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, joyfully disregard the boundaries between adult and child, artist and visitor, museum and studio, teacher and learner.
Join us on opening weekend of The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies to make some art in the digital world.
Participating artists include Niema Qureshi and Norman Long.
ASL interpretation is provided at this event.
Experience the magic of the Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato — named as “the most potent female singer of her generation” by The New Yorker and “one of the most delightful artists of our time” by Gramophone — as she joins forces with the dynamic four-piece a cappella group Kings Return and the brilliant pianist Craig Terry in KINGS ReJOYCE! This special festive program promises a delightful blend of sacred and popular repertoire, celebrating the unique way music can bring us home for the holidays and transporting listeners to a world of joy and wonder.
Don’t miss this unforgettable collaboration of world-class talent as DiDonato, Kings Return, and Terry bring the true spirit of the season to life.
Accessibility: ASL Interpreted
https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/performance/kings-rejoyce
The legendary director of Men in Black, Get Shorty, and The Addams Family dishes out a delectable mix of insights and true tales that escalate from outrageous to unbelievable in his new memoir, Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time. From battling with studio executives and producers to bad-script-solving on set to coaxing actors into finding the right light and talking faster, Sonnenfeld will provide an entertaining masterclass in how to make commercial art in the face of constant human foible. You’ll never see Hollywood the same way again. A book signing will follow this program.
Open captions, ASL interpretation and ALDs will be provided.
https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/barry-sonnenfeld/
Calm Waters is an exclusive event for guests with disabilities and Veterans to explore Shedd Aquarium’s exhibits and experiences in a comfortable and accepting environment. Modifications for this event will include limited capacity and streamlined entry with advance registration.
Modifications for Calm Waters Include:
Limited capacity and streamlined entry with advance registration
A sensory friendly app
A low-sensory animal spotlight with American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation
An animal encounter opportunity
Complimentary 4D Experiences during the event
Family members and companions are welcome.
https://www.sheddaquarium.org/plan-a-visit/accessibility/calm-waters
Politics of Poetics is a series of readings and workshops that highlights influential contemporary poets whose practices traverse the political through writing, teaching, and activism. This fall, poet Heid E. Erdrich reads new work and selections from her award-winning book of poetry, Little Big Bully (2020) and Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum of Archaic Media (2017). Following the reading, Erdrich is joined in conversation with artist Andrea Carlson, whose work provides the cover art for Little Big Bully, and is the current artist in our Chicago Works series.
Prior to the talk, Erdrich gives an intimate poetry workshop at the Center for Native Futures. Registration for the workshop is required; tickets are available through the Center for Native Futures.
ASL interpretation and English CART captioning are provided for the talk.
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
the authors of movement
who write with their
feet
— Philip Metres, from Fugitive/Refuge
We have always been the displaced children of displaced children,
Tethered by distant rivers to abandoned lands, our blood’s history
lost.
— Faisal Mohyuddin, from Ghazal for the Diaspora
This event is part of the Poetry Foundation’s fall 2024 season, Murmuring Americas. All Poetry Foundation events are completely free of charge and open to the public, though advanced registration is encouraged. The performance space is ADA-compliant and wheelchair-accessible, and the program will feature CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/events/1602229/fugitive-refuge
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 for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Further development occurred during the author’s time as a 2022 fellow in the playwriting cohort of the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ+ Writers-Faculty Advisor, Jewelle Gomez. Zip! was given its second table-read as part of the 2021 End Of Play Program (hosted by the Dramatist Guild of America/ The 24 Hour Plays NYC).
Some of Rey’s other plays include White/House (Finalist, eta New Play Initiative, 2020), Gloria, The (Almost) Last Picture Show, and The Monologue Play: An Ongoing Work Exploring Race, Sex, Identity…And The American Myth (‘22,‘23 Changing Worlds/ Arts Work Fund Award Recipient).
Director: Roger Ellis
Cast: David Goodloe, Caren Skibell, Stephen Glaspie, Wannapa Pimtong Eubanks, Anniela Hubidoro, Saleem Hue Penny, and Donovan Session.
Production Team: Opening Graphic-Rob Riutta/ Ross Parsons, Choreography-Ayako Kato, Props-Julie Williams, Sound-Ayme Frye.
Murmurs from ZIP!:
NANCY: I tell you I’ve been honing my foresight over the past few months, ever since my husband’s inauguration, and it’s getting stronger every
day.
— Timothy David Rey, from ZIP!
This event is part of the Poetry Foundation’s fall 2024 season, Murmuring Americas. All Poetry Foundation events are completely free of charge and open to the public, though advanced registration is encouraged. The performance space is ADA-compliant and wheelchair-accessible, and the program will feature CART captioning and ASL interpretation. Please note, this event will not be livestreamed. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
Based on the original Broadway production that ran for over thirteen years and was nominated for nine Tony Awards, and the Academy Award-winning motion picture, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR. is a fantastic adaptation of the story of transformation and tolerance. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR. features some of the most popular songs ever written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, along with new songs by Mr. Menken and Tim Rice.
The classic story tells of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end and he will be transformed to his former self. But time is running out. If the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed for all eternity.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted
The cast and crew of Nothing On are scrambling to prepare for opening night, but despite their earnest efforts, the production is an absolute mess. Line flubs and lost props and missed cues, oh my! Can this beleaguered ensemble overcome egos and jealousies to pull the show together in time?
Onstage antics collide with offstage foibles in Steppenwolf’s production of Noises Off, the classic comedy that writes an ingenious, slapstick and zany tribute to “theatre-people” everywhere. By the end of this dizzying play-within-a-play, you won’t know stage right from left.
Noises Off will be performed in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons-/2024-25/noises-off/
Three award-winning poets read from their latest collections grappling with landscapes of grief. National Book-winning Chicago poet Daniel Borzutzky’s The Murmuring Grief of the Americas exhumes the necrophilic underbelly of carceral capitalism and authoritarianism in the hemispheric Americas. Pulitzer Prize-winning language poet Rae Armantrout’s Go Figure tries to find humor and consolation in a disaster-ridden world. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Forrest Gander’s novel-poem Mojave Ghost takes grief on a memory-ridden pilgrimage home, walking 800 miles across the Mojave Desert.
Murmurs from the poets:
We ask the murmurers what they want to do with themselves now that they don’t get to live anymore. They say they want to love all the things they could not love when they were
alive.
— Daniel Borzutzy, from The Murmuring Grief of the Americas
A sentimental journey through a doomsday
scenario
— Rae Armantrout, from Go Figure
Walking the rift, they keep their voices small. Shallow vibrations scuttle along the fracture
zone.
— Forrest Ganders, from Mojave Ghost
This program is part of the Poetry Foundation’s fall 2024 season, Murmuring Americas. All Poetry Foundation events are completely free of charge and open to the public, though advanced registration is encouraged. The performance space is ADA-compliant and wheelchair-accessible, and the program will feature CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/events/1597650/the-murmuring-grief-of-the-americas
Kelsey Street Press, a small press with an explosive history of publishing radical queer and trans BIPOC and women authors, celebrates its 50th anniversary. Publishing experimental feminist poetics since 1974, Kelsey Street Press has been pivotal in addressing gender disparity in publishing. Their formidable lineage includes Etel Adnan, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Renee Gladman, Fanny Howe, Erica Hunt, Bhanu Kapil, Myung Mi Kim, Camille Roy, and Cecilia Viçuna.
Four poets with recent or forthcoming publications from Kelsey Street Press will read at this event. Kiran Bath is the author of Instructions for Banno (2024), a debut collection which moves through ritual, ruptured diary, field notes, and family genealogy to grapple with the inherited trauma of becoming a South Asian bride (banno). Jennifer (JP) Perrine is the winner of Kelsey Street Press’s 2023 QTBIPOC Prize for Beautiful Outlaw (forthcoming in 2025). Rena Rosenwasser, a co-founder of the press, has four poetry collections published by the press across four decades: Elevators (2011), Isle (1992), Simulacra (1986), and Desert Flats (1979). Metta Sáma is the author of Swing at your own risk (2019), a formally inventive and incisive critique of anti-blackness in the US empire.
Reading 6-7:15 PM
Reception with open bar 7:15-8:30 PM
Murmurs from the poet:
America,
this land is my land this land is her land
from the Mexican border to the New England
shoreland this land is Not your land this body is
Not your body this tongue is Not your tongue this
language will cut you will peel back the
flesh
— Metta Sáma, from Swing at your own risk
The Interior is the City within the
Self
— Rena Rosenwasser, from Elevator
Omissions in language are intentional. We do not speak of = We do not recognize = It’s not possible. A negation. A mirror that shows you as
invisible.
— Kiran Bath, from Instructions for Banno
any answer I give is a half-answer
any answer arrives through the mouth of an
american
— Jennifer Perrine, from Beautiful Outlaw
This program is part of the Poetry Foundation’s fall 2024 season, Murmuring Americas. All Poetry Foundation events are completely free of charge and open to the public, though advanced registration is encouraged. The performance space is ADA-compliant and wheelchair-accessible, and the program will feature CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/events/1597497/kelsey-street-press-50th-anniversary
**ASL interpreter is for panel only**
Legal experts and science educators—along with civic engagement and free speech advocates—engage in a lively, wide-ranging discussion on the historical context of the Scopes Monkey Trial, while drawing parallels to the limitations on intellectual freedom in contemporary public classrooms.
Tickets include the discussion, drinks, light refreshments and the 7:30pm performance of Inherit the Wind.
For a $75 all-inclusive ticket, enter the code PANEL in the “Have a code?” field prior to selecting tickets.
For a $25 all-inclusive student ticket, enter the code PANELSTUDENT in the “Have a code?” field prior to selecting tickets.
ASL interpretation will be provided for the panel.
Panelists include: Blessing Bamgbade (Chicago Debates), Deidre Baumann, Glenn Branch, Kaitlyn Casimo, Henry Godinez, and Morgan Wirthlin with Jared Bellot moderating.
ASL performance of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 at Writers Theatre!
$30.00 Tickets! Promo Code: ASLNatasha
(Please enter code before selecting seat. If you run into any issues please give the box office a call at 847-242-6000)
“There’s a war going on somewhere out there, and Andrey isn’t here.” Young and impulsive, Natasha Rostova arrives in Moscow to await the return of her fiancé from the front lines. But when she falls under the spell of the roguish Anatole, family friend Pierre must push through his existential crisis to help Natasha pick up the pieces of her shattered reputation. Based on a scandalous slice of Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace, this innovative musical spectacle took Broadway by storm with its “electropop opera” score, earning 12 Tony Award nominations. Katie Spelman and Matt Deitchman, the inspired creative team behind WT’s hit production of Once, reunite to bring this modern spin on a literary classic to Chicago for the first time.
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. www.concordtheatricals.com
Accessibility: open captions, ASL interpretation, assistive listening devices
https://www.writerstheatre.org/natasha-pierre-and-the-great-comet-of-1812
The Curator Presents, a solo show by Madeline Esterhammer-Fic, is a one-woman play that explores the feelings of isolation, fear, and hope experienced during the height of COVID. Madeline will be playing the Curator, a character who works at the fictional World COVID Museum of Chicago. By providing a platform for discussion and incorporating humor into the narrative, the play seeks to offer a space for healing and reflection on the challenges faced during the pandemic.
Accessibility includes ASL Interpretation.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-curator-presents-tickets-984271441377?aff=oddtdtcreator
MILO IMAGINES THE WORLD is a musical odyssey of imagination. Through vibrant song, expressive dance, and a whole lot of imagination, this magical, musical journey takes us through the mind of a child, as he learns to see the world as it really is. A journey from house to home, this play is a real ride!
Adapted for the stage by Terry Guest
Music by Christian Albright & Christian Magby
Based on the book by Newbery-winning children’s author Matt de la Peña & illustrator Christian Robinson
Directed by Mikael Burke
MILO IMAGINES THE WORLD runs 65 minutes and is recommended for ages 6 & up.
Accessibility includes ASL interpretation and Open Captions.
https://chicagochildrenstheatre.org/event/milo-imagines-the-world/
The Neo-Futurists present an ADA-Accessible and ASL-interpreted performance of The Infinite Wrench in partnership with Free Street Theater at Pulaski Park.
