The Daily Rumpus
Get Overly Personal Emails
From Stephen Elliott
After a year marked by several horrific mass shootings (on the heels of other years marked by somewhat fewer horrific mass shootings), gun violence has been on all our minds.
This American Life addressed the issue with a two-part episode about the daily lives of students and staff at a Chicago high school where twenty-nine students were recently shot, eight of whom died—not in one large event but in isolated shootings over a series of months.
...more
The villain struck early, usually just before dawn while the streets of Chicago were quiet, when most of its residents were still asleep, when it was unlikely there would be witnesses. He was stealthy and efficient, and his victims never realized what hit them until it was too late.
...moreIn the Chicago Tribune, Christopher Borrelli bemoans the rise of e-books for taking away “the genuine soul” that “the randomness and variety and art work of a tangible book being cradled by a commuter” lends to the city.
Plus, it seriously hinders his ability to “eavesdrop on what you’re reading.”
Check out the article and the cool reader map of the Chicago L here.
...more
Chicago.
Sometimes it gets overlooked as a great city as we tend to focus our energies on considering the coasts and leave the interior as a great blur in our minds.
...moreRumpus contributor Anna Pulley is doling out advice as a sex columnist for Chicago newspaper RedEye. We love weekly offerings of wisdom here at the Rumpus, and thus, highly recommend the column. Check it out. This week’s topic is on how to be dominant in the bedroom (“Ultimately, the best way to learn anything is to just f**king do it.”)
...moreA brand new festival called Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusement is making its way to Chicago this September, with the aim of reinventing Vaudeville in a contemporary context with some hybrid musical/carnivalesque acts.
If it seems like this is a lofty goal, no worries, there are some guaranteed great performers in the lineup like Bill Callahan and a free “Renegade Craft Fair.” Details here.
...moreCalling all those who live in/near Chicago!
Comics editor, Paul Madonna is in town talking about and signing his new book, Everything is its own Reward. The book is chock-full of beautiful illustrations, if you haven’t seen it already.
...more
Bestselling author Rebecca Skloot is everywhere these days. Her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was over ten years in the making and was recently dubbed a Notable Book of 2010 by The New York Times.
The tale of a bipolar, Midwestern prostitute and her Catholic family feels all-too-familiar to our Midwest-born reviewer.
I keep the first picture in mind, but I frame each new picture as if it’s its own composition, bearing in mind that it is related to what came before it and what’s coming after it.
...more
21-year-old student Jesse Graves started putting up graffiti to promote environmental awareness nearly two years ago, and has never been harassed or arrested. Many of his pieces remain intact on walls around the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus.
The Rumpus dispatched dozens of our top reporters to Chicago. None of them were heard from again.
...more
Heidi W. Durrow’s novel is both the story of a woman learning to negotiate biracial life and that of the lone survivor of a horrible tragedy.