Learning Series | The Impact of Food Apartheid in Education Part 3 at Museum of Contemporary Art

Learning Series | The Impact of Food Apartheid in Education Part 3 at Museum of Contemporary Art

Gardening, not Architecture
Throughout the year, the MCA hosts high-quality professional development programming, open to teachers of all subjects, grade levels, and disciplines. These events are educator-specific, skills-based, training on contemporary art integration. Programs are designed in connection with the cultural assets of the MCA and the needs of the Chicago area educators. In keeping with addressing issues of relevance, the 2023-24 Learning Series is a four-part series exploring on “The Impact of Food Apartheid in Education”.

The term “apartheid” is used as it acknowledges the existence of economic and racial segregation systems. And as history has shown us, apartheid systems can be dismantled through collective action.

For Session Three, Eric “Manny” Von Haynes and Ramon “Radius” Norwood, core organizers of Love Fridge Chicago, conduct a workshop titled “Gardening, not Architecture,” which delves into the impactful work of Love Fridge. Love Fridge Chicago is a mutual aid network that aims to combat food apartheid and provide essential resources to the Chicago community.

The workshop covers the strategies and practices this mutual aid network uses to address systemic challenges and addresses initiatives to create sustainable systems that empower individuals and communities. This interactive session include group discussions, hands-on activities, and a creative writing exercise to promote collaboration and understanding.

ASL is available upon request, email  BoxOffice@mcachicago.org

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/learning-series-the-impact-of-food-apartheid-in-education-part-3/

Laura Ortman, Smoke Rings Shimmers Endless Blur at Museum of Contemporary Art

Renowned composer and multi-instrumentalist Laura Ortman performs two evenings of live, solo, multimedia concerts. Informed by her practice as a sculptor and installation artist, Ortman bridges the gap between music and fine art in her performances, describing her musical approach as “sculpting sound.” An accomplished violinist, her work encompasses a variety of textures and atmospheres created with the Apache violin, effects pedals, piano, guitar, and voice. In the MCA’s Edlis Neeson Theater, Ortman’s original music is presented alongside her video work.

This performance is part of On Stage: Resonance, organized by Tara Aisha Willis, former Curator in Performance, with Laura Paige Kyber, Curatorial Associate.

Runtime: approx. 45–60 min

Content Warning:

This performance includes the use of theatrical haze, moving images, and loud, sometimes abrupt, sounds.

Assess Information:

Ear plugs are available upon request for all performances. If you need wheelchair seating or have limited mobility, staff members are available to assist you.

The performance on Saturday, April 27, features ASL interpretation and Audio Description.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/laura-ortman/

Samita Sinha, Tremor at the Museum of Contemporary Art

Tremor is artist and composer Samita Sinha’s latest performance work. In the piece, Sinha explores what she describes as “the practice of attuning oneself to the raw material of vibration and its emergence in space, as well as unfolding the possibilities that arise from encounters between this sonic material and other individuals.” Tremor is born from Sinha’s practice of decomposing, distilling, and transforming Indian vocal traditions through the body, employing sound as a vessel that harnesses and liberates energy through oneself. Through this practice, what emerges is a new language with the potential to challenge our thinking, reconfigure our relationships, and open new forms of collaboration. In Tremor, Sinha asks how we might reactivate our relationship to life itself through our sense of vibration, despite the numbing and distorting effects of coloniality and modernity. How can our voices be vessels to repair the fabric of our interconnection and open generative possibilities? How can we relearn to listen?

Performed in relationship to a live sonic environment created by composer Ash Fure, and within a space designed by architect Sunil Bald, Sinha is joined on stage each night by a rotating cast of sound-and movement-based collaborators. The casting schedule will be announced in the coming months.

Tremor was co-commissioned by Western Front (Vancouver, CA) and Danspace Project (New York).

This performance is part of On Stage: Resonance, organized by Tara Aisha Willis, former Curator in Performance, with Laura Paige Kyber, Curatorial Associate.

Run time: 60-75 min

Content Warning:

Seating for this performance is general admission and on stage. A limited number of cushions are available for sitting on the floor, and provide the closest proximity to the performance. If you require a chair, please speak with a staff member who can assist you. The performance includes the use of theatrical haze. Some loud sounds may occur throughout. There will be intervals of very low light, including complete darkness at times.

Ear plugs are available upon request for all performances. If you need wheelchair seating or have limited mobility, staff members are available to assist you.

The performance on Saturday, April 20, features Audio Description.

Politics of Poetics: CAConrad

About the Event
Join us for a reading with poet CAConrad in celebration of the new series Politics of Poetics.

ASL and CART captioning are provided.

About the Series
Politics of Poetics is a new quarterly program series held in the MCA’s Edlis Neeson Theater that highlights today’s leading poets whose practices traverse the political through writing, teaching, and activism. The series invites poets from across the globe to give readings and be in conversation with artists and other thinkers about the themes in their work. Historically, poets and visual artists have benefitted from close collaboration and artistic exchange, sharing in technical approaches and critical ideas of the day. Like many of the artists exhibited at the MCA, these poets take up critical issues in their work while propelling voices, stories, and thoughts under-seen and under-regarded in traditional canons.

About the Speaker
CAConrad has worked with the ancient technologies of poetry and ritual since 1975. Their latest book is Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return (Wave Books / UK Penguin 2024). They received the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize, a PEN Josephine Miles Award, a Creative Capital grant, a Pew Fellowship, and a Lambda Award. They exhibit poems as art objects with recent solo shows in Spain and Portugal, and their play The Obituary Show was made into a film in 2022 by the artist Augusto Cascales. Visit them at https://linktr.ee/CAConrad88.

David Lamelas: This Is My Place

About the Event
This Is My Place is a fictional documentary about the itinerant life and conceptual artwork of artist David Lamelas, whose sculpture Situacíon de cuatro placas de aluminio (Four Changeable Plaques) (1966), is currently on view in Endless. Commissioned by the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), the film features Lamelas interviewed by Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator Carla Acevedo-Yates. Lamelas reflects on a life defined by migration between cultures and countries, and how those experiences shaped his artistic practice, which for decades has centered explorations of time and place.

Lamelas speaks with Endless curator Nolan Jimbo after the screening.

ASL is available upon request. Please email jkriegel@mcachicago.org for requests.

About The Artist
David Lamelas (b. 1946, Buenos Aires, Argentina; lives between Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and Paris) is a pivotal artist within the histories of conceptual art and experimental film. He was a key figure within the Argentinian avant-garde during the 1960s, participating in landmark exhibitions at the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires and representing Argentina at the Venice Biennale in 1968. He then studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London and showed his work in pioneering exhibitions of conceptual art throughout the 1970s in Europe and the United States. He moved to Los Angeles during the mid-1970s and since then has divided his time between the United States, Europe, and South America.

Justice Stephen Breyer at Francis W. Parker School

Honorably serving for twenty-eight years as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer challenges the textualist philosophy of the court’s supermajority with insightful analysis and arguments for a more nuanced view of Constitutional interpretation. Emphasizing the consequential impacts of major legal decisions, Breyer upends the prevailing textualism approach as outlined in his book Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism. Former Justice Breyer and CNN senior Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic connect with Chicago Humanities to expand on his views for a flexible, evolving Constitution. Breyer asserts that pivotal cases like Dobbs and Bruen were incorrectly decided. They underscore the importance of considering the intent and repercussions of legal statutes and offer a compelling case for a more balanced interpretation of law.

Accessibility: ASL Interpreted, Open Captions, Assistive Listening Devices, and Wheelchair accessible.

https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/breyer-biskupic/

Billy Elliot: The Musical at Paramount Theatre

There will be two certified sign interpreters to interpret all dialogue and lyrics at the Paramount Theatre on March 22nd, 2024 for Billy Elliot: The Musical.
See the show for $30 each. Purchase online using instructions below, or email mariew@paramountarts.com.

Click the performance you wish to purchase:
Enter promo code: ASLPARAMOUNT
Click on the ASL Interpreted Section
Select your seats and click PROMO $30
Add to order and proceed through checkout
You must enter promo code to unlock ASL Interpreted section and special $30 price.

Accessibility: ASL Interpreted.

https://paramountaurora.com/visit/#accessibility

LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Ensemble Member Laurie Metcalf comes home to Steppenwolf to star in Little Bear Ridge Road, a comic, cosmic and intimate world premiere, penned by MacArthur Fellow Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Tony Award winner Joe Mantello.

In the outer limits of rural Idaho, the last two members of the Fernsby family tree, an estranged aunt and nephew, reunite to sort the mess left behind after a troubled father’s passing. They now face an uncomfortable and universal question: how do we deal with other people? And is connection more trouble than it’s worth? As their relationship begins anew, the two reluctant Fernsby’s—separated by age and experience—​start to understand the joys and perils of letting someone else into your own story, even if only for a moment.

Little Bear Ridge Road will be performed in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater.

 

ASL Interpretation, Audio Description, Open Captions, and Touch Tour will be available.

A Year with Frog and Toad at Chicago Children’s Theatre

Children’s author and illustrator Arnold Lobel’s beloved characters hop from the page to the stage in the Tony-nominated musical A Year With Frog And Toad, based on his popular children’s book that follows two best friends – the cheerful, popular Frog and grumpy, but lovable Toad – through four fun-filled seasons.

A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD was originally presented on Broadway by Bob Boyett, Adrianne Lobel, Michael Gardner, Lawrence Horowitz and Roy Furman. The play had its world Premiere at The Children’s Theatre Company Minneapolis, Minnesota.

ACCESS Weekend |Sat, April 27th (9:30am: Sensory Friendly, 11:30am: ASL & Open Captions) and Sun, April 28th (9:30am: Sensory Friendly, 11:30am: Audio Description & Touch Tour – must confirm attendance two weeks prior to performance)

A Year with Frog & Toad

 

The Next Cup of Tea at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Copresented with the Steppenwolf LookOut Series

The Next Cup of Tea is a solo dance-theater performance by Anjal Chande that investigates how to make sense of the never-ending impulses that run through our hearts, our everyday moments, and our contradictory experiences. Through improvisational dance and storytelling, Chande reflects on money, her grandfather, the politics of art, and more. Zigzagging between the gnawing inner world and daily physical routine, The Next Cup of Tea traverses through all that is ordinary, appalling, and enchanting.

This performance was originally scheduled as a part of the MCA’s 2023 Chicago Performs series, organized by Tara Aisha Willis, former curator, with Laura Paige Kyber, Assistant Curator.

