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Newly obtained police reports link the Glock handgun Jason Nightengale used in his Jan. 9 rampage to five other shootings on the South Side between 2009 and 2016.

The .45-caliber Glock pistol Jason Nightengale used in a January killing spree that began on the South Side and ended in Evanston was likely used in five prior shootings in Chicago dating to 2009, according to police reports obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Nightengale, 32, killed five people, including a University of Chicago student in an East Hyde Park parking garage, a doorwoman of a nearby condo building, a convenience-store worker on the South Side, a woman he took hostage at an IHOP restaurant in Evanston and a 15-year-old girl, Damia Smith, who fought for her life for more than three weeks at Comer Children’s Hospital before she died.

About four hours after the Jan. 9 rampage began, Evanston officers killed Nightengale — who also wounded two other people — in a shootout outside a Dollar General store there.

Chicago police reports provide new details about the gun authorities say Nightengale used as well as about his bizarre interactions with his victims.

Nightengale, a father of twin girls, listed jobs over the years as a janitor, security guard, taxi driver and forklift operator, according to his LinkedIn page.

He “was fighting some demons,” his family has said. During the week before the shootings, he posted videos online, ranting about Satan, waving a gun and talking about wanting to kill people.

Chicago police arrest photo

Police haven’t said anything about a motive for the killings, which appeared to be random.

Officers collected bullet casings from the crime scenes along with the Glock 21 pistol he was carrying when he was killed. The Chicago Police Department crime lab test-fired the gun, compared the markings on those casings to those found at the crime scenes and found they matched.

The lab also found that the gun appeared to be linked to bullet casings found at five other shootings on the South Side between 2009 and 2016.

According to the police reports and news accounts, those five shootings included:

• A 16-year-old boy who “heard shots and felt pain” and realized he was shot at 7:55 p.m. June 2, 2009, in the 7400 block of South Colfax Avenue . The case was closed without an arrest after the teenage victim refused to cooperate.
• A person wounded on a sidewalk at 11 p.m. Dec. 23, 2009, in the 7800 block of South Ridgeland Avenue. The investigation was suspended without an arrest.
• A 31-year-old man wounded in the ankle and mouth at 10:52 p.m. Aug. 8, 2011, on the street in the 7800 block of South Cregier Avenue. This investigation also was suspended without an arrest.
• A 24-year-old man wounded in the head by someone shooting from an alley at 3:45 p.m. July 24, 2014, in a yard in the 8000 block of South Manistee Avenue. The investigation remains open.
• A person wounded on a sidewalk at 3:25 a.m. Oct. 30, 2016 in the 12300 block of South Emerald Avenue. The case was closed without an arrest because the victim wouldn’t cooperate.

Police also found a shell casing in the 0-100 block of East 120th Place that was linked to the Glock, but there wasn’t a report of a crime there.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the history of the gun and learned it was bought in 2006 at Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale. A police source said the owner of the gun had reported it stolen.

It’s unclear from the detectives’ reports when or how Nightengale obtained the gun, and they haven’t said whether they think he was involved in any of the earlier shootings.

The detectives’ reports also detail some of Nightengale’s erratic behavior that day.

After he killed 30-year-old University of Chicago graduate student Yiran Fan, who was sitting in a car in a parking garage in the 5000 block of South East End Avenue, Nightengale entered an apartment building a block away.

Aisha Nevell, who was staffing the door, let Nightengale in after he said he needed to use a phone because he’d been in an accident. Nightengale took off his right glove, pulled out the gun and killed the 46-year-old woman. He also wounded a 77-year-old woman, shooting her in the mouth.

Then, he went to the 5500 block of South East End, where it’s believed some of his relatives once lived, and got on an elevator with a 74-year-old man he knew, police said. When they exited on the floor where the man lived, Nightengale announced, “This is a holdup. Keep walking,” and followed him to his apartment.

In the kitchen, Nightengale set down the bottle of Arizona Iced Tea he was holding, a pack of Newport cigarettes and a pair of black The North Face gloves. He asked for and got a glass of water, then took $37 and the key fob to the man’s red Toyota hatchback, which he drove during the rest of his spree.

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Gas shortages at the pumps have spread from the South, all but emptying stations in Washington, D.C., following a ransomware cyberattack that forced a shutdown of the nation’s largest gasoline pipeline. Though the pipeline operator paid a ransom, restoring service was taking time.

As Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline reported making “substantial progress” in restoring full service, two people briefed on the matter confirmed that the company had paid the criminals a ransom of about $5 million in cryptocurrency for the software decryption key required to unscramble their data network. The people spoke on condition they not be further identified because they were not authorized to divulge the information. Bloomberg first reported the payment.

President Joe Biden, when asked by a reporter on Thursday if he had been briefed about the ransom payment, said “I have no comment on that.”

Biden also said that his administration will try to disrupt the hackers’ ability to operate.

