DMB (Devyn-Marshall Brown)
Verified
(He/Him)
As seen in:
Chicago Reader,
Medium,
Psych Central,
NewsBreak,
South Side Weekly,
Evanston RoundTable,
The TRiiBE
(HE/HIM) trans guy. musician, extrovert reporter & staff writer @chicago_reader. award-winning queer. 🏳️⚧️dmbrown@chicagoreader🫡
Articles by DMB (Devyn-Marshall Brown)
A long, strange trip
Walking into Doyle Chappell’s Rogers Park apartment feels like it belongs to Willy Wonka, if Wonka had a one-bedroom on the north side of Chicago—it was vivacious, organized chaos. With the landlord’s consent, the 87-year-old painted his walls a deep red and arranged his vibrantly colored acrylic portraits edge-to-edge like a gallery in his living room. A Christmas tree is a permanent fixture in his home, sitting cozily in the center of his space.
One TRiiBE, divided?
*Disclosure: Chicago Reader social justice reporter Devyn-Marshall Brown is a unionized employee represented by the Chicago News Guild, which currently represents workers who are unionizing at the TRiiBE. What do the Christian Bible and the National Labor Relations Board have in common? They both say you only need a minimum of two people to start a church, or rather, a union.
Illinois universities roll back DEI initiatives amid Trump attacks
The University of Illinois (UI) system’s administration emailed department heads on October 14 that it was pulling funding for scholarships awarded to students based on race. Jeremiah Abiade, head of a program created to support Black students pursuing careers in science and engineering at the college’s Chicago campus, didn’t get the message.
Best new club for queer and trans people getting started with strength training
Above the Bar landed at its Bucktown brick-and-mortar in 2021 after demand for founder Alex Martinez’s online, social-distance-friendly training club outpaced what his small room for rent would allow. Martinez now runs the trans-owned and operated gym on Western Avenue, employing eight coaches and serving 160 members. The spot offers group training, personal training, open gym, and hybrid memberships—and they specialize in working with beginners.
Best sober-focused music series
Josephine Luhman played Nothing/Assumed on March 3. Matt Ciarleglio became co-owner of the Empty Bottle in 2023, but when he started working security at the club in 2010, after a few years playing shows there, he was fresh into adulthood. He worked his way up through different positions (bartender, marketing manager), and along that road, he realized he wanted to get sober. But surrounded by nightlife and still early in his journey, it was hard.
Hannah Sandoz, DIY touring musician
Hannah Sandoz on tour in San Francisco Hannah Sandoz (they/he) is a 25-year-old touring musician, content creator, and audio engineer. In 2021, Sandoz graduated from the Technology in Music and Related Arts (TIMARA) program at Oberlin Conservatory, and they moved to Chicago that same year. They’ve toured most years since then, and their 2025 tour to the west coast and back covered six thousand miles and 13 dates in two weeks.
Reverend Dr. Luther Young Jr.
Reverend Dr. Luther Young Jr. is approaching his second anniversary as pastor of worship and spiritual formation at Lighthouse Church in Lincoln Park. The Black-centered LGBTQ+-affirming church was founded by Reverend Jamie Frazier in 2013 to address inequities experienced by queer Black Chicagoans and create a place of worship welcoming to all.
Chicago tenants demand eviction moratorium
As federal agents continue to arrive unheralded and uninvited to local day cares, airports, hardware stores, and more, some Chicago tenants are calling for an eviction moratorium, warning of increased risks that come with being evicted amid ramped-up immigration enforcement. Namely because people are afraid to go to work, and it’s impacting their income.
‘Like shooting fish in a barrel’
The rideshare driver waiting areas at O’Hare International Airport have restrooms, food trucks, and spaces for religious worship. At any time, as many as 70 Uber and Lyft drivers can usually be found parked in one of two designated lots.
‘Make SNAP great again’
On September 30, a large red paper hat with the words “Make SNAP Great Again” appeared on the wall of an Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) office in suburban Lincolnwood. A staff member says she burst into tears after seeing the sign, which references President Donald Trump’s maligned call to “Make America Great Again,” and left work early because of the fear she and her family have faced in recent months from the federal immigration agents terrorizing the Chicago area.
Illinois rideshare drivers organize for labor rights
Lori Simmons started driving for Uber and Lyft in 2014, two years after the rideshare apps launched in Chicago. Simmons had been fired from her human resources job, and a friend approached her with wide eyes. “Listen, this is paying and you should try it,” she recalls her friend saying. “I think you’ll be much happier than you were at the office.” And she was. As a driver, Simmons and others kept 85 percent of what they earned, which easily replaced the $50,000 she made at her previous job.
