SYNOPSIS
Thirty-five-year-old window cleaner and single father John has dedicated his life to raising his son. Given only a few months to live, he traverses Belfast, visiting homes of the working class and wealthy alike. He has a singular goal: to find the perfect family to raise his toddler Michael. How can he carry out this impossible task? Inspired by true events in the UK, Nowhere Special is a tender tale of pure love, profound heartbreak, and parenthood. DIRECTED BY Uberto Pasolini
Summer Screenings is Cinema/Chicago’s annual free film series that casts a spotlight on a different country’s national cinema each week all summer.
Cinema has always been fascinated with the city as a “character”— a living, breathing organism that shapes the world around it. This program showcases the myriad ways in which cities are depicted in cinema and how people live, love, move through, and seek connection in urban spaces.
Featuring stories set in cities all around the globe—from the bustling cafes of Bogotá to the seaside cityscapes of Gothenburg and Galway to glittering black and white portraits of Taipei and Seoul to the streets, skyways, rivers, and trains right here in Chicago—these films express the rich, diverse personalities of cities on screen and how they mold and influence how we live.
Films are unrated. Viewer discretion is advised.
Tickets are available to claim 2 weeks before the screening.
LabE is a series of monthly cohort meetings addressing particular needs of disabled dance artists.
The LabE gathering on July 2nd is designed to be a safe, disability-centric space where artists can come together to share a work-in-progress, try out new ideas, workshop concepts, and experiment with new scores. Hosted by Maggie Bridger, this inclusive event is open to all artists who seek a supportive community where they can connect with peers who share similar experiences and offer and receive support, encouragement, and constructive feedback.
This gathering aims to foster community connections among Deaf, disabled, sick, neurodivergent, and Mad artists while providing a platform for artists to explore their creativity and showcase their unique perspectives.
If you are an artist who is interested in showcasing your art or working through new ideas, please reach out to Maggie at mbridg8@uic.edu to participate in this event.
Please join us for a communal dialog with award-winning artist Barak adé Soleil and members of the local Black and Brown neurodiverse and disabled community who are part of adé Soleil’s newly commissioned work SHIFT.
SHIFT, a multidisciplinary project for the MCA’s Frictions series, has two components:
An installation located on the first floor of the MCA during the performance’s run, intentionally next to a spiraling staircase that goes up to the museum’s fourth floor. Barak is creating a film that will be installed and projected onto a diamond-like platform. In this dreamlike video installation, bodies both at rest and as they shift are visible onscreen at life-size and larger-than-life scale. The presence of Black neurodiverse and disabled bodies is amplified from many angles, infiltrating the architecture of the museum’s iconic public stairwell. Whereas these bodies might otherwise be violently misinterpreted as either lazy or near death, adé Soleil offers rest—and the intimacy of everyday gestures—as forms of political resistance for Black people.
A gathering on Saturday, May 6, where members of the Disability community will join adé Soleil in a “promenade” throughout the museum’s public areas; at times they will ascend the staircases and take up space to make visible and apparent the power of community presence. The use of the word promenade is intentional, drawing from its definition: “to take a leisurely public walk, ride, [wheel] or drive so as to meet or be seen by others.”
SHIFT is curated by Tara Aisha Willis, Curator of Performance & Public Practice at the MCA.
Access Information
ASL interpretation, CART captioning, and live audio description are provided. AD devices are available at the museum, and audience members may also use their personal devices to access the audio description through a URL provided on-site.
This event has relaxed viewing protocols and sensory-friendly lighting.
ASL provided.Audio description available.Haptic elements used.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-barak-ade-soleil-with-shift-performers/
On the opening of his first comprehensive survey exhibition, Gary Simmons: Public Enemy, multidisciplinary artist Gary Simmons is joined by the curators of the show, René Morales, James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator, and Jadine Collingwood, Assistant Curator, for a wide-ranging discussion of his powerful work.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted, captioning, Spanish captioning
This spring, A.B.L.E. returns to the stage and our classical roots with a multimedia version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, updated for our social-media obsessed times. Our modern adaptation by A.B.L.E. teaching artist Emma MacLean focuses on the themes of connection and disconnection. The king and queen of the fairies are fighting, the mechanicals are rehearsing a play but no one knows their lines, and the Athenian teens keep changing their relationship status. Join ABLE’s ensembles – 34 actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities as we miss texts, drop calls, and wander love struck in the Athenian forest.
This multimedia production will weave Shakespeare’s words with original scenes, monologues, songs, and dances devised by our ensembles, as well as animated film sequences from VFX designer Brock Alter. The virtual ensemble will narrate the tale for us as the in-person ensembles take the stage Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
With your ticket, you have the option of participating in a 45 minute interactive workshop led by A.B.L.E.’s team of Creative Associates and Teaching Artists. Audiences can experience some of the games and activities A.B.L.E. used to bring their ideas to the stage, get a touch tour of key costume pieces and props, and try A.B.L.E.’s signature “dropping in” method. This exclusive opportunity is only available to 20 ticket holders each day – reserve your spot when booking your ticket.
Event Details:
Sunday June 11th at 2pm (pre-show workshop & touch tour at 12:30pm)
Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
800 East Grand Avenue
Chicago IL 60611
Tickets: All tickets are Pay-what-you-can, general admission
Online: ableensemble.com/events
Phone: 312.595.5600
In person: at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater box office
Access: Performances will be open captioned and dual ASL interpreted.
COVID Policies: To ensure A.B.L.E.’s immunocompromised performers and community members feel safe and welcome, all audience members must remain masked for the duration of their time in the theater complex.
This spring, A.B.L.E. returns to the stage and our classical roots with a multimedia version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, updated for our social-media obsessed times. Our modern adaptation by A.B.L.E. teaching artist Emma MacLean focuses on the themes of connection and disconnection. The king and queen of the fairies are fighting, the mechanicals are rehearsing a play but no one knows their lines, and the Athenian teens keep changing their relationship status. Join ABLE’s ensembles – 34 actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities as we miss texts, drop calls, and wander love struck in the Athenian forest.
This multimedia production will weave Shakespeare’s words with original scenes, monologues, songs, and dances devised by our ensembles, as well as animated film sequences from VFX designer Brock Alter. The virtual ensemble will narrate the tale for us as the in-person ensembles take the stage Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
With your ticket, you have the option of participating in a 45 minute interactive workshop led by A.B.L.E.’s team of Creative Associates and Teaching Artists. Audiences can experience some of the games and activities A.B.L.E. used to bring their ideas to the stage, get a touch tour of key costume pieces and props, and try A.B.L.E.’s signature “dropping in” method. This exclusive opportunity is only available to 20 ticket holders each day – reserve your spot when booking your ticket.
Event Details:
Saturday June 10th at 7pm (pre-show workshop & touch tour at 5:30pm)
Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
800 East Grand Avenue
Chicago IL 60611
Tickets: All tickets are Pay-what-you-can, general admission
Online: ableensemble.com/events
Phone: 312.595.5600
In person: at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater box office
Access: Performances will be open captioned and dual ASL interpreted.
COVID Policies: To ensure A.B.L.E.’s immunocompromised performers and community members feel safe and welcome, all audience members must remain masked for the duration of their time in the theater complex.
Children of all abilities can play and explore nature through accessible activities in The Morton Arboretum’s lush 4-acre Children’s Garden during this special Nature Play for All weekend event, organized in collaboration with Benedictine University and SEASPAR, the South East Association for Special Parks and Recreation. Activities include Painting with Nature, Planting a Seed, American Sign Language Storytimes, Pond Exploration, Sensory Hikes and Nature Scavenger Hunts. Nature Play for All will occur Saturday, June 10 and Sunday, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Children’s Garden is supported by International Paper. For more information, visit mortonarb.org.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted, quiet spaces, sensory friendly, wheelchair accessible
https://mortonarb.org/explore/activities/childrens-family-programs/nature-play-for-all/
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, and a quiet space is available to visitors for breaks. During Sensory-Friendly Mornings, preregistered individuals and their families can visit the museum to explore exhibitions at their own pace, and join a Chicago-based artist for a sensory-friendly art-making experience. The museum is closed to the general public until 11:30 am; at that time, the lights and artworks return to usual operations.
Sensory-Friendly Morning aims to be a welcoming space to experience contemporary art in a judgment-free environment.
Accessibility: Sensory-Friendly. ASL Interpretation
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/sensory-friendly-morning-5/
The Chicago Poetry Center presents BLUE HOUR, a free, public monthly in-person reading series and generative writing workshop.
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, for our final Blue Hour of the season, we are thrilled to present two stellar featured readers: CM Burroughs and Eugenia Leigh.
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 May 17, visit https://BHworkshopmay23.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 p.m. The reading starts promptly at 7:30 p.m. Each open mic poet reads one poem or for three minutes, whichever comes first.
To register for the reading session on May 17, visit https://BHmay23.eventbrite.com 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.
Writing Care Scenes: A Workshop & Skill Share with 2023 3Arts/Bodies of Work Residency Fellow, Kennedy Dawson Healy
Thursday, May 4th, 4:30pm to 6:30pm (Or join us virtually at 5:00pm!)
Haymarket House
800 W Buena Ave, Chicago, IL 60613
Join us for a workshop on writing play scenes about care. Learn about how Kennedy found grounding in writing about issues surrounding care through her in-progress project Care: The Musical. Then take time to develop your own scene that volunteers can share back to the group.
RSVP: https://writingcarescenes.eventbrite.com/
Program:
4:30 – 5:00 pm: Light refreshments and creative printmaking & zine stations* will be available outdoors.
5:00 – 6:30 pm: Workshop & skill share will be hosted in door.
*Creative printmaking & zine stations will be presented by Soph Schinderle (they/them) and Lizzy Dixon (they/them), who have collaborated with Kennedy during her residency. Schinderle and Dixon are both graduate art therapy students in the Community Practice and Helping Relationship Class, department of art therapy and counseling, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).
Access Information: Haymarket House is located in Uptown on the corner of Buena and Clarendon. Please enter through the parking lot off Clarendon where there is a ramped side entrance. ASL interpreters, CART, and a Personal Assistant will be available at the event. Masks are required for all who are able to wear them. There are two accessible bathrooms and the large event space has an air filter. For any other accessibility requests, please reach out to Beth Bendtsen at bbendtsen@accessliving.org at your earliest convenience.
Host Information: This event is part of the 2023 3Arts/Bodies of Work Residency Fellowship. Bodies of Work is a part of the Department of Disability and Human Development within the College of Applied Health Sciences at University of Illinois-Chicago.
Supporter Information:
This program received generous support from the Arts and Culture Project at Access Living, an independent living center for people with disabilities, Shirley Ryan Abilities Lab and Disability Culture Activism Lab at SAIC.
The contents of this event were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RTCP0005). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this event do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, as well as grants to 3Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Joyce Foundation.
Image description (attached flyer): Pastel pink and purple watercolor background with black, purple and blue text. There is a small circular photo of Kennedy, a white, fat, disabled femme, who smiles with their head turned slightly to the right. The back of their power chair is visible over their shoulder. Overlaid on the back ground is text with event information, including the bullet points: Outdoor refreshments, Creative printmaking & zine stations, and Scene writing workshop & sharing. Along the bottom are the logos for the event sponsors.
Join us in-person for a reading with CM Burroughs, Camille Roy, and Syd Staiti at PO Box Collective, a creative collective and intergenerational social practice center located in Rogers Park, Chicago.
CM Burroughs is an associate professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago and author of The Vital System and Master Suffering, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and a Los Angeles Times Book Award. Burroughs’s poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies including Poetry, Ploughshares, Gathering Ground, and Best American Experimental Writing. Burroughs has been awarded fellowships and grants from Yaddo, MacDowell, Djerassi Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Cave Canem Foundation.
Camille Roy is a writer of fiction, poetry, and plays. Roy’s fiction collection Honey Mine was published in 2021. Her other works include Sherwood Forest, Swarm, and The Rosy Medallions, and the plays Cheap Speech and Cold Heaven. She co-edited Biting The Error: Writers Explore Narrative. Recently her work has been published in Amerarcana and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art blog, Open Space.
Syd Staiti is the author of Seldom Approaches and The Undying Present. Staiti’s work has been published in Baest, Tripwire, Social Text, and A Perfect Vacuum. Staiti is the director of Small Press Traffic and a collective member of Light Field.
The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include ASL interpretation. Masks are required. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. For more information about accessibility, please contact events@poetryfoundation.org.
Join us for a roundtable discussion of legendary Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks and her book Blacks with Nora Brooks Blakely, Haki R. Madhubuti, and Kelly Norman Ellis.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Nora Brooks Blakely, a former teacher, founded Chocolate Chips Theatre Company (1982-2011) and was its primary playwright. The daughter of two writers, Henry Blakely (Windy Place) and Gwendolyn Brooks (the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize), Brooks Blakely founded Brooks Permissions in 2001 to license and promote her mother’s work through programming and publications that demonstrate Gwendolyn Brooks’s continuing relevance. After writing plays and musicals for decades, she recently released her first children’s book, Moyenda and The Golden Heart, a Kwanzaa origin tale. Learn more at flyingcolorsunlimited.com.
Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti—poet, author, publisher, and educator—is regarded as an architect of the Black Arts Movement and is the founder and publisher of Chicago’s Third World Press. Madhubuti has published more than 36 books, including Think Black; Black Pride; Don’t Cry, Scream; and We Walk the Way of the New World . His poetry and essays have been selected for more than 100 anthologies. he National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities have recognized his poetry, and he has won anAmerican Book Award, Illinois Arts Council Award, Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award, and Hurston/Wright Legacy Prize in poetry for Liberation Narratives. His latest book, Taught By Women: Poems as Resistance Language, New and Selected, published in 2020, pays homage to the women who influenced him. Madhubuti is a recipient of the 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
Kelly Norman Ellis is the author of Tougaloo Blues and Offerings of Desire; her poetry has appeared in Sisterfire: Black Womanist Fiction and Poetry, Spirit and Flame, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, Boomer Girls, ESSENCE, Obsidian, Calyx, and Cornbread Nation. She is a recipient of a Kentucky Foundation for Women writer’s grant and is a Cave Canem fellow and founding member of the Affrilachian Poets. Ellis is an associate professor of English and creative writing and chairperson for the Department of English, Foreign Languages and Literatures at Chicago State University.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. If you will not comply with this requirement, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gwendolyn-brooks-panel-reflecting-on-a-chicago-legend-tickets-621192251747
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 interpreted, captioning
Limited capacity. Advanced registration is required.
