Arts & Culture

Dance company focuses on family in debut performance

By Megan Kramer

DanceWorks Chicago made its debut in the Harris Theater’s 2014-2015 Exelon Family Series on Saturday, with a program that included the premiere of a piece titled “Red Beans and Rice-ly Yours.”

If you missed the performance, you can catch DanceWorks’ next performance on Friday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. at the Lou Conte Dance Studio, 1147 W. Jackson. The Family Series, which opened in November with the children’s music band Dan Zanes and Friends, will wrap up its season with the Peking Acrobats Feb. 6-7. Continue reading →

South Side restaurants largely missing from Chicago Restaurant Week

By Karin Vandraiss

Restaurant Week, the annual winter event that offers Chicagoans the chance to eat at top-flight restaurants at relatively low prices, opens Jan. 30. But the imbalance between North Side (and north suburban) restaurants and South Side eateries is hard to ignore.

Since its launch in 2008, Chicago Restaurant Week has grown exponentially, from 44 restaurants to over 300 listed in this year’s lineup. Of those 300, however, barely two dozen are on the South Side or southern suburbs. Continue reading →

Chicago Men Stay on Trend

By Mallory Hughes

Hot on the heels of the Men’s Fashion Weeks in Milan and London, Paris Fashion Week, which closed on Friday, offered one last look at luxury menswear for the upcoming Fall-Winter 2015 season.

When the latest designs hit the European runway, Chicago can seem like a world away. But local men’s boutiques, department stores and couture storefronts are already making decisions about next years merchandise, sending buyers to the shows and placing orders. Continue reading →

VIDEO: Safety tips help keep horseback riders from injury

by Beth Lawrence

Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe was in the hospital recently after he was thrown from a horse while vacationing in Tanzania. McAuliffe was admitted for a punctured lung and seven broken ribs and remained hospitalized for three nights before returning to work. Injuries like his are not uncommon for horseback riders. A riding instructor provides some tips so you can stay safe around horses.

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VIDEO: Oscar nominations spark debate on diversity

By Michaela Meaney

The Oscar nominations are in and the results? A lack of diversity, say some critics. Entertainment professionals at Second City give their opinion on the lack of diversity and what that says about the industry as a whole.

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Charlie Hebdo ‘survivors’ issue’ quickly sells out in Chicago

By Yanqing Chen, Ellen Kobe, Meghan Tribe and Andersen Xia

Dozens of people lined up at two Chicago-area newsstands hoping to get one of the copies of the “survivors’ issue” of French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo (WARNING: Cover image may be offensive to some) before dawn Friday morning. Within minutes, both City Newsstand in Portage Park and Chicago-Main Newsstand in Evanston sold out the 12 copies made available to the public. Continue reading →

Artist Penny Pinch brings the street indoors

By Rachel White

Many artists limit themselves to a canvas to express their creativity, but for Chicago-based street artists, the city is their canvas. Local artist Penny Pinch is bringing his street art indoors at Galerie F in Logan Square.

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D-Generation: An exaltation of larks

By Jessica T. Gable

On a darkened stage in Chicago’s Columbia College Dance Center on Jan. 16, four lifelike puppets bound to tiny wheelchairs stared out across the sea of empty seats with a gaze that seemed too penetrating to come from something inanimate. Continue reading →

Fashion exists despite the winter weather

By Mallory Hughes

It’s only two weeks into the New Year and Chicagoans are already fighting frigid wind chills. For almost a week, the lows were below zero when the average temperature this time of year is 31 degrees Fahrenheit.

Some people allow their sense of style to shine through all of those layers, but others strive to simply stay warm in the Windy City. Here’s how people on the streets of Chicago’s Loop managed to stay warm, look good or both.

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Songs for Burge torture victims fill City Hall

By Kate Morrissey

Voices echoed off the stone walls of the second floor of City Hall Thursday morning as both song and protest supported Chicago Police torture victim reparations.

Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, with support from Project NIA and Amnesty International, organized the sing-in on January 15, Martin Luther King Jr.’s actual birthday, during the Committee on Finance meeting. About 40 demonstrators called for a hearing on an ordinance first introduced to City Council in 2013. The ordinance would give financial reparations to victims of police torture under the command of Jon Burge, who worked out of a far South Side police district, and provide psychological counseling, health care and education for victims and their families. Continue reading →