Special Thanks from the Artist
Gratitude to all the collaborators who have contributed to previous iterations of this work across seven years of process. Shout out to the following individuals who shaped recent versions during the pandemic (2021) and a live showing at Tanztage in Berlin (2019): Gina Hoch-Stall (dramaturg), Jesse Hunter (musician), Karl Olson (musician), Josh Anderson (cinematographer), Emese Csornai (lighting design), David Ofori-Amoah (material design), Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos Jr. (dramaturg), and Sophia New (mentor).

Accessibility: ASL interpretation, audio description

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/the-next-cup-of-tea/

The Next Cup of Tea at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Copresented with the Steppenwolf LookOut Series

The Next Cup of Tea is a solo dance-theater performance by Anjal Chande that investigates how to make sense of the never-ending impulses that run through our hearts, our everyday moments, and our contradictory experiences. Through improvisational dance and storytelling, Chande reflects on money, her grandfather, the politics of art, and more. Zigzagging between the gnawing inner world and daily physical routine, The Next Cup of Tea traverses through all that is ordinary, appalling, and enchanting.

This performance was originally scheduled as a part of the MCA’s 2023 Chicago Performs series, organized by Tara Aisha Willis, former curator, with Laura Paige Kyber, Assistant Curator.

Special Thanks from the Artist
Gratitude to all the collaborators who have contributed to previous iterations of this work across seven years of process. Shout out to the following individuals who shaped recent versions during the pandemic (2021) and a live showing at Tanztage in Berlin (2019): Gina Hoch-Stall (dramaturg), Jesse Hunter (musician), Karl Olson (musician), Josh Anderson (cinematographer), Emese Csornai (lighting design), David Ofori-Amoah (material design), Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos Jr. (dramaturg), and Sophia New (mentor).

Accessibility: ASL interpretation and audio description

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/the-next-cup-of-tea/

Learning Series | The Impact of Food Apartheid in Education, Part 2 at Museum of Contemporary Art

Harnessing Narrative for Food Sovereign Futures
Throughout the year, the MCA hosts high-quality professional development programming, open to teachers of all subjects, grade levels, and disciplines. These events are educator-specific, skills-based, training on contemporary art integration. Programs are designed in connection with the cultural assets of the MCA and the needs of the Chicago area educators. In keeping with addressing issues of relevance, the 2023–24 Learning Series is a four-part series exploring “The Impact of Food Apartheid in Education.”

The term “apartheid” is used as it acknowledges the existence of economic and racial segregation systems. And as history has shown us, apartheid systems can be dismantled through collective action.

This workshop, titled “Harnessing Narrative for Food Sovereign Futures,” is meant to help us to understand food apartheid: how it impacts our lives and how we can leverage power in order to mobilize towards food sovereignty. Through experiential storytelling, collective imagination exercises, and power-mapping strategies, teachers work alongside food justice advocates to learn how they can make a difference in their classroom, their school, and their food system. This session includes a making and a writing activity.

Accessibility: ASL interpretation and captioning upon request

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/learning-series-the-impact-of-food-apartheid-in-education-part-2/

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

Hands Up! Body with Tellin’ Tales Theatre

Tellin’ Tales Theatre’s Hands Up! Body delves into the impact of body demands and perceptions in our daily lives. Body dissatisfaction, changes in physical ability, and aging are just some of the topics explored. Each story examines the vulnerability, challenges, and wisdom built from the writer’s experience. Our bodies look and work exactly as they are supposed to, each with its own unique beauty. Video clips from Momenta, a dance company inclusive of artists with disabilities will be included in the performance. This performance is co-sponsored by Northeastern Illinois University and the Disability Cultural Center. Learn more and order tickets at: https://tellintales.org/

Accessibility: ASL interpretation

The Penelopiad at Goodman Theatre

An unexpected remix of Homer’s The Odyssey, told by the celebrated and subversive author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale).

It’s her turn. Penelope has waited 20 years for her husband to return from the Trojan War. Now, as authorial control shifts to Odysseus’ long-suffering wife—and the 12 faithful maids who have long tended to her—we discover a new perspective on the domestic vigil. This ancient tale told anew by “one of the most admired authors in North America” (NPR) gives voice to those left behind.

Recommended for ages 14+

ASL will be provided at this show.

https://www.goodmantheatre.org/show/the-penelopiad/

What’s Your Like at Malarkey Comedy

The Tellin’ Tales Theatre’s Improv Team
“What’s Yours Like” is inspired by a theme developed by the audience at the start of each show. Then, improvisers with and without disabilities leap into action and develop humorous and unpredictable narratives in real time. This time stand-up comics with and without disabilities open for us! Sponsored by Bodies of Work.

Accessibility: ASL interpretation

https://malarkeycomedy.com/tellin-tales

Black Grace Family Matinee at Harris Theater for Music and Dance

Age Recommendation: PNC Family Series is recommended for children and adults ages 4 and older. However, children of all ages are welcome!

New Zealand’s leading contemporary dance company comes to Chicago for the first time.

Founded by Neil Ieremia, ONZM, Black Grace performs works that draw from Ieremia’s Samoan and New Zealand roots, reaching across social, cultural, and generational barriers. Rich in the storytelling traditions of the South Pacific, the works are highly physical and expressed with raw finesse, unique beauty, and power.

Black Grace brings its unique approach to movement and storytelling to the PNC Family Series with a special matinee performance for young audiences, narrated by Ieremia.

This afternoon is designed to offer a safe and welcoming experience for all, with additional resources available to patrons who may have sensory sensitivities. We are thrilled to foster an informal, judgement-free atmosphere where all audience members can respond to the performance in their own way: clap, dance, make noise, or observe quietly, it’s completely up to you!

Sensory-friendly services include:

1. A designated quiet play area located on Level 2 if you need a break from the performance
a. Need help find this quiet play area? Harris Theater staff are happy to direct you.
2. A Welcome Guide and sensory-friendly maps are available to help you understand what you will see and hear during your visit
a. Need to find a paper copy of these resources? Harris Theater staff on at our Welcome Table on Lobby Level 5 can help you!
3. Friendly faces of trained staff and volunteers, here to help guide your visit

ASL interpretation and Audio Description will be provided.

https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/performance/black-grace-family-matinee

Jazzmeia Horn Family Matinee at Harris Theater for Music and Dance

Age Recommendation: PNC Family Series is recommended for children and adults ages 4 and older. However, children of all ages are welcome!

Jazzmeia Horn is a vocalist and composer, author, activist, educator, multi-GRAMMY Award nominee, and winner of the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition. Praised by The New York Times as “among the most exciting young vocalists in jazz, with a proud traditionalism that keeps her tightly linked to the sound of classic figures like Nancy Wilson and Betty Carter, but a vivacity of spirit and conviction that places her firmly in the present,” Horn makes her Harris Theater debut with performances on the Mix at Six and PNC Family Series in 2024.

Horn, who will publish her first children’s book — based on her forthcoming album Messages — in 2024, is creating a special storyteller-style program for the PNC Family Series that will premiere on the Harris Theater stage. Blending works from her GRAMMY-nominated albums and stories from her life and career, the program will engage audiences of all ages in Horn’s unique sound and musical influences.

This afternoon is designed to offer a safe and welcoming experience for all, with additional resources available to patrons who may have sensory sensitivities. We are thrilled to foster an informal, judgement-free atmosphere where all audience members can respond to the performance in their own way: clap, dance, make noise, or observe quietly, it’s completely up to you!

Sensory-friendly services include:

1. A designated quiet play area located on Level 2 if you need a break from the performance
a. Need help find this quiet play area? Harris Theater staff are happy to direct you.
2. A Welcome Guide and sensory-friendly maps are available to help you understand what you will see and hear during your visit
a. Need to find a paper copy of these resources? Harris Theater staff on at our Welcome Table on Lobby Level 5 can help you!
3. Friendly faces of trained staff and volunteers, here to help guide your visit

Accessibility: ASL, audio description

https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/performance/jazzmeia-horn-family-matinee

A HOME WHAT HOWLS at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

A coyote howling. A home in disarray. A young woman alone. In Matthew Paul Olmos’ world premiere, Soledad Vargas is in the city, fighting for her family’s right to live on their land. When hope starts to dwindle, how far will she go, and what will she be forced to leave behind? A modern myth drawn from the real life struggles of displaced communities around the globe, a home what howls is a lyrically-rendered quest of youth activism standing against forces of injustice.

ASL Interpretation will be provided for this event.

https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons-/202324/a-home-what-howls/

THE THANKSGIVING PLAY at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Four (very) well-intentioned theatre people walk into an elementary school. The work at hand: a Thanksgiving pageant that won’t ruffle any feathers. What could possibly go wrong? In MacArthur Genius Larissa FastHorse’s skewering and satirical comedy, well, just about everything. Rambunctious, thorny and not altogether politically correct, The Thanksgiving Play serves up the hypocrisies of woke America on a big, family-style, platter. Come get ya some.

ASL Interpretation will be provided for this event.

https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons-/202324/the-thanksgiving-play/

The Matchbox Magic Flute at Goodman Theatre

In her acclaimed signature style, Mary Zimmerman conceives a brand new theatrical adaptation of Mozart’s beloved opera.

Playful and imaginative, it’s big music in a small space. This “matchbox” presentation of The Matchbox Magic Flute features a cast of 10 and orchestra of five—following the fantastic adventures of Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina. With dragons, a man who is a bird, trials by fire and water and underground corridors, Day and Night do battle.

Mozart composed Symphony No. 1 in E Flat Major at the age of eight. Feel free to bring your 8+ year-old little geniuses to the show.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted

https://www.goodmantheatre.org/show/the-magic-flute/

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

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

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

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

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

The film contains brief nudity.

Audio Description and CART captioning are provided for the February 16 performance.

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

Talk | Sowing Change with Erika Allen and Linda Goode Bryant at Museum of Contemporary Art

Sowing Change: Creativity and Food Sovereignty is a collaboration between the MCA and the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB 5). This program brings together artists Erika Allen, founder of Urban Growers Collective in Chicago, and Linda Goode Bryant, founder of the pathbreaking gallery, Just Above Midtown (1976-1984) and Project EATS in New York City. Allen and Goode Bryant will discuss how the arts—and tending to the imagination—have guided their visionary leadership in transforming urban space as sites for food sovereignty and collective change.

The conversation will be moderated by Emily Mello, Senior Director of Learning, Education, and Public Programs at the MCA.

ASL and CART captioning are available.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-sowing-change-with-erika-allen-linda-goode-bryant/

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.

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

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

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

Talk | Roundtable on Faith Ringgold at MCA

Join us for a conversation on how Faith Ringgold’s aesthetic and political practices continue to reverberate across generations of artists with artists Jamal Cyrus and Amanda Williams, and the MCA presentation Curator of Faith Ringgold: American People, MCA Manilow Senior Curator Jamillah James.