At THE INFINITE WRENCH you’ll see thirty original plays in sixty minutes, written and performed by The Neo-Futurist Ensemble.Each play offers something different, be it funny, profound, elegant, disgusting, topical, irreverent, terrifying, or a song; all are truthful and tackle the here-and-now, inspired by the lived experiences of the performers. With new plays every week, THE INFINITE WRENCH is The Neo-Futurists’ ongoing and ever-changing attempt to shift the conventions of live performance and speak to those unreached or unmoved by traditional theater.
The Infinite Wrench will be preceded by a performance from the Free Street Youth Ensemble. Free Street will present a short excerpt from one of their recent works. Since 1969, Free Street Theater has been at the forefront of creating inclusive & accessible theatre in Chicago. Free Street is a femme-led arts and culture organization that centers original performance work by Black, Brown, and Immigrant communities; queer artists; youth artists; and work that is committed to the thriving and well-being of people on the South and West Sides of the city. We believe in the theater as a space to uplift joy and justice, especially racial, economic, and environmental justice in Chicago.
Tickets to this performance are pay-what-you-can. Please reserve them in advance. Masks are required.
Accessibility: ASL Interpreter
Join us for an extraordinary fusion of art and narrative in a unique storytelling event, on Saturday, August 31 (2-4 pm) at South Asia Institute.
Eight dynamic South Asian American artists from the highly acclaimed group exhibition, Are Shadow Bodies Electric?, a section of the groundbreaking exhibition, What is Seen and Unseen: Mapping South Asian American Art in Chicago series, will candidly share details of their personal artistic journeys.
This is a unique opportunity to hear them recount their experiences of creating art while navigating the complexities of their intersectional identities, and to celebrate the achievements of the diverse group who have contributed to shaping the South Asian American art landscape in Chicago. The program will be led by Jitesh Jaggi, a Chicago based Moth award-winning storyteller.
Featured artists:
Tara Asgar, Sabba S. Elahi, Brendan Fernandes, Amay Kataria, Shaurya Kumar, Tulika Ladsariya, Udita Upadhyaya, and Kunal Sen
This event and the exhibition ” What is Seen and Unseen” is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
Synapse Arts turns 20! The Birthday Bash is a celebration of Synapse Arts in a welcoming, festival-type environment.
All attendees will get a cupcake and have access to our open events: performances, dance films screenings, games.
But when you donate at the level of your choice, you can add some additional flair to your Birthday Bash experience, including a Interactive Museum tour, pre-registration for dance classes, and more!
Please see accessibility features available at the event:
– Sensory considerations
– ASL events
– Front desk people trained on welcoming service animals
– Spaces accessible for wheelchair users and people with mobility assistance devices
– Rest area (with Maggie Bridger, a sick and disabled dance artist, scholar, and access worker interested in re-imagining pain through the dancemaking process)
– All gender restrooms
– Masks available and encouraged but unable to require due to park
For additional assistance, questions, or to request specific accommodations, please contact info@synapsearts.com or text 947-2CREATE (947-227-3283).
Orientation video with captions: https://vimeo.com/984444567
Birthday Bash – Access and Location Information, also known as “wayfinding”: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qaBNxVdcxQ6lv4MqhQGTsBgXLvW4ASyXqLqgrGm-HJY/
Accessibility includes sensory considerations, ASL events, wheelchair accessible, rest area, all gender restrooms, and sighted guide.
A three-time Tony Award-winning masterwork and “cultural landmark that only seems to grow with relevance” (Los Angeles Times).
Science and religion go head-to-head in this iconic courtroom showdown. A small-town educator’s trial for teaching the theory of evolution becomes a battle royal of wits, wisdom and will for two of the country’s most powerful lawyers. In a bold retelling for today, Goodman Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez directs an all-new production of one of the greatest dramas of the 20th century, based on the real-life Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1925—an “explosive episode in American culture” (New York Times).
La ciencia y la religión se enfrentan en este icónico duelo judicial. El juicio de un educador de un pequeño pueblo por enseñar la teoría de la evolución se convierte en una batalla real de ingenio, sabiduría y voluntad entre dos de los abogados más poderosos del país. En una audaz reinterpretación para el presente, Henry Godinez, asociado artístico residente del Goodman, dirige la nueva producción de uno de los mayores dramas del siglo XX, basada en el juicio real de Scopes “Monkey” de 1925, un “episodio explosivo en la cultura estadounidense” (New York Times).
This event offers multiple accessible performances. Please see their website for dates and times. Accessibility includes an ASL interpreted performance, a Touch Tour and Audio-described performance, a Spanish captioned performance, and an open-captioned performance. See more about their accessibility here.
An open-hearted, “utterly absorbing, very funny, darn near perfect play” (The Daily Beast) about leaving your comfort zone to find fulfillment.
Meet Kenneth, a 38-year-old longtime bookstore worker, who is perfectly content with his after-work routine: a mai tai (or two) at the local tiki bar. But when his employer decides to close the store, Kenneth must also turn the page and choose a new direction—including some daring steps into a world he has evaded. BOLD Producer Malkia Stampley makes her Goodman directing debut with this “tender, delicately detailed portrait” (The New York Times) about new beginnings.
Una obra de buen corazón, “completamente absorbente, muy divertida y casi perfecta” (The Daily Beast) sobre salir de tu zona de confort para encontrar plenitud.
Les presento a Kenneth, un trabajador de librería de 38 años, que está perfectamente contento con su rutina después del trabajo: un mai tai (o dos) en el bar tiki local. Pero cuando su jefe decide cerrar la tienda, Kenneth también debe pasar la página y elegir una nueva dirección, incluyendo algunos temerarios pasos hacia un mundo que ha estado evitando. La osada productora Malkia Stampley, hace su debut como directora en el Goodman con este “tierno y delicadamente detallado retrato” (The New York Times) sobre los nuevos comienzos.
This event offers multiple accessible performances. Please see their website for dates and times. Accessibility includes an ASL interpreted performance, a Touch Tour and Audio-described performance, a Spanish captioned performance, and an open-captioned performance. See more about their accessibility here.
The Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal are proud to reintroduce this free, weekly reading and open mic series co-curated by CPC’s Poets in Residence Tarnynon Onumonu and Timothy David Rey.
Join us on certain Monday nights in July at 6pm. in this beautiful setting to hear outstanding featured poets perform their work in this partnership between Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal. After every poetry performance, there will be an open mic for any individual that would like to share poetry of their own!
https://www.poetrycenter.org/poetry-the-green-at-320-summer-2024/
Millennium Park Summer Music Series features a wide variety of music from established and emerging artists at the iconic Jay Pritzker Pavilion.
Corinne Bailey Rae
English singer/songwriter/musician Corinne Bailey Rae shot to stardom with her self- titled #1 U.K. debut album in 2006, featuring the global hits “Put Your Records On” and “Like A Star.” Over the course of her career she has released four critically acclaimed studio albums—Corinne Bailey Rae, The Sea, The Heart Speaks in Whispers, and Black Rainbows—and earned two Grammy Awards, two MOBOS, and has been nominated for multiple awards including the BRIT Awards, Mercury Music Prize and BET Awards. Her work for film and television includes the theme to Stan Lee’s Lucky Man (SKY1), “The Scientist” for Universal Pictures’ Fifty Shades Darker opening title and soundtrack which charted globally, and in 2020 her song “New to Me” was performed in the film The High Note by Tracee Ellis Ross. Bailey Rae has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Mary J. Blige, Al Green, Herbie Hancock, KING, Paul McCartney, Kele Okereke, Eric Benet, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Questlove, Salaam Rami, RZA, Tyler The Creator, Paul Weller, Richard Hawley, Stevie Wonder, Tracey Thorn, Pharrell, Logic, Mick Jenkins and many more.
Terrace Martin
A five-time GRAMMY-nominated artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist from LA’s Crenshaw District, Terrace Martin is renowned as one of the world’s leading jazz musicians AND hip-hop producers. This singular standing is captured on his countless influential collaborations including Kendrick Lamar (good kid, M.A.A.D. city & To Pimp a Butterfly), Stevie Wonder, Travis Scott, Rihanna, Snoop Dogg, Herbie Hancock, and Leon Bridges’ “Sweeter” (performed at the DNC). From his own acclaimed releases like the protest anthem “PIG FEET”, and his GRAMMY-nominated, star studded album, DRONES (featuring Kendrick, YG, Leon Bridges, Cordae, and more) to the GRAMMY-nominated Dinner Party (The musical supergroup of Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder), and his most recent single “Chucks (feat. Channel Tres)”. Among the most versatile creatives in a generation, Terrace’s path is leading him in parallel with the greats like Quincy Jones or Dr. Dre, while also launching his vibrant, progressive, genre-crossing record label record label Sounds of Crenshaw.
This event includes ASL interpretation, wheelchair accessibility, assistive listening devices, audio description, digital programs, and large print programs.
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park9.html
Millennium Park Summer Music Series features a wide variety of music from established and emerging artists at the iconic Jay Pritzker Pavilion.
Béla Fleck
Few musicians in any category seem as uncategorizable as Béla Fleck. After initially making his mark with the progressive bluegrass group New Grass Revival, Fleck proceeded to take his instrument, as New York Times critic Jon Pareles noted, “to some very unlikely places.” He formed the Flecktones, a groundbreaking group whose repertoire ranged from fusion to Bach; the group celebrates its 46th anniversary this year. In addition, he has played jazz with Chick Corea, American roots with his partner, banjoist Abigail Washburn, written concertos for banjo and orchestra, and created a documentary film and album, Throw Down Your Heart, that examined the banjo’s African roots. Along the way, he has won 18 Grammys across 10 categories.
Zakir Hussain
The pre-eminent classical tabla virtuoso of our time, Zakir Hussain is appreciated as one of the world’s most esteemed and influential musicians, one whose mastery of his percussion instrument has taken it to a new level, transcending cultures and national borders. A child prodigy, accompanying India’s greatest musicians and dancers from his early years, and touring internationally while still in his teens, Zakir has been at the helm of many genre-defying collaborations including Shakti, Remember Shakti, Masters of Percussion, Diga, Tabla Beat Science, CrossCurrents, Sangam and Grammy-award winners Planet Drum and Global Drum Project. A revered composer and educator, Zakir is the recipient of countless honors, most recently the 2022 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, the 2022 Aga Khan Music Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in January, 2023, the title of Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award.
Edgar Meyer
Aptly described by The New Yorker as “the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively un-chronicled history of his instrument,” double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer is at home in a broad spectrum of musical styles. A MacArthur Fellow and Avery Fisher Prize winner, he is eminently at home within classical music, both performing traditional works and also his significant catalog of original solo, chamber, and orchestral pieces. His 30-year relationship with Yo-Yo Ma has yielded seven recordings together, and his upcoming projects include a duo recording with jazz bassist Christian McBride and a recording of all four of his concertos with the Knights and the Scottish Ensemble, produced by Chis Thile.
Rakesh Chaurasia
Like Zakir Hussain, Rakesh Chaurasia comes from Indian classical music royalty. His uncle, Pandit Hariprasad Chaursia, is widely considered the greatest bansuri player in India, and Rakesh — who started playing at age five — is deemed his most brilliant student. Not only has he mastered the techniques of Indian classical music, he has developed additional techniques allowing him to venture into other styles of playing, particularly with his crossover band Rakesh and Friends. A composer as well as flautist, he has written and performed on numerous Indian movie soundtracks, and in 2007 was awarded the Indian Music Academy Award.
This event includes ASL interpretation, wheelchair accessibility, assistive listening devices, captioning, open captioning, digital programs, and large print programs.
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park9.html
Join us in celebration of Chicago Works | Andrea Carlson: Shimmer on Horizons with a conversation between the artist and Curatorial Associate Iris Colburn, who organized the exhibition.
English CART captioning and American Sign Language (ASL) are available.
Vocalist Michelle Coltrane, daughter of Alice Coltrane, and harpist Brandee Younger come together for An Oral History of Alice Coltrane. Part conversation, part performance, the event features oral histories and biographical stories of Alice Coltrane interwoven with performances and demonstrations from Brandee Younger, bringing the stories to life.