The tracking service GasBuddy.com on Friday showed that 88% of gas stations were out of fuel in the nation’s capital, 45% were out in Virginia and 39% of Maryland stations were dry. About 65% of stations were without gas in North Carolina, and nearly half were tapped out in Georgia and South Carolina.

Colonial said Thursday that operations had restarted and gasoline deliveries were being made in all of its markets, but it would take “several days” to return to normal, and some areas may experience “intermittent service interruptions during this start-up period.”

“Our current expectation based on the conversations between the company and experts at the Department of Energy is that the vast majority of markets and affected regions are receiving fuel at gas stations for consumers, and will continue to receive more fuel throughout the weekend and into early next week,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a Friday briefing. “Hence, getting us closer to return us back to normal.”

A gas station owner in Virginia said panic buying is the problem.

“It’s like a frenzy,” Barry Rieger, who owns a gas station in Burke, Virginia, told WJLA-TV.

In North Carolina, at least five school systems canceled in-person learning on Friday as the gasoline supply crisis continued. Wake County, with the largest school system in North Carolina, emailed parents citing “the impact of the gas shortage on staffing availability and student transportation.”

Businesses were also feeling the sting.

At Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Georgia, maintenance and safety vehicles have to be filled up, but “all the gas stations close to use — within a mile of us — are out of gas,” said Mia Green, the track’s general manager. She’s heard of racetracks that canceled this weekend’s races because crews might not be able to get there due to gas shortages.

Many authorities are warning of the dangers of hoarding gas.

In South Carolina, a woman was severely burned after flipping a car that a deputy tried to pull over for a suspected stolen license plate Thursday night. The fire touched off multiple explosions due to fuel “that she was hoarding in the trunk of the vehicle,” a Pickens County sheriff’s statement said.

In Florida, a 2004 Hummer was destroyed by fire Wednesday shortly after the driver had filled up four 5-gallon gas containers in Homosassa, according to Citrus County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Cortney Marsh. Firefighters doused the blaze and found the melted gas containers. One man was injured, but refused medical treatment, she said.

A cyberattack by hackers who lock up computer systems and demand a ransom to release them hit the pipeline on May 7. The hackers didn’t take control of the pipeline’s operations, but Colonial shut it down to prevent the malware from impacting its industrial control systems.

Biden said U.S. officials do not believe the Russian government was involved, but said “we do have strong reason to believe that the criminals who did the attack are living in Russia. That’s where it came from.”

Biden has promised aggressive action against DarkSide, the Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate responsible for the attack. The syndicate’s public-facing darknet site went offline on Thursday and its administrator said in a cybercriminal forum post that the group had lost access to it.

This does not necessarily mean U.S. or allied cyberjockeys knocked it offline. Cybersecurity experts said that DarkSide, which rents out its ransomware to partners to carry out the actual attacks, could have taken it down to prevent Western law enforcement from tracking down the rest of its infrastructure.

And just because DarkSide’s public-facing structure is offline doesn’t mean its backend operations have been impacted, said Alex Holden, the founder of Hold Security, who closely monitors the cybercriminal underground.

“DarkSide’s main servers are alive,” said analyst Yelisey Boguslavskiy of the cybersecurity firm Advanced Intelligence. While the servers are hidden, encrypted traffic to and from them is being monitored by threat hunters, he said.

DarkSide stole information from Colonial’s network prior to locking up the data on Friday. It’s not known how long the cybercriminals were inside the network. DarkSide is among the ransomware gangs that employ double extortion, threatening to dump online sensitive data they steal before activating the ransomware. In Colonial’s case, that could potentially include data on contracts with suppliers that would be of keen interest to stock and commodities traders.

DarkSide, in fact, recently offered to share data stolen from victims with inside traders.

It would not be surprising if DarkSide were to disappear, experts noted. Ransomware gangs have dissolved and ‘rebranded’ under different names in the past when the heat was on.

The Colonial Pipeline system stretches from Texas to New Jersey and delivers about 45% of the gasoline consumed on the East Coast.

“We are not out of the woods yet, but the trees are thinning out,” Richard Joswick, global head of oil analytics at S&P Global Platts, said.

Gas stations should be back to normal next week if the pipeline restart goes as planned and consumers are convinced they no longer need to panic-buy fuel, Joswick said. Full recovery would take several more weeks, he estimated.

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Bajak reported from Boston, Martin from Marietta, Ga., and Merchant in Washington. Freida Frisaro in Miami also contributed.

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Spring Awakening, the largest all-electronic music festival in the Midwest that usually takes place in early June, is shifting to the fall.

Rechristening itself “Autumn Equinox,” the 2021 version is scheduled for Oct. 2-3. The event will shift back from the suburbs to Addams/Medill Park, 1301 W. 14^th St., where the event was held from 2016-18.

On Friday, organizers announced the festival lineup. Martin Garrix, Excision, Diplo, Galantis, RL Grime b2b Baauer will headline and 70 artists are slated to perform on four stages at the festival.

