Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson is best known as a sideman to Magic Sam and Muddy Waters, but he could tear up a stage all by himself. https://bit.ly/4wfsXLG

In Pandemonium, Please Hold on the Second City Mainstage, political grandstanding takes a back seat to unlikely encounters and personal angst. https://bit.ly/3P4Qj67

The artworks in Mike Cloud and Nyeema Morgan's “Story Structure, Pt. 2” at Neubauer Collegium are grounded in varying unstable narratives. https://bit.ly/3QZCMgD

In Alé Ramirez's autobiographical Spinoff at the Neo-Futurists, a sitcom provides parallels to their own family relationships. https://bit.ly/4tmvTDs

Norse gods battle it out in this rock musical, but good and evil isn't clear-cut in Lifeline's Loki--The End of the World Tour. https://bit.ly/4tqwDaV

Jake Flum's date at Facility Theatre is an unsettling but provocative story about a man, a woman, and the dog cage he asks her to sit in. https://bit.ly/42VPTCd

Australian duo Armlock dress up straight-as-an-arrow forlorn indie rock with the kind of expertly deployed special effects that helped make Alex G famous--a guitar that sounds like it's stuttering and echoing, for instance, or a voice that sounds like i... https://bit.ly/4dx9ezH

Ragbagalia Fest aspires to build community while centering women, femmes, and queer people. https://bit.ly/49mWedv

If you like a little homemade theater, a lot of silly gallows humor, and a twinge of danger in your punk rock, you might love Philadelphia band Evil Sword. https://bit.ly/3QSLHAB

Alina Astrova, who makes music as Lolina, crafts avant-pop sound collages that defy expectations. https://bit.ly/4f93woP

Simon McQuoid's Mortal Kombat II strains to balance spectacle with story. https://bit.ly/4uBFSGa

These besties don't let the challenging commute between Lincoln Park and Brighton Park keep them from slaying the day away together. https://bit.ly/3R8X9If

Blue Heron is Sophy Romvari's extraordinary debut feature about family and memory. https://bit.ly/4wcRe5b

Michael Glover Smith's Hekla is an intimately deglamorized, down-in-the-trenches look at the acting profession. https://bit.ly/4uuX2VL

Pete Ohs creates a dream world with Erupcja, but the film doesn't fully earn its wistful stylishness. https://bit.ly/4tri32F

Local filmmaker Johnny "MrLingoHimself" Jones is capturing the history, culture, and artistic power of his neighborhood with Our Lawndale Stories. https://bit.ly/48NWH8n

Reader submitted letters for the May 2026 issue. https://bit.ly/4thxtXh

May 2026 issue editor's notes. https://bit.ly/3QQkxKF

Mohammad Salahat spent a year and a half working in Pinckneyville's solitary unit; what he witnessed was a warehouse for untreated mental illness. https://bit.ly/42llbSN

Chgef Shirley Cisnero's Margot's Fusion Kitchen cooks Guatemalan street food at the Next Monday Night Foodball https://bit.ly/4nfkxjq

The May issue of the Chicago Reader is online now! bit.ly/4tWnZlD Distribution of the print paper begins Wednesdays and continues through Friday. On the cover: Calamity June by Chicago-based illustrator and writer Hannah Bess Ross

The Cook County State's Attorney's Office has spent months seeking pretrial detention in an expanded number of cases. Data shows county judges have increasingly obliged. More people are now in jail than when IL's landmark Pretrial Fairness Act took effect. My latest for the @chicagoreader.com:

Two workers monitoring the moon have to figure out a plan to retrieve the stolen satellite in moonwatchers at Lazy Susan. https://bit.ly/4d4qcUD

A young girl with a terminal illness forms a bond with the Mars rover in Filament Theatre's world premiere of Farewell Opportunity. https://bit.ly/48N9qbn

Map of Chicago Reader boxes and distribution sites. Find a print copy of the Chicago Reader. The Reader is published in print weekly. https://bit.ly/3yPgmFW