Howard Brown Health nurses prepare to strike - Chicago Reader
The labor union that represents the 35 registered nurses at Howard Brown Health is inching toward a strike. The collective bargaining agreement between Union Nurses of Howard Brown Health and the nonprofit LGBTQ+ health-care provider expired in August, and union members have been at the bargaining table with the company since May. But union members say management’s refusal to budge on key issues, like wages and nurses’ autonomy, led them to authorize a strike in early September.
Law Mahone, founder of Triptych Visuals
When people reach out to Lawrence “Law” Mahone, they’re looking for mature, cinematic music videos and edits—his biggest inspiration is director and producer Hype Williams. He and his video company, Triptych Visuals, have been commissioned by a long list of hip-hop artists, among them G Herbo, Lil Durk, Lil Peep, Trippie Redd, Polo G, Lil Zay Osama, Sumo, Orlando Brown, Jay Wood, and Ausar.
What do I do with this thing?
Since I started testosterone, or T, in April, I’ve wanted to talk about my dick: the one I’ve always had (my mom says large clitorises run in the family), the one I’m growing, and the one I want to buy. It’s a keystone of my transition, and it excites me. But it’s difficult to slide into casual conversations with nearly anyone without the tone feeling inherently sexual.
Second City actors ratify new contract, avert strike
This month in the Chicago union landscape, Second City actors and stage managers are enjoying the security of steady wage increases in their new contract. State-funded home care and childcare workers are also celebrating a fresh influx of cash from the state and the city, hoping it will offset the number of workers who leave the profession because of low wages.
Boundary Waters commit to DIY music as a lifelong pursuit
Andy Brommel feels like he lives a double life. By day, he’s a 43-year-old communications consultant for a national firm working with midsize and large nonprofits. By night, he’s an emo indie rocker and a cheerleader for the Chicago DIY scene. “I’ll be presenting to a board of directors in the morning and at a DIY show in somebody’s basement at night,” he says.
LGBTQ+ health centers brace for Trump’s attacks
John Peller’s two decades as an AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) staff member have been marked by highs and lows. In 2010, after President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, millions of people living with HIV or vulnerable to the virus could, for the first time, access comprehensive care. Two years later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which revolutionized HIV prevention.
IDHS workers protest management, staffing issues
This month in labor news: The people signing you up for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and Medicare are protesting poor working conditions, and Chicago museum workers are celebrating union wins while one union alleges retaliation from its bosses.
Brok Mende, chief engineer at Friends of Friends Recording
Brok Mende is chief engineer at Friends of Friends Recording, a studio he owns with partner DeAnna Doersch. He’s worked with many Chicago artists on local label Sooper Records—including Nnamdï, Sen Morimoto, and Kaina—as well as with Tasha, Serpentwithfeet, Madison McFerrin, and others. Mende grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and went to high school at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, the local equivalent of ChiArts.
Brok Mende, chief engineer at Friends of Friends Recording
“I was auditioning guitar players. One guy comes in with that turquoise guitar. I looked at it and I thought, ‘That’s my guitar’”: Lita Ford had her prized B.C. Rich Mockingbird stolen – but crossed paths with it in the most bizarre circumstances After lying about her age to get a job at a medical facility in Long Beach to save up some money, Lita Ford cemented her future when she bought her …
Nowhere to go - Chicago Reader
All Ed Cetwinski could think was, “God, I’m out of prison. I can live my life a little bit.” He had just been released from Taylorville Correctional Center after five years behind bars. But even though he’s free from his prison cell, he’s still not free. Most criminal convictions in Illinois include a period of mandatory supervised release (MSR). It’s like parole, but it’s served in addition to a prison sentence rather than in lieu of it.
Pictoria Vark starts a new chapter with an album about endings
When 11-year-old Victoria Park was playing bass in a middle school band in Cresskill, New Jersey, she struggled to tell her bandmates she wanted to contribute songwriting. It was hard. “If you’re the one on the mike you literally have the loudest voice,” she says—and she wasn’t the one on the mike. Park’s lifelong friend Jason Ross, who played guitar in that group, remembers being equally dissatisfied. At one rehearsal, he says, all the members took turns playing songs each had written.
Dispensary 33 becomes first worker-owned pot shop in Illinois
It’s been quite a month for midwest workers. Since March, Dispensary 33 became the first entirely worker-owned dispensary in Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker vetoed a long-anticipated warehouse worker protection bill, employees at Tony’s Fresh Market overwhelmingly voted against unionizing, and Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative contract deal. Let’s get into it.
Vol. 54 No. 27 Archives
Skip to content Posted inIssues Posted inArt Review Posted inFeature Posted inMusic
First Ascent staff launch union drive
Before First Ascent opened its Avondale location in 2015, there were few if any dedicated climbing gyms in Chicago. The climbing scene was less accessible; it was difficult to break into if you weren’t already traveling and climbing outdoors on your own. Now with four Chicago gyms, First Ascent has built a reputation as a social hub for newcomers, who are welcomed with an array of weekly meetups for solo climbers and perks that let members bring first-time guests for free.
