Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Chicago magazine

AS WE WERE PUTTING TOGETHER THE “WHO’S GOT NEXT?” cover story (page 42), I got curious: What’s happened to those we pegged as rising stars in the two past installments of this series? Let me bring you up to speed on a few. When we introduced you to Max Christie in 2019, he was a sophomore basketball star at Rolling Meadows High School. Now? You can see him playing alongside LeBron James as a Los Angeles Lakers rookie, logging double-digit minutes. He even cracked the starting lineup twice in January. Also cited in 2019 was Naomi Beckwith, then a senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Two years later, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City scooped her up as its deputy director and chief curator. Her last gift to…

The golden hour of the day. Autumnal equinox. A pedestrian walking into the frame. All those factors lined up perfectly for this shot taken by freelance photographer and designer Karl Solano. “The light dramatizes the image, especially during that time,” says the Albany Park resident, who captured the scene at the intersection of Randolph and La Salle Streets last fall with his Sony Alpha 7 III. Music from his headphones frequently dictates the mood Solano seeks, and since he often uses city streets as subjects, Chicago’s dynamic diversity means he never runs low on inspiration. “It’s a very abstract and profound canvas. You’re given what the day brings you, and that’s what makes it so exciting.” WE ALSO LOVED ……

BETWEEN THE SUMMERS OF 2021 and 2022, singer-songwriter Sam Pirruccello drove hundreds of miles across northern Illinois in a Toyota Tacoma for his day job with a vegetation management company. At each stop, he assessed whether trees needed to be pruned or removed based on their relationship to electrical lines. But the journey itself could be engrossing. “I went everywhere from the middle of the city to extremely rural places,” Pirruccello recalls. “I had a constant blur of different towns and counties.” All those months on the road gave Pirruccello plenty of fodder for songs, which he was able to flesh out when a double hernia surgery forced him to lie low at home in Ukrainian Village for a stretch. “As I was recovering, that time allowed me to polish…

GAGA SLONINA | BIANCA PASTEL | OMER ABBAS SALEM | VINOD KALATHIL AND MARGARET PAK | DAV ID MOR KI A SMITH | NABEELA SYED | LIAM KAZAR | STEPHANIE MORIMOTO | JORGE NERI | TOYA WOLFE | SAM SHEPHERD “You always see kids wanting to be like MJ,” says soccer pro Gaga Slonina. “I want to be that person in football as a goalkeeper.”…

“I want to be the Walt Disney or Miyazaki of my world and bring Black animation to life,” says Pastel. “These are my dreams, and I am fully capable of them.” “I write a part for myself in every single play,” says Salem, a lauded stage actor who’s making a name for himself as a playwright. On a frigid Sunday morning in December, the Goodman Theatre had a full house for a staged reading of Modern Women, a work in progress by actor-turned-playwright Omer Abbas Salem. The piece is a riff on Steel Magnolias, with the setting transferred from Louisiana to Skokie, and Southern belle archetypes remade into Arab and Indian aunties. Steel Magnolias was among the first plays Salem saw as a student at Hinsdale South High School two…

“I see what I’m doing as contributing to something that was already here,” Smith says. Kia Smith is running a half-million-dollar organization out of her closet. In 2017, she started South Chicago Dance Theatre with a few dancers, a whole lot of grit, and a 75-year plan taped to the walls of a walk-in closet in her Hyde Park studio apartment. Now? The 35-year-old choreographer has grown SCDT from a scrappy troupe to a major player in Chicago’s dance scene. The company capped its fifth anniversary last spring with its biggest leap yet, premiering five new works at the Harris Theater, filling all 1,500 seats. Compare that with their previous in-person show, at the Stony Island Arts Bank before the pandemic. “We had like 80 people,” says Smith, who’s also…

“I want to see more people like me win,” says Neri. “When I was in high school, my mom was incarcerated, and my family lost everything,” says Jorge Neri, choking back tears. “I had to quit sports and get a job.” Just a decade later, he landed a role in the Obama administration as the primary liaison to the Latino community. “I went from the lowest point in my life to working in the most powerful building in the world.” Now a sought-after political consultant, Neri, 36, credits his tough upbringing in Little Village with making him an early achiever. A Mexican immigrant raised by a single mother, he grew up in a home that didn’t always have heat, and when the family’s water was shut off, he had to…

