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14 East Magazine:
“Bad Game of Musical Chairs:” The Downfall of Chicago’s Single-room Occupancies
Free Street Theatre’s ‘Parched’ Lets Teenagers Combine the Personal with the Political
Indie Rock Collective boygenius Proves Sensibility Is Better When Shared
DePaulia:
Valerie Johnson brings activism to academia
Diversity ratings show inclusion efforts at DePaul fall short of real progress
Panel at DePaul event proves power of community art
DePaul president on waning enrollment, diversity concerns in State of University
DePaul duo will use grant to research violence in African American youth
Logan Squarist
New Nonprofit Aims to Combat Sexual Harassment in the Food and Drink Industry
Chicago People’s Inauguration Works to Bridge the Gap Between Institutions, Aldermen and Citizens
Uncommon Ground’s Inclusive Open Mic Proves the Power in Grassroots Art
By Nikki Ramos, Patsy Newitt, Jessica Rish, & Jocelyn Soto
In a neighborhood littered with Cubs fans stumbling down crowded streets, Uncommon Ground is unexpected. The cozy bar and restaurant tucked away on the corner of Clark and Grace Street, offers a haven from the chaos of Wrigley Field after a game. It sticks out like a sore thumb.
Despite Wrigleyville having a bar on every corner and Uncommon Ground’s lack of cohesion with the rest of the neighborhood, the tiny front still manages to fill the house every Monday night for the venue’s popular open mic event.
Uncommon Ground’s Monday night open mic event is a staple event of Chicago’s art scene. With a sign-up list that regularly fills up several pages of a yellow legal pad, the popular event gives performers of all varieties the opportunity to showcase their work.
Monday June 3, 8 p.m., was just a regular Monday night for Uncommon Ground. But for first-time attendees, the diverse performances were a diversion from the typical open mic, something unique and welcome to all Chicagoans brave enough to sign up.
This personifies the premise of Uncommon Ground Open Mic – fundamental inclusivity. Performers are limited only by a five-minute time constraint. Outside of that, anyone is welcome and encouraged to perform anything. There are no limits.
The show featured a comedy set centered around a wet t-shirt contest, a man singing an acapella rendition of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow” from A Star is Born, and an individual who got on stage exclusively to tell a long-winded story about entertainment in 1964.
The event is incredibly popular, hence the extensive legal pad sign-up list. Sign-up begins at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. show, but the website encourages performers to show up early to ensure a spot.
For more seasoned artists, 2019 marked their tenth year performing, for others, it was their first time on stage.
“The goal is to encourage upcoming artists to come out and share themselves and their material for the first time in front of their peers,” said Eric Quigley, the host, and producer of the event.
This complete adherence to inclusivity opens the door to potentially cringe-worthy material, but Uncommon Ground and its audience are not deterred. Uncommon Ground is intentionally welcoming. Bring your good, your bad, and your man telling a story.
For the performers, this inclusivity was palpable. “I haven’t been into too many scenes like this, but it was cool, it was open,” Jimmy Gavin, first-time musical performer, said. “It was fun because it was a combination of things and that’s what things like these are about.”
Unlike other open mic venues around the city, Uncommon Ground offers a tangible and immediate reward – the winner not only gets half of the donation earnings from the empty beer pitcher passed around throughout the show like an offering plate but also access to Chicago’s music scene.
Every Monday, Quigley chooses the best of the performances to move on to the next level. The weekly winners are invited to compete at a final competition where the ultimate winner receives a cash prize, Shure microphones, Greenstar Brewing, and Uncommon Ground Merchandise, a 30-minute artist photo shoot, an opportunity to perform an original piece on the radio, an on-air interview, an independent show at Uncommon Ground, and Opening Slots at Chicago Venues.
These final competitions are hosted twice a year, in January and July, and are open to the public.
The winner is chosen by Quigley, based on performance, song, musicianship, crowd reaction, and participation. The performers rarely question this subjectivity because winning is not really what the performance is about. It’s about embracing the opportunity for performance and the venue that supports it.
The goal of the competition is to create a network for emerging artists, providing an avenue for new performers to get their foot in the door.
“A lot of the times that is their first show, and then from there they are kind of set and have a network and know who they are booking through,” said Quigley. “I often see those same people playing Elbo Room and other places throughout the city. So it provides kind of a launching pad.”
Uncommon Ground itself is a perfect spot for the action. Wrigleyville, despite all its chaos, gives the venue extensive foot traffic. From the outside, Uncommon Ground is unassuming, but once inside, the venue is spacious, warm and bright.
The venue’s commitment to social awareness and inclusivity isn’t exclusive to its open mics. During the day, Uncommon Ground is a healthy and sustainable restaurant, home of the first certified organic brewery in Illinois and the first certified organic rooftop farm in the US. Vegetables are homegrown, and they have a solar panel on the roof.
Though they didn’t serve their full dinner menu in the space where the mic took place – dubbed “Music Room” by a colorful sign before the entrance – the event had a specials and snacks menu, an extensive drink selection, and table service for audience members.
These aspects make Uncommon Ground uniquely suited for audience engagement, producing a community supportive of every act regardless of the quality.
June 3 proved no different, with some audience members even providing back-up vocals from their seats to a performer who forgot his words. The audience isn’t sitting silently watching with an air of judgment, but instead, are actively making Uncommon Ground a place where performers feel at ease before going up on stage.
“It is a listening room,” Quigley said, “A lot of open mics are placed in bars where it’s noisy, and there is a lot going on. This room is designed around people bringing in their material and everyone paying close attention to it.”
It’s easy to dismiss open mics on the premise of inexperience, but Monday nights at Uncommon Ground prove that throwing standards out the window doesn’t have to diminish the validity of the art itself.
Uncommon Ground provides a perfect venue for deinstitutionalized art explicitly.
“Something like an open mic is a great creative outlet to come out and interact with people,” Gavin said, “You never know who you are going to meet, and just show what you are doing.”
Comedy Bar Puts a Spin on Traditional Open Mic Performances
By Nikki Ramos, Patsy Newitt, Jessica Rish, & Jocelyn Soto
Open mic events seem to have a cringe-worthy connotation – an assumption that the work performed will be rough, unprofessional, or often-times offensive.
Regardless of the validity in that connotation, the goal of open mic events remains objectively honest – provide an outlet for those who lack access to higher standards of art performance.
The Comedy Bar, located in Gino’s East in the River North District, is one of the many open mic opportunities in the Chicago area. Comedians of all skill levels are invited to sign up on Thursdays at 8:30.
Art can often feel exclusive to those who fit a certain status quo, making events like these necessary for the continuation of grassroots creativity.
Check out our video highlighting how the Comedy Bar plays a pivotal role in making comedy accessible and their entertaining wheel-shaped take on the typical open mic.
Navigating Life Post-Art School
After graduating art school, it’s difficult to maneuver the loss of institutional facilities at your fingertips. Young artists are left without spaces to grow and without communities to support.
Paola Lopez, who graduated from SAIC in 2018, is managing this transition by doing the heavy lifting herself.
Alongside two other graduates, she created a woodworking studio in Humboldt Park where she works daily. Here, the group hosts weekly art critiques.
By creating a community, Lopez hopes to ease the post-art school transition, encouraging artistic growth outside the confines of art school.
Chicago art scene’s inclusivity makes this process easier, providing mechanisms to support emerging artists and giving them the opportunity to gain experience in the industry.
Chicago Venues – the foundation of the city’s art scene
A venue can make or break an event – a concert/ art exhibition can be tainted by something as simple as an uncomfortably laid-out room or an apathetic employee.
Chicago is known for its vibrant music and art scene – the city sets the standard for the Midwest. Chicago’s surplus of inclusive and intimate venues accentuates the art, creating high-quality spaces that work alongside high-quality art.
I have compiled a map of some of Chicago’s venues, featuring three of my personal favorites.
Empty Bottle
In a unsettling age where dive-bar vintage energy is romanticized (see Edison Bulbs), the Empty Bottle in the Ukrainian Village could seem contrived – stickers covering every surface of the wall, a general musty smell, an overwhelming presence of angry-looking trendy young men. But that assumption exists without an understanding of the venue’s history and context.
Outside of Empty Bottle
Photo by: Patsy Newitt
Photo by: Patsy Newitt 
Photo by: Patsy Newitt
The Empty Bottle is the real deal.
