Lila Downs is an innovative singer with roots in both Minnesota and Oaxaca, Mexico. She studied voice and anthropology in college and marries the two interests in her culturally inspired musical pursuits. 

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The multi-episode saga to build the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on Chicago’s lakefront is apparently over. In a statement sent just before noon on Friday, “Star Wars” creator George Lucas himself announced that the ongoing litigation from Friends of the Parks effectively killed off the project.

Longtime U.S. Congressman Dan Rostenkowski famously called Chicago politics “blood sport.” We raise a glass to one of Chicago's own (who also happened to have one of the all-time great heads of political hair) with a Polish twist on a classic cocktail.

A new zip line and obstacle course is the first of its kind in the Chicago area. (Go Ape)

Starting Saturday, thrill-seekers and nature lovers will get the chance to swing, soar and climb through a new zip line and obstacle course nestled in the treetops of a Cook County forest preserve.

Students are the focus of a new mural at a CPS school that has a nationally recognized art collection. Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the contemporary work.

A father and daughter travel to the far reaches of Alaskan wild and live to write about it in a new book.

2015 Chicago Pride Parade. (opacity / Flickr)

Pride Month culiminates on Sunday with the 47th annual Chicago Pride Parade. Free movie screenings and concerts, a food truck fest and a celebration of encased meats are also on tap.

The Propeller Group. "The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music," 2014. (Courtesy the Museum of Contemporary Art)

The conflict between the U.S. and Vietnam in the 1970s serves as inspiration for a Vietnamese artist collective that now has a show at the MCA.

Paddling past a limestone spire on Lake Ontario, August 26, 1976. The canoe at the front contains Rich Gross, Bob Kulick, Reid Lewis, and John DiFulvio. (Photographers of the La Salle: Expedition II).

In 1976, a 37-year-old suburban French teacher led an eight-month trek retracing the 17th century expedition of French explorer Robert de La Salle. Hear about the trip from two who experienced it, including the teacher who led the exhibition, and the author of a new book about the trip.

Remember the very musical von Trapp family from “The Sound of Music”? Last summer, my daughter and I met a group you might call the Chicago von Trapps. Together with their father they call themselves Cielito Lindo, which means “beautiful heaven.”

Rich Cohen

From their rise in the early 1960s at the forefront of the British invasion to the worldwide mega-tours of more recent decades, the Rolling Stones have never left the public eye. A new book takes a panoramic look at the band. 

Chicago One of Many Stops on #Barmen2Bozeman Trip

In 1880, a 26-year-old German leather manufacturer left his hometown for America. Now, his great-great-granddaughter is recreating his cross-country journey in a 1880s Victorian dress.

Don’t be alarmed if you spot a large, colorful frog hopping around the city this week.

Whether it was dancing with a polka queen or meeting with protesters, Mayor Harold Washington was always smiling. We celebrate Chicago’s first and so far only African-American mayor with the signature drink, How’s Harold?

Photographer and urban explorer Rick Drew. (Rick Drew)

Rick Drew has been exploring and photographing abandoned sites in and around Chicago for a decade. But the hobby is considered by some as simple trespassing. "Chicago Tonight" asked Drew about his eccentric – and sometimes dangerous – pastime.

City officials and law enforcement outlined plans for increased security measures at next weekend's 47th annual Chicago Pride Parade in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando.