Chinatown Soup’s Community-Minded Version of Monopoly

NYC-based art and activism collective Chinatown Soup has developed a “Chinatown Edition” of Monopoly, but their version’s winner doesn’t play to control the city by achieving ownership of all valuable properties. Rather, players aim to create a more utopian neighborhood as the game “prizes the player that purposefully develops an area while keeping its residents in mind.” Highlighting the issues surrounding gentrification, this version of the …

Empress Of: Love For Me

Empress Of (aka Lorely Rodriguez) is preparing to release her second full-length album Us—the follow-up to 2015’s Me—and has just dropped the super-catchy “Love For Me.” The track, co-produced by the duo DJDS (Jerome Potter and Sam Griesemer), is sweet and dreamy. And, like most Empress Of tunes, it’s infectious—warranting repeat listens. Her new album will be out 19 October on Terrible Records.

Noname: Room 25

After her wildly impressive 2016 mixtape Telefone, Chicago-based slam poet/rapper, Noname (aka Fatimah Warner) has released her highly anticipated debut LP, Room 25—and it’s everything we’ve been hoping for. The record (which Warner funded and released independently) feels effortlessly laid-back as it bounces from intimate and evocative, to minimal to infectious, groovy, seductive and soulful. Her flow is polished yet nuanced, and the entire album is quite mesmerizing—from …