English/Spanish CART and ASL are provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-roundtable-on-faith-ringgold/

Teen Creative Agency | Zine Fest 2023 at MCA

Join us for music, free snacks, free zines, and more!

The Teen Creative Agency at the MCA is celebrating 12 years (and counting) of DIY publications by teens! This event showcases the original artwork, activism, and social practice of Chicago-area youth, as captured in zine form. TCA highlights teen ideas and perspectives in the museum space. Its members gather at the MCA from all over the Chicagoland area to collaboratively create public responses to relevant contemporary issues. In doing so, they build relationships alongside other cultural institutions, organizations, and professionals in Chicago’s vibrant art scene.

We are excited to have partnered with the Newberry Library in developing this year’s zines, which focus on the history and evolution of traditional Mexican foods including:

Corn
Watermelon
Mole
This event is curated and produced by members of the Teen Creative Agency—a group of young people ages 15 to 19 from all over the Chicagoland area who meet weekly at the museum to view and engage with contemporary artists and their work, guided by Lead Artists Olive Stefanski and Miguel Limon. TCA is assisted by Ahmad Bracey, Manager of School, Youth, and Communities.

The Teen Creative Agency thanks all the visiting artists and organizations who have helped us realize Zine Fest 2023:

The Newberry Research Library
SAIC Service Bureau- Jennifer Keats
Hoofprint Press
Zine Mercado- Oscar Arriola
Alberto Aguilar
Normal Studios – Lucas Reif and Renata Graw

ASL interpretation is provided for the opening and closing remarks.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/tca-zine-fest-2023/

Talk | Roundtable on Faith RinggoldJoin us for a conversation on how Faith Ringgold’s aesthetic and political practices continue to reverberate across generations of artists with artists Jamal Cyrus and Amanda Williams, and the MCA presentation Curator of Faith Ringgold: American People, MCA Manilow Senior Curator Jamillah James at Museum of Contemporary Art

Join us for a conversation on how Faith Ringgold’s aesthetic and political practices continue to reverberate across generations of artists with artists Jamal Cyrus and Amanda Williams, and the MCA presentation Curator of Faith Ringgold: American People, MCA Manilow Senior Curator Jamillah James.

English/Spanish CART and ASL are provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-roundtable-on-faith-ringgold/

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/

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/

 

Family Day | Pocket Con at Museum of Contemporary Art

Pocket Con, Chicago’s only comics convention for children and youth, is coming to Family Day at the MCA! Meet creators, attend workshops and panels, play teen-created video games, and try out costuming and art in a space that celebrates and welcomes diversity.

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

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

About Pocket Con

Pocket Con was established with the goal of promoting literacy and creativity in young people, increasing visibility for artists and writers of color, and facilitating networking and mentorship opportunities. It is intended to be a celebration of diversity in creativity that presents no economic barriers to anyone. Pocket Con features the works of artists and writers of color, women, and LGBTQ+ creators, with a special focus on characters and creators of color.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-pocketcon/

A.B.L.E Twists and Turns at Museum of Contemporary Art

The show will feature work of 42 members of the A.B.L.E. community including 24 performers with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Over a 10-week rehearsal process, A.B.L.E.’s ensembles have collaborated to develop original monologues, scenes, movement pieces and songs inspired by their own lives. The plot follows a group of strangers on a train ride through vast and varied lands. As the train passes through different landscapes, faces delays, and weathers storms, the passengers share stories from their own journeys about where they came from, and where they want to go. Come on the journey with us!

ALL TICKETS ARE PAY-WHAT-YOU CAN STARTING AT $15 PER PERSON. YOU CAN PICK THE TIER THAT WORKS FOR YOU.
Seating for the performances is general admission, first come first served. The theatre has 296 seats.

Can’t join us in person? That’s okay! Performances will be available to stream on-demand in 2024.

All proceeds will support A.B.L.E.’s performing arts programming for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities

TRANSPORTATION
PARKING: Ticket holders will have access to discounted parking at the MCA lot. The parking garage is located on Chicago Avenue just west of Fairbanks Court and adjacent to the museum. The garage does not provide direct access to the museum. When you exit the garage, turn right and move west up Chicago Avenue. Our entrances face Mies Van Der Rohe Way.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: The MCA is located four blocks east of the Chicago Avenue stop on the CTA Red Line. You can also take the #3 King Drive, #10 Museum of Science and Industry, and #66 Chicago Avenue buses, as well as several Michigan Avenue bus routes. For routes, schedules, and fares, call Chicago Transit Authority Travel Information at 312-836-7000 or visit Chicago Transit Authority.

ACCESSIBILITY
This performance is sensory friendly, and will feature a relaxed audience experience, including available sensory support tools and a designated movement area for audience members who may need or prefer to be out of their seats.
Live open captioning
Dual ASL interpretation

https://www.ableensemble.com/events/twists-and-turns

Live Arts | Muslim Writers Collective: Intersectionality at Museum of Contemporary Art

A grassroots initiative promoting storytelling, creativity, and the arts, the Muslim Writers Collective will focus this iteration of its programming on themes drawn from the MCA exhibition Faith Ringgold: American People. This storytelling event will center itself around hearing life experiences from Muslim American and Muslim-adjacent perspectives.

CART Captioning is available on personal devices.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/live-arts-mwc-mca/

Talk | Helen Molesworth and Madeleine Grynsztejn at Museum of Contemporary Art

Over the past three decades, writer, curator, and podcaster Helen Molesworth’s singular voice and lively curatorial vision has established her as one of the most dynamic and influential voices in the art world.

At this inspiring event, MCA Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn will join Molesworth on stage for a conversation about her new book Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing about Art.

Signed books are now available for pre-order at the MCA Store.

Accessibility: Spanish translation, ASL, and CART captioning

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-helen-molesworth-and-madeleine-grynsztejn/

Talk | Helen Molesworth and Madeleine Grynsztejn at Museum of Contemporary Art

Over the past three decades, writer, curator, and podcaster Helen Molesworth’s singular voice and lively curatorial vision has established her as one of the most dynamic and influential voices in the art world.

At this inspiring event, MCA Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn will join Molesworth on stage for a conversation about her new book Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing about Art.

Accessibility: Spanish translation, ASL, and CART captioning

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-helen-molesworth-and-madeleine-grynsztejn/

POTUS at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

It’s just another (omg, wtf, lmfao) day at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. When a White House PR nightmare spins into a legit sh*tshow, seven brilliant and beleaguered women must risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble. POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is a bawdy and irreverent look at sex, politics and the women in charge of the man in charge of the free world. Who knew that global crisis is always just a four-letter word away.

Free Dance Day 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

Cultural Access Collaborative’s 10th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser

Celebrate a decade of access.
Join Us!

Monday, October 30, 2023
5-7pm

Plante Moran
1st Floor Lobby
10 South Riverside Plaza
Chicago IL

Entrance on the corner of Monroe and Canal

$50 per attendee

Buy Tickets


Cultural Access Collab removes barriers to make Illinois’ arts and culture more accessible to people with disabilities by providing education, promotional tools, accessible equipment and a supportive community. Join us in celebrating the past ten years of our work, and help us make Illinois even more inclusive in the year to come!

Enjoy music performed by the Tommy Carroll Trio, light refreshments and drinks, all while helping to sustain our cultural accessibility efforts in Illinois. If you’re able, make an additional donation to further support the Collab’s efforts.

About Tommy Carroll Trio
The Tommy Carroll Trio is an ensemble offering highly rhythmic interpretations of jazz compositions old and new. Composed of drums, bass and guitar, the group’s adventurous spirit provides listeners a fresh experience at every performance

Your $50 Ticket Includes
Light appetizers and two beverage tickets (beer, wine, or non-alcoholic) are provided per ticket. Dress code is business casual.

Covid Safety
As COVID-19 continues to impact our communities — and because there will be immunocompromised and medically vulnerable people in attendance — we need your help to create and maintain a safer environment for all. It is our collective responsibility to follow this guidance and we appreciate your cooperation in advance.

Masking is highly recommended when not actively eating or drinking. Clear masks will be available if needed. Weather permitting, there is outdoor access at the venue. We will monitor Covid rates in our area, and may revise our policy if appropriate.

If you test positive for COVID-19 within 4 days following the event, please notify info@CulturalAccessCollab.org and let us know. We will inform all attendees.

Accessibility Information
Everyone is welcome!

  • Plante Moran is accessible to guests who use wheelchairs or need to avoid stairs. Tables and chairs are available.
  • American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and open captioning is available for the brief remarks portion of the evening; if you require ASL or captioning for mingling with other guests, please let us know in advance.
  • A quiet room is available.
  • A limited number of complimentary tickets are available to those who wish to attend, but cannot afford the ticket price. Email us at info@CulturalAccessCollab.org to learn more.
  • If you require a sighted guide, or any other access services to fully participate, please let us know as soon as you can.
  • Email info@CulturalAccessCollab.org or call 715-212-9140.

Registration
Please fill out the required registration form. In case of technical difficulties, please email info@CulturalAccessCollab.org for assistance.


Thanks to Plante Moran and our other in-kind sponsors of this event.

Cultural Access Collab removes barriers to make Illinois’ arts and culture more accessible to people with disabilities by providing education, promotion tools, equipment and a supportive community.

Your donation in any amount makes accessibility in the arts in Illinois possible!

 

Cultural Access Collaborative’s 10th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser

LEAD Conference Share Out 2023

Event Description: Are you curious about the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) conference? Did you want to attend but couldn’t? Join The Collab for a Zoom Lunch and Learn about this year’s LEAD experience. Four representatives from the Collab will share takeaways from their focus areas and lead a live discussion with our arts and culture accessibility community. Come for the best practice takeaways and bring your questions about LEAD!

Date: October 3, 2023

Time: Noon to 1:00 PM, Central Time

Location: Zoom. Registered participants will receive a Zoom Meeting Link via email the day prior to the event. Please ensure that Info@ChicagoCulturalAccess.org is an approved sender to your email account, or be sure to check your Spam/Junk Mail filter for the email.

Program Accessibility: Real-Time Captioning and Sign Language Interpretation will be provided. Please complete the accommodation request field found in the event registration form or call 773-203-5039 to request other access services.

Cost: FREE. While this program is free, a $5 suggested donation helps to cover programming costs to ensure Cultural Access Collaborative’s mission is achievable and accessible to all. You may make a tax deductible online donation to the Collab at any time.

Registration: Join us by completing this event registration form!

Join Us!


LEAD Conference Share Out 2023

Airplane! Behind-the-Scenes of a Comedy Classic at Fourth Presbyterian Church

When the film debuted in July of 1980, Airplane! had a budget of only $3.5 million, and yet it went on to earn nearly $200 million, gathering a rabid fan-base, inspiring countless comedians, and providing perhaps the most quotable lines of any comedy in cinematic history. In their new book, Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! , ZAZ (filmmakers David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams) share hilarious trivia and never-before-heard anecdotes about the creation of this classic movie. At Chicago Humanities, Mark Bazar of WTTW’s The Interview Show sits down with writer/director David Zucker (and a special zoom appearance from his brother and fellow Airplane! filmmaker Jerry) for a night of laughter and nostalgia, as we dive into clips, images, and stories from behind-the-scenes of this legendary comedic gem. For a special keepsake, books pre-signed by all three filmmakers will be available for purchase.

This event will have asl interpretation, open captions, and assistive listening devices with t-coil available at the Box Office.

To buy tickets, press on this link below: https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/airplane/

Family Day | Natural History at MCA

For this Family Day, explore the overlap between art and science with educators from the Field Museum and artist Assaf Evron.

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

ASL Interpretation will be provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-natural-history/

SANCTUARY CITY at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Newark, NJ. Post-9/11. Two teenagers, brought to America as children, now face an unlikely foe: unexpected, unreciprocated love. Their friendship is no longer enough (for one of them) and their adopted country doesn’t love them back. Pulitzer Prize-winner Martyna Majok brings light to the sacrifices made by DREAMers, lovers and life-long friends in the heart-stirring and hopeful Sanctuary City—a story that fractures and transcends—crossing boundaries, borders and genres in search of a place to call home.

Sanctuary City will be the first Steppenwolf production that includes both a full membership series run, as well as a full run of student matinees as a part of the Steppenwolf for Young Adults series, providing a synergistic opportunity to cultivate more intergenerational audiences.

Audio-Described and Touch Tour:
Sunday, October 8 at 3pm 
(1:30pm touch tour, 3pm curtain)

Open-Captioned Public Performances:
Thursday, October 12 at 7:30pm
Saturday, October 21 at 3pm

ASL-Interpreted Public Performance:
Friday, October 13 at 7:30pm

Relaxed/Sensory Friendly Public Performance:
Saturday, October 28th at 3pm

ASL-Interpreted Student Matinee:
Friday, November 3 at 10am

Spanish Language-Captioned:
Saturday, November 4 at 3pm

https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons-/202324/sanctuary-city/

Family Day | Party! at MCA

After a summer hiatus, Family Days are back!

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

ASL Interpretation will be provided.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/family-day-2/

Rachel Maddow in Conversation with Kathleen Belew at UIC Forum

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow returns to Chicago Humanities to expose the shocking truth behind subversive attempts to undermine democracy and the inspiring tales of those who rose to challenge the insurrectionists. Inspired by the research for her #1 Apple podcast, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, Maddow’s latest book PREQUEL: An American Fight Against Fascism tells the World War II story of a committed group of public servants and courageous private citizens thwarting the far-right’s attempts to align our nation with the Nazis. Join Maddow as she sits down with historian, author and Northwestern University professor Kathleen Belew to explore the rise of this wild strain of American authoritarianism, the profoundly relevant insights about America today that can be drawn from its history, and her take on our own unprecedented times.

This event will have open captions, audio description, asl interpretation and assistive listening devices with t-coil available at the Box Office.

To buy tickets, press on this link below: https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/rachel-maddow/

Forms & Features Community Reading (Virtual) with The Poetry Foundation

Join us for a reading and celebration of the diverse voices, rich experiences, and powerful words of poets from around the US and the world. Poets working in the online poetry workshop and discussion, Forms & Features, will share work that they created in this creative community.

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

Accessibility: ASL, captions

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/forms-features-community-reading-tickets-710431017297?aff=oddtdtcreator

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

Poetry Off the Shelf: Ben Okri with The Poetry Foundation

Join us for a special US appearance by acclaimed Nigerian-born British novelist and poet, Ben Okri.

Ben Okri is a playwright, poet, novelist, essayist, short-story writer, anthologist, and aphorist who has also written film scripts. His works have won numerous national and international prizes, including the Booker Prize for Fiction. His books include the eco-fable Every Leaf a Hallelujah, the genre-bending climate fiction Tiger Work, the poetry collection A Fire in My Head, and the novels Astonishing the Gods, The Last Gift of the Master Artists, and Dangerous Love.

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

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

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

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

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-off-the-shelf-ben-okri-tickets-691014000477

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

Lucha Teotl at Goodman Theatre

Pro wrestling bursts onto the stage in a high-octane, immersive, 90-minute thrill ride.

It’s a night in the theater that you’ll never forget. Experience the heart-pumping action ringside, as the Goodman transforms into a professional wrestling arena—a perfect backdrop for the high drama and rich cultural history of lucha libre. Originally developed with Prism Movement Theater and produced in partnership with CLATA as part of 2023 Destinos Festival, actors and luchadores (wrestlers) in masks representative of Aztec gods play out an exciting wrestling story about family, honor, tradition and redemption.

American Sign Language-Interpreted Performance
Friday, October 27 at 7:30pm
Use code SIGN for $30 tickets

Touch Tour and Audio-Described Performance
Saturday, October 28
12:30pm Touch Tour & 2:00pm Performance
Use code AUDIO for $30 tickets

Spanish Subtitles Performance
Saturday, October 28 at 7:30pm
Use code SPANISH for $30 tickets

Open-Captioned Performance
Sunday, October 29 at 2:00pm
Use code OPEN for $30 tickets

Large-print programs, Braille programs, and assistive listening devices available upon request at our guest services desk. Visit the link here to a webpage of comprehensive Access information.
https://www.goodmantheatre.org/show/lucha-teotl/

Open Doors: Harriet Monroe Editors Panel with The Poetry Foundation

In conjunction with the exhibition opening for Harriet Monroe & the Open Door, we will host a conversation with Poetry’s four women guest editors from 2021-22: Esther G. Belin, Su Cho, Suzi F. Garcia, and Ashley M. Jones.

Moderated by Carmen Giménez, this conversation shifts the frame of the Open Door series to spotlight the creative labor of editors to open up poetry as a porous category. The name of the series honors the legacy of Poetry’s founding editor Harriet Monroe, who declared in 1912, “The Open Door will be the policy of this magazine—may the great poet we are looking for never find it shut, or half-shut.”

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

Esther G. Belin is an urban Indian, born at an Indian Health Service hospital in Gallup, New Mexico and raised in the greater Los Angeles area. She has two poetry collections, From the Belly of My Beauty, and Of Cartography, and is one of the editors of the anthology of Navajo literature, The Diné Reader. She is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and lives on the Colorado side of the Four Corners region.

Su Cho is a poet, essayist, and the author of The Symmetry of Fish (Penguin Books, 2022) which won the 2021 National Poetry Series. She lives in South Carolina where she is an assistant professor of English at Clemson University.

Suzi F. Garcia is the author of the chapbook A Home Grown Fairytale (Bone Bouquet, 2020). She is the co-publisher of the award-winning independent press, Noemi, and along with José Olivarez, is a poetry editor for Haymarket Books. In addition, Suzi is the review manager for the Lambda Literary Review, which has been serving the queer literary community for over 30 years. Suzi is a CantoMundo Fellow, a Macondista, a Lambda Literary Fellow, and participated in the first ever Poetry Incubator at the Poetry Foundation. She has served as a CantoMundo steering committee member, CantoMundo regional director, and a board member for the Latinx Caucus.

Ashley M. Jones is the poet laureate of Alabama. She is the first person of color and the youngest person to hold this position in its 93 year existence. Jones is the author of three award-winning poetry collections, most recently Reparations Now! She is the co-editor of WHAT THINGS COST: An Anthology for the People. Her work has been featured by CNN, the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC News, and the New York Times. Jones is the associate director of the University Honors Program at UAB and she teaches in the Low Residency MFA Program at Converse University.

Carmen Giménez (moderator) is publisher and director of Graywolf Press and the author of several books, including Be Recorder, a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award.

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

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

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

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-doors-guest-editors-panel-tickets-691003188137?aff=oddtdtcreator

Chicago Poet Laureate Celebration with The Poetry Foundation

Join us for the kickoff to our Fall 2023 season with a celebration of Chicago’s Poet Laureate, avery r. young, at Harold Washington Library. He will perform alongside other poet laureates E’mon Lauren Black (Chicago Youth Poet Laureate), Nandi Comer (Michigan), Angela Jackson (Illinois), Amanda Johnston (Texas), and Airea D. Matthews (Philadelphia).

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

avery r. young is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, 3Arts Awardee, poetry editor for Bridge, Cave Canem fellow, and co-director of the Floating Museum. His poetry and prose have been featured in The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Teaching Black, The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, and AIMPrint, among other publications, and alongside images in photographer Cecil McDonald Jr’s In The Company of Black. He is the composer and librettist for a new commissioned work from Lyric Opera of Chicago titled safronia, and full-length recording tubman (FPE Records), the soundtrack to his collection of poetry, neckbone: visual verses. Learn more at averyryoung.com.

E’mon Lauren Black is a multi-hyphenate artist and educator from the Wes & Souf side of Chicago whose works explores her coined philosophy of “hood-womanism.” She is the first Youth Poet Laureate of Chicago and has been featured in Vogue magazine, Chicago Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune. She is the host and creator of the hit talkshow, The Real Hoodwives of Chicago, originally produced by her production company, BlkHoneyBun Productions, LLC. Her first book of poems, COMMANDO, was published by Haymarket in 2017.

Nandi Comer is the Poet Laureate of Michigan. She is the author of American Family: A Syndrome (Finishing Line Press) and Tapping Out (Northwestern University Press), which was awarded the 2020 Society of Midland Authors Award and the 2020 Julie Suk Award. She is a Cave Canem Fellow, a Callaloo Fellow, and a Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow. She currently serves as a poetry editor for Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora and as the co-director of Detroit Lit.

Angela Jackson is a Chicago poet, playwright, and novelist. She has received numerous honors for both fiction and poetry, including the 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Pushcart Prize, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. Her poetry collection All These Roads Be Luminous (1998) was nominated for the National Book Award, and her debut novel, Where I Must Go (2009), won the American Book Award. In addition to Comfort Stew, Jackson has written several other plays: Witness! (1978), Shango Diaspora: An African-American Myth of Womanhood and Love (1980), and Lightfoot: The Crystal Stair.

Amanda Johnston is a writer, artist, and the 2024 Texas Poet Laureate. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, among them Callaloo, Poetry magazine, The Offing, and the anthologies Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry and Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism. She has received fellowships, grants, and awards from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, the Watermill Center, and American Short Fiction. She is a founder of Torch Literary Arts and a former board president of Cave Canem .

Airea D. Matthews’ irst collection of poems is the critically acclaimed Simulacra, which received the prestigious 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Matthews is also the author of Bread and Circus, a memoir-in-verse that combines poetry, prose, and imagery to explore the realities of economic necessity, marginal poverty, and commodification through a personal lens. Matthews received a 2020 Pew Fellowship, a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and was awarded the Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry from the 2016 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Matthews earned her MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. In 2022, she was named Philadelphia’s Poet Laureate. She is an assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College where she directs the poetry program.

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

Livestream Attendance

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

Please note that advanced registration on Eventbrite does not guarantee entrance, as events at the Harold Washington Library are first come first serve.

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

Accessibility: ASL Interpretation, captioning,

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-poet-laureate-celebration-tickets-691945717267?aff=oddtdtcreator

Celebrating the Visiting Teaching Artists of Forms & Features (virtual) with The Poetry Foundation

Join us for a virtual reading featuring 2023 Forms & Features Visiting Teaching Artists Samira Asma-Sadeque, Giulia Ottavia Frattini, grace (ge) gilbert, Lisa Low, L. Renée, and Hua Xi. Forms & Features is the Poetry Foundation’s series of free online creative writing workshops for adults.

Samira Asma-Sadeque is a New York-based Bangladeshi journalist, poet, and educator. She writes about the immigrant experience, mental health, hate speech, and gender violence in both her poetry and journalism. Her poetry appears in HBO’s Take Out with Lisa Ling, PBS’s ALL ARTS, Button Poetry, and has been featured at the Rubin Museum, among other platforms. She is a Brooklyn Poets fellow, Tin House alum, and Best of the Net nominee. Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, and Al Jazeera, among other publications.

Giulia Ottavia Frattini is a poet and writer based in Berlin. She is currently involved in art-oriented practices and collaborates as a contributor for several art magazines while developing her literary path. She perceives words as metamorphic elements, and her prime focus gravitates toward the unfolding of identity, language’s physicality, and lyricism’s disruption.

grace (ge) gilbert is a hybrid poet, essayist, and collage-worker based in Brooklyn. They received their MFA in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022. grace is the author of three short collections: the closeted diaries, NOTIFICATIONS IN THE DARK, and today is an unholy suite. Their work can be found in the Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, Passages North, The Offing, the Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. They currently teach hybrid collage and poetics courses at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. They have received support and scholarships from City of Asylum’s Emerging Poet Laureate program and Bread Loaf, and served as the MCLA Under 27 Writer-in-Residence Fellow at Mass MoCA.They are passionate about making the hybrid arts accessible to all. Learn more at gracegegilbert.com.

Lisa Low’s poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Ecotone, the Massachusetts Review, Poetry, the Southern Review, and elsewhere. Her nonfiction won the 2020 Gulf Coast Nonfiction Prize. She has an MFA from Indiana University and a PhD in creative writing and literature from the University of Cincinnati. Her debut chapbook, Crown for the Girl Inside, won the 2020 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest and is forthcoming from YesYes Books.

L. Renée is a poet and nonfiction writer living in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where she works as assistant director of Furious Flower Poetry Center and assistant professor of English at James Madison University. Nominated for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and two Pushcart Prizes, her work has been published in Obsidian, Tin House Online, Poetry Northwest, the minnesota review, and elsewhere. The granddaughter of proud Black Appalachians, she won the international 2022 Rattle Poetry Prize and Appalachian Review’s Denny C. Plattner Award, among others. A recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation and the Watering Hole, L. Renée holds an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University, where she was nonfiction editor of the Indiana Review, and an MS in journalism from Columbia University, where she was a Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Moore Fellow. She has received support from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc., Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Peter Bullough Foundation, the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Monson Arts, Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference, and others. Learn more at Lreneepoems.com.

Hua Xi (she/they) is a poet and artist. Their poetry has appeared in the New Republic, The Nation, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. They previously won the Boston Review Poetry Contest and was the 2022 Poet-to-Come Scholar at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association. They sometimes teach poetry workshops with the Spatial Poetry Project.

The Zoom link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. Poetry Foundation events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include CART captioning and ASL interpretation. For more information about accessibility at the Poetry Foundation, please visit our Accessibility Guide.

Accessibility: ASL interpretation, captioning

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-the-visiting-teaching-artists-of-forms-features-tickets-673835890287?aff=oddtdtcreator

Blue Hour at Haymarket House

Blue Hour is in-person for this season! Each event takes place at Haymarket House (800 W. Buena) on the third Wednesday of the month and includes a brief lottery-style open mic and two featured readers from Chicago and beyond, preceded by a generative writing workshop. All readings are also livestreamed! This month, we are thrilled to present two stellar featured readers: Maggie Queeney and Brittany Rogers.

About the Workshop:
The Blue Hour generative writing workshop begins promptly at 6 p.m., ends at 7 p.m., and is designed for writers and poetry fans of all levels. Each workshop includes discussion of a poem by one of the night’s featured readers, followed by guided individual writing using an exploratory prompt that draws on themes from the poem. Registration is required, and the workshop is sliding scale with a suggested donation of $10. To register for the workshop on 8/16, visit https://BHworkshopAug.eventbrite.com for more details.

About the Reading:
The Blue Hour reading includes a brief open mic followed by two featured poets from Chicago and beyond. Pre-registration is free and recommended. The open mic includes five readers drawn lottery-style from a hat that goes out at 7:15. The reading starts promptly at 7:30. Each open mic poet reads one poem or for three minutes, whichever comes first. To register for the reading session on 8/16, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/675666987147 for more details.

About the Space:
Haymarket House is a community space in the heart of Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood committed to uplifting the work of writers, artists, thinkers, activists, and educators who are committed to all struggles for a better world. This event includes professional ASL interpretation. Haymarket House is fully ADA-compliant and wheelchair accessible. Please let us know if you have any specific accessibility questions; if you use a wheelchair, please contact marty@poetrycenter.org to coordinate use of the ramp. Masks are not required but are encouraged and will be available to anyone who needs it.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, wheelchair accessible

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-poetry-centers-blue-hour-wmaggie-queeney-brittany-rogers-tickets-675666987147

The Lehman Trilogy with TimeLine Theatre Company at Broadway Playhouse

TimeLine presents the Chicago premiere production of the 2022 Tony Award winner for Best Play!

Told in three parts over one evening, The Lehman Trilogy is the quintessential story of western capitalism, rendered through the lens of a single immigrant family. On a cold September morning in 1844, a young Jewish man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is soon joined by his two brothers, and an American epic begins. 163 years later, the firm they establish—Lehman Brothers—spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, triggering the largest financial crisis in history. Weaving together nearly two centuries of family history, this theatrical event charts the humble beginnings, outrageous successes, and devastating failure of the financial institution that would ultimately bring the global economy to its knees.

Throughout its production history, The Lehman Trilogy has been met with extraordinary international acclaim. The Guardian proclaimed the original production “a kaleidoscopic social and political metaphor” and “an intimate epic about the shifting definition of the American Dream.” The Chicago Tribune praised it as “a masterwork” and The New York Times as “a vivid tale of profit and pain.” Vanity Fair raved that it is “true blockbuster theatre that will hold you captive until the final curtain call,” with Time Out New York saying “it leaves you dazzled.” And the Wall Street Journal declared that The Lehman Trilogy “surpasses all praise.”

For more information on access programming at Broadway in Chicago visit https://www.broadwayinchicago.com/tickets/accessible-information/

Accessibility: ASL interpretation

https://www.broadwayinchicago.com/show/the-lehman-trilogy/

Talk | José E. López and Carla Acevedo-Yates at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Join us for an exhibition opening conversation between the curator of the entre horizontes, Carla Acevedo-Yates, and Puerto Rican writer and activist José E. López for a wide-ranging conversation on the past and present of Puerto Rican activism.

Accessibility: ASL interpretation, English captioning, Spanish Captioning, wheelchair accessible

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-jose-e-lopez-carla-acevedo-yates/

Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at Chicago Shakespeare – ASL Duo-interpretation

ASL Duo-interpretation: Sat, August 12 at 11:00 a.m.

This summer, fall under the spell of this “tale as old as time” based on the Academy Award-winning Disney film. Dazzling production numbers, including the beloved title song and “Be Our Guest,” will fill the Courtyard Theater, making your heart soar.

The beloved fairytale recounts the story of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end and he will be transformed into his former self. But time is running out. If those lessons aren’t learned soon, the Beast and his household will be doomed for all eternity.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted

https://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/disneysbeautyandthebeast

STOKELY: THE UNFINISHED REVOLUTION at Court Theatre

WORLD PREMIERE BY NAMBI E. KELLEY
DIRECTED BY TASIA A. JONES

Civil rights activist Kwame Ture, born Stokely Carmichael, was a towering icon; a man of immense domestic and international importance. But he was also just that: a man. Blending the historical and the personal, Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution asks: how can you trust someone with a movement when you can’t trust them with your heart? Tasia A. Jones makes her Court directorial debut with playwright Nambi E. Kelley’s evocative world premiere.

This event will have ASL interpretation, assistive listening devices, audio description, and wheelchair accessible seating.

Touch Tour will begin at 12:30pm.

Stokely:The Unfinished Revolution

 

ANTIGONE at Court Theatre

BY SOPHOCLES
DIRECTED BY GABRIELLE RANDLE-BENT,
ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

As Antigone mourns her brothers, she must decide if she will sacrifice her life to balance the scales of justice. Associate Artistic Director Gabrielle Randle-Bent’s interpretation of Sophocles’ masterwork – featuring Aeriel Williams in the titular role and Timothy Edward Kane as King Creon – renders Antigone electrifyingly alive, situating this tale in our modern conversation about the price of democracy, and asking – crucially – if it’s a price we’re willing to pay.

This event will have ASL interpretation, assistive listening devices, audio description, and wheelchair accessible seating.

Touch tour will begin at 12:30pm.

Antigone

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/

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

The Women Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe at Raven Theatre

The Harvard Computers worked by daylight at the observatory, studying photographic plates of the night sky. The play follows Annie Jump Cannon and Henrietta Leavitt through their groundbreaking discoveries that changed the field of astronomy and shaped how we understand the universe. This performance brings the science of space to life through movement, music, and light. A celebration of friendship, curiosity, and the never-ending search to find our place in the universe.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted

http://www.raventheatre.com/stage/universe/

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/

Experience the SoundShirt at West Side Story at Lyric Opera

Lyric Opera is prototyping an innovative new experience for audiences who are D/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 SoundShirt during our summer musical, West Side Story, and inviting a few outside guests who are hard of hearing and D/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 or to reserve tickets, please write to bdunn@lyricopera.org.

https://www.lyricopera.org/westsidestory

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)
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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

Talk | Barak adé Soleil with SHIFT Community Participants at MCA

Please join us for a communal dialog with award-winning artist Barak adé Soleil and members of the local Black and Brown neurodiverse and disabled community who are part of adé Soleil’s newly commissioned work SHIFT.

SHIFT, a multidisciplinary project for the MCA’s Frictions series, has two components:

An installation located on the first floor of the MCA during the performance’s run, intentionally next to a spiraling staircase that goes up to the museum’s fourth floor. Barak is creating a film that will be installed and projected onto a diamond-like platform. In this dreamlike video installation, bodies both at rest and as they shift are visible onscreen at life-size and larger-than-life scale. The presence of Black neurodiverse and disabled bodies is amplified from many angles, infiltrating the architecture of the museum’s iconic public stairwell. Whereas these bodies might otherwise be violently misinterpreted as either lazy or near death, adé Soleil offers rest—and the intimacy of everyday gestures—as forms of political resistance for Black people.
A gathering on Saturday, May 6, where members of the Disability community will join adé Soleil in a “promenade” throughout the museum’s public areas; at times they will ascend the staircases and take up space to make visible and apparent the power of community presence. The use of the word promenade is intentional, drawing from its definition: “to take a leisurely public walk, ride, [wheel] or drive so as to meet or be seen by others.”
SHIFT is curated by Tara Aisha Willis, Curator of Performance & Public Practice at the MCA.

Access Information
ASL interpretation, CART captioning, and live audio description are provided. AD devices are available at the museum, and audience members may also use their personal devices to access the audio description through a URL provided on-site.

This event has relaxed viewing protocols and sensory-friendly lighting.

ASL provided.Audio description available.Haptic elements used.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-barak-ade-soleil-with-shift-performers/

Talk | Gary Simmons at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

On the opening of his first comprehensive survey exhibition, Gary Simmons: Public Enemy, multidisciplinary artist Gary Simmons is joined by the curators of the show, René Morales, James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator, and Jadine Collingwood, Assistant Curator, for a wide-ranging discussion of his powerful work.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, captioning, Spanish captioning

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-gary-simmons/

A.B.L.E. presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

This spring, A.B.L.E. returns to the stage and our classical roots with a multimedia version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, updated for our social-media obsessed times. Our modern adaptation by A.B.L.E. teaching artist Emma MacLean focuses on the themes of connection and disconnection. The king and queen of the fairies are fighting, the mechanicals are rehearsing a play but no one knows their lines, and the Athenian teens keep changing their relationship status. Join ABLE’s ensembles – 34 actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities as we miss texts, drop calls, and wander love struck in the Athenian forest.

This multimedia production will weave Shakespeare’s words with original scenes, monologues, songs, and dances devised by our ensembles, as well as animated film sequences from VFX designer Brock Alter. The virtual ensemble will narrate the tale for us as the in-person ensembles take the stage Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

With your ticket, you have the option of participating in a 45 minute interactive workshop led by A.B.L.E.’s team of Creative Associates and Teaching Artists. Audiences can experience some of the games and activities A.B.L.E. used to bring their ideas to the stage, get a touch tour of key costume pieces and props, and try A.B.L.E.’s signature “dropping in” method. This exclusive opportunity is only available to 20 ticket holders each day – reserve your spot when booking your ticket.

Event Details:
Sunday June 11th at 2pm (pre-show workshop & touch tour at 12:30pm)

Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
800 East Grand Avenue
Chicago IL 60611

Tickets: All tickets are Pay-what-you-can, general admission
Online: ableensemble.com/events
Phone: 312.595.5600
In person: at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater box office

Access: Performances will be open captioned and dual ASL interpreted.

COVID Policies: To ensure A.B.L.E.’s immunocompromised performers and community members feel safe and welcome, all audience members must remain masked for the duration of their time in the theater complex.

https://www.ableensemble.com/events

A.B.L.E. presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

This spring, A.B.L.E. returns to the stage and our classical roots with a multimedia version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, updated for our social-media obsessed times. Our modern adaptation by A.B.L.E. teaching artist Emma MacLean focuses on the themes of connection and disconnection. The king and queen of the fairies are fighting, the mechanicals are rehearsing a play but no one knows their lines, and the Athenian teens keep changing their relationship status. Join ABLE’s ensembles – 34 actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities as we miss texts, drop calls, and wander love struck in the Athenian forest.

This multimedia production will weave Shakespeare’s words with original scenes, monologues, songs, and dances devised by our ensembles, as well as animated film sequences from VFX designer Brock Alter. The virtual ensemble will narrate the tale for us as the in-person ensembles take the stage Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

With your ticket, you have the option of participating in a 45 minute interactive workshop led by A.B.L.E.’s team of Creative Associates and Teaching Artists. Audiences can experience some of the games and activities A.B.L.E. used to bring their ideas to the stage, get a touch tour of key costume pieces and props, and try A.B.L.E.’s signature “dropping in” method. This exclusive opportunity is only available to 20 ticket holders each day – reserve your spot when booking your ticket.

Event Details:
Saturday June 10th at 7pm (pre-show workshop & touch tour at 5:30pm)

Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
800 East Grand Avenue
Chicago IL 60611

Tickets: All tickets are Pay-what-you-can, general admission
Online: ableensemble.com/events
Phone: 312.595.5600
In person: at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater box office

Access: Performances will be open captioned and dual ASL interpreted.

COVID Policies: To ensure A.B.L.E.’s immunocompromised performers and community members feel safe and welcome, all audience members must remain masked for the duration of their time in the theater complex.

https://www.ableensemble.com/events

Nature Play for All at The Morton Arboretum

Children of all abilities can play and explore nature through accessible activities in The Morton Arboretum’s lush 4-acre Children’s Garden during this special Nature Play for All weekend event, organized in collaboration with Benedictine University and SEASPAR, the South East Association for Special Parks and Recreation. Activities include Painting with Nature, Planting a Seed, American Sign Language Storytimes, Pond Exploration, Sensory Hikes and Nature Scavenger Hunts. Nature Play for All will occur Saturday, June 10 and Sunday, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Children’s Garden is supported by International Paper. For more information, visit mortonarb.org.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, quiet spaces, sensory friendly, wheelchair accessible

https://mortonarb.org/explore/activities/childrens-family-programs/nature-play-for-all/

Sensory-Friendly Morning 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 Interpretation

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/sensory-friendly-morning-5/

Blue Hour Reading & Workshop Series at Haymarket House

The Chicago Poetry Center presents BLUE HOUR, a free, public monthly in-person reading series and generative writing workshop.

Blue Hour is in-person for this season! Each event takes place at Haymarket House (800 W. Buena) on the third Wednesday of the month and includes a brief lottery-style open mic and two featured readers from Chicago and beyond, preceded by a generative writing workshop. All readings are also livestreamed! This month, for our final Blue Hour of the season, we are thrilled to present two stellar featured readers: CM Burroughs and Eugenia Leigh.

About the Workshop:
The Blue Hour generative writing workshop begins promptly at 6 p.m., ends at 7 p.m., and is designed for writers and poetry fans of all levels. Each workshop includes discussion of a poem by one of the night’s featured readers, followed by guided individual writing using an exploratory prompt that draws on themes from the poem. Registration is required, and the workshop is sliding scale with a suggested donation of $10.

To register for the workshop on May 17, visit https://BHworkshopmay23.eventbrite.com for more details.

About the Reading:
The Blue Hour reading includes a brief open mic followed by two featured poets from Chicago and beyond. Pre-registration is free and recommended. The open mic includes five readers drawn lottery-style from a hat that goes out at 7:15 p.m. The reading starts promptly at 7:30 p.m. Each open mic poet reads one poem or for three minutes, whichever comes first.

To register for the reading session on May 17, visit https://BHmay23.eventbrite.com for more details.

About the Space:
Haymarket House is a community space in the heart of Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood committed to uplifting the work of writers, artists, thinkers, activists, and educators who are committed to all struggles for a better world. This event includes professional ASL interpretation. Haymarket House is fully ADA-compliant and wheelchair accessible. Please let us know if you have any specific accessibility questions; if you use a wheelchair, please contact marty@poetrycenter.org to coordinate use of the ramp. Masks are not required but are encouraged and will be available to anyone who needs it.

https://www.poetrycenter.org/blue-hour-may-2023/

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/

Poetry off the Shelf: CM Burroughs, Camille Roy & Syd Staiti at PO Box Collective

Join us in-person for a reading with CM Burroughs, Camille Roy, and Syd Staiti at PO Box Collective, a creative collective and intergenerational social practice center located in Rogers Park, Chicago.

CM Burroughs is an associate professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago and author of The Vital System and Master Suffering, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and a Los Angeles Times Book Award. Burroughs’s poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies including Poetry, Ploughshares, Gathering Ground, and Best American Experimental Writing. Burroughs has been awarded fellowships and grants from Yaddo, MacDowell, Djerassi Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Cave Canem Foundation.

Camille Roy is a writer of fiction, poetry, and plays. Roy’s fiction collection Honey Mine was published in 2021. Her other works include Sherwood Forest, Swarm, and The Rosy Medallions, and the plays Cheap Speech and Cold Heaven. She co-edited Biting The Error: Writers Explore Narrative. Recently her work has been published in Amerarcana and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art blog, Open Space.

Syd Staiti is the author of Seldom Approaches and The Undying Present. Staiti’s work has been published in Baest, Tripwire, Social Text, and A Perfect Vacuum. Staiti is the director of Small Press Traffic and a collective member of Light Field.

The Poetry Foundation’s events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This event will include ASL interpretation. Masks are required. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. For more information about accessibility, please contact events@poetryfoundation.org.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/events/160103/poetry-off-the-shelf-cm-burroughs-camille-roy-syd-staiti

 

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

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

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, captioning

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

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

Open Door: Gregg Bordowitz, Asia Calcagno, Terri Kapsalis & Ugochi Nwaogwugwu at the Poetry Foundation Building

Join us for an Open Door reading with Gregg Bordowitz, Asia Calcagno, Terri Kapsalis, and Ugochi Nwaogwugwu. The Open Door series highlights creative relationships in Chicago, including mentorship and collaboration.

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

Gregg Bordowitz is a writer, artist, and activist. He currently serves as the director of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York, New York.

Asia Calcagno is a writer and educator from Chicago. Calcagno’s writing has been featured in literary magazines and anthologies such as Third Coast, Poetry magazine, The Golden Shovel Anthology, West Trade Review, Smartish Pace, Black Femme Collective, and Respect the Mic. She holds an MFA from Bennington College, and spends her time educating, consulting, and using storytelling to create more effective educational spaces. She is a 2022 Luminarts Creative Writing Fellow and a 2022–2023 Ingenuity Constellation Fellow.

