For Emo Brunch
Online community “Bucket Listers,” built on exploring cities together, presents its “Emo Brunch”-themed experience in Chicago on April 23, running Saturdays and Sundays through May 22 before decamping to other cities. “Picture your typical emo night but with mimosas and pancakes. It’s the pre-Warped Tour breakfast experience all elder emos wish existed back in the day. Craving breakfast foods? The Alkaline Trio, Black Parade Chicken & Waffles, and the Fall Out Boy Pork Sammy are a few of the emo-themed options to nourish your jet-black heart and soul,” the group relays in a release. “Dine like the scene queens and Punk Rock Princesses you were back in 2005–or maybe still are, soundtracked with classic teen-angst tracks of the early aughts. While head-banging is encouraged, elbow throwing should be kept to a minimum. But if the hostess calls to open up the pit, you know what to do.” The cost is $50, which includes an entree and welcome mimosa or non-alcoholic beverage. Additional side items, beverages and merchandise will be for sale. At HeadQuarters Beercade, 213 West Institute Place, on Saturday, April 23 and May 21 and Sunday, April 24 and May 22, in ninety-minute seatings between 10am-1:45pm. Tickets here. More here.
Apollo Global Management Acquires Tony’s Fresh Market
Tony’s Fresh Market has been acquired by Apollo Global Management, a New York private equity firm, reports the Sun-Times. “The acquisition by Apollo Global Management builds on its grocery investments nationally and locally. Apollo has a stake in Albertsons, whose properties include the Jewel-Osco stores. Tony’s was founded in 1979 in Logan Square by Tony Ingraffia and Domenico Gambino [and] has remained family-owned. The Apollo announcement said family members will continue in management and as shareholders.”
Frozen Marg Menu For Warm Weather At The Robey’s Cabana Club
A new menu of frozen margs and piña coladas will launch at the Robey’s rooftop pool and bar, The Cabana Club, on May 20. Flavors include kiwi, prickly pear, strawberry, peach ginger, mango, tamarind, blueberry, pink guava, sweet hibiscus and blood orange. Guests can add these flavors to margaritas or piña coladas, frozen or on the rocks, and specify salt, sugar or Tajín for the rim. Other cocktails will include the Oaxacan on Broken Glass, The Robey Old Fashioned and a Vodka Strawberry-Basil Gimlet; there will also be a new food menu. More about The Robey here.
Previewing Bronzeville Winery
Eater Chicago checks out Bronzeville Winery: “During a preview of their new restaurant… Cecilia Cuff gushed about her chef, Whitney McMorris. Bronzeville Winery is McMorris’ first opportunity as an executive chef after learning under chefs like Moto’s Richie Farina and the late Homaro Cantu. She then absorbed the art of fancy cocktailing at the Aviary… Bronzeville is home to beloved restaurants such as Honey 1 BBQ and Cleo’s Southern Cuisine, but the neighborhood hasn’t seen dishes with this technical precision. These were beautifully plated dishes with edible flowers, including fried oysters done three ways, a smoked and cured watermelon steak, filet mignon, and ratatouille. McMorris’ highlight, showcasing Asian, French, and Italian influences, was her rendition of fish and chips garnished with trumpet mushrooms, edible flowers (procured at Herban Produce, an urban farm in Garfield Park), and finished with a consomme she poured tableside.” (Reservations here.)
Grill On 21 Opens This Spring
Grill on 21, the latest venture from the Roanoke Hospitality Group, will open this spring on the twenty-first floor of The LaSalle Chicago Hotel at 208 South LaSalle in the Financial District. The restaurant will be “an interpretation of the classic American grill created for the sophisticated diner of the twenty-first century… The menu features a diverse array of grilled steaks, chops, hearth-roasted fish, poultry, locally grown produce, and plant-based items, all prepared with an emphasis on approachability and integrity. The menu was developed by chef de cuisine Ian Robertson (L2O, TRU, ABC Kitchen) in consultation with chef Andrew Hunter (Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Niman Ranch, Kikkoman). Grill on 21’s chefs take great effort and pride in sourcing the menu’s high-quality ingredients from environmentally responsible, local family farms, ranchers, and sustainable fisheries.” More here.
MUSIC
Whistler Launches Line-Up Of Cover-Free Live Music
Logan Square’s The Whistler, which describes itself as a “craft cocktail hub, music venue, art gallery, and record label,” “is back in the groove with an all-star lineup of cover-free eclectic live music events this spring and summer, ranging from French disco to Dixieland to lo-fi hip-hop and beyond. Truly a multifunctional space, The Whistler wears each of its hats with equal pride. The bar pumps out a rotating, inventive menu of craft cocktails at a high-volume capacity that brings a refreshing deviation from the typical concert hall offerings. Guests can opt for classic favorites and signature creations from The Whistler’s bar team, led by three time James Beard-nominated head bartender Alex Barbatsis, such as the ‘Island Time’ with gin, sake, and lychee liquor or the ‘It’s My Part’ that features liquid cheesecake and a graham-cracker crumble around the rim.” The calendar and more here.
Memorial Planned For Jan Bach, Composer Who Taught At NIU
“Jan Bach’s father hoped he’d take over the family lumber business. Instead, he took to the piano and music after his mother encouraged him to learn to play,” reports Maureen O’Donnell at the Sun-Times. “She wanted him to be popular, and, of course, she wanted him to get invited to parties,” his daughter Dawn told the reporter. “Mr. Bach went on to study with composer Aaron Copland at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts, played the French horn in an Army band at the funeral of President John F. Kennedy and became a renowned and prolific composer of complex music performed around the globe.” A delayed memorial for Bach, who died in 2020 at the age of eighty-two, is planned at the end of the month. Mr. Bach taught for nearly forty years at Northern Illinois University.
STAGE
Bronzeville’s 350-Seat Lillian Marcie Center Gets $26 Million In State Funding
Veteran actor Harry Lennix‘s dream of a “Black Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts” comes closer, reports Block Club Chicago. “The Lillian Marcie Center for the Performing Arts, 4343 South Cottage Grove, will be on the site of an old Marshall Field warehouse built in 1915. The 22,500-square-foot, two-story space is the centerpiece of a larger initiative that includes plans for a Black performing arts museum, studio space, a restaurant and jazz club.”
Northwestern’s Only Multicultural Theater Board Launches
“Vibrant Colors Collective, Northwestern University’s only multicultural theatre board on campus, aims to highlight underrepresented stories and provide a creative space for students of color,” reports the Daily Northwestern. “‘We are excited to explore how this group can act as a response to the fact that we are at a predominantly white institution and that we are marginalized theatermakers,’ communication freshman Ferdinand Moscat said. ‘A lot of times you enter a rehearsal space, there’s this implicit expectation for you to whitewash yourself.'” School of Communication Professor Henry Godinez, chair of the theater department and faculty advisor for VC2, said “collaboration with artists of color has been central to his work as a director and theatermaker… ‘There are stories that need to be told in order to see the common threads that we share as human beings… Right now, they are not being told with the compassion and urgency that this theater company is going to be able to tell them.'”
ARTS & CULTURE
Fred Hampton Childhood Home Gets Historical Landmark Status
“The Illinois childhood home of Fred Hampton, an iconic Black Panther Party leader who was shot and killed during a 1969 police raid of his Chicago apartment, has been designated a historical landmark” by Maywood Village, reports WGN-TV. “The designation is part of a broader effort to see the Black Panther Party and the U.S. Black liberation struggle represented alongside landmarks to the nonviolent civil rights movement. With the designation, organizers plan to transform the site into a place where the works of the Black Panther Party can be displayed.”
Mayor Acknowledges Casino Opposition
“Mayor Lightfoot said there is ‘always a level of NIMBY-ism’ whenever you decide where to locate a mega-project, but she’s not about to let that local opposition stand in the way of a Chicago casino desperately needed to rescue police and fire pension funds from bankruptcy,” reports Fran Spielman at the Sun-Times. Lightfoot said, “Would you rather that your taxes go up? In a municipality we have very few tools to use to shore up police pensions, labor pensions, municipal pensions other than raising property taxes. Nobody wants to do that. Least of all, me.”
Council Panel Approves Lightfoot Election Year Gas Giveaway
“If gas giveaways were a game of political poker, Mayor Lori Lightfoot just barely trumped Willie Wilson—with house money,” reports the Sun-Times. “The City Council’s Budget Committee set the stage… narrowly approving the $12.5 million commuter assistance plan Lightfoot calls ‘Chicago Moves.'” The 15-to-12 vote came after “the income threshold was reduced from $140,000 to $93,200 for a family of four. That’s just to be eligible for monthly lotteries doling out 50,000 gas cards worth $150 each and 100,000 pre-paid mass transit cards… Noting that Lightfoot’s name is ‘very prominently displayed’ on a mock-up of the gas card, [alderperson] Ramirez-Rosa said: ‘I’ve heard from some constituents who have said they feel like this is the mayor trying to prove that she has the biggest gas hose.’ Budget Chair Pat Dowell called [the] complaint ‘petty,’ noting ‘the mayor’s name is on everything,’ including aldermanic paychecks.”
Wisconsin Eliminates Twenty-Eight Offensive Place Names
“Tribal officials are applauding the federal government’s plans to change derogatory names of places in Wisconsin, but some question why it took so long,” reports the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland recently signed Secretarial Order 3405 that declares ‘sq—‘ a derogatory term against Indigenous women and implements a process for replacing the names of places with that term across the country. The department’s task force identified twenty-eight geographic features in Wisconsin that are named with that term, including lakes and creeks.”
Story Of Top-Secret Military Unit Coming To Illinois Holocaust Museum
The traveling exhibition “Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II” will begin its national tour on June 16 at Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. Produced by The National WW II Museum in New Orleans and sponsored by the E. L. Wiegand Foundation, the exhibit tells the story of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops—the first mobile, multimedia, tactical deception unit in U.S. Army history. The unit waged war with inflatable tanks and vehicles, fake radio traffic, sound effects and even phony generals, using imagination and illusion to trick the enemy while saving thousands of lives. “Ghost Army explores the bravery, heroics, and creativity of this first-of-its kind military unit,” Kelley Szany, vice president of education and exhibitions at Illinois Holocaust Museum says in a release. “Although their efforts were classified for over fifty years, the Ghost Army saved thousands of lives, and played an important part in liberating Europe from Nazi tyranny. The Museum is proud to highlight their vital contributions that went unrecognized following the war.” More here.
