Concerts

Life after prison is frequently an untold story, hidden behind the stigma of a criminal record. For thousands of people recently released from prison, this stigma dismisses their experiences and the challenges that accompany their reacclimatization to society. On the first day beyond the prison gates, they enter a world that’s changed around them and suddenly must assume responsibility for finding housing, health care, and a job with little to no help. This year, WTTW’s FIRSTHAND initiative showcases how real Chicagoans confront this uphill battle.

FIRSTHAND: Life After Prison offers audiences an intimate, compassionate look into the experiences of people attempting to restart their lives after incarceration. The documentary series—directed by Mario Tharpe, Resita Cox, Pat Odom, Teresa White, and Donna Wilson—illuminates the difficulties that obstruct rehabilitation while providing inspiring glimpses of the opportunities that can exist for ex-offenders. The Life After Prison project is the latest installment from the award-winning FIRSTHAND initiative. FIRSTHAND’s past projects addressed issues concerning poverty, gun violence, segregation, and coronavirus, focusing on perspectives from Chicago residents. 

The five episodes in the docuseries expose the fact that for people with criminal records, especially people of color and LGBTQ+ people, community support is rare and access to jobs is minimal, leading to higher recidivism rates and societal exclusion. Every year, more than 650,000 ex-offenders leave prison, but according to the Department of Justice, approximately two-thirds will likely be rearrested within three years’ time. This cyclical trajectory for ex-offenders is what inspired Tharpe to help produce the docuseries. 

“For me personally, signing on to produce and direct FIRSTHAND: Life After Prison was personal,” says Tharpe. “As a kid, I saw two of my four uncles struggle with drugs and occasional incarceration. Being young, I didn’t understand why they weren’t able to kick their drug habits. Their lifestyles were emotionally draining to my grandmother and other family members, all of whom loved my two uncles. Spending hours pre-interviewing and talking to our five documentary subjects was therapeutic for me and answered some questions I had about why people relapse and why so many use jail and prison as an unintended revolving door.”

The five Chicagoans featured in the documentary series include Nicholas Crayton, Paul S., Kyle Hilbert, Tawana Pope, and Marcelo de Jesus Velazquez. It shows them at different stages of their lives in and after prison, providing audiences an opportunity to understand reentry at every stage through firsthand accounts. For Tharpe, the up-close documentary series compels the audience to “walk in the shoes of the subject.” He anticipates that after watching, many will begin to believe that rehabilitation upon reentry can work if we help reduce the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated people.

“A large number of people return to prison because they can’t find a job,” Tharpe emphasizes. “Not having a job means you’re not in a position to support yourself or your family. Ultimately, returning to the streets to engage in illegal activities leads people back into the prison system. More employers have to give returning citizens an opportunity to succeed.”

Tharpe hopes that the docuseries will encourage more reentry programs to offer beneficial, sustainable assistance for those transitioning back into society. Tharpe believes that recidivism rates can be reduced with adjusted, individualized reentry programs and greater awareness of the struggles of life after prison. FIRSTHAND’s intimate perspective provides audiences with an accessible entry point. 

Alongside the film series, the FIRSTHAND project will also host community discussions, expert talks, and journalistic spotlights on PBS and Chicago Tonight. WTTW will host five Firsthand Talks that will begin streaming on February 13. The talks provide local insight and solutions concerning reentry, adding another personal level to the entire project. The initiative plans to become directly involved in the communities, working with leaders in Chicago neighborhoods and providing discussion guides for schools, libraries, and other community organizations. 

The speeches include: “The Hurt, the Harm, and the Healing” by Orlando Mayorga, the McCormick reentry policy coordinator for the Office of the Lieutenant Governor’s Justice, Equity, and Opportunity Initiative; “Untangling the Path to Erasing Criminal Records” by Regina Hernandez, supervising attorney for Legal Aid Chicago; “No Place to Call Home” by Ahmadou Dramé, program director for the Illinois Justice Project; “The Humanity We Deserve” by Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia, managing director of justice initiatives for Chicago Beyond; and “Prison After Prison” by Marlon Chamberlain, manager for the Fully Free Campaign.

At 7 PM on February 13, WTTW’s news program Chicago Tonight will feature a WTTW News special episode dedicated to the topic of reentry. The project will continue for the rest of 2023, shedding light on life after prison and providing assistance to communities around Chicago.

