Few younger musicians at work in New York’s jazz and improvised music scene have impressed me as consistently as reedist Anna Webber, a native of British Columbia who has demonstrated admirable artistic restlessness since moving to the city in 2008. In recent years she’s delivered consistently bracing, rigorous work with an ever-expanding number of working ensembles deftly illuminated by shifting lineups, timbres, concepts, or structural conceits. Last fall she dropped Binary (Skirl), the second album by her Simple Trio—which is anything but simple—with percussionist John Hollenbeck and pianist Matt Mitchell....

Chicago Architecture Biennial Aside from the main exhibition taking place at the Cultural Center, this year’s biennial boasts a number of smaller satellite shows, including new “anchor sites” in various neighborhoods; “Past Forward: Architecture and Design at the Art Institute,” an installation devoted to the museum’s collection; and many related productions at smaller galleries. Read more about it in Anjulie Rao’s story about CAB. Through 1/7/18, various dates and locations, main exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E....

Local dance troupe the Cambrians aren’t a sedentary bunch. What began as the Nexus Project—an experimental one-off in 2013, conceived by former Hubbard Street dancer Benjamin Holliday Wardell—has morphed into a network of “dance personalities” with a growing international pedigree. “Usually the problem with the Cambrians stuff is there’s a lot to talk about.”

It’s not fair to compare the 2014 World Music Festival roster with the mind-boggling lineups of the late 90s and early 00s. Times change, and those glory days are gone—budgets are smaller at the agencies that organize and support the fest, U.S. work visas are harder than ever to obtain (at least for nonstars), and foreign artists can make more touring Europe (or even staying at home). That said, this year’s event is pretty terrific....

The Time is Now!” is the title of both a big, beautiful exhibit on view at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum through December, and the equally big and beautiful book that functions as its catalog. It was taken from one of the artworks in the show, a 1968 photograph by Darryl Cowherd. There are white artists here—most notably the Hairy Who and other Chicago Imagists who showed their work at the Hyde Park Art Center when it was headed by Don Baum—but really, it’s not about them....

There’s plenty to do this weekend. Here’s some of what we recommend: 3/16-3/19: In/Motion, the dance film festival hosted by Loyola University Chicago (1032 W. Sheridan), includes screenings of shorts and features, master dance classes, live performances, and Q&As with guests such as Bessie Award winner Celia Rowlson-Hall (Ma). Sun 3/19: The Chicago Architecture Foundation (224 S. Michigan) hosts Lego Build Workshop: Harold Washington Library, an examination of the symbols built into the city’s library followed by a workshop re-creating the building with Lego....

R. Kelly’s Chicago studio at 219 N. Justine is listed for sale for nearly $4.5 million by the current owner, Wisconsin-based Midwest Commercial Funding LLC. The West Loop studio space, outfitted with window bars and surveillance cameras, is also the place where the R&B star has allegedly kept an entourage of women (other reporting has used the words “cult” or “harem”) confined during his stints in the city. The two-story, 8,000-square-foot building is listed as an “investment property with a high profile tenant paying $22,927....

“They suck at school,” announces the poster for this high school horror comedy, but in point of fact the whole movie sucks. Richelle Mead’s six Vampire Academy novels have sold about eight million copies, and this horrendous adaptation of the first one, produced by the Weinstein Company, operates on the assumption that every ticket buyer will be a 13-year-old girl with a Talmudic knowledge of the series. The movie takes place at a tony private school, St....

This story was originally published by ProPublica Illinois. Fifty years ago this week, violence outside the convention and infighting within it captured the country’s attention, becoming an enduring sign of the political and cultural battles of the era, even for those of us who were born later. But, the report concluded: “The nature of the response was unrestrained and indiscriminate police violence on many occasions, particularly at night. That violence was made all the more shocking by the fact that it was often inflicted upon persons who had broken no law, disobeyed no order, made no threat....

