Kirsten Fitzgerald in A Red Orchid Theatre’s “The Targeted”/Photo: Jeff Kurysz
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ART
Roger Brown Home Sold To Rehabbers
“The School of the Art Institute got a little more than its asking price for the former Lincoln Park home and studio of late artist Roger Brown. The buyers plan to rehab the 1890s building, where the artist lived for two decades, turning it into a single-family home they’ll put back on the market,” reports Crain’s, noting that “the sale to rehabbers is a good outcome compared with the possibility of demolition.” The latter possibility prompted a recent landmarking effort. “‘This isn’t just about a house, it’s about preserving a place where Chicago art history was made,’ Susannah Ribstein, a graduate of SAIC and real estate agent, said at the [landmark] committee’s hearing last week… From 1997 to 2023, the School of the Art Institute maintained the house as the Roger Brown Study Collection, with the artist’s work, furniture and collections intact.”
Can A Slimmer Expo Still “Throw Its Weight Around”?
“Ask incoming Expo Chicago fair director Kate Sierzputowski what her city’s art scene is like, and you get a couple of very illuminating examples to illustrate its nature, which she describes as ‘distinctly collaborative,'” newsletters ARTnews. “For many years, dealer Rhona Hoffman hosted an August ping-pong tournament.” Says Sierzputowski, “Everyone showed up, drank some beers, and put their name on the board, from gallery owners to art fair directors to art handlers to artists to heads of independent spaces and museum directors.” After “Hoffman gave up her space in 2024, another longtime Windy City dealer, Carrie Secrist, hosted the event at her larger new space, Secrist Beach. And the Renaissance Society, the University of Chicago venue beloved for its brainy shows, has for three years now hosted a November fundraiser at Seven Ten Lanes in Hyde Park, where ticket holders show off their skills at bowling.
“It is in this distinctive Midwest city on Lake Michigan, with its close-knit, supportive art scene, that some 130 galleries will convene for the fifteenth edition of Expo Chicago (April 9–12), its first under Sierzputowski’s leadership and its third outing as part of the international Frieze brand, which purchased the fair (along with New York’s Armory Show) in 2023.”
“World’s Greatest Living Soccer Photographer” Showcased At Cleve Carney
“The Saturday Man: At The Edge Of The Game” exhibition at Cleve Carney Museum of Art, opening May 30, coincides with the start of this summer’s World Cup. The exhibition features fifty-three photographs from Peter Robinson, who has been recognized as “the world’s greatest living soccer photographer,” whose “six-decade career includes twenty years as FIFA’s official photographer, covering thirteen World Cups, nine Olympic Games and hundreds of football matches in England and Europe in the 1960s and 1970s.” More CCMA here.
57th Street Art Fair Returns For Seventy-Ninth Year
As the Midwest’s oldest juried art fair, the 57th Street Art Fair in Hyde Park has been a Chicago tradition since 1948. “This free event features nearly 200 artists from across the nation, showcasing original works in glass, jewelry, leather, photography, printmaking, painting, sculpture, wood, ceramics” and fiber art. The fair “attracts more than 20,000 visitors who come to shop one-of-a-kind pieces, meet the artists and enjoy a vibrant community atmosphere.” The fair returns for its seventy-ninth year on Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7 on the streets of Hyde Park. More here.
The Buzzy Art World Essay On New York Real Estate
“The Josh Kline essay ‘New York Real Estate and the Ruin of American Art’ has taken the art world by storm,” reports ARTnews. The piece, published by the art journal October, “is a despairing portrait of the city’s art scene. It functions both as an elegy for a lost New York art world of the 2010s—the one that raised Kline as an artist who became known for work about technology’s ability to exacerbate inequalities—and as a blistering critique of all the privilege required to find success here. The piece has gone viral, which is not something that happens often with October essays.”
DESIGN
First Phase Plans For Massive Pilsen Site Seen
“Plans have been revealed for the first phase of the redevelopment of the massive plot of land at West 18th and South Peoria in Pilsen,” reports Chicago YIMBY. “Local nonprofit The Resurrection Project will lead the first building, following its work on multiple nearby housing developments such as Casa Yucatán and Casa Durango. Similarly, the new seven-story project will be called Casa Nayarit. The surrounding site will include a few parking spots as well as a landscaped plaza connected to the future Paseo Trail.”