Masking is required for this performance.
Using the pain scale as a primary source material, Scale places medicalized methods of quantifying pain in conversation with alternative ways of reading and attending to pain emerging from the disability community, ultimately proposing new ways of caring for the bodymind in dance. These complex interactions between medicalization, care, and community are explored through movement, video, and the use of access tools for both performers and audience members. Scale invites audience members to attend to their own embodied experience of the piece, offering pillows, blankets, and other care objects as tools for curating the way they engage with and experience the work. Scale poses questions around the ways that we perceive pain, ultimately reaching toward a more compassionate and disability-informed way of creating and performing dance.
Each performance is followed by a Crafting Care event that serves as a sort of informal “talk back” with some of the artists, as well as an opportunity to join in the crafting practice that informed much of the work of Scale. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own crafting projects, participate in a group embroidery project, or simply share space and chat about Scale in community with the artists and other audience members.
COLLABORATORS
Performers: Maggie Bridger, Jordan Brown, Joán Joel, Alex Neil-Sevier, Robby Lee Williams
Costumes and Visual Art: Reveca Torres
Sound Design: Shireen Hamza
Crafters: Margaret Fink, Sandy Guttman, Alison Kopit, Ashley Miller
Access information
ACCESS DURING PERFORMANCE
Captions, American Sign Language, audio descriptions, opportunities to rest, and sensory notes are incorporated into the performance in ways that we hope generate a unique, thoughtful experience for each audience member. The methods we’re using to incorporate these elements into the performance are experimental and may differ from the ways these tools are encountered in other arts spaces. We are continuing to learn, develop, and experiment alongside our community and welcome feedback on these elements, particularly from members of the community that rely on these various tools to access performance.
COVID Protocols:
Masking is required in the performance space. Mana Contemporary, though, is a shared building that does not require masking and there may be unmasked people outside of the performance space. You are welcome to bring your own mask or grab one of the high quality masks available to audience members in both adult and child sizes at the building’s entrance. All performers will be masked, though there is a moment in the work where performers layer masks one on top of the other, which may cause their masking to be less effective for a short period of time.
Arriving at Mana & Wayfinding:
All audience members will enter the ramped entrance to Mana Contemporary located on the west side of the building near the Throop street entrance to the parking lot. Audiences will then be guided through the building to the performance space by the performers, two of whom use ASL and will be able to guide Deaf and hard of hearing audience members. The first 30 minutes of the performance time is dedicated to audience arrival and getting situated in the performance space, so there is no need to rush or worry about arriving precisely on time. There is time to rest, chat, and get settled.
A library around the corner from the performance space will be used as a “quiet space” that folks can use to get a break from the performance, if needed.
Access Tools and Sharing Space:
The show runs about an hour and a half with the first half hour dedicated entirely to audience members arriving and getting settled for the performance. Upon entering the space, audience members will be offered access devices and care tools to help them feel as comfortable as possible throughout the performance. Some of the tools we have available are:
4 blankets
3 small weighted blankets
9 pillows
2 large beanbags
Yoga mats/exercise mats
Instant hot and cold packs
Stim tools
3 ear defenders
In addition to these, you are very welcome to bring your own tools/devices. We invite you to move, stim, rest, and generally make yourself comfortable during the performance. Our tools/devices will be cleaned with scent-free detergent/cleanser between each performance.
We ask that audience members refrain from wearing any scented perfume, cologne, lotion, etc. However, Mana Contemporary is a shared space where tenants will sometimes burn incense or use other scented products. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee a fully scent-free environment.
Join us for an Open Door reading with Gregg Bordowitz, Asia Calcagno, Terri Kapsalis, and Ugochi Nwaogwugwu. The Open Door series highlights creative relationships in Chicago, including mentorship and collaboration.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Gregg Bordowitz is a writer, artist, and activist. He currently serves as the director of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York, New York.
Asia Calcagno is a writer and educator from Chicago. Calcagno’s writing has been featured in literary magazines and anthologies such as Third Coast, Poetry magazine, The Golden Shovel Anthology, West Trade Review, Smartish Pace, Black Femme Collective, and Respect the Mic. She holds an MFA from Bennington College, and spends her time educating, consulting, and using storytelling to create more effective educational spaces. She is a 2022 Luminarts Creative Writing Fellow and a 2022–2023 Ingenuity Constellation Fellow.
Terri Kapsalis is the author of Jane Addams’ Travel Medicine Kit, The Hysterical Alphabet, and Public Privates: Performing Gynecology from Both Ends of the Speculum. Kapsalis’s writing has appeared on Literary Hub and in edited volumes and journals, including Short Fiction, The Baffler, Denver Quarterly, Public, and Parakeet Magazine. A founding member of Theater Oobleck, she has performed in over 30 productions. Since 1991, she has been a collective member and health educator at the Chicago Women’s Health Center and co-founded TGAP (Trans Greater Access Project) and the Integrative Health Program. She teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Ugochi Nwaogwugwu is a multidisciplinary creative–a professional poet, singer, songwriter, composer, musician, poetry instructor, and teaching artist. Nwaogwugwu has executive produced, written, and coarranged three album projects, and her poetry has been been published in Storm Between Two Fingers and Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different, both international anthologies out of the UK. Her poems are also featured in TheGolden Shovel Anthology and Wherever I’m At. Ugochi created an original pan-African poetry form called Ike (pronounced ee-KAY) paying homage to her Igbo culture (Nigeria, West Africa). She also has written newsworthy essays including “Not My President,” published by Third World Press.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. If you will not comply with this requirement, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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.
A native of Park Ridge, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s middle-class upbringing taught her the value of hard work, determination, and the importance of public service. Now, she’s returning this spring to talk about how Chicago provided the foundation upon which she built her life and career. Join her for a far-reaching, intimate conversation about her work advocating for civic engagement through Onward Together, her thoughts on current affairs, and her connection to Chicago’s own beloved local activist, Joanne Alter.
This event will have ASL Interpretation, audio description, open captions, and ALDs.
https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/venues/riviera-theatre/
#1 New York Times bestselling author, voting rights advocate, and history maker Stacey Abrams returns to Chicago with her latest thriller novel, Rogue Justice. Join Chicago Humanities for an evening with this political leader as we delve into the art of fiction, current issues affecting our democracy, and how we can all use our voices to impact our communities.
This event will have open captions, audio description, ASL interpretation, and ALDs.
The MCA Advisory Partner organization Bodies of Work invites you to Access Praxis, a collaborative and participatory event in The Commons. Combining theory and practice, “praxis” is ideas in action.
For this iteration, we are joined by disabled artist-researchers Alana Ackerman, Stephanie Alma, Tommy Carroll, Justin Cooper, and Nic Wyatt as they explore their embodied experience of disability through a series of videos detailing their crip epistemologies. Following the video presentation, they will be joined by Dr. Carrie Sandahl, co-director of Bodies of Work, and Liza Sylvestre and Christopher Jones, co-founders of Crip*: Cripistemology and the Arts, for a moderated discussion on the disability experience and the valuable knowledges that stem from it.
This will be a hybrid program held in-person at the MCA Chicago and virtually. American Sign Language interpretation, CART-captioning, and verbal description will be provided in the video presentation and the panel discussion. The MCA Commons is wheelchair accessible and offers gender neutral facilities. While masks are not required for entry to the museum, we encourage masking for all in-person attendees. For any other access needs please contact Daniel Atkinson at DAtkinson@mcachicago.org.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/access-praxis-cripistemology/
Join us for a talk between On Stage: Frictions artist Shamel Pitts and Jafari S. Allen, author of There’s a Disco Ball Between Us: A Theory of Black Gay Life (2021), for a wide-ranging conversation on Pitts’ practice and current project with the MCA, Touch of RED. This event will be held off-site at Wirtz Center For Performing Arts at 710 N Lake Shore Drive.
This event will have ASL Interpretation and CART.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-shamel-pitts-in-conversation-with-jafari-s-allen/
Comedian Lane Moore wrote the book on How To Be Alone but building real, healthy friendships as an adult is ten times more difficult! In her new book You Will Find Your People: How to Make Meaningful Friendships as an Adult, Moore shares everything she’s learned about how to finally make friends as an adult, how to identify your attachment style, choose better friends, become a better friend yourself, and how to handle friendship breakup grief, which can be even more brutal than most romantic breakups. Join Lane Moore and writer/actor Mara Wilson (Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, Matilda) for a fun-filled evening full of stories, advice, and sharing as we try and figure out a better way to find our chosen family.
Come enjoy dinner and drinks at Chop Shop before or after the conversation with Lane Moore and Mara Wilson. A book signing will follow this program.
This event will have open captions, ASL Interpretation and ALDs.
https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/moore-wilson/
The Chicago Poetry Center presents BLUE HOUR, a free, public monthly in-person reading series and generative writing workshop.
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: Maya Pindyck and Julian Randall.
2022-2023 Season Schedule Preview:
September 21: Faylita Hicks and Hila Ratzabi
October 19: Willie X. Lin and Dipika Mukherjee (co-sponsored by Kundiman Midwest)
November 16: Carlos Cumpián and Jennifer Scappettone
January 18: Kemi Alabi and Jessica Walsh
February 15: Natasha Mijares and D. Santina Ruiz
March 15: Kien Lam and Danni Quintos (co-sponsored by Kundiman Midwest)
April 19: Maya Pindyck and Julian Randall
May 17: CM Burroughs and Eugenia Leigh
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 April 19, visit https://BHwApril.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 April 19, visit https://AprilBHrdg.eventbrite.com 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 curator@poetrycenter.org to coordinate use of the ramp. Masks are not required but are encouraged and will be available to anyone who needs it.
Join us anytime throughout the day for accessible dance events! Have fun while earning how to be more inclusive in your practice. We’ll be moving together, enjoying a showcase of works in progress, watching a short film, engaging and building community that includes dancers with disabilities.
FREE events with adjacent free parking and CTA nearby.
10:00-11:45 Everybody Can Dance inclusive movement workshop.
12:00-12:20 Informal showing of 3 works in progress.
12:20-1:45 Lunch with DIY Access stations open to provide hands on instruction for providing AI captions online.
1:45-2:30 AccepDance workshop (based on Autism Movement Therapy)
2:45-3:00 Film Showing “JMAXX and the Universal Language.”
3:00-3:30 Panel Discussion with JMAXX and the filmmaker
3:30-4:30 Adaptive Hip Hop workshop
Accessibility: ASL interpreted, audio description, captions, wheelchair accessibility
On May 6, Barak adé Soleil premieres a new work, SHIFT, that amplifies the presence of Black neurodiverse and disabled bodies by occupying the museum’s spaces both digitally and physically.
SHIFT is a new commission comprised of a video installation in one of the MCA’s public stairwells, accompanied by a live performance. In the dreamlike video installation that runs from May 2nd through June 19, the presence of Black neurodiverse and disabled bodies infiltrates a spiral stairwell within the museum, where they are shown from many angles and at multiple scales, both at rest and as they shift. adé Soleil’s installation offers rest, and the everyday gestures of these bodies, as forms of political resistance for Black people—challenging the media’s often violent interpretation of these bodies as lazy or near death. In the live event on May 6, a promenade of performers traverse inaccessible staircases, recalibrating the flow of activity within the museum and challenging simplistic depictions of Black disabled bodies in real time.
This performance is durational and will move through different areas of the museum, including the MCA Plaza and front steps, the northwest spiral staircase, and both public lobbies. The majority of the performance will take place in the spiral staircase on the west side of the museum’s first floor, and will be visible from various angles on multiple floors. The available space for viewers will change based on the location of the performance as it moves through the museum, and MCA staff will be available to facilitate the audience’s movement to maintain access to elevators, passageways, and stairwells. Portable stools will be available for visitors who wish to use them, where possible. ASL interpretation will be provided. Designated areas for wheelchair and mobility device users will be available on the staircase landings. The MCA Commons, on the museum’s second floor, will display a livestream of the performance as it takes place for visitors who wish to stay in one location. The livestream will also be available for visitors to join from their mobile devices from elsewhere in the museum. Live audio description will be provided: devices will be available at the museum and audience members may also use their personal devices to access the audio description through a URL provided on-site.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted, audio description, touch tour, wheelchair accessible
Will Rawls presents a new interdisciplinary work, [siccer], that addresses the relationship between blackness and image-making through a live performance accompanied by a video installation on the museum’s first floor.
Encompassing dance, photography, and sound, [siccer] experiments with stop-motion, a filmmaking technique in which subjects incrementally shift positions between photographs to produce the illusion of movement. Throughout the performance, an automated camera snaps an image every few seconds while the intervals between shutter clicks offer brief interludes when the camera fails to capture the dancers’ movements. As the performers improvise during these gaps between photographs, they rescript the terms through which blackness and queerness are made visible. [siccer] is also being presented as a video installation on the museum’s first floor throughout the duration of the Frictions suite, beginning on April 6.
Accessibility: captioning, ASL interpreted, audio description, assistive listening devices
Join us for a reading celebrating new book releases by Poetry Foundation staff and friends: Adrian Matejka, Maggie Queeney, Charif Shanahan, and Patricia Smith. Get to know some of the people behind the Foundation’s programs, including Poetry magazine.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Adrian Matejka is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Somebody Else Sold the World, which was a finalist for the 2022 Rilke Prize as well as the 2022 Indiana Authors Award. Matejka’s first graphic novel, Last On His Feet, was published in February 2023. He is the editor of Poetry magazine.
