What’s New

The Chicago Bears are no longer the winningest franchise in the NFL. The Green Bay Packers victory over the Bears at Soldier Field allowed the Pack to move into the top spot.

The Packers have not lost to the Bears since 2018. Aaron Rodgers continued his unofficial ownership of the Chicago Bears. It is unknown if this was his last game played in the rivalry.

He now has 24 victories against the Bears while Chicago has only defeated the Packers five times during the Rodgers era.

It is never fun to lose to the Packers. The Bears have been doing a lot of it to Green Bay since 1992. Unlike so many of those losses, Chicago has two silver linings coming out of this defeat.

Justin Fields was outstanding against the Packers.

Fields returned after missing last week’s game with a shoulder injury against the New York Jets. Fields showed the injury did not bother him.

He made his presence felt early in the game when he raced 55 yards for a touchdown with three minutes left in the first quarter.

The knock on Justin Fields this year is he has not been a great passer. Well, he proved his doubters wrong.

He turned in his best passing game of the season as he completed 20 of 25 passes for 254 yards. Fields threw some nice deep-ball completions.

He hooked up with Equanimeous St. Brown for a 56-yard completion midway through the second quarter. That set up a touchdown by David Montgomery.

Justin Fields found N’Keal Harry for an amazing 49-yard reception early in the fourth quarter.

Fields did throw two interceptions in the fourth quarter that helped seal the Packers’ victory. The first interception happened because St. Brown ran a poor route. The second interception happened when Fields was trying to make something happen late in the game and forced a pass into good coverage.

Outside of those two picks, Fields made good decisions with the ball. He read the field well and the offensive line gave him time to throw. Fields was not sacked for the first time all season.

Fields continues to show he is worth the Chicago Bears building around him. That brings us to our next silver lining.

The Chicago Bears are still in a position for a prime draft pick.

The Bears are still in line to get the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Had the Bears won, they could have fallen as far as the ninth pick in the first round.

That is the ideal draft pick for a rebuilding team to have. It holds even more value since the Chicago Bears do not need a quarterback. A lot can change between today and draft day but right now Alabama quarterback Bryce Young and Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud will be the most sought after signal callers in the draft.

The Houston Texans will most likely take a quarterback after Davis Mills flamed out. That will leave a team in desperate need of a franchise quarterback looking to possibly trade up to get whoever the Texans do not select.

That means the Chicago Bears could be in line to get the same trade package the Miami Dolphins got from the San Francisco 49ers in 2020. The 49ers moved up from the 12th pick to the third pick to select Trey Lance and gave up three first-round picks.

Imagine the type of offseason general manager Ryan Poles can have with all the salary cap space he has and additional draft capital.

Poles could also stay at the second pick and take Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter or Alabama pass rusher Will Anderson. Both are game wreckers the defense needs to get better.

The Chicago Bears still need the Los Angeles Rams and the Denver Broncos to win a few games down the stretch. While they both traded their first-round picks away, their record will still determine the draft slot the Seattle Seahawks (they own the rights to the Broncos pick) and Detroit Lions (they own the rights to the Rams pick) will have.

The Chicago Bears have the highest strength of schedule between the three teams. That means the Bears do not have the tiebreaker in their favor. Therefore, if all three end the season with the same record, the Bears could drop a few slots.

If they are still in the top 5, Chicago would still be in a good spot for an impact player. Although, it means sitting through four more games of losing to land the highest pick possible.

If Fields continues to play well, it will be worth watching. It will mean a premium pick and a thriving quarterback will put the Chicago Bears in a good spot for a better 2023 season.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More

Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More

Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More

Whether you’re a calligraphy explorer or a hand-lettering veteran, check out the Newberry (60 W. Walton) today. They’ll be joined by the Chicago Calligraphy Collective for a Calligraphy Fair. From 10 AM-noon, they’ll have a breadth of demonstrations and hands-on how to’s that cover everything from gothic lettering and creative caps to arabic calligraphy and flourished copperplate. While free, registration is encouraged. This event is part of the Newberry’s programming to support the exhibition “A Show of Hands: Handwriting in the Age of Print.” The exhibit looks at how print media has encouraged the evolution and artistry of calligraphy since the mid-20th century, even dovetailing into forms like graffiti. It’s on view until December 30. To catch the show before it closes, check out the Newberry’s website. (MC)

Theatre Y has been working all year with west-side youth to create an original piece of puppet theater, in partnership with spoken word and musical artist Marvin Tate, puppet artist Michael Montenegro, and the Firehouse Community Arts Center (2111 S. Hamlin), which hosts the performances. The result, Little Carl, premieres today at 2 and 5 PM. Devised as a dream play offering a counternarrative to stories of gun violence, the creative process grew out of questions the youth artists raised about a host of issues, including “How should you get money?,” “Is anger virtuous?,” and “Does it make sense to worship NBA players over, say, 6’4?” The show continues Sat 12/10 at 5 PM and Sun 12/11 at 2 and 5 PM. Tickets are pay what you can, though Theatre Y members get a guaranteed seat for $60. Reservations and information at theatre-y.com. (KR)

