For the past decade, Pranita Nayar, founder and executive director of Mandala South Asian Performing Arts, has used the organization to bring cultural education and entertainment to Chicago, making a place for dancers, musicians, and audiences both within and outside of the diaspora to celebrate South Asian culture. One thing that makes Mandala special is ...

The excessive drinking of coffee in any case is an evil. But it is often forgotten that coffee can be taken in other ways and in none better than in the form of jelly. The Lancet, July 18, 1903 Who can argue with the august, peer-reviewed medical journal, which weighed in on the benefits of […] The post Coffee jelly at Tenjin appeared first on Chicago ...

Content note: This story contains descriptions of police violence and sexual assault. In the 1970s, as today, sexual assault was among the least reported violent crime in the U.S. Marital rape was still legal (it wasnt made a crime in all 50 states until 1993). In Chicago, when people did report a sexual assault to […] The post The legacy of Marty Goddard ...

The Listeners, through 4/11 at Lyric Opera The post The Listeners makes its Chicago debut appeared first on Chicago Reader.

For years, the phrase OnlyFans girl has been tossed around with a mix of scorn and condescension, a shorthand for dismissing women who leverage their sexuality online. Its a label often used to diminish rather than to describe, rooted in outdated ideas about work, respectability, and who gets to profit from desire. But lets be […] The post Best OnlyFans ...

Angel Destroyer, Cringe Angel Destroyer is the solo project of experimental rock artist Jordan William Clark Kimpel, a California transplant who previously made music as Prisoners of Skin. They describe their debut as Angel Destroyer as kind of a Frankenstein’s monster built from previously unreleased compositions and repurposed fragments of material. ...

A Working Man in wide release in theaters The post Review: A Working Man appeared first on Chicago Reader.

Warfare in wide release in theaters The post Review: Warfare appeared first on Chicago Reader.

Julie Keeps Quiet in limited release in theaters The post Review: Julie Keeps Quiet appeared first on Chicago Reader.

Holland streaming on Prime The post Review: Holland appeared first on Chicago Reader.

Death of a Unicorn in wide release in theaters The post Review: Death of a Unicorn appeared first on Chicago Reader.

Of course, my fascination with Geneva and its ghosts began with a girl. Theres this cemetery, my friend Logan texted me, in the middle of a subdivision. The Atlas Obscura article she sent me showed pictures of gray headstones stained by moss, wet with yellow autumn leaves. A chain-link fence snaked around the background of […] The post Writers note: a ...

The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicagos independent and underground film scene has to offer. What does a week without moviegoing look like for a moviegoer? Well, for one, bleak. And frustrating. It wasnt by choice that last week was void of any moviegoing. (Though, of […] The post A week without moviegoing ...

I was lucky to catch Dayneeia Thrash and Cat Sanchez, cofounders of Chicago-based creative agency 3V, for an interview. They only had a short window for a Zoom sit-down, between the February 28 installment of TheGr8Cypher at Never Have I Ever Bar and their trip to South by Southwest in Texas. Their agency oversees the […] The post Creative agency 3V helps ...

The Reader is available free of charge at more than 1,100 Chicago area locations. Issues are dated Thursday, and distributed Wednesday morning through Thursday night of the issue date. Some locations are restocked the following Wednesday. The post Find a print copy of this weeks Chicago Reader appeared first on Chicago Reader.

In the 1980s, when he was still a teenager, Englewood native Taigo Onez got involved in Chicago music by joining whats now the citys oldest hip-hop community group, Chi-ROCK Nation. He dabbled in every hip-hop elementbreaking, DJing, MCing, and graffiti writingbut hed adopt music as his calling card. He made beats for emerging local MCs […] The post Taigo ...

Tapping microphone . . . is this thing on? Welcome to the first Ghost Light column of 2025. Yes, I realize it’s almost the end of March. But time is a flat tire, and this year has already been a lot to deal with. (The rise of fascism and some unexpected struggles for the Reader […] The post Turning the Ghost Light back on appeared first on Chicago ...

Ifirst ate at this 43-year-old South Indian standby during an informal Devon Avenue food crawl with my friends. We started there with paratha, pani puri, and chai; shopped around Patel Brothers; nibbled on masala dosa, idli, and sambar vada at Udupi Palace, plus coffee and a long break to digest; enjoyed rose falooda and other […] The post Aloo paratha at ...

I m going to jump out the window and run away tonight, one teenage girl confessed to another. It was May 20, 1903. In a collection of stone cottages 50 miles west of Chicago, approximately 500 girls, ages ten to 20, were baking bread, washing laundry, and doing what they could to avoid the cruel […] The post The ghosts of Geneva’s ‘home for wayward ...

By Real T@lk The post new revolution verse appeared first on Chicago Reader.

Chicago Reader Volume 54, No. 25. March 27, 2025. The post Chicago Reader Volume 54, Number 25 appeared first on Chicago Reader.

Last year, my friend Katie invited me to a burlesque student showcase she was in at the Newport Theater. Id only been to the Wrigleyville fringe theater a handful of times, but I knew it was a big deal because of the kind of talent they host. So, of course, I said yes. Her beginner […] The post Making burlesque dreams come true appeared first on Chicago ...

In my defense Illinois is facing a public defense crisis. That was the message from lawyers, lawmakers, policy advocates, and organizers who converged at the Northwestern Pritzker Laws downtown campus on March 24 for a daylong summit on the future of public defense. The event, hosted by Northwesterns Children and Family Justice Center and the […] The post ...

Ive been hoarding Nemanja Milunovics bread for more than three years. It was just last fall that I was spelunking the dark, forgotten recesses of my freezer when I came across my very last somun. Thats the pillowy, tortoise shellshaped, steroidal flatbread that was a defining feature of Kiosk Balkan Street Food, the chefs late, […] The post Nemanja ...

Guardian Threads" through 5/17 at Epiphany Center for the Arts The post Demystifying death appeared first on Chicago Reader.