Amy Krouse Rosenthal: A Beauty Salon” is an interactive exhibit that celebrates the life, work, and spirit of the Chicago writer, who died in March this year at the age of 51 from ovarian cancer. Rosenthal came up with the concept of a beauty salon—where “beauty” is defined broadly and “salon” as a gathering of people to exchange ideas—last year, after her cancer diagnosis but before she knew it would take her life....

On Wednesday night, Chicago’s black tech community gathered at 1871 with one goal in mind: to share critical pointers for succeeding in their sector. “I had to totally redo my business model,” Dickson said. “Never be too attached. I’ve launched Flat Out of Heels three times. We’ve had to continuously reinvent ourselves.” Do extensive research. Figure out what your product, business model and consumers will be. Beta test your product, testing it with a smaller consumer group before going full-scale....

Welcome to Flopcorn, where Reader writers and contributors pay tribute to our very favorite bad movies. In this installment, contributor Mason Johnson ponders the darkness that lies at the heart of Christmas With the Kranks. Catching wind of the Kranks’ plan, their neighbors become determined to drag Luther and Nora back into their fanatical festive fold. Dan Aykroyd, sporting his Chicaaaaahhhgo accent, plays Luther and Nora’s block captain, Vic. He takes it upon himself to talk some sense into them....

Via Waffles Cafe’s Facebook page Yes, this exists. Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us. • About the creation of a new kind of cast that combines 3-D printing and ultrasound pulses? —Ben Sachs • About the deceased New Orleans socialite who was propped up on a sofa holding a cigarette and a champagne flute at her very Weekend at Bernie’s wake? —Gwynedd Stuart

Two years ago Chicago’s Spektral Quartet were paired with the French accordionist/bandoneon master Julien Labro for a performance at Northwestern University, part of a concert called the Big Squeeze that explored various incarnations and traditions of the squeezebox. Labro and the group hit it off and decided to extend their collaboration, which has proven fruitful. Tonight they perform together at City Winery to celebrate the forthcoming release of their strong new album, From This Point Forward (Azica), a dynamic portrait of where tango nuevo music has gone in the wake of the great Astor Piazzolla....

At the Gelato World Tour Grand Finale this weekend in Rimini, Italy, 36 gelato masters from around the globe will face off, entering flavors such as Gorgonzola-pear, apple sorbetto with caramelized speck, and smoked chocolate with bourbon. Among them will be Cocco Sogno, a coconut gelato with dark chocolate and almond brittle from Angelo Lollino of Elmwood Park and his team, Ali Caine Hung and Lollino’s son, Giuseppe. Last year the trio took first place in North America and second in the Americas at the regional semifinal competition, held in Millennium Park, with a Rocky Road variation called Chicago Pothole that included chocolate sauce, chocolate chunks, caramelized pecans, and meringue in a chocolate base....

courtesy Illinois Holocaust Museum There are plenty of things to look at in “RACE: Are We So Different?”, a traveling exhibit that originated at the Science Museum of Minnesota and has now settled in for three months at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie. There are charts and pictures and videos and buttons to push and explainer text to read. If you stop a few times to say, “Huh, I did not know that,” the staff of the museum, and also of the YWCA Evanston/North Shore, which is cosponsoring the exhibit, will be pleased....

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago. “I think what you should know about me is that I’m 83 years old, and I think that’s important,” Mary Borysewicz says while en route to the grocery store in a Canadian tuxedo. “We’re the Gloria Steinem group!” She describes her style as “medium conservative,” which she’s quick to clarify “is very different from my politics....

I watched my mom make clothes for the guys in the neighborhood and I could see the confidence it gave to them. I saw the way they acted when they dressed well,” says Milton Latrell, 38, about the transformative power of a great outfit. Agriculture also carries other brands, such as footwear by Mezlan and Bacco Bucci and sturdy cardigans made of twined rope imported from Turkey ($90). For those in need of some guidance, Latrell prides himself in offering personalized service, in which he caters to his clients’ unique needs: “We listen to what each person really wants and try to adapt our selection to their lifestyle—not the other way ’round....

Roscoe Mitchell is an elder of the African-American avant-garde. In 1965 he joined the brand-new Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, whose vast influence on black art-making is still felt today; within two years he launched the group that would become the Art Ensemble of Chicago, which transformed the future of improvised music. (Once the AACM’s flagship band, it’s recently risen again after a hiatus of several years.) As a composer, improviser, and educator, Mitchell integrates material from a broad array of sources, including free jazz, hard bop, Baroque music, and contemporary orchestral composition....

New York combo Slavic Soul Party!, led by versatile percussionist Matt Moran, has arguably advanced the cause of Balkan brass music further than any other U.S.-based group, honoring the rollicking Romani style popularized by the likes of Boban Markovic and Fanfare Ciocarlia while putting its own spin on the tradition. Over its 17-year history, the group has mostly consisted of jazz musicians, but they’re players with omnivorous appetites and sophisticated palates....

Alison Ogunmokun Runner-Up Chance the Rapper

Mi Tocaya Antojeria For each installment of the Reader’s regular Key Ingredient column, a local chef chooses an ingredient and challenges a fellow chef to create a dish with it. (The ingredient doesn’t have to be difficult to procure or unusual or gross, but that’s the direction most chefs go, testing their colleagues with everything from marshmallow creme to ant eggs.) Our annual Key Ingredient Cook-Off usually follows a similar format, except that we’re the ones who decide what ingredients the chefs have to cook with—until this year’s event, which was held May 18 at the Ivy Room at Tree Studios....

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. • About the spike in mushroom poisonings in Germany? —Ben Sachs

In January, an article in the science journal ZooKeys described a newly discovered aggressive North American ant species called Temnothorax pilagens, or “pillage ant.” Pillaging is central to the ant’s livelihood; news stories announcing its discovery, stacked with descriptions of “slave-making,” “chemical camouflage,” and “mortal fighting,” read like H.G. Wells’s The Food of the Gods, or perhaps Ant Colony, a once Web-serialized, now print-collected comic from the award-winning Canadian indie cartoonist Michael DeForge....

They’re not as famous as the Ramones or the Stooges, but the Dictators were just as instrumental in creating what we now know as punk rock. Formed in New York in 1973 and led by the swaggering, charismatic Richard “Handsome Dick” Manitoba—who started with the band as a roadie, occasional vocalist, and mascot, working his way up to full-time front man by their third LP, 1978’s Bloodbrothers—they played boneheaded tough-guy garage rock that was always smarter than it sounded....

Baby Wants Candy Accompany comedians to a bar’s karaoke night and you’ll quickly discover how tremendous the overlap is on the Venn diagram of improv versus musical theater nerds. This long-running troupe’s signature show is where the two fandoms are wedded to create an hour of giddy, off-kilter, harmonious enlightenment . . . and also some dick jokes. The current Chicago iteration, now in new digs in Judy’s Beat Lounge at Second City, promises to be a reliable source of live band-accompanied levity and whip-smart sketch weirdness....