Terri Kapsalis is the author of Jane Addams’ Travel Medicine Kit, The Hysterical Alphabet, and Public Privates: Performing Gynecology from Both Ends of the Speculum. Kapsalis’s writing has appeared on Literary Hub and in edited volumes and journals, including Short Fiction, The Baffler, Denver Quarterly, Public, and Parakeet Magazine. A founding member of Theater Oobleck, she has performed in over 30 productions. Since 1991, she has been a collective member and health educator at the Chicago Women’s Health Center and co-founded TGAP (Trans Greater Access Project) and the Integrative Health Program. She teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ugochi Nwaogwugwu is a multidisciplinary creative–a professional poet, singer, songwriter, composer, musician, poetry instructor, and teaching artist. Nwaogwugwu has executive produced, written, and coarranged three album projects, and her poetry has been been published in Storm Between Two Fingers and Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different, both international anthologies out of the UK. Her poems are also featured in TheGolden Shovel Anthology and Wherever I’m At. Ugochi created an original pan-African poetry form called Ike (pronounced ee-KAY) paying homage to her Igbo culture (Nigeria, West Africa). She also has written newsworthy essays including “Not My President,” published by Third World Press.

In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. If you will not comply with this requirement, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. Guests are encouraged to register in advance.

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

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

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-door-gregg-bordowitz-asia-calcagno-terri-kapsalis-ugochi-nwaogwu-tickets-602679098407

Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton at The Riviera Theatre

A native of Park Ridge, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s middle-class upbringing taught her the value of hard work, determination, and the importance of public service. Now, she’s returning this spring to talk about how Chicago provided the foundation upon which she built her life and career. Join her for a far-reaching, intimate conversation about her work advocating for civic engagement through Onward Together, her thoughts on current affairs, and her connection to Chicago’s own beloved local activist, Joanne Alter.

This event will have ASL Interpretation, audio description, open captions, and ALDs.

https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/venues/riviera-theatre/

Stacey Abrams: Rogue Justice at The Vic Theatre

#1 New York Times bestselling author, voting rights advocate, and history maker Stacey Abrams returns to Chicago with her latest thriller novel, Rogue Justice. Join Chicago Humanities for an evening with this political leader as we delve into the art of fiction, current issues affecting our democracy, and how we can all use our voices to impact our communities.

This event will have open captions, audio description, ASL interpretation, and ALDs.

https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/stacey-abrams/

Talk | Access Praxis: Cripistemology and the Arts at MCA

The MCA Advisory Partner organization Bodies of Work invites you to Access Praxis, a collaborative and participatory event in The Commons. Combining theory and practice, “praxis” is ideas in action.

For this iteration, we are joined by disabled artist-researchers Alana Ackerman, Stephanie Alma, Tommy Carroll, Justin Cooper, and Nic Wyatt as they explore their embodied experience of disability through a series of videos detailing their crip epistemologies. Following the video presentation, they will be joined by Dr. Carrie Sandahl, co-director of Bodies of Work, and Liza Sylvestre and Christopher Jones, co-founders of Crip*: Cripistemology and the Arts, for a moderated discussion on the disability experience and the valuable knowledges that stem from it.

This will be a hybrid program held in-person at the MCA Chicago and virtually. American Sign Language interpretation, CART-captioning, and verbal description will be provided in the video presentation and the panel discussion. The MCA Commons is wheelchair accessible and offers gender neutral facilities. While masks are not required for entry to the museum, we encourage masking for all in-person attendees. For any other access needs please contact Daniel Atkinson at DAtkinson@mcachicago.org.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/access-praxis-cripistemology/

Talk | Shamel Pitts in Conversation With Jafari S. Allen at Wirtz Center

Join us for a talk between On Stage: Frictions artist Shamel Pitts and Jafari S. Allen, author of There’s a Disco Ball Between Us: A Theory of Black Gay Life (2021), for a wide-ranging conversation on Pitts’ practice and current project with the MCA, Touch of RED. This event will be held off-site at Wirtz Center For Performing Arts at 710 N Lake Shore Drive.

This event will have ASL Interpretation and CART.

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-shamel-pitts-in-conversation-with-jafari-s-allen/

Lane Moore with Mara Wilson: How To Make Friends As An Adult at Chop Shop

Comedian Lane Moore wrote the book on How To Be Alone but building real, healthy friendships as an adult is ten times more difficult! In her new book You Will Find Your People: How to Make Meaningful Friendships as an Adult, Moore shares everything she’s learned about how to finally make friends as an adult, how to identify your attachment style, choose better friends, become a better friend yourself, and how to handle friendship breakup grief, which can be even more brutal than most romantic breakups. Join Lane Moore and writer/actor Mara Wilson (Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, Matilda) for a fun-filled evening full of stories, advice, and sharing as we try and figure out a better way to find our chosen family.

Come enjoy dinner and drinks at Chop Shop before or after the conversation with Lane Moore and Mara Wilson. A book signing will follow this program.

This event will have open captions, ASL Interpretation and ALDs.

https://www.chicagohumanities.org/events/attend/moore-wilson/

Blue Hour Reading & Workshop Series at Haymarket House

The Chicago Poetry Center presents BLUE HOUR, a free, public monthly in-person reading series and generative writing workshop.

Blue Hour is in-person for this season! Each event takes place at Haymarket House (800 W. Buena) on the third Wednesday of the month and includes a brief lottery-style open mic and two featured readers from Chicago and beyond, preceded by a generative writing workshop. All readings are also livestreamed! This month, we are thrilled to present two stellar featured readers: Maya Pindyck and Julian Randall.

2022-2023 Season Schedule Preview:
September 21: Faylita Hicks and Hila Ratzabi
October 19: Willie X. Lin and Dipika Mukherjee (co-sponsored by Kundiman Midwest)
November 16: Carlos Cumpián and Jennifer Scappettone
January 18: Kemi Alabi and Jessica Walsh
February 15: Natasha Mijares and D. Santina Ruiz
March 15: Kien Lam and Danni Quintos (co-sponsored by Kundiman Midwest)
April 19: Maya Pindyck and Julian Randall
May 17: CM Burroughs and Eugenia Leigh

About the Workshop:
The Blue Hour generative writing workshop begins promptly at 6 p.m., ends at 7 p.m., and is designed for writers and poetry fans of all levels. Each workshop includes discussion of a poem by one of the night’s featured readers, followed by guided individual writing using an exploratory prompt that draws on themes from the poem. Registration is required, and the workshop is sliding scale with a suggested donation of $10.

To register for the workshop on April 19, visit https://BHwApril.eventbrite.com for more details.

About the Reading:
The Blue Hour reading includes a brief open mic followed by two featured poets from Chicago and beyond. Pre-registration is free and recommended. The open mic includes five readers drawn lottery-style from a hat that goes out at 7:15. The reading starts promptly at 7:30. Each open mic poet reads one poem or for three minutes, whichever comes first.

To register for the reading session on April 19, visit https://AprilBHrdg.eventbrite.com for more details.

About the Space:
Haymarket House is a community space in the heart of Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood committed to uplifting the work of writers, artists, thinkers, activists, and educators who are committed to all struggles for a better world. This event includes professional ASL interpretation. Haymarket House is fully ADA-compliant and wheelchair accessible. Please let us know if you have any specific accessibility questions; if you use a wheelchair, please contact curator@poetrycenter.org to coordinate use of the ramp. Masks are not required but are encouraged and will be available to anyone who needs it.

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

Barak adé Soleil, SHIFT at Museum of Contemporary Art

On May 6, Barak adé Soleil premieres a new work, SHIFT, that amplifies the presence of Black neurodiverse and disabled bodies by occupying the museum’s spaces both digitally and physically.

SHIFT is a new commission comprised of a video installation in one of the MCA’s public stairwells, accompanied by a live performance. In the dreamlike video installation that runs from May 2nd through June 19, the presence of Black neurodiverse and disabled bodies infiltrates a spiral stairwell within the museum, where they are shown from many angles and at multiple scales, both at rest and as they shift. adé Soleil’s installation offers rest, and the everyday gestures of these bodies, as forms of political resistance for Black people—challenging the media’s often violent interpretation of these bodies as lazy or near death. In the live event on May 6, a promenade of performers traverse inaccessible staircases, recalibrating the flow of activity within the museum and challenging simplistic depictions of Black disabled bodies in real time.

This performance is durational and will move through different areas of the museum, including the MCA Plaza and front steps, the northwest spiral staircase, and both public lobbies. The majority of the performance will take place in the spiral staircase on the west side of the museum’s first floor, and will be visible from various angles on multiple floors. The available space for viewers will change based on the location of the performance as it moves through the museum, and MCA staff will be available to facilitate the audience’s movement to maintain access to elevators, passageways, and stairwells. Portable stools will be available for visitors who wish to use them, where possible. ASL interpretation will be provided. Designated areas for wheelchair and mobility device users will be available on the staircase landings. The MCA Commons, on the museum’s second floor, will display a livestream of the performance as it takes place for visitors who wish to stay in one location. The livestream will also be available for visitors to join from their mobile devices from elsewhere in the museum. Live audio description will be provided: devices will be available at the museum and audience members may also use their personal devices to access the audio description through a URL provided on-site.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, audio description, touch tour, wheelchair accessible

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/barak-ade-soleil-shift/

Will Rawls, [siccer] at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Will Rawls presents a new interdisciplinary work, [siccer], that addresses the relationship between blackness and image-making through a live performance accompanied by a video installation on the museum’s first floor.

Encompassing dance, photography, and sound, [siccer] experiments with stop-motion, a filmmaking technique in which subjects incrementally shift positions between photographs to produce the illusion of movement. Throughout the performance, an automated camera snaps an image every few seconds while the intervals between shutter clicks offer brief interludes when the camera fails to capture the dancers’ movements. As the performers improvise during these gaps between photographs, they rescript the terms through which blackness and queerness are made visible. [siccer] is also being presented as a video installation on the museum’s first floor throughout the duration of the Frictions suite, beginning on April 6.

Accessibility: captioning, ASL interpreted, audio description, assistive listening devices

https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/will-rawls-siccer/

Staff & Friends Reading: Adrian Matejka, Maggie Queeney, Charif Shanahan & Patricia Smith at the Poetry Foundation

Join us for a reading celebrating new book releases by Poetry Foundation staff and friends: Adrian Matejka, Maggie Queeney, Charif Shanahan, and Patricia Smith. Get to know some of the people behind the Foundation’s programs, including Poetry magazine.

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

Adrian Matejka is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Somebody Else Sold the World, which was a finalist for the 2022 Rilke Prize as well as the 2022 Indiana Authors Award. Matejka’s first graphic novel, Last On His Feet, was published in February 2023. He is the editor of Poetry magazine.

