Achy Obejas

Tavern on Rush seems like a very easy place to pick up men. It's not that the place is a meat market in the usual desperate sense. In fact, it's...

In poetry, compensation refers to the means of balancing missing accents in a line of metrical verse. Sometimes the loss -- usually one or more unstressed syllable -- is made...

When the Funky Wordsmyths began their journey seven years ago, the members of the poetry-music group knew they were in for quite a trip. But when they celebrate survival at...

Most of the time, a concert's a finely tuned thing, precise as a watch. Sometimes it can get a little loose, a little crazy, when the musicians decide to let...

Conjunto Cespedes Flores (Xenophile) Conjunto Cespedes' "Flores" has a pretty darn slow start: a little more than a minute of percussion and chanting to Elegua, the African god who opens...

Various artists Sabroso! The Afro-Cuban Groove (Rhino) This CD could also be titled "The Last Hurrah," celebrating, as it does, the New York marriage of Afro-Cuban rhythm and American jazz...

Throughout history, love songs have played a decisive role in romance. Yet in the last several decades alone, they have gone through major transformations. So what's the status of the...

It's moody and smoky down in the Catacombs, the lowest floor at Club 720. Part of the reason is the music: Tonight it's leaning on the techno-side, very dark and...

There's a room upstairs at the Red Dog -- a private room, a soulfully sexy room -- that's all yours if your timing is right. You know the one: off...

Cubanismo! Reencarnacion (Hannibal) Cubanismo, Jesus Alemany's all-star orchestra, is that rarest of Cuban ensembles: a technically brilliant group that's neither nostalgic, like Orquesta Aragon, nor fakirs of fusion, like the...