Maggie Queeney is the author of In Kind, winner of the 2022 Iowa Poetry Prize, and the chapbook settler. Queeney is the recipient of the 2019 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize, an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago, and a scholarship from the Ruth Stone Foundation. Her most recent work can be found in The Kenyon Review, Guernica, The Missouri Review, and The American Poetry Review. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University and reads and writes in Chicago. She is the Library Associate at the Poetry Foundation.
Charif Shanahan is the author of two collections of poetry: Trace Evidence: poems and Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing, which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and a Thom Gunn Award. Shanahan is the recipient of a NEA Literature Fellowship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, and a Fulbright Senior Scholar Grant to Morocco, among other recognitions. He is an assistant professor of English at Northwestern University, where he teaches poetry in the undergraduate and Litowitz MFA+MA graduate creative writing programs. He is a guest editor of Poetry magazine.
Patricia Smith, the 2021 recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation, is the author of Unshuttered and Incendiary Art, among other collections. Smith is the winner of a Kingsley Tufts Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a NAACP Image Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her book Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah won a Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and Blood Dazzler was a National Book Award finalist. She is a creative writing professor at Princeton University, a distinguished professor for the City University of New York, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a chancellor in the Academy of American Poets.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. If you will not comply with this requirement, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adrian-matejka-maggie-queeney-charif-shanahan-patricia-smith-tickets-595052637457
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.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Join us for a reading and conversation with Renee Gladman, Eileen Myles, and Simone White as they celebrate their new book releases.
In Renee Gladman’s Plans for Sentences, Eileen Myles’s a “Working Life,” and Simone White’s or, on being the other woman, longings and plans laid bare accumulate in staccato bursts of life, almost self-generatively. Hovering between genres, these three new books vibrate with willful misdirection, fierce unknowing, and flummoxed dualities. How can the work of writing set life in motion?
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Renee Gladman is a writer and artist preoccupied with crossings, thresholds, and geographies as they play out at the intersections of poetry, prose, drawing, and architecture. Gladman is the author of 14 published works, including a cycle of novels about the city-state Ravicka and its inhabitants, the Ravickians, as well as three collections of drawings: One Long Black Sentence, a series of white-ink drawings on black paper, indexed by Fred Moten; Plans for Sentences, an image/text-based meditation on Black futurity and other choreographies of gathering; and Prose Architectures. She makes her home in New England.
Eileen Myles is a poet, novelist, and art journalist whose practice of vernacular first-person writing has become a touchstone for the identity-fluid internet age. Pathetic Literature, which they edited, came out in Fall of 2022. Myles’s newest collection of poems, a “Working Life”, is out in April. Their fiction includes Chelsea Girls, which just won France’s Inrockuptibles Prize for best foreign novel, Cool for You, Inferno (a poet’s novel), and Afterglow. Writing on art was gathered in the volume The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art. They live in New York and Marfa, Texas.
Simone White is the author of the collections or, on being the other woman, Dear Angel of Death, Of Being Dispersed, and House Envy of All the World. White teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. If you will not comply with this requirement, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-off-the-shelf-renee-gladman-eileen-myles-simone-white-tickets-595026750027
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.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Join us for a panel on art writing with Camille Bacon, Amarie Cemone Gipson, Daria Simone Harper, and Jessica Lynne during the weekend of EXPO CHICAGO.
Taking up the question of “poetics in practice,” the panel will consider the function and responsibility of art writing in the contemporary moment, the lineages we draw from and are in dialogue with, and what it means to build a viable writing life as writers working in a field that has historically underfunded the production and development of critical discourse. Together, we will ponder, imagine, muse, and speculate towards a reality that can better support the creation and proliferation of our work, as well as that of fellow writers.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Camille Bacon is a Chicago-based writer who is building a “sweet black writing life” as inspired by the words of poet Nikky Finney and the infinite wisdom of the Black feminist tradition more broadly. Through a practice that involves rigorous research and oration in addition to writing, she examines the material function of aesthetics and poetics. More specifically, she is interested in illuminating how aesthetics and poetics can catalyze a collective reorientation towards relation, connection, and intimacy and away from apathy and amnesia. Her work has appeared in Frieze, Cultured Magazine, Studio Magazine, Momus, and Burnaway, among other outlets. She currently manages McArthur Binion’s studio in Chicago, and formerly held positions at GRAY art gallery and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Amarie Cemone Gipson is an art worker, DJ, and creative director. She has held curatorial positions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Renaissance Society, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Contemporary Austin, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Independently, her writing has been published in several journals and magazines including Artforum, ARTNews, ARTS.BLACK, Cite, ESSENCE, Gulf Coast, Houstonia, and THE SEEN. Currently based in her hometown of Houston, she created an open format dance party called PHYSICAL THERAPY where she serves as creative lead and resident DJ. As a culmination of her decade-long journey through the realms of art, music, and media, Gipson founded the Reading Room, a Black art reference library whose collection holds more than 300 publications and ephemera with an emphasis on Blackness, visual culture, and the American South.
Daria Simone Harper is a multimedia journalist and writer based in Brooklyn. She is currently Assistant Editor on the Digital Content team at David Zwirner Gallery New York. Through herstorytelling, she aims to amplify emerging Black and brown visual artists, as well as preserve the history of the trailblazing artists, thinkers, and creators who paved the way for us. Her byline is featured in publications including Artnet News, Artsy, Burnaway, CULTURED Magazine, ESSENCE, i-D, W Magazine, and more. She has interviewed and written features on established artists and cultural workers including Carrie Mae Weems, Stanley Whitney, and Antwaun Sargent, among others. Daria also hosts The Art of It All, an art and culture podcast featuring conversations amongst emerging and established artists and arts professionals of color.
Jessica Lynne is a writer and art critic. She is a founding editor of ARTS.BLACK, an online journal of art criticism from Black perspectives. Her writing has been featured in publications such as Artforum, The Believer, Frieze, The Nation, and Oxford American, where she is a contributing editor. She is the recipient of a 2020 Research and Development award from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and a 2020 Arts Writer Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation. She is the inaugural recipient of the Beverly Art Writers Travel Grant awarded in 2022 by the American Australian Association.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. If you are unwilling to comply with this requirement, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expo-chicago-poetics-in-practice-art-writers-panel-tickets-567161965707
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.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Day is a monthly program at the MCA for all families and youth. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, and performances.
Artist-Led Performance
Raíces to Roots
1–2 pm
4th-floor lobby
Join Raíces to Roots for a performance that celebrates and examines the Chicago Puerto Rican experience through original dance, spoken word, and music. Family Day attendees are invited to interact with and join the performance.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted, quiet spaces
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-we-are-rooted-we-are-flowing/
Shamel Pitts and the Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE debut an electrifying new live performance in their ongoing Red Series exploring Black multiplicity and human connection.
The new work, titled Touch of RED, is a duet for two Black men set inside a contemporary boxing ring—a space that might traditionally suggest an aggressive competition between male athletes for entertainment purposes. Yet in Touch of RED, the two dancers imbue this boxed-in site with an intense energy drawn from the power of vulnerability, effeminacy, and the healing that occurs when Black men are allowed to soften, together. During the performance audiences will be seated around the four sides of the ring, which strategically conceals or frames the action. Transforming the space into a pulsing night club dance floor, Touch of RED invites the audience to experience the anticipation, energy, and collective softening that accompanies a good party—and reframe their expectations of time, space, and normative identity.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted, assistive listening devices, audio description, captioning
To commemorate Women’s History Month, the Arts & Culture Project at Access Living is partnering to host a virtual film screening and panel discussion of the My Girl Story documentary on Saturday, March 25 from 12-2pm.
This event will explore the importance of mental health care among Black girls and resources available to them and their families.
My Girl follows the lives of two Black girls from Detroit, Monay and Shokana, who are fighting to become the girls they want to be. The documentary aims to give context to what Black girls across the country are experiencing today and to challenge the institutional and systemic barriers that prevent black girls especially those with disabilities from achieving their potential.
Register via Eventbrite to get the Zoom link:
Access Information:
Live CART captioning and ASL will be provided during the panel discussion.
Partners:
My Girl Story
Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition
Access Living
Empowered Fe Fe’s
Sponsor Information: This event is brought to you by the Arts and Culture Project at Access Living, an independent living center for people with disabilities, Bodies of Work: Network of Disability Art and Culture, Shirley Ryan Abilities Lab, and the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL), a teaching lab housed under the department of art therapy and counseling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Bodies of Work is a part of the Department of Disability and Human Development within the College of Applied Health Sciences at University of Illinois-Chicago. The contents of this film were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RTCP0005). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this film do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Truth is lie; lie is truth. 1920: Jewish writer Isaac Babel begins a journal while serving in war. Ninety years later, this same journal is found in the wreckage of a suspicious plane crash. What did Babel write, and why does it matter? Ensemble member Rajiv Joseph’s epic thriller ricochets through place and time following the unlikely lives of seven individuals – soldiers and poets, KGB agents and babushkas – as they unearth mysteries buried by decades of history, fiction and blood.
Written by ensemble member Rajiv Joseph
Directed by ensemble member Austin Pendleton
Accessibility: ASL Interpreted
Join the College of Architecture’s Master of Landscape + Urbanism Program on April 12, 2023 at 5pm for the annual Alfred Caldwell Lecture and explore the intersectionality of public space, art, and social justice. Devon Henry, Franklin Cosey-Gay, and Makeba Kedem DuBose will discuss how memory and representation have expanded the narrative about the built environment. What do we want to collectively remember (or forget) through the symbols that we rise (or raze) in cities? Henry will present his construction of the ENSLAVED LABORERS MEMORIAL in Charlottesville and his work removing Confederate monuments in Richmond, Virginia. He will join a panel discussion with Cosey-Gay from the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project, multidisciplinary artist Kedem-DuBose, and moderator Ron Henderson.
The annual Alfred Caldwell Lecture is named in honor of Alfred Caldwell (1903-1998), influential landscape architect, IIT alumnus, IIT Hall of Fame awardee, and faculty member in IIT’s College of Architecture, Planning, and Design. Our Master of Landscape Architecture program grows from his legacy. Caldwell’s many contributions to Chicago include the Lincoln Park Lily Pond, Promontory Point, Skyline Park at Lake Point Tower, and the IIT campus. The Alfred Caldwell Lecture invites non-landscape architect speakers whose provocative scholarship or work amplifies the global ethical discourse on Landscape Architecture.
The event will take place at S. R. Crown Hall, 3360 S. State Street and is sponsored by the College of Architecture, Office of Community Affairs and the Center for Study of Ethics in the Professions. Parking is available across the street at Lot D4.
A reception will follow the event at S. R. Crown Hall. Please do not reserve more than two seats. ASL interpretation will be provided onsite.
This Wednesday, March 1st Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance is hosting beekeeper Jonathan Bennett for a virtual lecture from 6:30pm – 8pm. Jonathan encourages people of all ages and abilities to keep bees if it is of their interest. In his presentation he will share ways he has adapted his beekeeping to his physical ability and future plans to continue to improve the adaptability of his apiary to his physical ability.
This virtual lecture will have ASL Interpretation and auto-generated closed captioning available.
About the speaker: Jonathan Bennett is as unique as he is interesting. He has faced challenges his entire life having been born with spina bifida. He hasn’t let this stop him from pursuing his agricultural ambitions as he got his education from the College of the Ozarks with his bachelor’s in animal science and agriculture business. In recent years, he has expanded the family farm outside Cabool, Missouri producing registered shorthorn cattle, pure Spanish goats, and bees. He currently maintains 5 production hives and several nucleolus colonies.
If you would like to request an accommodation, the registration form has a space to let us know or please feel free to connect with access@garfieldpark.org.
Curb Appeal Gallery is pleased to announce their inaugural exhibition and the Chicago debut of Molly Joyce’s Perspective. Begun in 2019, Perspective is a sound and video work that captures perspectives of the disability experience. Created through interviewing over 40 participants around topics that encompass elements of disability—including care, interdependence, weakness, and cure—Joyce has composed and performed a work that invites audiences to consider the kaleidoscopic and nuanced experiences that inform what it means to be disabled. Created with disability aesthetics and accommodations in mind, Perspective features open-captioned videos, lending a sense of visual primacy to the stories of the disabled participants and their valuable perspectives. In addition to screening Perspective, Curb Appeal is delighted to host a brief conversation between Joyce and one of the project interviewees, Chicago artist Andy Slater (from 7:00-7:30pm).
Accessibility: Curb Appeal is wheelchair accessible. In addition to open captioning on the video work, we will provide ASL interpretation and CART-captioning for remarks and a brief conversation between Molly Joyce and Andy Slater. Masks are required for entry and will be provided if needed. Please note, Curb Appeal is an apartment gallery and doubles as a home to our gallery dog.
Join us for an Open Door reading with Ari Banias, Joss Barton, Alex Jane Cope, and KOKUMO, The Queen of Queer Soul. The Open Door series highlights creative relationships in Chicago, including mentorship and collaboration.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Ari Banias is the author of A Symmetry, winner of the 2022 Publishing Triangle Award for Trans & Gender Variant Literature, and Anybody. Banias’s poems have appeared in Bæst, Georgia Review, The Nation, The New Republic, Triple Canopy, Verse, Washington Square, and The Yale Review. His work has been supported by fellowships and residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts, MacDowell, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, among others. He lives in Chicago.
Joss Barton is a writer, journalist, and spoken word performance artist exploring and documenting queer and trans* life, love, and liberation. Barton’s work blends femme-fever dreams over the soundtrack of the American nightmare. Combining prose poetry, non-fiction confessional essays, drag artistry, and spoken word stage performances, Joss examines the myriad states of queer trans womanhoods from historical, political, and pop cultural identities of death, desires, dreams, and disco. Joss Barton’s performance will include special lighting design by Dazzler.
Alex Jane Cope is a poet and translator originally from West Michigan and currently based in Chicago; they previously lived in and around Paris, where they organized a multilingual queer and feminist reading series. Cope ran the Suppertime Writing Workshop through the PO Box Collective, which brought people together monthly for a free meal, a discussion of a few short texts, and accompanying writing prompts. Their work has appeared in publications by The Rumpus, Voicemail Poems, Asphalte Magazine, Pilot Press London, and Hooligan Magazine.
