Written by Chicago poet Timothy David Rey, Zip! is a prophetic and ghostly timewarped drama about Nancy Reagan’s fervor for astrology, interlaced with a Black gay love story, set on the eve of the AIDS epidemic and the Reagan assassination attempt. The play runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. Zip! is a 2023 semi-finalist […]

Former fifth-ranking leader in the US House of Representatives, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and senior associate counsel to President George W. Bush, Christopher Cox leads a discussion on President Woodrow Wilson's profound and disturbing influence in the fights for women's voting rights and racial justice, accentuating the importance of historical awareness […]

Designed for children under 12 and their grown-ups, MCA Family Days invite our youngest visitors to be the museum’s artists, thinkers, and collaborators. Witness an artist’s first creation. Experience inspiration spark from play and wonder. Do something nearly unheard of in a contemporary art museum—sit on comfy pillows and eat free snacks. Every second Saturday, […]

Philip Metres will read from his new book Fugitive/Refuge, an extended qasidah reflecting on exile and family histories of forced migration from global violence. Chicago poet Faisal Mohyuddin will read from his new book Elsewhere: An Elegy, a meditative and spare collection on fatherhood and grief. Murmurs from the poets: A toast to the migrants […]

As part of our fall festival examination of movement, we explore the primal human expression of physical movement and the artistic and cultural foundations of dance with leading choreographer Kyle Abraham. With his company, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, he creates a body of dance-based work that is galvanized by Black culture and history and features […]

Hoop Dreams was famously called “the great American documentary” by Roger Ebert. It’s also, of course, a quintessentially Chicago film. Hoop Dreams turns 30 this year, its story of two young Chicagoans (Arthur Agee and William Gates) trying to become professional basketball players as resonant as ever. Arthur and William, along with director/producer Steve James […]

Legendary celebrity and rock-n-roll photographer, Lynn Goldsmith has captured the biggest stars with her skilled lens. She’s chronicled the careers of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, and her longtime friend and collaborator, Patti Smith. A Chicago Humanities favorite, Patti Smith is one of America’s most acclaimed singer-songwriters and a beloved photographer […]

On the occasion of the opening of The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970-2020, featured artists Tishan Hsu, Tala Madani, and Jacolby Satterwhite chat with Senior Curator of the MCA and organizer of the exhibition, Jamillah James, about the past, present, and future of painting. Spanning an international and intergenerational group of artists, The […]

The Midwest premiere of Becky Nurse of Salem, a new dark comedy by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Polly Noonan, promises to bewitch Chicago audiences as the opening production of Shattered Globe Theatre’s 34th season. Gaze into any crystal ball and it’s clear, Shattered Globe’s Becky Nurse of Salem is sure to cast a spell on […]

Four Athenians run away to the forest in the name of love (reciprocated and otherwise) and unknowingly find themselves in the crossfires of a war between the king and queen of the fairies. In the midst of this conflict, local workers are attempting (poorly) to rehearse a play to celebrate the upcoming nuptial of Duke […]