Mikel Galati, owner and operator of Modest Merch
Mikel Galati owns and operates a small screen-printing shop on the northwest side called Modest Merch. He prints custom apparel for musicians, clothing companies, small businesses, and others—but his niche is the DIY scene. Galati has been running his shop for 13 years, and he headed down the bumpy road of business ownership when he was 21. He hasn’t held another job since. “I will work with anybody for the most part, but bands are what I know,” Galati says.
The fight to ban mail into Illinois prisons ramps up
Illinois lawmakers and prison guards are ramping up efforts to ban physical mail into state prisons, blaming synthetic-drug-sprayed paper for a rise in overdoses behind bars. Similar policies are being pushed across the country, and have already been approved in 15 states, including Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Texas.
Life as a barista in Chicago
Living in a city as sprawling, progressive, and queer as Chicago means that, for every handful of young adults you meet, chances are one of them is a barista or has peddled espresso at some point in their work history. Service jobs like those at coffee shops are not just temporary gigs for college students. People build their lives—and sometimes careers—off of their barista work and incomes.
The fight to protest the DNC
Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather to protest the 37,000 people killed in Israel’s U.S.–funded bombardment of Gaza. But whether those protests result in a clash between protesters and Chicago police is up to the courts to decide.
Rapper Joshua Virtue retires that persona to become Rama
When local rapper and Why? Records cofounder Joshua Virtue dropped the album Rama in October 2022, they decided to change their stage name. “I started going by Rama around the same time that I put that album out, in my everyday life,” Rama says. “I wanted to feel more rooted into that. I want everything I do to be under that name now; it felt like a completion to start calling myself that.” Last week, Why? Records released Rama’s final album as Joshua Virtue, titled Black Box: Joshua Is Dead.
To T or not to T
The first time I started testosterone, I stayed on it for three months. The 2022 edition of my four-piece band was only a few months old. After I was done fishing around online for “street ’mones” that spring, a transmasculine homie gave me several months of T gel as a gift to begin my own transition. T gel causes physical changes at a much slower rate than intramuscular testosterone injections, but I wasn’t ready even for that.
Pritzker to shutter, rebuild two prisons
In early March, Governor J.B. Pritzker announced a $900 million plan to demolish and rebuild the crumbling Stateville and Logan Correctional Centers over the next five years. The plan sits on the back of a report by CGL Companies, a firm contracted by the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) to assess the conditions of the state’s prisons.
Guitarist and oud master Rami Gabriel releases a multifaceted solo debut
Chicago multi-instrumentalist Rami Gabriel began dabbling in home recording as a teenager in the 1990s, and last week he finally put out his first solo album, the Sooper Records release That’s What I Been Sayin’. Playing in a variety of contexts, he’s already amassed a heady, eclectic catalog that traverses styles and disciplines. For his debut under his own name, he decided to combine as many of them as he could.
Chicago’s service workers are unionizing like never before
As the pandemic first sank its talons into the service industry—closing hotels, restaurants, grocers, and retail stores—service were lauded as “essential workers.” Since then, they’ve been unionizing their workplaces at a speed the U.S. hasn’t seen in more than half a century. Between March 2022 and April 2024, about 290 workers at nine Chicago hotels, bars, and restaurants won union representation with Unite Here Local 1.
CalicoLoco finally sound as big as their shows on their debut album
On May 10, CalicoLoco’s debut album, I Love Myself, finally makes its way from their downloads folder into the world. Over the past two months, these indie rockers have released three singles in anticipation of the album, dropping hints about the territory they’ll be covering—poppy emo grounded in heavy guitar tones. Dani Robles and Zeke Ramsey, the band’s core duo, started CalicoLoco before COVID but didn’t really get the wheels rolling till 2021.
A farewell to Berlin
On Friday, November 17, members of the Berlin Union and the lawyer for the beloved Lakeview queer club met for what workers didn’t know would be their last bargaining session. Staff, party hosts, DJs, and patrons were riding the high from a successful four-week boycott.
Anaiet Soul, pianist, performer, and lifelong student
Anaiet Soul (she/they)—born Teiana Davis—is a 24-year-old multi-instrumentalist and performer whose main instrument is piano. Primarily jazz-trained, Soul has taken part in Ravinia Jazz Mentor, After School Matters, and Harold Washington College’s jazz programs.
Motel Breakfast celebrate a diverse but cohesive post-lockdown album
Motel Breakfast front man Jimmy Drenovsky founded the indie-rock five-piece in 2017, while at Marquette University in Milwaukee. He’d met most of his bandmates—guitarist Mick O’Donnell, keyboardist Conor Brennan, and drummer Jesse Nasadowski—growing up in Chicago’s south suburbs. When the band got together, though, O’Donnell and bassist Drue deVente were at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, while Brennan and Nasadowski were in college in Chicago.
