Disney’s Frozen: The Broadway Musical – Open Captioned Performance at Paramount Theatre

The theatrical production of Frozen brings Disney’s beloved animated film to life and fills the stage with winter magic. Bring your friends and family for this holiday extravaganza, a snowy Disney fairytale reimagined for the stage by Paramount Theatre.

The open captioning setup includes a LED screen close to the stage. Purchase tickets to these performances online, over the phone or in person. Standard ticket prices apply.

https://paramountaurora.com/events/frozen-the-broadway-musical/

Calm Waters at Shedd Aquarium

Calm Waters is an exclusive event for guests with disabilities and Veterans to explore Shedd Aquarium’s exhibits and experiences in a comfortable and accepting environment. Modifications for this event will include limited capacity and streamlined entry with advance registration.

Modifications for Calm Waters Include:

Limited capacity and streamlined entry with advance registration
A sensory friendly app
A low-sensory animal spotlight with American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation
An animal encounter opportunity
Complimentary 4D Experiences during the event
Family members and companions are welcome.

https://www.sheddaquarium.org/plan-a-visit/accessibility/calm-waters

Kohl Children’s Museum Everyone At Play

KCM welcomes children with disabilities and their families for an afternoon of learning and play focused on them. Our Museum campus is designed for universal accessibility with a purpose to encourage linguistic, cognitive, motor and social skills for all children ages birth to 8. -16 hands-on Museum exhibits. -One-on-one interactive activities with trained, registered therapy animals and other partners. -Quiet room for stimulation breaks. -Museum staff providing play support and guidance. -A free family pass for 4 to return to the Museum.

Accessibility: Sensory Friendly

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Fugitive/Refuge: Philip Metres and Faisal Mohyuddin at Poetry Foundation

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

Murmurs from the poets:

A toast to the migrants
the authors of movement
who write with their
feet
— Philip Metres, from Fugitive/Refuge
We have always been the displaced children of displaced children,
Tethered by distant rivers to abandoned lands, our blood’s history
lost.
— Faisal Mohyuddin, from Ghazal for the Diaspora

This event is part of the Poetry Foundation’s fall 2024 season, Murmuring Americas. All Poetry Foundation events are completely free of charge and open to the public, though advanced registration is encouraged. The performance space is ADA-compliant and wheelchair-accessible, and the program will feature CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/events/1602229/fugitive-refuge

Zip! at Poetry Foundation

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

Zip! is a 2023 semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Further development occurred during the author’s time as a 2022 fellow in the playwriting cohort of the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ+ Writers-Faculty Advisor, Jewelle Gomez. Zip! was given its second table-read as part of the 2021 End Of Play Program (hosted by the Dramatist Guild of America/ The 24 Hour Plays NYC).

Some of Rey’s other plays include White/House (Finalist, eta New Play Initiative, 2020), Gloria, The (Almost) Last Picture Show, and The Monologue Play: An Ongoing Work Exploring Race, Sex, Identity…And The American Myth (‘22,‘23 Changing Worlds/ Arts Work Fund Award Recipient).

Director: Roger Ellis

Cast: David Goodloe, Caren Skibell, Stephen Glaspie, Wannapa Pimtong Eubanks, Anniela Hubidoro, Saleem Hue Penny, and Donovan Session.

Production Team: Opening Graphic-Rob Riutta/ Ross Parsons, Choreography-Ayako Kato, Props-Julie Williams, Sound-Ayme Frye.

Murmurs from ZIP!:
NANCY: I tell you I’ve been honing my foresight over the past few months, ever since my husband’s inauguration, and it’s getting stronger every
day.
— Timothy David Rey, from ZIP!

This event is part of the Poetry Foundation’s fall 2024 season, Murmuring Americas. All Poetry Foundation events are completely free of charge and open to the public, though advanced registration is encouraged. The performance space is ADA-compliant and wheelchair-accessible, and the program will feature CART captioning and ASL interpretation. Please note, this event will not be livestreamed. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/events/1602337/zip

Kohl Children’s Museum Everyone At Play

KCM welcomes children with disabilities and their families for an afternoon of learning and play focused on them. Our Museum campus is designed for universal accessibility with a purpose to encourage linguistic, cognitive, motor and social skills for all children ages birth to 8. -16 hands-on Museum exhibits. -One-on-one interactive activities with trained, registered therapy animals and other partners.-Quiet room for stimulation breaks. -Museum staff providing play support and guidance. -A free family pass for 4 to return to the Museum.

Accessibility: Sensory Friendly

https://www.kohlchildrensmuseum.org/outreach-programs/eap/

The Murmuring Grief of the Americas at the Poetry Foundation

Three award-winning poets read from their latest collections grappling with landscapes of grief. National Book-winning Chicago poet Daniel Borzutzky’s The Murmuring Grief of the Americas exhumes the necrophilic underbelly of carceral capitalism and authoritarianism in the hemispheric Americas. Pulitzer Prize-winning language poet Rae Armantrout’s Go Figure tries to find humor and consolation in a disaster-ridden world. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Forrest Gander’s novel-poem Mojave Ghost takes grief on a memory-ridden pilgrimage home, walking 800 miles across the Mojave Desert.

Murmurs from the poets:

We ask the murmurers what they want to do with themselves now that they don’t get to live anymore. They say they want to love all the things they could not love when they were
alive.
— Daniel Borzutzy, from The Murmuring Grief of the Americas

A sentimental journey through a doomsday
scenario
— Rae Armantrout, from Go Figure

Walking the rift, they keep their voices small. Shallow vibrations scuttle along the fracture
zone.
— Forrest Ganders, from Mojave Ghost

This program is part of the Poetry Foundation’s fall 2024 season, Murmuring Americas. All Poetry Foundation events are completely free of charge and open to the public, though advanced registration is encouraged. The performance space is ADA-compliant and wheelchair-accessible, and the program will feature CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/events/1597650/the-murmuring-grief-of-the-americas

Kelsey Street Press 50th Anniversary at The Poetry Foundation

Kelsey Street Press, a small press with an explosive history of publishing radical queer and trans BIPOC and women authors, celebrates its 50th anniversary. Publishing experimental feminist poetics since 1974, Kelsey Street Press has been pivotal in addressing gender disparity in publishing. Their formidable lineage includes Etel Adnan, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Renee Gladman, Fanny Howe, Erica Hunt, Bhanu Kapil, Myung Mi Kim, Camille Roy, and Cecilia Viçuna.

Four poets with recent or forthcoming publications from Kelsey Street Press will read at this event. Kiran Bath is the author of Instructions for Banno (2024), a debut collection which moves through ritual, ruptured diary, field notes, and family genealogy to grapple with the inherited trauma of becoming a South Asian bride (banno). Jennifer (JP) Perrine is the winner of Kelsey Street Press’s 2023 QTBIPOC Prize for Beautiful Outlaw (forthcoming in 2025). Rena Rosenwasser, a co-founder of the press, has four poetry collections published by the press across four decades: Elevators (2011), Isle (1992), Simulacra (1986), and Desert Flats (1979). Metta Sáma is the author of Swing at your own risk (2019), a formally inventive and incisive critique of anti-blackness in the US empire.

Reading 6-7:15 PM

Reception with open bar 7:15-8:30 PM

Murmurs from the poet:
America,
this land is my land this land is her land
from the Mexican border to the New England
shoreland this land is Not your land this body is
Not your body this tongue is Not your tongue this
language will cut you will peel back the
flesh
— Metta Sáma, from Swing at your own risk

The Interior is the City within the
Self
— Rena Rosenwasser, from Elevator

Omissions in language are intentional. We do not speak of = We do not recognize = It’s not possible. A negation. A mirror that shows you as
invisible.
— Kiran Bath, from Instructions for Banno

any answer I give is a half-answer
any answer arrives through the mouth of an
american
— Jennifer Perrine, from Beautiful Outlaw

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/events/1597497/kelsey-street-press-50th-anniversary

Play For All at Chicago Children’s Museum

At the heart of the Play For All initiative is the belief that every individual, regardless of their abilities, deserves an enriching museum experience.

Accessibility: sensory-friendly

https://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org/play-for-all

Abra Berens and Greta Johnsen: From Seed to Market to Plate at Chop Shop

Join Abra Berens in conversation with Greta Johnsen for delicious insights into innovative recipes with simple and sustainable ingredients. With a background in Midwestern farming, the celebrated author and chef shares her farm-to-table approach with tips for the climate and your own kitchen. Walk away with a packet of seasonal recipes and inspiration to start conversations around your own table!

This event will have ALDs onsite at the Box Office.

https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/abra-berens-x-greta-johnsen/

The Infinite Wrench at Free Street Theater Pulaski Park

The Neo-Futurists present an ADA-Accessible and ASL-interpreted performance of The Infinite Wrench in partnership with Free Street Theater at Pulaski Park.

At THE INFINITE WRENCH you’ll see thirty original plays in sixty minutes, written and performed by The Neo-Futurist Ensemble.Each play offers something different, be it funny, profound, elegant, disgusting, topical, irreverent, terrifying, or a song; all are truthful and tackle the here-and-now, inspired by the lived experiences of the performers. With new plays every week, THE INFINITE WRENCH is The Neo-Futurists’ ongoing and ever-changing attempt to shift the conventions of live performance and speak to those unreached or unmoved by traditional theater.

The Infinite Wrench will be preceded by a performance from the Free Street Youth Ensemble. Free Street will present a short excerpt from one of their recent works. Since 1969, Free Street Theater has been at the forefront of creating inclusive & accessible theatre in Chicago. Free Street is a femme-led arts and culture organization that centers original performance work by Black, Brown, and Immigrant communities; queer artists; youth artists; and work that is committed to the thriving and well-being of people on the South and West Sides of the city. We believe in the theater as a space to uplift joy and justice, especially racial, economic, and environmental justice in Chicago.

Tickets to this performance are pay-what-you-can. Please reserve them in advance. Masks are required.

Accessibility: ASL Interpreter

Access Show with Free Street Theater

Chicago Narratives: Artists Navigating South Asian Identities at South Asia Institute

Join us for an extraordinary fusion of art and narrative in a unique storytelling event, on Saturday, August 31 (2-4 pm) at South Asia Institute.

Eight dynamic South Asian American artists from the highly acclaimed group exhibition, Are Shadow Bodies Electric?, a section of the groundbreaking exhibition, What is Seen and Unseen: Mapping South Asian American Art in Chicago series, will candidly share details of their personal artistic journeys.

This is a unique opportunity to hear them recount their experiences of creating art while navigating the complexities of their intersectional identities, and to celebrate the achievements of the diverse group who have contributed to shaping the South Asian American art landscape in Chicago. The program will be led by Jitesh Jaggi, a Chicago based Moth award-winning storyteller.

Featured artists:
Tara Asgar, Sabba S. Elahi, Brendan Fernandes, Amay Kataria, Shaurya Kumar, Tulika Ladsariya, Udita Upadhyaya, and Kunal Sen

This event and the exhibition ” What is Seen and Unseen” is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.

Going Places: Chicago Short Films at Chicago Cultural Center

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.

These shorts, all featured at past Festivals, display the brilliance and variety of our city’s incredible filmmakers. They explore a friendship in crisis (A Real One), the sisterhood bonds (Video Funeral), the inherent comedy of an overprotective mother (Grizzlies), a meditative cab ride (Saya), the meaning of success (Winning in America) and a supernatural animation (Step Into the River).

DIRECTED BY McKenzie Chinn, Linh Tran, Fawzia Mirza, Anam Abbas, Alex Heller, Weijia Ma, and Amrita Singh

Accessibility includes open captions and wheelchair accessibility.

www.chicagofilmfestival.com/film/going-places/

Synapse Arts Birthday Bash at Berger Park Cultural Center

Synapse Arts turns 20! The Birthday Bash is a celebration of Synapse Arts in a welcoming, festival-type environment.
All attendees will get a cupcake and have access to our open events: performances, dance films screenings, games.
But when you donate at the level of your choice, you can add some additional flair to your Birthday Bash experience, including a Interactive Museum tour, pre-registration for dance classes, and more!

Please see accessibility features available at the event:
– Sensory considerations
– ASL events
– Front desk people trained on welcoming service animals
– Spaces accessible for wheelchair users and people with mobility assistance devices
– Rest area (with Maggie Bridger, a sick and disabled dance artist, scholar, and access worker interested in re-imagining pain through the dancemaking process)
– All gender restrooms
– Masks available and encouraged but unable to require due to park
For additional assistance, questions, or to request specific accommodations, please contact info@synapsearts.com or text 947-2CREATE (947-227-3283).

Orientation video with captions: https://vimeo.com/984444567
Birthday Bash – Access and Location Information, also known as “wayfinding”: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qaBNxVdcxQ6lv4MqhQGTsBgXLvW4ASyXqLqgrGm-HJY/

Accessibility includes sensory considerations, ASL events, wheelchair accessible, rest area, all gender restrooms, and sighted guide.

https://synapsearts.com/on-the-calendar

Poetry @ The Green

The Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal are proud to reintroduce this free, weekly reading and open mic series co-curated by CPC’s Poets in Residence Tarnynon Onumonu and Timothy David Rey.
Join us on certain Monday nights in July at 6pm. in this beautiful setting to hear outstanding featured poets perform their work in this partnership between Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal. After every poetry performance, there will be an open mic for any individual that would like to share poetry of their own!

https://www.poetrycenter.org/poetry-the-green-at-320-summer-2024/

Millennium Park Summer Music Series – Corinne Bailey Rae and Terrace Martin with James Fauntleroy

Millennium Park Summer Music Series features a wide variety of music from established and emerging artists at the iconic Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

Corinne Bailey Rae
English singer/songwriter/musician Corinne Bailey Rae shot to stardom with her self- titled #1 U.K. debut album in 2006, featuring the global hits “Put Your Records On” and “Like A Star.” Over the course of her career she has released four critically acclaimed studio albums—Corinne Bailey Rae, The Sea, The Heart Speaks in Whispers, and Black Rainbows—and earned two Grammy Awards, two MOBOS, and has been nominated for multiple awards including the BRIT Awards, Mercury Music Prize and BET Awards. Her work for film and television includes the theme to Stan Lee’s Lucky Man (SKY1), “The Scientist” for Universal Pictures’ Fifty Shades Darker opening title and soundtrack which charted globally, and in 2020 her song “New to Me” was performed in the film The High Note by Tracee Ellis Ross. Bailey Rae has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Mary J. Blige, Al Green, Herbie Hancock, KING, Paul McCartney, Kele Okereke, Eric Benet, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Questlove, Salaam Rami, RZA, Tyler The Creator, Paul Weller, Richard Hawley, Stevie Wonder, Tracey Thorn, Pharrell, Logic, Mick Jenkins and many more.

Terrace Martin
A five-time GRAMMY-nominated artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist from LA’s Crenshaw District, Terrace Martin is renowned as one of the world’s leading jazz musicians AND hip-hop producers. This singular standing is captured on his countless influential collaborations including Kendrick Lamar (good kid, M.A.A.D. city & To Pimp a Butterfly), Stevie Wonder, Travis Scott, Rihanna, Snoop Dogg, Herbie Hancock, and Leon Bridges’ “Sweeter” (performed at the DNC). From his own acclaimed releases like the protest anthem “PIG FEET”, and his GRAMMY-nominated, star studded album, DRONES (featuring Kendrick, YG, Leon Bridges, Cordae, and more) to the GRAMMY-nominated Dinner Party (The musical supergroup of Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder), and his most recent single “Chucks (feat. Channel Tres)”. Among the most versatile creatives in a generation, Terrace’s path is leading him in parallel with the greats like Quincy Jones or Dr. Dre, while also launching his vibrant, progressive, genre-crossing record label record label Sounds of Crenshaw.

This event includes ASL interpretation, wheelchair accessibility, assistive listening devices, audio description, digital programs, and large print programs.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park9.html

Millennium Park Summer Music Series -Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer & Zakir Hussain with Rakesh Chaurasia

Millennium Park Summer Music Series features a wide variety of music from established and emerging artists at the iconic Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

Béla Fleck
Few musicians in any category seem as uncategorizable as Béla Fleck. After initially making his mark with the progressive bluegrass group New Grass Revival, Fleck proceeded to take his instrument, as New York Times critic Jon Pareles noted, “to some very unlikely places.” He formed the Flecktones, a groundbreaking group whose repertoire ranged from fusion to Bach; the group celebrates its 46th anniversary this year. In addition, he has played jazz with Chick Corea, American roots with his partner, banjoist Abigail Washburn, written concertos for banjo and orchestra, and created a documentary film and album, Throw Down Your Heart, that examined the banjo’s African roots. Along the way, he has won 18 Grammys across 10 categories.

Zakir Hussain
The pre-eminent classical tabla virtuoso of our time, Zakir Hussain is appreciated as one of the world’s most esteemed and influential musicians, one whose mastery of his percussion instrument has taken it to a new level, transcending cultures and national borders. A child prodigy, accompanying India’s greatest musicians and dancers from his early years, and touring internationally while still in his teens, Zakir has been at the helm of many genre-defying collaborations including Shakti, Remember Shakti, Masters of Percussion, Diga, Tabla Beat Science, CrossCurrents, Sangam and Grammy-award winners Planet Drum and Global Drum Project. A revered composer and educator, Zakir is the recipient of countless honors, most recently the 2022 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, the 2022 Aga Khan Music Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in January, 2023, the title of Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award.

Edgar Meyer
Aptly described by The New Yorker as “the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively un-chronicled history of his instrument,” double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer is at home in a broad spectrum of musical styles. A MacArthur Fellow and Avery Fisher Prize winner, he is eminently at home within classical music, both performing traditional works and also his significant catalog of original solo, chamber, and orchestral pieces. His 30-year relationship with Yo-Yo Ma has yielded seven recordings together, and his upcoming projects include a duo recording with jazz bassist Christian McBride and a recording of all four of his concertos with the Knights and the Scottish Ensemble, produced by Chis Thile.

Rakesh Chaurasia
Like Zakir Hussain, Rakesh Chaurasia comes from Indian classical music royalty. His uncle, Pandit Hariprasad Chaursia, is widely considered the greatest bansuri player in India, and Rakesh — who started playing at age five — is deemed his most brilliant student. Not only has he mastered the techniques of Indian classical music, he has developed additional techniques allowing him to venture into other styles of playing, particularly with his crossover band Rakesh and Friends. A composer as well as flautist, he has written and performed on numerous Indian movie soundtracks, and in 2007 was awarded the Indian Music Academy Award.

This event includes ASL interpretation, wheelchair accessibility, assistive listening devices, captioning, open captioning, digital programs, and large print programs.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park9.html

Millennium Park Film Series: Wonka at Jay Pritzker Pavilion

This summer, DCASE is pleased to present the Millennium Park Summer Film Series, presented by Pluto TV, on Tuesdays from July 16 through August 20. Films start at 6:30pm (with the exception of the double feature starting at 6pm). All films are open caption. Gates open at 5pm.

Guests may take a seat at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion or lounge on the Great Lawn as crowd-pleasing movies are presented on the state-of- the-art, 40-foot LED screen. Address for Paratransit is 201 E. Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60601. For more information about accessibility at Millennium Park visit https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park1.html.

In partnership with the Chicago Alliance of Film Festivals (CAFF), each screening will also showcase one of the many independent film festivals that are a part of Chicago’s vibrant film community.

August 13 – Wonka
(116 minutes, PG)

Highlighting the 40th anniversary of Chicago International Children’s Film Festival

Starring Timothée Chalamet, this 2023 musical fantasy film tells the origin story of Willy Wonka, a character in the 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl, depicting his early days as an innovative chocolatier.

This event includes wheelchair accessibility, assistive listening devices, accessible seating, open captioning, and large print programs.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park7.html

Millennium Park Film Series: Barbie at Jay Pritzker Pavilion

In partnership with the Chicago Alliance of Film Festivals (CAFF), each screening will also showcase one of the many independent film festivals that are a part of Chicago’s vibrant film community.

July 30 – Barbie
(114 minutes, PG-13)

Highlighting the one-year anniversary the launch of Chicago Alliance of Film Festivals

Nominated for eight Academy Awards, Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.

This event includes wheelchair accessibility, assistive listening devices, accessible seating, open captioning, and large print programs.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park7.html

Millennium Park Film Series: Coco at Jay Pritzker Pavilion

In partnership with the Chicago Alliance of Film Festivals (CAFF), each screening will also showcase one of the many independent film festivals that are a part of Chicago’s vibrant film community.

July 23 – Coco
(105 minutes, PG) (Played in English audio with Spanish subtitles)

Highlighting the 40th anniversary of Chicago Latino Film Festival

From Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures, Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz, despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Hector, and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history.

This event includes wheelchair accessibility, assistive listening devices, accessible seating, open captioning, Spanish captioning, and large print programs.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park7.html

Chicago Air and Water Show at North Avenue Beach

The Chicago Air and Water Show presented by the City of Chicago is the largest FREE show of its kind in the United States. The show can be viewed along the lakefront from Fullerton to Oak Street, with North Avenue Beach as the focal point.

This event includes audio description and wheelchair accessibility.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_air_and_watershow.html

Music Talk | An Oral History of Alice Coltrane at MCA

Vocalist Michelle Coltrane, daughter of Alice Coltrane, and harpist Brandee Younger come together for An Oral History of Alice Coltrane. Part conversation, part performance, the event features oral histories and biographical stories of Alice Coltrane interwoven with performances and demonstrations from Brandee Younger, bringing the stories to life.

Through creative works and masterful performances, Alice Coltrane’s pioneering practice has changed the music world. She grew up playing music in her Baptist church, and by the 1950s established herself as a proficient bebop pianist in the Detroit scene. She met John Coltrane in 1963 and was his primary musical collaborator until his death in 1967. Prolific in her creation, Alice’s innovative style incorporated both gospel and jazz, leading to iconic works like Journey in Satchidananda (one of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums). Once a profound musician, beloved spiritual leader, and pragmatic businesswoman, Alice Coltrane is now remembered as deeply giving human, known for her emphasis on charity work, education, and spiritual guidance.

