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Aguijon Theater

April 5, 6, 19 & 20, 2024

Belmont Cragin

Founded in 1989, Aguijón Theater Company is dedicated to creating exciting and meaningful theatrical experiences through the cultural exploration, discussion, and performance of works in Spanish.

As Chicago’s longest-running Latino theater, the company strives to foster, promote, and celebrate the diverse cultural excellence of the city’s Latino theater artists while challenging and inspiring its audiences to surmount language barriers and cross cultural boundaries.

Fiercely committed to ensuring that the arts are accessible in every Chicago neighborhood, Aguijón is especially dedicated to creating for and with the Belmont-Cragin community where the company has been rooted since 1999.

The Chicago Inclusive Dance Festival

Join for live performances in the Chicago Rooms, 2nd Floor North, 2-3pm

• Friday, December 1: Inclusive Movement Workshop and Q&A with Jamila Kinney
  
• Saturday, December 2: EveryBody Can Dance inclusive workshop
• Friday, December 15: Chicago Inclusive Dance Festival Lecture demonstration with Maggie Bridger
• Saturday, December 16: Chicago Inclusive Dance Festival Open interactive rehearsal of And Yet We Are Here with Sydney Erlikh and Deb Goodman
  

Disability Communities Across Chicago

The Chicago Inclusive Dance Festival/DisFest is an annual event focused on community building through inclusive dance. CIDF/DisFest features inclusive movement workshops alongside non-movement activities, such as short film and dance video viewings, academic presentations, discussions, and networking opportunities.

The festival connects this small community in meaningful and measurable ways by encouraging integrated, inclusive, and adaptive dance practitioners to dance together, to share their work, to collaborate, to discuss guidelines and procedures for best practices, and to network. The integrated and inclusive dance community has gained visibility in Chicagoland and the larger dance community through CIDF/DisFest.

They have sparked new art works and significant collaborations across Chicago neighborhoods and have grown the field of trained, disabled dance professionals in Chicago. Past participants have gone on to become celebrated Chicago dancers, dancemakers and dance teachers. The Chicago Inclusive Dance Festival/DisFest is a joyous event that is free, accessible, and open to the public.

Ms. Brazhal & MSB DANCE from Washington Park

November 3 & 17 (Video), Randolph Square Screen, 1st Floor North, 2-3pm
November 4 & 18 (Performance), Chicago Rooms, 2nd Floor North, 2-3pm

Ms. Brazhal Brewer is the Dance Director of Movement Strengthens Balance Dance Ensemble. MSB Dance Ensemble has an Elite performance team dedicated to sharing their talent across the Chicagoland area. Ms. Brazhal has been teaching dance to city youth since the age of 11 at many dance programs and after school programs.

MSB Dance Elite Performance Ensemble creates the opportunity for youth to use dance as an escape, a release, and to provide structure and balance in their lives. Ms. B uses dance as an outlet of expression and challenges young people to step outside of their box, and inspires them with her passion for teaching.

Their goal is to inspire their community with dance education, and focus on performance opportunities that will motivate, educate, and develop an appreciation of the fine arts.

Instagram @msb_dance_

Son Monarcas

October 6, 7, 20 & 21, 2023

2-3pm: Live performances in the Welcome Center

Garfield Park, Pilsen and Little Village

Son Monarcas is a Latin Folk Fusion ensemble led by Mercedes Inez and Irekani Ferreyra and comprised of musicians well-versed in the Afro-Mestizo genres of folk music from Latin America that blend the traditional with the contemporary by creating original arrangements of "son" while retaining the foundation of the traditional style. Like the Monarch Butterfly, they take you on a musical migration from the USA to Latin America by fusing indie soul with traditional son & cumbia.

Son Monarcas is committed to providing quality arts programming for students of all ages and backgrounds that focuses on cultural education through the arts, thus inspiring the next generation of arts audiences & practitioners. Teaching bilingual dynamic programs in a multitude of schools, Son Monarcas & Nahui Ollin are mindful of the State of Illinois Education Goals for Music, Dance, Visual Art, and Theatre.

Traditional and authentic Mexican music and dance presentations and education in community settings create a more meaningful connection to the music and the culture for our audience.

FOURTUNEHOUSE Art Center

September 1, 2, 15 & 16, 2023

Bronzeville

Fourtunehouse creative company and art center is based in Bronzeville with a mission centered around empowering artists and change makers by generating access to creative entrepreneurial resources.

In June 2022, Fourtunehouse Art Center opened at 4410 South Cottage Grove as a home to events, exhibitions, initiatives, and programs, and for engaging the Bronzeville community. The space is home to a range of curated experiences such as audio production and engineering workshops, environmental justice based programming, and open mics; and it welcomes creatives and entrepreneurs to connect and host their own exhibitions, listening parties, panels, pop-ups, and other events in the space.

Visit Fortunehouse to experience activations and exhibitions such as their Season Two Gallery (July 2023) which will explore the concept of home and invite artists to express their interpretations through multidisciplinary and visual art forms.

Chicago Rewilding Society

August 4, 5, 18, 19, 2023

Garfield Park

Chicago Rewilding Society celebrates West Side communities by amplifying wonder, delight, and a sense of magic through the explorative healing of human-animal connection. Collaborating with communities to expand understanding of the non-human world through discussions and curated experiences around caretaking and trust-building, CRS fosters flexibility when coming into contact with otherness and seeks to inspire urban families to greater connection with the natural world.

