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Hannibal Buress hannibalburess.com Runner-Up: Tamale Sepp

Some people send flowers for Mother’s Day. But for onetime Chicago theatermaker Carlo Lorenzo García, his bouquet for his mom, María Guadalupe, takes the form of art. Based in Austin since 2016, García spent part of his time in COVID lockdown finally delving into the story of his mom’s harrowing childhood in Laredo, Texas, and her subsequent escape to Chicago. The result, a new digital solo show, A Portrait of My Mother, opens on Mother’s Day through Austin’s Jarrott Productions....

6:30 AM I sit in my car in the parking lot and psych myself up before shift. The uncertainty and chaos of the coming hours, the reality of what’s happening—12 hours feel like 20 these days. We gather for our morning huddle. The medical surgical nurses stand by us, just as scared as we are. Forget the information we told you yesterday. Be careful, be safe, be smart. Remember, there is no emergency in a pandemic....

“To this school . . . we bring our history, our culture. Our pain, our suffering as a people, is all in here. The army says, ‘Be the best that you can be.’ We try to be the best artists that we can be,” says Lawrence Donley in Robert Wyrod’s 2002 documentary South Side Warriors. Describing his practice at the Tornado School of Martial Arts, a karate school on the south side of Chicago, he says, “It exhilarates me....

When writer Jason Diamond grew up in Chicago’s north suburbs, he couldn’t wait to escape. But after a couple decades in Chicago and New York City, his latest essay collection brought him back to the burbs. The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs (Coffee House Press) examines the culture, history, and distinctly American art that forms outside-but-adjacent to city life. Diamond writes in the book’s intro: “I never looked back—until I did....

There’s no alley equivalent of the Magnificent Mile. The 1,900 miles of backstreets that crisscross Chicago’s Grid—more than in any other municipality in the U.S.—are only beautiful for their utility. The city has tried to redefine these corridors of concrete and asphalt in recent years by giving a few of them environmentally friendly makeovers or temporarily transforming them into outdoor venues for art and music festivals. But for the most part they’re still a rough and rugged part of our infrastructure—unassuming, unmanicured, and ready to perform a host of important functions while hiding in plain sight....

First Greg Wade of Publican Quality Bread lost out for Outstanding Baker. Then Sarah Rinkavage of Marisol went down for Rising Star Chef of the Year. And then Meg Galus of the Boka group lost for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Chicago’s first win tonight at the James Beard Foundation chef and restaurant awards, held at the Lyric Opera House, was Abe Conlon of Fat Rice for Best Chef Great Lakes. Conlon beat out four other Chicago entrants: Andrew Brochu of Roister, Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark of Parachute, David Posey and Anna Posey of Elske, and Lee Wolen of Boka....

A Light in the Dark: The Story of Helen Keller & Anne Sullivan As with last year’s vibrant Snowflake, Chicago Children’s Theatre shows that speech isn’t the only language to tell a tale in its latest, a coproduction with Thodos Dance Chicago that recounts the story of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan. The work opens with Anne, haunted by the early loss of her brother, and shows how this gave rise to her passion for teaching....

Seeking: adventures with dudes with brains Occupation: arts administrator What do you do when you’re not working? His friend says: “He’s wicked smart on art and politics, and he keeps fit by biking from Humboldt to Hyde Park. That biking also gives him a cute butt and strong arms.” Go on adventures. Smoker? No. Pets? Dietary restrictions? Nope. Love gluten and lactose. Children? Hahahaha. Religion? Love. If HBO made a miniseries about your life, who would you cast for the lead role?...

Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits Mindy’s HotChocolate Bakery Finalists: Spinning J Bakery and Soda Fountain, Joey Pham’s Flavor Supreme, Travelle at The Langham

Challenged by Alex Enochs (Charlatan) to create a cocktail with movie theater popcorn butter, Ryan Murphy of Crown Tap Room was “a little afraid to ask” the staff at Logan Theatre, where he obtained the ingredient, what was in it. Generally, though, the stuff that tops popcorn in movie theaters is oil with artificial butter flavoring and preservatives. (Actual butter has a low smoke point and can spoil quickly.) Aside from fat-washing the rum, Murphy kept all the ingredients of his second attempt the same for his final cocktail, a take on the Ramos Fizz that he garnished with popcorn (Boom Chicka Pop’s “lightly sweet” variety)....

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago.

ARTIST: Daniel MacAdam SHOW: Oneida, Arriver, and Banal Anml at Empty Bottle on Sun 3/13 MORE INFO: crosshairchicago.com

I was driving into Chicago Monday morning, as WBEZ tried to bring as much light as heat to the slaughter in Orlando. A caller named Ben came on the air to speak to the host of Morning Shift, Tony Sarabia, and I recognized light. But Ben was right. Congress will pray and do nothing. Individual Americans like me will reflect on being more shocked by the 2012 shooting during The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, when 12 persons lost their lives, than they were by the carnage at the Pulse, where 50 died....

I’m compiling this list of online theater options on World Theatre Day, which feels more than a little ironic. Theaters all over the world are now shut down for the foreseeable future in light of the COVID-19 disaster.Removing the liveness from live theater and putting it on the flat screen can be a tricky proposition. But from PBS’s venerable Great Performances series to a number of small local companies who are putting together original content in quarantine, you can still enjoy theater without leaving your house....

Since Firebrand’s production of Always . . . Patsy Cline features its stars, Harmony France and Christina Hall, trading the roles of Cline and her Texas superfan, Louise Seger (whose correspondence sparked this 1988 bio musical by Ted Swindley), from show to show, you might consider this half a review. The night I attended, France played Patsy and Hall was Louise. But the chemistry between these two women (both have played Patsy in previous productions) is so strong and palpable that I imagine it’s equally enjoyable when they flip....

The operatives at The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries (now making their Chicago debut with Bramble Theatre after originating with Toronto’s Outside the March) do not offer your usual interactive show. This is apparent even before their sleuthing properly begins. After procuring a ticket, you must divulge the details of an especially vexing mystery from your life. It must be something you want solved. It can’t be anything too nefarious—no murders or kidnappings and the like....

Mike Sula Smoked hunter beef One of my obsessions over the last few years has been scheming to create the elusive—or perhaps nonexistent—hunter beef pastrami. It’s a basic brisket rubbed in Pakistani hunter beef spices that’s smoked and then steamed until buttery tender. I’d dabbled with hunter turkey breast in the past, but when Friends of the Food Chain Barn & Company Pit Master Gary Wiviott and coauthor Colleen Rush asked if I wanted to contribute a recipe to their recently released Low & Slow 2: The Art of Barbecue, Smoke-Roasting, and Basic Curing, I knew the time was nigh to bring hunter beef pastrami into the world....

Cho Sun Ok Restaurant Runner-Up: San Soo Gab San