“We are thrilled to bring an eclectic mix of artists together this October in Chicago and celebrate the return of live music while showcasing new stage designs, art installations, and so much more,” said Brian Griffin, Director of React Presents.

Also booked to appear: Additional talent slated to perform include AC Slater, Adventure Club, Atliens, Baynk, Bear Grillz, Chris Lorenzo, Dillon Francis, Dion Timmer, Doctor Pb2b Funtcase, Don Diablo, HulkGang: 4B b2b Valentino Khan, Kaivon, Kayzo, Kill Feed, LP Giobbi, Madeon, Marauda, Masteria, Matoma, Midnight Kids, MitiS, MK, Petey Clicks b2b Tombz, Qlank b2b Nostalgix, Said The Sky, Sam Feldt, Showtek, SNBRN, SidePiece, Taiki Nulight b2b Shift K3y, Two Friends, Tygapaw, Vicetone, Wenzday, Westend, Wreckno and Zomboy. Organizers say more names will be announced.

Two-day passes start at $169, with tickets on sale at springawakeningfestival.com.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Charles Avery had barely started marching when police arrested him, forced him into a police vehicle and took him to jail for participating in landmark civil rights protests that helped change the nation in 1963. He spent days in custody and then lived decades haunted by a conviction for the most innocuous of offenses — parading without a permit — that he saw as noble yet others questioned with suspicion.

“I had to explain what it was, that it was from Birmingham,” said Avery, 76. “It always came up.”

Yet Avery said he’d do it again all these years later, and he has a message for the thousands of demonstrators who have been arrested nationwide during the months-long uprising over police violence and racism: Keep going. A lifelong mark in the name of justice is worth the trouble.

Veterans of the campaign that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. helped lead to eradicate racial segregation in Birmingham nearly 60 years ago remain firmly in the corner of racial justice now that they’re old and gray, with some joining in protests that followed George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police last year and others watching at home on TV.

Nonviolence was King’s way, and some are put off by scenes of burning buildings and rioting that accompanied some protests, including one in Birmingham. But foot soldiers who first advocated for the idea that Black lives matter decades ago now support the movement of the same name; The Associated Press interviewed some of them ahead of an online commemoration of the ’63 Children’s Crusade protests held Friday that focused on challenges facing young people today.

The Rev. Jonathan McPherson was walking just a few feet behind King when both were arrested in downtown Birmingham. He spent a night in jail and sees his conviction for illegal parading as a badge of honor.

“It was worth it, every bit of it. I’ve even told my wife I can’t move like I used to but I’ll be glad to join those young people today in these protests that we have,” said McPherson, 87. He once served as a bodyguard for King and other movement leaders in Birmingham, which came to be known as “Bombingham” for the frequency of attacks on Black churches, homes and leaders.

Arrested the same day as McPherson, Myrna Jackson recently had a stroke and spends most of her time at home. But she stays up to date on the Black Lives Matter movement and mourns every time someone else dies at the hands of law enforcement.

“People are fed up. A lot of times these things are happening so close together it doesn’t give you breathing room,” she said.

More than 10,000 people were arrested nationwide last year during protests for offenses including curfew violations and failure to disperse; hundreds also were were arrested on burglary and looting charges. Protesters often were restrained in plastic zip-ties and taken away in buses, and many times charges were dropped.

Demonstrations continued recently in places including Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, where Daunte Wright was fatally shot by police, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where deputies fatally shot Andrew Brown Jr. Both Wright and Brown were Black men, and both died last month.

In Birmingham, local activists including the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth had been confronting racism and legalized segregation of schools, businesses and public accommodations for years by the time King’s Southern Christian Leadership Campaign launched the “Birmingham Campaign” in the spring of ’63 with weeks of marches, selective buying campaigns and pickets.

More than 1,600 demonstrators, many of them Black students from area schools, were arrested from March through May, city records show, and authorities used police dogs and firehoses to break up marches. Scenes of the mayhem, broadcast on black-and-white TVs worldwide, and a racist church bombing that killed four Black girls in Birmingham months later helped build support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The youngest protesters that year included Paulette Roby, who was arrested as a 13-year-old girl. She didn’t face charges and now chairs the Civil Rights Activist Committee, which documents the stories of participants and tells their stories in tours, workshops and seminars that help tie the past together with demonstrations today.

“I didn’t realize that things I did at 13 would still be important now,” said Roby, 71.

Older teens and adults often were charged with parading without a permit. While some went to city court, others say they never did and wound up with misdemeanor convictions on their record despite never having a chance to defend themselves.

Then-Mayor Larry Langford issued a blanket pardon for the convicted protesters in 2009, and many including Avery accepted. While serving both in the Army in Vietnam and later in the civilian workforce, Avery said he’d been singled out for scrutiny because of the conviction and forced to explain his record for years.

Avery, who served as senior class president at Hooper City High School and led fellow students to the demonstration that day in 1963, was allowed to graduate but never received his diploma, which he said the principal refused out of fear of appearing to endorse the protests. Just 18 at the time, Avery soon relocated to Chicago because his mother feared for his safety in Birmingham.

