Beautiful humans! The weather is warming and the new season of Queer Eye just dropped and today is the actual first day of spring! To this list of good news, we add the joyous announcement of the first Here Chicago of 2019. Our Spring addition gathers some of the most hopeful, determined, joyful, and purpose-driven people we know to tell you true stories. It also features 4 open-mic spots that anyone from the audience can use to tell a story, AND a delectable potluck dinner.
The night is an offering to the beloved, diverse Chicago community. We give away seats for FREE to anyone bringing a dish for the potluck, and so the whole 7-year endeavor is a labor of love. Join us for an evening of truth and beauty and laughter and dinner. Gather with folks with different backgrounds, perspectives, professions and experiences to listen and learn and just, like, celebrate being alive after this long-ass winter. We made it through! May we unclench and expand. Breathe in and out. Grow gently. Revitalize. Rise up.
Here’s who we bring you on the 7th. There will be a lot of goodness in one room, and we hope you will be part of it. If you’ve been you know, the night is better if you’re there. The more stories, food, and friends, the merrier.
Rahman Statik
Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, surrounded by urban art and public murals, Rahmaan Statik was inspired to be involved with the subculture of Street Art. A consequent arrest for “vandalism” put him on a mission to legitimize the production of aerosol murals. This became the main focus of his work: public murals that fuse the graffiti aesthetic with a classical training received from the American Academy of Art. As co-founder of R.K Design, a graphic arts and mural collective, Statik has produced over 400 murals, received mural commissions for corporate clients such as Coca Cola, Toyota, The village of Rosemont, and Red Bull. He has also produced illustrations, brand identity, and print projects for Frank 151 magazine, Argus brewery, and the Chicago Jazz Fair. Through the Chicago Public Art Group, as well as After School Matters, from 2004 to 2016, Statik has instructed children in mural painting techniques and mentored young artists in their craft. Working out of his studio in the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago, Statik also creates works for exhibition and purchase using oil, acrylic, graphite, pen & ink, pastels, mosaic tile, found objects, spray paint and digital media. Statik creates street art, and art for museum and gallery exhibition, across the world.
Amber Linde
Amber is a person who wears many hats in various communities of Chicago. She is a faculty member at Second City, and performs and teaches all over the country, mainly in the art of musical improv. She is a relatively new social worker and has spent the past 3 years providing counseling and case management to women who have survived homelessness. Her passion is bringing people together for the greater good, and even in tough times or in the darkest hours, finding the humor, music and joy through it all.
Hector Avitia
Hector is a Mexican national who grew up in a small farming town of 10k people near Albuquerque, NM. Wanting to venture outside of his dairy farm surrounding, Hector went to business school at Notre Dame and returned to Albuquerque to work in the auto industry. After finding that business was not his calling, he took the leap of faith into restorative justice and took up a year as a full-time volunteer at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, a south-side nonprofit working with youth in family that have been impacted by gun violence and incarceration. Hector is now the coordinator of volunteers and runs a screen printing program where youth can get hands-on job experience making shirts and other accessories.
Elizabeth Cambridge
Elizabeth is an avid daydreamer, storyteller, producer, and host from Cleveland, OH. She’s hosted and told stories all around the city including The Moth, The Stoop, This Much is True and just recently the SPEAK series in Jamaica. Her podcast Random Conversations with Elizabeth is currently available on your favorite podcast app. Make sure to follow her on Instagram @randomconversationselizabeth.
Catherine Napper
Catherine Frances is the Audience Favorite walk-up storyteller from our most recent show. And she has spent her life creating stories…with a camera, with watercolors, poetry and theater. She is also an educator in the Chicagoland area and currently works as a literacy specialist and enrichment teacher. She is inspired by her children and family, nature, pets and other hopeful things.
Janna Sobel & Geneva Manley
Here Chicago is produced and hosted by Janna Sobel, and was for a long-time co-hosted by Nnamdi Ngwe, and still sometimes is when he is back in town! On April 7th, Geneva Manley joins us as co-host. Which is incredibly lucky because she is a rock star. Geneva earned a degree in business from DePaul University with a major in marketing, and a Master of Arts degree in Dance Education from NYU, and became Director of the Education Outreach Department at Dance Theatre of Harlem. She joined the adjunct faculty at NYU as Associate Artistic Director, while teaching original dance making at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Bank Street. A post-modern dancer and choreographer, Geneva performed in venues such as: Alvin Ailey Theater, Judson Church, National Theatre of Uganda; and co-founded a dance research company in NYC— Dance To The People. Geneva is currently blowing the whistle on the fashion industry, and redefining art and culture as we know it, through her clown character Art Manley.
Join us for a wonderful night. If you plan to attend, do reserve seats in advance, as the show often sells-out. The only way to reserve seats is online, HERE. Also, beginning in 2019, regular $11 general admission tickets are available online immediately, and the FREE potluck tickets become available online the Monday before the show. This is a GENIUS idea we had to give folks who truly wish to attend with a potluck dish and free admission, the opportunity to get tickets! (And it discourages the once-common and unfortunate practice of using the free ticket option as a place holder, and then forgetting to attend… oops!) Our show takes place in a theater with limited seating, so we definitely want to make sure the people who reserve seats use them. :)
We can’t wait to see you.
Here Chicago on April 7th
Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont
7:30 potluck | 8pm show
Tickets (both free & general admish!)
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