MCA Music Talks pair powerhouse musicians with artists, activists, writers, and thinkers to take on big ideas in art and culture. These intimate evenings of performance and conversation reveal art world anecdotes, shared ideas, and creative inspirations.

This program is organized by Laura Paige Kyber, Assistant Curator of Performance, in partnership with The John & Alice Coltrane Home.

English CART Captioning and ASL are provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/music-talk-an-oral-history-of-alice-coltrane/

Tuesdays on the Terrace | Rudy de Anda at MCA

Summer Tuesdays come alive on the MCA terrace with free concerts highlighting artists from Chicago’s internationally renowned music community. Enjoy live music while relaxing on the lawn with your own picnic, or savor snacks and drinks available for purchase. Then head inside to catch the MCA’s summer exhibitions—we’re open late on Tuesdays and free for Illinois residents.

This Tuesday enjoy the soulful sounds of Rudy de Anda, whose romantic bilingual songs are the perfect company for a summer night.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/tuesdays-on-the-terrace-rudy-de-anda/

This event is wheelchair accessible.

Tuesdays on the Terrace | Maggie Brown at MCA

After a two-year hiatus, beloved Chicago vocalist Maggie Brown returns to the MCA Terrace with her seasoned quintet.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/tuesdays-on-the-terrace-maggie-brown/

Tuesdays on the Terrace | Jorge Morataya-Marimba at MCA

In conjunction with the Guatemalan Consulate, this Tuesday we will be joined by Jorge Morataya-Marimba, whose band will grace the MCA stage to serenade us with the sounds of the Guatemalan national instrument: marimba.

Lineup:
Jorge Morataya
Zuleika Díaz
Carlos Ortiz
Ángel de Leon

Please note that this event will be taking place inside the Edlis Neeson Theater and seating will be limited.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/tuesdays-on-the-terrace-jorge-morataya-marimba/

Sensory-Friendly Day at Lincoln Park Zoo’s Farm-in-the-Zoo

On Sunday, June 23 from 10am to 3pm, Lincoln Park Zoo will host Sensory-Friendly Day at Farm-in-the-Zoo. Modifications include limited capacity. This is a free event, but it does require advanced registration. Please register HERE.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sensory-friendly-day-at-farm-in-the-zoo-tickets-910936173617

Sensory-Friendly Day at Farm-in-the-Zoo is a free program for all people who benefit from visiting the zoo without crowds and other sensitive environmental elements. This includes guests with sensory sensitivities, disabilities, autism, PTSD, and dementia to name a few. All guests are welcome at Sensory-Friendly Day.

During Sensory-Friendly Day at Farm-in-the-Zoo animal buildings may be open, but some animals may not be in their public viewing spaces. There will also be low sensory activities.

Timed Entry Window: While registered guests will be let in before or after their one-hour timed entry window, guests are strongly encouraged to come during their timed entry window to help limit crowd sizes. Limited crowd sizes is one of the most important ways to make this day sensory-friendly. Thank you.

View the zoo’s accessibility map HERE and accessibility page HERE to help plan your visit.

Lincoln Park Zoo is certified Sensory Inclusive by KultureCity. Please download the free KultureCity app with Lincoln Park Zoo social story.
iOS Android

Upon arrival guests need to present their registration email to zoo ushers. This event is only happening at Farm-in-the-Zoo. The rest of Lincoln Park Zoo will have typical operations for the day.

Paid parking is available at the zoo’s parking lot located at Fullerton Parkway and Cannon Drive (2400 N. Cannon Drive). The zoo is also accessible by train via the Armitage and Fullerton stations and by bus via the 22, 36, 151, and 156 routes.

All Lincoln Park Zoo events take place rain or shine.

There is no smoking at Lincoln Park Zoo for the health of the animals in our care.
Pets are not allowed at the zoo, but licensed service animals are welcome.

For any questions, please email access@lpzoo.org.

Sensory-Friendly Day at Lincoln Park Zoo’s Farm-in-the-Zoo

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sensory-friendly-day-at-farm-in-the-zoo-tickets-910936173617

During Sensory-Friendly Day at Farm-in-the-Zoo animal buildings may be open, but some animals may not be in their public viewing spaces. There will also be low sensory activities.

View the zoo’s accessibility map HERE and accessibility page HERE to help plan your visit.

Lincoln Park Zoo is certified Sensory Inclusive by KultureCity. Please download the free KultureCity app with Lincoln Park Zoo social story. iOS Android

Upon arrival guests need to present their registration email to zoo ushers. This event is only happening at Farm-in-the-Zoo. The rest of Lincoln Park Zoo will have typical operations for the day.

All Lincoln Park Zoo events take place rain or shine.

There is no smoking at Lincoln Park Zoo for the health of the animals in our care.
Pets are not allowed at the zoo, but licensed service animals are welcome.

For any questions, please email access@lpzoo.org.

2024 Accessible Juneteenth: A Celebration of Black National Anthems at UIC Student Center East

Accessible Juneteenth 2024
Tuesday, June 18th, 2024
4pm to 7:30pm

Welcome and Announcements at 4:30pm
Open Mic & Showcase at 5:30pm

Place: the UIC Quad (behind UIC Student Center East); 750 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL. See the map at https://go.uic.edu/2024_AccessibleJuneteenth_Map for more details on where the Quad is located, which public transportation stops and garages are nearby, and where paratransit and rideshare can pick/drop you off.

Date and Time: Tuesday, June 18th, 2024 from 4pm to 7:30pm

Come and celebrate our fourth Juneteenth, when we celebrate the black disability community and the victories we accomplished! We want to make Juneteenth a fun and essential accessible experience for all, including disabled people in the African Diaspora. The theme for the 4th Annual Accessible Juneteenth celebration is Black National Anthems.

This year, we will have a DJ who will bless us with music fit for our Accessible Juneteenth celebration. We will kick the evening of performances off with Domo Moons’ rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” We will host an open mic where you can share your talents in singing, spoken word, playing instruments, and more! Sign up for the open mic at go.uic.edu/OpenMicJuneteenth or at the event in-person. But hurry, because spots are limited! Don’t miss feature performances from RISE, DomoMoon, Victoria Boateng, Cherlnell Lane, Complex Theory and MORE Special Guests.

There will be food, giveaways, and resources given out by vendors, including those from Black-owned and disability-owned/friendly organizations and businesses.

ASL and captioning will be provided for the open mic and showcase portion. In care of immunocompromised people in our community, masking is required for our indoor spaces. We’ll have extras on hand!

If you cannot attend the celebration in person, that is okay! Watch the live stream on Chicagoland DPOCC’s Facebook page (@ChiDPOCC) on June 18th.

This event is brought to you by:
Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition
The Institute on Disability and Human Development
UIC Disability Cultural Center
UIC Black Studies
UIC Black Cultural Center
Access Living
NIDILRR : National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
DCAL : The Disability Culture Activism Lab
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
UIC Black Cultural Center
Raising Cane’s
IPlayGames
Cook It Mama
MORE Sponsors and Vendors to be announced, stay tuned!

https://dcc.uic.edu/events/accessible-juneteenth-2024/

Disorderly Conduct – Queer Short Films w/ Open Captions at FACETS

In these short films from the queer underground, unruly rebels trespass, shoplift, scheme, skate, surf, fuck, and joyfully plot their revenge on a society which seeks to punish deviance. Featuring a live DJ set by easygoingtech at 9pm.

America loves outlaws. Curious paradox: a police state which valorizes those who don’t fall in line, provided they have the right combination of individualism and normative appeal. Our ideal outlaws can transgress for themselves, for family, maybe for a love interest—but never for a group. Never for a community. Above all, our mythic outlaw, whatever his motivations, works alone. The valorized American outlaw-hero could either be a criminal living in bold defiance of the law or an upright citizen forced to tragically buck the rules of society due to unusual circumstances. But what about those who can neither disregard the law nor take temporary hiatus from its approval? Those for whom adhering to the rules of society means destruction?

Stealing testosterone to redistribute to trans men, trespassing to dance, shoplifting to feed your friends, defiling a colonizer’s grave, assassinating a billionaire: these short films find in criminality the potential for new social forms, beautiful acts of love, and collective liberation. The rules are fucked up. Why not break them?

7:30pm show will be followed by a Q&A with “The Beach Boys” writer/director Milo Talwani, moderated by program curator Henry Hanson with Live CART captioning.

THE FILMS

Hormonal (Maz Murray, 2023) 12:22, UK
Young trans guy Gary catches eyes with brooding trans geezer Ian across the square of their Essex hometown, and unwittingly walks into a testosterone heist plot… (Instagram: @maz_murray @chazzamnazza_makesstuf)

Cicada (FRANK/ie CONSENT, 2021) 6:30, USA
A single-take dance video shot in an abandoned industrial lot, set to a radio broadcast switching between music and Trump-era punditry. Used tires, hula hoops, cereal, chalk circles, and a burning mattress. (Instagram: @soysage)

Skate Bitches (Samuel Shanahoy, 2012) 17:10, Australia
A DIY film about an all-girl skate gang who steal each other candy, terrorize the streets and are BFF’s. Will the gang survive the drama of a new girl on the block? (Instagram: @teeveedinner)

FUCK THE FASCISM – The Crossroad of Two Worlds (MariaBasura, 2020) 9:35, Chile
A group of queer activists take revenge on colonizers past and present through guerilla pornography. (Instagram: @basurapandemicx_2.0)
Play Structure (FRANK/ie CONSENT, 2020) 2:28, USA
In this mixed-media music video combining live action and various animation styles, mischief-makers dance in the burning streets of Atlanta. (Instagram: @soysage)

The Beach Boys (Milo Talwani, 2024) 20:32, USA
Two trans surfer bros are on a mission to suicide bomb Jeff Bezos…but not before spending one last, perfect day riding epic waves and smoking dank kush. (Instagram: @autobimbophilia)

https://facets.org/programs/disorderly-conduct/

Art/Access Lab: Welcome Salon at Experimental Station

This salon-style gathering invites attendees to share and discuss artwork, short performances/readings, clips, scenes, and anything else they might be working on. Sharing a project is optional. For those who wish to share, projects in any medium are welcome: time-based work (video, dance, song, spoken word, etc) should be limited to five minutes and any fine art should not require installation.

The event will begin with a short welcome and introduction to the Art/Access Lab series presented by HCL and UDF. The rest of the event will consist of short showings interspersed with time to mingle with fellow artists with disabilities.

Virtual attendees will have the option of attending the showings and discussions in the main zoom space or breaking off into smaller groups through break out rooms.

The event is intended to be relaxed, with attendees invited to come, go, and participate in whatever way feels best for them. The event will wrap with a short announcement of upcoming Arts/Access Labs and information about how to participate in future gatherings, including paid opportunities to show works-in-progress.

We encourage those who would like to share to sign up through the registration form. When possible, we will also accommodate day-of sign ups.

A few more logistics about sharing projects:

Digital files can be submitted in advance to info@highconceptlabs.org or brought to the event on a USB drive.

A projector, mixing board, microphone, and speakers will be available for use.

Small items (visual art, crafts, etc.) may be passed around among attendees.