The day after the Club Q shooting, Howard Brown Health Center announced its intent to lay off over 100 patient-focused workers before Christmas. Not only did this news immediately follow an LGBTQ-centered hate crime, but it also comes just three months after HBH workers won union recognition, which affords them legal protection when advocating for workplace improvements. According to the union, HBH Workers United, these layoffs affect the organization’s behavioral health, PrEP navigation, and health education staff plus other departments and projects designed to improve the physical and mental health of the queer community. Workers suggest looking for the budget cuts elsewhere. Do you agree? Show your support at 5 PM today outside the Howard Brown Health administrative building (1025 W. Sunnyside). If you can’t make it out, the union has a social media toolkit for showing solidarity from home. (MC)

Sick of the state of public transit in Chicago? Commuters Take Action wants to meet you! This grassroots group is organizing to hold the CTA accountable for how bus and train services have deteriorated since the pandemic. They’re asking for transparency and improvement! At 8 PM tonight, Commuters Take Action is throwing a meet and greet at Emporium Logan Square (2363 N. Milwaukee) “to manifest [CTA president] Dorval Carter’s retirement.” They want to hear your experiences with the CTA, invite your input on what you’d like to see change, and share ways to get involved, such as reporting a late train or bus, or submitting a public comment to the city. The people united will never be divided, so let’s work together to ensure we can affordably and effectively get where we need to be on time, eh? Or at least manifest Carter’s retirement. (MC)

Read More

Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More

Whether you’re a calligraphy explorer or a hand-lettering veteran, check out the Newberry (60 W. Walton) today. They’ll be joined by the Chicago Calligraphy Collective for a Calligraphy Fair. From 10 AM-noon, they’ll have a breadth of demonstrations and hands-on how to’s that cover everything from gothic lettering and creative caps to arabic calligraphy and flourished copperplate. While free, registration is encouraged. This event is part of the Newberry’s programming to support the exhibition “A Show of Hands: Handwriting in the Age of Print.” The exhibit looks at how print media has encouraged the evolution and artistry of calligraphy since the mid-20th century, even dovetailing into forms like graffiti. It’s on view until December 30. To catch the show before it closes, check out the Newberry’s website. (MC)

Theatre Y has been working all year with west-side youth to create an original piece of puppet theater, in partnership with spoken word and musical artist Marvin Tate, puppet artist Michael Montenegro, and the Firehouse Community Arts Center (2111 S. Hamlin), which hosts the performances. The result, Little Carl, premieres today at 2 and 5 PM. Devised as a dream play offering a counternarrative to stories of gun violence, the creative process grew out of questions the youth artists raised about a host of issues, including “How should you get money?,” “Is anger virtuous?,” and “Does it make sense to worship NBA players over, say, 6’4?” The show continues Sat 12/10 at 5 PM and Sun 12/11 at 2 and 5 PM. Tickets are pay what you can, though Theatre Y members get a guaranteed seat for $60. Reservations and information at theatre-y.com. (KR)

The day after the Club Q shooting, Howard Brown Health Center announced its intent to lay off over 100 patient-focused workers before Christmas. Not only did this news immediately follow an LGBTQ-centered hate crime, but it also comes just three months after HBH workers won union recognition, which affords them legal protection when advocating for workplace improvements. According to the union, HBH Workers United, these layoffs affect the organization’s behavioral health, PrEP navigation, and health education staff plus other departments and projects designed to improve the physical and mental health of the queer community. Workers suggest looking for the budget cuts elsewhere. Do you agree? Show your support at 5 PM today outside the Howard Brown Health administrative building (1025 W. Sunnyside). If you can’t make it out, the union has a social media toolkit for showing solidarity from home. (MC)

Sick of the state of public transit in Chicago? Commuters Take Action wants to meet you! This grassroots group is organizing to hold the CTA accountable for how bus and train services have deteriorated since the pandemic. They’re asking for transparency and improvement! At 8 PM tonight, Commuters Take Action is throwing a meet and greet at Emporium Logan Square (2363 N. Milwaukee) “to manifest [CTA president] Dorval Carter’s retirement.” They want to hear your experiences with the CTA, invite your input on what you’d like to see change, and share ways to get involved, such as reporting a late train or bus, or submitting a public comment to the city. The people united will never be divided, so let’s work together to ensure we can affordably and effectively get where we need to be on time, eh? Or at least manifest Carter’s retirement. (MC)

Read More

Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More

This has been a year of tremendous changes at the top for Chicago theaters, with Susan V. Booth taking over at the Goodman after Bob Falls’s 35 years as artistic director and Braden Abraham, formerly the artistic director for Seattle Rep, poised to take over as AD at Glencoe’s Writers Theatre in February. Cody Estle, formerly the AD for Raven Theatre, just moved to Next Act Theatre in Milwaukee; a search for his successor will be underway shortly. And we’re awaiting news for who will be replacing Chicago Shakespeare founder and artistic director Barbara Gaines (who plans to depart mid-2023) and longtime executive director Criss Henderson, who leaves at the end of this year.