Maggie Queeney is the author of In Kind, winner of the 2022 Iowa Poetry Prize, and the chapbook settler. Queeney is the recipient of the 2019 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize, an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago, and a scholarship from the Ruth Stone Foundation. Her most recent work can be found in The Kenyon Review, Guernica, The Missouri Review, and The American Poetry Review. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University and reads and writes in Chicago. She is the Library Associate at the Poetry Foundation.

Charif Shanahan is the author of two collections of poetry: Trace Evidence: poems and Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing, which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and a Thom Gunn Award. Shanahan is the recipient of a NEA Literature Fellowship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, and a Fulbright Senior Scholar Grant to Morocco, among other recognitions. He is an assistant professor of English at Northwestern University, where he teaches poetry in the undergraduate and Litowitz MFA+MA graduate creative writing programs. He is a guest editor of Poetry magazine.

Patricia Smith, the 2021 recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation, is the author of Unshuttered and Incendiary Art, among other collections. Smith is the winner of a Kingsley Tufts Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a NAACP Image Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her book Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah won a Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and Blood Dazzler was a National Book Award finalist. She is a creative writing professor at Princeton University, a distinguished professor for the City University of New York, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a chancellor in the Academy of American Poets.

In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. If you will not comply with this requirement, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. Guests are encouraged to register in advance.

Livestream Attendance
The livestream link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. In order to receive the livestream details, please register in advance here. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adrian-matejka-maggie-queeney-charif-shanahan-patricia-smith-tickets-595052637457

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

Poetry off the Shelf: Renee Gladman, Eileen Myles & Simone White at the Poetry Foundation

Join us for a reading and conversation with Renee Gladman, Eileen Myles, and Simone White as they celebrate their new book releases.

In Renee Gladman’s Plans for Sentences, Eileen Myles’s a “Working Life,” and Simone White’s or, on being the other woman, longings and plans laid bare accumulate in staccato bursts of life, almost self-generatively. Hovering between genres, these three new books vibrate with willful misdirection, fierce unknowing, and flummoxed dualities. How can the work of writing set life in motion?

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

Renee Gladman is a writer and artist preoccupied with crossings, thresholds, and geographies as they play out at the intersections of poetry, prose, drawing, and architecture. Gladman is the author of 14 published works, including a cycle of novels about the city-state Ravicka and its inhabitants, the Ravickians, as well as three collections of drawings: One Long Black Sentence, a series of white-ink drawings on black paper, indexed by Fred Moten; Plans for Sentences, an image/text-based meditation on Black futurity and other choreographies of gathering; and Prose Architectures. She makes her home in New England.

Eileen Myles is a poet, novelist, and art journalist whose practice of vernacular first-person writing has become a touchstone for the identity-fluid internet age. Pathetic Literature, which they edited, came out in Fall of 2022. Myles’s newest collection of poems, a “Working Life”, is out in April. Their fiction includes Chelsea Girls, which just won France’s Inrockuptibles Prize for best foreign novel, Cool for You, Inferno (a poet’s novel), and Afterglow. Writing on art was gathered in the volume The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art. They live in New York and Marfa, Texas.

Simone White is the author of the collections or, on being the other woman, Dear Angel of Death, Of Being Dispersed, and House Envy of All the World. White teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. If you will not comply with this requirement, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. Guests are encouraged to register in advance.

Livestream Attendance
The livestream link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. In order to receive the livestream details, please register in advance here. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-off-the-shelf-renee-gladman-eileen-myles-simone-white-tickets-595026750027

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

Poetics in Practice: Art Writers Panel at the Poetry Foundation

Join us for a panel on art writing with Camille Bacon, Amarie Cemone Gipson, Daria Simone Harper, and Jessica Lynne during the weekend of EXPO CHICAGO.

Taking up the question of “poetics in practice,” the panel will consider the function and responsibility of art writing in the contemporary moment, the lineages we draw from and are in dialogue with, and what it means to build a viable writing life as writers working in a field that has historically underfunded the production and development of critical discourse. Together, we will ponder, imagine, muse, and speculate towards a reality that can better support the creation and proliferation of our work, as well as that of fellow writers.

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

Camille Bacon is a Chicago-based writer who is building a “sweet black writing life” as inspired by the words of poet Nikky Finney and the infinite wisdom of the Black feminist tradition more broadly. Through a practice that involves rigorous research and oration in addition to writing, she examines the material function of aesthetics and poetics. More specifically, she is interested in illuminating how aesthetics and poetics can catalyze a collective reorientation towards relation, connection, and intimacy and away from apathy and amnesia. Her work has appeared in Frieze, Cultured Magazine, Studio Magazine, Momus, and Burnaway, among other outlets. She currently manages McArthur Binion’s studio in Chicago, and formerly held positions at GRAY art gallery and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Amarie Cemone Gipson is an art worker, DJ, and creative director. She has held curatorial positions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Renaissance Society, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Contemporary Austin, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Independently, her writing has been published in several journals and magazines including Artforum, ARTNews, ARTS.BLACK, Cite, ESSENCE, Gulf Coast, Houstonia, and THE SEEN. Currently based in her hometown of Houston, she created an open format dance party called PHYSICAL THERAPY where she serves as creative lead and resident DJ. As a culmination of her decade-long journey through the realms of art, music, and media, Gipson founded the Reading Room, a Black art reference library whose collection holds more than 300 publications and ephemera with an emphasis on Blackness, visual culture, and the American South.

Daria Simone Harper is a multimedia journalist and writer based in Brooklyn. She is currently Assistant Editor on the Digital Content team at David Zwirner Gallery New York. Through herstorytelling, she aims to amplify emerging Black and brown visual artists, as well as preserve the history of the trailblazing artists, thinkers, and creators who paved the way for us. Her byline is featured in publications including Artnet News, Artsy, Burnaway, CULTURED Magazine, ESSENCE, i-D, W Magazine, and more. She has interviewed and written features on established artists and cultural workers including Carrie Mae Weems, Stanley Whitney, and Antwaun Sargent, among others. Daria also hosts The Art of It All, an art and culture podcast featuring conversations amongst emerging and established artists and arts professionals of color.

Jessica Lynne is a writer and art critic. She is a founding editor of ARTS.BLACK, an online journal of art criticism from Black perspectives. Her writing has been featured in publications such as Artforum, The Believer, Frieze, The Nation, and Oxford American, where she is a contributing editor. She is the recipient of a 2020 Research and Development award from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and a 2020 Arts Writer Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation. She is the inaugural recipient of the Beverly Art Writers Travel Grant awarded in 2022 by the American Australian Association.

In-Person Attendance
All guests over the age of two must wear a mask inside the Poetry Foundation building. If you are unwilling to comply with this requirement, you will not be granted entry to the event. Please note that some performers may choose to perform without a mask. Guests are encouraged to register in advance.

Livestream Attendance
The livestream link will be shared with registered guests on the day of the event. In order to receive the livestream details, please register in advance here. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expo-chicago-poetics-in-practice-art-writers-panel-tickets-567161965707

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

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/

Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, Touch of RED at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Shamel Pitts and the Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE debut an electrifying new live performance in their ongoing Red Series exploring Black multiplicity and human connection.

The new work, titled Touch of RED, is a duet for two Black men set inside a contemporary boxing ring—a space that might traditionally suggest an aggressive competition between male athletes for entertainment purposes. Yet in Touch of RED, the two dancers imbue this boxed-in site with an intense energy drawn from the power of vulnerability, effeminacy, and the healing that occurs when Black men are allowed to soften, together. During the performance audiences will be seated around the four sides of the ring, which strategically conceals or frames the action. Transforming the space into a pulsing night club dance floor, Touch of RED invites the audience to experience the anticipation, energy, and collective softening that accompanies a good party—and reframe their expectations of time, space, and normative identity.

Accessibility: ASL interpreted, assistive listening devices, audio description, captioning

https://experience.mcachicago.org/overview/5786?queueittoken=e_mcageneral~q_6b855690-c319-4e86-a696-709882d1dd35~ts_1679853767~ce_true~rt_safetynet~h_601a46034f377ef96c08bcd1e98d78ea6c5c8b005d357659c1f90efb3399ab1b

“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

DESCRIBE THE NIGHT at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Truth is lie; lie is truth. 1920: Jewish writer Isaac Babel begins a journal while serving in war. Ninety years later, this same journal is found in the wreckage of a suspicious plane crash. What did Babel write, and why does it matter? Ensemble member Rajiv Joseph’s epic thriller ricochets through place and time following the unlikely lives of seven individuals – soldiers and poets, KGB agents and babushkas – as they unearth mysteries buried by decades of history, fiction and blood.

Written by ensemble member Rajiv Joseph
Directed by ensemble member Austin Pendleton

Accessibility: ASL Interpreted

https://cart.steppenwolf.org/17766/17860

Alfred Caldwell Lecture: The Intersection of Public Space, Art, and Social Justice at IIT

Join the College of Architecture’s Master of Landscape + Urbanism Program on April 12, 2023 at 5pm for the annual Alfred Caldwell Lecture and explore the intersectionality of public space, art, and social justice. Devon Henry, Franklin Cosey-Gay, and Makeba Kedem DuBose will discuss how memory and representation have expanded the narrative about the built environment. What do we want to collectively remember (or forget) through the symbols that we rise (or raze) in cities? Henry will present his construction of the ENSLAVED LABORERS MEMORIAL in Charlottesville and his work removing Confederate monuments in Richmond, Virginia. He will join a panel discussion with Cosey-Gay from the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project, multidisciplinary artist Kedem-DuBose, and moderator Ron Henderson.

The annual Alfred Caldwell Lecture is named in honor of Alfred Caldwell (1903-1998), influential landscape architect, IIT alumnus, IIT Hall of Fame awardee, and faculty member in IIT’s College of Architecture, Planning, and Design. Our Master of Landscape Architecture program grows from his legacy. Caldwell’s many contributions to Chicago include the Lincoln Park Lily Pond, Promontory Point, Skyline Park at Lake Point Tower, and the IIT campus. The Alfred Caldwell Lecture invites non-landscape architect speakers whose provocative scholarship or work amplifies the global ethical discourse on Landscape Architecture.

The event will take place at S. R. Crown Hall, 3360 S. State Street and is sponsored by the College of Architecture, Office of Community Affairs and the Center for Study of Ethics in the Professions. Parking is available across the street at Lot D4.

A reception will follow the event at S. R. Crown Hall. Please do not reserve more than two seats. ASL interpretation will be provided onsite.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exploring-the-intersectionality-of-public-space-art-and-social-justice-tickets-565471128367

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