“As a public media organization, it’s our role and responsibility to shine a light on vital issues that impact the people and communities in our city and region with trusted, essential content,” says president and CEO of WTTW Sandra Cordova Micek. “Each year, through the FIRSTHAND initiative, we identify a problem or issue that people in our city and region, and people around the country, are facing. Through personal stories and lived experiences, we share firsthand accounts from Chicagoans who are directly impacted.”

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UPDATE as of Sat 2/11/2023, 5:00 PM: Anatomy of Habit had to drop off the bill for tonight’s Cobra Lounge show due to illness, but will reschedule sometime in the future. Kill Scenes and Twice Dark will still be performing. Refunds are available at point of purchase.

Chicago band Anatomy of Habit have been around in various forms since 2008, sporadically releasing music that hammers together metal, industrial, postrock, avant-garde composition, and more. Originally a sort of floating supergroup with no fixed lineup, in the past few years they’ve solidified into a steady quintet around founder and front man Mark Solotroff. The band’s new fourth full-length, Black Openings (due February 24), recorded with Sanford Parker, features the same lineup as its predecessor, 2021’s Even If It Takes a Lifetime: guitarist Alex Latus, drummer Skyler Rowe, percussionist Isidro Reyes, and bassist and lap-steel player Sam Wagster. 

The moody 18-minute title track starts the record with a slinky, rolling pulse. Rowe’s drums and Reyes’s percussion drive a buildup that sets the stage for the first appearance of Solotroff’s vocals. From there, it’s a long, lovely journey that you can settle into, trusting that you’ll be alternately unsettled, soothed, creeped out, pummeled, and exalted, but never bored. In its harrowing climax, Solotroff screams, ”Remaining faceless / Slipping into a persona,” against militant percussion that sounds as if it’s beating his voice into a pulp.

The second and third tracks are both more than nine minutes long, allowing the band space to explore the full potential of each composition. “Formal Consequences” provides a bit of respite with its dreamy, gothic feel and slightly askew atmosphere of ominous melancholy. Sheets of shimmering guitars appear like torrential rains, giving way to a quiet interlude and a sinister sense of ritual catharsis. The bitter, biting “Breathing Through Bones,” the first song released from the album, evokes the loss and grief of a doomed romance, ending with a heavy slam of sound that’s drawn out to a clanging quiet. This show is a release party for Black Openings, and it features opening sets from dreamy local darkwave outfit Kill Scenes and Indiana goth project Twice Dark.

Anatomy of Habit Kill Scenes and Twice Dark open. Sat 2/11, 7 PM, Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland, $12.36, 17+

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UPDATE as of Sat 2/11/2023, 5:00 PM: Anatomy of Habit had to drop off the bill for tonight’s Cobra Lounge show due to illness, but will reschedule sometime in the future. Kill Scenes and Twice Dark will still be performing. Refunds are available at point of purchase.

Chicago band Anatomy of Habit have been around in various forms since 2008, sporadically releasing music that hammers together metal, industrial, postrock, avant-garde composition, and more. Originally a sort of floating supergroup with no fixed lineup, in the past few years they’ve solidified into a steady quintet around founder and front man Mark Solotroff. The band’s new fourth full-length, Black Openings (due February 24), recorded with Sanford Parker, features the same lineup as its predecessor, 2021’s Even If It Takes a Lifetime: guitarist Alex Latus, drummer Skyler Rowe, percussionist Isidro Reyes, and bassist and lap-steel player Sam Wagster. 

The moody 18-minute title track starts the record with a slinky, rolling pulse. Rowe’s drums and Reyes’s percussion drive a buildup that sets the stage for the first appearance of Solotroff’s vocals. From there, it’s a long, lovely journey that you can settle into, trusting that you’ll be alternately unsettled, soothed, creeped out, pummeled, and exalted, but never bored. In its harrowing climax, Solotroff screams, ”Remaining faceless / Slipping into a persona,” against militant percussion that sounds as if it’s beating his voice into a pulp.

The second and third tracks are both more than nine minutes long, allowing the band space to explore the full potential of each composition. “Formal Consequences” provides a bit of respite with its dreamy, gothic feel and slightly askew atmosphere of ominous melancholy. Sheets of shimmering guitars appear like torrential rains, giving way to a quiet interlude and a sinister sense of ritual catharsis. The bitter, biting “Breathing Through Bones,” the first song released from the album, evokes the loss and grief of a doomed romance, ending with a heavy slam of sound that’s drawn out to a clanging quiet. This show is a release party for Black Openings, and it features opening sets from dreamy local darkwave outfit Kill Scenes and Indiana goth project Twice Dark.

Anatomy of Habit Kill Scenes and Twice Dark open. Sat 2/11, 7 PM, Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland, $12.36, 17+

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Racial covenants that kept Black people out of certain neighborhoods of Chicago, and across the U.S., are not just a thing of the past. Today, there are organizations including Chicago Covenants still trying to un-do them, and the harm they caused.

Chicago-raised playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is perhaps the best known creative effort that captures the pain and trauma caused by this form of racism. And Chicagoans can catch the short run of this play at Beverly Arts Center through February 19 in a wonderful production directed by Devin Christor.

A Raisin in the Sun Through 2/19: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St., 773-445-3838, thebeverlyartscenter.com, $40

We meet the Younger family first through the eyes of Ruth, a perfectly understated Jenise Sheppard. They carry Ruth’s emotions through the dramatic swings of this play, bringing us along for the bumpy ride. Ruth’s husband Walter Lee (Aaron Ragland) is a role not to be envied. He is the heel and the heart, representing the stereotypes and real pain of straight Black men navigating a stacked system.

Mother Lena (Veronda Carey) carries the weight of the house, the play, and the world on her shoulders. Her choice of what to do with the life insurance policy on her late husband impacts and haunts all around her. Carey navigates this complexity beautifully; her speech about her late husband and how he toiled his whole short life for his family is heartbreaking.

Then we have Walter’s sister, and Lena’s other child, Beneatha. Played by Yvette Corrine in her Chicago stage debut, I can’t say enough about how enjoyable she was to watch. Her physicality, comic timing, and dramatic flair are reminiscent of actor Tracee Ellis Ross. She’s fabulous. I can’t wait to see her in other productions.

Jayden Triplett is strong as Ruth and Walter’s son, Travis, and the rest of the cast fills out nicely. My main complaint was the sound on some of the minor characters. I had a hard time distinguishing lines from Beneatha’s boyfriends (she’s torn between rich but shallow George Murchison, played by William Brown, and African student Joseph Asagai, played by DeShawn Spivey), or when actors faced away from the audience. But the majority of the play was enjoyable.

Scenic and lighting designer Rick Keeley did a solid job with the set, which stands up to the door slams that increase as the tension in the story mounts. (Having seen some flimsy sets in the past at other theaters, I was worried as that first slam was coming. It did not disappoint.)

BAC is under new leadership, with managing director Dr. Carla Carter and artistic director Kevin Pease. This first big season since the world shut down under COVID-19 in 2020 is really showing how the BAC is back strong—and they are not playing around. I’m especially looking forward to Five Guys Named Moe June 8–18, codirected by Chicago legends Felicia P. Fields and E. Faye Butler.

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Racial covenants that kept Black people out of certain neighborhoods of Chicago, and across the U.S., are not just a thing of the past. Today, there are organizations including Chicago Covenants still trying to un-do them, and the harm they caused.

Chicago-raised playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is perhaps the best known creative effort that captures the pain and trauma caused by this form of racism. And Chicagoans can catch the short run of this play at Beverly Arts Center through February 19 in a wonderful production directed by Devin Christor.

A Raisin in the Sun Through 2/19: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St., 773-445-3838, thebeverlyartscenter.com, $40

We meet the Younger family first through the eyes of Ruth, a perfectly understated Jenise Sheppard. They carry Ruth’s emotions through the dramatic swings of this play, bringing us along for the bumpy ride. Ruth’s husband Walter Lee (Aaron Ragland) is a role not to be envied. He is the heel and the heart, representing the stereotypes and real pain of straight Black men navigating a stacked system.

Mother Lena (Veronda Carey) carries the weight of the house, the play, and the world on her shoulders. Her choice of what to do with the life insurance policy on her late husband impacts and haunts all around her. Carey navigates this complexity beautifully; her speech about her late husband and how he toiled his whole short life for his family is heartbreaking.

Then we have Walter’s sister, and Lena’s other child, Beneatha. Played by Yvette Corrine in her Chicago stage debut, I can’t say enough about how enjoyable she was to watch. Her physicality, comic timing, and dramatic flair are reminiscent of actor Tracee Ellis Ross. She’s fabulous. I can’t wait to see her in other productions.

Jayden Triplett is strong as Ruth and Walter’s son, Travis, and the rest of the cast fills out nicely. My main complaint was the sound on some of the minor characters. I had a hard time distinguishing lines from Beneatha’s boyfriends (she’s torn between rich but shallow George Murchison, played by William Brown, and African student Joseph Asagai, played by DeShawn Spivey), or when actors faced away from the audience. But the majority of the play was enjoyable.