Attending a rally last year in a park near where he was arrested in 1963, Avery was happy to see nearly as many white people and Hispanic people as Black people demonstrating on behalf of racial justice. “I thought, ‘This is what it’s about, bringing people together,”‘ he said.

McPherson was among dozens of demonstrators who refused a pardon to wipe away a 1963 conviction. A minister for more than 50 years, he said the case never presented a problem, and it’s something he remains proud of decades later.

“The only time I have been in jail was when I went to jail with Martin Luther King on Good Friday, 1963,” he said. “So I don’t mind anybody seeing that if they want to see it anywhere.”

Years from now, he said, perhaps today’s demonstrators facing arrest and convictions will look back on their experiences similarly.

“As long as you know what you are doing is right and is for a good cause, keep on keeping on. Keep on protesting because you’ll never get anything without some sacrifice being made,” said McPherson.

___

Reeves is a member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Jay_Reeves.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s capital city will pay a $10 million settlement for the family of Andre Hill, a Black man who was fatally shot by a white Columbus police officer in December as he emerged from a garage holding a cellphone, the Columbus city attorney announced Friday.

It’s the largest such settlement in city history.

Hill, 47, was fatally shot by officer Adam Coy on Dec. 22 as Hill emerged from a garage holding up a cellphone. Coy was fired and has pleaded not guilty to murder and reckless homicide charges.

“No amount of money will ever bring Andre Hill back to his family, but we believe this is an important and necessary step in the right direction,” Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said in a statement.

As part of the settlement, a gym frequented by Hill will be renamed the Andre Hill Gymnasium.

Lawyers representing Hill’s family praised the settlement and the gym renaming, saying in a statement: “Now all those involved can begin to heal.”

Hill was visiting a family friend when he was shot. Coy and another officer had responded to a neighbor’s nonemergency complaint about someone stopping and starting a car outside.

“He was bringing me Christmas money. He didn’t do anything,” a woman inside the house shouted at police afterward.

The shooting was recorded by Coy’s body camera, but without sound because Coy hadn’t activated the camera on what started as a nonemergency call. A 60-second look-back function on the camera captured the shooting.

Coy, who had a long history of complaints from citizens, was fired Dec. 28 for failing to activate his body camera and for not providing medical aid to Hill. He was initially charged for dereliction of duty for not activating the camera, but those charges were dropped.

Coy’s attorneys successfully argued the officer didn’t violate any duty because he was on a nonemergency run that didn’t require the cameras to be activated.

Beyond an internal police investigation, the Ohio attorney general, the U.S. attorney for central Ohio and the FBI have begun their own probes into the shooting.

Following Hill’s death, Mayor Andrew Ginther forced out Police Chief Thomas Quinlan in January, saying he’d lost confidence in the chief’s ability to make needed changes to the department.

The city is narrowing a list of finalists for the new chief, with an announcement expected by month’s end. All candidates are external, with Ginther saying an outsider was needed to enact broad cultural changes in the department.

The department is under scrutiny for recent fatal shootings of Black people by white officers, including the death of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant on April 20. And earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the city to alter the way it responds to mass protests, saying officers ran “amok” during protests over racial injustice and police brutality last summer.

Ginther and other officials invited the Justice Department last month to review the agency for deficiencies and racial disparities in several areas.

The settlement announcement follows other large payouts in recent months by cities over the killing of Black people by white officers.

In March, the city of Minneapolis reached a $27 million settlement with the family of George Floyd ahead of the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former officer charged in Floyd’s death. Chauvin was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe and went motionless.

In September, the city of Louisville, Kentucky, agreed to pay Breonna Taylor’s family $12 million and reform police practices. Taylor was shot to death by officers acting on a no-knock warrant.

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If Annette Nance-Holt’s nomination by Mayor Lori Lightfoot is approved by the City Council, she would be the first woman to serve as fire commissioner in the department’s 162-year history.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot nominated Annette Nance-Holt — a Black woman — to lead the Chicago Fire Department.

If Nance-Holt’s nomination is approved by the City Council, she will be the first woman to serve as fire commissioner in the department’s 162-year history.

The 30-year CFD veteran was named acting fire commissioner after former Commissioner Richard Ford II retired in April.

“…In a time where more work remains in order to eliminate discrimination, racism and sexism from the firefighter profession, Commissioner Holt’s history-making appointment as the first woman and Black woman to lead as Fire Commissioner couldn’t have come at a better moment,” Lightfoot said in a statement.

Nance-Holt was named first deputy commissioner by Ford in 2018, making her the first woman to hold the department’s number two spot.

Nance-Holt, in a statement, said the department “must have membership and leadership that mirrors the communities it serves every day.”

