What’s New

There’s plenty to see and do online and in-person around Chicago in the week ahead.

Films from Japan

The inaugural Japanese Film Festival, presented by the Chicago Japan Film Collective and advertised as the first of its kind in the Midwest, features nine contemporary Japanese films: “Our festival is designed to bring the American Midwest into conversation with Japanese culture,” says co-founder Sakamoto Yuki. Among the films are Hayashi Kaizo’s “Bolt,” a drama about the earthquake that resulted in the Fukushima nuclear disaster; “All About Chiaki Mayumura (provisional),” a drama about a musical celebrity who is much more than meets the eye; “Videophobia,” a cyber thriller; “Alone Again in Fukushima,” a documentary about a man who stayed behind after the disaster and evacuation to care for abandoned animals, and “The House of Seasons,” a family drama about a teen who overcomes mental health issues. The festival runs May 25-31. Tickets: $10 for one film; $15 access to all the films. Visit cjfc.us.

A writer’s life

AP file

The American Writers Museum has reopened with a new exhibit, “Ray Bradbury: Inextinguishable,” a retrospective that explores the writings and influence of the legendary science-fiction author. Included in the exhibit are books, letters, Bradbury’s desk and typewriter and many more items borrowed from the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University. Bradbury grew up in suburban Waukegan, and his Midwest childhood remained central to his life. Armed with a vivid imagination, he played in the ravine near his home, frequented the local cinema, roamed through visiting carnivals and hung out at the library. “These were the things at the center of my life,” he told the Sun-Times in 2006. “It was the beginning of everything.” The exhibit continues through May 2022. Admission: $14 ($4 off through May 31). Visit americanwritersmusuem.org.

Finding connections

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago completes its virtual season with Robyn Mineko Williams’ “Half of Us.” The filmed piece is a 16-minute meditation on human connection and the many ways we experience it. Original music is by OHMME, an eclectic Chicago experimental rock duo comprised of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart. The film streams free at 7:30 p.m. May 20, 22 and 2 p.m. May 23. Visit hubbardstreetdance.com.

Forever young

Mark Seliger

Celebrate Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday (May 24) with “May Your Song Always Be Sung,” a livestreamed event at 7 p.m. May 20 that also is a benefit for The Human Needs Food Pantry in Montclair, New Jersey. The lineup features live performances of Dylan’s music by Bettye LaVette, Richard Thompson, Nils Lofgren, Robyn Hitchcock, Lucy Kaplansky, Amy Helm, Bill Frisell, Low Cut Connie and many more. Free, donations encouraged. Visit outpostintheburbs.org. … Also Steve Dawson and Michael Miles join forces for “Bob Dylan’s 80th Birthday Tribute Concert” streaming at 8 p.m. May 23 via The Hideout. Tickets: $5-$20. Visit hideoutchicago.com.

Tap it out

Philamonjaro

Chicago Tap Theatre and M.A.D.D. Rhythms join together to celebrate National Tap Dance Day on May 22. The daylong online event (10 a.m.-6 p.m.) includes intermediate and advanced tap classes, a lecture on the history of tap and a performance by Chicago Tap All-Stars featuring Billy Siegenfeld, Chicago Tap Theatre, Jenai Cutcher, Jimmy Payne Jr., Kendra Jorstad, Marty and Jessica Bronson, M.A.D.D. Rhythms, Matt Crowle, Nico Rubio, Patti Vickerman, Rich Ashworth, Stephen Spanopoulos and Tre Dumas. Tickets: $15, $25 for performance; $55, $95 for classes. Visit chicagotaptheatre.com.

Indoor/outdoor performances

Michelle Reid

The adventurous Pivot Arts Festival returns with live events May 21-June 6 in the Edgewater neighborhood. Titled “Reimagining Utopia,” the ninth annual event features performances at both indoor and outdoor spaces. Twelve artists and companies were selected to create small works of theater, dance or music as well as video installations responding to the global health crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement. Among the performers are SoIAR*, Propelled Animals, Ishti Collective, Christin Eve Cato, Danielle Ross, the Puppet Wonder Wagon, KAIA String Quartet and Laksha Dantran. Tickets: $5-$30. For a complete schedule of performances, visit pivotarts.org/festival.