Through creative works and masterful performances, Alice Coltrane’s pioneering practice has changed the music world. She grew up playing music in her Baptist church, and by the 1950s established herself as a proficient bebop pianist in the Detroit scene. She met John Coltrane in 1963 and was his primary musical collaborator until his death in 1967. Prolific in her creation, Alice’s innovative style incorporated both gospel and jazz, leading to iconic works like Journey in Satchidananda (one of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums). Once a profound musician, beloved spiritual leader, and pragmatic businesswoman, Alice Coltrane is now remembered as deeply giving human, known for her emphasis on charity work, education, and spiritual guidance.
MCA Music Talks pair powerhouse musicians with artists, activists, writers, and thinkers to take on big ideas in art and culture. These intimate evenings of performance and conversation reveal art world anecdotes, shared ideas, and creative inspirations.
This program is organized by Laura Paige Kyber, Assistant Curator of Performance, in partnership with The John & Alice Coltrane Home.
English CART Captioning and ASL are provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/music-talk-an-oral-history-of-alice-coltrane/
Vocalist Michelle Coltrane, daughter of Alice Coltrane, and harpist Brandee Younger come together for An Oral History of Alice Coltrane. Part conversation, part performance, the event features oral histories and biographical stories of Alice Coltrane interwoven with performances and demonstrations from Brandee Younger, bringing the stories to life.
Through creative works and masterful performances, Alice Coltrane’s pioneering practice has changed the music world. She grew up playing music in her Baptist church, and by the 1950s established herself as a proficient bebop pianist in the Detroit scene. She met John Coltrane in 1963 and was his primary musical collaborator until his death in 1967. Prolific in her creation, Alice’s innovative style incorporated both gospel and jazz, leading to iconic works like Journey in Satchidananda (one of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums). Once a profound musician, beloved spiritual leader, and pragmatic businesswoman, Alice Coltrane is now remembered as deeply giving human, known for her emphasis on charity work, education, and spiritual guidance.
MCA Music Talks pair powerhouse musicians with artists, activists, writers, and thinkers to take on big ideas in art and culture. These intimate evenings of performance and conversation reveal art world anecdotes, shared ideas, and creative inspirations.
This program is organized by Laura Paige Kyber, Assistant Curator of Performance, in partnership with The John & Alice Coltrane Home.
English CART Captioning and ASL are provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/music-talk-an-oral-history-of-alice-coltrane/
Cripping the Galleries is a series of live public programs featuring local artists activating museums through the lens of crip culture, access, and belonging.* Cripping the Galleries is hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art, in close collaboration with Bodies of Work: A Network of Disability Art and Culture.
For this edition of Cripping the Galleries, artist Janhavi Khemka performs Impress/ion, 2024. During this intimate, participatory performance, Khemka invites audience members to sit with her, three at a time, as she asks each audience member to “teach her” their individual first names. Depending on vision and vibrations perceivable through touch, participants can expect to spend a total of four minutes each until the group reaches a consensus on each learned name. The performance lasts three hours, until the artist is depleted of energy.
Please note: While this is a participatory performance, we invite audience members to choose to engage with it or remain a viewer of the work.
American Sign Language (ASL) and English CART captioning are available for this event.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/cripping-the-galleries-janhavi-khemka/
Vocalist Michelle Coltrane, daughter of Alice Coltrane, and harpist Brandee Younger come together for An Oral History of Alice Coltrane. Part conversation, part performance, the event features oral histories and biographical stories of Alice Coltrane interwoven with performances and demonstrations from Brandee Younger, bringing the stories to life.
Through creative works and masterful performances, Alice Coltrane’s pioneering practice has changed the music world. She grew up playing music in her Baptist church, and by the 1950s established herself as a proficient bebop pianist in the Detroit scene. She met John Coltrane in 1963 and was his primary musical collaborator until his death in 1967. Prolific in her creation, Alice’s innovative style incorporated both gospel and jazz, leading to iconic works like Journey in Satchidananda (one of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums). Once a profound musician, beloved spiritual leader, and pragmatic businesswoman, Alice Coltrane is now remembered as deeply giving human, known for her emphasis on charity work, education, and spiritual guidance.
MCA Music Talks pair powerhouse musicians with artists, activists, writers, and thinkers to take on big ideas in art and culture. These intimate evenings of performance and conversation reveal art world anecdotes, shared ideas, and creative inspirations.
This program is organized by Laura Paige Kyber, Assistant Curator of Performance, in partnership with The John & Alice Coltrane Home.
English CART Captioning and ASL are provided.
For Tickets: https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/music-talk-an-oral-history-of-alice-coltrane/
Co-produced by Lyric, The Glimmerglass Festival, and Washington National Opera, the opera presents the moving story of a Black middle-class family in Harlem whose hopes and dreams for their teenage son are shattered when he is shot by a white police officer.
Lyric Opera will be offering American Sign Language interpretation as well as the use of Sound Shirts. Please visit lyricopera.org for further information.
Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek, the renowned composer/librettist team, tell the story of Claire, who is driven nearly mad by an unending, low-frequency hum that she hears. In desperation, she joins a community organization, “The Listeners,” formed to discover the origin of the noise and destroy it. The group becomes frighteningly cult-like, ultimately leading to catastrophic consequences.
This performance will have both ASL and Sound Shirts, please visit lyricopera.org for more information.
https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2024-25/the-listeners/
Join us for 30 glow’d-up, sweat-soaked, lipstick-smeared, gender euphoric™, gay-panic-inducing plays in 60 minutes – all in the name of Queer Community.
100% of proceeds from this show will be donated to Families in Palestine. The performance is ASL-interpreted and will be followed by mask-optional DRAG BINGO and shmoozing.
Performance begins at 7:00 pm. Absolutely NO LATE SEATING.
When purchasing a ticket in advance for THE INFINITE WRENCH: 30 Queer Plays in 60 Straight Minutes you are guaranteeing your seat for the performance and avoiding the need to wait in line outside before our doors open 30 minutes prior to performance. Please note that seating in our Theater is General Admission and if you want the first choice of seat you still need to arrive early, especially given our limited capacity & social distancing measures.
All sales are final. We do not offer refunds, but will exchange tickets for a future performance if you are exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms or feeling unwell in any way. Please contact BoxOffice@Neofuturists.org for exchanges.
By purchasing this ticket you are agreeing to all terms and conditions listed in our Health & Safety protocols page which are available at https://neofuturists.org/health-safety/. This includes:
https://theneofuturists.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FUn000003bG8vMAE
Accessible Juneteenth 2024
Tuesday, June 18th, 2024
4pm to 7:30pm
Welcome and Announcements at 4:30pm
Open Mic & Showcase at 5:30pm
Place: the UIC Quad (behind UIC Student Center East); 750 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL. See the map at https://go.uic.edu/2024_AccessibleJuneteenth_Map for more details on where the Quad is located, which public transportation stops and garages are nearby, and where paratransit and rideshare can pick/drop you off.
Date and Time: Tuesday, June 18th, 2024 from 4pm to 7:30pm
Come and celebrate our fourth Juneteenth, when we celebrate the black disability community and the victories we accomplished! We want to make Juneteenth a fun and essential accessible experience for all, including disabled people in the African Diaspora. The theme for the 4th Annual Accessible Juneteenth celebration is Black National Anthems.
This year, we will have a DJ who will bless us with music fit for our Accessible Juneteenth celebration. We will kick the evening of performances off with Domo Moons’ rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” We will host an open mic where you can share your talents in singing, spoken word, playing instruments, and more! Sign up for the open mic at go.uic.edu/OpenMicJuneteenth or at the event in-person. But hurry, because spots are limited! Don’t miss feature performances from RISE, DomoMoon, Victoria Boateng, Cherlnell Lane, Complex Theory and MORE Special Guests.
There will be food, giveaways, and resources given out by vendors, including those from Black-owned and disability-owned/friendly organizations and businesses.
ASL and captioning will be provided for the open mic and showcase portion. In care of immunocompromised people in our community, masking is required for our indoor spaces. We’ll have extras on hand!
If you cannot attend the celebration in person, that is okay! Watch the live stream on Chicagoland DPOCC’s Facebook page (@ChiDPOCC) on June 18th.
This event is brought to you by:
Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition
The Institute on Disability and Human Development
UIC Disability Cultural Center
UIC Black Studies
UIC Black Cultural Center
Access Living
NIDILRR : National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
DCAL : The Disability Culture Activism Lab
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
UIC Black Cultural Center
Raising Cane’s
IPlayGames
Cook It Mama
MORE Sponsors and Vendors to be announced, stay tuned!
A showcase of The Second City’s Victor Wong Fellows. The Victor Wong Fellowship is an intensive program at The Second City that mentors & trains talented Asian / Asian American identifying artists.
Accessibility: ASL Interpreted, assistive listening devices, and wheelchair accessbile.
https://secondcityus.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FTP000000Gh932AC
“The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love, we begin to move toward freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. That action is the testimony of love as the practice of freedom.”
—bell hooks
Liberation is defined as the act of being freed from imprisonment, slavery, or some type of captivity. Love and liberation are two things that go hand in hand. One cannot exist without the other. There are different kinds of love: self, familial, platonic, romantic, community, cultural–– the bounds are limitless. How has love acted as a liberating force in your life? Contributing youth artist are asked to consider the theme of “Love and Liberation” broadly and to interpret this prompt creatively in their submissions.
ASL and CART captioning are provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/21minus-love-and-liberation/
A work-in-progress sharing, this event will consist of both the movement- and the textual-based research explored over the course of the residency.
ASL is provided for this event.
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/dance_residency.html
For the opening of Arthur Jafa: Works from the MCA Collection, Arthur Jafa is joined onstage by long-time friend, colleague, and renowned artist Theaster Gates, whom he first met at Gates’s Black Artists Retreat (B.A.R.), an annual convening of Black visual artists held in Chicago. Join us to take part in a rich conversation between these influential artists who each uniquely engage Black archives, spiritual traditions, and aesthetics.
English and Spanish CART captioning and American Sign Language (ASL) are available.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-arthur-jafa-theaster-gates/
Love is a universal language; it transcends identity and culture. Love is more than a feeling; it is a tough invitation that encourages sacrifice and commitment. Love is a never-ending journey that is always beginning. But what is love in the absence of compassion and wonder?
#OTVTonight, your favorite intersectional Late Show, returns to MCA Chicago for an intimate evening filled with care and admiration for the stories that help us to cultivate a bond that is strong enough to heal, prepare, and transform unstable foundations.
Join us in the Edlis Neeson Theater for the premiere of handpicked titles inviting us to open a window into love, interspersed with artist interviews, live DJ sets, pop-up performances and more — all hosted by OTV’s Co-Founder and Executive Diva, Elijah McKinnon. Remember, the future of television is intersectional. If you don’t believe it, let OTV show you.
For live updates on #OTVTonight: A Window Into Love, visit bit.ly/otvtonight.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/otvtonight-a-window-into-love/
Join us to celebrate the last Family Day of the season!
Sueños Music Festival will be raffling two pairs of tickets for the Sueños Music Festival event.
Join us as we bring together incredible local artists for a day of workshops and interactive experiences.
Salvador Andrade will be leading a collaborative workshop using found objects that draw inspiration from Mexican textiles.
Mr. Pintamuro, known for his captivating artwork that merges Aztec and Mayan storytelling with Japanese anime, will share his expertise and creativity with families.
Printmaker Atlan Arceo will guide participants of all ages through a workshop on various print techniques for all ages.
The Mexican Consulate of Chicago is collaborating with us to share two stories from Home is Somewhere Else, directed by Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos, which is a unique and timely animated documentary that tells stories of immigrant youth, exploring each character’s inner world alongside their colorful hopes, and dreams for a better future.
Don’t miss our family workshop, Tell Me About Your Wings, to learn more about the traditional techniques of indigenous cultures in Mexico, such as the Wixárika, in commemoration of Jorge Marín’s sculpture Wings of Mexico.
Last but not least, Borderless Magazine will be conducting family interviews for all ages to highlight stories that will be published in the near future!
