Zahara Bassett fell on the floor of her best friend’s house exhausted from a long day of making $9 an hour and barely getting by. She was working as a housing monitor for TransLife Care at Chicago House, a transitional housing program for transgender people who have nowhere to stay or are reentering society. All […]
Category: Feature
Posted inCity Life
Chicago Reader’s Nonprofit Guide for 2023
Around this time of the year you’ll begin to hear the phrase “the giving season.” It’s the moment when donation-dependent organizations ramp up their campaigns in the hopes of being included in the gifting air that comes in on a wind of mailers, calls, and fundraisers. For the Nonprofit Issue, we thought it would be […]
Posted inFeature
The Reader’s 2023 Holiday Gift Guide
1 Chicago stepping lessons from award-winning south sider Shaun Ballentine of Effortless Stepping. —Salem Collo-Julin Open group lessons Wednesdays at 7 PM, Effortless Stepping Studio, 1850 E. 79th. $20 per person, 21+ only. For private lesson rates or information about having Ballentine do a stepping class at your event, message through Instagram or Facebook. 2 […]
Posted inCity Life
Surviving rat poisoning, as a rat
When a beloved family pet finds poison intended for rodent invaders, a handful of local exotic animal hospitals can help save them.
Posted inCity Life
Celebrating the drag makers and nightlife impresarios
Update as of 4:00 PM on Tuesday, September 26, 2023: Abhijeet’s name was previously misspelled in several places in this article and has since been corrected. And the Vanguard Awards were previously categorized as posthumously awarded; this is not entirely the case as several awards will be given to living people. The Reader regrets the […]
Posted inCity Life
First pitch: a journey through ceremony and baseball
I threw the worst pitch of my life on a Saturday afternoon in Gary, Indiana. My brain lagged behind my body as it went through the motions that should result in a clean throw; everything went sour once my torso began to twist in the direction of home plate and I became fully conscious of […]
Posted inFeature
Alex Nall’s comics are building a small-town world
Writers idealize themselves, spending hours at the computer, polishing their prose to make themselves sound better than they are. Cartoonists spend as much time, or more, to make themselves look, well, cartoonish. Lynda Barry erases her chin and hides her eyes behind opaque spectacles. Art Spiegelman turns himself into a neurotic mouse. In his self-portrait […]
Posted inFeature
NASCAR’s DuPage County connection
When Chicago’s NASCAR events take over downtown streets in July, people may either leave town to avoid the spectacle or stay and curiously catch sight of something never seen in the city. One person watching with great interest will be Fred Lorenzen, who will see the NASCAR events through the eyes of a guy who […]
Posted inCity Life
‘The prisoner is me’
Although her shop is closing its doors, the mark that Faith Phillips and Wish Me Luck Tattoo left on Chicago will always remain.
Posted inCity Life
Black high school lacrosse is here to stay
Black teenagers can view lacrosse as a healthy outlet and a new gateway to seek athletic or academic scholarships. It’s very understandable that Chicago wants to send a clear message that this sport is for everyone.
Posted inFeature
Ghosts, cryptids, and Chicago
When Jack Wagner was 15, he made a documentary about the haunting of Wheaton’s Grand Theatre. Built in 1925, the historic theater went through several identities over the decades (including an aughts-era punk venue where Wagner’s band played). When he showed up with his camera, the owner shut Wagner and his buddies in the empty […]
Posted inFood & Drink
M is for Mariano’s
Despite the popularity of the wine bar in Mariano’s locations across the city, nobody knows who Nob is or how the grocery store bar got its name. Regulars call it the M bar, for Mariano’s. And at the M bar, neighbors love to hang out and grab a drink—or three.
Posted inFeature
Getting sober and drawing rabbits
“Since I was a little kid, I’ve been drawing rabbits,” said Whitney Wasson. The Chicago-based comics artist and comedian said that rabbits are cute and easy to draw, which were two ideal qualities for their early childhood doodles. “[The drawing] could be terrible, but as long as you [make] long rabbit ears it reads as […]
Posted inFeature
A potato-themed speed dating venture
In the red-hued darkness of the California Clipper in Humboldt Park, a few dozen speed daters chattered on a damp Tuesday evening. Some arrived alone, others accompanied by friends or coworkers. They sat with name cards that got the basics out of the way: name, pronouns, sexuality. People lean in to hear over the noise […]
Posted inFeature
The year in photography
For the cover of our last print issue of 2022, we wanted to capture the spirit of the year, as we see it, in our own Reader way. We asked photographer Carolina Sanchez to see if she could find a street musician who was being ignored, a situation which many can relate to as the […]