Chicago Rewilding Society utilizes therapeutic horseback riding, animal-assisted therapy, and experiential environmental studies. They use both scientific inquiry and artistic experimentation to explore the beauty & intricacy of nature, from internal anatomy to the environments in which we live.

Encountering animals in the city is inherently therapeutic. CRS believes through partnering with animals and the natural world we can better inhabit our own human bodies, encouraging us to humanely relate to ourselves, each other, and the world around us.

Redtwist Theater

Creating theater in Edgewater since 1994, Redtwist is just as much a part of the community as it is a part of us. Intimate performances in Redtwist’s little black box theatre are designed to place the theatre patron in the midst of the stories we tell, making them accessible and riveting. We strive for excellence with every project, and proactively endeavor to take risks creating intense, edgy, and thrilling theatre, serving Chicago’s Edgewater community.

Public Engagement Events

• March 3 & 4, 2023: 2-3pm
• March 17 & 18, 2023: 2-3pm

M.A.D.D. RHYTHMS

M.A.D.D. Rhythms’ teaches TAP history, represents its culture and advocates for its future. M.A.D.D. Rhythms Tap Academy and the Chicago Tap Summit provide scholarships via the Studio-to-Stage Pipeline program, arrange national and international touring performance opportunities for Youth Apprentices, lead workshops and education events free of charge and provide a state-of-the-art studio and cultural space for the arts to the Bronzeville and greater South Side communities. The company composed of young, versatile tap dancers from all over Chicago, ages 15 to 44, spreads the love of TAP worldwide.

Public Engagement Events

• February 3 & 4, 2023: 2-3pm
• February 17 & 18, 2023: 2-3pm

Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center

Supporting the history, culture, vibrancy, and identity of communities of color in greater Chicago, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center (SRBCC) is the longest-standing Latino cultural center in Chicago. SRBCC offers weekly and monthly percussion classes, live music events, and community workshops that promote cultural understanding through artistic expression, keeping youth and professional teaching artists safe, with meaningful opportunities to create, present and produce art.

Public Engagement Events

• December 2 & 3, 2022: 2-3pm
• December 16 & 17, 2022: 2-3pm

Louis Barak Studios

Louis Barak’s artwork incorporates subject matter from his own experiences and includes a range of positive and negative themes ranging from disenfranchised youth, racism, antisemitism, and addiction to the beauty of life, love, and family. He strives for his work to be both pleasing and provocative and aims to provide his audience with both a beautiful visual and an intellectual challenge.

Public Engagement Events

• November 11 & 12, 2022: 2-3pm
• November 25 & 26, 2022: 2-3pm

CodeCreate

Engaging an audience in meaningful considerations of intersections of art, technology and other forms of diversity, CodeCreate coaches students in basic circuitry, media and performing arts, robotics and computer programming, illustration and 3D design. Our workshops cover a variety of topics, leveraging youths’ interests, passions, knowledge and creativity.

Public Engagement Events

• September 30 & October 1, 2022: 2-3pm
• October 14 & 15, 2022: 2-3pm

Traverse: An Animatronic Puppet Show and Workshop
Written by Mike Ervin
Puppets by Susan Zielinski
Starring Tammy Rozofsky and Brandon David

Description:
Cardboard Building
Diverse Abilities
Motorized making
Free and Open to all
Written by Mike Ervin
Puppets by Susan Zielinski
Starring Tammy Rozofsky and Brandon David

Dates:
Workshop: Friday, October 14: 2-3pm
Show: Saturday, October 15: 2-3pm

Access Information:
The show will have open Captions, ASL interpretation, and audio description.

The wheelchair accessible entrance, located street level at Garland Court and Randolph Street, leads to the westernmost Randolph Square entry doors which have power assisted opening. All restrooms and elevators in the Chicago Cultural Center are wheelchair accessible.

Wheelchairs for use in the Chicago Cultural Center are available upon request on a first come, first served basis. Upon arrival, please ask the security officer on duty in the lobby for assistance. The wheelchairs may be used in the building and returned to the security desk when finished. There is no staff available to push the chairs.

Wheelchair accessible seats and seats accessible without stairs are available in the back rows of the Claudia Cassidy Theater.

An elevator connected to the underground Pedway is located in the Randolph Street Lobby. An elevator located outside the building on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street also connects to the underground Pedway providing access to the Chicago Cultural Center, the Metra Train Station and the Grant Park Underground Garage.

Celebration Event

Friday, September 16, 2022: 2-3pm

Divine Purpose Fine Arts

Offering affordable arts programming that supports young people in the development of their unique skills and talents in the performing arts and encourages them to express their gifts through the artistry of performance. Divine Purpose Fine Arts also offers affordable rental space for community organizations and individuals for meetings and private events.

Public Engagement Events

• August 5 & 6, 2022: 2-3pm

Beverly Area Arts Alliance

Coordinating art focused events and projects that foster collaboration between artists and the Beverly/Morgan Park community, The Beverly Area Arts Alliance advances Beverly as a hub of culture and creativity on Chicago’s Far South Side working with community leaders, organizations and artists to create a vibrant environment in which to live and do business.

Public Engagement Events

• July 1 & 2, 2022: 2-3pm
• July 15 & 16, 2022: 2-3pm