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Day is a monthly program that allows families and youth to connect and engage with contemporary art through activities and performances for all-ages. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, performances, and more.
Activities are facilitated in English and Spanish with ASL interpretation provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-migration-stories/
In celebration of the opening of Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence, join us for a roundtable conversation on Jaramillo’s profound commitment to abstraction with the exhibition’s originating curator, Erin Dziedzic, Catherine Morris, Sackler Senior Curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, and Iris Colburn, MCA Curatorial Associate.
Please note that Courtney Martin is no longer able to participate.
English and Spanish CART captioning and American Sign Language (ASL) will be provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-roundtable-virginia-jaramillo/
Days after the February 1848 revolution, Fryderyk Chopin is teaching a piano lesson in Paris. Set in the Polish pianist-composer’s intimate salon, Chopin shares with his students secrets about the piano and secrets about himself—as well as playing some of his most beautiful and enduring compositions. In a tour de force performance, virtuoso actor/pianist Hershey Felder brings to life the romantic story and music of the man once called the “Poet of the Piano.”
https://www.writerstheatre.org/hershey-felder-s-chopin-in-paris
Soak is a dance-based performance project that emerges from a study of public bathing. This work considers how both dance and bathing practices carve out space to imagine new ways of relating to our bodies and each other. This piece explores the movements of pleasure and leisure, collectively created social space, and the relationship between body, sound, and environment.
Amalia Raye Wiatr Lewis (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist working with living beings, experiences, and objects. Rooted in ecological wonder and an exploration of the sacred, she works with dancers, non-dancers and sound artists to create site-specific performances and public interventions. She holds a BA from Bennington College in Vermont, where she studied choreography, visual art and anthropology, and an MFA from the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art in Trondheim, Norway. She has performed with national and international artists at galleries and museums and has shown her own work in the U.S., Mexico, Norway, France, Germany and Pakistan.
This performance will include ASL Interpretation.
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/dance_residency.html
Set sail for an adventure like no other, full of twists and turns. Together we’ll meet indulgent Lotus Eaters and seductive Sirens who test our focus, and face terrifying monsters who test our wit and our courage. As we follow Odysseus on his Journey, the ensemble reflects on choice and agency and the hero in all of us…
A.B.L.E.—Artists Breaking Limits & Expectations—a Chicago-based nonprofit that creates theatre and film for, with, and by individuals with Down syndrome and other intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), is thrilled to return to Chicago Shakespeare Theater this spring with a re-imagining of the epic classic The Odyssey.
A.B.L.E’s production weaves music, movement, shadow puppetry, and scenes devised by the group into a powerful and joyful celebration of the choices we make, and the challenges we face along our journey. The vibrant adaptation features a neurodiverse cast of 44 performers, including 24 actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The performance in the Courtyard Theater on May 11, 2024 at 2pm will mark the two companies’ 7th collaboration, most recently having co-produced A Midsummer Night’s Dream last spring.
Accessibility: Sensory Friendly, ASL, captions
Love is a universal language; it transcends identity and culture. Love is more than a feeling; it is a tough invitation that encourages sacrifice and commitment. Love is a never-ending journey that is always beginning. But what is love in the absence of compassion and wonder?
#OTVTonight, your favorite intersectional Late Show, returns to MCA Chicago for an intimate evening filled with care and admiration for the stories that help us to cultivate a bond that is strong enough to heal, prepare, and transform unstable foundations.
Join us in the Edlis Neeson Theater for the premiere of handpicked titles inviting us to open a window into love, interspersed with artist interviews, live DJ sets, pop-up performances and more — all hosted by OTV’s Co-Founder and Executive Diva, Elijah McKinnon. Remember, the future of television is intersectional. If you don’t believe it, let OTV show you.
For live updates on #OTVTonight: A Window Into Love, visit bit.ly/otvtonight.
Accessibility: Sensory Friendly, ASL, English and Spanish captions, quiet spaces
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/otvtonight-a-window-into-love/
About Bodies of Work
Bodies of Work is a consortium of four programs at three Chicago organizations that share a commitment to programming that is distinguished by its integration of disability artistry, academics, and activism:
Program on Disability Art, Culture, and Humanities and the Disability Cultural Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago;
Disability Culture Activism Lab at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago;
Art and Culture Project at Access Living.
Along with partnering artists and organizations, Bodies of Work serves as a catalyst for the development of disability art and culture that illuminates the disability experience in new and unexpected ways.
Accessibility: ASL, captions
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-access-praxis-ariella-granados/
A journey of self-discovery leads to salvation in this major revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s masterwork.
On the heels of Gem of the Ocean (2022), expert August Wilson interpreter Chuck Smith revives the second work in the famed American Century Cycle—one of Wilson’s best-loved, most compelling plays. Herald Loomis searches the country with his young daughter to find his estranged wife. But first, he must regain a sense of his own heritage and identity in this story of spiritual and emotional resurrection.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is recommended for ages 14+
Accessibility: ASL, audio description
https://www.goodmantheatre.org/show/joe-turners-come-and-gone/
A journey of self-discovery leads to salvation in this major revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s masterwork.
On the heels of Gem of the Ocean (2022), expert August Wilson interpreter Chuck Smith revives the second work in the famed American Century Cycle—one of Wilson’s best-loved, most compelling plays. Herald Loomis searches the country with his young daughter to find his estranged wife. But first, he must regain a sense of his own heritage and identity in this story of spiritual and emotional resurrection.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is recommended for ages 14+
Accessibility: ASL, OC
https://www.goodmantheatre.org/show/joe-turners-come-and-gone/
Join House of DOV in the Dance Studio for an informal showing of a new work-in-progress by Drew Lewis, featuring music by Family Junket.
Accessibility: ASL
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/dance_residency.html
Sensory-Friendly Morning is a free program for all people who benefit from visiting the MCA without large crowds and other sensitive environmental elements. This includes visitors with sensory sensitivities, disabilities, autism, PTSD, dementia, and more. On these mornings, lighting at the museum is dimmed, sounds from artworks and environmental noise is kept at a minimum, a quiet space is available to visitors for breaks, and a Chicago-based artist facilitates a sensory-friendly art-making experience.
Sensory-Friendly Morning aims to be a welcoming space to experience contemporary art in a judgment-free environment.
Gardening, not Architecture
Throughout the year, the MCA hosts high-quality professional development programming, open to teachers of all subjects, grade levels, and disciplines. These events are educator-specific, skills-based, training on contemporary art integration. Programs are designed in connection with the cultural assets of the MCA and the needs of the Chicago area educators. In keeping with addressing issues of relevance, the 2023-24 Learning Series is a four-part series exploring on “The Impact of Food Apartheid in Education”.
The term “apartheid” is used as it acknowledges the existence of economic and racial segregation systems. And as history has shown us, apartheid systems can be dismantled through collective action.
For Session Three, Eric “Manny” Von Haynes and Ramon “Radius” Norwood, core organizers of Love Fridge Chicago, conduct a workshop titled “Gardening, not Architecture,” which delves into the impactful work of Love Fridge. Love Fridge Chicago is a mutual aid network that aims to combat food apartheid and provide essential resources to the Chicago community.
The workshop covers the strategies and practices this mutual aid network uses to address systemic challenges and addresses initiatives to create sustainable systems that empower individuals and communities. This interactive session include group discussions, hands-on activities, and a creative writing exercise to promote collaboration and understanding.
ASL is available upon request, email BoxOffice@mcachicago.org
Renowned composer and multi-instrumentalist Laura Ortman performs two evenings of live, solo, multimedia concerts. Informed by her practice as a sculptor and installation artist, Ortman bridges the gap between music and fine art in her performances, describing her musical approach as “sculpting sound.” An accomplished violinist, her work encompasses a variety of textures and atmospheres created with the Apache violin, effects pedals, piano, guitar, and voice. In the MCA’s Edlis Neeson Theater, Ortman’s original music is presented alongside her video work.
This performance is part of On Stage: Resonance, organized by Tara Aisha Willis, former Curator in Performance, with Laura Paige Kyber, Curatorial Associate.
Runtime: approx. 45–60 min
Content Warning:
This performance includes the use of theatrical haze, moving images, and loud, sometimes abrupt, sounds.
Assess Information:
Ear plugs are available upon request for all performances. If you need wheelchair seating or have limited mobility, staff members are available to assist you.
The performance on Saturday, April 27, features ASL interpretation and Audio Description.
Tremor is artist and composer Samita Sinha’s latest performance work. In the piece, Sinha explores what she describes as “the practice of attuning oneself to the raw material of vibration and its emergence in space, as well as unfolding the possibilities that arise from encounters between this sonic material and other individuals.” Tremor is born from Sinha’s practice of decomposing, distilling, and transforming Indian vocal traditions through the body, employing sound as a vessel that harnesses and liberates energy through oneself. Through this practice, what emerges is a new language with the potential to challenge our thinking, reconfigure our relationships, and open new forms of collaboration. In Tremor, Sinha asks how we might reactivate our relationship to life itself through our sense of vibration, despite the numbing and distorting effects of coloniality and modernity. How can our voices be vessels to repair the fabric of our interconnection and open generative possibilities? How can we relearn to listen?
Performed in relationship to a live sonic environment created by composer Ash Fure, and within a space designed by architect Sunil Bald, Sinha is joined on stage each night by a rotating cast of sound-and movement-based collaborators. The casting schedule will be announced in the coming months.
Tremor was co-commissioned by Western Front (Vancouver, CA) and Danspace Project (New York).
This performance is part of On Stage: Resonance, organized by Tara Aisha Willis, former Curator in Performance, with Laura Paige Kyber, Curatorial Associate.
Run time: 60-75 min
Content Warning:
Seating for this performance is general admission and on stage. A limited number of cushions are available for sitting on the floor, and provide the closest proximity to the performance. If you require a chair, please speak with a staff member who can assist you. The performance includes the use of theatrical haze. Some loud sounds may occur throughout. There will be intervals of very low light, including complete darkness at times.
Ear plugs are available upon request for all performances. If you need wheelchair seating or have limited mobility, staff members are available to assist you.
The performance on Saturday, April 20, features Audio Description.
About the Event
Join us for a reading with poet CAConrad in celebration of the new series Politics of Poetics.
ASL and CART captioning are provided.
About the Series
Politics of Poetics is a new quarterly program series held in the MCA’s Edlis Neeson Theater that highlights today’s leading poets whose practices traverse the political through writing, teaching, and activism. The series invites poets from across the globe to give readings and be in conversation with artists and other thinkers about the themes in their work. Historically, poets and visual artists have benefitted from close collaboration and artistic exchange, sharing in technical approaches and critical ideas of the day. Like many of the artists exhibited at the MCA, these poets take up critical issues in their work while propelling voices, stories, and thoughts under-seen and under-regarded in traditional canons.
About the Speaker
CAConrad has worked with the ancient technologies of poetry and ritual since 1975. Their latest book is Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return (Wave Books / UK Penguin 2024). They received the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize, a PEN Josephine Miles Award, a Creative Capital grant, a Pew Fellowship, and a Lambda Award. They exhibit poems as art objects with recent solo shows in Spain and Portugal, and their play The Obituary Show was made into a film in 2022 by the artist Augusto Cascales. Visit them at https://linktr.ee/CAConrad88.
About the Event
This Is My Place is a fictional documentary about the itinerant life and conceptual artwork of artist David Lamelas, whose sculpture Situacíon de cuatro placas de aluminio (Four Changeable Plaques) (1966), is currently on view in Endless. Commissioned by the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), the film features Lamelas interviewed by Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator Carla Acevedo-Yates. Lamelas reflects on a life defined by migration between cultures and countries, and how those experiences shaped his artistic practice, which for decades has centered explorations of time and place.
Lamelas speaks with Endless curator Nolan Jimbo after the screening.
ASL is available upon request. Please email jkriegel@mcachicago.org for requests.