Scenic and lighting designer Rick Keeley did a solid job with the set, which stands up to the door slams that increase as the tension in the story mounts. (Having seen some flimsy sets in the past at other theaters, I was worried as that first slam was coming. It did not disappoint.)

BAC is under new leadership, with managing director Dr. Carla Carter and artistic director Kevin Pease. This first big season since the world shut down under COVID-19 in 2020 is really showing how the BAC is back strong—and they are not playing around. I’m especially looking forward to Five Guys Named Moe June 8–18, codirected by Chicago legends Felicia P. Fields and E. Faye Butler.

Read More

As a writer and unflinching disciple of the truth that art will make your life better, I think a lot about contrasts. Binaries and opposites, polarities and spectrums. In both art and the culture that nourishes it, the animating force is always a unique ability to sustain the maximum amount of difference while avoiding catastrophic disintegration. It’s a fine needle to thread.

It’s precisely this kind of balancing act that figures so deeply in Maggie Crowley’s exquisitely subtle new show, “Comb,” at Devening Projects. A scavenger hunt through time and space, the Chicago-based artist surveys the broad ideological landscape of masculine and feminine labor, creating personal paintings and sculptures alive with juxtapositions of pliant silk and unyielding steel. Look closely and you will piece together the disparate artifacts of a life lived.

Look closely at Crowley’s silk paintings and you will piece together the disparate artifacts of a life lived.Courtesy Devening Projects

In the large-scale Crashing into the mountain, we uncover a stamp-sized depiction of Mickey Mouse, a ghostly, oversized chainsaw blade, and a hail of orange disposable earplugs.  Suspended from a rod of angle iron, the gouache-stained silk is creased across the center by a free-standing armature. This isn’t a formally seductive object in a traditional sense. It looks worn and broken in—maybe broken down—but its somber hues and fragmented imagery are beautiful in their honesty. Crowley is sifting through her past and inviting us to do the same.

“Comb”Through 3/7: Sat noon-5 PM and by appointment, Devening Projects, 3039 W. Carroll, deveningprojects.com

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As a writer and unflinching disciple of the truth that art will make your life better, I think a lot about contrasts. Binaries and opposites, polarities and spectrums. In both art and the culture that nourishes it, the animating force is always a unique ability to sustain the maximum amount of difference while avoiding catastrophic disintegration. It’s a fine needle to thread.

It’s precisely this kind of balancing act that figures so deeply in Maggie Crowley’s exquisitely subtle new show, “Comb,” at Devening Projects. A scavenger hunt through time and space, the Chicago-based artist surveys the broad ideological landscape of masculine and feminine labor, creating personal paintings and sculptures alive with juxtapositions of pliant silk and unyielding steel. Look closely and you will piece together the disparate artifacts of a life lived.

Look closely at Crowley’s silk paintings and you will piece together the disparate artifacts of a life lived.Courtesy Devening Projects

In the large-scale Crashing into the mountain, we uncover a stamp-sized depiction of Mickey Mouse, a ghostly, oversized chainsaw blade, and a hail of orange disposable earplugs.  Suspended from a rod of angle iron, the gouache-stained silk is creased across the center by a free-standing armature. This isn’t a formally seductive object in a traditional sense. It looks worn and broken in—maybe broken down—but its somber hues and fragmented imagery are beautiful in their honesty. Crowley is sifting through her past and inviting us to do the same.

“Comb”Through 3/7: Sat noon-5 PM and by appointment, Devening Projects, 3039 W. Carroll, deveningprojects.com

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It’s no easy feat to capture the energy of Tank & the Bangas’ live shows on vinyl, but the New Orleans-based band’s third studio album, last year’s Red Balloon (Verve), comes close. In contrast to the 2020 EP Friend Goals, where band members wrote the bulk of material separately during pandemic lockdowns, the songs on Red Balloon grew out of jam sessions—and the resultfeels like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Red Balloon features the group’s core lineup—lead vocalist Tarriona “Tank” Ball, keyboardist Norman Spence, drummer Joshua Johnson, and alto saxophonist and flute player Albert Allenback—with guest appearances from the likes of New Orleans bounce legend Big Freedia, multi-instrumentalist Trombone Shorty, and singer-songwriter Lalah Hathaway.

Red Balloon opens with Let’s Make a Deal TV host Wayne Brady in the role of DJ, introducing the album’s concept: a radio station with the call letters “TATB.” But rather than focusing on one genre, the record seems to skip across the dial, offering a sampling of jazz, R&B, funk, soul, jazz, gospel, rap, and hip-hop—partly because Tank & the Bangas worked with different producers on different songs, capturing what the band created in that particular space at a specific point in time. 

Throughout the album’s 16 tracks, Ball moves between spoken word and melodic vocalizations, expressing a range of emotions. She doesn’t shy away from challenging topics such as anxiety and depression, but there’s joy despite the pain, warmth despite the cold—ultimately, she finds a way to embrace both the highs and lows. On “Stolen Fruit,” Allenback’s flute accompanies Ball’s vocals, which evoke Anita Baker on the verses; during the lush, breathy choruses, she sings, “I just might fly away,” conjuring an image of a butterfly flitting around a garden. On “Black Folk,” which features singer-producer Masego and singer-songwriter Alex Isley (the daughter of the Isley Brothers’ Ernie Isley), Ball uses the intro to deliver a mixed bag of imagery: “I love Black folk / Black look like revolution,” she says. “Black sound like old songs / Smell like good food / And it taste like heart disease / But it feel like Maze at Jazz Fest.”

The bass line and disco sensibility of “No ID” set the beat for Tank’s jaunty, teasing lyrics (“If you want to see inside of me / I’ma need to see your ID”),while “Communion in My Cup,” which features North Carolina soul trio the Hamiltones, exults in the capacity to overcome adversity. For this stop on their spring North American tour, Tank & the Bangas will team up with the Chicago Philharmonic and composer Jacomo Bairos, who’s collaborated with the band on arrangements and performances with Nu Deco Ensemble, a Miami-based chamber orchestra he cofounded in 2015. This collaboration will offer an immersive experience sure to brighten even the coldest February night.

Tank & the Bangas with the Chicago Philharmonic Sat 2/18, 7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, $46.75-$106.50, all ages

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It’s no easy feat to capture the energy of Tank & the Bangas’ live shows on vinyl, but the New Orleans-based band’s third studio album, last year’s Red Balloon (Verve), comes close. In contrast to the 2020 EP Friend Goals, where band members wrote the bulk of material separately during pandemic lockdowns, the songs on Red Balloon grew out of jam sessions—and the resultfeels like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Red Balloon features the group’s core lineup—lead vocalist Tarriona “Tank” Ball, keyboardist Norman Spence, drummer Joshua Johnson, and alto saxophonist and flute player Albert Allenback—with guest appearances from the likes of New Orleans bounce legend Big Freedia, multi-instrumentalist Trombone Shorty, and singer-songwriter Lalah Hathaway.

Red Balloon opens with Let’s Make a Deal TV host Wayne Brady in the role of DJ, introducing the album’s concept: a radio station with the call letters “TATB.” But rather than focusing on one genre, the record seems to skip across the dial, offering a sampling of jazz, R&B, funk, soul, jazz, gospel, rap, and hip-hop—partly because Tank & the Bangas worked with different producers on different songs, capturing what the band created in that particular space at a specific point in time. 

Throughout the album’s 16 tracks, Ball moves between spoken word and melodic vocalizations, expressing a range of emotions. She doesn’t shy away from challenging topics such as anxiety and depression, but there’s joy despite the pain, warmth despite the cold—ultimately, she finds a way to embrace both the highs and lows. On “Stolen Fruit,” Allenback’s flute accompanies Ball’s vocals, which evoke Anita Baker on the verses; during the lush, breathy choruses, she sings, “I just might fly away,” conjuring an image of a butterfly flitting around a garden. On “Black Folk,” which features singer-producer Masego and singer-songwriter Alex Isley (the daughter of the Isley Brothers’ Ernie Isley), Ball uses the intro to deliver a mixed bag of imagery: “I love Black folk / Black look like revolution,” she says. “Black sound like old songs / Smell like good food / And it taste like heart disease / But it feel like Maze at Jazz Fest.”

The bass line and disco sensibility of “No ID” set the beat for Tank’s jaunty, teasing lyrics (“If you want to see inside of me / I’ma need to see your ID”),while “Communion in My Cup,” which features North Carolina soul trio the Hamiltones, exults in the capacity to overcome adversity. For this stop on their spring North American tour, Tank & the Bangas will team up with the Chicago Philharmonic and composer Jacomo Bairos, who’s collaborated with the band on arrangements and performances with Nu Deco Ensemble, a Miami-based chamber orchestra he cofounded in 2015. This collaboration will offer an immersive experience sure to brighten even the coldest February night.

Tank & the Bangas with the Chicago Philharmonic Sat 2/18, 7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, $46.75-$106.50, all ages

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