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Michael Gebert Joe Woodel of Husky Hog Bar-B-Que A couple of months ago I wrote about the relocation of the only south-side African-American-style barbeque place on the white north side, Honey 1 Barbecue. (They’re still there; the 43rd Street location hasn’t opened yet.) Now here’s the reverse: a north-side-style barbecue joint cooking barbecue in a Southern Pride smoker (the same kind used at places like Smoque), in a style pretty much straight out of Tennessee, with southern sides from collard greens to fried green tomatoes—half a mile from U....

The smell of menthol oil and the whine of traditional Thai instrumental music pierce the humid July air of the Cicero Stadium on fight night. Though it’s best known for hosting Chicago’s annual Golden Gloves boxing tournament, today the stadium has a new occupant: Muay Thai. The fighters entering the stadium aren’t who you might expect. Long gone are the days where bald men with goatees covered in barbed-wire tattoos brought their bar-brawling skills to the ring....

A few years ago, Reader contributor Jack Riedy did a deep dive on local DIY video-production crew New Trash, whose cheeky low-budget videos have made them a go-to for local artists looking to make a splash without breaking the bank. I thought of Riedy’s story on New Year’s Day, when Chicago rapper Monster Mike dropped a deliriously feverish New Trash video for the single “That.” Mike stars as the hero in a grindhouse homage; he’s on a mission to take down the cops who gouged out his right eye....

At the risk of sounding overly optimistic, let me start by pointing out the good news in the Board of Education’s recent four-to-three vote to keep cops in schools. I say the police department should pay. As the schools, always on the edge of bankruptcy, need every nickel they can get for classroom expenses. And, besides, until now, it was a slam dunk to get the City Council to approve more money for police....

Molasses is a collective of Chicago artists and activists who’ve come together to create space and platforms that create opportunity for local Black and Brown transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Through activities such as club nights, self-defense courses, and mutual aid initiatives, Molasses’ organizers aim to empower Black and Brown trans people and build community while providing tools that protect and save lives. For more information, visit www.molasseschicago.com. Bone Reader (Choya Webb): Molasses came to be because Zola saw many Black trans people not being visible in club space in Chicago, and more importantly, not taking care of themselves in terms of developing resources and arming themselves....

Instead of condemning lawmakers who refuse to make laws that might reduce the slaughter of schoolchildren, we critics of these legislators should put ourselves in their shoes. They have children of their own—they can imagine the anguish of parents who send their kids off in the morning with lunch bags and retrieve them in the afternoon in body bags. They have no more use than we do for the sullen, misfit killers; like the rest of us, they wish them gone....

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images “Everyone knows Obama is a Christian. What I’m presupposing is . . . maybe he isn’t?” Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. • About the expensive jewelry-buying habit of Columba Bush, Jeb’s wife, and how it could affect his presidential campaign? —Mick Dumke • That, at least according to a new book on the subject, twee is “the most powerful youth movement since Punk and Hip-Hop”?...

As Fake Shore Drive has pointed out, a couple weeks ago Chief Keef announced he’d retired in a series of tweets. He explained that too many rappers “sound jus like me or saying shit like almighty would.” He’s got a point, at least as far new MCs are concerned. When Keef broke out in 2012, his take on the emerging drill sound—claustrophobic, apocalyptic, larger than life—became a blueprint almost immediately, though the mimics always missed something crucial....

Hys·te·ri·a /həˈstirēə,həˈsterēə/ : “a psychological disorder (not now regarded as a single definite condition) whose symptoms include conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms (somatization), selective amnesia, shallow volatile emotions, and overdramatic or attention-seeking behavior. The term has a controversial history as it was formerly regarded as a disease-specific to women.” Aparicio says, “Unfortunately, I am one of the many victims of sexual harassment by a medical professional. [The] women’s health field is still mostly dominated by men, and the way things are being taught doesn’t differ much from teaching methods from the beginnings of obstetrics in the male world after being stolen from the woman’s hands....

Judging from the energy of practically every Why? Records release, the four rappers who make up the underground Chicago hip-hop collective and label could easily spend the rest of their lives collaborating in different configurations on a half dozen albums per year. Udababy LP, the debut full-length from Why? duo Udababy, is no exception. Rappers Joshua Virtue (who produced most of the record) and Davis convene amid worn-in instrumentals that are just the right amount of rickety and loose, hitting the sweet spot targeted by every underground hip-hop producer with an affection for grit....

In 2012, Chicago musicians Max Allison and Doug Kaplan launched the eclectic label Hausu Mountain, which has grown into one of the city’s best indies. It also acts as an umbrella for many of its founders’ projects: Hausu Mountain has released the ambient-adjacent sounds Allison and Kaplan have made with Natalie Chami (aka TALsounds) as Good Willsmith, as well as Allison’s hard-to-pin-down experimental solo material as Mukqs and Kaplan’s as MrDougDoug....

It’s hardly a secret that Chris Foreman has long been Chicago’s best jazz organist. But the 57-year-old Hammond B3 master, blind since birth, has only now released his first recording under his own name. He’s made a handful of killer records as a key member of the Deep Blue Organ Trio (with guitarist Bobby Broom and drummer Greg Rockingham); he’s played behind singer Kimberly Gordon, as well as Henry Johnson and Dave Specter; he’s a fixture at the Green Mill, playing solo organ sets every Friday between 5 and 8 PM; he works in the Joel Paterson Trio each Sunday evening from 11 PM to 2 AM; and he still plays every Sunday at Saint James AME Church on 93rd Street, where he’s been a member of the congregation for almost four decades....

THE FEED/FACEBOOK Steve Dolinsky, Beverly Kim, and Rick Bayless, nominees all Last year I said the takeaway from the James Beard Foundation media award nominations was that Chicago food writing wasn’t trying hard enough. Well, I guess for once the claim of a rebuilding year actually proved true, as even a chef, Rick Bayless, managed to get as many media nominations as all of Chicago media did last year. As half of The Feed (the other half being Steve Dolinsky) Bayless picked up one, in addition to being nominated for Best Restaurant Service, which will apparently be the case for Topolobampo until the end of time....

A day after a federal judge dismissed Uptown Tent City Organizers’ lawsuit against the City of Chicago, the homeless organization’s attorneys are vowing to continue a court battle for the right of those who have been displaced by authorities to camp out in the streets. The matter ended up before a federal judge in June 2017, and there the Tent City Organizers, represented by the Uptown People’s Law Center, expanded their case into a full constitutional complaint....

The fate of the Dakota Access Pipeline still hangs in the balance, despite what was heralded Sunday as a huge victory for water protectors. Tribe members say this all violates the terms of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which established the boundaries of the reservation and encoded tribal sovereignty on the land. (The pipeline had previously been rerouted away from nearby Bismarck, North Dakota. Residents in the overwhelmingly white state capital didn’t have to put up nearly as much of a fight, as WNYC has reported....

It took Chicago artist Myron Laban six months to create his new collection, “Sitting With My Thoughts,” a collection he says is some of the best art he’s ever made. But when it came time to showcase his work this November, there wasn’t the usual fanfare that comes with celebrating that hard work. Chicago museums and galleries have faced tough decisions about how to operate since COVID-19 caused the area’s first mandated closing in March 2020....

It’s hard to calculate the number of woeful musicians who count Radiohead as a direct influence, but the ones who are actually able to capture the unnerving quality of the UK group’s alt-rock in their own voice are few and far between. Chicago’s Longface get that ricocheting melodies and roller-coaster falsetto can only go so far; that it takes a sense of direction, a little bit of guts, and a lot of individual personality to be anything more than a derivative of their influences....

In October 2016, Dumpster Tapes co-owner Alex Fryer debuted Demolición, an annual showcase of Latinx Chicago musicians that’s named after a 1965 single by Peruvian protopunks Los Saicos. On Friday, December 8, this year’s Demolición comes to the Auxiliary Art Center. “We wanted to showcase a whole new set of artists from across the city and the Latinx diaspora,” Fryer says. “Each of these groups are so talented.” The bill consists of neosoul crooner Lester Rey, power-pop band Laverne, dynamic DJ duo the Ponderers, garage-psych outfit Cafe Racer, and smoky desert-rock act Los Gold Fires....

Almost a year ago, on a crisp autumn night in Berlin, the glazed-over windows of Kwadrant gallery greeted me on my way to see Elana Katz’s performance piece entitled V. People outside were standing on the window ledges on tiptoes, craning to get a glimpse inside. When I drew open the door, a flood of blue light poured into my eyes—phones on camera mode became beacons of arrival, small screens zooming in on a stark white cube anchored to a jet-black-colored floor....

Al Podgorski/Sun-Times Mayor Rahm Emanuel just wants you to know the facts, with maybe a few near and almost facts thrown in. Minutes after the mayoral debate on WTTW ended last night, Rahm Emanuel’s campaign sent out an e-mail to “fact check” things said by his opponents. If Fioretti is mayoral material, he’d admit that, along with 39 of his City Council colleagues, he simply failed to ask the right questions—or to make sure he’d actually read and understood the agreement—before voting to sell off control of the city streets....