Mr. Chicago Leather 2015 this weekend
The official competition to choose Mr. Chicago Leather ( MCL ) 2015 will take place on Saturday, Jan. 24, at Leather Archives & Museum, 6418 N. Greenview Ave., at 8 p.m. A victory dance party at MCL home bar Touche, 6412 N. Clark St., will immediately follow the contest.
The weekend will also include a participant welcome party and roast of MCL 2014 Miguel Torres at Touche, Fri., Jan. 23, and a leather brunch, Sun., Jan. 25 at Andersonville Brewing Co., 5402 N. Clark St. Gerber/Hart Library will present a "dirty book sale" in conjunction with a fetish flea market, taking place on both Sat. and Sun. at Touche, from noon until 4 p.m.
The winner of the contest will go on to represent Chicago at this year's International Mr. Leather contest in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend.
Cornel West lecture Feb. 1 at Rockefeller
The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture Annual Public Lecture will present Dr. Cornel West discussing his new book, The Radical King, on Sunday, Feb. 1, at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave.
West is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University. He has written 19 books and edited 13 works. He is best known for his book Race Matters, Democracy Matters, and the memoir Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud.
The Office of Civic Engagement's UChicago Engages series, Seminary Co-op Bookstore and Beacon Press are co-sponsoring to this event that is free and open to the public.
See "Cornel West: "The Radical King"-CSRPC Annual Public Lecture" on Facebook.
Her HRC event Feb. 15
"Chicago Her HRC Presents: 4th Annual Va ~ Va ~ Vaudeville!" will take place Sunday, Feb. 15, at Mayne Stage, 1328 W. Morse Ave., 7-10 p.m.
Past events have featured burlesque dancers, comedians, jugglers, magicians, musicians, sword swallowers, painted ladies and belly dancers. Gwen La Roka will host this year's event, with Lady Gia, Aerin Tedesco, Cruel Valentine and Shana Vaughn-Gabor among the slated performers.
VIP admission ( 50-person capacity ) is at 6 p.m., with general admission ( 150-person capacity ) at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and $35; see http://www.hrc.org/events.
See full calendar at the link: www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/chicago/events/upcoming.php .