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.
A new musical comedy adapted from the ‘50s cult classic sci-fi film from Universal Pictures! Amateur astronomer John Putnam encounters an alien spaceship in the desert and becomes the laughingstock of his small town—until the extraterrestrial visitors make their presence known and he must convince the gathering mob that they have come in peace. A clever musical score and creative physical humor puts a new spin on Ray Bradbury’s flying saucer tale, examining society’s fear of outsiders as it simultaneously embraces the wonder of what lies just beyond the stars. Commissioned and developed by Chicago Shakespeare with Creative Producer Rick Boynton, the production reignites an artistic partnership with creators Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair, following the triumph of their Jeff Award-winning musical, Murder for Two, which went on to an acclaimed New York run.
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, our Customer Service Portal is also available anytime day or night.
Tony and Maria are wide-eyed teenagers from two communities in conflict, who fall in love. As their friends and family battle with one another, Tony and Maria long for “a place for us…somewhere.”
Accessibility: Audio Description, Touch Tour, ASL Interpreted
https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2022-23/west-side-story/
Unfolding Disability Futures is a multi-organization, site-specific performance and installation by local disabled artists throughout The Plant, a former meatpacking facility. Over the past decade, this space has been revitalized to highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture and community collaboration. Unfolding Disability Futures embraces the importance of sustainability and community care in artistic practice and performance. Performances and installations unfold throughout the space, highlighting how The Plant has been redeveloped to make the building accessible in ways that are both functional and beautiful and proposing access not as a drain but a plentiful resource in and of itself.
Unfolding Disability Futures takes place over four events on June 4-5 & 11-12. Each performance cycle, audiences will be guided through The Plant in groups of ten, experiencing six original dance works set in various locations throughout the building, as well as the six visual artist spotlights. Performance cycles begin every half hour over the duration of all four events with a total of five performances per event. Each performance cycle runs about an hour. Thie set up is intended to build in the flexibility needed to respond to current COVID protocols to ensure the safety of audiences and dancers while simultaneously allowing audiences to fully experience the architecture, performances and visual art exhibits throughout The Plant.
Additionally, we will host a post-show artist talk after the final performance cycle concludes at 5pm on Sunday, June 12 and two community workshops in April 30 and on May 15 at 3:30pm.
Masks and vaccination/negative tests required for all events. See our website unfoldingdisabilityfutures.com for more information.
**ASL Interpreters will be available for all performance cycles on Sunday, June 5 and Saturday, June 11. If you require ASL interpreters, please register for any cycle on these dates.
This show contains some images containing partial nudity in the context of the performance of care tasks. Audiences will be notified before they encounter partial nudity and be given the option to forgo portion of the event.
It’s Carmela’s birthday, and her wish has already come true–she’s finally old enough to join her big brother as he does the family errands. On their way to the laundromat, past fields of what Mamí calls “flores de cempazuchitl,” Carmela finds a lone dandelion growing in the pavement. But before she can blow its puffy white fluff away, her brother asks, “did you even make a wish?” If only she can think of just the right wish to make.
Full of touching and funny fantasies, the book, and now the play, portrays Carmela’s migrant community as a vibrant place of possibility. Join families from all over the city for this moving ode to family, to dreamers, and to finding hope in the most unexpected places.
Open Captioned in English and Spanish
Goodman Theatre Presents the Woolly Mammoth Production of Where We Belong
In Association with the Folger Shakespeare Library
An indigenous theatre-maker journeys across geographic borders, personal history, and cultural legacies; in search of a place to belong.
In 2015, Mohegan theatre-maker Madeline Sayet travels to England to pursue a PhD in Shakespeare. Madeline finds a country that refuses to acknowledge its ongoing role in colonialism, just as the Brexit vote threatens to further disengage the UK from the wider world. In this intimate and exhilarating solo piece, Madeline echoes a journey to England braved by Native ancestors in the 1700s following treatise betrayals – and forces us to consider what it means to belong in an increasingly globalized world.
Content Transparency: This production contains flashing lights, depictions of racism, and discussions of borders, war, loss of language, residential schools, colonial theft of human remains and repatriation.
“Musical theater perfection…exquisite from start to finish” (BroadwayWorld).