About The Artist
David Lamelas (b. 1946, Buenos Aires, Argentina; lives between Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and Paris) is a pivotal artist within the histories of conceptual art and experimental film. He was a key figure within the Argentinian avant-garde during the 1960s, participating in landmark exhibitions at the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires and representing Argentina at the Venice Biennale in 1968. He then studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London and showed his work in pioneering exhibitions of conceptual art throughout the 1970s in Europe and the United States. He moved to Los Angeles during the mid-1970s and since then has divided his time between the United States, Europe, and South America.
Honorably serving for twenty-eight years as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer challenges the textualist philosophy of the court’s supermajority with insightful analysis and arguments for a more nuanced view of Constitutional interpretation. Emphasizing the consequential impacts of major legal decisions, Breyer upends the prevailing textualism approach as outlined in his book Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism. Former Justice Breyer and CNN senior Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic connect with Chicago Humanities to expand on his views for a flexible, evolving Constitution. Breyer asserts that pivotal cases like Dobbs and Bruen were incorrectly decided. They underscore the importance of considering the intent and repercussions of legal statutes and offer a compelling case for a more balanced interpretation of law.
Accessibility: ASL Interpreted, Open Captions, Assistive Listening Devices, and Wheelchair accessible.
https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/breyer-biskupic/
There will be two certified sign interpreters to interpret all dialogue and lyrics at the Paramount Theatre on March 22nd, 2024 for Billy Elliot: The Musical.
See the show for $30 each. Purchase online using instructions below, or email mariew@paramountarts.com.
Click the performance you wish to purchase:
Enter promo code: ASLPARAMOUNT
Click on the ASL Interpreted Section
Select your seats and click PROMO $30
Add to order and proceed through checkout
You must enter promo code to unlock ASL Interpreted section and special $30 price.
Accessibility: ASL Interpreted.
Ensemble Member Laurie Metcalf comes home to Steppenwolf to star in Little Bear Ridge Road, a comic, cosmic and intimate world premiere, penned by MacArthur Fellow Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Tony Award winner Joe Mantello.
In the outer limits of rural Idaho, the last two members of the Fernsby family tree, an estranged aunt and nephew, reunite to sort the mess left behind after a troubled father’s passing. They now face an uncomfortable and universal question: how do we deal with other people? And is connection more trouble than it’s worth? As their relationship begins anew, the two reluctant Fernsby’s—separated by age and experience—start to understand the joys and perils of letting someone else into your own story, even if only for a moment.
Little Bear Ridge Road will be performed in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater.
ASL Interpretation, Audio Description, Open Captions, and Touch Tour will be available.
For tickets: https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons-/202324/Little-Bear-Ridge-Road/
Children’s author and illustrator Arnold Lobel’s beloved characters hop from the page to the stage in the Tony-nominated musical A Year With Frog And Toad, based on his popular children’s book that follows two best friends – the cheerful, popular Frog and grumpy, but lovable Toad – through four fun-filled seasons.
A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD was originally presented on Broadway by Bob Boyett, Adrianne Lobel, Michael Gardner, Lawrence Horowitz and Roy Furman. The play had its world Premiere at The Children’s Theatre Company Minneapolis, Minnesota.
ACCESS Weekend |Sat, April 27th (9:30am: Sensory Friendly, 11:30am: ASL & Open Captions) and Sun, April 28th (9:30am: Sensory Friendly, 11:30am: Audio Description & Touch Tour – must confirm attendance two weeks prior to performance)
Copresented with the Steppenwolf LookOut Series
The Next Cup of Tea is a solo dance-theater performance by Anjal Chande that investigates how to make sense of the never-ending impulses that run through our hearts, our everyday moments, and our contradictory experiences. Through improvisational dance and storytelling, Chande reflects on money, her grandfather, the politics of art, and more. Zigzagging between the gnawing inner world and daily physical routine, The Next Cup of Tea traverses through all that is ordinary, appalling, and enchanting.
This performance was originally scheduled as a part of the MCA’s 2023 Chicago Performs series, organized by Tara Aisha Willis, former curator, with Laura Paige Kyber, Assistant Curator.
Special Thanks from the Artist
Gratitude to all the collaborators who have contributed to previous iterations of this work across seven years of process. Shout out to the following individuals who shaped recent versions during the pandemic (2021) and a live showing at Tanztage in Berlin (2019): Gina Hoch-Stall (dramaturg), Jesse Hunter (musician), Karl Olson (musician), Josh Anderson (cinematographer), Emese Csornai (lighting design), David Ofori-Amoah (material design), Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos Jr. (dramaturg), and Sophia New (mentor).
Accessibility: ASL interpretation and audio description
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/the-next-cup-of-tea/
Harnessing Narrative for Food Sovereign Futures
Throughout the year, the MCA hosts high-quality professional development programming, open to teachers of all subjects, grade levels, and disciplines. These events are educator-specific, skills-based, training on contemporary art integration. Programs are designed in connection with the cultural assets of the MCA and the needs of the Chicago area educators. In keeping with addressing issues of relevance, the 2023–24 Learning Series is a four-part series exploring “The Impact of Food Apartheid in Education.”
The term “apartheid” is used as it acknowledges the existence of economic and racial segregation systems. And as history has shown us, apartheid systems can be dismantled through collective action.
This workshop, titled “Harnessing Narrative for Food Sovereign Futures,” is meant to help us to understand food apartheid: how it impacts our lives and how we can leverage power in order to mobilize towards food sovereignty. Through experiential storytelling, collective imagination exercises, and power-mapping strategies, teachers work alongside food justice advocates to learn how they can make a difference in their classroom, their school, and their food system. This session includes a making and a writing activity.
Accessibility: ASL interpretation and captioning upon request
A family fun film with story & games
A crayon who is mistakenly labeled “r-e-d” could never draw anything right until a friend changed everything and helped him be true to himself!
Accessibility: The film includes the story, an interactive quiz and ASL lesson, all presented with ASL performance, enhanced text, voice over, animation & original music.
Details
March 10, 2024 @ 2-4 p.m.
Chicago History Museum
1601 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614
Free with RSVP at bit.ly/Red-ASL-Film
Parking
Public parking is conveniently located one block north of the Museum near Clark and LaSalle streets at 1730 N. Stockton Drive. $10 with Museum validation.
Presented by Sally Is Sarah Productions, CHS, Chicago History Museum
https://www.sallyissarahproductions.com/events/red-chicago-history-museum
Tellin’ Tales Theatre’s Hands Up! Body delves into the impact of body demands and perceptions in our daily lives. Body dissatisfaction, changes in physical ability, and aging are just some of the topics explored. Each story examines the vulnerability, challenges, and wisdom built from the writer’s experience. Our bodies look and work exactly as they are supposed to, each with its own unique beauty. Video clips from Momenta, a dance company inclusive of artists with disabilities will be included in the performance. This performance is co-sponsored by Northeastern Illinois University and the Disability Cultural Center. Learn more and order tickets at: https://tellintales.org/
Accessibility: ASL interpretation
An unexpected remix of Homer’s The Odyssey, told by the celebrated and subversive author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale).
It’s her turn. Penelope has waited 20 years for her husband to return from the Trojan War. Now, as authorial control shifts to Odysseus’ long-suffering wife—and the 12 faithful maids who have long tended to her—we discover a new perspective on the domestic vigil. This ancient tale told anew by “one of the most admired authors in North America” (NPR) gives voice to those left behind.
Recommended for ages 14+
ASL will be provided at this show.
The Tellin’ Tales Theatre’s Improv Team
“What’s Yours Like” is inspired by a theme developed by the audience at the start of each show. Then, improvisers with and without disabilities leap into action and develop humorous and unpredictable narratives in real time. This time stand-up comics with and without disabilities open for us! Sponsored by Bodies of Work.
Accessibility: ASL interpretation
Age Recommendation: PNC Family Series is recommended for children and adults ages 4 and older. However, children of all ages are welcome!
New Zealand’s leading contemporary dance company comes to Chicago for the first time.
Founded by Neil Ieremia, ONZM, Black Grace performs works that draw from Ieremia’s Samoan and New Zealand roots, reaching across social, cultural, and generational barriers. Rich in the storytelling traditions of the South Pacific, the works are highly physical and expressed with raw finesse, unique beauty, and power.
Black Grace brings its unique approach to movement and storytelling to the PNC Family Series with a special matinee performance for young audiences, narrated by Ieremia.
This afternoon is designed to offer a safe and welcoming experience for all, with additional resources available to patrons who may have sensory sensitivities. We are thrilled to foster an informal, judgement-free atmosphere where all audience members can respond to the performance in their own way: clap, dance, make noise, or observe quietly, it’s completely up to you!
Sensory-friendly services include:
1. A designated quiet play area located on Level 2 if you need a break from the performance
a. Need help find this quiet play area? Harris Theater staff are happy to direct you.
2. A Welcome Guide and sensory-friendly maps are available to help you understand what you will see and hear during your visit
a. Need to find a paper copy of these resources? Harris Theater staff on at our Welcome Table on Lobby Level 5 can help you!
3. Friendly faces of trained staff and volunteers, here to help guide your visit
ASL interpretation and Audio Description will be provided.
https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/performance/black-grace-family-matinee
Age Recommendation: PNC Family Series is recommended for children and adults ages 4 and older. However, children of all ages are welcome!
Jazzmeia Horn is a vocalist and composer, author, activist, educator, multi-GRAMMY Award nominee, and winner of the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition. Praised by The New York Times as “among the most exciting young vocalists in jazz, with a proud traditionalism that keeps her tightly linked to the sound of classic figures like Nancy Wilson and Betty Carter, but a vivacity of spirit and conviction that places her firmly in the present,” Horn makes her Harris Theater debut with performances on the Mix at Six and PNC Family Series in 2024.
Horn, who will publish her first children’s book — based on her forthcoming album Messages — in 2024, is creating a special storyteller-style program for the PNC Family Series that will premiere on the Harris Theater stage. Blending works from her GRAMMY-nominated albums and stories from her life and career, the program will engage audiences of all ages in Horn’s unique sound and musical influences.
This afternoon is designed to offer a safe and welcoming experience for all, with additional resources available to patrons who may have sensory sensitivities. We are thrilled to foster an informal, judgement-free atmosphere where all audience members can respond to the performance in their own way: clap, dance, make noise, or observe quietly, it’s completely up to you!
Sensory-friendly services include:
1. A designated quiet play area located on Level 2 if you need a break from the performance
a. Need help find this quiet play area? Harris Theater staff are happy to direct you.
2. A Welcome Guide and sensory-friendly maps are available to help you understand what you will see and hear during your visit
a. Need to find a paper copy of these resources? Harris Theater staff on at our Welcome Table on Lobby Level 5 can help you!
3. Friendly faces of trained staff and volunteers, here to help guide your visit
Accessibility: ASL, audio description
https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/performance/jazzmeia-horn-family-matinee
A coyote howling. A home in disarray. A young woman alone. In Matthew Paul Olmos’ world premiere, Soledad Vargas is in the city, fighting for her family’s right to live on their land. When hope starts to dwindle, how far will she go, and what will she be forced to leave behind? A modern myth drawn from the real life struggles of displaced communities around the globe, a home what howls is a lyrically-rendered quest of youth activism standing against forces of injustice.
ASL Interpretation will be provided for this event.
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons-/202324/a-home-what-howls/
Four (very) well-intentioned theatre people walk into an elementary school. The work at hand: a Thanksgiving pageant that won’t ruffle any feathers. What could possibly go wrong? In MacArthur Genius Larissa FastHorse’s skewering and satirical comedy, well, just about everything. Rambunctious, thorny and not altogether politically correct, The Thanksgiving Play serves up the hypocrisies of woke America on a big, family-style, platter. Come get ya some.
ASL Interpretation will be provided for this event.
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons-/202324/the-thanksgiving-play/
In her acclaimed signature style, Mary Zimmerman conceives a brand new theatrical adaptation of Mozart’s beloved opera.
Playful and imaginative, it’s big music in a small space. This “matchbox” presentation of The Matchbox Magic Flute features a cast of 10 and orchestra of five—following the fantastic adventures of Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina. With dragons, a man who is a bird, trials by fire and water and underground corridors, Day and Night do battle.
