All events on Thursday September 25
Previous day|Next day- Music: Folk/Country
- Calexico
- Thursday Sep 25 (6–8pm) @ Jay Pritzker Pavilion
- Free
- Southwestern indie-folkies Calexico are constantly redefining themselves. Since the founding members moved from LA to Tucson in 1994, the band has developed an affinity for... View details »
- Performing Arts: Dance
- David Dorfman Dance
- Thursday Sep 25 (8–10pm) @ Dance Center of Columbia College More times »
- Arranging bodies and movement on a stage presents unlimited opportunities for tackling large ideas, meaning choreographers must be skilled at handling abstraction. David Dorfman is... View details »
- Art
- Twisted Into Recognition: Clichés of Jews and Others
- Thursday Sep 25 (5:30–8pm) @ Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies More times »
- OpeningFree
- Hoping to eliminate stereotypes about Jewish people — they all subsist on gefilte fish and bagels with lox, for example — the Spertus Institute has... View details »
- Reading
- Joe Meno and Arthur Nersesian
- Thursday Sep 25 (7–8pm) @ Quimby's Bookstore
- Free
- Admire the contrast: Joe Meno's stories transpire in small Midwestern towns, whereas Arthur Nersesian's dwell in Manhattan's seedy underbelly. However, both writers share a love... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
- Extra Life
- Thursday Sep 25 (9pm) @ Ronny's Bar
- Extra Life's Charlie Looker has spent significant time in the Dirty Projectors, lending muscle and intellectual firepower to David Longstreth's already heady emoting. He's equally... View details »
- Music: Folk/Country
- Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
- Thursday Sep 25 (9pm) @ Schubas
- The recent overload of whiskey-soaked, cigarette-stained folkies notwithstanding, there's still something to be said for the virtues of darkly atmospheric Americana. And Oregon-bred, Brooklyn-incubated strummer... View details »
The following events are ongoing.
- Performing Arts: Comedy
- Campaign Supernova!
- Thursday Sep 25 (8pm) @ The Second City e.t.c. More times »
- From the director of the recent hit Between Barack and a Hard Place comes another election-season winner, Campaign Supernova!, performed by Second City. Where... View details »
- Film
- Tell No One
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Herein lies living proof that the French can spin a gorgeous existentialist drama in any genre. Pediatrician Alex (François Cluzet) has never gotten over the... View details »
- Art
- Mónica Herrera: Strings
- Thursday Sep 25 (9am–8pm) @ Hyde Park Art Center More times »
- Free
- For her interactive sound installation at Hyde Park Art Center, Mónica Herrera transforms the gallery into a giant musical instrument and invites viewers to play... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary More times »
- Free
- If nothing else, taking up birdwatching gives you a convenient excuse to bring terms like "Magnificent Frigatebird" and "Purple Gallinule" into conversation. In this sancturary,... View details »
- Art
- Discarded Paintings by Gifted Amateurs
- Thursday Sep 25 (11am–7:30pm) @ Intuit More times »
- Free
- Whereas most found-art exhibitions make aesthetic objects out of forgotten knick-knacks, the focus of this exhibition is, more literally, fine art that's found. Discarded Paintings... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool
- Thursday Sep 25 (7:30am–7:30pm) @ Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool More times »
- Free
- Escape the roaring cars on Lake Shore Drive and the crowds at Lincoln Park Zoo by slipping through the unobtrusive entrance to the Alfred Caldwell... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Flower Power
- Thursday Sep 25 (9am–5pm) @ Garfield Park Conservatory More times »
- Free
- If the concrete trek and throngs of spectators at Friday's Fourth of July festivities leave you pining for something a little more spacious and herbaceous,... View details »
- Art
- Art of Democracy
- Thursday Sep 25 (10am–5pm) @ Loyola University Museum of Art More times »
- Whether critiquing economic injustice, spotlighting social issues, satirizing public officials, or inspiring change, 20th-century printmaking has a long and storied history of disseminating ideas to... View details »
- Film
- The Dark Knight
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Navy Pier More times »
- The Dark Knight might go down as Heath Ledger's final film, but it would be a shame if the actor's tragic death overshadowed its prodigious... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Alec Soth
- Thursday Sep 25 (11am–6pm) @ Stephen Daiter Gallery More times »
- Free
- In 2002, after finishing his breakthrough series Sleeping by the Mississippi, photographer Alec Soth traveled to Bogotá, Columbia, to adopt a baby girl. During his... View details »
- Film
- Bottle Shock
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- In 1976, British oenophile Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) hosted a much-ballyhooed blind tasting between France's finest wine and California's — including one made by small-vineyard... View details »
- Art
- Angles in America
- Thursday Sep 25 (10am–5:30pm) @ Rhona Hoffman Gallery More times »
- Free
- You may find this show's title easy to misread, and that's by design — such ambiguity is all part of the game for the exhibition's... View details »
- Art
- Are We There Yet?
