A Girly Show
Edgewater
A Girly Show is a collaboration between local artists, Jared Brown and AJ McClenon. Featured contributors include: Noa Micaela Fields, Remy Guzman, Andres L. Hernandez, Imani Jackson, Regina Martinez, Lynneah McCarrell, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, and Carissa Pinckney. Two iterations of the collaborative variety show took place October 4 and October 5, 2024 at the Coach House of the Berger Park Cultural Center in Edgewater.
This project began as a residency at Roman Susan, to incubate and inspire new work that reflects the ethos of Edgewater. McClenon and Brown have practices intersecting at sound, installation, text, and performance. A Girly Show at Berger Park Cultural Center is a variety show that will present the collaborative work between McClenon and Brown, while uplifting a variety of practices from their beloved community members. Poetry, drag, comedy, experimental sound, and improvisation are a few tools that will be used to inspire guests to examine their intimate relationships to what they deem entertaining and why.
Above is an audience-view video of the October 4, 2024 iteration of A Girly Show at Berger Park Cultural Center.
Download audio of the event here, recorded by Kate In from Experimental Sound Studio. Two of the works created during this process and shared in the variety show were jingles for favorite neighborhood spaces of AJ and Jared. Check out the videos for the Edgewater Library and Kim’s Hardware below.
Jared Brown is an interdisciplinary artist born in Chicago. In past work, Jared broadcasted audio and text-based work through the radio (CENTRAL AIR RADIO, 88.5 FM), in live DJ sets, and on social media. 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 video to investigate the relationship between history and digital, immaterial space.
AJ McClenon is a multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in Washington, DC, currently residing in Chicago. Alongside artistic experiences, A.J. is passionate about teaching and community collaborations with the goal that all the memories and histories that are said to have “too many Black people,” are told and retold again. To uphold these stories, AJ creates performances, installations, objects, sounds, visuals, and writings. These creations often revolve around an interest in water and aquatic life, escapism, Blackness, science, grief, US history, and the global future.
A Girly Show is a part of Navigations, a series of artist projects in and about public space. In 2025, this project was supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency; CityArts grants from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events; Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation; Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; Reva and David Logan Foundation; Teiger Foundation; as well as in-kind support from Chicago Park District. In 2024, this program was supported by Hyde Park Art Center’s Artists Run Chicago Fund in partnership with Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities. In 2023-24, this program were supported in part by federal assistance listing number 21.027 awarded to Roman Susan Art Foundation NFP by the US Treasury through the American Rescue Plan Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in the amount of $50,000, representing 17.5% of total project funding.
This event is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.