The old saying about advertising is that it’s where artists go to sell out. So it’s a little odd to hear Sam Shepherd, global executive creative director of Leo Burnett, talk about advertising as a place where creative people can advocate for human rights. “If you’re talented,” he says, “why wouldn’t you use those talents for something good?” Shepherd, 36, most recently garnered accolades for “The Lost Class,” made for Change the Ref, a gun reform nonprofit founded by the parents of a student killed in the 2018 Parkland shooting. The TV spot captures former National Rifle Association president David Keene speaking at an outdoor graduation ceremony, only for the cameras to pan back and show 3,044 empty chairs, representing the number of Americans who would have matriculated from high…

Prema Nanavaty, a Rush University Medical Center pulmonologist, has seen it many times: 20- and 30-somethings holding off on geting a persistent cough examined, assuming it must be a respiratory infection or allergies. After all, they reason, they aren’t smokers; they don’t have a family history of lung cancer. “It’s often six months to a year before they come in — not until it’s interfering with their daily life, or a family member is like, ‘You need to get this checked out,’” Nanavaty says. When the CT scan shows white spots in the lung, “that’s always a shock. They’re like, ‘I just had a baby — why is this happening?’…

HOW TO SPEND $350: RECYCLED MODERN IN 2018, SOUTH SIDE NATIVE SHARI CURRIE HAD her own event-planning business but dreamed of something more. Combining a love of vintage home decor and an eye for modern art, she opened Recycled Modern in Lake View, though deep down she knew her shop belonged on the South Side. When Currie, 40, visited an available space in Hyde Park, she felt she’d gotten a sign: “I figured, I don’t know where it’s going, but I’m gonna follow it, because that’s the way the universe works.” The new location opened in November, showcasing restored tables, handmade candles, colorful prints, and more from mostly local talent, with an emphasis on Black artists. And because event planning is “still a part of my soul,” Currie says, she…

◼ I grew up in Australia with two alcoholic parents. My mother was in and out of mental hospitals. She had her first nervous breakdown when I was 6. I spent an entire year in a Catholic orphanage. I had an ulcer at age 14 and a half. It was thought then that ulcers are caused by stress. Not at all. They’re exacerbated by stress. I found out years later that they’re caused by the Helicobacter pylori. It’s a corkscrew-shaped bacteria from bad sanitation. We didn’t have a flush toilet until I was 14. We were in government housing with two 40-gallon dunny cans. ◼ I worked with some very bright people at Leo Burnett: Peter Seaman and Jeff Price. They were funny in pitch sessions, and I thought I…

IT CAN BE CHALLENGING ENOUGH TO nail a cover portrait of one person. Try nine. That’s what design director David Syrek and photo director Michael Zajakowski faced after deciding to photograph our rising stars individually (or, in one case, as a couple) for this month’s cover. “Shooting a group of people can be tricky, because you want the photo to bring out each person’s personality, not become one collective,” Syrek explains. Clayton Hauck and Nolis Anderson were busy photographing the subjects for the inside pages, so a third photographer, Jeff Sciortino, was brought in to shoot the cover. At his studio, he took full-body pictures, each under the same lighting and at the same angle. Despite having to schedule a whole new set of shoots, Syrek and Zajakowski got the…

1 Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, John Lausch, a Trump appointee who indicted Alderman Ed Burke and former House speaker Michael Madigan, will leave office by early March, allowing President Biden to name his own corruption buster. 2 The trial of Michael McClain, a confidant of Madigan’s charged with soliciting bribes and favors from ComEd, begins March 6 — a preview of Madigan’s AT&T trial next year. 3 Rachel Jamison Webster, an ostensibly white Northwestern professor, learned she’s a descendant of the Black surveyor who laid out Washington, D.C. She explores her family history in Benjamin Banneker and Us, out March 21. 4 Opening day at Wrigley Field is March 30. Odds are 80 to 1 on the revamped Cubs winning the World Series. Never too early to say “Wait till…

