Next Events
Tending to the Mother in Me Friday, May 23 at 6 PM + Saturday, June 7 at 1 PM
Mooove Voice Thursday, June 12 at 6 PM
Past events: Mooove Voice 05.17.24 + 03.15.25 Screen Test 9.21.22 + 10.18.23 + 04.05.25 FRUTAS 10.23-11.13-12.11.23 + 02.26-04.15-06.17-08.19-10.21-12.09.24 A Girly Show 10.4-10.5.24 On the Edge 09.26.24 Rising Up Angry 11.20.23 *between the tongue and the taste* 4.19-5.17-6.21-7.19-8.16-9.20.23 In the Future Something Will Have Happened 9.1-9.2.23 Where yo Wurkz/Where yo Mental 8.18.23 Reading the Landscape 9.28-11.02-12.07.22 + 1.11-5.31.23 The Collective Mending Sessions 3.25.23 Ende, Taul, Yu 10.18.22 BOUNDARYMIND 5.28.22 Drift 9.25-10.16.21 In-betweening 7.23.21 Twin Cities 3.29-5.9.21
Christine Shallenberg and Aurora Tabar
Tending to the Mother in Me
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
Workshops RSVP
Friday, May 23 from 6 PM to 8:30 PM
Saturday, June 7 from 1 PM to 3:30 PM
You are welcome to attend one day, or both!
Tending to the Mother in Me is a reflection on the labor of caregiving in all its forms through guided movement and play. Facilitated by Christine Shallenberg and Aurora Tabar with live music by Jess Baldissero.
These workshops explore the complex nature of caregiving through movement, meditation, improvisation, and writing. They are open to folks of all backgrounds and experiences who tend to the needs of others including parents, teachers, elder workers, personal care assistants, domestic workers, community organizers, therapists, social workers, gardeners, medical professionals, and beyond. We join together to uncover how we, as caregivers and caretakers, can nurture our own well being. Through collective embodied investigation, we consider how radical love and care for others might be a road map for a more just, inclusive and interconnected world. Join us as we move, breathe, and play together. We need this now and we wonder if you do, too.
Free but space is limited – Please reserve your spot here. Childcare provided. No dance experience necessary.
Classes take place in the Berger Park Ball Room on the third floor of the main building. The studio has a Marley dance floor over wood planks, natural and artificial lighting, and window air conditioning. We regret that the studio is not fully accessible – participants must move up two sets of stairs to access the space.
Christine Shallenberg is a teaching artist and mom. Her work ranges in mode from electronic textiles to light and sound installations to participatory choreographies for audiences (and sometimes her child). Her long-time collaboration with Jenn Cooper, JCSpaceRadio, engaged in a casually critical dialogue with frequencies through workshops, performances and interactive installations. Her work has been seen at Links Hall, High Concept Laboratories, Experimental Sound Studio, Hume Gallery, Tritriangle and No Nation in Chicago, as well as Movement Research, Galapagos Art Center, Williamsburg Arts Nexus, and Triskelion Arts in NYC. She also worked as the Lighting Designer for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for whom she designed Second Hand, Antic Meet, Nearly 902 and more than 30 unique Event performances seen around the world. She continues to design for performance with Every house has a door. More info at christineshallenberg.com.
Aurora Tabar is a Chicago-based performance artist, occupational therapist, and multi-tasking mom. She creates live performances and public actions that meld contemporary dance forms with research, storytelling, and audience participation. She wonders how the experience of live art can be a catalyst for healing. From 2018-2020 she facilitated The Existential Coat Check, an interactive popup booth that invited participants to shed their psychic baggage via writing and drawing activities at venues across the midwest. Her last evening length performance, Tiny Vibrating Strings, explored the life of Mileva Maric, Einstein’s first wife, whose contributions to the field of theoretical physics were overshadowed by her domineering spouse. Aurora has presented solo and collaborative performances in Chicago at Links Hall, Elastic Arts, High Concept Laboratories, Prop Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, and Roman Susan Gallery, and nationally at Movement Research (NY). More info at auroratabar.com.
Jess Baldissero is a seasoned multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, improviser and mother based in Chicago, IL. Whether supporting other artists as a side player on tour, arranging and producing recorded work for artists around the country, writing scores for live theater and art installations, or self-releasing original work with her songwriting project, Joybird, her impact is authentic and dynamic, elevating any project she has a hand in. With a background in social work and a passion for teaching youth, Jess is deeply inspired by communal, connection-centered art. This has led her toward making music as a therapeutic tool, fiddling for social dance and community events, and nearly a decade teaching at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk music before founding her own private teaching studio, Heart Strings Chicago. Jess’s playing has been featured on NPR, XRT, and the BBC, among other local and national broadcasts, and she can be seen touring currently with experimental blues artist, Buffalo Nichols (Austin, TX), or daytimes frequenting most any playground on the northwest side of Chicago with her precious two-year-old daughter. More at @jess__baldissero.
These workshops are being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
Elaine Lemieux and Sara Zalek
Mooove Voice
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
Next Workshop RSVP
Thursday, June 12 at 6 PM
Mooove Voice combines classical vocal techniques with fundamental Butoh exercises, exploring the physical sensations of vocal sounds in our bodies and in the space around us. We work up to group improvisational scores by playfully passing sound and movement in simple patterns. No experience necessary, all are welcome!
RSVP now to ensure a spot at the next Mooove Voice. Walk-ins are encouraged as well; if we are at capacity, you will be placed first for the next event. Mooove Voice will last 90 minutes. This event will take place on the third floor of the building, up three flights of stairs. Participants will be asked to remove their shoes to enter the space. Parking is limited in the area – CTA, ride share, biking encouraged!
