Arts & Entertainment
A Funky Musical and a Podcast About Art: 4 Arts Picks for Your Week
"You Can't Take the Funk" (Alan Davis)
Every Thursday, WTTW News newsletter producer Josh Terry highlights his picks for the week’s must-see cultural events.
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It’s already October, but Chicago isn’t slowing down when it comes to cultural events. Sure, street festival season is winding down, and you won’t be able to catch many concerts outdoors. Still, you can fill your evenings and hours with whatever you want, from musicals to film screenings and more.
Theater: “You Can’t Fake The Funk (A Journey Through Funk Music)” — Black Ensemble Theatre
Uptown’s Black Ensemble Theater is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and its latest installment is another run of Daryl D. Brooks’ 2019 musical “You Can’t Fake the Funk (A Journey Through Funk Music).” Promising “a high-energy, feel-good celebration of the sound that defined a generation,” this production has received raves from the Chicago Reader, Chicago Theatre Review and more. It runs through Oct. 25, and you can buy tickets here.
Art: “Field Notes” — Dragonfly Gallery
A new group show at Dragonfly Gallery, 2436 W. Madison St., opens this Friday and runs through Halloween. It’s titled “Field Notes” and features works by Sebastian Hidalgo, Mario Mena, Bibiana Saucedo, Robert Vargas and Alex Wilson. The exhibit is centered around the idea that the artists featured are “field-workers of their own city, each keeping a record of Chicago that cannot be separated from their own relationship to it.” The opening ceremony is Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. For more information, click here.
Podcast: “Bad at Sports” at MCA — Museum of Contemporary Art
Before podcasts were ubiquitous, three Midwesterners started one tackling “contemporary art talk without the ego” called “Bad at Sports” in 2005. To celebrate its 21st year as “the Midwest’s largest independent contemporary art podcast & blog,” they’re throwing two events at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The first is Saturday’s “The Great Art Tailgate,” which will feature conversations with artists outside the museum from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. After that, head into the museum for a live conversation with the legendary art critic Jerry Saltz at 4 p.m. Buy tickets to the Saltz talk here and learn more about the free “tailgate” here.
Film: “The League of Women Voters Presents ‘Democracy at Risk’ Double Feature” — Gene Siskel Film Center
On Sunday and Monday, the Gene Siskel Film Center and the League of Women Voters will present screenings of Billy Wilder’s 1951 film “Ace in the Hole” and Haskell Wexler’s 1969 movie “Medium Cool.” The theater’s website notes that both films “ask timeless questions about journalism, democracy and the uneasy relationship between truth and spectacle.” The Sunday screening of “Ace in the Hole” will feature a discussion with the esteemed film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum. Buy tickets here.
WTTW News arts coverage is supported by the JCS Arts, Health & Education Fund of the DuPage Foundation.