Virtual stage

Northlight Theatre

Northlight Theatre presents a 20th anniversary reunion celebration of “The Last Five Years,” Jason Robert Brown’s musical that debuted at the theater in 2001. The original creative team — Brown, director Daisy Prince and cast members Norbert Leo Butz and Lauren Kennedy — reunites to talk about the landmark musical with artistic director BJ Jones. Streams free at 6:30 p.m. May 23. Visit northlighttheatre.org. … “We Are Out There,” a digital prologue to the new musical “It Came from Outer Space,” which will debut next year at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, streams free May 24-June 20. Visit chicagoshakes.com. … Black Ensemble Theater streams its eighth annual fundraiser, Jackie Taylor’s “Soul of a Powerful Woman (Her to Save the World)” at 6 p.m. May 23. Free, donations encouraged. Visit blackensembletheater.org.

Mary Houlihan is a Chicago freelance writer.

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The Chicago Blackhawks have had a fair amount of success in the NHL Draft Lottery in the last 15 years. For one, they won the lottery in 2007 when they selected Patrick Kane with the first overall pick. Back then, only the first overall pick was determined by the lottery. Later, the Hawks took advantage […]

Chicago Blackhawks: We now know their interesting lottery odds – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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Tony La Russa made headlines on Tuesday evening for not defending Yermin Mercedes.

The post Tony La Russa’s Recent Comments Sparking (More) Outrage from White Sox Fans first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Joffrey Ballet announce in-person 2021-2022 seasons.

At a joint press conference today on the stage of the opera house, Lyric Opera and the Joffrey Ballet announced their 2021-2022 seasons—the first for Joffrey at Lyric, after more than two decades at the Auditorium Theatre. Noting that most of the world’s great opera houses regularly offer ballet, Lyric general director Anthony Freud welcomed the dancers as Lyric’s new “roommates.”  …Read More

The biopic comes out Aug. 13, only in theaters.

In a scene in the trailer for the much-awaited new Aretha Franklin biopic, the singer is seen as a girl sitting at a piano alongside her mother (Audra McDonald), who advises her, “What’s most important is that you are treated with dignity and …”

Guess what word comes next.

It’s “Respect,” a movie in the works long before Franklin’s death in 2018. The Queen of Soul had offered extensive suggestions about the script and handpicked Jennifer Hudson to play her.

Hudson, the pride of Englewood, is heard in the trailer giving her takes on the Franklin anthems “Think” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and in one sequence she works on making Otis Redding’s “Respect” her own by dropping in repetitions of her nickname: “Ree, ree, ree, ree …”

“Respect” is scheduled for an Aug. 13 release that will be in theaters only and won’t stream, unlike many other high-profile films during the age of COVID-19.

“My dream for the film — and for Aretha and her legacy — was to create a piece of cinema that feels like a classic you have to see in a movie theater,” director Liesl Tommy said in a studio statement. “You have to see it on a big screen because her life was so big it deserved that.”

“Respect” is the screen debut of Tommy, a Tony Award nominee for directing the Broadway play “Eclipsed.” It’s the year’s second major screen bio of Franklin, following the March premiere of “Genius: Aretha,” starring Cynthia Erivo, on the National Geographic channel.

Also seen in the trailer are Forest Whitaker as Franklin’s father, Mary J. Blige as singer Dinah Washington, Marlon Wayans as manager Ted White and Marc Maron as producer Jerry Wexler.

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot will deliver her own plan for civilian police oversight on Thursday, a plan almost certainly stripped of policymaking, budgeting and hiring and firing powers coveted by police reform advocates.

After months of broken promises, Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety, said “the mayor’s team” has told him “I should have something in hand on Thursday.”

Taliaferro said he hasn’t seen or been briefed on the mayor’s version and has no idea how it will read.

But he has no doubt Lightfoot is determined to retain the final say on disputes over police policy along with the power to determine the Chicago Police Department’s budget and hire and fire the police superintendent, COPA chief and Police Board president.

“She had concern about not being able to weigh in on policymaking when it comes down to policies that affect police officers. The other ordinances essentially took her out of the process. And any mayor would be somewhat cautious of not being able to hire or fire a superintendent, chief administrator [of COPA] and Police Board members. Our mayor is apprehensive about that as well,” Taliaferro said.

“The mayor will have to wear the hat, no matter who appoints. As the chief executive of the city, any mayor would have to wear the hat of what goes wrong and what goes right with our police department. So, it would be this mayor’s contention — and mine as well — they should be involved in the process.”

Sun-Times file

A former Chicago police officer, Taliaferro emphatically denied the mayor’s version would be tantamount to “gutting” the powers of a civilian oversight panel. To the contrary, he portrayed it as preserving the separation of powers.

“We cannot converge all the powers of city government on one authority. Because then, the fight or the comments down the road will be, ‘Why does this organization have so much power? Why isn’t this power dispersed? Where are the checks-and-balances?’ Taliaferro said.