Q: When you get married and have kids, it’s so easy to let the world beyond the nuclear family contract. Can you talk about the ebb and flow of your feelings about maintaining female friendships? A: For so much of my 20s and 30s, I was laser focused on finding a romantic partner. I stopped having as much time for friends. Then I got married, but all my friends were having babies, so I still felt apart. The day after my wedding, I told my husband, “It can’t just be me and you. I need all the windows open. I need circulation.” I always had this need for close friends — intimates where sex is off the table but I’m borrowing your sweater, I’m going to drink out of your…

INSTAGRAM HANDLE @87thfamily FOLLOWERS 1,000 ◼ What it is A showcase of photographers who shoot on film ◼ Who’s behind it Malik Marble, a 27-year-old special education teacher and part-time photographer ◼ Why the name Though he’s from Georgia, Marble got into photography while spending summers with his father’s family at 87th and Wood Streets in Auburn Gresham. ◼ How it started Marble and friends opened the account in 2018, then in 2020 began expanding it. “It’s for all photographers, but we originated in Chicago,” says Marble, adding that about 20 percent are now local. ◼ Why film “It just resonates way better.” ◼ The spinoff Marble published a magazine of select images in October. He plans to do new issues every nine to 12 months.…

> AS YOU’LL LIKE IT The reopening of the iO Theater brings with it the return of the brilliant Improvised Shakespeare Company, whose Bard-brained performers deftly craft whole Elizabethan-style spoofs before your eyes. Ongoing. improvisedshakespeare.com > DESIGN FOR LIVING The forward-thinking design magazine Deem partners with the Museum of Contemporary Art for “Designing for Dignity: A Convening of Possibilities,” a full-day symposium on inclusive and equitable opportunities in the discipline. Mar. 4. mcachicago.org > HAVE AN IPA AT THE MSI Roam the Museum of Science and Industry after hours while sipping samples from more than 60 craft brewers at the Brewsology Beer Fest. Mar. 4. brewsology.com > AILEY BASIS The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s annual visit to the Auditorium Theatre is a can’t-miss for dance lovers. This year’s program…

SIMPLE TO MAKE AND SUPER SHAREABLE, THE SPICY-SWEET SHRIMP AT CEBU, A Filipino restaurant in Wicker Park, has a good-time vibe that wouldn’t be out of place at a buzzing Madrid tapas bar. And that’s no coincidence: Co-owner Marlon Tan explains that the sizzling shrimp is a play on gambas al ajillo, one of the quintessential tapas of the Philippines’ former colonizer, Spain. A big punch of garlic nods to the original, while a sweet, velvety coating of ketchup, soy sauce, and oyster sauce subverts it for a dish that hits notes both familiar and surprising. Serve it with rice or garlic bread to sop up every last drop of the delicious sauce. CEBU’S SIZZLING GAMBAS Makes 2 servings Active time 15 minutes Total time 20 minutes 2 Tbsp. neutral…

It was late December, and Gaga Slonina needed to start packing. In just a few days, the 18-year-old former Chicago Fire goalkeeper would trade his childhood bedroom in Addison for an apartment in London. He was set to join English Premier League giant Chelsea, which had agreed to pay up to $15 million to his old club to sign Slonina to a six-year deal. (His own annual compensation will jump from $148,000 to an estimated $2.6 million, according to the website Capology.) “Being on my own is something I look forward to,” Slonina says matter-of-factly. “You kind of have to become more responsible and do the things that adults have to do in their daily life.” It’s a big move, but then again, Slonina isn’t your average teenager. He meditates…

Thattu, the restaurant that Margaret Pak and Vinod Kalathil are in the midst of opening on Rockwell Street in Avondale, is an Indian spot like nothing Chicago has seen: a market, a lounge, a bar, a place for a quick lunch or a full dinner. Above all, it’s an exploration of the food and coastal vibe of Kalathil’s native Kerala. Pak, 45, and Kalathil, 54, met on the floor of a Las Vegas dance club 20 years ago — she a Korean American statistician from California in town for her 40th Tori Amos concert, he a consultant who traveled the world designing warehouses. After three years of a long-distance relationship, they both relocated to Chicago. They soon married and went to India to visit Kalathil’s mother, who prepared fish molee…

