Otro Ritmo, Jazz Fest, and more

Thursday night punk music at One City Tap (3115 S. Archer)? Must be Otro Ritmo! Rejoice in the frenzied guitars of Poison Boys, Liquids (a favorite of Reader senior writer Leor Galil), and Flying Heads. The show starts at 9 PM and wraps at midnight. Will it run on punk time? Who’s to say! For more information, check out Otro Ritmo on Instagram. (MC)

Chicago Jazz Festival kicks off today with performances at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington) and Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion (201 E. Randolph), continuing through Sunday with additional performances at Maxwell Street Market (800 E. Desplaines). All the shows are free and appropriate for all ages. It’s impossible to sum up all the great performers appearing this year, but you should certainly check out the Reader’s guide , which includes information on jazz performances at neighborhood venues around the city. (Most of those events are ticketed.) (KR)

Richard III is perhaps the most infamous villain in the Shakespearean canon (he seduces the widow of a man he killed over the dude’s casket fer crissakes!) But Babes With Blades’s latest production puts the spotlight on how disability and ableism figures into how Richard sees himself—and how others see him. As Reader freelancer Bridgette M. Redman discovered in writing about Richard III with the Babes (opening in previews tonight at 8 PM), casting actors with disabilities (Richard is played by an actor with partial blindness, while his nemesis, Queen Elizabeth, is played by a Deaf actor) lends texture and nuance to the story. The production, presented in collaboration with University of Illinois Chicago’s Disability Cultural Center, runs through 10/15 at the Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway; for information and tickets, visit babeswithblades.org. (KR)

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