“I don’t know if you can quote this, but this world is fucked,” says Carris Adams, program and exhibition manager for south-side cultural incubator Rebuild Foundation. Today that’s a widely held opinion because, well, Trump, but the fuckedness of the world has been the only thing black Americans have known since our transatlantic voyage. “Black people need a place—whether it’s literature, film, art, or a physical space—where they can relax for a minute and be normal and not have people stare at them for being there,” Adams says....

A few days after President Obama pledged to cut the number of standardized tests students take each year, high school art teacher Molly Pankhurst sat with her kids in a Chicago classroom, apologized for what she was about to do to them, and forced them to take another central-office-mandated test. Those would be the PARCC—Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers—and the NWEA—Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress....

Trumpeter Russ Johnson is a fleet, lyrical soloist and a shrewd, supportive accompanist with a satisfyingly broad tone—qualities that made him a prized sideman during his 23-year sojourn in New York City. Since moving back to his home state of Wisconsin in 2012 to take a teaching position at University of Wisconsin-Parkside, he’s been a frequent visitor to Chicago. He is equally valued as a collaborator and supporting player for saxophonist Nick Mazzarella and bassist Matt Ulery, among many others, but he’s really come into his own as a bandleader....

In 2008 I was lucky enough to see “© Murakami,” a significant retrospective of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s work, at the Brooklyn Museum (the show had opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, which organized it). The exhibit was very much of that moment in time, visualizing and addressing the symptoms and aesthetics of mid- to late-2000s capitalism, right before the housing market was about to collapse the global economy....

Sorcerer For the next two Fridays and Saturdays at midnight, the Music Box will screen a new restoration of Sorcerer, William Friedkin’s 1977 remake of Henri-Georges Cluzot’s The Wages of Fear. The director’s first feature after the smash hits The French Connection and The Exorcist, Sorcerer was a critical and commercial disappointment when it was originally released. Audiences were baffled by the film’s structure, which devotes nearly its entire first half to exposition before getting to the central conflict—the fact that none of characters are particularly sympathetic was surely another hurdle....

Indefinable musician Willis Earl Beal hasn’t made much of an appearance in his hometown of Chicago since January 2015, when he performed a synth-heavy set that coincided with the debut screening of the restless 2014 indie flick he starred in called Memphis. Since then Beal has dropped three releases through Tender Loving Empire, an arts shop/record label based in Portland, where he now lives. The imprint first rereleased his 2015 EP Noctunes, then came an EP called Through the Dark last April, and in July there was A Chaos Paradigm, which Beal made under the name Nobody....

Since Evanston’s Muse of Fire Theatre Company will disband in September, after nine summers of performing Shakespeare for free and mostly outdoors, it’d be great to say that they’re going out with a bang. But that’s not the case. Although it offers stalwart performances, some smart direction by Jemma Alix Levy, and an entertainingly breezy, unapologetic embodiment of the title villain by Jon Beal, this Richard III has its troubles. Some of which are familiar from previous MOF productions....

Mounting Tension (1950) On Thursday at 7 PM, the Poetry Foundation will present a free program of short films made by Rudy Burckhardt (1914-99) in collaboration with famous poets, among them John Ashbery and Frank O’Hara. Burckhardt remains best known for his photography—pace the UK Independent‘s obituary, “his images of [New York City], for example the classic one of the Flatiron Building, are among the most fundamental and enduring taken this century—though he was also prolific as a painter and filmmaker....

Mick Dumke Congressman Bobby Rush convened a roomful of heavy hitters who promised to bring “hope and healing” to scarred neighborhoods. The reporters were told to wait outside the meeting room. The suggestion was that something big was happening in there. But others—including Mayor Rahm Emanuel—regularly respond by holding press conferences, often to blame political opponents and propose tougher laws. The other officials expressed similar ambitions. The mayor promised that the group would work on revitalizing the surrounding neighborhood and “bringing back what has slipped away....

Hair Wars 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.

In Angelin Preljocaj’s contemporary ballet Snow White, the arresting psychological situation is a romantic rivalry between Snow White, the Prince—and Snow White’s dominatrix stepmother, the Queen. The choreography rises well above pantomime. The acute, intelligent images are extremely alluring. And the fairy tale’s most important scenes—Snow White’s apparent demise and her resurrection—register as exhilarating jolts. Based on the original by the Brothers Grimm, this Snow White departs from the narrative most of us know....

Picture it: Iowa City, March 2014. Laughter fills the women’s bathroom at Brothers, a huge sports bar that squats next to the University of Iowa. As undergrads line the mirror, fiddling with their lipstick and offering each other sloppy affirmations, my friend Annie and I stand in a stall, pulling ski masks over our faces. I think it’s perfectly fine to spend hours sniffing bath bombs at Lush, and most folks I know could benefit from some solo time with a coloring book....

This year just past—in which tens of millions of people whipsawed by facts and fake facts and tribal memes delivered a surprise ending we might have seen coming if we’d spotted all the clues—constitutes a powerful argument for a kind of journalism in short supply: stories that spend respectful time with individual people and listen closely to what they have to say. This is the kind of journalism the Anne Keegan Award was created in 2012 to honor—”stories of ordinary people” that “give voice to the voiceless” and reflect the “dignity and spirit of the common man....

There are plenty of shows, films, and concerts happening this week. Here’s some of what we recommend: Tue 7/31: Young shoegaze maven Will Kraus expresses himself even more clearly on his second album, Path. 8 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $12, $10 in advance. 18+

Lucy Hewett Tune-Yards Philip Montoro: In Saturday morning’s recap, I declared that “The festival’s first day belongs to the women,” based on the Reader team’s enthusiasm for Neneh Cherry and Sharon Van Etten. For me the second day was about women too: Tune-Yards and St. Vincent. Mindful of my role as Beer and Metal columnist, I made sure to try both of Goose Island’s Pitchfork collaborations—a Kölsch called SVE brewed with input from Sharon Van Etten and a pilsner called Recommended brewed with Pitchfork staff....

It’s the audience who first performs in Stephen Webb’s The Sister Twins, a new play about self-discovery through the breaking of routine. The show begins with a tea party, the actors serving audience members their cuppa, sugar lumps, and cucumber sandwiches. Social etiquette and self-awareness go hand in hand, and the vehicle of tea perfectly launches us into the lives of two sisters whose very world depends on rigid adherence to ritual....

Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media, LLC Ride ’em, cowboy 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.

Miki Matsushima Boris 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.

Emily Coughlin Chicago Dance Crash 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.

Lara Goetsch Alex Weisman and Lawrence Grimm in My Name Is Asher Lev 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.