Chicago Reader

In July 2022, the Yorkshire Post asked Patrick Stewart if, like his character Jean-Luc Picard, he actually drank Earl Grey tea. No, he said. He preferred Yorkshire Gold. I immediately ordered a large box, and, truth be told, it is delicious. So last nig... bit.ly/4ByDwvU

Usama Rafi's live-fire, Indo-Euro bistro Langar takes the Silk Road to the next Monday Night Foodball at Thattu. bit.ly/3WXqyYI

Whether out-of-town or local, festivals give artists opportunities for networking, classes, and building community. bit.ly/4iO69hf

Despite what seems like a corny premise, La bola negra artfully explores fascism and queerness. bit.ly/4iqFbuJ

Brynne Frauenhoffer's drama about faith and judgment gets an affecting and compassionate world premiere at Red Theater. bit.ly/4yKofpb

Collaboraction presents a world premiere by G. Riley Mills and Willie Round that draws upon Round's own life experiences. bit.ly/4yUnE4v

Manny Buckley's intimate production of August Wilson's grimmest play continues the story first explored in Seven Guitars. bit.ly/4yUnxWD

Hundreds of people held in immigration detention at the Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, Indiana, have suffered these and other abuses, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed by attorneys with multiple civil and immigrant rights ad... bit.ly/47UKb6b

Jorja Smith's sultry, dance-floor–filling third album, What Are the Odds (FAMM), is the sort of record she's been teasing for years. bit.ly/4sFGiM4

Stevie Wonder's sonic vision weaves jazz, psychedelia, electronic music, classical, and other forms into a new kind of progressive R&B. bit.ly/4itaJjQ

Once Upon a Time in Harlem is a celebration of Black artistry 50 years in the making. bit.ly/4yQd8eq

An Undying Love for a Burning World is steeped in heartache, alienation, hardship, and loss, but its impassioned performances, complex arrangements, and enveloping atmospheres still feel like a breath of fresh air. bit.ly/4zc9qgh

Multihyphenate artist Robbie Lynn Hunsinger is best known as a musician, and even a narrow accounting of her involvements there produces a list tall enough to give you a crick in the neck. bit.ly/4ijGZG0

Too many of Chicago's big venues are vehicles for corporate extraction. A midterm ballot measure lets us vote for other possibilities. bit.ly/4ibZGwA

Shakespeare's tragedy about an aging king with declining mental faculties and deadly pride resonates with our current situation. chicagoreader.com/performing…

The life of enslaved West African intellectual and spiritualist Omar ibn Said comes to the Lyric in this Pulitzer Prize–winning opera. chicagoreader.com/performing…

Netta Walker's world premiere at Gift Theatre is a powerful and meaty character study of one family's response to grief and trauma. bit.ly/3VYeDK5

Michele Stine's solo puppet show about loss and social anxiety gets an intimate setting at Redtwist Theatre's One-on-Wednesdays series. bit.ly/4zW6CDZ

First staged in 2022, this adaptation of Matt de la Peña's story of a little girl missing her immigrant father hits even harder now. bit.ly/3WvKdPl

Protomartyr has developed an increasingly ambitious postpunk style, packed with inventive riffs and poetic, observational lyrics by front man Joe Casey. bit.ly/4eCNqmp