Baggu Opens Second Store, Now In Lincoln Park
“The popular bag and accessories company opened its first Midwest store in Chicago two years ago, which drew hundreds of shoppers on its opening day,” admires the Sun-Times. “The new location is expected to open at 2118 North Halsted… The 2,200-square-foot space was previously home to It’s A Secret Medspa.”
Bridgeview Gets Little Palestine Sign
“A special ceremony took place Tuesday to unveil a sign officially recognizing a stretch of Harlem Avenue in Bridgeview as Little Palestine,” reports CBS News Chicago. “The area stretching from 79th and Harlem south to 113th and Harlem now has a sign for more formal recognition, the result of two formal resolutions at the state and county levels.”
A Moment With Menswear Staple Syd Jerome
“Syd Jerome is a Chicago institution,” reports WWD. “The specialty store has dressed the men of Chicago since 1958, surviving the trials and tribulations that have taken down many of its competitors. Now in its second generation of ownership, the retailer attributes its success and longevity to creating lasting relationships with its customers, many of whom have been shopping at the store for generations.”
DINING & DRINKING
Humboldt Park Italian Restaurant Segnatore Closing
“Segnatore, the popular Italian restaurant in Humboldt Park, is shutting its doors next month after five years in the neighborhood,” reports Block Club. Its last day of service will be May 16. “The restaurant, which serves Italian-meets-Midwestern fare, opened in 2021 and is owned by the Orbit Group, which also owns the California Clipper. Company owners and lead chefs did not reply to a request for additional comment Tuesday afternoon.”
Ever Restaurant Manager Sued For Embezzling Over A Million Dollars
“One of Chicago’s few restaurants to boast more than one Michelin star, Ever Restaurant in the Fulton Market District, is the focal point of a civil lawsuit against one of its managers, who is accused of stealing at least $1.4 million in company funds,” reports Crain’s. “Aaron Gersonde, one of the four members of the Four Pillars Restaurant Group board of managers that runs Ever, has been accused of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and conversion in a suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court on April 3… Among the luxury charges Gersonde reportedly racked up with a company credit card and by accessing company bank accounts were charges for ‘strip clubs, and for personal expenses such as jewelry, airline travel, hotel stays, rent on multiple homes for his girlfriend, concert tickets, luxury restaurants.'”
Picturing The Radicle, From The Team Behind Daisies
“The newly opened Radicle serves pizza, thoughtful seafood dishes, and better bar food,” writes Eater Chicago. “Chef Joe Frillman, known for his work at Michelin-recognized Daisies, initially planned to open another restaurant in 2024… Combining classic Italian cooking with Midwestern produce and sensibilities, the Radicle strives to be ‘a radical version of a bar and restaurant, where, while we might have things like chicken wings or mozzarella sticks on a menu, we think we can elevate those things’ says Frillman. The name also references the first root to emerge from a seed, a nod to the fact that the restaurant is in the same space where Daisies first started.”
Seeking The Best Chicago Bagels
In Chicago, “a new generation of bakers is using tried and true techniques for snappy, chewy bagels, with new, unique toppings,” writes Food & Wine. “In recent years it has emerged as a formidable bagel town in its own right,” the piece notes, naming Holey Dough and Co., R&A Sourdough, Rosca, Steingold’s Bagel & Nosh and The Onion Roll among the city’s notable spots.
Mariela Opens In Reliance Building
Opening May 6 in the landmark Reliance Building on State Street, Mariela will “tell a story of oceans and origins, anchored by nostalgia and coastal bounty. Created by chefs Rishi Kumar and Zubair Mohajir, with a beverage program spearheaded by David Mor, the dining experience highlights recipes from the shores of Southeast Asia to the coasts of the Americas and Europe. The unique coastal menu weaves in elements from the chefs’ upbringings in Southeast Asia, moving west while cooking with nostalgia and embracing the path that brought them to the Midwest.”
Folk Coffee & Vintage Brings Yemeni Coffee To Andersonville
“Folk Coffee & Vintage sets itself apart from the half-dozen other coffee shops on Clark Street by brewing Yemeni, Kurdish and other international coffee styles,” cups Block Club. “The new café occupies a Clark Street corridor with a slew of coffee shops—at least six others, including The Coffee Studio, The Understudy and Colectivo—but what sets Folk Coffee apart is its menu… Folk Coffee doesn’t have an espresso machine.” Instead, its coffee and tea drinks are made “in a cezve, or a Turkish-style pot, which is heated on a hot plate and then strained before serving.”