“As a child, I never laid eyes on either a female firefighter or a firefighter of color,” Nance-Holt’s statement reads in part. “There were no role models who looked like me, and so I never thought that becoming a firefighter, which was my dream, would be a possibility for me. As Fire Commissioner, I intend to show the next generation of young black women that they too can achieve any and everything they set their minds and hearts to.”

Along with her long career in the CFD, Nance-Holt is also the founder of two nonprofits, Purpose Over Pain and the Blair Holt Scholarship Foundation, which focus on gun violence.

The second nonprofit is named for her son, a 16-year-old honor student at Julian High School, who was shot to death on his way home from school by a reputed gang member in 2007.

Once Nance-Holt formally takes helm of the CFD, she will have a host of matters to address.

Last month, an audit by the city’s inspector general revealed that 73 out of 285 male and female CFD members reported they experienced sexual harassment “at least once.”

Even more troubling is the rate of sexual harassment among women in the department. Of the 45 women who answered survey questions, 28 of them — or 62% — reported they were sexually harassed on the job.

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Improving coronavirus numbers have made more summer events possible. Here’s the latest updates on this year’s changing entertainment landscape.

With coronavirus case numbers and positivity rates on the decline, the summer festival season in Chicago is in much better shape than last year.

The city has given the green light for festivals and “general admission outdoor spectator events” to welcome 15 people for every 1,000 square feet.

The city has debated various ways bolster vaccination rates among young people most likely to attend outdoor music events like Lollapalooza and Riot Fest. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said a proposal to create a coronavirus vaccine passport for Chicago events is “very much a work in progress” but that preferred seating at those events could be one way to urge vaccination.

Some festivals have already announced their return and concerts are starting to be rescheduled.

We’re tracking the status of the city’s festival and major events throughout the area as new cancellations and postponements are announced. Check back for more updates.

May

• Navy Pier Fireworks: The Pier is hosting a 10-minute fireworks show every Saturday in May at 9:00 p.m.
• Manifest Urban Arts Festival: Columbia College Chicago’s student driven event that showcases graduating student work. May 10-14.
• For the Love of Chocolate: Long Grove, demonstrations, classes, presentations, experiences, vendors, chocolatiers, entertainment and so much more. Advanced online registration is required, May 14-16.
• Hot Stove Cool Music virtual music festival, benefits the Foundation To Be Named Later, which was co-founded by former Cubs president Theo Epstein. Eddie Vedder headlines. May 18.
• Mayfest: Armitage Ave. at Sheffield Ave. in Lincoln Park, May 21 – 23.
• Pivot Arts Festival: Reimagining Utopia – A Performance Tour: Live, a multi-arts experience featuring world premieres in theatre, dance, video, music and puppetry. May 21 – June 5.
• The South Side Jazz Coalition – Jazzin’ On The Steps. At St. Columbanus Catholic Church, 331 East 71st St. May 23.
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts at Symphony Center, beginning May 27. Tickets will go on sale 10 a.m. May 11, at cso.org. Performances will take place over three consecutive weekends at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 1:30 p.m. Fridays, 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays.

June

• “Tuesdays on the Terrace,” Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, starting June 1 and every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. through Aug. 31.
• Old Town Art Fair, June 12-13.
• “The Obama Portraits,” Art Institute of Chicago, June 18 – Aug. 15.
• Pride in the Park, Grant Park, Headlining will be Chaka Khan, the legendary Queen of Funk; Gryffin, the self-taught prodigal producer; and Tiësto, who has been dubbed “the world’s greatest DJ.” June 26- 27.

July

• The Ravinia Festival announced it will reopen in July 1 for 64 concerts through Sept. 26 with a slate of outdoor concerts including a six-week residency by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Also slated to appear are: Cynthia Erivo, Kurt Elling, Brian McKnight, Ides of March, Madeleine Peyroux, Midori, Joshua Bell, Pinchas Zukerman, the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Joffrey Ballet.
• Ribfest: Naperville/Romeoville, July 1-4.
• Grant Park Music Festival, Millennium Park. All concerts are free with reserved seats for all concertgoers and will take place Wednesday, Fridays and Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. Run time will be 90 minutes, without intermission. July 2-Aug. 21.
• African/Caribbean International Festival Of Life: Washington Park, July 2-4.
• The Windy City Smokeout, headlined by country music superstars Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley and Jon Pardi, will return July 8-11 outside the United Center.
• The Auditorium Theatre presents “ABT Across America” featuring American Ballet Theatre, Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, July 8.
• Southport Art Fair, Waveland Ave. and Southport Ave. July 10-11.
• The Chicago Loop Alliance announced plans for Sundays on State, a weekly summer street festival, which will close portions of State Street on Sundays for pedestrians starting July 11.
• Chicago Auto Show is on for July 15-19 — breathing life into McCormick Place for first time since pandemic began.
• “Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40,” Smart Museum of Art, July 15 – Dec. 19.
• Millennium Art Festival: Lake St. at Michigan Ave., July 16-18.
• Race to Mackinac: July 16-17.
• Chinatown Summer Fair, July 17-18.
• Belmont-Sheffield Music Fest: 3200 N. Sheffield Ave, July 17-18.
• Chicago Latin Jazz Festival, Humboldt Park boathouse, July 23-24.
• Lincoln Square Greek Fest: July 23-25 (tentative dates).
• “Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden: Shrouds by Faheem Majeed,” through July 24, Hyde Park Art Center.
• Lake County Fair: July 28- Aug. 1.
• Jeff Fest: Milwaukee and Lawrence Avenues, July 30-Aug. 1.
• Lollapalooza: Grant Park, July 30-Aug. 1.