KOKUMO is The Queen Of Queer Soul! And the CEO & Founder Of Born Worthy Records! The world’s first record company dedicated to black, non-cis women, and those who support us!
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. If you cannot meet these requirements, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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 live-stream details, please register in advance here. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-door-ari-banias-joss-barton-alex-jane-cope-kokumo-tickets-524709499237?lang=en-us&locale=en_US&status=30&view=listing
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.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Accessibility: ASL interpreter, captions
Join us for a reading and celebration of the diverse voices, rich experiences, and powerful words of poets from around the country, and the world. Poets working in the online poetry workshop and discussion, Forms & Features, will share work created in this online 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. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Accessibility: ASL interpreter, captions
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-the-poets-of-forms-features-online-tickets-525944653617
Join us for a reading with Raquel Salas Rivera and Angel Dominguez as part of the Poetry Coalition’s annual nationwide programming series. The Poetry Coalition’s theme for 2023 is Poetry & Grief, taking inspiration from these lines in Ed Roberson’s poem “once the magnolia has blossomed:”“and so much lost you’d think / beauty had left a lesson.”
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Raquel Salas Rivera’s honors include the 2023 Sundial Literary Translation Award, the 2022 Juan Felipe Herrera Award, a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry, the inaugural Ambroggio Prize, and serving as the 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, among others. Salas Rivera has published six poetry collections and edited Puerto Rico en mi corazón and the literary journal The Wanderer. Among his translations are The Rust of History and The Book of Conjurations. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and works as head of the translation team for The Puerto Rican Literature Project.
Angel Dominguez is a Latinx poet and artist of Yucatec Maya descent, born in Hollywood and raised in Van Nuys, CA by their immigrant family. Dominguez lives amongst the Santa Cruz Mountains in Bonny Doon, CA. They are the author of Desgraciado (the collected letters), RoseSunWater, and Black Lavender Milk. Their work has been published in BOMB Magazine, The Berkeley Poetry Review, FENCE, Prolit Magazine, SFMOMA Open Space, and elsewhere. You can find Angel in the redwoods or ocean.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. If you cannot meet these requirements, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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.
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.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Accessibility: ASL interpreter, live captions
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-grief-raquel-salas-rivera-angel-dominguez-tickets-539584039387
Join us for a conversation continuing the Poetry Foundation’s celebration of Copper Canyon Press’s 50th anniversary. Executive editor Michael Wiegers will moderate a discussion of Copper Canyon’s legacy and future in the poetry world with panelists Arthur Sze, Chris Abani, Tishani Doshi, and Alison C. Rollins.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream. Copies of A House Called Tomorrow, Copper Canyon’s special 50th anniversary anthology, will be available for sale.
Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. Born in Nigeria to an Igbo father and English mother, he grew up in Afikpo, Nigeria, received a BA in English from Imo State University, Nigeria, an MA in English, Gender and Culture from Birkbeck College, University of London and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. He has resided in the United States since 2001.
Tishani Doshi publishes poetry, essays and fiction. Recent books include the poetry collection Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award, and a novel, Small Days and Nights, shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and a New York Times Bestsellers Editor’s Choice. For fifteen years Tishani worked as a dancer with the Chandralekha group in Madras, India. A God at the Door, her fourth full-length collection, is published by Copper Canyon Press, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Poetry Prize.
Alison C. Rollins was named a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow in 2019. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Iowa Review, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere. A Cave Canem and Callaloo fellow, she was a 2016 recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship. In 2018, she was a recipient of the Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award and in 2020, the winner of a Pushcart Prize. Her debut poetry collection, Library of Small Catastrophes was a 2020 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award nominee.
Arthur Sze has published eleven books of poetry, including The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems; Sight Lines, which won the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry; and Compass Rose, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Sze is the recipient of many honors, including a 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, a Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Michael Wiegers has been editing poetry at Copper Canyon Press for 30 years, advocating for poets at every stage of their writing lives. He is the editor of A House Called Tomorrow as well as What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. If you cannot meet these requirements, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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.
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.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. If you cannot meet these requirements, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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.
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.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Accessibility: ASL interpreter, live captions
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-house-called-tomorrow-copper-canyon-at-50-tickets-519984466537
Join us for the Chicago celebration of Copper Canyon Press’s 50th Anniversary with readings by Copper Canyon authors Chris Abani, Tishani Doshi, Alison C. Rollins, Arthur Sze, and Javier Zamora.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. Born in Nigeria to an Igbo father and English mother, he grew up in Afikpo, Nigeria, received a BA in English from Imo State University, Nigeria, an MA in English, Gender and Culture from Birkbeck College, University of London, and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. He has resided in the United States since 2001.
Tishani Doshi publishes poetry, essays and fiction. Recent books include the poetry collection Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award, and a novel, Small Days and Nights, shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and a New York Times Bestsellers Editor’s Choice. For fifteen years Tishani worked as a dancer with the Chandralekha group in Madras, India. A God at the Door, her fourth full-length collection, is published by Copper Canyon Press and was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Poetry Prize.
Alison C. Rollins was named a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow in 2019. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Iowa Review, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere. A Cave Canem and Callaloo fellow, she was a 2016 recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship. In 2018, she was a recipient of the Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award, and in 2020, the winner of a Pushcart Prize. Her debut poetry collection, Library of Small Catastrophes was a 2020 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award nominee.
Arthur Sze has published eleven books of poetry, including The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems; Sight Lines, which won the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry; and Compass Rose, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Sze is the recipient of many honors, including a 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, a Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Javier Zamora was born in La Herradura, El Salvador in 1990. In his debut New York Times bestselling memoir, Solito, Javier retells his nine-week odyssey across Guatemala, Mexico, and eventually through the Sonoran Desert. Zamora was a 2018-2019 Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and holds fellowships from CantoMundo, Colgate University (Olive B. O’Connor), MacDowell, Macondo, the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation (Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg), Stanford University (Stegner), and Yaddo. He is the recipient of a 2017 Lannan Literary Fellowship, the 2017 Narrative Prize, and the 2016 Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award for his work in the Undocupoets Campaign. Javier lives in Tucson, AZ.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. If you cannot meet these requirements, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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.
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.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Accessibility: ASL interpreter, live captions,
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/copper-canyon-50th-anniversary-reading-tickets-519975008247
Hands Up! Misunderstood Minds is performing lived at the Northeastern Illinois University Stage Center (3701 W. Bryn Mawr) on Saturday, March 11 at 8:00 pm. Tellin’ Tales Theatre’s Hands Up! Misunderstood Minds explores shared experiences around mental illness. Personal stories intertwine into a beautiful and heartwarming account of individual journeys with mental health. The goal of the performance is not to lead people to conclusions, but to give them a more informed perspective on the topic. The show will incorporate video images of Project Onward visual artists with mental and developmental disabilities. Learn more and order tickets at TellinTales.org
Accessibility: ASL interpreter, all gender restrooms, wheelchair accessible
This free event celebrates music and freedom movements from Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa and the United States. Featuring guest artists master djembekhan Sekou Conde and renowned soprano Audrey DuBois Harris, as well as Uniting Voices Chicago singers from every zip code of the city, the event – and the learning experience surrounding it – aims to go back and retrieve what has been lost.
Uniting Voices Chicago, formerly Chicago Children’s Choir, is a nonprofit organization that empowers and unites youth from diverse backgrounds to find their voice and celebrate their common humanity through the power of music. Please join us for this pillar performance with ASL interpretation by ASL Artist Brandon Kazen-Maddox and Director of Artistic Sign Language Marsellette Davis.
Monday, February 27
10:45am Pre-Show
11am-12:30pm Concert
Chicago Symphony Center
220 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60604
Accessibility: ASL interpreter
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScls1bFuN_8cO-jhgdbG3ILWKvAnG9DJIymPWYHzHwopAeyZA/viewform
Join us for a reading and celebration of the diverse voices, rich experiences, and powerful words of poets from around the country, and the world. Poets working in the online poetry workshop and discussion, Forms & Features, will share work created in this online 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.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-the-poets-of-forms-features-online-tickets-525887893847
Join us for an intimate look at the painter Alex Katz’s extensive collaborations with poets, followed by a poetry reading by his son, Vincent Katz. This event will feature the premiere of a video dialogue between Alex and Vincent, looking closely at some of the works on view in this exhibition. Spanning works created over the past 60 years, the exhibition includes print portfolios, editioned books, portraits of poets and unique cutouts, all centering on poets and poetry.
Organized by the Poetry Foundation with guidance from the artist and his son, and with support from GRAY, the exhibition offers a unique opportunity to experience Katz’s deep interest in an art form whose forms and tactics he considered “more stimulating than painting.”
Alex Katz Often associated with the Pop Art movement, Katz began exhibiting his work in 1954; since that time he has produced a celebrated body of work that includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints. His earliest work took inspiration from various aspects of mid-century American culture and society, including television, film, and advertising.
Vincent Katz is a poet, translator, curator, and critic. Katz is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Broadway for Paul, Southness, Swimming Home, and Rapid Departures . He is also coauthor of Fantastic Caryatids, a collaboration with Anne Waldman, and his book collaborations with artists include Alcuni Telefonini with Francesco Clemente and Judge with Wayne Gonzales, among others. Katz also edited and wrote the introduction to Poems to Work On: The Collected Poems of Jim Dine.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. If you cannot meet these requirements, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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.
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 virtual reading featuring the 2022 Forms & Features Visiting Teaching Artists: Cecilia Caballero, Christiana Castillo, Antoinette Cooper, Sara Elkamel, Ernest Ogunyemi, and Chessy Normile. Forms & Features is the Poetry Foundation’s series of free online creative writing workshops for adults.
Cecilia Caballero, PhD, is a poet, essayist, Ethnic Studies lecturer, and co-editor of The Chicana Motherwork Anthology. Caballero is teaching faculty with Catapult, and she has taught poetry workshops for the Puente Project, the University of Arizona, East Los Angeles College, and elsewhere. Her work appears in Dryland, Raising Mothers, The Acentos Review, among others; her honors include an Authentic Voices fellowship with the Women’s National Book Association and nominations for Rhysling, Pushcart, and Best of the Net Awards.
Christiana Castillo is a Mexican-Brasilian-American poet, educator, abolitionist, and gardener.
Antoinette Cooper is a writer and TEDx speaker committed to the liberation of Black bodies through arts, ancestral healing, social justice, and medical humanities. Born on the island of Jamaica and raised in the NYC Housing Projects, Cooper holds a Cornell BA, a Columbia MFA, and sits on the board of Narrative Medicine at CUNY School of Medicine. Her honors include a grant from Café Royal Foundation, a residency with BLKSPACE, and work in The Amistad, Intima: Journal of Narrative Medicine. www.antoinettecooper.com
Sara Elkamel is a poet and journalist living between her hometown, Cairo, Egypt, and New York City. Elkamel earned an MA in arts journalism from Columbia University and an MFA in poetry from New York University. She is author of the chapbook Field of No Justice.
Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí writes from Nigeria. Ogunyemi’s work has appeared in or is forthcoming from AGNI, Kenyon Review, The Sun, Banshee, Mooncalves: An Anthology of Weird Fiction, among others. His debut chapbook, A Pocket of Genesis will be published in 2023. He is working toward a BA in History and International Studies at Lagos State University.
Chessy Normile is a writer from New York currently living in Madison, Wisconsin as the 2022–23 Ronald Wallace Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Normile received an MFA in poetry from The Michener Center for Writers at University of Texas at Austin, and her first book of poems, Great Exodus, Great Wall, Great Party, was selected by Li-Young Lee for the 2020 APR/Honickman First Book Prize. She edits a zine series called Girl Blood Info.
The Zoom link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. 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.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Captions, ASL Interpreter, and Virtual
Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 led to the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. Every year, the Japanese American community in Chicago comes together to commemorate E.O. 9066 as a reminder of the fragility of civil liberties in times of crisis and the importance of remaining vigilant in protecting the rights and freedoms of all.
The film “Resettlement: Chicago Story” tells an intergenerational story of the Yamamoto family several years after camp, as they struggle to rebuild their lives and make ends meet through their family dry cleaning business.
The film screening will be followed by a presentation of the companion learning website and Q&A. There will be a reception with complementary food and beverages following the program. The program will have ASL and CART/Live Captioning provided, the film will be presented with Open Captions and Open Audio Description.
Reception: ASL interpreter and CART
Film: Open Caption and Audio Description
Join us for a celebration of University of New Mexico Press’s landmark anthology Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry, featuring editor Ruben Quesada and poetry readings from ten contributors. This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry collects personal and academic writing from Latino, Latin American, Latinx, and Luso poets about the nature of poetry and its practice. At the heart of this anthology lies the intersection of history, language, and the human experience. The collection explores the ways in which a people’s history and language are vital to the development of a poet’s imagination and insists that the meaning and value of poetry are necessary to understand the history and future of a people. The Latinx community is not a monolith, and accordingly the poets assembled here vary in style, language, and nationality. The essays not only expand the poetic landscape but extend Latinx and Latin American linguistic and geographical boundaries.
Ruben Quesada is a poet, translator, and editor. He is the author of Revelations and Next Extinct Mammal and the translator of a collection of selected poems by Luis Cernuda titled Exiled from the Throne of Night. He has served as an editor and coordinator for The Rumpus, Kenyon Review, AGNI, Pleiades, and the National Book Critics Circle board. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Daniel Borzutzky is a poet and translator who lives in Chicago; his most recent book is Written after a Massacre in the Year 2018. Borzutzky’s 2016 collection, The Performance of Becoming Human won a National Book Award in Poetry. He teaches in the English and Latin American and Latino Studies Departments at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Blas Falconer is the author of three poetry collections, including Forgive the Body This Failure, and a coeditor of two essay collections, The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity and Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets. Falconer’s poems have been featured by Poetry, Kenyon Review, and The New York Times, and his awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and Poets and Writers.
