Review: Teatro Luna’s Crossed By Alexander Perry Opening this week and running through December 18, Teatro Luna’s Crossed explores the immigrant experience through a festival of eclectic stories.  Using poetic prose, monologues, overlapping dialogue, character vignettes, and even a few...

Latino Theatre in Chicago by Alexander Perry It is an exciting time for Hispanic theatre and performance in Chicago.  Through the hard work and innovative efforts of talented playwrights, directors, actors, teachers, and dancers, a kind of Latino renaissance of Chicago theatre and...

Review: Teatro Vista’s Momma’s Boyz by Alexander Perry Running through December 4th, Teatro Vista’s Momma’s Boyz follows the story of three friends living in Chicago’s south side: the good-hearted yet timid Mimic, the charming yet brash Shine, and the aggressive yet insecure...

By Alexander Perry “With you, I’m sadly happy…” Closing this week at the Wicker Park Art Center (at St. Paul’s Church), UrbanTheater Company’s Beauty of the Father follows the complicated relationship tangle of a father, his daughter, their mutual paramour, and the ghost of...

It is an exciting time for Hispanic theatre and performance in Chicago. Through the hard work and innovative efforts of talented playwrights, directors, actors, teachers, and dancers, a kind of Latino renaissance of Chicago theatre and performance is slowly taking place. In this series of...

Sunday night was juerga night at the Harris By Debby Storms Flamenco singer Diego el Cigala and his group held a juerga on November 6 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, and it rocked. Or, I should say, it tangoed. Juerga means “party” in Spanish, and el Cigala and his band had...

MOONRISE: Going full circle with José Francisco Salgado By Don Macica Chicago based writer and arts marketing consultant As a third grader in San Juan, Puerto Rico, José Francisco Salgado found a book about the space program and the first manned mission to the moon. Fascinated, he began to...

Where Cultura Intertwines with Fashion By Olivia N. Castañeda Photos by © Magali Rangel In spirit of Dia de los Muertos, where cultura met couture, models solemnly stomped a black runway at the National Museum of Mexican Art on Friday, September 30, 2011.  The first annual fashion show...

Teatro Vista’s 2011 season Momma’s Boyz By Cándido Tirado Directed by Ricardo Gutierrez In their words: “Momma’s Boyz is a modern-day tale about three inner city friends magically given a second chance to revisit their decision to get some quick money by selling drugs. Updated and...

Image by Peter Wynn Thompson/Goodman Theatre It is an exciting time for Hispanic theatre and performance in Chicago.  Through the hard work and innovative efforts of talented playwrights, directors, actors, teachers, and dancers, a kind of Latino renaissance of Chicago theatre and...

Studio Mangiameli Fall is here and that usually has many of us thinking it’s time to go back to school. But what about those of us who no longer are in school or need a quick break from the textbooks? Chicago is a great place to enrich, explore and participate in the culture all around the...

“El miedo es el que levanta los muros” Raúl Dorantes By Tanya Victoria Raul Dorantes is a Chicago writer and playwright who manages, in a delightful way, to create a realistic situation with bright comedy moments. We find political interpretation in the stories he writes. His new play...

The Immigrant Superman By Alexander Perry This September, DC Comics will relaunch their entire comic book line to offer a fresh start to new readers. As part of this relaunch effort, a stellar team of artists, writers, and editors are re-imagining Superman, their flagship character, for the...

Corazón de Manzana By Alexander Perry Opening this weekend at the DCA Storefront Theater, Mortar Theater’s Corazón de Manzana follows the harrowing journey of three mothers and daughters as they become entangled in the little-known femicide occurring in Juarez, Mexico.  Though the...

Built Festival encourages collaboration in container filled art metropolis By Alexander Perry The first annual Built Festival this past weekend evoked the kind of laid-back ambiance you would expect from a make-shift hive of nearly twenty shipping containers parked in an Aldi’s parking...

Le Butcherettes by Jack Edinger courtesy of Lollapalooza Limited acts show diversity in Latino music by Christina E. Rodriguez Nothing says summertime in Chicago like music festivals, particularly the one that closes off the majority of Grant Park for a weekend and doesn’t involve food....

