Interfaith clergy and immigrant rights advocates gathered at Evanston’s Sherman Plaza to announce their opposition to a Chicago-based real estate investment trust's plan to lease a vacant jail to the federal government for immigration detention. https://bit.ly/4uQoKgS

I talked to @guypidgeotto.bsky.social about Stuck’s Optimizer, which comes out Friday.

A new literary journal, Project 2052, expands upon the revolutionary potential of Everything for Everyone. chicagoreader.com/books/lit-fe...

We're hiring! The Chicago Reader is seeking a full-time creative and strategic Social Media & Content Manager to grow and engage our audience across multiple platforms. Learn more and apply: https://bit.ly/3NUbF5v

Back writing theater reviews for the @chicagoreader.com! The Fridamania epidemic continues with the Chicago premiere of this Spanish-language opera by Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz, currently at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

stop what you’re doing and listen to @katieprout.bsky.social on @citycastchicago.bsky.social talk about how the city of chicago evicted unhoused people from public parks in the freezing cold on election day

After two terminations and a public Instagram dispute, the last two eligible employees at the TRiiBE, Chicago’s celebrated Black-owned newsroom, head to a union vote on March 25. chicagoreader.com/news/labor/o...

Hoping to get to this one myself, as I loved Yee's "Lucy and Charlie's Honeymoon" a few years ago. @irenechsiao.bsky.social recommends "White Rooster" at Lookingglass for @chicagoreader.com! chicagoreader.com/performing-a...

Win a pair of tickets to see FKA Twigs! Enter for a chance to see the show on Thursday, March 26 at Wintrust Arena. Entries accepted until 11:30 PM TONIGHT; 3 winners will chosen on March 20. https://bit.ly/4rDuyrj

I wrote about Project 2052, the new lit journal from writers @genderhorizon.com & @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social, which opens up the world they created in their novel Everything for Everyone. Check it out via @chicagoreader.com chicagoreader.com/books/lit-fe...

Despite how often I am at the theater, there are a helluva lot of shows I've never seen. Happy to have changed that in the case of The Drowsy Chaperone at Theo --a terrific and intimate production! Here's my @chicagoreader.com review! chicagoreader.com/performing-a...

The first review of my book is in from @chicagoreader.com! Publication day for Unsettling Territory is less than a week away!! chicagoreader.com/books/book-r...

Brand new Gossip Wolf: -Heavy Crownz recruits a coterie of great Chicago rappers for his big new album -Jah spoil drops New Chicago Vol. 2 -Will Miller talks about the new Resavoir album at the Land school -new albums from Red PK and CBVB -and more!

Win a pair of tickets to see FKA Twigs! Enter for a chance to see the show on Thursday, March 26 at Wintrust Arena. Entries accepted until 11:30 PM on March 19; 3 winners will chosen on March 20. https://bit.ly/4lCMu3Q

I wrote about how Footballhead had to go full butt-rock to make a great new album, they’re playing Reggie’s soon too

Election Day is tomorrow! Use our Cook County judicial election guide before you head to the polls. Don’t forget: You can bring your printed selections — or your phone — with you when you vote.

If you didn't catch all of this year's Best Picture nominees, we've got you covered! The Reader's film critics reviewed each film before the competitive awards season kicked off. Here's everything you'll need to know heading into the Oscars on Sunday: chicagoreader.com/tag/2026-bes...

In February, unhoused residents of Legion Park on Chicago's northwest side submitted a counterproposal to the city, which plans to evict them from their tent homes on March 17. 26 community groups signed on in support: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

After several years on hiatus, Walkabout Theater Company and Poor Poor Lear return for a short run at the Chopin this weekend. chicagoreader.com/performing-a... ✍️ @kerryreid.bsky.social

New Gossip Wolf: -Chicago-centric rock rag Roadhouse publishes its fourth issue, which comes with a lathe-cut OK Cool seven-inch! -Torn Light winds down its in-house label! -a roundup of some rad local releases, plus, yes, a little about Fugazi’s Albini Sessions

Celebrate Women’s History Month with these Reader-recommended events from our March Reader Radar and beyond: chicagoreader.com/city-life/wo... Tomorrow, 3/11 @ 6:30 PM: Ask an Astrophysicist! @skunkcabbagebooks.bsky.social

Mark your calendars for this Friday, March 13! Swing by our local journalism pop-up at Co-Prosperity from 5-7PM to meet the humans behind some of Chicago's coolest independent newsrooms: the Chicago Reader, Lumpen Radio, and @injusticewatch.org

Hey here's a map of places around Cook County where you can pick up one of the 170,000 print copies of our #CheckYourJudges guide! Also see it in this month's @chicagoreader.com and a variety of other local community newspapers! www.injusticewatch.org/judges/judic...