August

• Dave Matthews Band tour heading to Northerly Island this summer, Aug. 6 and 7.
• Northalsted Market Days: Aug. 6-8.
• Printers Row Art Fair: Dearborn St., from Harrison to Polk, Aug. 7-8.
• Retro on Roscoe: Roscoe St. & Damen Ave., Aug 13-14 (tentative dates).
• Edison Park Fest: Aug. 13-15 (tentative dates).
• World Naked Bike Ride: 6 p.m. Aug. 16. Route to be announced.
• Ruido Fest: Addams/Medill Park, Pilsen. Aug. 20-22.
• Summer Smash: Douglass Park. Aug. 20-22.
• Taste Of Greektown: Aug. 20-22.
• Gold Coast Art Fair: Grant Park. Aug. 21-22.
• Sangria Festival: Humboldt Park, Aug. 20-21.
• Dragon Boat Races: Chinatown. Aug. 28.

September

• Summerfest: Milwaukee. The festival will take place over three weekends, Sept. 2-4, 9-11 and 16-18. More than 100 artists are slated to perform including Chance the Rapper, Miley Cyrus, Luke Bryan, Pixies, Rise Against, Wilco, Diplo, and Fitz and the Tantrums.
• Printers Row Lit Fest, Sept. 11-12. Headlining the festival will be National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates.
• Chicago Vegandale: Vegan Food Festival, Grant Park. Sept. 11.
• RiotFest: Douglass Park, Sept. 17-19.
• Dead & Company: Wrigley Field, Sept. 17-18
• Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk: Oak Park. Sept. 18.
• Artfest Michigan Ave.: Sept. 18-19.
• Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Sept. 25-26.
• Lyric Opera of Chicago 2021-22 season, opening night featuring an all-new production of Verdi’s Macbeth, Sept. 25.

October

• Chicago Wine Fest, at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Oct. 2.
• Spring Awakening/Autumn Equinox, Addams/Medill Park, Oct. 2-3.
• “Six,” Broadway In Chicago, at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, Oct. 5, 2021 – Jan. 30, 2022.
• Court Theatre – “Othello,” Court Theatre, opening Oct. 21.

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What holds “The Sound Inside” together is the urgency that the live feed gives it. Throughout, it rests on the undercurrent of tension that invariably accompanies live shows playing live and in real time.

There are some things the Goodman Theatre gets right with playwright Adam Rapp’s “The Sound Inside,” the first of three, streamed-live-from-the-theater productions planned for the aptly named “Live” series. But there are more things Rapp gets so wrong, that the drama starts to seem like a satire about emo English major undergrads and idiosyncratic professors who involve their students in their own dire health issues.

On the plus side: directed by Robert Falls, “The Sound Inside” is the closest I’ve come since the lockdown to feeling like I’m in a real theater with actual flesh-and-blood (as opposed to Zoomed) actors. That’s due, in part, to video director Christiana Tye. She gives the production a cinematic flair without compromising the sense of immediacy that’s embedded in live theater. In the close-ups, the vulnerability of tenured Yale English professor Bella (Mary Beth Fisher) and her troubled, enigmatic student Christopher (John Drea) is raw and unmistakable.

The wide shots create the sensation of that insular academic world swallowed within the vastness of a much murkier, larger one, both beautifully rendered by designers Jason Lynch (lighting), Richard Woodbury (original music and sound) and Paul Deziel (projection design).

Set designer Arnel Sancianco has reconfigured the Goodman’s smaller Owen theater to accommodate the minimalist but immersive set where Fisher and Drea deliver performances strong enough to render Rapp’s florid dialogue tolerable. “The Sound Inside” aspires toward elegiac, literary meditation on mortality but delivers mostly pretentious banalities.

Fisher’s Bella lights up like a sparkler when she’s discussing literature and dims when her world steps outside the boundaries of great novels. Fisher is a master at playing sardonic women with a brutally honest sense-of-self; When Bella describes herself as “four or five degrees beyond mediocre,” it’s with brutally pragmatic awareness.

Drea’s take on Christopher effectively veers from winsome and abashed to volatile and obsessed within the space of a few breaths. The intensity of the latter makes the character compelling, but the plot highly unlikely.

