For years, the Printers Row Lit Fest has made a temporary home of South Dearborn Street, snugly tucked between between Polk and Ida B. Wells. Local writer and publisher Mallory Smart […]

Amiri Baraka was still LeRoi Jones when he wrote Dutchman in 1964. The play, now being staged by Trap Door Theatre, is an early dialogue on race, class and power. […]

This is the third in our series of articles on The Art of Survival, in which we explore how small Chicago arts organizations are surviving post-COVID and weathering the anti-humanist and anti-diversit...

The Design Museum of Chicago has reached back into design history for a landmark advertising campaign developed by a Chicago corporation; the curators have recreated it as a modern-day exhibit […]

By Third Coast Review Staff iO Theater’s second annual iO Fest closed Sunday after 100-plus comedy acts performed over the four-day event. The fest featured homegrown Chicago talent and nationally […]

Chicago’s rich improv tradition takes center stage next week as iO Fest 2025 returns July 24-27 to the iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury St., filling four days with comedic performances, […]

"The genres allowed me to empower LGBTQIA+ characters in different ways. A gay vampire has power over the world other gay people don’t."

Ulysses. The book Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company published in Paris in 1922. The book that was banned in the US and the UK. The book people either love or […]

“It is impossible to believe the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure, classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal and a piece of scarlet serge draped […]

Nonetheless, if the reader is willing to spend the time, energy, and discernment, the book offers striking insights about Lincoln.

“The importance is to be a community resource and a community third space,” Mayer continued, also indicating the store's location—not far from the University of Chicago's main quad...

Here we find Black Chicagoans at work or play, struggling or succeeding, and sadly experiencing familiar problems and obstacles brought in by prejudice, inequality, and discrimination. Most of Brown’s...

Throughout human history, children grew up watching plants grow and become food. They helped plant seeds. They helped tend the field or orchard. They helped harvest the rice or the apples or the potatoes.

It’s a serious book for serious readers, mainly scholars studying the history of the railroad, the history of humanity over the past two centuries and the ways people and the railroad have intersected...

Gayle and Michael Brandeis sought to provide the North Shore with just such a space through their Highland Park store, Secret World Books (1774 2nd Street, Highland Park).

After Independent Bookstore Day, the literary celebration continues: add these free author events and readings to your May to-do list.

The title of Jake Johnson’s latest book—Unstaged Grief: Musicals and Mourning in Midcentury America—is more than a bit jarring. It’s that part about “Musicals and Mourning” that seems so odd. […]

We’re in that miraculous false spring season so let’s take advantage of the warmer temps and brighter days! There’s so much coming up this weekend including all the fun concerts, […]

Wondering how to fight fascism funded by corporate greed? Simple. Don’t feed the beast. Withholding unnecessary spending is a powerful form of resistance against today’s robber barons, the American ol...

A Lie of the Mind, Sam Shepard’s 1983 play about two families and the tragedy that binds them, is a sizzling 2.5 hours of solid acting, direction and pacing. At […]

Thankfully, for those who can’t...sweet talk their way into Sullivan’s buildings, Cannon and Caulfield have created this bright and handsome book.

Chicago's literary scene heats up this month with The Poetry Brothel and more indoor readings and events for book lovers.

A self-made mystery woman, Maier remains mystifying, though Marks’ book inspires a few interesting thoughts on her, her hoarding, and society’s rapaciousness for dead, easily branded artists.

The State of Illinois has announced a contest to gather designs for a new state flag. Design submissions are due by October 18. This is a horrendously bad idea. Unless one of […]

The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification By Julian Montague Second edition, 2023, University of Chicago Press Julian Montague published his first edition of ...

Traces of Boots on Tongue and Other Stories, the first English-language translation of the late Indian writer Rajkamal Chaudhary's work, searches for meaning in an absurd and changing world.

As I am prone to do every year, I separate documentaries into their own Best of the Year list, not because I feel they should be judged any differently than […]

It’s the last Friday of a pretty great year for film, so it’s time to reveal my Best of the Year list. As always, I was able to squeeze in […]

This review and the final dialog are written by theater critics Nancy Bishop and Kim Campbell.  POTUS is ostensibly a play about the President of the United States, in which […]

“Where do we go from here? Can we imagine a better world? Or is it time to burn it all down and start over?” That’s part of the opening speech […]