Las Guitarras de España at the Mayne Stage: A feast of flamenco, Chicago-style By Debby Storms Do you love world music? Do you love, love LOVE flamenco like I do? Then I hope you caught Las Guitarras de España latest concert at the Mayne Stage last Saturday, July 23 for the third in what...

Marisa Andropolis If Looks Could Kill Oil 48″x36″ 7th Annual Self-Portrait Exhibit • Zhou B. Art Center, 1029 W. 35th Street • Curated by Sergio Gomez • On display from July 15th to August 15th By Alexander Perry When you look inward, what do you see? More importantly, what...

Novalima at Mayne Stage by Don Macica Chicago-based writer and Marketing Director The cover art for Novalima’s third album, Coba Coba, perfectly encapsulates everything you could want to know: A deeply colorized picture of an ageless black man sitting astride a cajon, perhaps the most...

Mardi Gras Mambo: New Orleans comes to Symphony Center by Don Macica Chicago-based writer and Marketing Director New Orleans has always been something very different from the rest of the United States. No doubt much of this stems from the fact that while England was colonizing what would...

Libby Komaiko: Dancer, Choreographer, Artistic Director, Founder of Ensemble Español and Master of Castanets By Debby Storms Dame Libby Komaiko has been recognized for many achievements over her career, including being the first American artist in history (in 1982) to be decorated with...

An interview with Libby Komaiko, Founder and Artistic Director, Ensemble Español This week, Chicago’s acclaimed Ensemble Español celebrates the 35th AMERICAN SPANISH DANCE & MUSIC FESTIVAL. From June 16 to 26, more than 40 dancers, singers, musicians, and visual artists including...

Life is a Dream comes to an end by Benita Zepeda For those who may have missed out on the Vitalist Theater’s production of Helen Edmundson’s version of Calderon de la Barca’s classic story Life is a Dream, a great opportunity to satisfy an artistic hunger was missed, as this was a great...

Story and Photos by Olivia Castañeda Olivia-Nathania@sbcglobal.net There is an intimate studio in the Gold Coast area where the creations of high-quality, custom-made handbags occur daily.  Located at 1050 N. State St., designer Diego Rocha brings his ideas to life using exotic skins only,...

Spanish summer nights in Chicago By Alexander Perry for Extra News on June 9 With a chorus of foot-taps and hand-claps, mournful cantaores, and celebratory cheers, Chiara Magiameli and her students transformed the Charnel House’s low vaulted ceilings and close spaces into a Tablao...

Miguel Zenón at the Jazz Showcase: Puerto Rican heritage meets 21st century jazz by Don Macica Chicago-based writer and Marketing Director Saxophonist Miguel Zenón has spent the last several years exploring and reinterpreting the musical idioms of his native Puerto Rico, starting with...

Studio Mangiameli Presented The 3rd Annual Tablao Flamenco & Student Concert 2011 Supported by Arte y Vida Chicago and Flamenco Arts Center Guest Artists included: Carlo Basile, guitar David Chiriboga, guitar Kinan Abou-Afach, cello and oud Jim Collinsworth, percussion Chiara Mangiameli,...

Image: Mark Bradford, Scorched Earth, 2006. Collection of Dennis and Debra Scholl. Photo: Bruce M. White. A Truly Rich Man by KP Dawes Chicago-based writer and editor In our collective psyche, South Central Los Angeles represents the failures of the American dream. A sun bleached slum, awash...

A Story of Loss by Christina E. Rodriguez Deep and emotional, yet not a tear-jerker. Multi-layered and dense, but easy to follow. Bilingual yet easily understood by all those watching. “Freedom, NY” is a play that falls into all of these categories, making points in many different...

Chicago Youth in Music Festival Reaches Out To A Diverse Audience By Alejandro Escalona World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma is thrilled that the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Carlos Chávez and the Niños Cantores de Morelia will perform in the 2011 Chicago Youth in Music Festival. “The Chicago...