Stephanie Morimoto is about to get on a plane to New York City, where she’ll appear live on QVC selling pain relief spray and cream. “The only other times I did this were over Skype,” she says. “I can’t believe I’m actually going to be in the studio.” Not long ago, the Lake View resident, 45, was in just the kind of pain that her wellness brand, Asutra, strives to soothe. She was working a stressful job in nonprofit fundraising that left her little time to do the things she loved: tending to her garden, going for a jog, and hanging out with her husband. “I was burned out,” she says. “When I quit, I learned to take care of myself. And through serendipity, I found how to share that…

THE MAIL BEGAN PILING UP outside a brick bungalow on South Troy Street the week before Christmas in 2016. An 87-year-old man lived inside, alone. Everyone on the block knew Joseph Stancak, the slight figure pushing his two-wheeled shopping cart to Pete’s Fresh Market on Kedzie, walking down the street with his hands clasped behind his back, or cutting his grass with an old Sunbeam electric mower. As one of the last white holdouts on a Gage Park block that was nearly all Latino, Stancak stood out. His new neighbors looked after his well-being, though, shoveling his walk after a heavy snow. On the morning of Monday, December 19, postal carrier Crystal Hayes noticed that Stancak hadn’t brought in his mail from Friday or Saturday. She asked a firefighter who lived…

People often assume that reactions show up the first time you are introduced to a potential trigger. Not always, says Northwestern Medicine allergist Anju Tripathi Peters: “You may be exposed to a cat growing up and not be allergic.” The same could happen with medication or food. “Some things your body gets sensitized to, and then going forward you may have a life-threatening reaction. You could be eating something like shrimp your whole life, and then all of a sudden you develop an allergy to it.”…

A recent study found that 6 to 7 percent of cystic fibrosis sufferers born between 2010 and 2018 were Black and 13 percent were Hispanic. Yet even some health care providers have the misconception that it only strikes white people, says Susanna A. McColley, a pulmonologist at Lurie Children’s Hospital: “Black parents tell us over and over that their concerns were dismissed, that they had child protective services called on them because their child wasn’t growing.”…

LAST APRIL, CHICAGO TRIBUNE CARTOONIST SCOTT STANTIS DREW AN L SYSTEM map with stations named “Mugged,” “Knifed,” “Trash,” and “Urine.” Harsh, but he had a point: The pandemic has left Chicago’s trademark transit feature less reliable, safe, and sanitary, causing even loyal users to shun it. Even as people return to their normal routines, L use is only half of what it was three years ago. Fueling the unreliability is a shortage of drivers. The Chicago Transit Authority adjusted its train schedules last fall to better align with available labor, but many runs are still getting skipped. Every day, the local rider advocacy group Commuters Take Action tweets the percentage of fulfilled Blue Line runs; in late December, it was hovering around 66 percent. And no one wants to be hanging…

SETH JONES OWES A lot to genetics — and geography. At the turn of the millennium the 6-foot-4 Texas native’s dad, NBA journeyman Popeye Jones, played for the Denver Nuggets (where he’s now an assistant coach). That was a key time for the city’s pro hockey team. Six-year-old Seth was in the stadium for Game 7, when the Colorado Avalanche clinched the Stanley Cup — and a passion was born. Two decades and countless predawn Sunday skating lessons later, Jones, 28, plays for the Blackhawks, along with younger brother Caleb. Now in his 10th NHL season (his first with Chicago), the defenseman and alternate captain just made his fifth All-Star appearance. WHAT’S YOUR APPROACH TO FITNESS? “During the season, I don’t go over the top with the heavy lifting, because…

1 THE BLANCHE TRIBECCA’S SANDWICH SHOP The tiny shop offers a line of four Golden Girls–themed English muffin breakfast sandwiches (one for each character), and the Blanche pays homage to the saucy Southern belle. It features candied bacon, a folded scrambled egg, white cheddar, Duke’s mayo, and some pickled jalapeños for a little tangy heat. $8.95. 2949 W. Belmont Ave., Avondale 2 VEGGIE, EGG, AND CHEESE BREAKFAST SANDWICH LOAF LOUNGE Loaded with braised kale, pickled mushrooms and peppers, herbed mayo, American cheese, and a perfectly runny egg, this tasty number is a worthy order whether you’re vegetarian or not. The tender housemade English muffin brings it home. $8. 2934 N. Milwaukee Ave., Avondale 3 FRIED EGG SANDWICH RAGADAN A Jordanian street-food-inspired spot, Ragadan offers creative egg sandwiches in addition to…