Sean Frederick Forbes is an assistant professor-in-residence of English and the director of the creative writing program at the University of Connecticut. Providencia, his first book of poetry, was published in 2013. He serves as the poetry editor for New Square, the official publication of the Sancho Panza Literary Society, of which he is a founding member. In 2017, he received first place in the Nutmeg Poetry Contest from the Connecticut Poetry Society.
Raina J. León, PhD, is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia. A poet and writer, she is the author of Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn, sombra : (dis)locate, and the chapbooks profeta without refuge and Areyto to Atabey: Essays on the Mother(ing) Self. León has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Obsidian Foundation, and Vermont Studio Center, among others. She also is a founding editor of the Acentos Review, an international online quarterly journal devoted to the promotion and publication of Latinx arts.
Sheryl Luna’s Magnificent Errors received an Ernest Sandeen Poetry Prize from University of Notre Dame; her other collections include Seven and Pity the Drowned Horses. Luna has received fellowships from Yaddo, Anderson Center, and CantoMundo, and she has received an Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation Award, and was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.
Carlo Matos is the author of twelve books, including As Malcriadas or Names We Inherit and We Prefer the Damned. Matos has received grants and fellowships from Disquiet ILP, CantoMundo, Illinois Arts Council, Sundress Academy for the Arts, and La Romita School of Art. He is a founding member of the Portuguese American writers collective Kale Soup for the Soul and a winner of the Heartland Poetry Prize.
Orlando Ricardo Menes is professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches in the MFA program and edits the Notre Dame Review. Menes is the author of seven poetry collections, including The Gospel of Wildflowers & Weeds, Memoria, and Fetish. His poems have appeared in several prominent anthologies and in such literary magazines as Poetry, Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Yale Review, Harvard Review, and Hudson Review, among others.
Tomás Q. Morín is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Machete and the memoir Let Me Count the Ways. Morín’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Poetry, Slate, and Boston Review. He is a Civitella Fellow and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and teaches at Rice University and Vermont College of Fine Arts.
ire’ne lara silva is the author of four poetry collections, including furia and Blood Sugar Canto, two chapbooks , and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won a Premio Aztlán. silva coedited Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúa Borderlands with Dan Vera. Her awards include a 2021 Tasajillo Writers Grant, a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, a Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction.
Born in Mexico, Natalia Treviño grew up in South Texas, and is the author of the poetry collections VirginX and Lavando la Dirty Laundry, which has been published in a dual-language edition in Albanian and Macdonian. Treviño’s honors include an Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, and a Menada Literary Award. She is a professor of English and an affiliate Mexican American studies faculty member at Northwest Vista College.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. If you cannot meet these requirements, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. Guests are encouraged to register in advance at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/latinx-poetics-anthology-launch-celebration-tickets-470342827057
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 at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/latinx-poetics-anthology-launch-celebration-tickets-470342827057
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.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
Join us for an Open Door reading with José Olivarez, Britteney Black Rose Kapri, Vic Chávez, and Raych Jackson, celebrating the launch of Olivarez’s book, Promises of Gold. The Open Door series highlights creative relationships in Chicago, including mentorship and collaboration. This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
José Olivarez is a writer from Calumet City, IL. He is the author of Promises of Gold and Citizen Illegal.Citizen Illegal was a finalist for the PEN/ Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize; it was named a top book of 2018 by The Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he co-edited the poetry anthology, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT. His poems are featured alongside photographs by Antonio Salazar in the multi-disciplinary poetic work, Por Siempre.
Britteney Black Rose Kapri is a semi-retired teaching artist, writer, performance poet, and playwright from Chicago. She has been published in Poetry, Vinyl, Day One, Seven Scribes, The Offing and Kinfolks Quarterly. She is a 2015 Rona Jaffe Writers Award Recipient. Her debut book Black Queer Hoe was released in 2018 through Haymarket Books.
Rachel “Raych” Jackson is a writer, educator, and performer whose poems have gained over 2 million views on YouTube. Jackson continues to instruct workshops through the Poetry Foundation, InsideOut Literary Arts, and more. She pushes educators to implement culturally relevant poetry within their curriculum using her five years of experience teaching in Chicago Public Schools. Jackson’s work has been published by many— including Poetry, The Rumpus, The Shallow Ends, and Washington Square Review. Her debut collection Even the Saints Audition won Best New Poetry Collection by a Chicagoan from Chicago Reader in 2019. Jackson currently lives in Chicago.
Vic Chávez is a queer Mexican poet from the Chicago suburb of Berwyn. They have a BA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago, where they were an assistant editor for Columbia Poetry Review and an assistant copyeditor for Hair Trigger. Their work has been published in Southside Weekly, Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT, and in Columbia College’s Poetry Review and Allium Journal. Find Vic on Twitter and IG at @_vichavez.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. If you cannot meet these requirements, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. Guests are encouraged to register in advance at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-door-jose-olivarez-britteney-kapri-vic-chavez-raych-jackson-tickets-488760745547
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 at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-door-jose-olivarez-britteney-kapri-vic-chavez-raych-jackson-tickets-488760745547
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 at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/visit/accessibility
ASL Interpretation is available.
In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, gather with us on-site at the Museum for a live opera performance of the first act of Two Remain: Out of Darkness, in partnership with Chicago College of Performance Arts, Roosevelt University.
Her Jewish identity hidden, Krystyna Zywulska was a political prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau. In secret, she composed lyrics to inspire fellow prisoners, even as she carried out her harrowing job in the Effektenkammer (storage room) cataloging the personal effects of thousands of prisoners before they were murdered in the gas chambers next door. Many years after the war, a journalist asks Krystyana to share her stories, hoping to record them on a tape player. Haunted and helped by the ghosts of her past— Zosia, Edka, Mariola and her younger self, Krysia — she struggles to find the words.
Join us for this unique and compelling commemorative performance that will exhibit the power of art to uplift the heart and cradle of the soul, and the strength found in the fight for survival.
Cast: Aaron Hunt, Stage Director; Andrea Jones, Soprano; Alexis Neal, Mezzo-Soprano; Dana Brown, Conductor; Pianist; Raphael Chou, Daniel Zhao, Mezzo-Soprano; Kaleigh Watkins, Soprano; and Tanya Landau, Soprano.
There will be a post-performance Q&A with Roosevelt University featuring Dana Brown, conductor and Associate Professor of Opera, Roosevelt University; Tanya Landau, M.M. Voice Performance Candidate; David Kjar, Moderator and Associate Professor of Music, Roosevelt University
Please reserve your spot here: https://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/events/ellen-v-philip-l-glass-holocaust-commemorative-series-international-holocaust-remembrance-day-two-remain-out-of-darkness-act-one/
Community Partners: Congregation Kol Emeth; Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago; Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Chicago; The Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest
About the Virtual Event
Join us for a conversation with artist Martine Syms, whose solo exhibition Martine Syms: She Mad Season One is on view at the MCA through February 12.
Syms is joined by exhibition curator Jadine Collingwood, assistant curator at the MCA, and Dr. Allyson Nadia Field, professor at the University of Chicago, whose research focuses on African American film from silent-era cinema to the present. The three discuss Syms’s practice, extending their dialogue to include the past—and the present—of Black cinema and media production.
MCA Talks highlight cutting-edge thinking and contemporary art practices across disciplines. This presentation is organized by Daniel Atkinson, Manager of Learning, Adult Interpretive Programs, and the MCA’s Visual Art and Learning teams. Special thanks to Dr. Michael Anthony Turcios, Mancoch Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University, for development of this program.
This event takes place on Zoom. ASL interpretation and CART captioning provided
Cost: Free or Pay What You Can
A poetic journey of a dancer/artist/father questioning the balance of his passions—art, culture, family.
From the streets of Brooklyn to Russia’s ballet training studios, Antonio struggles to reconcile multiple ethnic identities. He wrestles with the legacy of stereotypes of masculinity while discovering the beauty of becoming a father. Powerful poetry is intermixed with original movement, music and projected imagery to create an evocative, wholly unique performance.
This performance has ASL interpretation.
A young violinist and her song collector boyfriend flee the confines of their Brooklyn apartment to the mountains of North Carolina, where the Appalachian music of Mira’s childhood is just the authentic inspiration they’re searching for. When they descend on her old family home, and an estranged grandfather she’s never mentioned, the unexpected complexity of past pain, prejudice, joy, and discovery reveals itself through the music that binds them. Featuring bluegrass favorites and the foot-stomping, hand-clapping finest of American roots music.
This performance includes ASL interpretation and open captions. If you would like a good view of the ASL interpreters, please contact Community Engagement Manager Ruben Carrazana at rcarrazana@northlight.org or 847-324-1615 as the placement of the interpreters will vary from show to show.
To purchase tickets, use the promo code NACCESS by phone 847.673.6300 or online to receive discounted tickets at a flat rate of $40 each (standard fees still apply).
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Day is a monthly program at the MCA for all families and youth. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, and performances.
For this Family Day, families are invited to engage in programs and activities focused on performance, movement, poetry, and storytelling.
Family Days are organized by Christiana Castillo, Manager of Learning, Youth Interpretive Programs. If you have any questions about Family Day programming, please email Christiana Castillo at ccastillo@mcachicago.org.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-expressions/
ASL interpreter and all gender restrooms
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Day is a monthly program at the MCA for all families and youth. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, and performances.
For this Family Day, engage in programs and activities focused on performance, movement, and self-expression.
Family Days are organized by Christiana Castillo, Manager of Learning, Youth Interpretive Programs. If you have any questions about Family Day programming, please email Christiana Castillo at ccastillo@mcachicago.org.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-inspire/
ASL interpreter and all gender restrooms
The groundbreaking pop-culture musical sensation is reimagined in a new production.
Myth and spectacle combine in a fresh reinvention of The Who’s exhilarating 1969 rock concept album, Tommy—including the unforgettable anthems “I’m Free,” “See Me, Feel Me,” “Sensation” and “Pinball Wizard.” After witnessing his father shoot his rival, the young Tommy Walker is lost in the universe, endlessly and obsessively staring into the mirror. An innate knack for pinball catapults him from reticent adolescent to celebrity savior. Tony Award-winning composer Pete Townshend and Tony Award-winning original director Des McAnuff find powerful resonance reexamining this classic story for today.
https://www.goodmantheatre.org/show/the-whos-tommy/
Accessibility: ASL interpreted
Hailed as the “Godmother of Rock ‘n Roll,” Sister Rosetta Tharpe influenced rock icons from Elvis Presley to Jimi Hendrix. Bringing fierce guitar playing and sizzling swing to gospel music, Rosetta was a trailblazer, a young Black woman singing at church in the morning and the Cotton Club at night. This play with music chronicles Rosetta’s first rehearsal with a young protégée, Marie Knight, as they prepare for a tour that would establish them as one of the great duet teams in musical history.
This performance includes ASL interpretation and open captions. If you would like a good view of the ASL interpreters, please contact Community Engagement Manager Ruben Carrazana at rcarrazana@northlight.org or 847-324-1615 as the placement of the interpreters will vary from show to show.
To purchase tickets, use the promo code NACCESS by phone 847.673.6300 or online to receive discounted tickets at a flat rate of $40 each (standard fees still apply).
https://northlight.org/events/marie-and-rosetta/
Accessibility: ASL interpreted, open captioning
Join the Teen Creative Agency at the MCA as we celebrate 11 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.
Join us for music, free snacks, free zines, and more!
This event is designed and produced by members of the Teen Creative Agency—a group of young people ages 15 to 19 from all over Chicago who meet weekly at the museum, guided by Lead Artists including Olive Stefanski and and Miguel Limon. TCA is assisted by Ahmad Bracey, Manager of School, Youth, and Communities.
ASL interpretation is available.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/teen-creative-agency-zine-fest/
Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood is filled with an abundance of cultural and historical knowledge and is surrounded by a diverse community and innovative history that is often overlooked. In this talk, Pullman artists F.A.B.L.E, Joe Nelson, Steve Soltis, and Nailah Stevenson gather for a conversation moderated by Otez Gary, Community Engagement Manager at the MCA. All four artists are awardees of Pullman: Laboring Together, an initiative of the Chicago arts alliance Voice of the City, which aims to bring Pullman residents together in dialogue around the work of the neighborhood’s artists. The 2022 series is themed around the past, present, and future of Pullman, and in this final event—titled “Where We Are Going?”—the artists reflect on the work, community, diversity, art, and culture of Pullman, and what it meant to be laboring together through each phase of the yearlong project.
The talk is free to the public and takes place at Greenstone United Methodist Church, located at 11211 S St Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL, 60628, and online via Facebook Live. If you are attending the in-person person, enjoy some refreshments beforehand, from 4 to 4:25 pm. Then stay afterwards for a reception sponsored by the MCA Community Engagement Team from 5:30 to 6:30 pm.
Voice of the City was awarded a Neighborhood Access Grant by the Department of Cultural Affairs for Pullman: Laboring Together.
This talk is organized by Community Engagement Manager Otez Gary and the Community Engagement team in collaboration with Dawn Marie Galtieri and Christopher E Ellis from Voice of the City.
ASL interpretation and captioning are available.
About the Event
Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood is filled with an abundance of cultural and historical knowledge and is surrounded by a diverse community and innovative history that is often overlooked. In this talk, Pullman artists F.A.B.L.E, Joe Nelson, Steve Soltis, and Nailah Stevenson gather for a conversation moderated by Otez Gary, Community Engagement Manager at the MCA. All four artists are awardees of Pullman: Laboring Together, an initiative of the Chicago arts alliance Voice of the City, which aims to bring Pullman residents together in dialogue around the work of the neighborhood’s artists. The 2022 series is themed around the past, present, and future of Pullman, and in this final event—titled “Where We Are Going?”—the artists reflect on the work, community, diversity, art, and culture of Pullman, and what it meant to be laboring together through each phase of the yearlong project.
The talk is free to the public and takes place at Greenstone United Methodist Church, located at 11211 S St Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL, 60628, and online via Facebook Live. If you are attending the in-person person, enjoy some refreshments beforehand, from 4 to 4:25 pm. Then stay afterwards for a reception sponsored by the MCA Community Engagement Team from 5:30 to 6:30 pm.