Mozart composed Symphony No. 1 in E Flat Major at the age of eight. Feel free to bring your 8+ year-old little geniuses to the show.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted
In MOBY DICK; or, The Whale, award-winning filmmaker and visual artist Wu Tsang embarks upon a feature-length, silent-film telling of Herman Melville’s great American novel. The film features original orchestral music composed by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee with Asma Maroof, which is performed live by the Chicago Sinfonietta.
This adaptation, written by Sophia Al Maria and directed by Tsang, follows the white whale above and below the surface of the water, developing a visual cosmology that resists the exploration and exploitation of the earth under imperial colonialism. Tsang’s approach pairs the classic story of the whaler’s ”floating factory” with the beginnings of the film industry. MOBY DICK; or, The Whale was shot entirely on a soundstage combining silent-era filmmaking techniques with Virtual Production, a virtual reality game engine projecting surreal ocean environments.
The narrative is interwoven with extracts by the Sub-Sub-Librarian, a character played by acclaimed poet Fred Moten, and tackles the novel’s subterranean currents, encountering the resistance of the ship’s hydrarchy, or organizational structure, and collectives of “mariners, renegades, and castaways,” as described by historian C.L.R. James. Exploring overlapping histories of industrialism, extractivism, colonialism, ecological and spiritual crisis, the film creates a multilayered surreal filmic adaptation of the 1851 novel.
The MCA’s presentation of MOBY DICK; or, The Whale is organized by Nolan Jimbo, Assistant Curator.
The film contains brief nudity.
Audio Description and CART captioning are provided for the February 16 performance.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/live-arts-moby-dick-or-the-whale/
Sowing Change: Creativity and Food Sovereignty is a collaboration between the MCA and the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB 5). This program brings together artists Erika Allen, founder of Urban Growers Collective in Chicago, and Linda Goode Bryant, founder of the pathbreaking gallery, Just Above Midtown (1976-1984) and Project EATS in New York City. Allen and Goode Bryant will discuss how the arts—and tending to the imagination—have guided their visionary leadership in transforming urban space as sites for food sovereignty and collective change.
The conversation will be moderated by Emily Mello, Senior Director of Learning, Education, and Public Programs at the MCA.
ASL and CART captioning are available.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-sowing-change-with-erika-allen-linda-goode-bryant/
In January, artists A. Martinez and Gaby Martinez take over the MCA with their collaborative quilt making inspired by Faith Ringgold. Additionally, musician Ben LaMar Gay performs for families to interact with his music, and KIDO Chicago, the award-winning kids boutique in the South Loop, has a pop-up at the museum.
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Day is a monthly program that allows families and youth to connect and engage with contemporary art through activities and performances for all-ages. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, performances, and more.
Activities are facilitated in English and Spanish with ASL interpretation provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-quilts-and-stories/
Join us for a conversation on how Faith Ringgold’s aesthetic and political practices continue to reverberate across generations of artists with artists Jamal Cyrus and Amanda Williams, and the MCA presentation Curator of Faith Ringgold: American People, MCA Manilow Senior Curator Jamillah James.
English/Spanish CART and ASL are provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-roundtable-on-faith-ringgold/
Join us for music, free snacks, free zines, and more!
The Teen Creative Agency at the MCA is celebrating 12 years (and counting) of DIY publications by teens! This event showcases the original artwork, activism, and social practice of Chicago-area youth, as captured in zine form. TCA highlights teen ideas and perspectives in the museum space. Its members gather at the MCA from all over the Chicagoland area to collaboratively create public responses to relevant contemporary issues. In doing so, they build relationships alongside other cultural institutions, organizations, and professionals in Chicago’s vibrant art scene.
We are excited to have partnered with the Newberry Library in developing this year’s zines, which focus on the history and evolution of traditional Mexican foods including:
Corn
Watermelon
Mole
This event is curated and produced by members of the Teen Creative Agency—a group of young people ages 15 to 19 from all over the Chicagoland area who meet weekly at the museum to view and engage with contemporary artists and their work, guided by Lead Artists Olive Stefanski and Miguel Limon. TCA is assisted by Ahmad Bracey, Manager of School, Youth, and Communities.
The Teen Creative Agency thanks all the visiting artists and organizations who have helped us realize Zine Fest 2023:
The Newberry Research Library
SAIC Service Bureau- Jennifer Keats
Hoofprint Press
Zine Mercado- Oscar Arriola
Alberto Aguilar
Normal Studios – Lucas Reif and Renata Graw
ASL interpretation is provided for the opening and closing remarks.
Join us for a conversation on how Faith Ringgold’s aesthetic and political practices continue to reverberate across generations of artists with artists Jamal Cyrus and Amanda Williams, and the MCA presentation Curator of Faith Ringgold: American People, MCA Manilow Senior Curator Jamillah James.
English/Spanish CART and ASL are provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-roundtable-on-faith-ringgold/
This is an opportunity for members of the TCA to enter into conversation with Christina and Cortney, the founders of #BlkGrlsWurld, about their growth and evolution as Black womxn publishers, event organizers, and lovers of punk, hardcore, and metal.
Coinciding with the Faith Ringgold: American People exhibition, this event highlights the creativity, influence, and impact of Black Femme creatives across generations.
ASL is provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/youth-led-programming-tca-blkgrlswurld/
This year, the Chicago-based artist Lotus L. Kang transformed the museum’s atrium with her mesmerizing work Molt (New York-Lethbridge-Los Angeles-Toronto-Chicago- ) (2018–2023). To celebrate the final weeks of the commissioned installation, Kang speaks with MCA Assistant Curator Jack Schneider.
ASL and CART captioning will be provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-lotus-l-kang-and-jack-schneider/
Pocket Con, Chicago’s only comics convention for children and youth, is coming to Family Day at the MCA! Meet creators, attend workshops and panels, play teen-created video games, and try out costuming and art in a space that celebrates and welcomes diversity.
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Day is a monthly program that allows families and youth to connect and engage with contemporary art through activities and performances for all ages. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, performances, and more.
Activities are facilitated in English and Spanish with ASL interpretation provided.
About Pocket Con
Pocket Con was established with the goal of promoting literacy and creativity in young people, increasing visibility for artists and writers of color, and facilitating networking and mentorship opportunities. It is intended to be a celebration of diversity in creativity that presents no economic barriers to anyone. Pocket Con features the works of artists and writers of color, women, and LGBTQ+ creators, with a special focus on characters and creators of color.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted
The show will feature work of 42 members of the A.B.L.E. community including 24 performers with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Over a 10-week rehearsal process, A.B.L.E.’s ensembles have collaborated to develop original monologues, scenes, movement pieces and songs inspired by their own lives. The plot follows a group of strangers on a train ride through vast and varied lands. As the train passes through different landscapes, faces delays, and weathers storms, the passengers share stories from their own journeys about where they came from, and where they want to go. Come on the journey with us!
ALL TICKETS ARE PAY-WHAT-YOU CAN STARTING AT $15 PER PERSON. YOU CAN PICK THE TIER THAT WORKS FOR YOU.
Seating for the performances is general admission, first come first served. The theatre has 296 seats.
Can’t join us in person? That’s okay! Performances will be available to stream on-demand in 2024.
All proceeds will support A.B.L.E.’s performing arts programming for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities
TRANSPORTATION
PARKING: Ticket holders will have access to discounted parking at the MCA lot. The parking garage is located on Chicago Avenue just west of Fairbanks Court and adjacent to the museum. The garage does not provide direct access to the museum. When you exit the garage, turn right and move west up Chicago Avenue. Our entrances face Mies Van Der Rohe Way.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: The MCA is located four blocks east of the Chicago Avenue stop on the CTA Red Line. You can also take the #3 King Drive, #10 Museum of Science and Industry, and #66 Chicago Avenue buses, as well as several Michigan Avenue bus routes. For routes, schedules, and fares, call Chicago Transit Authority Travel Information at 312-836-7000 or visit Chicago Transit Authority.
ACCESSIBILITY
This performance is sensory friendly, and will feature a relaxed audience experience, including available sensory support tools and a designated movement area for audience members who may need or prefer to be out of their seats.
Live open captioning
Dual ASL interpretation
A grassroots initiative promoting storytelling, creativity, and the arts, the Muslim Writers Collective will focus this iteration of its programming on themes drawn from the MCA exhibition Faith Ringgold: American People. This storytelling event will center itself around hearing life experiences from Muslim American and Muslim-adjacent perspectives.
CART Captioning is available on personal devices.
Over the past three decades, writer, curator, and podcaster Helen Molesworth’s singular voice and lively curatorial vision has established her as one of the most dynamic and influential voices in the art world.
At this inspiring event, MCA Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn will join Molesworth on stage for a conversation about her new book Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing about Art.
Signed books are now available for pre-order at the MCA Store.
Accessibility: Spanish translation, ASL, and CART captioning
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-helen-molesworth-and-madeleine-grynsztejn/
Over the past three decades, writer, curator, and podcaster Helen Molesworth’s singular voice and lively curatorial vision has established her as one of the most dynamic and influential voices in the art world.
At this inspiring event, MCA Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn will join Molesworth on stage for a conversation about her new book Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing about Art.
Accessibility: Spanish translation, ASL, and CART captioning
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-helen-molesworth-and-madeleine-grynsztejn/
It’s just another (omg, wtf, lmfao) day at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. When a White House PR nightmare spins into a legit sh*tshow, seven brilliant and beleaguered women must risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble. POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is a bawdy and irreverent look at sex, politics and the women in charge of the man in charge of the free world. Who knew that global crisis is always just a four-letter word away.
Free Dance Day brings together people of all ages and experience levels to enjoy a day filled with dance classes, performances, and festivities, all for free!
This annual open-house style event is a chance to try out dance classes in a relaxed, communal setting. Visit Synapse’s home studio as an Arts Partner in Residence with the Chicago Park District to try out a free movement class, bring kids to try ballet and hip hop classes, and see the Synapse Performance Troupe perform.
Come for Free Dance Day, then stay for the free Boo! Bash presented by Loyola Park, which includes a DJ dance party, crafts, snacks, and a Halloween-y photo booth.
Schedule and registration details available at www.synapsearts.com.
Accessibility: ASL interpreter, large print programs, quiet spaces
Experience Red: A Crayon’s Story like you never have before! This storybook video features Deaf American Sign Language master signer Crom Saunders signing the words to the animated book, with music and sound effects bringing the story to life. Then we’ll watch and play along with fun interactive games conducted by students and teachers from the Indiana School for the Deaf.
Crom will visit in person and play theater games with the kids after the video. This event will have a live interpreter.
Best for kids in preschool and elementary school and their family and friends.
More information at https://oakpark.librarycalendar.com/event/asl-storybook-red-crayons-story
Celebrate a decade of access.
Join Us!
Monday, October 30, 2023
5-7pm
Plante Moran
1st Floor Lobby
10 South Riverside Plaza
Chicago IL
Entrance on the corner of Monroe and Canal
$50 per attendee
Cultural Access Collab removes barriers to make Illinois’ arts and culture more accessible to people with disabilities by providing education, promotional tools, accessible equipment and a supportive community. Join us in celebrating the past ten years of our work, and help us make Illinois even more inclusive in the year to come!
Enjoy music performed by the Tommy Carroll Trio, light refreshments and drinks, all while helping to sustain our cultural accessibility efforts in Illinois. If you’re able, make an additional donation to further support the Collab’s efforts.
About Tommy Carroll Trio
The Tommy Carroll Trio is an ensemble offering highly rhythmic interpretations of jazz compositions old and new. Composed of drums, bass and guitar, the group’s adventurous spirit provides listeners a fresh experience at every performance
Your $50 Ticket Includes
Light appetizers and two beverage tickets (beer, wine, or non-alcoholic) are provided per ticket. Dress code is business casual.
Covid Safety
As COVID-19 continues to impact our communities — and because there will be immunocompromised and medically vulnerable people in attendance — we need your help to create and maintain a safer environment for all. It is our collective responsibility to follow this guidance and we appreciate your cooperation in advance.
Masking is highly recommended when not actively eating or drinking. Clear masks will be available if needed. Weather permitting, there is outdoor access at the venue. We will monitor Covid rates in our area, and may revise our policy if appropriate.