After his first emotional outburst, it’s difficult unto impossible to imagine any professor meeting with Christopher alone in their office. He shows up without an appointment and his vicious, largely unprovoked, outbursts (Twitter and baristas incur particular wrath) seem to skirt sociopathy, especially when he spits on the floor. His insistence that he doesn’t use email seems about as probable as a new Sylvia Plath novel rising from tomb of Honoré de Balzac. This is 21st century Yale, not some off-grid sect.

At one point, Christopher goes briefly catatonic. His eyes glaze over. He stops responding. Bella waves her hand in front of his face to no avail. Does she seek medical attention? No. She doesn’t seem particularly alarmed about being alone in her office with a student who spits, yells, talks about an uncle who had sex with a taxidermied pheasant, and goes abruptly, completely non-verbal.

Rapp’s attempt at having Bella and Christopher discuss literature wouldn’t be out of place in an English 101 survey course covering the likes of Dostoyevsky, James Salter, J.D. Salinger and Theodore Dreiser. But when Bella talks to Christopher about Sunday mornings defined by naked intertwined limbs, it feels one step removed from a Sidney Sheldon novel.

What holds “The Sound Inside” together is the urgency that the live feed gives it. Throughout, it rests on the undercurrent of tension that invariably accompanies live shows playing live and in real time.

Would that the material were on a par with the medium and the performances.

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After taking the year off for obvious and heartbreaking reasons, Lollapalooza has been approved to return to Grant Park this summer, according to an exclusive report by Variety.

The music festival, which attracts roughly 100,000 suburban high schoolers in basketball jerseys, has been earmarked for the weekend of July 29th to August 1st and rumors have it that the festival will be allowed to come back at “near-to or full capacity.” Two weeks ago I couldn’t sit at Fireplace Inn with more than six people and now we’re ready to bring back the biggest music fest in the midwest in less than three months? I’m not mad about it, but OK.

The Lollapalooza announcement comes on the heels of a few other Chicago summer staples also launching plans to return in Summer 2021. Chicago favorites such as Old Town Art Fair, Pride in the Park, Windy City Smokeout, The Chicago Auto Show, Hyde Park Jazz Fest, Printers Row Lit Fest, Market Days, Chinatown Summer Fair, and Southport Art Fair have all announced return dates, including capacity limits and augmentations to the festival experience.

Pitchfork Music Festival, which is regularly held in Union Park, is tentatively planned to come back September 10th through the 12th, per the Tribune. In addition, per Block Club Chicago, The Chicago Park District has placed and administrative reservation on Grant Park from July 14th through August 6th, aligning that with rumored festival dates and the two weeks needed to set up the festival.

The city has slowly started opening up. It seems that week by week we inch closer and closer to full normalcy. Just this week the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox announced they would be opening home games up to 60 percent capacity and the Cubs would experiment with a program that allowed fully vaccinated individuals to sit in the centerfield bleachers with no distancing limitations.

Of course now that the festival itself has been approved, a lineup is needed. And with that, speculation and rumor loves to run rampant. Organizers have hinted that a lineup could drop by the end of the month, but what fun is waiting. We at UrbanMatter are beyond excited to see Drake coincide his much anticipated release of Certified Lover Boy with Lollapalooza. Too much? Probably. But hey, that’s the game we’re in.

For more information, releases, and rumors, check back to this article for updates as they come through.

Featured Image Credit: Wikipedia

The post It’s Official, Lollapalooza is Approved for Summer 2021 appeared first on UrbanMatter.

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Improving coronavirus numbers have made more summer events possible. Here’s the latest updates on this year’s changing entertainment landscape.

With coronavirus case numbers and positivity rates on the decline, the summer festival season in Chicago is in much better shape than last year.

The city has given the green light for festivals and “general admission outdoor spectator events” to welcome 15 people for every 1,000 square feet.

The city has debated various ways bolster vaccination rates among young people most likely to attend outdoor music events like Lollapalooza and Riot Fest. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said a proposal to create a coronavirus vaccine passport for Chicago events is “very much a work in progress” but that preferred seating at those events could be one way to urge vaccination.

Some festivals have already announced their return and concerts are starting to be rescheduled.

We’re tracking the status of the city’s festival and major events throughout the area as new cancellations and postponements are announced. Check back for more updates.

May

• Navy Pier Fireworks: The Pier is hosting a 10-minute fireworks show every Saturday in May at 9:00 p.m.
• Manifest Urban Arts Festival: Columbia College Chicago’s student driven event that showcases graduating student work. May 10-14.
• For the Love of Chocolate: Long Grove, demonstrations, classes, presentations, experiences, vendors, chocolatiers, entertainment and so much more. Advanced online registration is required, May 14-16.
• Hot Stove Cool Music virtual music festival, benefits the Foundation To Be Named Later, which was co-founded by former Cubs president Theo Epstein. Eddie Vedder headlines. May 18.
• Mayfest: Armitage Ave. at Sheffield Ave. in Lincoln Park, May 21 – 23.
• Pivot Arts Festival: Reimagining Utopia – A Performance Tour: Live, a multi-arts experience featuring world premieres in theatre, dance, video, music and puppetry. May 21 – June 5.
• The South Side Jazz Coalition – Jazzin’ On The Steps. At St. Columbanus Catholic Church, 331 East 71st St. May 23.
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts at Symphony Center, beginning May 27. Tickets will go on sale 10 a.m. May 11, at cso.org. Performances will take place over three consecutive weekends at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 1:30 p.m. Fridays, 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays.