Other visual art may be free standing or leaned against a wall.

Text-based work may be read aloud by the artist, or another attendee.

HCL and UDF staff are happy to provide additional support as needed.

Who Should Attend
Art/Access Labs are centered around artists with a lived experience of disability including Deaf, disabled, sick, neurodivergent, and Mad artists, and those working through their relationship to these categories, working in all mediums, with anyone who is invested in fostering a vibrant creative ecosystem inclusive of artists with disabilities.

RSVP
Advanced registration is appreciated but not required.

https://highconceptlabs.org/events/art-access-lab-welcome-salon

21Minus | Love & Liberation at Museum of Contemporary Art

“The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love, we begin to move toward freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. That action is the testimony of love as the practice of freedom.”
—bell hooks

Liberation is defined as the act of being freed from imprisonment, slavery, or some type of captivity. Love and liberation are two things that go hand in hand. One cannot exist without the other. There are different kinds of love: self, familial, platonic, romantic, community, cultural–– the bounds are limitless. How has love acted as a liberating force in your life? Contributing youth artist are asked to consider the theme of “Love and Liberation” broadly and to interpret this prompt creatively in their submissions.

ASL and CART captioning are provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/21minus-love-and-liberation/

Dance Residency Open Studio Series with Jenna Pollack at Chicago Cultural Center

A work-in-progress sharing, this event will consist of both the movement- and the textual-based research explored over the course of the residency.

ASL is provided for this event.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/dance_residency.html

#OTVTonight: A Window Into Love at Museum of Contemporary Art

Love is a universal language; it transcends identity and culture. Love is more than a feeling; it is a tough invitation that encourages sacrifice and commitment. Love is a never-ending journey that is always beginning. But what is love in the absence of compassion and wonder?

#OTVTonight, your favorite intersectional Late Show, returns to MCA Chicago for an intimate evening filled with care and admiration for the stories that help us to cultivate a bond that is strong enough to heal, prepare, and transform unstable foundations.

Join us in the Edlis Neeson Theater for the premiere of handpicked titles inviting us to open a window into love, interspersed with artist interviews, live DJ sets, pop-up performances and more — all hosted by OTV’s Co-Founder and Executive Diva, Elijah McKinnon. Remember, the future of television is intersectional. If you don’t believe it, let OTV show you.

For live updates on #OTVTonight: A Window Into Love, visit bit.ly/otvtonight.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/otvtonight-a-window-into-love/

Family Day | Migration Stories at Museum of Contemporary Art

Join us to celebrate the last Family Day of the season!

Sueños Music Festival will be raffling two pairs of tickets for the Sueños Music Festival event.

Join us as we bring together incredible local artists for a day of workshops and interactive experiences.

Salvador Andrade will be leading a collaborative workshop using found objects that draw inspiration from Mexican textiles.

Mr. Pintamuro, known for his captivating artwork that merges Aztec and Mayan storytelling with Japanese anime, will share his expertise and creativity with families.

Printmaker Atlan Arceo will guide participants of all ages through a workshop on various print techniques for all ages.

The Mexican Consulate of Chicago is collaborating with us to share two stories from Home is Somewhere Else, directed by Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos, which is a unique and timely animated documentary that tells stories of immigrant youth, exploring each character’s inner world alongside their colorful hopes, and dreams for a better future.

Don’t miss our family workshop, Tell Me About Your Wings, to learn more about the traditional techniques of indigenous cultures in Mexico, such as the Wixárika, in commemoration of Jorge Marín’s sculpture Wings of Mexico.

Last but not least, Borderless Magazine will be conducting family interviews for all ages to highlight stories that will be published in the near future!

Designed and led by Chicago artists, Family Day is a monthly program that allows families and youth to connect and engage with contemporary art through activities and performances for all-ages. Enjoy FREE admission while taking part in workshops, open studio sessions, gallery tours, performances, and more.

Activities are facilitated in English and Spanish with ASL interpretation provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-migration-stories/

CineYouth 2024: Chicago Lens at Facets

Watch the city breathe life into the stories of ten local young filmmakers. From documentaries to music videos, this program represents the city’s long-term love affair with art and culture.

Please note: Films in this program contain themes, images, and language that may not be suitable for all ages.

Virtual Screening
Available to stream globally April 22 @ 12:00pm CT through April 28 @ 11:59pm CT for a 48-hour watch window with Closed Captions.

https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/film/cineyouth2024-chicagolens/

Dance Residency Open Studio Series with Drew Lewis / House of DOV at Chicago Cultural Center

Join House of DOV in the Dance Studio for an intimate view of the rehearsal process and participate in the creation of a new work by Drew Lewis with live music by Family Junket.

Drew Lewis (he/him) is a performer, choreographer, composer and educator originally from Oak Park, IL. He graduated magna cum laude from Cornish College of the Arts in 2016. Drew has performed extensively with Sidra Bell Dance New York, C-LS, Project 44, Attack Theatre, The Joel Hall Dancers, The Lyric Opera of Chicago and in projects by Lucy Riner and Erin Kilmurray. In 2020, Drew formed his own small ensemble, House of DOV, whose debut performance was selected as a finalist for the Chicago Reader’s Best of 2021. House of DOV has since performed throughout Chicago, including the full-length Heavy Objects, commissioned and presented by Steppenwolf Theatre, and Drew has created works for many other venues and projects.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/dance_residency.html

Dance Residency Open Studio Series with Keisha Janae at Chicago Cultural Center

Soulfully rooted in playful praise, this Praise House Language workshop will be a creative circle of expression with testimonials, dance, art-making and song. Through a guided process that centers care, participants of all experiences and backgrounds are able to step into the rehearsal process being used to develop “Praise House Ceremony”. The workshop facilitation is informed by Keisha Janae’s spiritual and faith-based experience.

Previously a teaching artist and Alumni of Columbia College Chicago, Keisha taught house dance on the west and southside of Chicago. She is a well-established improvisational movement artist, accompanied as a soloist for “ Black Monument Jazz Ensemble,” “Sebau,” Katherine Davis, and Ben LaMar Gay. She’s also performed for the Instigation Festival, Freedom From Freedom Too, BraveSoul Movement, and Project Tool. Keisha has been honored as the 2021 3arts Make a Wave awardee, 2021/22Links Hall resident artist, BeBe Millers Solo/Duo Dancing Project Mentee, and Featured in Chicago Takes 10. Passionate about community engagement, Keisha is a Housing Case Manager helping the homeless and underprivileged populations stabilize their housing and health and also personally develop. A creative care community facilitator, she encourages her audience to discover themselves and find release through artistic forms of self-expression. Her aspirations are to rebuild the bonds between family and community through the creative arts and the spiritual upliftment of praise.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/dance_residency.html

Space in this workshop is limited.

Register online (recommended) (link register online to this page: Praise House Language Workshop Tickets, Sat, Apr 27, 2024 at 3:00 PM | Eventbrite)

Dance Residency Open Studio Series with Amalia Raye Wiatr Lewis at Chicago Cultural Center

Soak is a dance-based performance project that emerges from a study of public bathing. This work considers how both dance and bathing practices carve out space to imagine new ways of relating to our bodies and each other. This piece explores the movements of pleasure and leisure, collectively created social space, and the relationship between body, sound, and environment.

Amalia Raye Wiatr Lewis (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist working with living beings, experiences, and objects. Rooted in ecological wonder and an exploration of the sacred, she works with dancers, non-dancers and sound artists to create site-specific performances and public interventions. She holds a BA from Bennington College in Vermont, where she studied choreography, visual art and anthropology, and an MFA from the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art in Trondheim, Norway. She has performed with national and international artists at galleries and museums and has shown her own work in the U.S., Mexico, Norway, France, Germany and Pakistan.

This performance will include ASL Interpretation.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/dance_residency.html

Sensory-Friendly Morning at Lincoln Park Zoo

On Sunday, April 28 from 8-10am, Lincoln Park Zoo is offering Sensory-Friendly Morning hours for guests with disabilities, chronicle illness, or Deaf to experience the zoo grounds and animal buildings in a comfortable and inclusive environment. Modifications include limited capacity and muted attractions. This is a free event.

During Sensory-Friendly Morning, Gift Shop will be open at 8am and Landmark Café will sell beverages starting at 8:30am. Endangered Species Carousel and Lionel Train Adventure will operate with music and noises muted. Not all animal buildings may be open, and some animals may not be in their public viewing spaces.

At 10am, the zoo will be open to the public and begin typical operations.

View the zoo’s accessibility map HERE and accessibility page HERE to help plan your visit.

Lincoln Park Zoo is certified Sensory Inclusive by KultureCity. Please download the free KultureCity app with Lincoln Park Zoo social story.

iOS Android

Guests may only enter at West Gate and East Gate, and they need to present their registration email to zoo ushers.

All Lincoln Park Zoo events take place rain or shine. We have some wonderful animal buildings you can still enjoy if it rains, and the carousel is covered.

For any questions, please email access@lpzoo.org.

Accessibility: Sensory-Friendly

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sensory-friendly-morning-at-lincoln-park-zoo-tickets-864175872297?aff=oddtdtcreator

#OTVTonight: A Window Into Love at Museum of Contemporary Art

For live updates on #OTVTonight: A Window Into Love, visit bit.ly/otvtonight.

Accessibility: Sensory Friendly, ASL, English and Spanish captions, quiet spaces

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/otvtonight-a-window-into-love/

Dance Residency Open Studio Series with Drew Lewis / House of DOV at Chicago Cultural Center

Join House of DOV in the Dance Studio for an informal showing of a new work-in-progress by Drew Lewis, featuring music by Family Junket.

Accessibility: ASL

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/dance_residency.html

Dance Residency Open Studio Series with Helen Lee / Momentum Sensorium at Chicago Cultural Center

Curiosities of Wellness in Bodies of Grief and Joy

Glimpse into the rehearsal process of building choreography in the round for 7 dancers. While this work currently has several sections from 2 previous iterations, this open rehearsal (with possible audience participation) will focus on a new section. Join us as we stumble along together to sounds written by Lee and arranged and performed by Sharon Udoh on the piano. Laughter and tears are encouraged.

Sensory-Friendly Morning

Sensory-Friendly Morning aims to be a welcoming space to experience contemporary art in a judgment-free environment.

“This Living Earth – Our Shared Gaia” exhibition showcase at Beverly Arts Center

WHO: Beverly Arts Center in partnership with the Beverly Area Arts Alliance – https://www.thebeverlyartscenter.com | https://beverlyarts.org/
WHAT: “This Living Earth – Our Shared Gaia” Exhibition
WHEN: April 5 – 27, 2024
WHERE: Beverly Arts Center, Simmerling 2nd Floor Gallery, 2407 W. 111th St, Chicago, IL 60655

ARTISTS’ RECEPTION
“This Living Earth — Our Shared Gaia” opening reception will be held on Friday, April 5, 2024, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Admission to the family-friendly exhibition and reception is free to the public.
Facebook Event Invitation: https://www.facebook.com/events/1090169548901618

Beverly Arts Center is pleased to present the art exhibition titled “This Living Earth – Our Shared Gaia” in its second floor gallery, which is a cross section of visual observations from nature by 12 northern Illinois / Indiana artists in a variety of media. Both naturalism and abstraction are investigated by this group of artists: Sharon Bladholm, Gabriella Boros, Victoria Fuller, Kathryn Gauthier, Fletcher Hayes, Mike Barret Kolasinski, Basia Krol, Deborah Maris Lader, Kim Laurel, Dorothy Mason, Gregory Mejia, Renee McGinnis.

The Gaia theory as a world concept focuses on observing how the biosphere and the evolution of life forms contribute to the stability of our planet. Hortus Botanicus (the botanical garden) is the underlying common influence that permeates each of these artists’ work, whether of landscape, plant, water and animal study or as allegorical metaphors for our natural world in flux. Works exhibited are a figurative treatment of our nature subjects sometimes alluding to other symbolic meanings.

Those symbols of our natural world are expanded on as pattern, texture, color, form and light. We invite you to observe this diverse group of visual expressions compiled by the curator/artist team of Kim Laurel and Fletcher Hayes.

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” — Henry David Thoreau

Accessibility: Wheelchair Accessible.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1090169548901618

Play For All at Chicago Children’s Museum

Chicago Children’s Museum’s Play for All initiative creates a community where play and learning connect for visitors of all abilities. Play for All invites children and families with disabilities to come and experience CCM’s inclusive, multisensory exhibits and programs.

The museum will open at 10 a.m. for pre-registered children and families with disabilities and CCM members before opening to the public at 11 a.m. The first 250 children and families with disabilities who register will receive FREE admission! Pre-registration is required for free admission.

Accessibility: Wheelchair Accessible, Accessible & All-Gender Restrooms, Sound-reducing Headphones, Open Captions, Assistive Listening Devices, Quiet Spaces.

https://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org/play-for-all

Sensory-Friendly Morning at Museum of Contemporary Art

Sensory-Friendly Morning aims to be a welcoming space to experience contemporary art in a judgment-free environment.

Accessibility: sensory-friendly

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/sensory-friendly-morning-8/

Red – A Crayon’s ASL Story at Chicago History Museum

A family fun film with story & games
A crayon who is mistakenly labeled “r-e-d” could never draw anything right until a friend changed everything and helped him be true to himself!

Accessibility: The film includes the story, an interactive quiz and ASL lesson, all presented with ASL performance, enhanced text, voice over, animation & original music.

Details
March 10, 2024 @ 2-4 p.m.
Chicago History Museum
1601 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614

Free with RSVP at bit.ly/Red-ASL-Film

Parking
Public parking is conveniently located one block north of the Museum near Clark and LaSalle streets at 1730 N. Stockton Drive. $10 with Museum validation.

Presented by Sally Is Sarah Productions, CHS, Chicago History Museum

https://www.sallyissarahproductions.com/events/red-chicago-history-museum

Live Arts | Wu Tsang: MOBY DICK; or, The Whale at Museum of Contemporary Art

About the Event
In MOBY DICK; or, The Whale, award-winning filmmaker and visual artist Wu Tsang embarks upon a feature-length, silent-film telling of Herman Melville’s great American novel. The film features original orchestral music composed by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee with Asma Maroof, which is performed live by the Chicago Sinfonietta.

This adaptation, written by Sophia Al Maria and directed by Tsang, follows the white whale above and below the surface of the water, developing a visual cosmology that resists the exploration and exploitation of the earth under imperial colonialism. Tsang’s approach pairs the classic story of the whaler’s ”floating factory” with the beginnings of the film industry. MOBY DICK; or, The Whale was shot entirely on a soundstage combining silent-era filmmaking techniques with Virtual Production, a virtual reality game engine projecting surreal ocean environments.

The narrative is interwoven with extracts by the Sub-Sub-Librarian, a character played by acclaimed poet Fred Moten, and tackles the novel’s subterranean currents, encountering the resistance of the ship’s hydrarchy, or organizational structure, and collectives of “mariners, renegades, and castaways,” as described by historian C.L.R. James. Exploring overlapping histories of industrialism, extractivism, colonialism, ecological and spiritual crisis, the film creates a multilayered surreal filmic adaptation of the 1851 novel.

The MCA’s presentation of MOBY DICK; or, The Whale is organized by Nolan Jimbo, Assistant Curator.

Accessibility: audio description, CART captioning

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/live-arts-moby-dick-or-the-whale/

Play For All Adaptive Sports Event with DARE2TRI at Chicago Children’s Museum

Calling ALL champions to Chicago Children’s Museum! Participate in event activities, including roller sled hockey, handcycling, wheelchair racing, bocce, Judo, group exercises, and See & Touch Prosthetics display. All of our inclusive, multisensory museum exhibits and programs will also be available during Play For All.

The first 500 children and families with disabilities who register will receive free admission.

The museum opens at 10 am for Play For All guests and members exclusively and at 11 am to the general public.

Accessibility: assistive listening devices, quiet spaces, wheelchair accessible

https://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org/play-for-all

Family Day | Quilts and Stories at Museum of Contemporary Art

In January, artists A. Martinez and Gaby Martinez take over the MCA with their collaborative quilt making inspired by Faith Ringgold. Additionally, musician Ben LaMar Gay performs for families to interact with his music, and KIDO Chicago, the award-winning kids boutique in the South Loop, has a pop-up at the museum.

Activities are facilitated in English and Spanish with ASL interpretation provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-quilts-and-stories/

Youth-Led Programming | Teen Creative Agency x #BLKGRLSWURLD at Museum of Contemporary Art

This is an opportunity for members of the TCA to enter into conversation with Christina and Cortney, the founders of #BlkGrlsWurld, about their growth and evolution as Black womxn publishers, event organizers, and lovers of punk, hardcore, and metal.

Coinciding with the Faith Ringgold: American People exhibition, this event highlights the creativity, influence, and impact of Black Femme creatives across generations.

ASL is provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/youth-led-programming-tca-blkgrlswurld/

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins: Audio Description with Strawdog Theatre Company

Strawdog Theatre Company in partnership with Chicago Loop Synagogue presents Hershel & The Hanukkah Goblins. In this musical adaptation of Eric Kimmel’s Caldecott Honor-winning book, a traveling troupe of actors comes to town to find no one celebrating Hanukkah. To save the holiday, they must tell the tale of Hershel of Ostropol & his quest to outwit the goblins who haunt the old synagogue!

Audio Description will be available for this performance in-person and via the live stream. Audience members must RSVP for in-person audio description by emailing accessibility@strawdog.org. There will be an in-person Touch Tour at 10:15am. Those tuning into the live stream will be able to watch a pre-show Audio Description.

Accessibility: Audio Description, Touch Tour, Sensory Friendly

https://www.strawdog.org/hershel

Talk | Lotus L. Kang and Jack Schneider at Museum of Contemporary Art

This year, the Chicago-based artist Lotus L. Kang transformed the museum’s atrium with her mesmerizing work Molt (New York-Lethbridge-Los Angeles-Toronto-Chicago- ) (2018–2023). To celebrate the final weeks of the commissioned installation, Kang speaks with MCA Assistant Curator Jack Schneider.

ASL and CART captioning will be provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-lotus-l-kang-and-jack-schneider/

Rewritten Narratives: A Comic Workshop at Access Living

Let’s reclaim and rewrite our stories as disabled people through writing and drawing together! Too often disabled individuals have their stories told to them by medical professionals and cultural norms. It’s time to get the power back and tell our own tales!

Rewritten Narratives is a workshop for participants who self-identify as disabled and/or chronically ill, whether the disability is apparent or non-apparent. This could mean anything from physical disabilities, learning disabilities, “invisible” disabilities, and disabilities caused by mental health concerns.

No art making skills or experiences required!

Attendees will receive transportation stipend (PACE vouchers).

Location:
Center for Mad Culture
410 South Michigan Avenue, suite 419
Chicago, IL 60605

In-person Rewritten Narratives session RSVP Link: https://tinyurl.com/rewrittennarrative

Access information:
Press Here is on the 4th floor in the Fine Arts Building. It is accessible by elevator. A wheelchair accessible restroom is available. For in-person sessions, please request ASL interpretation and identify any access needs when signing up for a session.

AI captioning will be available for virtual workshop sessions. For virtual sessions, contact B at brandolph@accessliving.org or (312) 640-2100 with access requests. Please allow 2-3 weeks’ advance notice for ASL interpretation requests, both virtual and in-person.

About the facilitator:
Brian “B” Randolph (they/them) is an art therapy graduate student from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Brian specializes in portraiture, drawing the human form, and the writing/drawing of comics. B is working with their supervisor, disabled artist and art therapist, Sandie Yi, to create disability culture and art at Access Living this year.

Sponsor Information:
This project 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, and the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL). DCAL, a teaching lab housed under the department of art therapy and counseling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and Shirley Ryan Abilities Lab. The contents of this project 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 project do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Rewritten Narratives: A Comic Workshop at Access Living

No art making skills or experiences required!

Attendees will receive transportation stipend (PACE vouchers).

Location:
Center for Mad Culture
410 South Michigan Avenue, suite 419
Chicago, IL 60605

In-person Rewritten Narratives session RSVP Link: https://tinyurl.com/rewrittennarrative

Rewritten Narratives: A Comic Workshop at Access Living

No art making skills or experiences required!

Thursday sessions will be held via Zoom from 2-4pm.

Attendees will receive transportation stipend (PACE vouchers).

Join the Rewritten Narratives Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83239461202?pwd=Zml3ZFdDdkhHQU5tTytrM1B5SzlzUT09

Meeting ID: 832 3946 1202
Passcode: AL2023

Access information:
AI captioning will be available for virtual workshop sessions. For virtual sessions, contact B at brandolph@accessliving.org or (312) 640-2100 with access requests. Please allow 2-3 weeks’ advance notice for ASL interpretation requests, both virtual and in-person.

Sponsor Information:

This project 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, and the Disability Culture Activism Lab (DCAL). DCAL, a teaching lab housed under the department of art therapy and counseling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Dancing with Parkinson’s in the South Loop with Joffrey Ballet

Dancing with Parkinson’s is a partnership program between The Joffrey Ballet and Northwestern Medicine built for people with Parkinson’s and their caregivers, friends, and family members.

This class offers a supportive space to explore the artistry of dance, ranging across the styles of ballet, jazz, modern, tap, and improvisation. In this class, we connect the mind to movement, inviting expression and exploration in where it may not have been before: moving the body in conjunction with others and with music, evoking creativity and connection. This program was built so everyone can experience the joy and freedom of dance, no matter age, status, or ability.

Accessibility: low lighting, quiet spaces, wheelchair accessible

https://joffrey.org/education/community-engagement/dancing-with-parkinson-s/

Free Dance Day at Loyola Park

Free Dance Day brings together people of all ages and experience levels to enjoy a day filled with dance classes, performances, and festivities, all for free!
This annual open-house style event is a chance to try out dance classes in a relaxed, communal setting. Visit Synapse’s home studio as an Arts Partner in Residence with the Chicago Park District to try out a free movement class, bring kids to try ballet and hip hop classes, and see the Synapse Performance Troupe perform.
Come for Free Dance Day, then stay for the free Boo! Bash presented by Loyola Park, which includes a DJ dance party, crafts, snacks, and a Halloween-y photo booth.
Schedule and registration details available at www.synapsearts.com.

Accessibility: ASL interpreter, large print programs, quiet spaces

https://synapsearts.com/free-dance-day

ASL Storybook of “Red: A Crayon’s Story” at Oak Park Public Library

Experience Red: A Crayon’s Story like you never have before! This storybook video features Deaf American Sign Language master signer Crom Saunders signing the words to the animated book, with music and sound effects bringing the story to life. Then we’ll watch and play along with fun interactive games conducted by students and teachers from the Indiana School for the Deaf.

Crom will visit in person and play theater games with the kids after the video. This event will have a live interpreter.

Best for kids in preschool and elementary school and their family and friends.

More information at https://oakpark.librarycalendar.com/event/asl-storybook-red-crayons-story

Fall Mental Health Peer Support Group (virtual) with Access Living

The Peer Mental Health Support Group is an opportunity for Disabled-identifying people and those exploring their relationship to disability identity to share and hold space for one another in an accessible and virtual setting.

Facilitated by disabled art therapist Bri Beck, LCPC, ATR, this group is meant to offer an opportunity for participants to share current concerns, thoughts/emotions, and offer support to others through validation, encouragement, and even practical ideas to cope. This group will also explore art as an emotional outlet.

This group is not considered, nor should it be a substitute for traditional group therapy, however, topics of mental health, emotional wellness, self-advocacy, and healthy relationships will be addressed in a structured and confidential space. Participants may attend as many or as little group meetings as needed. Group norms will be reviewed every week.

Join the group via Zoom

Zoom Meeting ID: 818 5920 1086
Zoom Meeting Passcode: AL2023

For any questions, please email bbeck@accessliving.org.

Fall 2023 meeting dates are as follows:
(Off September 4 – Labor Day)
Monday, September 11
Monday, September 18
Monday, September 25

(Off October 2)
Monday, October 9
Monday, October 16
Monday, October 23

(Off October 30)
Monday, November 6
Monday, November 13
Monday, November 20

(Off November 27)
December 4
December 11
December 18

Access Information:

Automatic captioning is available in Zoom.

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 bbeck@accessliving.org with requests.

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, 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. 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.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Sensory-Friendly Morning at Lincoln Park Zoo

On Sunday, September 24 from 8-10am, Lincoln Park Zoo is offering Sensory-Friendly Morning hours for guests with disabilities, chronic illness, or Deaf to experience the zoo grounds and animal buildings in a comfortable and inclusive environment. Modifications include limited capacity and muted attractions. This is a free event, but it does require advanced registration.

Sensory-Friendly Morning is a free program for all people who benefit from visiting the zoo without crowds and other sensitive environmental elements. This includes guests with sensory sensitivities, disabilities, autism, PTSD, and dementia to name a few.

During Sensory-Friendly Morning, Gift Shop will be open at 8am and Landmark Café will sell beverages starting at 8:30am. AT&T Endangered Species Carousel and Lionel Train Adventure will operate with music and noises muted. Not all animal buildings may be open, and some animals may not be in their public viewing spaces.

At 10am, the zoo will be open to the public and begin typical operations.
View the zoo’s accessibility map HERE and accessibility page HERE to help plan your visit.

Lincoln Park Zoo is certified Sensory Inclusive by KultureCity. Please download the free KultureCity app with Lincoln Park Zoo social story. iOS Android

Guests may only enter at West Gate and East Gate, and they need to present their registration email to zoo ushers.

Paid parking is available at the zoo’s parking lot located at Fullerton Parkway and Cannon Drive (2300 N. Cannon Drive). The zoo is also accessible by train via the Armitage and Fullerton stations and by bus via the 22, 36, 151, and 156 routes.

All Lincoln Park Zoo events take place rain or shine. We have some wonderful animal buildings you can still enjoy if it rains, and the carousel is covered.

There is no smoking at Lincoln Park Zoo for the health of the animals in our care.

Pets are not allowed at the zoo, but licensed service animals are welcome.

For any questions, please email access@lpzoo.org.

Accessibility: sensory friendly

https://sensory-friendly-morning-at-Lincoln-Park-Zoo.eventbrite.com

Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellows Reading with The Poetry Foundation

Join us for the first public reading of the 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellows together at the Poetry Foundation. The Poetry Foundation awards five Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships annually. Among the largest awards offered to young poets in the US, the $27,000 prize is intended to support exceptional US poets between 21 and 31 years of age.

This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.

Introducing the 2023 Fellows

Bhion Achimba (they/he) grew up in rural southeastern Nigeria and came to the US as a Scholar-at-Risk fellow at Harvard University. Their manuscript Cantos from the Crossing won the 2023 Center for Book Arts chapbook prize and will be published in November 2023. They earned an MFA in literary arts from Brown University; edit Dgëku, a literary magazine that publishes writing by queer Africans; and serve on the editorial board of TransitionMagazine.

Roda Avelar (she/they) is a trans woman poet from Fresno, California. She earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of California Riverside, where she taught creative writing and English composition, and a BA in English literature from California State University Fresno. She was a Milkweed Editions summer intern in 2019, and a 2022 Community of Writers fellow. She creates work that imagines queer people and people of color in science fiction, mythology, and queer liberation.

Ariana Benson (she/they) is a southern Black poet born in Norfolk, Virginia. Their debut collection, Black Pastoral, won the 2022 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Benson has received a Furious Flower Poetry Prize, a Porter House Review Poetry Prize, and the 2021 Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets. Benson is a proud alumna of Spelman College, where she facilitates creative writing and storytelling workshops for HBCU students. She strives to fashion vignettes of Blackness that speak to its infinite depth and richness in her writing.

Chrysanthemum (she/her) is a poet, a performance artist, and a public historian. Her honors include the 2023 Justin Chin Memorial Scholarship from Lambda Literary; fellowships from Artist Communities Alliance and Kundiman; and a championship with her team at the Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam and the first-ever FEM Slam. Chrysanthemum was born to Vietnamese parents in Oklahoma City, where she came of age around the NW 39th Street and Asian American enclaves. She now calls Providence, Rhode Island, home.

Willie Lee Kinard III (he/they) is a poet, designer, and musician. Kinard earned a BFA from the University of South Carolina and an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. His publications include Orders of Service, winner of the 2022 Alice James Award, and a self-published chapbook/mixtape, chroma. The recipient of fellowships from The Watering Hole and the Pittsburgh Foundation, Kinard is from Newberry, South Carolina, and currently teaches at the University of South Carolina.

In-Person Attendance
Masks are strongly encouraged and available at check-in for those who would like to wear one. Please note that some event performers may choose to perform without a mask. The Foundation reserves the right to update this policy if community levels of COVID-19 increase significantly. Read our full COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines.

Livestream Attendance
The livestream link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. In order to receive the livestream details, please register in advance here.

The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ruth-lilly-and-dorothy-sargent-rosenberg-fellows-reading-tickets-698630892807?aff=oddtdtcreator

Herman’s Lounge: A Night of Rhythm and Prose with The Poetry Foundation

Join us for an evening of enchantment as the Poetry Foundation transforms into Herman’s Lounge, a one night only jazz cabaret named in honor of the magician Black Herman. Dee Alexander (with John McLean), Ben LaMar Gay, keiyaA, and Gabrielle Octavia Rucker will interweave Chicago’s unique relationship to improv, poetry, and jazz. Co-curated by Jared Brown, Janelle Ayana Miller, and Noa Fields.

Born on Chicago’s west side, Dee Alexander is one of the city’s most gifted and respected vocalist/songwriters. Her talents span every music genre, from gospel to R&B, blues to neo-soul, yet her true heart and soul are experienced in their purest form through jazz. Growing up in a household steeped in recordings of Dinah Washington, Ms. Alexander names Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Chicago saxophonist Henry Huff among her major influences, setting her on the path to becoming one of the most accomplished voice improvisers in the world today. Ms. Alexander is currently a WFMT Jazz Radio host. Her performance is accompanied by John McLean.

Ben LaMar Gay is an interdisciplinary composer who moves sound, color, and space components through folkloric filters, producing brilliant electro-acoustic collages. An explorer of many mediums who has been called a “visionary musician” by the New York Times, Gay has found a form of creative expression that begins with improvisation and expands beyond the limits of any single genre. With more than 20 years in vibrant experimental music scenes, Gay’s talents have earned him residencies globally, most recently as a Mellon Foundation Archival Fellow. He has been a member of the Association of the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 2010. Receiving accolades for a parade of more than seven albums, his release Open Arms to Open Us solidified his place in the firmament of the Chicago Jazz Renaissance and was revered as one of the best albums of 2021 by the Washington Post, Pitchfork, JazzTimes, and Digital Berliner. Gay is a beneficiary of the 2018 3Arts Award and the 2019 Worldwide Award from BBC DJ Gilles Peterson.

Chakeiya Camille Richmond, a.k.a. keiyaA, is a musician, writer, and performer from Chicago, living in NYC.

Gabrielle Octavia Rucker is a writer, editor, and teaching artist from the Great Lakes, currently living in the Gulf Coast. She is a 2020 Poetry Project Fellow and a 2016 Kimbilio Fiction Fellow. Her debut poetry collection, Dereliction, is currently available via the Song Cave.

Jared Brown (co-curator) is an artist born in Chicago. They consider themselves a data thief, understanding this role from John Akomfrah’s description of the data thief as a figure that does not belong to the past or present. As a data thief, Jared Brown makes archeological digs for fragments of Black American subculture, history, and technology. Jared repurposes these fragments in audio, text, and performance to investigate the relationship between history and digital, immaterial space. Jared Brown holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and moved back to Chicago in 2016 in order to make and share work that directly relates to their personal history.

Janelle Ayana Miller (co-curator) is a grandchild of the Great Migration, a Midwesterner with Southern inflection. Her practice is rooted within familial and communal aesthetics, looking deeply into bridging self and time as an act of place making.

Accessibility:
Masks are strongly encouraged and available at check-in for those who would like to wear one. Please note that some event performers may choose to perform without a mask. The Foundation reserves the right to update this policy if community levels of COVID-19 increase significantly. Read our full COVID-19 Health & Safety Guidelines. Guests are encouraged to register in advance.

The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hermans-lounge-a-night-of-rhythm-and-prose-tickets-704605262307?aff=oddtdtcreator

Sensory-Friendly Morning at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

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 interpreted, captioning, low lighting, quiet room, Spanish captioning, wheelchair accessible

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/sensory-friendly-morning-6/

Poetry @ The Green at 320: July 2023

Poetry @ The Green at 320 continues for the summer season this July!

Join us on Monday nights in July at 6:00 pm in this beautiful setting to hear outstanding featured poets perform their work in this partnership between Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal. After every poetry performance, there will be an open mic for any individual that would like to share poetry of their own!

ABOUT JULY’S FEATURED PERFORMERS:
July 10: Stephanie Liang is a Chinese-American poet whose work explores grief, family, identity, and longing. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rainy Day Magazine, Runestone, and Masks. When she’s not writing (or thinking about writing), you can find her exploring new places, trying new foods, or playing music. Stephanie is originally from Kansas but now resides in Chicago.

July 17: Alanis Zoe Castillo Caref is a writer-poet activist-artist from Chicago. She received her BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Communication and Creative Writing. Alanis was a finalist for the 2021 Undergraduate Creative Writing Awards and won second place in The Hip Hop Workshop 2022 Spoken-Word/Poetry Competition. She also has poetry published in The Fashion Network magazine. Alanis has performed at Story Lab Chicago, Do Not Submit, Slam Diáspora, and Exhibit B. Currently, she is the Marketing Coordinator at Guild Literary Complex.

July 24: Ron is a first generation Mexican-American, from Chicago, who used to live up north, but has spent almost a decade living on the South Side. They dropped out of college to work on their poetry and have been writing for as long as they can remember. Their writings include doodling poems on the sides of notebooks, and just writing wherever and whenever they can. Their poems focus on mental health and have themes of nature throughout. Ron has been to multiple open mics all over the city and is in a poetry band that plays at Marquette park on the Southside. They didn’t start taking poetry seriously until last Spring but prides themselves on sharing a poem a day across social media platforms.

July 31: Olivia Scheidler (she/her) has been a high school educator for 10 years. Her poetry students have done way cooler things than her, but she has performed at the MOTH, South Side Story Slam and many a friends’ backyard. For fans of sad folk songs, moon picnics, and fun facts.

ABOUT THE CO-CURATORS:
Tarnynon (Ty-yuh-nuh) Onumonu is an artist and licensed Paraprofessional born and raised in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on the southeast side of Chicago and is extremely proud of and humbled by her SouthSide citizenship and West African lineage. In 2017, she took second place in the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards and represented Chicago on the Lethal Poetry Team at the 2018 National Poetry Slam. She has been a Poet in Residence at the Chicago Poetry Center since January of 2019 and has been featured in Newcity Magazine and South Side Weekly.

Timothy David Rey is a writer/performer who works in poetry, plays, and monologue (both fictional and autobiographical). He teaches creative writing and performance throughout the city of Chicago and its suburbs. He is a 2015 Semi-Finalist for the Guild Literary Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, and one of the winners of Project Exploration (The Poetry Center of Chicago 2004). He is the co-founder of the LBGT Solo Performance Showcase, Solo Homo (2002-2011). Timothy’s plays and performance pieces have been seen and heard at venues throughout Chicago as well as out of state and in Panama.

ABOUT THE LOCATION:
The Green at 320 is a public park located in the West Loop and will be host to many family-friendly activities and events this summer!

The Green at 320 is located behind the building at 320 S. Canal, 1 block west of the river. The main staired entrance to the park is on the corner of Clinton and Van Buren with an ADA-accessible ramp off of Clinton. The park is located 1 block north of the Clinton Blue Line Stop. Please find more detailed transit and location information at https://320southcanal.com/.

Accessibility: wheelchair accessible

https://www.poetrycenter.org/poetry-the-green-at-320-july/

Everyone at Play at Kohl’s Children’s Museum

Kohl Children’s Museum was specifically designed to be inclusive of all children and adults regardless of ability. The Museum’s 17 exhibits and 2 acres of outdoor explorations are designed for play with a purpose and encourage linguistic, cognitive, motor, and social skills for children ages birth through 8.

Accessibility: sensory-friendly, quiet spaces, wheelchair accessible

https://www.kohlchildrensmuseum.org/outreach-programs/eap/

Sensory-Friendly Day at Farm-in-the-Zoo at Lincoln Park Zoo

On Sunday, July 30 from 10am to 3pm, Lincoln Park Zoo will host Sensory-Friendly Day at Farm-in-the-Zoo. Modifications include limited capacity. This is a free event, but it does require advanced registration.
Sensory-Friendly Day at Farm-in-the-Zoo is a free program for all people who benefit from visiting the zoo without crowds and other sensitive environmental elements. This includes guests with sensory sensitivities, disabilities, autism, PTSD, and dementia to name a few.

During Sensory-Friendly Day at Farm-in-the-Zoo animal buildings may be open, but some animals may not be in their public viewing spaces. There will also be low sensory activities.

View the zoo’s accessibility map HERE and accessibility page HERE to help plan your visit.
Lincoln Park Zoo is certified Sensory Inclusive by KultureCity. Please download the free KultureCity app with Lincoln Park Zoo social story. iOS Android

pon arrival guests need to present their registration email to zoo ushers. This event is only happening at Farm-in-the-Zoo. The rest of Lincoln Park Zoo will have typical operations for the day.

All Lincoln Park Zoo events take place rain or shine.

There is no smoking at Lincoln Park Zoo for the health of the animals in our care.
Pets are not allowed at the zoo, but licensed service animals are welcome.

For any questions, please email access@lpzoo.org.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sensory-friendly-day-at-farm-in-the-zoo-tickets-669031550377?aff=oddtdtcreator

Accessibility: Sensory-Friendly

Everyone at Play at Kohl’s Children’s Museum

KCM welcomes children with special needs and their families for an afternoon of learning and play focused on them. Our Museum campus is designed for universal accessibility with a purpose to encourage linguistic, cognitive, motor and social skills for all children ages birth to 8.

Accessibility: sensory-friendly, quiet spaces, wheelchair accessible

https://www.kohlchildrensmuseum.org/outreach-programs/eap/

Summer Screenings: Nowhere Special (UK) at Chicago Cultural Center

DIRECTED BY Uberto Pasolini
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.

https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/film/nowhere-special/

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, assistive listening devices, captioning, large print program, wheelchair accessible

DisFest at Chicago Cultural Center

A celebration of the disability arts with some of Chicago’s best disabled artists and performers! Join us after the parade for short-films, live music, dance, art activities, and a fun photo op in the magnificent and air-conditioned Chicago Cultural Center!

https://www.reinventability.com/disfest

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, audio description, captioning, quiet space, sensory friendly, wheelchair accessible

Summer Screenings: Soft (Canada) at Chicago Cultural Center

DIRECTED BY Joseph Amenta
SYNOPSIS
Three friends fall in love with summertime Toronto’s lively nightlife. Young, queer, and unapologetically self-confident, the trio spends their days holding court and plotting to sneak into a nightclub. When one of their caregivers goes missing under suspicious circumstances, reality comes crashing in and their seemingly unbreakable bond is tested. Featuring remarkable performances from its young actors, Soft is a tender portrait of youth, friendship, and life on the city’s margins.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, assistive listening devices, captioning, large print program, wheelchair accessible

https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/film/soft/

The SoundShirt at West Side Story at Lyric Opera

Lyric Opera is prototyping an innovative new experience for audiences who are deaf or hard of hearing called the SoundShirt, built by CuteCircuit. While the orchestra and artists perform on stage, microphones capture the sound. Computer software transforms the sounds into touch data, and the data is broadcast wirelessly to the SoundShirts. SoundShirt wearers experience the feeling of music rendered on their upper body through haptic actuation in real-time in a fully immersive way.

We’re prototyping the experience during our summer musical, West Side Story, and inviting a few outside guests who are hard of hearing and deaf to participate and experience it. There will be a follow-up survey seeking feedback. Seats and shirt sizes are limited, and tickets are free.

For questions, please write to [bdunn@lyricopera.org](mailto:bdunn@lyricopera.org).

https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2022-23/west-side-story/

Poetry at The Green at 320: June 2023

Poetry @ The Green at 320 continues for the summer season this June!

Join us on certain Monday nights in June at 6:00 p.m. in this beautiful setting to hear outstanding featured poets perform their work in this partnership between Chicago Poetry Center and The Green at 320 S. Canal. After every poetry performance, there will be an open mic for any individual that would like to share poetry of their own!

ABOUT JUNE’S FEATURED PERFORMERS:
June 5: Noa Micaela Fields is a trans writer with hearing aids. She is the author of the poetry chapbook With and has also been published in Tripwire, Anomaly, Zoeglossia, Elderly Mag, Tyger Quarterly, and Sixty Inches From Center, among others. She is a programming curator at the Poetry Foundation and a 2022 fellow with Zoeglossia and Disability Lead.

June 12: Nile Lansana is an interdisciplinary artist from the South Side of Chicago. An acclaimed writer, poet, performer, and filmmaker, his work is centered around revealing radical truths and amplifying marginalized voices and narratives through a lens of Black imagination and visionary intention. He was a nominee for the inaugural Chicago Poet Laureate position. A University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate with degrees in Journalism and English – Creative Writing, he won the 2021 Ronald Wallace Poetry Thesis Prize and 2020 George B. Hill Poetry Prize. His work is published in American Gun: A Poem by 100 Chicagoans, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, & elsewhere. He holds fellowships from the Rebuild Foundation and Obsidian Foundation. He has performed across the country, including Lollapalooza and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He recently starred in the play “No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks” produced by Manual Cinema. He is a proud uncle and the oldest of four Black boys. You can follow him on Instagram at @nilesupasuit.

June 26: Adam Gottlieb is a musician, poet, teaching artist, and organizer from Chicago. This year he was one of the nominees for the inaugural Poet Laureate of Chicago. As a youth, he was featured in the documentary film Louder Than A Bomb about the poetry slam festival of the same name. He is the leader of the Fusion band Adam Gottlieb and OneLove. He serves as a cantorial soloist for Tzedek Chicago. He has organized with a wide range of grassroots groups around issues such as housing justice, anti-gentrification, Indigenous sovereignty, education, and police/prison abolition. He also writes for the People’s Tribune.

ABOUT THE LOCATION:
The Green at 320 is a public park located in the West Loop and will be host to many family-friendly activities and events this summer!

https://www.poetrycenter.org/poetry-the-green-at-320-june/

2023 Accessible Juneteenth at UIC Quad

Accessible Juneteenth 2023
Place: the UIC Quad (behind UIC Student Center East); 750 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL
Date and Time: Saturday, June 17th, 2023 from 1pm to 5pm (Open mic livestream from 2:15pm to 3:15pm on Zoom and Chicagoland DPOCC Facebook page)
*******************************************
Come and celebrate our second Juneteenth where we celebrate the black disability community and the victories we accomplished! We want to make Juneteenth a fun and important accessible experience for all, including disabled people in the African Diaspora.

RSVP at https://go.uic.edu/2023_AccessibleJuneteenth_RSVP to get event notifications!

This year, we will have a DJ who will bless us with music fit for our Accessible Juneteenth celebration. There will be food, giveaways, and resources given out by vendors also, including from Black-owned and disability-owned/friendly organizations and businesses.

We will host an open-mic where you can share your talents in singing, spoken-word, playing instruments, and more! Sign up at https://go.uic.edu/2023_AccessibleJuneteenth_OpenMic_Signup by June 9th at 11:59pm CT, or sign up in-person at the event. But hurry, because spots are limited!

If you’re not able to attend the celebration in person, that is okay! You can join us virtually; we will host a livestream of the open mic portion of the event. Register for the livestreams at https://go.uic.edu/2023_Virtual_AccessibleJuneteenth_Stream, or watch the livestream on Chicagoland DPOCC’s Facebook page on June 17th.

ASL will be provided for open mic portion; live captioning will be provided for the livestream of the open mic portion

More event details TBA as we get closer to the day; stay tuned for updates.

This event is brought to you by:
Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition
The Institute on Disability and Human Development at UIC
Access Living
UIC Disability Cultural Center
Chicago Disability Pride Parade
Whole Foods

https://fb.me/e/O6EJFU1V

Keep Stepping Screening (Australia) at Chicago Cultural Center

SYNOPSIS
In Sydney, Gabi and Patricia train to compete in Destructive Steps, Australia’s largest street dance competition. Both are pushing themselves mentally and physically in hopes that winning the contest will open new doors and possibilities for a better life. The film spans seven years and provides viewers with intimate access to the breathtaking artform of street dancing. Keep Stepping illuminates the multicultural, passion-filled subculture and tells a moving story about love, obsession, and the transformative power of dance.
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. DIRECTED BY Luke Cornish

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.

Accessibility

Summer Screenings: Nowhere Special (UK) at Chicago Cultural Center

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.

Accessibility

Lab E: In-Progress Showing at Experimental Station

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.

https://highconceptlabs.org/events/lab-e-july-2023

Lab E: Writing Group at Experimental Station

LabE is a series of monthly cohort meetings addressing particular needs of disabled dance artists.

During our May meeting we’ll pool our knowledge around writing funding applications. Whether you’ve written several successful applications or are just beginning the process of writing your first application, this space is for you. Depending on the needs of the group, this may look like spending time quietly co-writing, passing around drafts to get feedback, discussing strategies for framing our work as disabled artists in applications, or developing a list of funding opportunities to share with the community.
LabE is open to all Chicago-area dance artists who self-identify as Deaf/deaf/hard of hearing, sick, mad, neurodivergent, disabled or living with a disability, and/or who have lived experience with disability or impairment. This space is particularly meant for those interested in exploring disability and impairment-informed modes of practicing dance.

Additional Access Information is available here:
https://highconceptlabs.org/news-2/labe-launches-at-experimental-station

For any other questions or requests regarding accessibility accommodations, please contact HCL’s Accessibility Coordinator, Yolanda Cesta Cursach Montilla (yolanda@highconceptlabs.org).

Sensory-Friendly Morning at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

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/

Writing Care Scenes: A Workshop & Skill Share with 2023 3Arts/Bodies of Work Residency Fellow, Kennedy Dawson Healy

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.

https://writingcarescenes.eventbrite.com/

Gwendolyn Brooks Panel: Reflecting on a Chicago Legend at The Poetry Foundation

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

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, captioning

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gwendolyn-brooks-panel-reflecting-on-a-chicago-legend-tickets-621192251747

CineYouth Film Festival 2023: Chicagoland Screening at FACETS

The exhilarating work of Chicago’s next generation of filmmakers is showcased in this eclectic collection that celebrates the vast array of creative expressions emerging from our city. These films will screen with Open Captions, and the Q&A will feature Live Captioning.

Note: Films in this program contain themes or language that may not be suitable for all ages.

Accessibility: open captions, live captions

https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/film/cineyouth2023-chicagoland/

Sensory-Friendly Morning at Lincoln Park Zoo

On Sunday, May 14 from 8-10am, Lincoln Park Zoo is offering Sensory-Friendly Morning hours for guests with disabilities, chronicle illness, or Deaf to experience the zoo grounds and animal buildings in a comfortable and inclusive environment. Modifications include limited capacity and muted attractions. This is a free event, but it does require advanced registration.

At 10am, the zoo will be open to the public and begin typical operations.

View the zoo’s accessibility map HERE and accessibility page HERE to help plan your visit.

Lincoln Park Zoo is certified Sensory Inclusive by KultureCity. Please download the free KultureCity app with Lincoln Park Zoo social narrative. iOS Android

Guests may only enter at West Gate and East Gate, and they need to present their registration email to zoo ushers.

All Lincoln Park Zoo events take place rain or shine. We have some wonderful animal buildings you can still enjoy if it rains, and the carousel is covered.

There is no smoking at Lincoln Park Zoo for the health of the animals in our care.

Pets are not allowed at the zoo, but licensed service animals are welcome.

For any questions, please email access@lpzoo.org.

Accessibility: sensory-friendly

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sensory-friendly-morning-at-lincoln-park-zoo-tickets-617752734057

CineYouth Film Festival 2023: Virtual Chicagoland Screening with Chicago International Film Festival

The exhilarating work of Chicago’s next generation of filmmakers is showcased in this eclectic collection that celebrates the vast array of creative expressions emerging from our city.

Note: Films in this program contain themes or language that may not be suitable for all ages.

Closed Captions will be available with these films on our online platform.

https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/film/cineyouth2023-chicagoland/

Please note, there are also in-person screenings. This post contains information for the virtual screening only.

Crafting Care with Maggie Bridger at Curb Appeal Gallery

We are delighted to be hosting Maggie Bridger on April 15 as part of her Crafting Care series. In anticipation of her performance “Scale”, Maggie is holding open crafting sessions centered around collectively creating objects of care—including masks, blankets, and cushions. The culmination of our care work, made visible in the items we craft together, will likely be put to use in the performance of “Scale” in May! Feel free to come by Curb Appeal from 2:00-4:00pm on 4/15, and bring any crafting projects you might want to work on.

Additionally, this is the second-to-last week to experience Molly Joyce’s “Perspective” a sound and video work that grapples with the myriad ways in which people experience disability. The work is open captioned. Sound descriptions and image descriptions accompany the video, too.

Curb Appeal is wheelchair accessible. We also have a gallery dog (Momo) who will be present at this program. We’ll continue to mask inside, in consideration of one another. Email us for address and access information: info@curbappeal.gallery.

https://www.curbappeal.gallery/

Maggie Bridger | Scale at High Concept Labs

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.

https://highconceptlabs.org/events/maggie-bridger-scale

Chicago Inclusive Dance Festival at Mayor’s Office for People with Disability Field Office

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

Alonzo King LINES Ballet Family Matinee at Harris Theater for Music and Dance

Alonzo King LINES Ballet returns to the Harris stage for the first time since 2015. The celebrated contemporary ballet company, whose mission is to nurture artistry and the development of creative expression in dance, through collaboration, performance, and education, will perform in a matinee program for children and families.

Accessibility: ASL interpreter, assistive listening devices, large print programs, sensory-friendly, quiet spaces, wheelchair accessible

https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/alonzo-king-lines-ballet/family

Family Day | We Are Rooted, We Are Flowing at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

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/

“My Girl Story” Virtual Film Screening and Discussion at Access Living

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.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/my-girl-story-film-screening-and-discussion-tickets-539655914367?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

Maggie Bridger | Lab E: In-Process Showing at Experimental Station

LabE is a series of monthly cohort meetings addressing particular needs of disabled dance artists.

The LabE gathering on April 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.

In-progress projects will be presented by Sydney Erlikh & Deb Goodman.

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.

LabE is open to all Chicago-area dance artists who self-identify as Deaf/deaf/hard of hearing, sick, mad, neurodivergent, disabled or living with a disability, and/or who have lived experience with disability or impairment. This space is particularly meant for those interested in exploring disability and impairment-informed modes of practicing dance.

Additional Access Information is available at https://highconceptlabs.org/news-2/labe-launches-at-experimental-station. For any other questions or requests regarding accessibility accommodations, please contact HCL’s Accessibility Coordinator, Yolanda Cesta Cursach Montilla (yolanda@highconceptlabs.org).

Accessibility: captioning, sensory-friendly, quiet spaces, wheelchair accessible

https://highconceptlabs.org/events/lab-e-april-2

Voices Embodied Uplifted at Design Museum of Chicago

Opening reception for Voices Embodied

Highlighting a relationship between disability and community, Voices Embodied: Uplifted is boldly displayed throughout the Design Museum of Chicago. The work of fourteen artists is displayed to reconsider the space in a way that is moody, engaging and vulnerable. Colorful work, visible in the large public-facing windows engages the community while the dark vault space located in the back of the museum becomes a place of contemplation where viewers are close in proximity to the pieces. All the selected works come from individual perspectives but are displayed in such a way that the work begins to relate and support one another.

While being bold and colorful, and expressing pride, the work is invitational. The pieces in Voices Embodied: Uplifted demonstrate the strength of a supportive community.

The interior of the Design Museum of Chicago is wheelchair accessible. There is a ramp that leads to the entry but the entrance door is not automated. Restrooms are located in the basement, accessible by an elevator. For individual access requests, please visit saic.edu/access.

https://voicesembodiedproject.com/uplifted

Virtual Beekeeping Lecture with Jonathan Bennett

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.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/504743109227/

“Molly Joyce: Perspective” Exhibition Opening at Curb Appeal Gallery

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.

https://www.curbappeal.gallery/

Open Door: Ari Banias, Joss Barton, Alex Jane Cope, and KOKUMO at the Poetry Foundation

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

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

Athena LaTocha Lecture at the Art Institute of Chicago

Join us in person for a lecture by distinguished alum Athena LaTocha followed by an audience Q&A.

Location: The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.

Athena LaTocha (BFA 1992) is an artist whose massive works on paper explore the relationship between human-made and natural worlds. The artist incorporates materials such as ink, lead, earth, and wood while looking at correlations between mark-marking and displacement of materials made by industrial equipment and natural events. LaTocha’s process is about being immersed in these environments while responding to the storied and, at times, traumatic cultural histories that are rooted in place.

Presented in partnership with SAIC Alumni Engagement.

This event is free, non-ticketed and open to the general public.

This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services. The auditorium is wheelchair accessible and hearing assisted devices are available. For additional access requests, visit saic.edu/access.

Accessibility: live captions, assistive listening devices, wheelchair accessible

https://www.saic.edu/events/athena-latocha

Poetry & Grief: Raquel Salas Rivera & Angel Dominguez at the Poetry Foundation

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.

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.

Accessibility: ASL interpreter, live captions

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-grief-raquel-salas-rivera-angel-dominguez-tickets-539584039387

A House Called Tomorrow: Copper Canyon at 50 at the Poetry Foundation

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.

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.

Accessibility: ASL interpreter, live captions

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-house-called-tomorrow-copper-canyon-at-50-tickets-519984466537

Copper Canyon 50th Anniversary Reading at Poetry Foundation

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.

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.

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.

Accessibility: ASL interpreter, live captions,

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/copper-canyon-50th-anniversary-reading-tickets-519975008247

Torkwase Dyson Lecture at the Art Institute of Chicago

Join us in person for a lecture by artist Torkwase Dyson followed by an audience Q&A.

Location: The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.

Working in painting, drawing, and sculpture, Torkwase Dyson combines expressive mark-making and geometric abstraction to explore the continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture. Dyson deconstructs, distills, and interrogates the built environment, exploring how individuals—particularly Black and Brown people—negotiate, negate, and transform systems and spatial order. Throughout her work and research, Dyson seeks to confront issues of environmental liberation, envisioning a path toward a more equitable future.

This event is free, non-ticketed and open to the general public.

https://www.saic.edu/events/torkwase-dyson