Jojo Baby A club kid at heart, an extravagant drag performer, a DJ, a hairdresser who used to do Dennis Rodman’s leopard hair, the subject of a 2010 Clive Barker-produced documentary, Jojo Baby has played lots of roles throughout their life. But they’re first and foremost an artist. Combining ceramics, painting, anatomy and fashion skills, they sculpt porcelain dolls that they then bring to life by drawing a tiny heart on the left side of their chest, using real hair and teeth, and a full chakra system—the “good voodoo,” as Jojo calls it. An undeniable Chicago icon, the artist has a larger-than-life personality, a big smile and a wide-open heart. (Vasia Rigou)
Uniting Voices, Chicago Josephine Lee, the president and artistic director of Uniting Voices, Chicago—formally Chicago Children’s Choir—is a social and musical force. She has doubled the number of students participating and served by the choirs—to 5,000—from every neighborhood, along with elevating the musical experiences for singers and audiences alike. Since its beginnings in 1956, the choirs have traveled the world representing Chicago’s best to twenty-five nations and august occasions. The shared experiences, powerful connections and musical excellence brings Chicago together. Over the years the choirs have influenced the lives of more than 50,000 singers from wildly diverse backgrounds. Watch those alums, legions of whom go on to artistic and socially committed careers, join the current singers at a local concert. It’s pure joy and harmony. (Sara Stern) unitingvoiceschicago.org
Rosa’s Lounge Arguably the best and definitely the friendliest blues joint in Chicago, Rosa’s Lounge was started by Italian immigrant Tony Mangiullo, who came here after meeting Buddy Guy and Junior Wells in Milan. He named it after his mother, who arrived with him to help. The club has hosted traditional blues giants like Pinetop Perkins and David Honeyboy Edwards and more modern icons like Billy Branch, Sugar Blue and Melvin Taylor. Its calendar is packed with artists almost every night of the week. So many of the old blues bars have disappeared, but thank God and the unquiet ghost of Robert Johnson that Rosa’s keeps the sorrow-soaked tradition going strong. (Mary Wisniewski) 3420 W. Armitage
The Lake In the song “LSD”’s hypnotic couplet ‘You gotta love me like I love the lake/ You wanna love me, better love the lake,” poet Jamila Woods teases out the ache in lake, capturing our longing for this complex, moody creature. The sensuous, curvy body that compliments and resists our grid-like metropolis, the ferocious force of Lake Michigan is omnipresent yet overlooked in so many of our thoughts and ideas of the future. It deserves more love, more respect, more tender care. (Alison Cuddy)
The Original Rainbow Cone The Rainbow Cone, the multicolored ice cream and sherbet confection, was first served in 1926 by “Grandpa Joe” and Katherine Sapp at their original location in Beverly. The iconic cone is composed of chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House (New York vanilla, cherries, walnuts) and pistachio almond ice creams and orange sherbet. These five flavors are not scooped into the cone in traditional fashion; rather, each flavor is sliced using a specially designed tool, which allows a stack of precise segments to sit atop one another. (David Hammond) 9233 S. Western, rainbowcone.com
Illinois Institute of Technology Campus The University of Chicago and Northwestern have their Gothic Revival charms and beautiful modern buildings, but the IIT campus—now branded as Illinois Tech—is, by a long shot, the most architecturally significant of the region’s–perhaps the world’s—universities. Wandering its grounds is walking into one of the birthplaces of Modern architecture. Mies van der Rohe famously plotted the campus and designed its seminal glass and steel buildings. Recently, Mies’ concrete towers on campus have reclaimed their original elegance. Chicago architect and IIT faculty member Dirk Denison led the revelatory renovation of a cluster of dorms that were among Mies’ first highrises in the United States. They may look prosaic at first glance. The world is everywhere awash with buildings that ape Mies’. A closer examination reveals the architect’s genius for creating big buildings that feel light, and his way for bringing the outside to the inside is manifest. Remember, the world had nearly nothing like them when they were built. Then look at the city all around, and feel their influence. Take the CTA to campus and get off the train in Chicago’s coolest El station, designed by Rem Koolhaas. The platform, incidentally, offers one of the best north-facing views of the skyline. (Ted C. Fishman) 10 W. 35th, iit.edu