If you test positive for COVID-19 within 4 days following the event, please notify info@CulturalAccessCollab.org and let us know. We will inform all attendees.
Accessibility Information
Everyone is welcome!
Registration
Please fill out the required registration form. In case of technical difficulties, please email info@CulturalAccessCollab.org for assistance.
Thanks to Plante Moran and our other in-kind sponsors of this event.
Cultural Access Collab removes barriers to make Illinois’ arts and culture more accessible to people with disabilities by providing education, promotion tools, equipment and a supportive community.
Your donation in any amount makes accessibility in the arts in Illinois possible!
https://culturalaccesscollaborative.org/collab-events/cultural-access-collaboratives-10th-anniversary-celebration-and-fundraiser/
Event Description: Are you curious about the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) conference? Did you want to attend but couldn’t? Join The Collab for a Zoom Lunch and Learn about this year’s LEAD experience. Four representatives from the Collab will share takeaways from their focus areas and lead a live discussion with our arts and culture accessibility community. Come for the best practice takeaways and bring your questions about LEAD!
Date: October 3, 2023
Time: Noon to 1:00 PM, Central Time
Location: Zoom. Registered participants will receive a Zoom Meeting Link via email the day prior to the event. Please ensure that Info@ChicagoCulturalAccess.org is an approved sender to your email account, or be sure to check your Spam/Junk Mail filter for the email.
Program Accessibility: Real-Time Captioning and Sign Language Interpretation will be provided. Please complete the accommodation request field found in the event registration form or call 773-203-5039 to request other access services.
Cost: FREE. While this program is free, a $5 suggested donation helps to cover programming costs to ensure Cultural Access Collaborative’s mission is achievable and accessible to all. You may make a tax deductible online donation to the Collab at any time.
Registration: Join us by completing this event registration form!
When the film debuted in July of 1980, Airplane! had a budget of only $3.5 million, and yet it went on to earn nearly $200 million, gathering a rabid fan-base, inspiring countless comedians, and providing perhaps the most quotable lines of any comedy in cinematic history. In their new book, Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! , ZAZ (filmmakers David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams) share hilarious trivia and never-before-heard anecdotes about the creation of this classic movie. At Chicago Humanities, Mark Bazar of WTTW’s The Interview Show sits down with writer/director David Zucker (and a special zoom appearance from his brother and fellow Airplane! filmmaker Jerry) for a night of laughter and nostalgia, as we dive into clips, images, and stories from behind-the-scenes of this legendary comedic gem. For a special keepsake, books pre-signed by all three filmmakers will be available for purchase.
This event will have asl interpretation, open captions, and assistive listening devices with t-coil available at the Box Office.
To buy tickets, press on this link below: https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/airplane/
For this Family Day, explore the overlap between art and science with educators from the Field Museum and artist Assaf Evron.
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Day is a monthly program that allows families and youth to connect and engage with contemporary art through activities and performances for all ages. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, performances, and more.
ASL Interpretation will be provided.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-natural-history/
Newark, NJ. Post-9/11. Two teenagers, brought to America as children, now face an unlikely foe: unexpected, unreciprocated love. Their friendship is no longer enough (for one of them) and their adopted country doesn’t love them back. Pulitzer Prize-winner Martyna Majok brings light to the sacrifices made by DREAMers, lovers and life-long friends in the heart-stirring and hopeful Sanctuary City—a story that fractures and transcends—crossing boundaries, borders and genres in search of a place to call home.
Sanctuary City will be the first Steppenwolf production that includes both a full membership series run, as well as a full run of student matinees as a part of the Steppenwolf for Young Adults series, providing a synergistic opportunity to cultivate more intergenerational audiences.
Audio-Described and Touch Tour:
Sunday, October 8 at 3pm
(1:30pm touch tour, 3pm curtain)
Open-Captioned Public Performances:
Thursday, October 12 at 7:30pm
Saturday, October 21 at 3pm
ASL-Interpreted Public Performance:
Friday, October 13 at 7:30pm
Relaxed/Sensory Friendly Public Performance:
Saturday, October 28th at 3pm
ASL-Interpreted Student Matinee:
Friday, November 3 at 10am
Spanish Language-Captioned:
Saturday, November 4 at 3pm
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons-/202324/sanctuary-city/
After a summer hiatus, Family Days are back!
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Day is a monthly program that allows families and youth to connect and engage with contemporary art through activities and performances for all-ages. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, performances, and more.
ASL Interpretation will be provided.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow returns to Chicago Humanities to expose the shocking truth behind subversive attempts to undermine democracy and the inspiring tales of those who rose to challenge the insurrectionists. Inspired by the research for her #1 Apple podcast, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, Maddow’s latest book PREQUEL: An American Fight Against Fascism tells the World War II story of a committed group of public servants and courageous private citizens thwarting the far-right’s attempts to align our nation with the Nazis. Join Maddow as she sits down with historian, author and Northwestern University professor Kathleen Belew to explore the rise of this wild strain of American authoritarianism, the profoundly relevant insights about America today that can be drawn from its history, and her take on our own unprecedented times.
This event will have open captions, audio description, asl interpretation and assistive listening devices with t-coil available at the Box Office.
To buy tickets, press on this link below: https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/rachel-maddow/
Join us for a reading and celebration of the diverse voices, rich experiences, and powerful words of poets from around the US and the world. Poets working in the online poetry workshop and discussion, Forms & Features, will share work that they created in this creative community.
Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
Accessibility: ASL, captions
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/forms-features-community-reading-tickets-710431017297?aff=oddtdtcreator
Join us for the first public reading of the 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellows together at the Poetry Foundation. The Poetry Foundation awards five Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships annually. Among the largest awards offered to young poets in the US, the $27,000 prize is intended to support exceptional US poets between 21 and 31 years of age.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Introducing the 2023 Fellows
Bhion Achimba (they/he) grew up in rural southeastern Nigeria and came to the US as a Scholar-at-Risk fellow at Harvard University. Their manuscript Cantos from the Crossing won the 2023 Center for Book Arts chapbook prize and will be published in November 2023. They earned an MFA in literary arts from Brown University; edit Dgëku, a literary magazine that publishes writing by queer Africans; and serve on the editorial board of TransitionMagazine.
Roda Avelar (she/they) is a trans woman poet from Fresno, California. She earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of California Riverside, where she taught creative writing and English composition, and a BA in English literature from California State University Fresno. She was a Milkweed Editions summer intern in 2019, and a 2022 Community of Writers fellow. She creates work that imagines queer people and people of color in science fiction, mythology, and queer liberation.
Ariana Benson (she/they) is a southern Black poet born in Norfolk, Virginia. Their debut collection, Black Pastoral, won the 2022 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Benson has received a Furious Flower Poetry Prize, a Porter House Review Poetry Prize, and the 2021 Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets. Benson is a proud alumna of Spelman College, where she facilitates creative writing and storytelling workshops for HBCU students. She strives to fashion vignettes of Blackness that speak to its infinite depth and richness in her writing.
Chrysanthemum (she/her) is a poet, a performance artist, and a public historian. Her honors include the 2023 Justin Chin Memorial Scholarship from Lambda Literary; fellowships from Artist Communities Alliance and Kundiman; and a championship with her team at the Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam and the first-ever FEM Slam. Chrysanthemum was born to Vietnamese parents in Oklahoma City, where she came of age around the NW 39th Street and Asian American enclaves. She now calls Providence, Rhode Island, home.
Willie Lee Kinard III (he/they) is a poet, designer, and musician. Kinard earned a BFA from the University of South Carolina and an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. His publications include Orders of Service, winner of the 2022 Alice James Award, and a self-published chapbook/mixtape, chroma. The recipient of fellowships from The Watering Hole and the Pittsburgh Foundation, Kinard is from Newberry, South Carolina, and currently teaches at the University of South Carolina.
In-Person Attendance
Masks are strongly encouraged and available at check-in for those who would like to wear one. Please note that some event performers may choose to perform without a mask. The Foundation reserves the right to update this policy if community levels of COVID-19 increase significantly. Read our full COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines.
Livestream Attendance
The livestream link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. In order to receive the livestream details, please register in advance here.
The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
Join us for a special US appearance by acclaimed Nigerian-born British novelist and poet, Ben Okri.
Ben Okri is a playwright, poet, novelist, essayist, short-story writer, anthologist, and aphorist who has also written film scripts. His works have won numerous national and international prizes, including the Booker Prize for Fiction. His books include the eco-fable Every Leaf a Hallelujah, the genre-bending climate fiction Tiger Work, the poetry collection A Fire in My Head, and the novels Astonishing the Gods, The Last Gift of the Master Artists, and Dangerous Love.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
In-Person Attendance
Masks are strongly encouraged and available at check-in for those who would like to wear one. Please note that some event performers may choose to perform without a mask. The Foundation reserves the right to update this policy if community levels of COVID-19 increase significantly. Read our full COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines. Guests are encouraged to register in advance. (<link to Eventbrite)
Livestream Attendance
The livestream link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. In order to receive the livestream details, please register in advance here.
The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-off-the-shelf-ben-okri-tickets-691014000477
Join us for an evening of enchantment as the Poetry Foundation transforms into Herman’s Lounge, a one night only jazz cabaret named in honor of the magician Black Herman. Dee Alexander (with John McLean), Ben LaMar Gay, keiyaA, and Gabrielle Octavia Rucker will interweave Chicago’s unique relationship to improv, poetry, and jazz. Co-curated by Jared Brown, Janelle Ayana Miller, and Noa Fields.
Born on Chicago’s west side, Dee Alexander is one of the city’s most gifted and respected vocalist/songwriters. Her talents span every music genre, from gospel to R&B, blues to neo-soul, yet her true heart and soul are experienced in their purest form through jazz. Growing up in a household steeped in recordings of Dinah Washington, Ms. Alexander names Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Chicago saxophonist Henry Huff among her major influences, setting her on the path to becoming one of the most accomplished voice improvisers in the world today. Ms. Alexander is currently a WFMT Jazz Radio host. Her performance is accompanied by John McLean.
Ben LaMar Gay is an interdisciplinary composer who moves sound, color, and space components through folkloric filters, producing brilliant electro-acoustic collages. An explorer of many mediums who has been called a “visionary musician” by the New York Times, Gay has found a form of creative expression that begins with improvisation and expands beyond the limits of any single genre. With more than 20 years in vibrant experimental music scenes, Gay’s talents have earned him residencies globally, most recently as a Mellon Foundation Archival Fellow. He has been a member of the Association of the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 2010. Receiving accolades for a parade of more than seven albums, his release Open Arms to Open Us solidified his place in the firmament of the Chicago Jazz Renaissance and was revered as one of the best albums of 2021 by the Washington Post, Pitchfork, JazzTimes, and Digital Berliner. Gay is a beneficiary of the 2018 3Arts Award and the 2019 Worldwide Award from BBC DJ Gilles Peterson.
Chakeiya Camille Richmond, a.k.a. keiyaA, is a musician, writer, and performer from Chicago, living in NYC.
Gabrielle Octavia Rucker is a writer, editor, and teaching artist from the Great Lakes, currently living in the Gulf Coast. She is a 2020 Poetry Project Fellow and a 2016 Kimbilio Fiction Fellow. Her debut poetry collection, Dereliction, is currently available via the Song Cave.
Jared Brown (co-curator) is an artist born in Chicago. They consider themselves a data thief, understanding this role from John Akomfrah’s description of the data thief as a figure that does not belong to the past or present. As a data thief, Jared Brown makes archeological digs for fragments of Black American subculture, history, and technology. Jared repurposes these fragments in audio, text, and performance to investigate the relationship between history and digital, immaterial space. Jared Brown holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and moved back to Chicago in 2016 in order to make and share work that directly relates to their personal history.
Janelle Ayana Miller (co-curator) is a grandchild of the Great Migration, a Midwesterner with Southern inflection. Her practice is rooted within familial and communal aesthetics, looking deeply into bridging self and time as an act of place making.
Accessibility:
Masks are strongly encouraged and available at check-in for those who would like to wear one. Please note that some event performers may choose to perform without a mask. The Foundation reserves the right to update this policy if community levels of COVID-19 increase significantly. Read our full COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines. Guests are encouraged to register in advance.