FILM & TELEVISION
Is “60 Minutes” Near Midnight?
“On Tuesday, the staff of ’60 Minutes’ celebrated ten News & Documentary Emmy nominations,” reports Status (newsletter). “But behind the scenes, [there are] reports of a looming overhaul of the iconic program by newish CBS News boss Bari Weiss… Staffers have been unnerved by the prospect that Weiss will seek to put her stamp on the show after the conclusion of this season.”
A top producer is expected to be fired, and “one aspect of the show that Weiss has privately questioned… is its three-story-per-episode formula, with each piece running approximately thirteen minutes. Weiss, I’m told, has wondered why the show can’t break from that formula and run stories of varying lengths, even floating the possibility of airing pieces from her opinion outlet The Free Press—an idea that, unsurprisingly, raised eyebrows.”
LIT
Poetry Magazine Seeks Chicagoans’ Poems For Special Issue
Poetry Magazine is planning a special issue honoring Chicago in 2027, “in honor of Chicago’s 190th birthday and Poetry’s 115 year of publication in this city.” The publication is “looking for poems that engage with Chicago’s history, its architecture and art, the geography, the parks and landmarks, other Chicagoans, the restaurant at the end of your street—anything about the seventy-seven neighborhoods, or those outposts serviced by the CTA, that makes Chicago the city of Big Shoulders.” The submission deadline is May 15. More details at the link here.
MUSIC
Mike Reed’s Sound & Gravity Fest Returns In September
Constellation announces the return of Sound & Gravity, a new music festival from producer Mike Reed taking place September 3-6 at venues across the Bricktown-Avondale area. The festival’s second edition returns with a lineup of over fifty artists, including Grouper, Son Lux, Lee Ranaldo & Leah Singer, Contre Jour, Marc Ribot, Hailu Mergia, American Analog Set, Alabaster DePlume, Lucrecia Dalt, Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas, and Mary Halvorson & Sylvie Courvoisier. Ticket options include an all-event four-day pass at $240, a single-day pass at $85, and a Thursday opening night pass at $50. Tickets are available here. Read our piece on the first Sound & Gravity festival here.
Andrew Sa Brings “Lavender Cowboy” Video To The Hideout
Chicago-based songwriter Andrew Sa has released a single to promote his signing to Bloodshot Records for his debut album, “American Rough,” profiles Flood. The local scene “is on full display in the live performance video Sa [made] for the record’s lead single ‘Lavender Cowboy’ (featuring H.C. McEntire), which sees the artist performing the track at his adopted hometown’s longstanding indie-focused venue The Hideout. Joined by a backing band made up of Sam Cantor, Aaron Smith, and Spencer Tweedy, the clip was filmed in dedication to the band leader for the song’s namesake, who broke new ground in the queer country scene—if not creating that scene themselves. ‘I wanted to capture “Lavender Cowboy” on the checkered floor at The Hideout—a place we’ve all had memorable nights and important shows.'”
STAGE
Fifteen Theaters Step Away From Jeffs
Fifteen theaters say “they no longer want to be associated with the organization after it gave an award to Invictus Theatre director Charles Askenaizer, who was accused of emotional abuse and harassment,” reports Block Club. “Although Askenaizer wasn’t at the awards ceremony, his girlfriend was allowed to take the stage and she delivered a speech on his behalf comparing his situation to a relative that had been persecuted in Nazi Germany—which was met with boos from the audience.” The companies include the Eclectic Full Contact Theatre, Visión Latino Theater Company, Theater Above The Law, Corn Productions and Babes With Blades, each of which “have publicly cut ties with the Jeffs or declared they do not want to be associated with the group.”
A Red Orchid World-Premieres “The Targeted”
A Red Orchid Theatre will conclude its thirty-third season with the world premiere of Hanna Kime’s “The Targeted.” “Welcome to the Solidarity and Truth Summit. A gathering of the most persecuted, tortured, and misunderstood people in the entire world. They call themselves Targeted Individuals, and they are victims of a vast and covert program of systematic torture, surveillance and harassment by global intergovernmental powers. Over the course of this weekend in the woods they will discuss strategies to take down the deep state, bring awareness to their plight, and despite their suffering, stay human.” “The Targeted” will feature ensemble members Kirsten Fitzgerald, Lawrence Grimm, Sadieh Rifai and Natalie West, with Glenn Obrero and Stephanie Shum. May 7-June 14, at The Chopin Theatre. Tickets available here.
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