Over 126K votes were cast in the Food & Drink category—if there's one thing every Chicagoan has opinions about, it's where to eat and drink. 📸 Section photography: Kirk Williamson

Hear more from @dmbrown-tboy.bsky.social about how students are reacting to ongoing DEI rollbacks across the University of Illinois system on today's episode of @citycastchicago.bsky.social: megaphone.link/CC8141299176

From the spiritual jazz traditions of artists such as Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra comes Shabaka Hutchings, a London reedist known mononymously as “Shabaka.” He’s most closely associated with Sons of Kemet, the globally inspired avant-jazz ensemble he cofounded in 2011... https://bit.ly/4u5mHFl

In A. Martinez’s pieces remember to bring her flowers and I hear you still even now, remembrance of this maternal labor is key. Two figurative paintings are displayed side by side, sewn into a woven frame of dried flowers and hemp cord. https://bit.ly/4aNaRIr

This cultural moment feels medieval. Maybe it’s something about the collapsing of traditional social models, the rise of authoritarian hierarchies, or the spreading of once preventable diseases and viruses that can kill large swathes of people.

"I can never resist the allure of lamb on a menu, and the plov at North Park’s Faiza Chicago is no exception. Featuring just a few simple ingredients, the dish’s main flavor comes from the large chunks of fatty lamb—a staple meat in Uyghur cuisine." https://bit.ly/4tRYmCW

Adam Rapp’s Red Light Winter had its world premiere in 2005 at Steppenwolf and ended up being a finalist in 2006 for the Pulitzer Prize. Joliet native Rapp specializes in stories about disaffected people and the forces that pull them together and apart. https://bit.ly/4u4LDN5

Over 86K votes were cast in the City Life category, which includes everything from where Chicagoans are getting their news to the elected officials that lived up to their campaign promises. 📸 Section photography: Kirk Williamson

In Muffed, Peercy delivered a gloriously goofy deconstruction of documentary-style theater through the story of a group of thespians researching and devising a piece about a festival celebrating the inventor of earmuffs. https://bit.ly/4rKQVeZ

In the project 60 wrd/min art critic, writer Lori Waxman explores how art writing can serve an expanded field of artists—including those incarcerated, trying to gain visas, working to establish themselves professionally, or just wanting feedback for a secret hobby. https://bit.ly/4rdw577

i also had the pleasure of editing the issue's city life section. here are some of my favs from @chicagoreader.com staff/contributors:

The Reader’s Best of Chicago issue is out today, I wrote 10 percent of the critic’s picks, which I’ll thread below. But first, here’s all the editorial contributions to the music and nightlife section chicagoreader.com/best-of-chic...

for the @chicagoreader.com's 2025 best of chicago issue, i wrote about cops! for the best conglomeration of local police to protect a murderous army of federal agents, look no further than the unified command of broadview, illinois.

Best of Chicago is out now! Check out this year's ballot winners voted on by nearly 40,000 Chicagoans in over 200 categories. 🏆 chicagoreader.com/best

Suzannah Herbert’s Natchez makes a compelling case against the sanitization of history to suit the desires of the ruling class. But as a piece of storytelling, Herbert misses the mark, toying with the audience’s perception of the film’s subjects. https://bit.ly/4l556ch

Catholic clergy entered the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Ash Wednesday, following months of protests and legal action seeking to allow religious ministers inside. https://bit.ly/4076txK

Best of Chicago drops on March 4! The ballot was chosen entirely by almost 40,000 Chicagoans who voted for their favorite things about our city. Find out who made the final cut this Wednesday! Take a sneak peek as our production department photographs this year's cover.

“Spaces for People, Systems for Spaces” at Western Exhibitions features 15 artists who make art about architecture. With maps, skylines, floor plans, and sculptures, these artists show how our built environments are living, breathing ecosystems. https://bit.ly/46hgUlT

Whether it is sweet or spicy, send us your opinion about a story in this month's issue.

Brotman’s solo exhibition “It Had to Be You” inhabits the guts of an apartment building in Pilsen—the project space Basement—presenting paradoxes at skewed heights under the low ceiling of pipes and concrete. https://bit.ly/46MoJA0

The viewer is asked to reckon with the hard, concrete edges of urban life colliding with the lush fecundity of the natural world. Queerness is defined both in the chic power of a skyscraper and the vibrant mundanity of soft summer grass. https://bit.ly/4aykkDi

new: highlands reit, a small chicago-based real estate firm, is renting an empty prison it owns in colorado to ice and private prison giant geo group. highlands is part of a network of private contractors hoping to get a cut of the $45 billion allocated to warehouse immigrants through 2029.

Peoples Gas filed yet another rate-hike request with the ICC in January, which would increase the average Chicago home-heating bill by $10 per month if approved by the commission. https://bit.ly/3ZNZQjJ

with talk of public funding for a new bears stadium yet again ramping up in springfield, perhaps it’s a good time to revisit this piece from @joeengleman.bsky.social that explores who actually benefits from publicly funded stadium projects (hint: it’s not us!).

Bouncing between the father’s misdirected frustrations and a desire to set a good example, My Father’s Shadow reckons with masculinity and its manifestations. Read the full review by Cortlyn Kelly: https://bit.ly/3OvSChV

I wrote about My Place Ohio, a Chicago DIY spot that shut down shortly after hosting All-American Rejects—the founder is moving to Louisville and aiming to set up a DIY spot there

[pushes glasses up the bridge of my nose with my index finger] CDs are the new vinyl, DVDs are the new VHS, Blu-ray Discs are the new DVDs