June

• “Tuesdays on the Terrace,” Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, starting June 1 and every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. through Aug. 31.
• Old Town Art Fair, June 12-13.
• “The Obama Portraits,” Art Institute of Chicago, June 18 – Aug. 15.
• Pride in the Park, Grant Park, Headlining will be Chaka Khan, the legendary Queen of Funk; Gryffin, the self-taught prodigal producer; and Tiësto, who has been dubbed “the world’s greatest DJ.” June 26- 27.

July

• The Ravinia Festival announced it will reopen in July 1 for 64 concerts through Sept. 26 with a slate of outdoor concerts including a six-week residency by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Also slated to appear are: Cynthia Erivo, Kurt Elling, Brian McKnight, Ides of March, Madeleine Peyroux, Midori, Joshua Bell, Pinchas Zukerman, the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Joffrey Ballet.
• Ribfest: Naperville/Romeoville, July 1-4.
• Grant Park Music Festival, Millennium Park. All concerts are free with reserved seats for all concertgoers and will take place Wednesday, Fridays and Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. Run time will be 90 minutes, without intermission. July 2-Aug. 21.
• African/Caribbean International Festival Of Life: Washington Park, July 2-4.
• The Windy City Smokeout, headlined by country music superstars Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley and Jon Pardi, will return July 8-11 outside the United Center.
• The Auditorium Theatre presents “ABT Across America” featuring American Ballet Theatre, Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, July 8.
• Southport Art Fair, Waveland Ave. and Southport Ave. July 10-11.
• The Chicago Loop Alliance announced plans for Sundays on State, a weekly summer street festival, which will close portions of State Street on Sundays for pedestrians starting July 11.
• Chicago Auto Show is on for July 15-19 — breathing life into McCormick Place for first time since pandemic began.
• “Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40,” Smart Museum of Art, July 15 – Dec. 19.
• Millennium Art Festival: Lake St. at Michigan Ave., July 16-18.
• Race to Mackinac: July 16-17.
• Chinatown Summer Fair, July 17-18.
• Belmont-Sheffield Music Fest: 3200 N. Sheffield Ave, July 17-18.
• Chicago Latin Jazz Festival, Humboldt Park boathouse, July 23-24.
• Lincoln Square Greek Fest: July 23-25 (tentative dates).
• “Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden: Shrouds by Faheem Majeed,” through July 24, Hyde Park Art Center.
• Lake County Fair: July 28- Aug. 1.
• Jeff Fest: Milwaukee and Lawrence Avenues, July 30-Aug. 1.
• Lollapalooza: Grant Park, July 30-Aug. 1.

August

• Dave Matthews Band tour heading to Northerly Island this summer, Aug. 6 and 7.
• Northalsted Market Days: Aug. 6-8.
• Printers Row Art Fair: Dearborn St., from Harrison to Polk, Aug. 7-8.
• Retro on Roscoe: Roscoe St. & Damen Ave., Aug 13-14 (tentative dates).
• Edison Park Fest: Aug. 13-15 (tentative dates).
• World Naked Bike Ride: 6 p.m. Aug. 16. Route to be announced.
• Ruido Fest: Addams/Medill Park, Pilsen. Aug. 20-22.
• Summer Smash: Douglass Park. Aug. 20-22.
• Taste Of Greektown: Aug. 20-22.
• Gold Coast Art Fair: Grant Park. Aug. 21-22.
• Sangria Festival: Humboldt Park, Aug. 20-21.
• Dragon Boat Races: Chinatown. Aug. 28.

September

• Summerfest: Milwaukee. The festival will take place over three weekends, Sept. 2-4, 9-11 and 16-18. More than 100 artists are slated to perform including Chance the Rapper, Miley Cyrus, Luke Bryan, Pixies, Rise Against, Wilco, Diplo, and Fitz and the Tantrums.
• Printers Row Lit Fest, Sept. 11-12. Headlining the festival will be National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates.
• Chicago Vegandale: Vegan Food Festival, Grant Park. Sept. 11.
• Dead & Company: Wrigley Field, Sept. 17-18
• Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk: Oak Park. Sept. 18.
• Artfest Michigan Ave.: Sept. 18-19.
• Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Sept. 25-26.
• Lyric Opera of Chicago 2021-22 season, opening night featuring an all-new production of Verdi’s Macbeth, Sept. 25.

October

• Chicago Wine Fest, at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Oct. 2.
• “Six,” Broadway In Chicago, at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, Oct. 5, 2021 – Jan. 30, 2022.
• Court Theatre – “Othello,” Court Theatre, opening Oct. 21.

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