Opened in 1992, the venue is a Chicago staple in alternative music and art. There’s a deep history in the Empty Bottle. The venue has seen bands like LCD Soundsystem, Vampire Weekend and Wilco before they went on to sell out arenas.
Today, the Empty Bottle remains a quintessential part in Chicago’s arts scene. “It always serves as a very welcoming space for people to come together and hear different bands, especially local bands,” Sophie Kendrick, student, said. And the Empty Bottle isn’t exclusive to concerts. “They also host a lot of daytime events and markets showcasing and supporting young local artists which is great,” she said.
Empty Bottle Bar
Photo by: Eric Allix Rogers/flickr
The Hideout
“Every show that I’ve seen there isn’t afraid of pushing boundaries and expectations of what a comedy show or a concert looks like,” Jerwin Santiago, Hideout performer and frequent audience member, said, “It’s cool to see people doing such cutting-edge stuff, and not in a way that’s like ‘I’m alt, I’m random, isn’t this weird,’ but taking risks.”
The Hideout, located between Lincoln Park and Bucktown, is notable for its intimacy and show diversity, cultivating an experience that makes the Hideout ultimately unique. Its earnestness makes the audience feel like everyone attending a part of some big secret.
Outside of the Hideout
Photo by: Patsy Newitt
Hideout’s iconic “Old Style” sign
Photo by: Patsy Newitt
Photo by: Patsy Newitt
Also a Chicago staple, the Hideout is located in a 100-year old balloon frame house. It’s home to shows of all sorts – poetry readings, dance parties, concerts and comedy shows. There’s something for everyone.
“It gives me big ‘we’re in some Midwestern basement to tell our secrets and do silly things’ vibes and that’s just so refreshing in a scene that ends up getting saturated with a lot of Corporate Fluff and Pander-y Stuff,” Santiago said.
The venue is currently in danger of Chicago’s Lincoln Yards development project, and the owner of the venue has also been an active opponent.
Co-Prosperity Sphere
Art is sometimes the best vehicle to use when forming community. It brings us together in ways that transcend contexts.
Co-Prosperity Sphere in an experimental cultural center located in Bridgeport. The venue functions as both a gallery and a performing arts venue, with a stage and space for art exhibitions
Audience at event at Co-Prosperity Sphere Photo by: Patsy Newitt 
Art at Co-Prosperity Sphere event
Photo by: Patsy Newitt
Engaging hand-in-hand with the Bridgeport community, Co-Prosperity Sphere works outside traditional standards of institutional art, providing a space for a diverse array of artists and art.
Going to the Co-Prosperity sphere is a breath of fresh air – an inclusive and enjoyable experience where you, as an audience member, feel included.
Time to Take Advantage of Chicago’s Public Art
Spring is here – not sure if that was evident from the recent swarm of Chicago bikers who have been on hiatus for the past couple of months.
It’s finally warm. No longer do we have the weather as an excuse to remain holed up in tiny apartments.
AND, you don’t need to pay for the Art Institute to see some of Chicago’s best artists throughout the city (though you get into the museum for free with a student ID). Chicago has a plethora of public art and murals, and its data registry now provides a direct means to locate it. The new mural registry comes after several murals in Hermosa, Wicker Park and Lakeview were painted over, mistaken as graffiti.
The map below is a full detail of all of Chicago’s public murals and art featured in public parks. Tree icons are indicative of public park art, and the paint icons are for public murals.
Data provided by the City of Chicago. Public Park Art by the Chicago Park District. Mural Registry by Cultural Affairs & Special Events.
If you’re going to capitalize on anything that Chicago offers, public art seems like a pretty good bet.
“Hasty Happenings” exposes the art in hurried moments
“Hasty Happenings” exhibition at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Photo by: Lucy Grundhauser
Institutional art typically requires a set of standards – a specific sort of effort or background to deem it notable. To some, these guidelines give the craft a level of principle, an “only-the-best-make-it” type of mentality.
But you don’t realize how refreshing it is to dispose of this standard until you walk into an exhibition and watch a video of someone roughly singing “I Dreamed a Dream” on Photo Booth whilst taking shots and doing poppers.