The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
Pro wrestling bursts onto the stage in a high-octane, immersive, 90-minute thrill ride.
It’s a night in the theater that you’ll never forget. Experience the heart-pumping action ringside, as the Goodman transforms into a professional wrestling arena—a perfect backdrop for the high drama and rich cultural history of lucha libre. Originally developed with Prism Movement Theater and produced in partnership with CLATA as part of 2023 Destinos Festival, actors and luchadores (wrestlers) in masks representative of Aztec gods play out an exciting wrestling story about family, honor, tradition and redemption.
Touch Tour and Audio-Described Performance
Saturday, October 28
12:30pm Touch Tour & 2:00pm Performance
Use code AUDIO for $30 tickets
Spanish Subtitles Performance
Saturday, October 28 at 7:30pm
Use code SPANISH for $30 tickets
Open-Captioned Performance
Sunday, October 29 at 2:00pm
Use code OPEN for $30 tickets
In conjunction with the exhibition opening for Harriet Monroe & the Open Door, we will host a conversation with Poetry’s four women guest editors from 2021-22: Esther G. Belin, Su Cho, Suzi F. Garcia, and Ashley M. Jones.
Moderated by Carmen Giménez, this conversation shifts the frame of the Open Door series to spotlight the creative labor of editors to open up poetry as a porous category. The name of the series honors the legacy of Poetry’s founding editor Harriet Monroe, who declared in 1912, “The Open Door will be the policy of this magazine—may the great poet we are looking for never find it shut, or half-shut.”
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Esther G. Belin is an urban Indian, born at an Indian Health Service hospital in Gallup, New Mexico and raised in the greater Los Angeles area. She has two poetry collections, From the Belly of My Beauty, and Of Cartography, and is one of the editors of the anthology of Navajo literature, The Diné Reader. She is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and lives on the Colorado side of the Four Corners region.
Su Cho is a poet, essayist, and the author of The Symmetry of Fish (Penguin Books, 2022) which won the 2021 National Poetry Series. She lives in South Carolina where she is an assistant professor of English at Clemson University.
Suzi F. Garcia is the author of the chapbook A Home Grown Fairytale (Bone Bouquet, 2020). She is the co-publisher of the award-winning independent press, Noemi, and along with José Olivarez, is a poetry editor for Haymarket Books. In addition, Suzi is the review manager for the Lambda Literary Review, which has been serving the queer literary community for over 30 years. Suzi is a CantoMundo Fellow, a Macondista, a Lambda Literary Fellow, and participated in the first ever Poetry Incubator at the Poetry Foundation. She has served as a CantoMundo steering committee member, CantoMundo regional director, and a board member for the Latinx Caucus.
Ashley M. Jones is the poet laureate of Alabama. She is the first person of color and the youngest person to hold this position in its 93 year existence. Jones is the author of three award-winning poetry collections, most recently Reparations Now! She is the co-editor of WHAT THINGS COST: An Anthology for the People. Her work has been featured by CNN, the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC News, and the New York Times. Jones is the associate director of the University Honors Program at UAB and she teaches in the Low Residency MFA Program at Converse University.
Carmen Giménez (moderator) is publisher and director of Graywolf Press and the author of several books, including Be Recorder, a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award.
In-Person Attendance
Masks are strongly encouraged and available at check-in for those who would like to wear one. Please note that some event performers may choose to perform without a mask. The Foundation reserves the right to update this policy if community levels of COVID-19 increase significantly. Read our full COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines. Guests are encouraged to register in advance.
Livestream Attendance
The livestream link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. In order to receive the livestream details, please register in advance here.
The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-doors-guest-editors-panel-tickets-691003188137?aff=oddtdtcreator
Join us for the kickoff to our Fall 2023 season with a celebration of Chicago’s Poet Laureate, avery r. young, at Harold Washington Library. He will perform alongside other poet laureates E’mon Lauren Black (Chicago Youth Poet Laureate), Nandi Comer (Michigan), Angela Jackson (Illinois), Amanda Johnston (Texas), and Airea D. Matthews (Philadelphia).
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
avery r. young is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, 3Arts Awardee, poetry editor for Bridge, Cave Canem fellow, and co-director of the Floating Museum. His poetry and prose have been featured in The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Teaching Black, The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, and AIMPrint, among other publications, and alongside images in photographer Cecil McDonald Jr’s In The Company of Black. He is the composer and librettist for a new commissioned work from Lyric Opera of Chicago titled safronia, and full-length recording tubman (FPE Records), the soundtrack to his collection of poetry, neckbone: visual verses. Learn more at averyryoung.com.
E’mon Lauren Black is a multi-hyphenate artist and educator from the Wes & Souf side of Chicago whose works explores her coined philosophy of “hood-womanism.” She is the first Youth Poet Laureate of Chicago and has been featured in Vogue magazine, Chicago Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune. She is the host and creator of the hit talkshow, The Real Hoodwives of Chicago, originally produced by her production company, BlkHoneyBun Productions, LLC. Her first book of poems, COMMANDO, was published by Haymarket in 2017.
Nandi Comer is the Poet Laureate of Michigan. She is the author of American Family: A Syndrome (Finishing Line Press) and Tapping Out (Northwestern University Press), which was awarded the 2020 Society of Midland Authors Award and the 2020 Julie Suk Award. She is a Cave Canem Fellow, a Callaloo Fellow, and a Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow. She currently serves as a poetry editor for Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora and as the co-director of Detroit Lit.
Angela Jackson is a Chicago poet, playwright, and novelist. She has received numerous honors for both fiction and poetry, including the 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Pushcart Prize, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. Her poetry collection All These Roads Be Luminous (1998) was nominated for the National Book Award, and her debut novel, Where I Must Go (2009), won the American Book Award. In addition to Comfort Stew, Jackson has written several other plays: Witness! (1978), Shango Diaspora: An African-American Myth of Womanhood and Love (1980), and Lightfoot: The Crystal Stair.
Amanda Johnston is a writer, artist, and the 2024 Texas Poet Laureate. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, among them Callaloo, Poetry magazine, The Offing, and the anthologies Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry and Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism. She has received fellowships, grants, and awards from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, the Watermill Center, and American Short Fiction. She is a founder of Torch Literary Arts and a former board president of Cave Canem .
Airea D. Matthews’ irst collection of poems is the critically acclaimed Simulacra, which received the prestigious 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Matthews is also the author of Bread and Circus, a memoir-in-verse that combines poetry, prose, and imagery to explore the realities of economic necessity, marginal poverty, and commodification through a personal lens. Matthews received a 2020 Pew Fellowship, a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and was awarded the Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry from the 2016 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Matthews earned her MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. In 2022, she was named Philadelphia’s Poet Laureate. She is an assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College where she directs the poetry program.
In-Person Attendance
Masks are strongly encouraged and available at check-in for those who would like to wear one. Please note that some event performers may choose to perform without a mask. The Foundation reserves the right to update this policy if community levels of COVID-19 increase significantly. Read our full COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines.
Livestream Attendance
The YouTube livestream link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. In order to receive the livestream details, please register in advance here.
Please note that advanced registration on Eventbrite does not guarantee entrance, as events at the Harold Washington Library are first come first serve.
The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
Accessibility: ASL Interpretation, captioning,
Join us for a virtual reading featuring 2023 Forms & Features Visiting Teaching Artists Samira Asma-Sadeque, Giulia Ottavia Frattini, grace (ge) gilbert, Lisa Low, L. Renée, and Hua Xi. Forms & Features is the Poetry Foundation’s series of free online creative writing workshops for adults.
Samira Asma-Sadeque is a New York-based Bangladeshi journalist, poet, and educator. She writes about the immigrant experience, mental health, hate speech, and gender violence in both her poetry and journalism. Her poetry appears in HBO’s Take Out with Lisa Ling, PBS’s ALL ARTS, Button Poetry, and has been featured at the Rubin Museum, among other platforms. She is a Brooklyn Poets fellow, Tin House alum, and Best of the Net nominee. Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, and Al Jazeera, among other publications.
Giulia Ottavia Frattini is a poet and writer based in Berlin. She is currently involved in art-oriented practices and collaborates as a contributor for several art magazines while developing her literary path. She perceives words as metamorphic elements, and her prime focus gravitates toward the unfolding of identity, language’s physicality, and lyricism’s disruption.
grace (ge) gilbert is a hybrid poet, essayist, and collage-worker based in Brooklyn. They received their MFA in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022. grace is the author of three short collections: the closeted diaries, NOTIFICATIONS IN THE DARK, and today is an unholy suite. Their work can be found in the Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, Passages North, The Offing, the Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. They currently teach hybrid collage and poetics courses at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. They have received support and scholarships from City of Asylum’s Emerging Poet Laureate program and Bread Loaf, and served as the MCLA Under 27 Writer-in-Residence Fellow at Mass MoCA.They are passionate about making the hybrid arts accessible to all. Learn more at gracegegilbert.com.
Lisa Low’s poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Ecotone, the Massachusetts Review, Poetry, the Southern Review, and elsewhere. Her nonfiction won the 2020 Gulf Coast Nonfiction Prize. She has an MFA from Indiana University and a PhD in creative writing and literature from the University of Cincinnati. Her debut chapbook, Crown for the Girl Inside, won the 2020 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest and is forthcoming from YesYes Books.
L. Renée is a poet and nonfiction writer living in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where she works as assistant director of Furious Flower Poetry Center and assistant professor of English at James Madison University. Nominated for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and two Pushcart Prizes, her work has been published in Obsidian, Tin House Online, Poetry Northwest, the minnesota review, and elsewhere. The granddaughter of proud Black Appalachians, she won the international 2022 Rattle Poetry Prize and Appalachian Review’s Denny C. Plattner Award, among others. A recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation and the Watering Hole, L. Renée holds an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University, where she was nonfiction editor of the Indiana Review, and an MS in journalism from Columbia University, where she was a Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Moore Fellow. She has received support from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc., Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Peter Bullough Foundation, the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Monson Arts, Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference, and others. Learn more at Lreneepoems.com.
Hua Xi (she/they) is a poet and artist. Their poetry has appeared in the New Republic, The Nation, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. They previously won the Boston Review Poetry Contest and was the 2022 Poet-to-Come Scholar at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association. They sometimes teach poetry workshops with the Spatial Poetry Project.
The Zoom link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. Poetry Foundation events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.
Accessibility: ASL interpretation, captioning
Blue Hour is in-person for this season! Each event takes place at Haymarket House (800 W. Buena) on the third Wednesday of the month and includes a brief lottery-style open mic and two featured readers from Chicago and beyond, preceded by a generative writing workshop. All readings are also livestreamed! This month, we are thrilled to present two stellar featured readers: Maggie Queeney and Brittany Rogers.
About the Workshop:
The Blue Hour generative writing workshop begins promptly at 6 p.m., ends at 7 p.m., and is designed for writers and poetry fans of all levels. Each workshop includes discussion of a poem by one of the night’s featured readers, followed by guided individual writing using an exploratory prompt that draws on themes from the poem. Registration is required, and the workshop is sliding scale with a suggested donation of $10. To register for the workshop on 8/16, visit https://BHworkshopAug.eventbrite.com for more details.
About the Reading:
The Blue Hour reading includes a brief open mic followed by two featured poets from Chicago and beyond. Pre-registration is free and recommended. The open mic includes five readers drawn lottery-style from a hat that goes out at 7:15. The reading starts promptly at 7:30. Each open mic poet reads one poem or for three minutes, whichever comes first. To register for the reading session on 8/16, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/675666987147 for more details.
About the Space:
Haymarket House is a community space in the heart of Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood committed to uplifting the work of writers, artists, thinkers, activists, and educators who are committed to all struggles for a better world. This event includes professional ASL interpretation. Haymarket House is fully ADA-compliant and wheelchair accessible. Please let us know if you have any specific accessibility questions; if you use a wheelchair, please contact marty@poetrycenter.org to coordinate use of the ramp. Masks are not required but are encouraged and will be available to anyone who needs it.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted, wheelchair accessible