2002 Cover Design: Sean Hernandez
Poetry Foundation Though it’s one of Chicago’s oldest cultural institutions, the Poetry Foundation is suddenly fresh and new. Under the leadership of Michelle T. Boone, who became president in 2021, and Poetry editor Adrian Matejka, the Foundation intends to improve its connections with the Chicago community and welcome a wider variety of voices at the 110-year-old magazine. Besides publishing Poetry, the Foundation sponsors educational opportunities and grants for artists. It also offers exhibits and events, like creative writing workshops and book groups, at its lovely, airy, John Ronan-designed River North headquarters. (Mary Wisniewski) 61 W. Superior, poetryfoundation.org
Lutz Cafe and Pastry Shop Lutz Cafe, founded in 1948, hails from an era when German fare was Chicago’s premier fancy foods and the city was strudel-savvy. A remodeling has freshened up some whipped cream of the old-world feel and the small, elegant cafe that recreated a kaffehaus in Ravenswood is now a trio of tables for self-serve customers. The pastries remain in their nutty, buttery and whipped-cream glory. Lutz’s abundantly gooey-fruity strudels, chewy coffee cakes and swirly glazed Danishes (which apparently had their origins in Vienna) make a great morning. The strawberry whipped cream cake is pretty enough to be a prom date. It’s a customer favorite because it’s worth a lasting relationship. (Ted C. Fishman) 2458 W. Montrose, chicago-bakery.com
National Museum of Mexican Art The National Museum of Mexican Art has a long history that begins in 1982, when Carlos Tortolero organized a group of fellow educators to capture the wide range of Mexican cultural expression from ancient to contemporary, on both sides of the border. Since then, Mexican art has been highlighted well beyond its borders and the small museum, an institution in the heart of Pilsen, is home to one of the country’s largest Mexican art collections of more than 18,000 pieces: folk art including masks and Día de los Muertos artifacts, brightly colored textiles, indigenous outfits and weavings, as well as ephemera documenting the groundbreaking Chicano Movement. (Vasia Rigou) 1852 W. 19th, nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org
1999 Best of Chicago item
Gene & Jude’s Gene & Jude’s in River Grove serves a “Depression Dog,” a hot dog supposedly popular in the down-and-out years: a skinny wiener, mustard, onions, relish and sport peppers (optional) wrapped with French fries in a steamy bag. A stripped-down version of the luxe “Chicago Hot Dog” (which also sports tomatoes, celery salt, pickle spear), from Gene & Jude’s is nonetheless fabulously popular. Drive by the place at all hours, and late into the night—perhaps especially late into the night—you’ll see a serpentine line coiling around the walls of the brightly lit waiting area. (David Hammond) 2720 N. River Road, River Grove, geneandjudes.com
Adler Planetarium Founded in 1930 by local businessman Max Adler, located on the edge of Lake Michigan in Chicago’s Museum Campus, the Adler Planetarium was the first modern planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. From cutting-edge science, to one of the largest telescopes in the world (hello Saturn!) to sky shows under an iconic dome theater, to late-night parties that feature cosplay, the planetarium still has much to offer. Shedding light onto the vastness of the universe, the planetarium is more than a fun outing—it’s a journey through space and time with educational programming to inspire new generations of space explorers. (Vasia Rigou) 1300 S. DuSable Lake Shore, adlerplanetarium.org
Goodman Theatre Founded in 1925, it’s the city’s most important theater. Led for over thirty-five years by artistic director Robert Falls until his retirement last summer, the quality of Goodman’s productions can go up against any major playhouse in the world. It can do popular and cozy (as in its yearly “Christmas Carol”), or it can do new and groundbreaking (in its many premieres, such as Rebecca Gilman’s “Spinning into Butter” and August Wilson’s “King Hedley II”). The Goodman Theatre Artistic Collective has included Gilman, Henry Godinez, Frank Galati, Regina Taylor and the late Brian Dennehy. The Goodman is also planting the seeds of theater’s future, through school outreach programs. Here’s to the post-Falls era shining just as bright. (Mary Wisniewski) 170 N. Dearborn, goodmantheatre.org
