The party is called HOT/MESS and it’s a benefit for Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois, a group we’ve mentioned before that we’re big fans of.

The event will feature live music from Alex White of White Mystery, a performance by air guitar champ Nordicthunder, a sketch performance from Sad on Vacation and an improv set from some of the most talented improvisers in Chicago: TJ Jagodowski, Mick Napier, Susan Messing and Noah Gregoropoulos.

It’s encouraging to see such prominent Chicago improvisers supporting a LGBT organization like the Center, particularly considering the fact that the comedy scene here hasn’t always been particularly gay-friendly.  There’s an interesting book “Whose Improv Is It Anyway?” written by Amy Seham that covers the history of improv in Chicago and includes a critique of the homophobia, sexism and racism that appears in some of the humor of the scene.

One troupe worth mentioned is GayCo Productions, who has been putting on sketch comedy shows based on gay themes for the last decade.

More info on the event here:  Moneybottoms’ Revenge

There have been and continue to be quite a few benefits for Chicago groups headed to the forum as part of the Road to Detroit.  Just about all the groups involved are great local organizations worth supporting, but it’s particularly important to support groups from the disability rights community.  This is especially true when there are some bad-ass organizations locally working on these issues (namely ADAPT and Equip for Equality) who are often overlooked, even within communities working on issues of social justice.

Tonight’s gig looks particularly great, with People’s DJs Collective spinning, whose members have been spinning at all kinds of radical benefits and parties recently (and more coming up, like tomorrow’s EMPACT event).  Tonight’s event starts at 7 at Simone’s and you can check out the Facebook event here.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the festival, which has been bringing radical film to Chicago each and every Spring all decade.  The remainder of this year’s schedule looks particularly good, with films on the case of the RNC 8, the 2008 rebellion in Greece, some satirical shorts and documentaries about US-backed occupations.  In addition to the films, there will be in-person presentations, including a speaker from Palestine Solidarity Group and David Meyers, of Resistance Coffee, who we’ve written about before.

For media coverage of the festival, check out the Reader’s blog entry and the Sun-Times review.

The homebrew competition and political party of the year is going to go down on September 19 at Portage Theater and as always, will benefit anti-war groups and organizations working on issues of food sustainability and security.  You heard it here first.  Details coming soon…

The benefiting organization is the Metropolitan Tenants Organization.  For 25 years MTO has been fighting for safe and affordable housing in the city by empowering tenants to organize against slumlords and by operating a Tenants Rights Hotline to help inform Chicago renters of their rights.   The event is featuring live jazz by Doug Rosenberg and DJs Naomi Walker and Dave Marques with a $5 dollar suggested donation plus 25% of sales to benefit MTO.

In their own words, the folks who put on Chiditarod describe it as:

Chiditarod (ʃai*dit’*ə*rɒd): n.) the annual Chicago-based phenomenon that combines elements of the Alaskan Iditarod with Chicago’s finest brand of debaucherous social activism.  One part food drive, one part pub-crawl, one part costumed race, all parts radtacular.

Not only do scores of people (most in costumes) race each other by pushing their teammates in decorated carts, but it’s also a food drive to raise tons of food.  And when we say tons, we mean literally thousands of pounds of food is donated to the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation, with over 7,000 pounds raised last year!

We kind of dropped the ball by not announcing this earlier, as it looks like it’s too late to sign up to race or volunteer at a checkpoint.  However, you can still show up to watch and donate food.  The event starts at noon and the starting line will be somewhere around Hubbard and Wollcott.

If you were at the event last year, then you should know to expect a bad-ass party.  Plus, it’s a benefit for our favorite local bike organization, West Town Bikes, who teach bicycle mechanics in community classes, with a focus on programs for youth and it’s happening at the community arts space Rumble Arts.

For those of you who aren’t up for a February Critical Mass ride, the party starts at 6, so you can skip the ride and go straight to the after-party.  Plus, we’re excited to use our Pick to promote an event that is All Ages and Free- two things that aren’t always the easiest to find in this city.  (It might seem counter-intuitive that it’s free and a fundraiser, but we’re guessing it’s a donation for refreshments setup).

Kid Sister has been on the scene for the last few years, often performing live with Chicago DJ duo Flosstradamus (Kid Sister is the actual sister of J2K from Floss).  After releasing her single “Pro Nails” featuring Kanye, she started getting more attention and last fall her debut album “Ultraviolet” dropped, which appeared on a bunch of 2009 Top Ten lists, including the Sound Opinion Guys‘.

(Speaking of which, she was on Sound Opinions last month, and if you missed it, we’d suggest listening to the podcast on their site or checking out the videos of her performing in the studio on the Vocola Blog.  As Tankboy said on Chicagoist, she’s got to be one of the most adorable interview subjects they’ve ever had on the show.)

We like supporting local artists in general, but we especially love Kid Sister’s ability to balance being a woman in the hip-hop scene while celebrating her femininity and sexuality without falling into the trap of objectifying herself to sell .  Also, as animal rights kids (though not necessarily fans of PETA), we love her for her public stance against fur:

The show is Saturday night at Spin and we’re interested/excited to see what the scene will be like with her performing at the queer-friendly club.  We’re hoping it will be more diverse than usual, as Boystown has not always been the most welcoming to folks from the West Side and South Sides.  Similarly, we hope this performance is just another step in continuing the trend over the last few years of the hip-hop scene becoming less homophobic.

Tickets are $10 and Kid Sis will be going on around midnight, with Somilia Rabee opening up at 10.

For those of you who didn’t make it, the debut event we mentioned last month was a great party.  The turnout was solid and we were impressed by both the quality of the music and the diversity of the crowd.

This month’s event will feature live Brasilian music from Planeta Azul Samba Band, featuring the ‘Passistas’ Samba dancers.  In addition, the event will feature the People’s DJs Collective spinning world dance music all night, including reggae, Brazilian and Latin.

The party is at Wicker Well on North Ave. from 10-2.  It’s a suggested donation of $5 with all the proceeds going to the Chicago Delegation of the US Social Forum.  The US Social Forum is a gathering taking place in Detroit, made up of thousands of social justice activists across the country.  It is part of the World Social Forum that developed from the Global Justice Movement in direct response to the government and corporate-driven World Economic Forum.  All the funds raised will go directly to helping folks in Chicago who work on progressive and radical projects get to Detroit for the gathering.

For more info on EMPACT, check out their fb group here: http://bit.ly/blMxUC We’re expecting it to be a bad-ass party every month, so mark your calendars.