“If you convey the power to hire, the power to fire, the power to create budget, the power to do everything in one organization, where are the checks-and-balances?”

Earlier this week, the City Council’s Black Caucus joined the Hispanic and Progressive caucuses in endorsing a civilian police oversight plan summarily rejected by Lightfoot.

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), chairman of the Black Caucus, said then that aldermen were tired of waiting for Lightfoot to honor a campaign promise to deliver civilian police oversight — with the power to hire and fire the police superintendent and be the final arbiter in policy disputes — within her first 100 days in office.

“We definitely need some level of civilian oversight and accountability in the police department in addition to what we have today. This is what our residents have asked for. …This is an ordinance that delivers that,” Ervin told the Sun-Times.

“If the mayor sees something different, she’s obligated to put something on the table. To date, nothing has been put on the table. … We, as a City Council, have been waiting on that for a number of months. She definitely has an opportunity to put something on the table to have a conversation. But you can’t negotiate against yourself.”

The compromise endorsed by the three major caucuses would ask Chicago voters in the 2022 primary to approve a binding referendum empowering a civilian police oversight commission to hire and fire the police superintendent, negotiate police contracts and set CPD’s budget.

Lightfoot would lose the power to hire and fire the police superintendent. Her Law Department and hand-picked negotiators would lose the power to negotiate police contracts.

And Lightfoot and aldermen would lose their power to establish the CPD budget. That power would be held by an 11-member civilian oversight commission — nine elected, two appointed by the mayor.

Even if voters reject the binding referendum, the 11-member commission would have final say in disputes over police policy unless two-thirds of the Council decides otherwise. The commission also would be empowered to take a vote of no-confidence in the superintendent and hire and fire the chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

Lightfoot has said she “wears the jacket” for Chicago violence and she’s not about to “outsource” control of the Chicago Police Department to a civilian police oversight commission.

The support of that compromise from three major caucuses could set the stage for Lightfoot’s first City Council defeat.

But, Taliaferro said: “If the mayor proposes an ordinance, it certainly would put everything else up in the air. Remember, most of our caucuses do not vote in bloc whenever a vote is taken. Even though the caucus may support it, you may not have the individual vote of every single member.”

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NEW YORK — More than a year after coronavirus shutdowns sent “the city that never sleeps” into a fitful slumber, New York could be wide awake again this summer.

Starting Wednesday, vaccinated New Yorkers could shed their masks in most situations, and restaurants, stores, gyms and many other businesses could go back to full capacity if they ascertain that all patrons have been inoculated.

Subways resumed running round-the-clock this week. Midnight curfews for bars and restaurants will be gone by month’s end. Broadway tickets are on sale again, though the curtain won’t rise on any shows until September.

Officials say now is New York’s moment to shake off the image of a city brought to its knees by the virus last spring — a recovery poignantly rendered on the latest cover of The New Yorker magazine. It shows a giant door part-open to the city skyline, letting in a ray of light.

Is the Big Apple back to its old, brash self?

“Maybe 75%. … It’s definitely coming back to life,” said Mark Kumar, 24, a personal trainer.

But Ameen Deen, 63, said: “A full sense of normalcy is not going to come any time soon. There’s far too many deaths. There’s too much suffering. There’s too much inequality.”

Last spring, the biggest city in America was also the nation’s deadliest coronavirus hotspot, the site of over 21,000 deaths in just two months. Black and Hispanic patients have died at markedly higher rates than whites and Asian Americans.

Hospitals overflowed with patients and corpses. Refrigerated trailers served as temporary morgues, and tents were set up in Central Park as a COVID-19 ward. New York’s hectic streets fell quiet, save for ambulance sirens and nightly bursts of cheering from apartment windows for health care workers.

After a year of ebbs, surges, reopenings and closings, the city hopes vaccinations are turning the tide for good. About 48% of residents have had at least one dose so far. Deaths have amounted to about two dozen a day in recent weeks, and new cases and hospitalizations have plummeted from a wintertime wave.

Large swaths of the country and world are also moving toward normal after a crisis blamed for 3.4 million deaths globally, including more than 587,000 in the U.S.

Las Vegas casinos are returning to 100% capacity and no social distancing requirements. Disneyland in California opened up late last month after being shuttered for more than 400 days. Massachusetts this week announced that all virus restrictions will expire Memorial Day weekend.

Summer music festivals like Lollapalooza are back on, the Indy 500 is bracing for more than 100,000 fans, and the federal government says fully vaccinated adults no longer need to wear masks.

