$800K each for Chicago's newest 'geniuses'
Good afternoon, Chicago. ✶
And welcome to October.
In today's newsletter, we get to know the two Chicago-based recipients of this year's MacArthur "genius grants" and learn more about their respective disciplines.
Plus, we've got reporting on a Chicago Fire player bridging cultural gaps on the team, three performers competing to be "the World’s Next Drag Supermonster" and more community news you need to know below. ????
⏱️: A 7-minute read
— Matt Moore, newsletter reporter (@MattKenMoore)
TODAY’S TOP STORY
2 Chicago residents win MacArthur ‘genius grants’
Reporting by Davis Giangiulio
Windy City geniuses: Two Chicago-area residents were named 2024 MacArthur "genius grant" recipients this morning. Ling Ma, a fiction writer, and Ebony G. Patterson, a visual artist, are part of this year's 22-member class.
Ling Ma: Born in China, fiction writer Ma, 41, came to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago in 2001. She moved around to different cities in the U.S. before returning here in 2017. Her work is defined by genre-bending and blurring reality with fantasy. That strategy of mixing themes made Ma stand out, said Marlies Carruth, director of the MacArthur Fellows Program. "Her ability to mix the real with the surreal was unusual. … She has a very cinematic eye in her writing."
Ebony G. Patterson: Born in Kingston, Jamaica, visual artist Patterson has split her time between her birthplace and Chicago since 2019. The 43-year-old’s work centers on identity, class, beauty and race. While she focuses on these themes, Patterson isn’t looking for answers. Her work mixes different media and materials, from photography and painting to textiles and everything in between. "[Patterson's work] reminds us to connect with what’s beautiful and magical, and yet [it's] very grounded in humanity and connection with place and community,” Carruth said.
Key context: The fellowship, organized by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, seeks to boost creativity and innovators across the country and support them in their work. Fellows receive a no-strings-attached $800,000 stipend over five years.
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- Drought could dim fall foliage: Thanks to a moderate drought in August and September, leaf colors could be less vibrant this season while many trees drop their leaves early.
- Teen charged in mail carrier’s death: A 15-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting Octavia Redmond as she delivered mail in West Pullman last summer was arrested Monday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, authorities said.
- Police chase sparks deadly crash: Overnight, a car speeding from Chicago police ran a red light and collided with an SUV in McKinley Park. It then plowed into a building, ejecting a passenger from the car who died this morning.
- Remembering John Amos: The actor starred as the family patriarch on the Chicago-set "Good Times" and earned an Emmy nomination for his role as adult Kunta Kinte in the seminal 1977 miniseries "Roots." He was 84.
- 3 stars for ‘Another Happy Day’: Lauren Lapkus stars as an artist struggling to bond with her newborn in this vibrant and utterly real film, writes Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper.
NOW PLAYING ????
3 Chicago-area performers competing to be ‘the World’s Next Drag Supermonster’
Reporting by Jake Wittich | For the Sun-Times
Three Chicago-area drag artists are competing in a battle of horror, filth and glamour for the chance to be "the World’s Next Drag Supermonster" on an upcoming reality show.
"The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula," premiering Tuesday on Shudder and AMC+, enters its sixth season with three contestants from Illinois among the 12 monsters competing for the title and grand prize of $100,000.
They include Aurora Gozmic, a mainstay in Chicago’s drag scene for the past decade; Auntie Heroine, a dramatic camp queen who’s also a community leader in the Rockford area; and Scylla, an otherworldly performance artist in Chicago inspired by fantasy and mythology.
"This is going to be one of the craziest seasons of 'Dragula,'" Gozmic told the Sun-Times. "We bring the looks and we bring the drama for one of the best seasons ever."
The show features drag artists from around the world who are judged in performing and costuming challenges on the three tenets of "Dragula": horror, filth and glamour. Each week, someone is eliminated until the grand finale.
Since it first aired in 2016, "Dragula" has made an effort to include drag kings, trans and nonbinary competitors and bearded drag queens, such as Heroine.
"I didn’t see people or styles like me on other shows, but 'Dragula' gave me a place to see myself reflected on TV," Heroine told the Sun-Times.
BRIGHT ONE ✨
Fire forward Fabian Herbers’ linguistic skills bridging cultures on and off the field
Reporting by Brian Sandalow
Chicago Fire forward Fabian Herbers has a flair for languages, and it has helped him and his teammates during his career.
Growing up in Ahaus, Germany, Herbers, 31, learned his country’s native language. English was taught starting in fifth grade. Ahaus sits near the border with the Netherlands, and Herbers picked up Dutch, though he admits that’s fading a little bit.
Playing for the Philadelphia Union in 2018, Herbers learned Spanish, a language he honed when he joined the Fire a year later and had numerous teammates with Hispanic and Latin American roots. That skill helped him bond with those teammates. Plus, Herbers’ girlfriend is from Ecuador, and the couple speak Spanish at home. Herbers also does media interviews in Spanish.
"Even though you don't know all the words all the time, I feel like people still understand you and respect when you make an effort," Herbers said.
Herbers sees being multilingual as a way to communicate with teammates from different backgrounds. He can speak German with teammates Maren Haile-Selassie and Allan Arigoni, and connect with Spanish speakers who haven’t learned English yet.
"It helps not only to speak their language because they feel welcome, but also I understand their culture a little bit through my girlfriend and having had experiences with other teammates," Herbers said. "You understand where they’re coming from."
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Written by: Matt Moore
Editor: Esther Bergdahl
Copy editor: Chris Woldt