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“I found god in myself and I loved her fiercely.” Director Seret Scott, who was part of the original Broadway cast, infuses the script with vitality, prescience, and universality by casting actors who are versatile enough to embody the broad range of perspectives in the script. This is a play for girls of all colors of the rainbow. Jubilant childhood patty-cake games like “Shortnin’ Bread” delightfully morph into stepping. Later we are treated to traditional African dance and a heartbreaking contemporary solo by Leah Casey, whose movement expresses the pain of strong women who hide behind a facade so that the world will accept them....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, July 19, 2016. Does Rahm’s O’Hare expansion plan mean more flights and fewer delays? There’s a major expansion and renovation plan in the works for O’Hare International Airport, which could mean significant improvements for travelers. New gates and an overhaul of Terminal 2 could result in more flight options and fewer delays, says USA Today, making O’Hare a much more attractive airport....

Last November I wrote about the latest album from Ahleuchastistas, the terrific North Carolina duo of guitarist Shane Parrish and drummer Ryan Oslance. Arrebato, the group’s eight full-length (and first for Chicago imprint International Anthem), represents a new creative peak for Ahleuchatistas, transcending their beginnings in tricky math rock and arriving at something much more open, expansive, and elastic. The Reader is proud to present the premiere of the video for the album’s closing track, “Erosion,” whose stuttering abstraction flirts with danger and violence but always pulls back before things truly go haywire....

It’s hard to talk to creative people these days without hearing about the plan B they’ve developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many performance venues are closed, so it’s hard to look for gigs, let alone find them. Rehearsing together without exceeding anyone’s tolerance for infection risk can be a challenge. And even if you have all the positive energy and face coverings you need, life might still force you to take a break you didn’t want....

ARTIST: Breanda Fedie SHOW: Vesper, Zigtebra, and Big Syn at the Empty Bottle on Tue 4/16 MORE INFO: instagram.com/gzhel

tie: Ryan Kelleher of Grassroots Collaborative Page May of Assata’s daughters Runner-Up: Black Lives Matter Chicago

Crown Tap Room 2821 N. Milwaukee 773-252-9741 There are hundreds of ways to get fall-over hammered at a local drinking establishment. And so many of them involve a fiery-eyed yahoo—someone you likely met that same night—demanding “Shots!” A staggered line of shot glasses on top of a well-worn bar isn’t as much a slippery slope as it is a death knell—and if you’re going down, you might as well have fun....

Urban Pooch Canine Life Center Jameson Loves Danger Finalists: Mick Stone, Salon Dog

O’Donovan’s State Restaurant

Early To Bed Runner-Up: Pleasure Chest

The Book of Mormon broadwayinchicago.com Runner-Up: Blackfish: The Musical

Sun-Times Media Chicago’s classical music community will gather at Orchestra Hall at 7 PM tonight at for a celebration of the life of critic, author, and broadcaster Andrew Patner. The public is invited.

Rachel Cassels Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Emmett Kelly has always been the sole constant of the Cairo Gang. He usually plays everything on the project’s recordings, but surrounds himself with a strong Chicago-based band for live shows—guitarist Sam Wagster, bassist Ryan Weinstein, and, lately, drummer Marc Riordan. Kelly (who might be best known as a crucial foil for Will Oldman’s Bonnie “Prince” Billy) has spent many years in Chicago, but he generally ends up returning to Los Angeles, where he was born and raised—indeed, that’s where he is now....

It’s been two years since writer-chef Hugh Amano and illustrator Sarah Becan’s Let’s Make Ramen! comic cookbook was published. Halfway through that period I can imagine what a gift it was to a certain sort of obsessive who didn’t pick up sourdough starters or cake making during the pandemic. What was the volume in terms of dumplings made and consumed during the process of researching and writing? I never considered tamales to be dumplings until now....

Rebecca Makkai

Pandemic-related venue shutdowns and tour cancellations have affected nearly everyone whose job revolves around music and nightlife, including the artists who create gig posters. When I talked to Screwball Press founder Steve Walters in January, he echoed a sentiment I’ve heard from many artists: 2020 was a nightmare. “I thought at first we’d be down for a few months and just weather it out,” Walters said, “but yeah, it’s going to be a while still....

On a chilly Sunday morning in mid-May, packs of leather-clad bikers descend on a field at the outskirts of the municipal airport in Baldwin, Michigan. From the hum of distant engines becoming a thunderous roar to the skull-print face masks and black balaclavas the motorcyclists wear to block the unseasonable cold—all of it evokes some portentous scene from Mad Max: Fury Road. But instead of a future desert wasteland, the setting is a drab midwestern winterscape....

If you like Shakespeare, well, 2016 is your year. From January 27 on, you’ll be able to attend a Bard-related event nearly every day if you so desire, courtesy of Chicago Shakespeare’s Shakespeare 400 Festival. Sayegh is most excited about the culinary complete works, for which 38 of the city’s leading chefs, including Rick Bayless and Alpana Singh, will pay tribute to each of Shakespeare’s plays through a dish or a meal inspired by a theme or a line....