“Hasty Happenings,” an exhibition of art outside of traditional merits of art presentation, showed at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport this past Thursday, April 19. The exhibit was conceived by Adrien Guadagnino, with the help of Alex Chitty, the head of Co-Prosperity Sphere’s artist-led programming council. For one night only, the exhibition featured art made quickly, with little thought about presentation.
The exhibit was open to the public and featured performance, visual and sensory art. Artists dropped off their pieces the night before, and there was a sign up slot day-of for performances.
“Each piece in the exhibition is a snapshot of the momentary mental and emotional state assumed at the time of creation” the event’s web page said, “tapping into the pleasure of completion and reverential observance of the tossed off.”
The hurried nature of the pieces was evident, adding an endearing quality without sacrificing impact– custom personal scents from someone who worked at a luxury perfume store, a salt lamp inside an animal cracker container, disconcerting pictures of an artist’s ex-boyfriends, and quickly choreographed ballets by an SAIC class. The pieces weren’t thoughtless, they were just working outside of convention.
For Issy Bottger, the performing arts aspect gave way to a charming and comical dance, where she removed articles of clothing with expressive choreography. The three-minute piece had the appearance of being improvisational but felt piercingly personal.
“It’s private performance that comes in my mind in the moment,” Botter said on the creation of the piece, “I’ve been really sick and really sad lately and the choreography felt like silly acts of violence.”
“Hasty Happenings” was the perfect medium, providing an outlet where typical standards for preparation were thrown out the window.
“This is the best place for art in the moment,” she said, “This piece couldn’t really be anywhere else.”
The exhibition was honest and felt like a better representation of day-to-day and the way human narrative functions. It gently proposed the potential beauty in letting go of specific expectations, making room for art in the everyday.
Ratmansky’s “Whipped Cream” invents a mystifying and captivating dessert dream world
A young boy overindulges in whipped cream at a Viennese sweet shop where the desserts come alive.
The boy is hospitalized, and the pristine Princess Praline, as well as dancing bottles of alcohol, save him from a sinister drunk doctor.
The boy is subsequently given a golden crown in a sweet dreamland of dessert citizens.
It’s the classic coming-of-age tale.
The American Ballet Theatre performed the surreal “Whipped Cream,” choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, at the Auditorium Theatre this past weekend. Scored by Richard Strauss, the show was a revitalization of a 1924 production in Vienna, pairing the original score with new choreography.
The ballet’s dream-like nonsense was a two-hour escape with its intricate set, fantastical costumes and nonsensical plot exploring childlike dreams.
Designed by pop-surrealist artist Mark Ryden, the costumes and set existed as bizarre facades, developing an aesthetic that was both enthralling and bewildering.
The big-headed priest stands watching the dessert kingdom. Photo by: Kent G Becker/flickr
The doctor, priest and baker had giant heads, making their bodies seem small and movements distorted. “Gumball Lady” was woman wearing a skirt of 159 gumballs that, according to the playbill, weighs 50 pounds. My personal favorite was a colossal puppet of a “Snow Yak” that was ridden by a massive puppet baby holding a flag.
The show featured riveting absurdities like military routines by dessert soldiers, multitudes of white-clad dancers emulating whipped cream as they slid down a giant slide, and nurses dancing forebodingly with giant syringes.
“Whipped Cream” is profoundly family-friendly, a spectacle for children and adults alike.
Though her four-year-old daughter had a fear of giant eyeballs, a problem considering several scenes featured a giant blinking eyeball projected above the stage, retired ballet professional Melissa Mallinson enjoyed experiencing the show with her young daughter.
“It was really original and kind of trippy,” she said, “It’s a new take on the classical ballet, a disconnect from the traditional.”
The escapism in “Whipped Cream” was captivating. It explored what it means to be a child and what it means to be outrageous, using frivolity with intent. Art is often pointedly meaningful, and it was refreshing to seriously contemplate something that was fundamentally meaninglessness.
Though “Whipped Cream” is no longer showing, the Auditorium Theatre, a 7-minute walk from DePaul’s Loop campus, will show several ballets in the next few months. With the discount code GOLDRUSH and a student ID, students can get tickets for $15 instead of the typical $44.
Patsy Newitt 