Frank Carter famously authored self-help books. But Alice, his 16-year-old daughter, finds cold comfort in his positivity platitudes when he tragically never comes home one night. As she puzzles out the events of the day that changed her family forever, Alice’s relentless search for the facts reveals a more complicated truth. With big humor and bittersweet wit, this “luminous new musical…lush, poetic and surprisingly funny” (The San Diego Union-Tribune) explores how we move through and live with loss.
https://www.goodmantheatre.org/season/2122-Season/Life-After/Life-After-Accessibility/
“Easily Mr. Wilson’s most adventurous and honest attempt to reveal the intimate heart of history.” -The New York Times
Amidst the Civil Rights Movement, Memphis Lee’s restaurant is slated for demolition. While Memphis fights to sell his diner for a fair price, the rest of the restaurant’s regulars search for work, love, and justice as their neighborhood continues to change in unpredictable ways.
Two Trains Running explores Black identity in the 1960s with passion and humor, demonstrating why Wilson is one of America’s most essential voices. With his singular point of view, Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson directs the penultimate play in Court’s ongoing commitment to staging all of Wilson’s American Century Cycle.
Accessible performances: June 4 @2pm TT/AD (Touch-Tour @ 12:30pm) | June 5 @2pm OC | June 5 @7:30pm ASL
“Easily Mr. Wilson’s most adventurous and honest attempt to reveal the intimate heart of history.” -The New York Times
Amidst the Civil Rights Movement, Memphis Lee’s restaurant is slated for demolition. While Memphis fights to sell his diner for a fair price, the rest of the restaurant’s regulars search for work, love, and justice as their neighborhood continues to change in unpredictable ways.
Two Trains Running explores Black identity in the 1960s with passion and humor, demonstrating why Wilson is one of America’s most essential voices. With his singular point of view, Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson directs the penultimate play in Court’s ongoing commitment to staging all of Wilson’s American Century Cycle.
Accessible performances: June 4 @2pm TT/AD (Touch-Tour @ 12:30pm) | June 5 @2pm OC | June 5 @7:30pm ASL
Program A (May 13) features the highly-anticipated return of Ohad Naharin’s DECADANCE/CHICAGO, an evening-length work curated specifically for Hubbard Street comprised of excerpts from Naharin’s most celebrated pieces, including ‘Sadeh21,’ ‘Naharin’s Virus,’ and the iconic ‘Minus 16.’
Friday, May 13, 8:00 pm
Performance Runtime: Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission
Program B (May 14) offers a thrilling mixed-repertory program: a captivating Chicago premiere of ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ by Spenser Theberge alongside exhilarating selections from the season, among them Aszure Barton’s ‘BUSK,’ ‘George & Zalman’ by Ohad Naharin, and Amy Hall Garner’s latest work for Hubbard Street, ‘As the Wind Blows.’
Saturday, May 14, 8:00 pm
Performance Runtime: Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, including two 15-minute intermissions
Please be advised that the piece entitled ‘George & Zalman,’ featured in both Program A + B of RE/UNION, includes adult language and adult subject matter.
https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/hubbard-street-dance-chicago
Chicago’s Marshall Field Store, Manhattan’s Central Park, Boston’s Trinity Church, and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park: We owe all these quintessential American places to two geniuses of post-Civil War America, the architect Henry Hobson Richardson and landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted. At CHF, join Hugh Howard, the author of the dual biography Architects of an American Landscape, for a talk about how these friends and collaborators married nature and the built environment as they reimagined America’s public and private spaces.
https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/reinventing-americas-public-spaces/
Selma Blair has played many memorable Hollywood roles, from “preppy ice queen” in Legally Blonde, to “the ingenue” in Cruel Intentions—but we love her most as herself. In her memoir Mean Baby, Blair gets candid about the roles that have made her compassionate and wise: from friend and mother to advocate for people with disabilities. Join Blair and Rachel Fleit (director of the documentary Introducing, Selma Blair) for an intimate conversation about acting, addiction, activism, and becoming yourself. This program will include clips from Introducing, Selma Blair.
America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars champion Nyle DiMarco knows “just how damn cool it is to be Deaf.” DiMarco’s career (which also includes executive producing the reality show Deaf U and Academy-award nominated documentary Audible) has been dedicated to celebrating what makes Deaf culture so unique and beautiful. Join DiMarco at CHF for a conversation about his new book Deaf Utopia: A Memoir—and a Love Letter to a Way of Life with Chicago Today host Matthew Rodrigues.
