Towkio is officially Chicago’s highest rapper 1

The Save Money MC’s balloon trip to the stratosphere wasn’t just to promote his first album for Rick Rubin—it’s also about inspiration, perspective, and togetherness.

by Leor Galil | Feb 28, 2018

Alex Joseph

Trumpeter Adam O’Farrill pivots away from his family’s musical legacy toward dazzling postbop sounds 2

by Peter Margasak | Feb 23, 2018

Lindsey Byrnes

Three of folk music’s most progressive and distinctive artists join forces as I’m With Her

by Peter Margasak | Feb 23, 2018

Mark Doddato

Chicago experimental ensemble Aperiodic will illustrate key threads in a new book by new-music scholar Jennie Gottschalk

by Peter Margasak | Feb 23, 2018

Courtesy The Artist

Rap instigator Tyler, the Creator shows he’s more than you think he is on Flower Boy

by Leor Galil | Feb 23, 2018

Leandro Quintero

Techno producer Maayan Nidam makes minimal music with muscle

by Leor Galil | Feb 23, 2018

Eliot Lee Hazel

Tune-Yards stumbles with political outreach on its new record, while Sudan Archives keeps its music intimate

by Peter Margasak | Feb 23, 2018

Courtesy The Artist

Chicago keyboardist Rob Clearfield forges a jazz-classical hybrid of weightless sophistication

by Peter Margasak | Feb 23, 2018

Abrisad Photographer

Greek death-metal band Septicflesh may have added clean strings, but their music remains as septic as ever

by Monica Kendrick | Feb 23, 2018

Timothy Saccenti

Pop auteur Miguel steps toward overt political songwriting without sacrificing sexiness on War & Leisure

by Leor Galil | Feb 23, 2018

Marco Borggreve

Celebrated Ligeti interpreter Pierre-Laurent Aimard concludes the University of Chicago’s season-long celebration of the 20th-century composer

by Peter Margasak | Feb 23, 2018

Nearly 25 years after their debut, Low are still doing more with less

by Mark Guarino | Feb 23, 2018

Courtesy Chicago Public Library

Harold Washington Library celebrates the Reverend Clay Evans with a free gospel concert

Plus: The Hideout’s dance-centric new Midnight Resonance series books Bergsonist, and the Evening Attraction party for album number two.

| Feb 27, 2018

Are interest-rate swaps a bad bet? 2

During a decade of low rates, they were a major expense for the city’s cultural institutions.

by Deanna Isaacs | Feb 28, 2018

Sandra Lachler

If you want to see a famous mug, visit the American Toby Jug Museum in Evanston

Stephen M. Mullins has assembled nearly 8,300 vessels from more than 60 years of collecting.

by Kate Sierzputowski | Feb 26, 2018

Courtesy Owen Daniel-mccarter

Owen Daniel-McCarter looks back on a decade of organizing in Chicago

“We live in a world that for the most part still doesn’t acknowledge that trans people exist.”

by H. Melt | Feb 27, 2018

Kevin Penczak

How an Evanston writer’s boyhood idea inspired ‘Shape of Water’ 7

Guillermo del Toro tapped Daniel Kraus to help write the story behind the Oscar-nominated blockbuster.

by Janet Potter | Mar 1, 2018

Liz Lauren

The Wolves starts strong—then chokes on too many sports movie cliches 1

Sarah DeLappe’s Pulitzer-nominated play isn’t the landmark of feminist theater it could be.

by Irene Hsiao | Feb 26, 2018

Michael Brosilow

Keith Huff overdoes everything in Six Corners

A potentially great urban fable gets done in by excess.

by Tony Adler | Feb 27, 2018

Jamie Ramsay

Aloha Wagon rolls out Hawaiian plate lunches 1

The erstwhile food truck parks it on South Western Avenue.

by Mike Sula | Feb 28, 2018

Annihilation preserves the source novel’s biological nightmare but dispenses with its mounting paranoia

Director Alex Garland follows his acclaimed Ex Machina with this screen adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s sci-fi adventure.

by J.R. Jones | Mar 1, 2018

Loveless places narrow lives inside a wide-screen frame 2

Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return) uses empty spaces to define a dead marriage.

by Ben Sachs | Mar 1, 2018

Maudlyne Ihejirika/sun-times

Trump cuts food stamps while looking for a handout for his hotel in Mississippi 3

And other recent acts in the season of hypocrisy

by Ben Joravsky | Mar 1, 2018

Who are Chicago’s Dreamers? Here are the faces of DACA 15

Immigrants brought to the U.S. as children face an uncertain future with no compromise forthcoming.

by Michelle Kanaar | Mar 1, 2018

Anupamrajeev/flickr

‘Should I be worried about STDs from oral sex?’

And other no-brainers from the slush pile

by Dan Savage | Feb 28, 2018

John Greenfield

Would far-south-siders be willing to swap the long-awaited Red Line extension for a cheaper, quicker solution? 5

Residents of Roseland, Pullman, and other neighborhoods south of 95th weigh in on the Electric Line conversion.

by John Greenfield | Feb 28, 2018

Print Issue of March 1, 2018

Volume 47, Number 21

| Mar 1, 2018