France opened back up on Wednesday as well, with the Eiffel Tower, Parisian cafes and cinemas and the Louvre bringing back visitors for the first time in months.

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared it the “summer of New York City.”

As the mask requirement eased statewide Wednesday, businesses grappled with enforcing different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Fitness studio chain SLT planned to start checking vaccine cards Thursday to determine who could work out unmasked.

Still, founder Amanda Freeman applauded the change — “The only complicated part of this is that it’s complicated,” she said.

Some people bared their faces on the city’s streets, while others still wore masks.

City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams urged people to keep masking up, at least indoors.

“We don’t want to put people who haven’t yet received the vaccine in a position where they could become stigmatized or pressured for not wearing a mask,” he said.

There are other signs New York is regaining its bustle. Some 80,000 city employees returned to their offices at least part time this month; others already were working in person.

Subway and commuter rail ridership is averaging about 40% of normal after plunging to 10% last spring, when the subway system began closing for several hours overnight for the first time in its more than 115-year history.

Shakeem Brown, an artist and delivery person who works late in Manhattan, spent up to three hours a night commuting back to his Queens apartment before 24/7 service resumed Monday. Brown, 26, said it’s “refreshing” to see things opening up.

At e’s Bar on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, “we feel the energy” of social life ramping up, co-owner Erin Bellard said. “People are so excited to be out.”

Still, receipts at the bar and grill have been down about 35% because of pandemic restrictions on hours and capacity, she said. The impending end of the midnight curfew will give the bar two more crucial hours, and the owners are considering whether to regain full capacity by requiring vaccinations.

From other vantage points, “normal” looks farther off.

The sidewalks and skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan, for instance, are still noticeably empty. Big corporate employers largely aren’t looking to bring more workers back until fall, and only if they feel it’s safe, said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a major employers group.

“Shutting down was easy. Reopening is hard,” Wylde said. “All the employers say that there still is fear and some resistance to coming back.”

Besides virus fears, companies and workers are wondering about safety, she said.

Crime in the city has become a growing source of concern, but it’s a complicated picture. Murders, shootings, felony assaults and auto thefts rose in the first four months of this year compared with the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, but robberies and grand larcenies fell. So did crime in the transit system, probably because of the drop in ridership.

Brandon Goldgrub returned to his midtown office in July, but just in the last few weeks, he has noticed the sidewalks seem a bit crowded again.

“Now I feel it’s a lot more normal,” said Goldgrub, 30, a property manager.

Visiting from Tallahassee, Florida, Jessica Souva looked around midtown and felt hopeful about the city where she used to live.

“All we heard, elsewhere in the country, was that New York was a ghost town, and this doesn’t feel like that,” said Souva, 47. “It feels like a city in transition.”

___

Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.

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RIGBY, Idaho — When a student opened fire at an Idaho middle school, teacher Krista Gneiting directed children to safety, rushed to help a wounded victim and then calmly disarmed the sixth-grade shooter, hugging and consoling the girl until police arrived.

Parents credited the math teacher’s display of compassion with saving lives. While two students and the school custodian were shot May 6, all three survived, and the gunfire was over within minutes. Gneiting’s family says bravery and empathy are just part of who she is.

In an interview with ABC News that aired Wednesday, Gneiting said she was preparing her Rigby Middle School students for their final exams when she heard the first gunshot down the hall. She looked outside her classroom and saw the custodian lying on the floor. She heard two more shots as she closed the door.

“So I just told my students, ‘We are going to leave, we’re going to run to the high school, you’re going to run hard, you’re not going to look back and now is the time to get up and go,'” Gneiting said in the interview shown on “Good Morning America.”

Police said a sixth-grade girl brought the handgun in her backpack and shot two people inside the school and one outside. All three were wounded in their limbs and released from the hospital within a few days.

Gneiting said she was trying to help one of the students who had been shot when she saw the girl holding the gun. She told the wounded student to stay still and approached the sixth-grader.

“It was a little girl, and my brain couldn’t quite grasp that,” she said. “I just knew when I saw that gun, I had to get the gun.”

She asked the girl, “Are you the shooter?” and then walked closer, putting her hand on the child’s arm and sliding it down to the gun.

“I just slowly pulled the gun out of her hand, and she allowed me to. She didn’t give it to me, but she didn’t fight,” Gneiting said. “And then after I got the gun, I just pulled her into a hug because I thought, this little girl has a mom somewhere that doesn’t realize she’s having a breakdown and she’s hurting people.”

Gneiting held the girl, consoling her until police arrived.

“After a while, the girl started talking to me, and I could tell she was very unhappy,” Gneiting said. “I just kept hugging her and loving her and trying to let her know that we’re going to get through this together. I do believe that my being there helped her because she calmed down.”

Once police got there, Gneiting told the girl that an officer would need to put her in handcuffs, and the child complied.

“She didn’t respond, she just let him. He was very gentle and very kind, and he just went ahead and took her and put her in the police car,” she said.

The girl has been charged in the shooting, but because juvenile court proceedings are kept sealed in Idaho, neither her name nor the nature of the charges has been released.

Gneiting’s brother-in-law, Layne Gneiting, said that when he first heard about the shooting, he thought Krista Gneiting’s inner “mother bear” had sprung into action to protect the students. He soon realized it was another side of her strong parental instinct.

“Krista is a born mother,” Layne Gneiting wrote in a Facebook post shortly after the shooting. “Mess with her kids she’ll rip you apart. Need a hug she’ll hold you for hours, mingling her tears with yours … Determination pushed her to act, but tenderness and motherly love — not force — lifted the gun from the girl’s hands to hers.”

Krista Gneiting, meanwhile, said she hopes people can forgive the girl and help her get the support she needs.

“She is just barely starting in life and she just needs some help. Everybody makes mistakes,” she told ABC News. “I think we need to make sure we get her help and get her back into where she loves herself so that she can function in society.”

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A 75-year-old felon previously convicted of two 1970s murders has been charged with killing a man outside an assisted living facility in East Garfield Park earlier this week.

Why Bernard Barry shot 42-year-old Tyran Evans on Monday was not immediately clear, Cook County prosecutors said.

But an assistant public defender pointed out in court Wednesday that “this may be a self-defense situation.”

Barry was sitting in the driver’s seat of a parked car with another person outside the facility where he used to live in the 300 block of North California Avenue when Evans approached on a bicycle around 3 p.m. and told Barry to “get out,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.

As Evans swung his fist at Barry, Barry fired his handgun, striking Evans once in the arm, Murphy said. The bullet pierced through Evans’ arm and into the right side of his body.

When Evans fell to the ground, Barry got out of the car, moved Evans’ bike to the rear of the car and began to drive away, Murphy said. Barry then halted briefly, allowing his passenger to exit the vehicle. He then allegedly drove off.

An employee at the assisted living facility heard the shots and called 911, prosecutors said. The worker saw Evans on the ground and Barry in the car, recognizing him as a former resident, Murphy said.

Evans later died at Stroger Hospital.

Chicago police

Barry allegedly got rid of the murder weapon and was taken into custody by a SWAT team at his home shortly after. Three spent cartridge casings were recovered from Barry’s car, Murphy said.

Barry told detectives conflicting accounts of what happened, but indicated at one point that Evans was trying to carjack him, Murphy said.

Judge Arthur Wesley Willis said he took the possible self-defense argument into account, but noted that Barry never called 911 and fled from the scene.

“Had he done so, this court would be thinking completely differently,” Willis said before ordering Barry held without bail.

Barry was sentenced to eight years in prison after he was convicted of murder in 1970, Murphy said.

According to news reports at the time, a man with the same name as Barry was convicted in the death of Chicago Police Officer Erwin Jackson. Jackson, 33, was accidentally shot by his partner during a scuffle with Barry at a West Side bar while the officers tried to disarm him in 1969, reports said.

Barry was convicted in another murder in 1975 and sentenced to 90 years in prison, Murphy said.

News reports said a man that shared Barry’s name and age was initially charged with two murders in the mid 70s and that Chicago police said he was a suspect in two additional murders.

Those articles also noted that Barry was sentenced to a year in prison for shooting the helmet off the head of a Chicago police officer in 1968 during “racial disturbances.”

A spokeswoman for state’s attorney’s office did not have additional information about Barry’s decades-old murder convictions and could not confirm the information in the news reports.

Murphy said Barry was discharged from parole last August for a 2005 conviction for aggravated discharge of a firearm.

Barry, a construction worker, suffers from emphysema and had part of his lung removed as a result, his assistant public defender said. The senior citizen has a son but is estranged from him, the defense attorney added.

Evans was scheduled to stand trial in July on attempted murder and aggravated battery charges.

Chicago police would not release details for the 2019 case. But Evans’ attorney Dawn Projansky told the Chicago Sun-Times that an intoxicated person had attacked Evans while he was in a car with his significant other.

“I felt we were going to win that case,” Projansky said. “He was defending himself and others.”

Projansky didn’t believe Evans’ murder was related to his pending case.

“Not even remotely,” she said.

Barry is expected back in court June 9.

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