- Thursday Sep 25 (10am–8pm) @ Hyde Park Art Center More times »
- Free
- Curated by photographer Dawoud Bey, Are We There Yet? is a group show of lens-based work that touches on issues of mobility. It's a timely... View details »
- Art
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Thursday Sep 25 (10:30am–8pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago More times »
- A canonized master of photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson's legacy includes a staggering number of great images, as well as his influential idea of capturing "the decisive... View details »
- Art
- Stan Shellabarger: Walking Books
- Thursday Sep 25 (11am–6pm) @ Western Exhibitions More times »
- Free
- Artist Stan Shellabarger repeats mundane actions over and over again, turning them into extreme undertakings. For his second show at Western Exhibitions the artist displays... View details »
- Film
- Elegy
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Elegy is what happens when a female Spanish director (Isabel Coixet, My Life Without Me) adapts, of all things, a Philip Roth short story. Renowned... View details »
- Art
- Walead Beshty & James Welling
- Thursday Sep 25 @ The Suburban More times »
- Free
- The Suburban pairs two like-minded artists of different generations in this exhibition, which is rich with conceptual layers and enthralling in its attention to form.... View details »
- Art
- Scavenger Constructs: Site-Specific Sculptures
- Thursday Sep 25 (9am–7pm) @ Glass Curtain Gallery at Columbia College Chicago More times »
- Free
- Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans turned mass-produced objects into meaningful art. With this transmutability in mind, Scavenger Constructs features five artists who give new meaning... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Bill O'Donnell
- Thursday Sep 25 (10am–6:30pm) @ City Gallery More times »
- Free
- Bill O'Donnell's color photographs offer a world of spooky little vacation homes, troubling the eye with mixed-up scales and half-focused views. This series, on display... View details »
- Art
- Mark Porter
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Northeastern Illinois University Fine Arts Center Gallery More times »
- Free
- Fusing found objects and his own custom-made creations, Mark Porter produces one-of-a-kind pieces that gradually transform themselves — and the gallery — as the show... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Beautiful Losers
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Gene Siskel Film Center More times »
- The artists featured in the documentary Beautiful Losers were hardly the first to root their work in street art, but they did so with a... View details »
- Art
- Chances Are the Comets in Our Future
- Thursday Sep 25 (10am–6pm) @ Gallery 400 More times »
- Free
- Music may come first for Chicago-based Drag City — the record label has championed singular talents like Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Bill Callahan/Smog for years... View details »
- Art
- Light from Inside: Art from Illinois Prisons
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Chicago Cultural Center More times »
- Free
- For those whose impressions of prisoners have mostly been shaped by watching Oz, this exhibition provides a look at prisoners' creative talent and dedication. Light... View details »
- Art
- Conrad Freiburg
- Thursday Sep 25 (11am–5pm) @ Linda Warren Gallery More times »
- Free
- Conrad Freiburg's clever contraptions require audience participation, but viewers' actions can sometimes lead to destruction. The artist's exquisite handiwork doesn't exist for its own sake... View details »
- Film
- Hamlet 2
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Various locations More times »
- With a name like Hamlet 2, a movie is bound to be either the worst piffle to be hurled down the cinematic pike, or pure... View details »
- Art: Architecture/Design
- Panorama of Modern Brazilian Architecture: From the 1950s to the Present
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Crown Hall More times »
- Free
- This exhibition provides a thorough visual survey of Brazil's modern architecture. Photographs, drawings, and design concepts profile the work of well-established Brazilian architects such as... View details »
- Art
- Rashid Johnson: The New Escapist Promised Land Garden and Recreation Center and Cosmic Slops
- Thursday Sep 25 (11am–5pm) @ Monique Meloche More times »
- Free
- Rashid Johnson is one of the more promising young artists to emerge from Chicago in recent years, with photographs and sculptures in exhibitions across the... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Gore Vidal's Weekend
- Thursday Sep 25 (7:30pm) @ TimeLine Theatre More times »
- Gore Vidal's cutting political satire Weekend was written (and is set) during the fraught 1968 presidential campaign. Weekend follows a Republican senator as he prepares... View details »
- Film
- Towelhead
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- It's hard to imagine how director/writer Alan Ball managed to pitch Towelhead. Jasira (Summer Bishil) is a 13-year-old Arab-American girl stranded in the Texas suburbs... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Buddy
- Thursday Sep 25 (7:30pm) @ Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place More times »
- Mamma Mia! and Movin' Out conquered Broadway even though their books are, respectively, a silly romantic melodrama and a confused narrative told through dance. Their... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Kafka on the Shore
- Thursday Sep 25 (7:30pm) @ Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre More times »
- Novelist Haruki Murakami may be our preeminent purveyor of dreamlike narratives, fraught with surrealist tremors, pop-culture curios, and the echoes of history. His recent "metaphysical... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Smart Home
- Thursday Sep 25 @ Museum Campus More times »
- Just admit it, you've ogled the sleek modern houses you pass on certain streets and wished you could peek inside. The Museum of Science and... View details »