Chicago hip-hop comes together to help treasured veteran Gq tha Teacha
On Sunday, March 31, Chicago hip-hop luminaries will gather at the Promontory to throw a benefit show for veteran scene promoter and former rapper Gq tha Teacha. As Gq told Illanoize Radio in January, he’s managing kidney and heart failure and undergoing dialysis. Poet, radio personality, and Promontory box office manager Mario Smith says the idea for a benefit came up a few weeks ago while several of the organizers were hanging out.
Kai Akili, neosoul artist and founder of Forever Noir
Born and raised in Chicago, Kai Akili (aka Tyler Martin) is a neosoul musician and recording artist who also works in performing and visual arts, event curation, and fine arts curation. He’s the founder and director of a creative company and independent record label called Forever Noir, which hosts open mikes on the south side and uses professional interviews and music videos to promote the local artists who make up its operations team.
Footballhead celebrate the vinyl arrival of their charismatic alt-rock
When Ryan Nolen began his Footballhead project, he never intended it to play live. In spring 2022, when he and his friend Eric Reyes, aka Snow Ellet, started writing radio-style pop songs with heavy, fuzzy guitars, he was just looking for an outlet for the material in his head that wouldn’t fit with his main band, Kirby Grip.
Into the woods with André 3000
Where am I? I’m sitting in the dark. Orange floodlights flash in a sequence, mirroring the hit of unseen chimes. As sound quickly dissipates, so do the lights, fading to black, feeling both spontaneous and premeditated. André 3000 stands center stage, nearly motionless. As light and sound crescendo up and down, in and out in unison, a soft blue glow shining from the ground illuminates Andre’s figure, stopping short of revealing his face and a shadow of his hair.
Best dry bar to hang, socialize, and buy any nonalcoholic drink imaginable
As someone who loves the taste of beer paired with a nonalcoholic Seedlip spirit shot—and as someone who is eight months deep into a lifetime of sobriety—walking into Bendición Dry Bar feels like walking into a sober man’s paradise. Potted plants and succulents of all sizes fill the space, which make the Humboldt Park storefront feel like an indoor botanical garden. Deeper inside, a television, couch, table, and chairs beckon you to relax. But the magic, for me, lies further inside.
Best online coalition that consolidates Chicago organizing efforts for Palestine
If you’re looking for Instagram pages to keep you plugged into U.S.-based organizing and protesting efforts that support the Palestinian people—more than 25,000 of whom have been mercilessly slaughtered by the U.S.-funded Israeli military since October 7—there are a couple accounts I can recommend—but none better than Students for Justice in Palestine Chicago (@sjpchicago).
Best TikTok presence setting the record straight about Chicago culture
In January 2023, @nairabills aka Chima “Naira” Ikoro posted a video asking men with loud opinions about women’s hair and makeup, “Aren’t you supposed to be building a house? You worried about the wrong stuff. . . .
Best weekday show series for artists and patrons alike
Whether you’re a performer or a patron, if you’re headed to the famous Tuesday Dollar Beer Night at Sleeping Village, chances are you’ve been looking forward to it—no matter who’s on the lineup. When I go, I often don’t even check first to see who’s playing. The formula for a perfect weeknight show is simple. Admission is always $5, not the more typical Sleeping Village price of $15 to $20. PBRs are a dollar apiece for the duration, and there’s no catch.
Chicago City Council calls for a ceasefire
Green and red squares lit up on the projector screen in the Chicago City Council chamber on January 31 as members voted “yea” or “nay” on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Varsity collect a year of monthly singles on the new Souvenirs
On Saturday, February 17, breezy Chicago indie-rock group Varsity headline Schubas to celebrate the album Souvenirs, which the five-piece self-releases on Friday. Souvenirs compiles the monthly series of singles that Varsity put out throughout 2023, a project the band undertook to address the ways the pandemic had derailed their routines—it gave them a structure for meeting and working on music.
Stress Positions heat up New Year’s Eve with blistering hardcore
Chicago alternative-pop auteur Nnamdï has picked a hell of a band to open his New Year’s Eve show at the Empty Bottle: hardcore four-piece Stress Positions. Earlier this month they released their debut album, Harsh Reality, and it’s one of this wolf’s favorite punk records of the year! Stress Positions formed in early 2021.
Life Is Work supports Black trans people in their communities
Zahara Bassett fell on the floor of her best friend’s house exhausted from a long day of making $9 an hour and barely getting by. She was working as a housing monitor for TransLife Care at Chicago House, a transitional housing program for transgender people who have nowhere to stay or are reentering society. All the while, her friend’s crib was her temporary housing while she worked the job, and the two were joking amidst their stress. “I was like, ‘Girl, life is work.
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with DMB (Devyn-Marshall
Contact DMB (Devyn-Marshall, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack