В Чикаго презентуют книгу куратора Хамзы Уокера и анонсируют первый фестиваль Ubuntu от AACM

Get Chicago & Great Lakes culture news sent to your inbox every weekday morning. Subscribe to Newcity Today here. ART The Ren Is Publishing A Book On Hamza Walker’s Years There The Renaissance Society announces “Hamza Walker: The Renaissance Society Years,” the first collection of exhibition essays by curator Hamza Walker, bringing together twenty years of texts written during his tenure as director of education at the Renaissance Society. “At his post from 1994 to 2015, Walker authored essays about every single exhibition he organized, as well as many others curated by Susanne Ghez, director of the Renaissance Society, 1974-2013.” The book traces “the evolution of Walker’s distinctive critical voice while documenting a formative period in the Renaissance Society’s history.” More on the book here. To mark the release, the Ren will host a public celebration at Constellation on Monday, September 14 from 7-9 pm. RSVP and more here. Is The Lucas Museum Still For The People? The Lucas Museum, once planned for Chicago’s lakefront, is preparing to open in Los Angeles next month. The museum has announced its entry fees, and ARTnews looks at a piece that’s critical of what’s planned: “The museum promises ambitious programming and free gardens and public spaces, but it will charge $25 admission and offer memberships costing up to $600 a year. Critics have questioned why a billionaire-funded institution needs to solicit additional public support, particularly in low-income South Los Angeles, where free museum admission has become increasingly common. Unlike Crystal Bridges, Glenstone, the Getty and the Broad, the Lucas Museum has not committed to universal free entry. Its location offers an opportunity to serve local communities, but its pricing risks undermining its claim to be ‘the people’s’ art institution.” DINING & DRINKING Zeitlin’s Deli Closes In A Flash “Zeitlin’s Delicatessen, the Jewish deli known for its bagels, challah and babkas, has closed its Lincoln Park shop less than a year after opening its first brick-and-mortar location,” chronicles Block Club. “The closure also marks the end of Zeitlin’s broader retail operation, including its pop-up and farmers market sales, bringing an end to the business after more than seven years.” In a post, Sam Zeitlin said “’the high cost of opening and operating our flagship store could not be sustained’ despite neighbors’ support.” FILM & TELEVISION An Honorary Street Sign For The Silent Film Society’s Jay Warren Jay Warren, a longtime community advocate, arts leader, preservationist and former operator of both the Portage Theater and the Gateway Theatre, will be honored with a street naming ceremony in front of the Portage Theater next week. “A founding member of the Silent Film Society of Chicago and an accomplished organist who accompanied silent films nationwide, Warren dedicated his life to preserving history, supporting local businesses and the arts and strengthening the neighborhood he loved.” Thursday, August 20, 6:30pm. More here. Lilly Wachowski Discusses Her Movie Studio, Anarchists United Chicago filmmaker Lilly Wachowski talks to Kim Masters at KCRW’s The Business about Anarchists United, her artist-owned, nonprofit movie studio. “They discuss how Lilly juggled multiple international film and TV productions while she was transitioning, why she stepped away from the business and how she’s working to launch the studio, Anarchists United, to showcase marginalized talent.” Yours For Bidding: The “Ferris Bueller” Toolbox That Appeared Alongside The Red Ferrari “The more well-known the film is, the more precious the prop is to own, which is why you want to check out this Snap-On toolbox from the set of ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,'” reports Jalopnik. The toolbox “makes its somewhat humorous onscreen appearance alongside that iconic Ferrari in the character Cameron Frye’s showroom-like garage.” According to the report, the owners of the home used as Cameron’s home in the film were gifted the toolbox after the movie wrapped. View the auction listing here. Local Horror Film “Rough On Rats” Launches From Alex Phillips Alex Phillips’ “Rough on Rats” starts shooting this week in Chicago, with Missing Link and Vinegar Syndrome as executive producers. It’s inspired by the real-life story of the “infamous lovelorn hausfrau and serial killer, Tillie Klimek—the Black Widow of Chicago. With a body count rivaling Richard Speck and John Wayne Gacy, Tillie dispatched twenty husbands and lovers by feeding them hearty soups and tasty candies laced with arsenic. Written and directed by Phillips, ‘Rough on Rats’ follows on the heels of his rust belt giallo erotic thriller ‘Anything That Moves.’ Ginger Lynn Allen stars as Tillie Klimek and Frank V. Ross is her confidante and enabler.” The black-and-white feature is being shot on 16mm Kodak TRI-X. Chicago International Passes On Sale Early-bird passes are on sale for the sixty-second Chicago International Film Festival, with the best rates available for ten- or twenty-film passes before August 31. More here. The Highest-Grossing 70mm Theater For “The Odyssey” Hadn’t Shown A New Movie In Thirty-Five Years “The last first-run film at Los Angeles’ historic Alex Theatre was ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ in 1991,” totals the Hollywood Reporter. “The 900-seat Alex, known for its mix of Classical Revival and Moderne architectural detailing, has been showing ‘The Odyssey’ three times per day. The venue will be extending its run by at least two weeks. The century-old theater installed its 70mm presentation system six weeks ago.” Paramount Promises To Leave California By October If They Don’t Get Warner Bros. “David Ellison is eager to reach a swift resolution in the antitrust case filed by twelve states seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger,” reports Variety. “And, in a move seemingly aimed at gaining leverage in the showdown, he’s prepared to start moving Paramount out of California as soon as October unless the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, agrees to settlement talks.” The Paramount Skydance board has approved the move. MEDIA Alden Global Fires Veteran Workers At Newly Acquired Daily Herald “Months after Tribune Publishing promised Daily Herald employees their jobs and salaries were safe through yearend, the suburban Chicago newspaper has fired about a dozen mostly senior staffers—including executive editor Lisa Friedman Miner,” reports Crain’s. “The cuts may have eliminated some redundancy between the Herald and Chicago Tribune’s operations, but were not expected to come so quickly after the June 22 acquisition of employee-owned Paddock Publications.” MUSIC AACM Announces Its First-Ever Ubuntu Festival The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is launching Ubuntu Festival, spanning three evenings that will each feature a program of four headliner concerts by AACM musicians. The festival “takes its name from the African philosophy of Ubuntu, emphasizing shared humanity, interconnectedness and the idea that ‘I am because we are.'” It will be hosted at Northeastern Illinois University on Chicago’s South Side on October 22-24 from 5pm-9pm nightly. Tickets ($40 per evening) go on sale August 30 here. An Unsanctioned Rave Could Slow Redevelopment Of The Congress Theater Organizers of an unsanctioned rave at the long-vacant Congress Theater over the weekend “called it a celebration of rave culture, but Ald. Daniel La Spata said the cleanup hinders efforts by the city and the theater owner to keep the renovation moving forward,” reports Block Club. The rave organized by local DJ Kula “attracted hundreds of young attendees. Social media videos show people entering through a side door on Rockwell, tagging walls with spray paint and dancing in the theater while Kula and another DJ performed.” STAGE Lyric Opens Season With “Don Giovanni,” Directed By Robert Falls Lyric Opera opens its seventy-second season with Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” which runs October 10-November 1. “In the title role of this thrilling fable of deceit, desire and spectacular damnation” is bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, a distinguished alumnus of Lyric’s artist-training program, the Ryan Opera Center. Lyric music director Enrique Mazzola leads the Lyric Opera Orchestra in a production directed by Chicago theater veteran Robert Falls. “The October 18 matinee marks a historic milestone in opera accessibility, as Lyric becomes the first major American opera company to present live American Sign Language interpretation of a foreign-language opera.” More here. Dennis Watkins Reconstructs A Magic Shop Entrance Below The Goodman Magician Dennis Watkins “launches his fourth season at 50 West Randolph with a bespoke renovation,” advises the Goodman Theatre. “Inside the downtown Dallas magic shop my grandad operated for three plus decades, there was a door labeled ‘Magicians Only.’ As a young child fascinated by this magical world, I imagined that behind the door was a speakeasy filled with the most exciting wonders,” explains Watkins. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to create an homage to his magic shop,” he goes on. “Inside our new entryway’s cabinets is a peek into my family’s history with the artform—the people and moments that have impacted me along the way—while our city has become a world-class destination for magic.” “Hadestown” Is A Movie Hit—Is “Six” Next? The recorded version of a live performance of “Hadestown the Musical” was a surprise box-office success, which “might mean more ‘pro-shots’ of Broadway plays and musicals are coming,” records NPR. “Hadestown: The Musical” was supposed to have a five-day run, but “after its opening weekend brought in $10 million and the number three slot at the box office, the theatrical run was extended indefinitely.” Next up, a recording of the London production of “Six The Musical Live” will open Friday with a wide release. Ari Emanuel Pays $6 Billion For Broadway And West End Stages “Ari Emanuel’s Mari has signed a deal to acquire Broadway and West End theater giant ATG Entertainment,” tallies the Hollywood Reporter. “The acquisition marks a major shakeup of the Broadway landscape, which rarely sees theaters change hands.” The company is the “third largest [Broadway] theater owner, with seven theaters,” and also owns “ten theaters in the West End.” Emanuel is a Chicago native who also owns Expo Chicago parent Frieze. When DePaul announced it would be closing the Merle Reskin Theatre in the South Loop in May, Chris Jones speculated that ATG could be an ideal new owner of the space. ARTS & CULTURE & ETC. Mayor Calls For Data Center Moratorium “A month after a city panel recommended Chicago overhaul its data center regulations, Mayor Johnson has placed new rules and reviews on the industry as he calls for a pause on new data centers,” reports Block Club. His executive order “creates a task force on regulating the resource-guzzling industry. He’s calling on City Council to put a pause on new data centers until updated regulations are in place.” Meanwhile, the Tribune editorializes against data centers downtown: “Whirring servers would mean a dystopian future for the Loop’s historic buildings.” Can Smoking’s Return Be Attributed To Loneliness? “It’s hard to define a cigfluencer,” says twenty-seven-year-old Jared Oviatt, the proprietor of the Cigfluencers Instagram page. “Oviatt launched the channel in 2021 with mostly archive photographs of models and actors smoking; today his account is home to more than 500 images, most of them new shots, and 100,000 followers, whose feed includes pictures of Carrie Coon, Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve,” observes the Financial Times. “‘But they have to love smoking non-performatively. You can tell the difference.'” Says Sarah Milov, a social historian and author of “The Cigarette: A Political History,” “There’s an appeal to the slummy look of indifference in a cigarette.” Milov credits the “longing for analogue experiences such as vinyl and books.” Says another historian, “People, especially young people, are lonely.” There is “camaraderie in sharing a cigarette outside a club, pub or fashion week party… People need connection, even if that is on their way out of a bar.” Harsh Weather Hits Businesses, Including In Chicago “Businesses are reckoning with the financial toll of this year’s brutal climate shocks,” records the New York Times (gift link). “In early June, the power went out at Stephanie Hart’s bakery on Chicago’s South Side, during an intense storm and a suffocating heat wave. Five hundred ice cream bars meant for a restaurant customer had already perished, along with chocolate candies, and $30,000 worth of cakes in her walk-in freezer were at risk. Ms. Hart quickly directed her staff to pack the freezer with dry ice, which cost $1,700. Then she began calling every politician she knew. ‘Every goodwill thing I’ve ever done, I called it in,’ Ms. Hart said. Finally, it worked: The utility turned her power back on the next day, and her cakes were saved.” Send culture news and tips to [email protected]