1 KINDLING DOWNTOWN COOKOUT & COCKTAILS What Jonathon Sawyer (Adorn, Cleveland’s Greenhouse Tavern) heads up this sprawling new Loop spot from the Fifty/50 Restaurant Group that features plates cooked over the live fire hearth. Why Expect a global tour of flavors with bites like Sawyer’s now-classic jalapeño-lime confit chicken wings, duck rigatoni, and a loaded raw bar with oysters four ways (try Versailles style, with Champagne Hollandaise and caviar). Where 202 S. Franklin St., Loop 2 THE M ROOM What A tasting-menu restaurant from Roka Akor chef Ce Bian that’s inspired by (checks notes) Macallan Scotch Why Expect dishes like wagyu tataki with barley miso and fresh truffle paired with Scotch cocktails or neat pours. Where 450 N. Clark St., River North 3 BRASSERIE BY C&C What The restaurant formerly known as…

Artist Bianca Pastel has already collaborated with the likes of Nike, Disney, and the Chicago Bears. She’s illustrated a children’s book. But she has even bigger ambitions. “I want to be the Walt Disney or Miyazaki of my world and bring Black animation to life,” Pastel, 30, says. “These are my dreams, and I am fully capable of them.” Pastel, who grew up in Country Club Hills and lives in Pilsen, got her start interning for Hebru Brantley after graduating from Columbia College. Once labeled Brantley’s protégé, she has since made a name for herself as an illustrator, animator, and graphic designer. Her style of pop art, inspired by the ’90s cartoons Rugrats and Hey Arnold!, employs similar whimsical settings not just to evoke nostalgia but also to push back…

“Everybody’s asking me, ‘What you gonna do, gonna be?’” Liam Kazar sings on his mind-blowingly good 2021 debut album, Due North. “I couldn’t tell you if I tried; I’m just a poem with an open line.” The 29-year-old singer-songwriter from Albany Park has since answered his own question: He’s one of Chicago’s most promising musicians. After the release of that album — which feels like a next-door neighbor to Bob Dylan and David Bowie and was dubbed a “fully formed, fleshed-out ace debut” by the online music magazine Aquarium Drunkard — Kazar’s profile has steadily risen. Last year, he shared the stage with indie rockers the New Pornographers on the West Coast, toured Europe with Kevin Morby, and opened for Grammy winner Lucinda Williams before doing a sold-out show of…

Agop Tepeli, a pulmonologist at Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest, says many of his patients have no idea that the chemicals in their — or even their partner’s — cologne, perfume, or aftershave could provoke an asthma attack. Sometimes when he walks into a patient’s hospital room, it’s filled with a strong scent, and he has to tell the patient to lose the fragrance they’re wearing. “They are surprised, and some get offended,” he says. “The way I put it: ‘You smell nice, but it’s not good for you.’”…

◼ When Elaine Frei says she hopes to transform the way you see a balloon, she’s not just full of hot air. The Luft Balloons owner opened her first store in December to better showcase her artistic arrangements of everyone’s favorite party accent. (Previously, she worked mostly through event planners.) The 100-plus color options are all custom to the shop. For an Instagram-worthy experience, wander to the backroom, where on special occasions you’ll find yourself in a balloon box of sorts, with dangling vines, foils, and whatever else Frei dreams up. “This isn’t Party City,” she says. 1900 W. North Ave., Bucktown…

> HOT SEAT Salt beechwood chair by Ton, $262. Design Within Reach, 755 W. North Ave., Goose Island > SUN BOWL MoMA Design Store wire mesh bowl, $50. Nordstrom, 55 E. Grand Ave., Near North Side > BLUE LIGHT Filter powder-coated steel LED table lamp, $350. Blu Dot, 1953 N. Clybourn Ave., Lincoln Park > QUICK TURN ES17 wood corkscrew by Ettore Sottsass from Alessi, $130. Bloomingdale’s, 900 N. Michigan Ave., Magnificent Mile > COOK’S CHOICE Bertazzoni Professional Series 30-inch dual-fuel range, $6,549. Abt Electronics, 1200 N. Milwaukee Ave., Glenview…