In “The Shoemaker’s Magician,” Cynthia Pelayo blends film history and Chicago history into a genre-crossing journey into the occult. The story opens with the discovery of a gruesome murder in a downtown theater.

Ruth Carter is a groundbreaking costume designer known for her long collaboration with Spike Lee and her work on the “Black Panther” movies. She is the only Black woman to have two Academy Awards.

An art fair, beer tasting and James Beard events usher in the weekend. Here are five things to do in Chicago.

Racing legends Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt Jr. took WTTW News correspondent Paris Schutz around the specially designed track that weaves in and out of Grant Park and provides some iconic views for spectators.

A recent Chicago Symphony Orchestra program juxtaposed works by three masterful yet radically different composers of classical music: Wolfgang Mozart, William Kraft and Ottorino Respighi.

Five brothers started Circus Vazquez in Mexico City in 1969. The family-run circus has made the Chicago area one of its stops for more than 20 years.

In “Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry,” DePaul University forensic accounting professor Kelly Richmond Pope explores the many forms fraud can take and the sometimes surprising stories of the people who perpetrate it.

My Block My Hood My City founder Jahmal Cole says bringing back basketball to our parks will lead to a safer city. Cole is leading the Save Street Ball campaign to replace and restore rims and nets across city parks.

The kitchen at Chesa’s Bistro & Bar is entirely gluten-free, meaning customers with severe allergies can dine without worrying about cross-contamination.

May marks Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month. Across Chicago, members of those communities have made the city their home while keeping their cultural traditions alive.

“The Gospel at Colonus” is based on “Oedipus at Colonus,” Sophocles’ 2,500-year-old play about an aging king who seeks redemption after a life of sin. The revival just opened at Court Theatre in Hyde Park.

A music festival, wreath ceremony and giant sculptures usher in the weekend. Here are five things to do in and around Chicago.

At Freestyle Ceramics and Tufting, anyone can make their own rug. Each session begins with a practice tutorial to ensure every tufter feels comfortable with the tufting gun.

Tina Turner was an unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ‘70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”

The latest program by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra honors Robert Chen, the orchestra’s invaluable concertmaster and masterful violinist. It also features a glimpse of a rarely revived opera. 

Most neighborhoods don’t eagerly anticipate the weekly arrival of their sanitation engineer, colloquially known as the garbage man. But most neighborhoods don’t have a national award-winning sanitation engineer like Felix Martinez taking away their trash.