Voice of the City was awarded a Neighborhood Access Grant by the Department of Cultural Affairs for Pullman: Laboring Together.
This talk is organized by Community Engagement Manager Otez Gary and the Community Engagement team in collaboration with Dawn Marie Galtieri and Christopher E Ellis from Voice of the City.
This event is free and open to the public. Attend in person at Greenstone UMC, located at 11211 S St Lawrence Ave in Chicago, or virtually via Facebook Live.
ASL interpretation and CART captioning provided
What is the Caribbean? What does Caribbeanness mean to artists of the Caribbean diaspora?
On opening day of the MCA exhibition Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora 1990s-Today, join Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator Carla Acevedo-Yates and artists Christopher Cozier, Teresita Fernández, and María Magdalena Campos-Pons for a roundtable discussion. Building upon an in-depth conversation included in the catalog accompanying this exhibition, the curator and artists explore ideas behind the exhibition, how they see themselves as artists, and how they work within certain parameters, frameworks, and structures of the art world.
MCA Talks highlight cutting-edge thinking and contemporary art practices across disciplines. This presentation is organized by Daniel Atkinson, Manager of Learning, Adult Interpretive Programs, and the MCA’s Visual Art and Learning teams.
This program includes ASL interpretation and captioning.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-on-thinking-and-being-caribbean-a-roundtable-discussion/
After a nearly 3-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the A.B.L.E. ensemble is producing their first ever full-day festival in partnership with Chicago Shakespeare Theater. RECONNECT will feature the work of 58 members of the A.B.L.E. community – 33 performers with disabilities, 17 volunteer facilitators, and 8 Teaching Artists.
Over the course of a 10 week rehearsal process, each of A.B.L.E.’s 3 ensembles have collaborated to develop original monologues, scenes, movement pieces, and songs inspired by their own lives and experiences with connection. Pieces range from touching letters to loved ones we’ve lost, to celebrations of our closest friends, to humorous dream dates, to meditations on the good and bad of social media, as well as poignant reflections on the fears and miscommunications that get in the way of true connection. They are sharing their work in two distinctive multimedia shows, blending live performances with filmed content from A.B.L.E.’s virtual ensemble.
Between the shows, the public is invited to participate in an interactive workshop with A.B.L.E.’s Creative Associates and Teaching Artists to experience how A.B.L.E. brings their ideas to the stage.
You can buy a ticket for one, two, or all three events. How do you want to RECONNECT?
Event Details:
Saturday November 19, 2022
Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
800 East Grand Avenue
Chicago IL 60611
Event Schedule:
11am: Performance by the Sunday ensemble with members of the Virtual Ensemble
2pm: Public Workshop
7pm: Performance by the Monday ensemble with members of the Virtual Ensemble
Tickets:
All tickets are pay-what-you-can general admission starting at $15
Online: ableensemble.com/reconnect
Phone: 312.595.5600
In person: at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater box office
Access: All 3 events are live captioned, and the 11am and 7pm performances will be ASL interpreted.
COVID Policies: To ensure A.B.L.E.’s immunocompromised performers and community members feel safe and welcome, all audience members must remain masked for the duration of their time in the theater complex.
This event is a collaboration between the MCA Chicago and the Chicago Humanities Festival.
Join us for a conversation with one of the great literary voices of our time, Elizabeth Alexander.
In her latest book The Trayvon Generation, Alexander tenderly writes about the young people whose worldview has been indelibly shaped by persistent and visible racially motivated violence and asserts the unresolved problem of the color line at the center of the American experience. Join Alexander for a wide-ranging discussion about the power of art and culture to understand and confront issues of race, class, and injustice, and the ways in which Black artists, scholars, and activists have always revealed the “problem, the hope, and the possibility of America.” Moderated by Romi Crawford, Professor of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
This Dialogue presentation is organized by Daniel Atkinson, Manager of Learning, Adult Interpretive Programs, and Otez Gary, Curatorial Assistant, in collaboration with the Chicago Humanities Festival.
This event will be ASL interpreted and captioned.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/dialogue-keynote-elizabeth-alexander-on-the-trayvon-generation/
A family verges on bankruptcy while their country stands on the brink of revolution.
Endings and beginnings. Bittersweet departures. The comedy of life. When Madame Ranevskaya returns to her heavily-mortgaged estate on the eve of its auction, the aristocratic widow finds that the fate of much more than her beloved orchard hangs in the balance. Anton Chekhov’s canonical masterpiece is an exploration of loss, love and how to live in a society that’s changing fast. Following his critically-acclaimed productions of Three Sisters, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya, director Robert Falls takes on the last of Chekhov’s four major plays.
This show will be ASL Interpreted.
A new work inspired by Rossini’s The Barber of Seville that has grown into an original piece all its own, commissioned by Lyric. Updating the action to a Black barbershop on Chicago’s South Side, the creators have made an irresistibly upbeat work that celebrates the strength of community. The Factotum blends diverse musical styles with boundless imagination to create a soul opera, moving from gospel and funk to rap, hip-hop, classic barbershop quartet, and R&B. Those styles connect brilliantly with classical singing in a very human comedy that redefines everything that opera can be.
This event includes ASL interpretation and audio description.
https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2022-23/the-factotum/
Artist-Led Workshop
11 am–3 pm
The Commons
Create mobiles that tell stories inspired by Alexander Calder’s exhibition Intricate: Calder and the Poetry of Science with Chicago artist Miriam Bahena-Cardona Bisby.
Artist-Led Performances
SoriBeat
Between 11 am and 1:30 pm
Edlis Neeson Theater
(Please note that masks are required in the theater.)
Listen and watch SoriBeat perform. SoriBeat is the youth Korean music ensemble presented by Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago (KPAC). KPAC is dedicated to helping SoriBeat youth members engage in traditional Korean cultural and performing arts, develop cross-cultural understanding, and ultimately nurture youth leadership.
11–11:30 am: SoriBeat drumming and dance performances
1–1:30 pm: SoriBeat instrumental music performances
Drag Queen Story Hour
1:45–2:45 pm
Kovler Atrium
Join Drag Queen Story Hour for story performances and dance breaks. This is an English and American Sign Language Interpreter performance. ASL Interpreters onsite for entire event to interpret as needed
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-telling-our-stories/
About the Event
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Days are monthly programs at the MCA for all families and youth. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, and performances. On December 10, engage in programs and activities focused on uplifting visual art-making and bomba and plena performances.
Family Days are organized by Christiana Castillo, Manager of Learning, Youth Interpretive Programs. If you have any questions about Family Day programming, please email Christiana Castillo.
Schedule
Artist-Led Activity: Cityscapes Coloring and Collage Station with Rebel Betty
11 am–3 pm
The Commons
Chicago artist Rebel Betty leads youth and families through a collaging activity with a social justice lens connected to the MCA exhibition Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today. Using Alia Farid’s colorful textile work Mezquitas de Puerto Rico (2014) as a reference, color in or arrange a cityscape using markers, crayons, and/or collage materials.
Artist-Led Performance: Las Bompleneras
11:30 am–12:30 pm
4th-floor lobby
Las Bompleneras is an all-women group from Chicago that has been uplifting and bringing visibility to the role and power of women in Puerto Rican Bomba y Plena since 2010.
Featured performers: Ivelisse Diaz, Anissa Vega, Lauren Brooks, Maya Fernandez, Dania Vega
Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Days are monthly programs at the MCA for all families and youth. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, and performances. On November 12, engage in programs and activities focused on movement and self-expression.
Family Days are organized by Christiana Castillo, Manager of Learning, Youth Interpretive Programs. If you have any questions about Family Day programming, please email Christiana Castillo.
Schedule
Artist-Led Performance | Freedom From and Freedom To
11 am–1 pm
Kovler Atrium
Watch movement and sound performers fuse their diverse artistic backgrounds and practices to create unique interactive experiences in a celebration of movement and sound. The audience is invited to randomly select a combination of artists, who then must perform together.
Featured Performers: Tuli Bera, Orlando Johnson, Shalaka Kulkarni, Erin Peisert, Peter Redgrave, Cristal Sabbagh, Matt Williams, Emmett Wilson, Christina Martin, Gaby Martinez, Luc Mosley, Katinka Kleijn, Scott Rubin, Eli Sabbagh, Ishmael Ali, Ralph Darden, Rob Frye, olula negre, Brianna Tong, and Hunter Diamond
Artist-Led Activity | Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
11 am–3 pm
The MCA Atrium; Dr. Paul and Dorie Sternberg Family Gallery and Ed and Jackie Rabin Gallery on the museum’s third floor; MCA Learning Studios
Get energized and slow down through movement with Teaching Artists from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Engage with Teaching Artists in social and emotional learning-based movement activities based around each of these themes:
Mind (eye see, mind see): What do you observe, what do you imagine?
Heart (I feel…): Write it, create it, share it.
Body (mindfulness): Breathe, stretch, and actively rest.
Featured Teaching Artists: Jamie Brunson, Rebeca G Griffin, and Daisy Rueda
Artist-Led Activity | SkyART
11 am–3 pm
The Commons
Join Teaching Artists from SkyART and slow down with mindful visual art activities.
Featured Teaching Artists: Michael Rangel, SkyART Project Imact Program Manager, and Ellen Tritschler, SkyWAY Program Manager
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-express-yourself-through-movement/
Join Circles & Ciphers’ Youth Care Collective (YCC) to discuss how restorative justice is connected to hip-hop and how it meets at the intersection of prison abolition. This includes sharing examples of the earliest roots of hip-hop in Chicago, and how hip-hop and the arts can be used for harm prevention and reduction for a world where prison systems do not exist. This workshop centers on the importance of checking in, community building, and sending positivity and encouragement, as participants write letters to youth currently incarcerated in Cook County Jail.
Participating facilitators and artists: Nikia Watkins, Justine Ogbevire, and Shayne Khaalvin
Youth-Led Programs are organized by Christiana Castillo, Manager of Learning, Youth Interpretive Programs. This is an ASL-interpreted, youth-led event. If you have any questions about Youth-Led programming, please email Christiana Castillo.
About The Event
Youth-Led Programming | Hip-Hop & Healing: Intersecting Paths to Abolition
November 05, 2022
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Free Tickets
The Commons
ASL is available for this event.
Circles and Ciphers discusses the violence the carceral system causes. This event features explicit music. Ages 13+
Enjoy free admission while taking part in workshops and performances, all designed and led by Chicago artists.
• 11 a.m.–3 p.m. at MCA Commons: Create mobiles that tell stories inspired by Intricate: Calder and the Poetry of Science with Chicago artist Miriam Bahena-Cardona Bisby.
• 11 –11:30 a.m. at Edlis Neeson Theater: Enjoy Korean drumming and dance performances with SoriBeat presented by Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago (KPAC).
• 1 –1:30 p.m. at Edlis Neeson Theater: Enjoy Korean instrumental music performances with SoriBeat presented by Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago (KPAC).
• 1:45 –2:45 p.m. at Kovler Atrium: Join Drag Queen Story Hour for a story performance in English and American Sign Language with dance breaks.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-telling-our-stories/
The Notebook is a new musical based on the bestselling novel that inspired the iconic film. Allie and Noah, both from different worlds, share a lifetime of love despite the forces that threaten to pull them apart, in a deeply moving portrait of the enduring power of love.
Broadway directors Michael Greif (Dear Evan Hansen, Next to Normal, RENT) and Schele Williams (Aida, Motown the Musical) team up with multi-platinum singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson on music and lyrics, book by playwright Bekah Brunstetter (writer and producer on NBC’s This Is Us), and choreography by Katie Spelman.
Book online with promo code “ACCESS” or call 312.595.5600 during regular Box Office hours (Tuesday–Sunday, noon to 5:00 p.m.). Be sure to mention “Access Shakespeare” tickets so that we may provide the best seats and service. For additional assistance, please email access@chicagoshakes.com.
A surprising new play about how families fall apart—and find each other again—amidst turbulent global and social change.
In 2003, newly-wed Layal and her family prepare to immigrate from Baghdad, Iraq, to a Chicago suburb. Seventeen years later, Layal’s life looks unimaginably different from what she had envisioned two decades prior, as she and her siblings explore queerness, face their grief, and discover what it takes to make home in a new place. Don’t miss this moving, powerful new play’s world premiere on the Owen Stage—fresh from Goodman’s New Stages and Future Labs programs.
ASL interpretation available.
Play ball! The sensational true story of the first woman to play professional baseball knocks it out of the park as a can’t-miss theatrical event.
Toni Stone is an encyclopedia of baseball stats. She’s got a great arm. And she doesn’t understand why she can’t play with the boys. Rejected by the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League because of her race, Toni sets out to become the first woman to play in baseball’s Negro Leagues. Challenges on and off the field—from hostile crowds to players who slide spikes-first—only steel her resolve to shatter racist and sexist barriers in the sport she’s loved since childhood. An original play inspired by the book Curveball, The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone by Martha Ackmann, this New York Times Critic’s Pick will have you cheering along.
ASL interpretation is available.
https://www.goodmantheatre.org/Toni
A family responds to injustice and a daughter reckons with her political inheritance in this new play by “a poet, a playwright to pay attention to” (Variety).
Janice’s parents are prominent activists fighting for the integration of public swimming pools in 1960s Kansas. As injustice penetrates the warm bubble of her childhood, Janice grows apart from her family and starts a new life far away. When she receives a call asking her to speak at a ceremony honoring her father, she must decide whether she’s ready to reckon with her political inheritance—and a past she has tried to forget.
A Co-Production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
ASL interpretation is available.
It’s often said that social media is bad for our mental health, and while that can be true, the full story isn’t so cut and dry. At CHF, Nicole Wetsman, Health Tech Reporter for The Verge moderates a panel between Dr. Megan Moreno, a leading researcher on adolescent social media, and Margot Lee, a high-profile young adult influencer about how curating public images affect our well-being.