MCA Advisory Partners Bodies of Work and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago invite you to Access Praxis, a collaborative and participatory event in The Commons. Combining theory and practice, “praxis” is ideas in action. Join disabled artist Justin Cooper, a former 3Arts/Bodies of Work Fellow, as he shares how narrative, accessibility, and disability aesthetics coalesce across his work in documentary film and photography. As part of Access Praxis, museumgoers will have the opportunity to meet Cooper and participate in a hands-on activity in and around the Commons related to their own experiences moving through the museum landscape.
mcachicago.org/calendar/2022/04/common-use-access-praxis-justin-cooper
Join us for a live performance of songs from LYNX Project’s debut album, beautiful small things. These art songs, commissioned between 2017–2020 as part of the Amplify series, feature the poetry of neurodiverse young people who are primarily nonspeaking, set to music by celebrated classical composers. In addition to song performances, there will be a presentation on nonspeaking communication and readings of poems.
The Poetry Foundation and LYNX share a commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive performance space. Sensory accommodations will be provided.
Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This reading will include live captioning and ASL interpretation. If you require any other accessibility measures, please contact us by emailing events@poetryfoundation.org.
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. All in-person events will be made available online for free at poetryfoundation.org/video. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask.
These guidelines are up to date as of March 7, 2022.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/events/156862/lynx-project-beautiful-small-things-in-person
Want your events to be more inclusive? Join us for a community building festival of movement workshops and access presentations! We will explore the concept of making inclusion part of the creative process from beginning to completion, as opposed to the “burden approach” of tacking it on at the end.
After a sold out run this winter, Tyla Abercrumbrie’s world premiere play comes to the Goodman, weaving a mother’s past with her daughters’ present in a centuries-spanning tale of family, legacy and progress.
Set in the Black Victorian era, Relentless looks at the deep personal secrets we keep to protect the ones we love most. The year is 1919. After the death of their mother, two sisters come home to Philadelphia to settle her estate. Annelle is a happy socialite desperate to return to the safe illusion of a perfect life with her husband in Boston. Janet is a single, professional nurse, determined to change history and propel Black women to a place of prominence and respect. After discovering diaries left by their late mother, they find themselves confronted with a woman they never really knew, exposing buried truths from the past that are chillingly, explosively Relentless.
Developed through TimeLine Theatre Company’s Playwrights Collective
Anything can happen on live TV. And one night, it did. Emmy Award-winning actor and producer Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) stars as the irrepressible Oscar Levant.
It’s 1958, and Jack Paar hosts the hottest late-night talk-show on television. His favorite guest? Character actor, pianist and wild card Oscar Levant. Famous for his witty one-liners, Oscar has a favorite: “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity; I have erased this line.” Tonight, Oscar will prove just that when he appears live on national TV in an episode that Paar’s audience—and the rest of America—won’t soon forget. Good Night, Oscar explores the nexus of humor and heartbreak, the ever-dwindling distinction between exploitation and entertainment, and the high cost of baring one’s soul for public consumption.
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none”… how hard could it be? Shakespeare’s nuanced coming-of-age love story is brought to new life in the uniquely intimate setting of the Courtyard Theater, staged by acclaimed director Shana Cooper. Bold, complex characters and hilarious turns of wit and wisdom make for a vivid exploration of love and loss, courtship and class. Besotted with a man who does not return her love, the intelligent, resourceful young Helena navigates the complexities of unrequited romance, courtly drama, and the pesky meddling of her elders—only to discover the reality that happy endings are never quite as simple as they seem in fairy tales.
For our access performances, “Pay-What-You-Can” tickets, ranging from our full price of $90 to as low as $35, are available to patrons whose disability requires the use of the service (plus one companion). Book your tickets today by calling 312.595.5600 or emailing access@chicagoshakes.com. When booking tickets, please indicate your wish to participate in the Access program so we may provide the best possible seats and service. Please purchase your tickets in advance—access programs with no attendance may be cancelled 48 hours prior to the show. For more information, visit https://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/allswell
Pharus Young is now a senior at the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys, an institution committed to building “strong, ethical black men,” where he endeavors to be the best leader of the school’s prestigious choir in its 50-year history. But in a world built on rites and rituals, should he conform to the expectations of his peers in order to gain the respect he desperately seeks?
Written by Oscar-winning ensemble member Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight), this Tony-nominated play—threaded throughout with soul-stirring a cappella gospel hymns—is the story of a young gay black man and his battle between identity and community. Choir Boy is an elegy to quiet rebellion, filled with the sound of longing and aspiration. It is a love song in pianissimo to the unseen heart that beats inside us all.
