14 top Chicago concerts to catch this spring, from hip-hop to jazz
New talent, new albums, new venues: Here are 14 great shows to see this spring. It’s our kickoff to a week of spring culture picks.

Greeting thousands at the front door of nightclubs around the city, JoJo Baby was unforgettable.
A baby born after a partner’s death. The ‘Tamale Guy,’ left with a raspy voice but working again. A girl, 13, and a grandmother, both struggling with long COVID. A nurse, exhausted but pushing on. All share a sense of loss and a need to push on.
Statewide death toll now is nearing 37,000 — roughly the equivalent of wiping out the population of Calumet City.
Lucy Holloway’s artwork was transformed into a mural about 20 feet high and 100 feet across as the top prize in a student art contest sponsored by the Sun-Times, WBEZ and Vocalo.
Paul Vallas is a technocrat devoted to school choice. Brandon Johnson is a teachers union organizer. Their backgrounds explain their clashing views.
Prisoner rights groups have complained about unsafe water. In recent months, the state has sent water violation notices to nearly a dozen prisons.
As Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson barnstorm in churches and parades before the April 4 runoff, policing and public education are front and center. This election also touches on power, identity, and of course, race.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center say they already know enough to believe that vaccination likely helps prevent lasting symptoms seen with long COVID.
Supt. Tony Sanders sees an “ever-widening gap between the left and the right … I think public education is squarely in the middle of that fight.”
After the Deerfield-based retailer said it wouldn’t sell the abortion pill in 21 states, #BoycottWalgreens took off. What’s a modern CEO to do?
For the first time Thursday, jurors in the bribery trial of Michael McClain and three other political power players heard Madigan’s voice on secret recordings.
One educator compared the learning disruption caused by the pandemic to water freezing in cracked pavement, deepening the divide.
In pleading for leniency Alex Banta said he took a job as a prison guard at 23 and had no idea how it would change him.
Outreach workers say fewer shelter beds and Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s recent crackdown on people sleeping at O’Hare has forced more unhoused people onto trains and buses.
This timeline explains how Native Americans were forced out of Illinois and why — for now — they have no federally recognized land here.
Even with a new city casino on the horizon, both Vallas and Johnson support the legalization of video gambling machines.