Pasted to the front door of Pilsen’s Casa Aztlán is a handwritten sign that reads, “Donation $15—if unemployed, $5.” Inside the performance space, Benito Juárez and Pancho Villa stare grimly from the mural that covers the walls. Their vibrantly rendered figures are barely visible in the darkened room—every few moments their faces appear from behind a dancing audience member or a community volunteer. The presence of two icons of Mexican progressivism in this makeshift ballroom is fitting: May Day, known as International Workers’ Day outside the United States, is a commemoration of the fight for the eight-hour workday and a reminder of the oppressive conditions that persist for many laborers. In collaboration with Portoluz and Rockotitlan, Casa Aztlán hosts the annual May Day Blast, which celebrates Pilsen’s rich culture while raising awareness of the conditions of migrant workers. Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, April 9, the sound of leather soles hitting the pavement and the booming DJ set at the Chicago Art Department created the pleasurable din that fills Halsted Street during Pilsen’s Second Fridays gallery crawl. While patrons sipped white wine out of plastic cups in some of the neighborhood’s trendier art spaces, a gallery a little further down the block offered viewers a more intimate aesthetic experience. The Logsdon 1909 Gallery’s current exhibition, “Subtext,” features intriguing mixed-media pieces by Lucinda Alston Chapman and Philip High. In addition to the art itself, the nature of the gallery plays a crucial role in shaping and enhancing the viewing experience. Logsdon 1909 doubles as an exhibition space and a personal residence: a real-world example of what it means to live and breathe art. Read the rest of this entry »

It is a sweltering, beginning-of-April afternoon and the Pilsen arts collective No Coast is caught at a point of transition. The front exhibition and store space is in the process of being converted into a performance venue for the closing event of Tessa Siddle’s show “Hexenhaus.” Despite this, everything is in good order: stacks of prints and publications, T-shirts, and other crafts easily browsed through. There is plenty of light and plenty to look at. Such is the juggling act of No Coast, which evolves smoothly from storefront into studio, workshop, and performance space. Read the rest of this entry »

The POST Pilsen gallery’s monthly market, featuring vendors selling items from hot sauce to vintage clothing to tapes, is not a typical craft fair. Natasha Ryan and Bojan Jovanovic, who operate the gallery and organized the market, intend the monthly fair to be “an eclectic group of people…a fusing of different ages, different ideas,” according to Ryan. She and Jovanovic have hosted a variety of musicians, artists, and other performers in their Racine Avenue apartment gallery since they moved there last November. The two work together at a booking agency for musicians, and their work inspires them to organize events in unusual venues: “We want to have uncommon events at a gallery-slash-home,” Ryan says. Read the rest of this entry »

Included in the Dream Theatre Company’s mission statement is the wish to “shatter the barrier between actor and audience.” In their latest production, “Agamemnon”, it was a small barrier to shatter. Only two players act in the tragedy onstage, and last Saturday, only five that people sat in the audience. The lack of attendance may have been the evening’s greater tragedy, because “Agamemnon”, in addition to being superbly written, is a genuinely well-acted production. Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to pay lots of money in exchange for being asked increasingly obscure and intellectual questions that will leave you hunched over the bar counter, drunk, broke, and brainless, Hyde Park is the place you’re looking for. The University of Chicago Pub, in the basement of Ida Noyes (1212 E. 59th), hosts an intensely competitive trivia night every Tuesday at 8pm that requires participants to draw upon their knowledge of Malaysian geography, Romantic novelists, and theoretical physics, as well as the trivia standards of one-hit wonders and Bears scores. The rewards are high—a cash prize for first place, in addition to random free appetizers and Pub merchandise—but they come at a price: each participant must pay $3 to enter, and the bar is open only to University affiliates and their guests after buying a $10 membership or paying a $3 cover. Read the rest of this entry »

All the surfaces in the lobby of Pilsen’s EP Theater are covered in vinyl, chipped polish, and at least seven layers of irony. The decorators of this room seem to have taken their cues from effete Victorian imagery and coupled it with the limp-wristed flamboyance of ’70s chic. So it came as no surprise that, before the Lights Out Theatre Company’s performance last Friday of Justin Tracz’s “Song For A Future Generation,” a woman emerged from behind the cardboard backdrop and welcomed the twenty or so audience members with the introduction: “This play is about a dance party in space, so let’s make some noise, alright?” Read the rest of this entry »

On the ground lies Geoffrey, a cat who has seen better days. His limbs are splayed out and his skin is peeled off. The apparatus that killed Geoffrey is constructed from simple materials: a plastic bag, an air mattress pump, hair, epoxy, and packaging tape. The bag is appended to the twisted form of the animal and can be inflated from underneath in a novel method of torture that only uses household materials. A table, strewn with makeshift construction materials—Styrofoam cups, a plastic fan, clothespins—faces a wall filled with sketches for various other devices. The macabre scene is part of “Inland Architect,” the new installation piece by artist Chris Smith at Pilsen’s antena gallery. Read the rest of this entry »