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons/2021-22/choir-boy/
On a long summer weekend in the Russian countryside at an estate bursting at the seams with guests, three generations collide in ensemble member Yasen Peyankov’s extraordinarily funny and lyrical adaption of Anton Chekhov’s Seagull, the play that will open Steppenwolf’s new in-the-round Ensemble Theater in Honor of Helen Zell. In classic Chekhovian style, a sparkling cast featuring many Steppenwolf ensemble members will wrestle with the eternal questions that haunt the intellectual artist class: What is Love? What is Art? When is Lunch? Join us for this historical moment in Steppenwolf’s journey as we explore the work that inspired us, laugh at the battles that consume us and celebrate, together, all that makes us grateful for each other.
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons/2021-22/seagull/
Anything can happen on live TV. And one night, it did. Emmy Award-winning actor and producer Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) stars as the irrepressible Oscar Levant.
It’s 1958, and Jack Paar hosts the hottest late-night talk-show on television. His favorite guest? Character actor, pianist and wild card Oscar Levant. Famous for his witty one-liners, Oscar has a favorite: “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity; I have erased this line.” Tonight, Oscar will prove just that when he appears live on national TV in an episode that Paar’s audience—and the rest of America—won’t soon forget. Good Night, Oscar explores the nexus of humor and heartbreak, the ever-dwindling distinction between exploitation and entertainment, and the high cost of baring one’s soul for public consumption.
“King” LeBron James’s reign in Cleveland brings promise, prosperity and renewal to a city in desperate need of all three. It also brings together two unlikely friends in a bond forged by fandom. Told over twelve years (from LeBron’s rookie season to an NBA Championship) King James is an intimate exploration of the place that sports occupy in our lives and relationships. Ensemble member Rajiv Joseph’s clever and fast-paced comedy traces the arcs of two friends whose turbulent relationship is best navigated through their shared love of basketball—and the endless amiable arguments that erupt from that love. All the while, the promise and burden of LeBron’s talent and legacy loom large.
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons/2021-22/king-james/
Combining improvisation with sculpture, sound, and lights, M___ER taps into the tangled relationships we have with familiar people and things to examine the shifting dynamics of intimacy between audience members’ senses of self, others, and objects. The title suggests various interpretations of its missing letters; the performance itself addresses ideas such as “mother,” “murder,” and “matter,” while still leaving room for ambiguity. M___ER is a nonlinear, scenic examination of entanglements, from mothers to matter. Investigating relationships that are common to almost everyone, the performance probes the precarity inherent to physical proximity or emotional closeness.
Using her training as an improviser and the inexhaustible possibilities each audience member brings, Knight’s work regularly puts Black femmes—often herself—in contested and confrontational positions of power. Knight guides her audiences through indeterminate situations that illuminate the relationships at play in performance and in our everyday lives. The controlled chaos of these mysterious group interactions provokes laughter and occasional discomfort, using irrationality to make meaning out of our contemporary culture.
Wired is an immense and intimate experience that traces the fine line between “us” and “them” through aerial and contemporary dance and the metaphoric use of barbed wire. The dancers of Wired spin and soar together in this meditation in sound, light, and movement on the gendered, racial, and disability stories of barbed wire in the United States, showing how this material shapes common understandings of who belongs. Barbed wire is designed as a material for containment. It is used, time and again, to limit individual and community movements and delineate boundaries as large as a nation state and as small as a personal fence. In Wired, this fraught material comes to highlight not only danger and contradiction, but also beauty and interconnection.
To create Wired, the artists of Kinetic Light—Alice Sheppard, Laurel Lawson, Jerron Herman, and Michael Maag—and their collaborators—composers Ailís Ní Ríain and LeahAnn Mitchell and scenic designer Josephine Shokrian—defy both gravity and assumptions about what dance can be. The artists of Kinetic Light see interdependence as a political position as well as an approach to making dance from a disability aesthetic: in which disability is a powerful creative and cultural force, and the many ways of accessing the performance are the art itself.
ASL interpretation and AD are available for all shows. There is no spoken dialogue in Wired. Audio description is available through Kinetic Light’s app, Audimance. More information will be provided to ticketholders by email in advance. Orientation to and demonstration of the app will be available in the lobby prior to all shows, along with a tactile exhibit that serves as an introduction to the Wired set, props, costumes, and theatrical elements.
Wired content and artistry will remain the same for all performances. The show shares many aspects of MCA’s Relaxed Performances. Audience members are welcome to exit and reenter.
Light haze is present in certain sections. There are no strobe lighting effects. Quiet spaces and stimulation kits are available for all performances.
The show will be livestreamed on Saturday, including ASL, with one channel being audio described. Friday and Sunday’s performances will offer an alternative lighting design.