Redtwist Theatre is also making some staff changes. Founded in 1994 as Actors Workshop Theatre by the husband-and-wife team of Michael Colucci and Jan Ellen Graves, they changed their name to their current moniker in 2001 and moved to their storefront home at 1044 W. Bryn Mawr (smack-dab in the center of the Bryn Mawr Historic District and just down the street from City Lit Theater) a year later. The company has mostly focused on American classics (Arthur Miller and Edward Albee have been particular favorites) alongside contemporary writers like Lucas Hnath and Lauren Gunderson. 

Colucci and Graves stepped aside in 2019 and Charlie Marie McGrath took over as AD—just in time for the COVID-19 shutdown to put a screeching halt to live theater. McGrath steered the company into virtual productions and helped pave the way for reopening shows after COVID, but she too decided to step aside in May of 2022. 

Longtime ensemble member Brian Parry has served as interim artistic director for the past few months, but now the board has announced that Dusty Brown will be the new AD. Brown, a nonbinary director from Atlanta whose resume includes work with Georgia Shakespeare and Georgia Ensemble Theatre, has an MFA in directing from Ohio University and directed Macbeth for Three Crows Theatre at Redtwist earlier this fall. 

Brown will be joined by Eileen Dixon as community director and Michael Dias as development director. Dixon’s background includes acting and directing with a particular focus on new play development, and Dias is an actor and mime with deep experience in independent production. 

Redtwist will be announcing its next season shortly. 

Steep Theatre wins major city grant

Big news for another Edgewater theater company: Steep Theatre, which lost its longtime rental home on Berwyn Avenue in 2020, and then bought a former Christian Science reading room down the street, has been awarded the largest grant in the company’s 21-year history—a $2.988 million Community Development Grant from the City of Chicago.

The funds will help the company build out what is currently a pretty raw space in their new venue into a black-box theater and enhance public space for community engagement projects. (The company ran the Boxcar, a bar and performance space adjoining their former home, and frequently made that space available for other artists and neighborhood organizations for a couple of years before losing their lease.)

In a press release, Steep’s artistic director Peter Moore said, “We recognize that this is an investment not only in our company, but in our Edgewater community and our theatre community, which has been hit so hard these last two years by the pandemic. We take those responsibilities very much to heart. Chicago isn’t Chicago without its theatre, and we’re proud that our city recognizes theatre as both an indispensable cultural asset and an undeniable economic catalyst.”

Steep is also searching for a new executive director; Kate Piatt-Eckert, who held that role for nine years, left the company last month.

Jenn Freeman (Po’Chop) in Litany. Freeman is one of five Chicago artists receiving a fellowship from Dance/USA this year. Credit: Jordan Phelps

Chicago artists recognized by Dance/USA

Each year, Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance, awards fellowships to artists. This year’s cohort recognizes 30 artists “representing an array of modalities rooted at the intersection of social and embodied practices. These include community-building and culture-bearing practices, healing and storytelling practices, activism and representational justice practices, and more.”

Of those 30, five are based in Chicago: footwork artist Jemal “P-Top” Delacruz; Jenn Freeman, also known as Po’Chop; cat mahari; Vershawn Sanders-Ward; and Anna Martine Whitehead.

Delacruz cofounded The Era footwork crew in 2014, and (among many other accolades) he received a National Dance Project Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts in 2019. 

Freeman’s work has focused on elements of storytelling, striptease, and dance, and she’s also the creator of the digital zine The Brown Pages. She’s collaborated on video projects with Jamila Woods and Mykele Deville and also created the dance-film series Litany in association with Rebuild Foundation.

Afrofuturism, body history, and exploring the “informal legacy of Blk liberation through documentation” are intertwined parts of mahari’s practice. A past recipient of the 3Arts Award in dance, along with other awards, one of mahari’s current projects, Blk Ark: the impossible manifestation, is “a multimodal reflective of marronage, anarchism, Hip Hop, and play to be completed [in] 2025.” 

Sanders-Ward, the founding artistic director of Red Clay Dance Company, has also received numerous plaudits for her company’s work. In 2019, Red Clay opened its own community studio space in Woodlawn. Her upcoming site-specific choreographic project set to premiere in June 2023, Rest.Rise.Move.Nourish.Heal, was also selected for a 2021 National Dance Project Award from New England Foundation.

Martine Whitehead’s work, both collaborative and solo, has “‘embodied epistemologies of Black in FORCE! an opera in three acts, created with Ayanna Woods, Angel Bat Dawid, and Phillip Armstrong, the waiting room of a prison provides the setting for a piece that, as Martine Whitehead says, is “a structure for resourcing ourselves to dream of a world beyond the prison-industrial complex and all its impoverished tentacles that reach into our lives and make it almost or actually impossible to live.” 

Each artist receives a $30,167 grant from Dance/USA (provided in partnership with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation) to be used at their discretion.

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