Today through Saturday, the Pilsen-based ceramic studio Gnarware Workshop hosts the Empty Bowls Fundraiser and Soup Service. Visit their webstore to purchase an empty ceramic bowl made by a local artist. Proceeds go directly to local food pantries and Love Fridges to provide food in time for Thanksgiving. Prices start at $7, and all bowls are food-safe. Pick up your new dinnerware between noon and 3 PM on 11/12 at UIC’s Gallery 400 (400 S. Peoria). While you’re there, you can take your new bowl(s) for a test drive with free soup provided by chefs from Kimski, DönerMen, and the Abundance Setting, coordinated by Community Kitchen, a food service for in-need people organized by Public Media Institute. Alternative pick-up arrangements can be made for those who can’t make it Saturday. Sadly, there are no alternative arrangements for free soup. (MC)
Listen in: here are some concerts tonight with links to past coverage by our music writers:
Guitarist and frequent collaborator Reno Cruz opens for Smooth Rogers tonight at Golden Dagger, with local band M.E.H. also on the bill (8 PM, 2447 N. Halsted, $10, 21+, tickets at Ticketweb).
Jazz pianist Fred Hersch brings his trio to SPACE in Evanston tonight (8 PM, 1245 Chicago Ave., Evanston, $20, all-ages, tickets at Eventbrite).
Folk-rock band Devotchka play at City Winery this evening (8 PM, 1200 W. Randolph, $28-$42, all-ages, tickets at the venue’s website).
Califone performs tonight at Judson and Moore Distillery, with BCMC (Cooper Crain and Bill MacKay) opening (8 PM, 3057 N. Rockwell, Building Five, $25, 21+, tickets at Eventbrite).
With the holidays on the horizon, it’s important to remember our friends behind bars. Whether you’re putting together annual holiday cards or looking to spread a little extra cheer, send some mail to someone inside this season. For anyone who signs up, Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) will provide ten names and addresses of incarcerated sex workers in need of holiday cheer. The LGBTQ+ prison abolition project Black and Pink has great tips on corresponding with people in prison, and you can even sign up for a regular pen pal–or just someone to send a holiday card to. (MC)
Tonight at 8 PM, the First Nations Film and Video Festival wraps up its in-person events for the season with a screening of Once Upon a Time in Huasco Alto (Érase Una Vez en el Huasco Alto), a 2021 Chilean film directed by Polo Cortés and José Guerrero Urzua. The film is a mix of four stories that take place in northern Chile, informed by emotion, music, local identity, and myth. The screening is free to attend at Comfort Station (2579 N. Milwaukee), and more information about the festival is available at the their website. (SCJ)
