Gun violence is highest in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, where organizers say tackling poverty is the only way to create ...

In red bean, an experimental film by Tianjiao Wang, tempered by a 16-mm lens, the artist observes much and judges little.

In the digital sprawl of sex work and self-expression, far from the boardrooms and studios that once dictated who gets seen ...

June has come and gone, and with it, one of the busiest times of year for drag and burlesque performers. Between Pride events ...

Born in Columbus, Georgia, and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Fred Wesley got his start on piano and trumpet, but after his ...

On “Ready,” the opening track of his self-released 2024 debut album, Ready Now, Chicago singer-songwriter Deonte Baker shares ...

A good book can make the sweltering hours pass a little more pleasurably. So here’s a handful of recommendations for beach ...

Rockers the Puta-Pons only managed one album, but their two irrepressible front women endured tragedy and a messy breakup to ...

The Reader is free. Producing it isn’t. And without your support, we can't continue. So we need you to chip in, even if it’s ...

Ryan Weinstein is Coffin Prick, the remaining prick of Coffin Pricks. In the early 2010s, four Chicago punk stalwarts came ...

Michael Miner, a former Reader editor and columnist, was truly a journeyman of Chicago journalism and has the distinction of ...

Twenty years after its premiere, The Color Purple gets a glorious production at the Goodman under Lili-Anne Brown's direction ...