Open captions and assistive listening devices are available.
https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/verge-social-media/
You probably know that algorithms play a huge role in what we see online, but what happens to society when this type of curated content begins to influence our real lives? Join The Verge Deputy Editor Alex Heath and a special guest for a conversation about how personalized and relatable content on social media is redefining our feeds and creating a new lens through which millions view the world.
Open captions and assistive listening devices are available.
https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/future-feed/
We’ve all been told too much social media is bad for us, but why is that? At CHF, New York Times investigative reporter and author of The Chaos Machine Max Fisher explains how, through the pursuit of unfettered profits and maximum engagement, Big Tech has rewired our minds, and instigated a cultural shift toward polarization and misinformation. Join him and David Pierce (editor at large at The Verge) for a behind-the-scenes look at how social networks prey on psychological frailties, driving people to extreme opinions and actions.
A book signing will follow this program.
Open captions and assistive listening devices are available.
Join Reza Aslan (No god but God and Zealot) for the spellbinding tale of a martyr for democracy. Howard Baskerville was a 22-year-old missionary who went to Iran in 1907 and died fighting in the Persian Constitutional Revolution. Was he the “American Lafayette of Iran” or a naive “white savior”? In this talk, Aslan explores what Baskerville’s story illuminates about how seriously we take our democratic ideals and whose freedom we actually support.
Pre-order your book and gain access to a book signing and meet and greet with Aslan following this program.
Open captions and assistive listening devices are available.
In the wake of the midterm elections, join former presidential candidate, political activist, and spiritual thought leader Marianne Williamson for an intimate conversation with Sen. Nina Turner about the state of American politics. In an era of divisiveness, Williamson comes to CHF with a new vision for American politics built on social responsibility, democracy, and deep human values.
Open captions and assistive listening devices are available.
https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/marianne-williamson/
In 1976, the artist Andy Warhol, having re-invented himself as the portrait painter of the rich and famous, travels to Tehran to take Polaroids of the Shah of Iran’s wife. Amidst taking in the Crown Jewels and ordering room service caviar, Warhol encounters a young revolutionary who throws his plans into turmoil, and opens the pop icon’s eyes to a world beyond himself.
This performance includes ASL interpretation and open captions. If you would like a good view of the ASL interpreters, please contact Community Engagement Manager Ruben Carrazana at rcarrazana@northlight.org or 847-324-1615 as the placement of the interpreters will vary from show to show.
To purchase tickets, use the promo code NACCESS by phone 847.673.6300 or online to receive discounted tickets at a flat rate of $40 each (standard fees still apply).
The beloved characters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice return for a third and final installment of the Pemberley trilogy (Miss Bennet, The Wickhams). The youngest Darcy and Bennet sisters have become fast friends, and eagerly await the arrival of Georgiana’s secret correspondent. Mixups of manners and overprotective big brother Mr. Darcy keep romance from unfolding easily. But music, ambition, friendship, and sisterhood lead to happiness… and a love story that spans a lifetime.
This performance includes ASL interpretation and open captions. If you would like a good view of the ASL interpreters, please contact Community Engagement Manager Ruben Carrazana at rcarrazana@northlight.org or 847-324-1615 as the placement of the interpreters will vary from show to show.
To purchase tickets, use the promo code NACCESS by phone 847.673.6300 or online to receive discounted tickets at a flat rate of $40 each (standard fees still apply).
Chicago’s favorite holiday tradition for four decades.
Nearly two million theatergoers have experienced Chicago’s must-see annual holiday tradition, Goodman Theatre’s A Christmas Carol. With first-rate performances— starring award-winner Larry Yando as Ebenezer Scrooge for the 15th year—and “amazing sets, gorgeous costumes and eye-popping effects” (Chicago Reader), the heartwarming story of generosity’s triumph over greed comes to vivid life. Don’t miss this 45th anniversary production of “the best Christmas story ever told” (Time Out Chicago).
A Christmas Carol is appropriate for ages 6 and up. The production contains loud noises, bright lights, and images that may frighten very young children. Children under 5 are not permitted in the theater. For more information contact the box office at 312.443.3800
THE ISLAND
BY ATHOL FUGARD, JOHN KANI, AND WINSTON NTSHONA
DIRECTED BY GABRIELLE RANDLE-BENT
Nov 11, 2022 — Dec 04, 2022
“[The Island] has the rough majesty of a classic… this short but potent play has lost little of its force” -The Guardian
John and Winston are political prisoners on South Africa’s infamous Robben Island, spending their days toiling at grueling, futile tasks in the prison’s quarry. At night, they secretly rehearse a two-man version of Antigone and find solace and strength in their burgeoning friendship. The Island is at once a sobering glimpse into the social, physical, and psychological wounds of Apartheid; a lesson in the complex work of liberation; and a testament to the transformative power of theatre.
Frequent collaborator Gabrielle Randle-Bent makes her solo directorial debut at Court, bringing her vision of resistance and resilience to the stage.
Accessible performances:
December 3, 2022 at 2:00pm/Touch Tour at 12:30pm (Touch Tour/Audio Description)
December 4, 2022 at 2:00pm (Open Captioning)
December 4, 2022 at 7:30pm (ASL Interpretation)
Subscriptions including this production are on sale now and can be purchased online or by calling (773) 753-4472.
Join us for a live in-person reading with Arnold Kemp, AJ McClenon, Ayanah Moor, and isra rene. The Open Door series highlights creative relationships in Chicago, including mentorship and collaboration.
Arnold J. Kemp is an artist and writer. Kemp has mounted solo shows at The Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago; Joan, Los Angeles; M. LeBlanc, Chicago; and Martos Gallery, New York. His writing has appeared in Callaloo, Three Rivers Poetry Journal, Agni Review, MIRAGE #4 Period(ical), River Styx, Texte zur Kunst, October, and Spike Art Magazine, among others. He is the recipient of awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. In 2020 he received The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Kemp lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
Born and raised in “D.C. proper,” A.J. McClenon studied art and creative writing at the University of Maryland, College Park and The New School prior to receiving a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. Alongside artistic experiences, A.J. is passionate about teaching and community collaborations with the goal that all the memories and histories that are said to have “too many Black people,” are told and retold again. As a means to uphold these stories A.J. creates writings, performances, installations, objects, sounds, and visuals. These creations often revolve around an interest in water and aquatic life, escapism, Blackness, science, grief, US history, and the global future. A.J. is deeply invested in leveling the hierarchies of truth and using personal narrative to speak on political and cultural amnesia and their absurdities. A.J. currently works and lives in Chicago.
Ayanah Moor is a visual artist who centers Blackness and queerness in her approach to painting, print media, and performance. Moor’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of the DePaul Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Soho House (London); and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh. Moor’s recent exhibitions include, I Wish I Could Be You More Often, Cleve Carney Museum; t/here or t/here, Intermission Museum + Stand4 Gallery; and Direct Message: Art, Language and Power, MCA Chicago. Moor earned her MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University.
isra rene believes in you and in me. isra believes in weaved webs of dreams tufted by our inherent connections of love, vulnerability, and care. isra believes in deep research. isra believes in writing love notes. isra believes in reading as meditation and the space between words as a playground. isra believes in the power of studying and the power of not knowing. isra believes in invitation. isra believes.
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. If you cannot meet these requirements, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. 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: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-door-arnold-kemp-aj-mcclenon-ayanah-moor-and-isra-rene-tickets-358693691487
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 reading and celebration of the diverse voices, rich experiences, and powerful words of poets from around the country, and the world. Participants from the online poetry workshop series, Forms & Features, will share work created in this online 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.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-the-poets-of-forms-features-online-tickets-388678266157
Al Filreis will conduct a collaborative close reading of poems from Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué’s book Madness (Nightboat, 2022). Participants include Laynie Browne, Al Filreis, Lisa Fishman, and Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué himself.
A recording of this event will be made available in a free open-to-all online course called ModPo (on modern & contemporary U.S. poetry) hosted by the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. In ModPo, which has been offered to thousands of people for ten years, participants read poems and watch videos in which poets and others talk informally about those poems.
Laynie Browne’s recent and upcoming publications include Translation of the Lilies Back into Lists (Wave Books, 2022), A Forest on Many Stems: Essays on The Poet’s Novel (Nightboat, 2021), Letters Inscribed in Snow (Tinderbox, 2022), and Apprentice to a Breathing Hand (Omnidawn, 2025). Browne’s honors include a Pew Fellowship, a National Poetry Series Award, and a Contemporary Poetry Series Award. She teaches and coordinates the MOOC Modern Poetry at University of Pennsylvania.
Al Filreis is Kelly Professor of English, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House, Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, Co-Director of PennSound, Publisher of Jacket2 magazine—all at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985. Filreis’s publications include 1960: When Art and Literature Confronted the Memory of World War II and Remade the Modern, The Difference Is Spreading: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Fifty Poems (with Anna Strong Safford), and Counter-Revolution of the Word: The Conservative Attack on Modern Poetry, 1945-1960. He produces and hosts a monthly podcast/radio program, PoemTalk, cosponsored by the Poetry Foundation, and teaches “ModPo,” an open online course. His honors as an educator include being named one of the Top Ten Tech Innovators in Higher Education for 2013 by the Chronicle of Higher Education and the 2000 Pennsylvania Professor of by the Carnegie Foundation.
Lisa Fishman is the author of several collections, including Mad World, Mad Kings, Mad Composition (Wave Books, 2020), 24 Pages and other poems (Wave Books, 2015), and F L O W E R C A R T (Ahsahta Press, 2011). Fishman’s work is anthologized in Best American Experimental Writing (Omnidawn, 2014), The Ecopoetry Anthology (Trinity University Press, 2013), The Arcadia Project: North American Postmodern Pastoral (Ahsahta Press, 2012), and elsewhere. She is Professor of English and Creative Writing Columbia College Chicago
Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué is a poet and writer living in Chicago whose recent publications include Madness (Nightboat Books, 2022) and Losing Miami (The Accomplices, 2019), which was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award in Gay Poetry. Ojeda-Sagué is the coeditor of An Excess of Quiet: Selected Sketches by Gustavo Ojeda, 1979-1989. He is currently a PhD student in English at the University of Chicago where he works in the study of sexuality.
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. Guests over the age of five must show proof of vaccination and booster up to the level to which they are eligible for their age group. Guests over the age of 18 must show ID alongside their proof of vaccination. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask.
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/modern-poetry-gabriel-ojeda-sagues-madness-tickets-385135309077
Direct from New York City and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, this Chicago premiere features hundreds of illustrated puppets, fuzzy Muppet-style puppets, hilarious actors on live cameras, and a live music soundtrack which bring the popular children’s books by Mo Willems to life in a new Manual Cinema show the whole family will enjoy.
Leonardo is a terrible monster. He tries so hard to be scary, but he just…isn’t. Then Leonardo finds Sam, the most scaredy-cat kid in the world. Will Leonardo finally get his chance to scare the tuna salad out of an unsuspecting human? Or will it be the start of an unlikely friendship? They will need to make a big decision: will they be friends or will they be controlled by their fears?
12TH ANNUAL COUNTERBALANCE
SEPTEMBER 24TH & 25TH, 2022
presented by Access Living, Bodies of Work, MOMENTA, and ReinventAbility.
IN-PERSON PERFORMANCES
(A virtual viewing option will be available in October)
Hoover-Leppen Theatre
CENTER ON HALSTED
3656 N. Halsted
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
7:30pm
Doors open at 7:00pm
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
2:00pm
Sensory Friendly Performance
Doors open at 1:30pm
ACCESS FEATURES
Wheelchair Accessible, ASL Interpretation, Open Captioning, Audio Description, All Gender Restrooms
SAFETY PROTOCOLS
Masks Required
Proof of Vaccination
or Negative Covid Test
It’s hard to know who your friends are in a world that’s more divided than ever.
Tony Award-winner Robert Falls and his longtime collaborator, Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Rebecca Gilman, team up again for their sixth Goodman production—a contemporary portrait of America’s heartland in a time when it feels like everyone’s way of life is in danger of disappearing.
Swing State is suggested for ages 14 and up. Please be aware that this production contains a gun shot and depictions of police violence and suicide. For more information contact the box office at 312.443.3800
Aligned with the mission of representing marginalized voices, BWBTC has partnered with UIC’s Disability Cultural Center to tell the tale of the malicious Richard of Gloucester. Casting both non-disabled and disabled actors, this production will not only examine stage combat as a storytelling tool, but interrogate the divide between “regular” theatre and “theatre for the disabled”.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://babeswithblades.org/summer-2022-bwbtc-shakespeare-richard-iii/
Use coupon code (Access) for 20% discount!
Please note:
– Live captions will be available for all performances.
– A pre-show Touch Tour will be available at 1:30pm prior to the October 9 performance.
– The October 9 performance will be followed by a talkback after the show with representatives from the UIC Disability Cultural Center
Mild-mannered sisters Martha and Abby Brewster live in their spacious Victorian home in a quiet neighborhood in Brooklyn with an eccentric nephew, Teddy. Famed for their hospitality, Martha and Abby are adored by their neighbors and frequently entertain guests. But when their other nephew, Mortimer, discovers his aunts’ macabre secrets, a hilarious chain of events ensue in this character-driven farce.
Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson directs this beloved American classic, bringing much-needed humor and healing laughter to the stage in Court’s 2022/23 Season opener.
Aligned with the mission of representing marginalized voices, BWBTC has partnered with UIC’s Disability Cultural Center to tell the tale of the malicious Richard of Gloucester. Casting both non-disabled and disabled actors, this production will not only examine stage combat as a storytelling tool, but interrogate the divide between “regular” theatre and “theatre for the disabled”.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://babeswithblades.org/summer-2022-bwbtc-shakespeare-richard-iii/
Use coupon code (Access) for 20% discount!
Please note: Live captions will be available for all performances.
Mild-mannered sisters Martha and Abby Brewster live in their spacious Victorian home in a quiet neighborhood in Brooklyn with an eccentric nephew, Teddy. Famed for their hospitality, Martha and Abby are adored by their neighbors and frequently entertain guests. But when their other nephew, Mortimer, discovers his aunts’ macabre secrets, a hilarious chain of events ensue in this character-driven farce.
Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson directs this beloved American classic, bringing much-needed humor and healing laughter to the stage in Court’s 2022/23 Season opener.
This September, come celebrate Chicago’s South Side. We’re partnering with South Shore Works to host a day-long Arts Party at the South Shore Cultural Center: Pop in and out of mural painting, collaborative art installations, tours of South Shore, poetry readings, house music on the lawn (with food vendors!), and more. Plus, join in on the big-name events CHF is known for: a chat with award-winning food blogger Michael Twitty on Black and Jewish cuisine, a podcast taping of the popular Some of My Best Friends Are… on what it means to be a Chicagoan, and live musical performances from the legendary Great Black Music Ensemble and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.
https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/south-shore-arts-party/
On September 16, 2022, Snow City Arts will host hundreds of guests from Chicago’s philanthropic, medical, corporate, and artistic communities. A ‘reception’ for all ages! Guests will enjoy a sit-down dinner with a unique art experience, where the work of hundreds of our young, aspiring artists, will be professionally exhibited. Snow City Arts will be honoring the Child Life Staff at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, Rush University Children’s Hospital & Children’s Hospital University of Illinois with the 2022 Neisser Award. This celebration will include performances, auction and special guests appearances! We hope we can count on you to make this year a truly memorable Gallery Night.
https://snowcityarts.org/gallerynight2022/
On September 16, 2022, Snow City Arts will host hundreds of guests from Chicago’s philanthropic, medical, corporate, and artistic communities. A ‘reception’ for all ages! Guests will enjoy a sit-down dinner with a unique art experience, where the work of hundreds of our young, aspiring artists, will be professionally exhibited. Snow City Arts will be honoring the Child Life Staff at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, Rush University Children’s Hospital & Children’s Hospital University of Illinois with the 2022 Neisser Award. This celebration will include performances, auction and special guests appearances! We hope we can count on you to make this year a truly memorable Gallery Night.
This off-beat buddy comedy pairs essential workers from two different worlds in the shared cab of a New York City garbage truck. Danny’s a white, blue-collar mansplainer hiding a heart of gold. Marlowe’s a Black, Ivy League-educated newbie learning the ropes from her old-school partner. When they’re thrown together to pick up what the world has discarded, they discover there’s more that binds them than taking out the trash.
This performance includes ASL interpretation and open captions. If you would like a good view of the ASL interpreters, please contact Community Engagement Manager Ruben Carrazana at rcarrazana@northlight.org or 847-324-1615 as the placement of the interpreters will vary from show to show.
To purchase tickets, use the promo code NACCESS by phone 847.673.6300 or online to receive discounted tickets at a flat rate of $40 each (standard fees still apply).
Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks presents ShakesFest: A Chicago Shakespeare Community Cabaret with FREE pop-up performances in neighborhood parks. Performers, musicians, and dancers take center stage in this exuberant musical revue of songs riffing on familiar (and not-so-familiar) lines from Shakespeare! From pop to musicals, hip hop, and the blues, Shakespeare’s words find joyful new life in unexpected ways.
This FREE, fun-for-all-ages event celebrates community-building, connection, and the magic of experiencing live performance together with family, friends, and neighbors.
Featured arts partners include: Jose “iasEL” Gonzalez, DJ Jeremy Heights, James Heitz, Emma Lyons, Noelle Klyce, Move Me Soul, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, and Yin He Dance.
https://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/explore_season/parks2022
Now in its eleventh year, Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks is an important component of the Theater’s Community Practice, a year-round community connectivity program rooted in engagement with neighborhoods and collaborations with local artists.
Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks is following the health and safety guidelines of Chicago’s Night Out in the Parks program. For any weather-related performance delays or cancellations, check @chicagoshakes on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram
Chicago Shakespeare is committed to making its performances accessible to all patrons. ASL Interpretation and Audio Description are available for select performances. Assisted Listening Devices and large print programs are available at all performances.
Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks presents ShakesFest: A Chicago Shakespeare Community Cabaret with FREE pop-up performances in neighborhood parks. Performers, musicians, and dancers take center stage in this exuberant musical revue of songs riffing on familiar (and not-so-familiar) lines from Shakespeare! From pop to musicals, hip hop, and the blues, Shakespeare’s words find joyful new life in unexpected ways.
This FREE, fun-for-all-ages event celebrates community-building, connection, and the magic of experiencing live performance together with family, friends, and neighbors.
Featured arts partners include: Jose “iasEL” Gonzalez, DJ Jeremy Heights, James Heitz, Emma Lyons, Noelle Klyce, Move Me Soul, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, and Yin He Dance.
https://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/explore_season/parks2022
Now in its eleventh year, Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks is an important component of the Theater’s Community Practice, a year-round community connectivity program rooted in engagement with neighborhoods and collaborations with local artists.
Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks is following the health and safety guidelines of Chicago’s Night Out in the Parks program. For any weather-related performance delays or cancellations, check @chicagoshakes on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram
Chicago Shakespeare is committed to making its performances accessible to all patrons. ASL Interpretation and Audio Description are available for select performances. Assisted Listening Devices and large print programs are available at all performances.
Join us for a popup event for disability pride. The event will have art-making, creative writing, a pop up book shop, open mic and book talk.
About this event
Disability Pride Pop-Up Event with Women & Children First
Join Access Living and Women and Children First for an afternoon of celebration in honor of disability pride!
Women and Children First Bookstore is having a Pop-up book shop, where you can find books authored by disabled writers and books that talk about disability experiences and culture. You are invited to join our creative art stations, where you can make personalized wearable buttons and participate in the Re-Wired Project (see description below)
Program:
1:00-6:00pm Pop-up book shop and creative stations where participants can:
– make buttons
– create personal narratives of disability identity and pride; and
– be a part of the Re-Wired Project
4:00-4:30pm Featured readers & open mic for those who self-identify as a member of the disability, Deaf, neurodivergent or psychiatric survivor community to share short personal narratives of disability
4:30pm Book talk, Q&A session, and book signing with Liat Ben-Moshe, author of Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition
5:30pm Book talk from disabled artist Riva Lehrer, author of GOLEM GIRL
Please note that masks are required for entry into the Access Living building and must be worn at all times.
What is Re-wired Project?
THE RE-WIRED PROJECT is inspired in part by the moving and powerful expressions of solidarity that emerged as chalky sidewalk slogans and impassioned murals throughout the City in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The walls, sidewalks, front yards, and windows of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods have long served as a canvas, reflecting individual and community values.
Join us and create texts and wire sculpture that represents our disability and/or Deaf community, culture and values.
Dates and Times:
Monday, 7/25, 1:00-6:00pm
Location:
Access Living
115 West Chicago Avenue, 4th floor
Chicago, IL 60654
Who can participate?
This event is open to the public. All members of the disability community and allies are welcome to attend. Participants do not need any art/craft experience or skills.
Cost:
The event is free to attend. All art-making activities will be no cost. There will be books available for purchase.
Ready to sign up?
Space is limited due to Covid safety precautions, please sign up soon by using the Eventbrite link, or email Beth Bendtsen at bbendtsen@accessliving.org. You can also call Beth at (312) 640-2156 with any questions, concerns or access needs.
Access Information:
Access Living is a scent free building. Please refrain from wearing scented products, such as scented lotion, perfume and cologne. All areas of the building are wheelchair accessible. ASL interpretation services and CART will be provided during the open mic and book reading. Please contact bbendtsen@accessliving.org with other access requests.
Organizers’ Information:
This event is brought to you by the Arts and Culture Project at Access Living, an independent living center for people with disabilities, and the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL), a teaching lab housed under the department of art therapy and counseling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a platform for creative disability art and advocacy projects, DCAL uses a peer support and collective care model in which disability community members and art therapy graduate students collaborate as disability culture makers for social change.
The contents of this event were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RTCP0005). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this event do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Join us for THE RE-WIRED PROJECT to create work that represents our disability and/or Deaf community, culture and values.
Let’s talk about mental health: Re-Wired Project at Access Living
THE RE-WIRED PROJECT is inspired in part by the moving and powerful expressions of solidarity that emerged as chalky sidewalk slogans and impassioned murals throughout the City in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The walls, sidewalks, front yards, and windows of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods have long served as a canvas, reflecting individual and community values.
Access Living is collaborating with THE RE-WIRED PROJECT to create work that represents our disability and/or Deaf community, culture and values. If you consider yourself a member of the disability, Deaf, neurodivergent or psychiatric survivor community, please join us. We will share conversations about mental health, and also learn to unleash our creativity together!
Dates and Times:
Monday, 7/11, 2:00-5:00pm
Monday, 8/8, 2:00-5:00pm
Location:
Access Living
115 West Chicago Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60654
Who can participate?
Anyone who self-identifies as a member of the disability, Deaf, neurodivergent or psychiatric survivor community. Participants do not need any art/craft experience or skills.
Stipend:
To honor the participants’ time and labor for a 3-hour long workshop (with breaks, of course!), we are offering a $75 stipend to each participant.
Ready to sign up?
Space is limited due to Covid safety precautions. Please sign up via Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lets-talk-about-mental-health-re-wired-project-at-access-living-tickets-375472527437
OR email Beth Bendtsen at bbendtsen@accessliving.org.
You can also call Beth at (312) 640-2156 with any questions, concerns or access needs.
Access Information:
Due to high demand for live captioning (CART) and ASL interpretation services during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are asking participants to submit access requests 2-3 weeks in advance. Please contact bbendtsen@accessliving.org with requests.
Organizers’ Information:
This series of workshop is brought to you by the Arts and Culture Project at Access Living, an independent living center for people with disabilities, and the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL). Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL) is housed under the department of art therapy and counseling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. DCAL is a platform for creative advocacy projects and disability allyship training. In partnership with Access Living’s Arts and Culture Project, DCAL provides teaching and hands-on learning guided by disability justice–a framework that examines disability in connection to other forms of oppressions and identities.
Using a peer support and collective care model, disability community members and art therapy graduate students collaborate as disability culture makers for social change.
The contents of this workshop were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RTCP0005). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this workshop do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Image Description:
Banner has a light green background. Title reads “Let’s talk about mental health: Re-Wired Project at Access Living in text that is navy, gold and white. ” Below the title is the date and location of the event. There is also an image of Re-wired art: multi-colored wire spells out the words Courage, Strong and Proper, and various other wire designs including spirals, branches and others stand out against a white wall.
Join us for THE RE-WIRED PROJECT to create work that represents our disability and/or Deaf community, culture and values.
Let’s talk about mental health: Re-Wired Project at Access Living
THE RE-WIRED PROJECT is inspired in part by the moving and powerful expressions of solidarity that emerged as chalky sidewalk slogans and impassioned murals throughout the City in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The walls, sidewalks, front yards, and windows of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods have long served as a canvas, reflecting individual and community values.
Access Living is collaborating with THE RE-WIRED PROJECT to create work that represents our disability and/or Deaf community, culture and values. If you consider yourself a member of the disability, Deaf, neurodivergent or psychiatric survivor community, please join us. We will share conversations about mental health, and also learn to unleash our creativity together!
Dates and Times:Monday, 8/8, 2:00-5:00pm
Location:
Access Living
115 West Chicago Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60654
Who can participate?
Anyone who self-identifies as a member of the disability, Deaf, neurodivergent or psychiatric survivor community. Participants do not need any art/craft experience or skills.
Stipend:
To honor the participants’ time and labor for a 3-hour long workshop (with breaks, of course!), we are offering a $75 stipend to each participant.
Ready to sign up?
Space is limited due to Covid safety precautions. Please sign up via Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lets-talk-about-mental-health-re-wired-project-at-access-living-tickets-375472527437
OR email Beth Bendtsen at bbendtsen@accessliving.org.
You can also call Beth at (312) 640-2156 with any questions, concerns or access needs.
Access Information:
Due to high demand for live captioning (CART) and ASL interpretation services during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are asking participants to submit access requests 2-3 weeks in advance. Please contact bbendtsen@accessliving.org with requests.
Organizers’ Information:
This series of workshop is brought to you by the Arts and Culture Project at Access Living, an independent living center for people with disabilities, and the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL). Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL) is housed under the department of art therapy and counseling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. DCAL is a platform for creative advocacy projects and disability allyship training. In partnership with Access Living’s Arts and Culture Project, DCAL provides teaching and hands-on learning guided by disability justice–a framework that examines disability in connection to other forms of oppressions and identities.
Using a peer support and collective care model, disability community members and art therapy graduate students collaborate as disability culture makers for social change.
The contents of this workshop were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RTCP0005). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents of this workshop do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Image Description:
Banner has a light green background. Title reads “Let’s talk about mental health: Re-Wired Project at Access Living in text that is navy, gold and white. ” Below the title is the date and location of the event. There is also an image of Re-wired art: multi-colored wire spells out the words Courage, Strong and Proper, and various other wire designs including spirals, branches and others stand out against a white wall.
Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks presents ShakesFest: A Chicago Shakespeare Community Cabaret with FREE pop-up performances in neighborhood parks. Performers, musicians, and dancers take center stage in this exuberant musical revue of songs riffing on familiar (and not-so-familiar) lines from Shakespeare! From pop to musicals, hip hop, and the blues, Shakespeare’s words find joyful new life in unexpected ways.
This FREE, fun-for-all-ages event celebrates community-building, connection, and the magic of experiencing live performance together with family, friends, and neighbors.
Featured arts partners include: Jose “iasEL” Gonzalez, DJ Jeremy Heights, James Heitz, Emma Lyons, Noelle Klyce, Move Me Soul, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, and Yin He Dance.
Now in its eleventh year, Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks is an important component of the Theater’s Community Practice, a year-round community connectivity program rooted in engagement with neighborhoods and collaborations with local artists.
Shakespeare in the Parks is following the health and safety guidelines of Chicago’s Night Out in the Parks program. For any weather-related performance delays or cancellations, check @chicagoshakes on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram
Chicago Shakespeare is committed to making its performances accessible to all patrons. ASL Interpretation and Audio Description are available for select performances. Assistive Listening Devices and large print programs are available at all performances.