Despite its recent enthusiasm for beckoning cool restaurateurs to Hyde Park, the University of Chicago didn’t always want to be part of the city surrounding it. Beginning in the 50s, the university adopted urban renewal initiatives meant to control what it viewed as encroaching blight—and in the process destroyed commercial districts, sent thousands of poor African-Americans packing, and turned the neighborhood into a grim fortress. Yes, they sure are proud of their fireplace at the Promontory, which is used to variously sear strip loin and ahi tuna (“fast”), slow-roast lamb and pork ribs (“embers”), char the vegetables employed in reimagined classic dishes (“historic”), and even to somehow char vermouth used in a “hearth Manhattan”—an egregious interpretation that tastes like a shot of Fireball....

Looking for something to do today? Agenda‘s got you covered. For more on these events and others, check out the Reader‘s daily Agenda page.

A handful of years ago it became socially acceptable for punks and freaks—the types of people who’d spent their entire lives raging against hippies and wooks—to get into the Grateful Dead. I’m guilty of that myself, and with the Dead acting as my gateway drug, I’ve become aware that more and more local weirdos are opening their minds to other alumni of the jam band circuit as well. Any time listeners start exploring different genres, that sort of progression is inevitable, but there’s one act among these groups that’s been picking up way more newfound appreciation than I’d expect: Dave Matthews Band, the musical equivalent of a pair of beige cargo shorts....

A couple of weeks ago I caught one of International Contemporary Ensemble’s two performances of George Lewis’s ambitious new opera Afterword: The AACM (as) Opera, a challenging piece based on the composer’s 2008 book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (University of Chicago). Aside from a few sections in which current members of the AACM such as reedist Douglas Ewart and vocalist Ann Ward improvised, very little of the music resembled the early days of Lewis’s career, which was spawned and inspired by his membership in the organization, beginning in 1971....

The story of any North American natural history museum would also have to be, at least partially, a story about Native North Americans—about their physical removal from the land and cultural removal from a central position in our various national histories and narratives. Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History—in particular, the museum’s Native North American Hall—is finding new ways to tell some of these stories. What is at stake is the question of who has the authority to tell which stories, and how that telling influences and constructs our realities....

Mike Sula Seafood gumbo, Anita’s Gumbo As a rule, the language of restaurant press releases rarely rises above a Yelp-like standard of persuasiveness (which is also why many of the food blogs that depend on them are so difficult to read). But something about the unaddressed mass e-mail I received from “Kenya Renee, the media and marketing personality for Anita’s Gumbo” got through to me. Maybe it was the shamelessly impersonal flattery: “I would first like to say congrats on all your successes....

In 1929 the Soviet government initiated a rural collectivization program in Ukraine, confiscating privately held farms and turning the farmers into state workers. The results were disastrous. By 1932, people were starving by the millions. Cannibalism was a big enough problem that posters were reportedly printed reminding people that “to eat your own children is a barbarian act.” Some argue that this catastrophe, known now as the Holodomor, wasn’t a bureaucratic failure but a sinister success—an act of genocide designed to wreck Ukrainian hopes for independence....

Hachette Book Group Despite what the cover looks like, this is not a sweet and whimsical book, and thank goodness for that. If you’re lucky, this summer you’re going to have a long plane ride or a few long afternoons beside a large body of water, and you’re going to need a book to keep you company. If you’re less lucky, you’re going to log hours riding on the el with other hot, smelly commuters and loud, drunk baseball fans, and you’re going to need a book not just for company, but for distraction....

[Editor’s note: This post was taken off-line shortly after it was originally published on May 17. It has been amended and republished to correct factual errors and to include additional information, sourcing, and reporting.] Asked about the fate of the Reader on Thursday, Sun-Times editor and publisher Jim Kirk offered the following statement via e-mail: In February 2016, Ferro left the Sun-Times to oversee the company that publishes its longtime competitor....

Fri 6/2: Kevin Coval discusses his book A People’s History of Chicago, a collection of poems celebrating the marginalized, often overlooked individuals who have shaped this city’s history. Coval will be joined by retired University of Illinois at Chicago professor Bill Ayers at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore (5751 S. Woodlawn). 6 PM For more stuff to do this weekend—and every day—check out our Agenda page.