Like their colleagues in film and television, theater advocates and artists confront the growth of AI--onstage and off. https://bit.ly/3R75kEW

Chicago Reader print issue of May 2026 (Volume 55, Number 16). https://bit.ly/3QSjHgm

Swap cheddar for churros through your window, and your car will be engulfed in the warm, cinnamon-lined cloud of freshly fried dough scent. https://bit.ly/4ewnIkl

An effort to phase out the subminimum wage in Chicago was a done deal--until it wasn't. https://bit.ly/4d2LMJi

Illinois abolished cash bail and drove down the population at the Cook County jail. Under the county's top prosecutor, it's rising again. https://bit.ly/4na7Iqu

BuenGro is buzzin' with all of your plant and floral needs to make your space beautiful and picturesque, just in time for Chicago's best seasons. https://bit.ly/4d7fNrw

Colibri Coffee has fluttered into the hearts of East Side residents. https://bit.ly/4d7fzRc

What do you want to know about the multibillion-dollar Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park? Come ask us!

I interviewed @fire-toolz.bsky.social!!

As they prepare to open their take on Molière's Tartuffe, the Conspirators talk about developing "the Style" that informs their work. https://bit.ly/42LhWnQ

With the Fire-Toolz album Lavender Networks, prolific weirdo Angel Marcloid becomes labelmates with the likes of Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada. https://bit.ly/42QxzdC

THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US, a compassionately reported account of five working homeless families, won the 2026 Pulitzer for nonfiction. I interviewed author Brian Goldstone last fall. "What do I do as a journalist?” he said then. "What do I do as a human being?” chicagoreader.com/books/there-...

Chicago-based singer Inga blends ritual, spirituality, and community on her forthcoming debut EP, Ingaludes. https://bit.ly/4wevSV6

new: we've heard a lot about the quantum computing campus in south chicago. but who exactly is involved? and what exactly are these organizations planning to do? @chicagoreader.com contributor grey lucas answers those questions and more in this comprehensive guide: chicagoreader.com/news/explain...

I saw this play last fall and absolutely loved it, so am delighted with the news. Not least because it marks the first time a non-Equity Chicago storefront has been recognized for new work by ATCA/Steinberg. www.broadwayworld.com/chicago/arti...

The people and groups behind the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, part of South Chicago's quantum computing megadevelopment https://bit.ly/4dmzMDE

In 2013 cellist Tomeka Reid founded the Chicago Jazz String Summit to honor those who'd come before and spotlight upcoming improvising string players. https://bit.ly/4ui0tz6

The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicago's independent and underground film scene has to offer. https://bit.ly/424RSDY

Shoegaze is everywhere, especially in the midwest. I reached out to more than a dozen musicians and experts to talk all things midwest shoegaze for my newest Reader feature.

Beautiful essay, and I can’t wait to read this book. Also, I’m sure someone has shared this already but I feel duty bound to drop one of my favorite ever @chicagoreader.com features here chicagoreader.com/news/brickya...

Spring exhibition in Chicago, in seeking a shared sensibility of what unifies us, provide canopy cover from the chaos of infinite wars. https://bit.ly/4eVihLW

Chicago singer-songwriter Gia Margaret released her disarming debut,There's Always Glimmer, in 2018, but since then her voice has barely appeared on her recordings. https://bit.ly/4tLeB4d

In 2013 cellist Tomeka Reid founded the Chicago Jazz String Summit in order to honor those who'd come before her and to spotlight current and upcoming musicians who improvise on stringed instruments. https://bit.ly/4uhBUCj

It felt inevitable that violist Whitney Johnson, cellist Lia Kohl, and violinist Macie Stewart would form a trio. Their creative lives were already intertwined. https://bit.ly/4eTtXie

Liz Cooper's latest LP, February's New Day, began taking shape in the isolation of lockdown. https://bit.ly/4nn3gVH