Elaine Lemieux, mezzo-soprano, received Master’s and Post-Master’s degrees in Music Interpretation in Voice from the University of Montreal, Québec. Elaine has been teaching singing for more than 20 years. As a music lover and voice teacher, she feels that her responsibilities are to help young children, teenagers and adults to discover their vocal and singing abilities in a natural and healthy manner. She is the founder of VOIX-DE-VIVRE.
Sara Zalek (@01saratonin) is a transdisciplinary artist, producer, and curator. Rooted in physical investigations of trauma, resilience, and transformation, their work is intimate, raw, poetic. They make performances into learning situations, workshops, and sensing environments to encourage thoughtful interpersonal connections. They have performed and curated performances at the Chicago Cultural Center, High Concept Labs, Elastic Arts, Experimental Sound Studio, Links Hall, Lumpen Radio, dfbrl8r, Urban Guild in Kyoto, Japan, and so many more.
This event is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
Screen Test
Berger Park Cultural Center (Coach House)
6215 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
Share a work with us for a future Screen Test
This series operates as an open mic for moving image – an open call for artists. Share a video that has never screened in public before, and we will debut the work together! Artists must be in attendance at the screening. Partial edits and work-in-progress are welcome. All artists whose work is screened are paid. We’ll share one question each artist has for the audience, and a discussion of the works will follow. Total runtime will be approximately 60 minutes.
The first Screen Test on September 21, 2022 featured new work and work-in-progress by Crystal Beiersdorfer, Salome Chasnoff, Ben Creech, Laleh Motlagh, Klaus Pinter, and Elspread (Jane Tao X Hyeji Kang). The second Screen Test took place on October 18, 2023 with works by Ruth K. Burke, Ali Georgescu, Tracie Kunzika, Kristin McWharter, Alan Perry, Ruby Que, Ramin Takloo-Bighash, and Oona Taper. The third Screen Test occurred April 5, 2025 with works by Leslie Crum, Sky Goodman and Cris War, Felicia Holman, Ro(b)//ert Lundberg, Kim Nucci and Driven Arts Collective, Mina Patel, TAITAI xTina, Tianjiao Wang, and Loraine Wible.
These events are being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
FRUTAS
Parque Cultural de Berger
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
FRUTAS es un evento en español que intenta a apoyar hispanoparlantes LGBTQAI+ de todos niveles de competencia. FRUTAS ha sido un lugar (antes de la pandemia) para personas cuyo primer, segundo o tercer idioma es el español. Tanto si eres fluido o principiante, FRUTAS te da la bienvenida. Se proporcionan bocadillos y bebidas.
FRUTAS is a Spanish language event working to elevate LGBTQAI+ Spanish language speakers. FRUTAS has been a place (before the pandemic) for people whose first, second, or third language is Spanish. Whether you’re fluent or beginning, FRUTAS welcomes you. Snacks and beverages provided; just bring your queer self!
Eventos pasados con artistas destacados 🍒🥥🍍🍎🍑🍈🍉🥑🍋🍊🥭🥝🍌🍓 Past events with featured artists
Estos eventos se realizan en colaboración con la artista de performance multimedia Sofía Moreno, radicada en la Ciudad de México y Chicago, y los organizadores Flor, E. Mar García, Mitch Monroy, y blake nemec, radicados en Chicago. FRUTAS se comparten en el Centro Cultural Berger Park como parte de Estudios del Movimiento, una serie de programación que investiga las transiciones sociales y ambientales.
These events are in collaboration with Mexico City and Chicago-based multimedia performance artist Sofía Moreno, and Chicago-based organizers Flor, E. Mar García, Mitch Monroy, and blake nemec. FRUTAS is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
23 de octubre de 2023 – Laura Glover Rivera, trabajadora sexual, periodista independiente, activista e investigadora social. Como toda mujer trans provinciana huyó del escarnio a la Ciudad de México, donde en 2021 fundó junto a Rojo Génesis, La Tianguis Disidente una okupa-mercado en la Ciudad de México pensada para paliar la violencia económica que padece la comunidad LGBTIQA+. Desde entonces supo su lugar era con las personas trans de la calle, iniciando la cuenta de divulgación @transyfugas donde comparte historias de supervivencia, cárcel e infamia con un tono irónico y contestatario, a modo de contraproducción del legendario periódico "Alarma", un tablón que por décadas colaboró a la violencia sistemática y estatal de personas trans en México.
October 23, 2023 – Laura Glover Rivera, sex worker, independent journalist, activist and social researcher. Like all provincial trans women, she fled the ridicule to Mexico City, where in 2021 she founded, together with Rojo Génesis, the dissident Tianguis, an okupa-market in Mexico City designed to alleviate the economic violence suffered by the LGBTQIA+ community. Since then she knew her place was with the trans people of the street, starting the extension account -transyfugas where she shares stories of survival, imprisonment and infamy with an ironic and contested tone, as a counterproduction of the legendary newspaper "Alerta," a tabloid that for decades collaborated with the systematic and state violence towards trans people in Mexico.
13 de noviembre de 2023 – Gizeh Trejo, escritora y artista de performance de la Ciudad de México. La obra de Trejo ha sido presentada en diversos espacios culturales y museos como: Museo de Arte del Tolima, Museo Nacional de la Ciudad de México, Museo Carillo Gil, etc. en colaboración con otros artistas visuales.
November 13, 2023 – Gizeh Trejo, a writer and performance artist from Mexico City. Work by Trejo has been presented in various cultural spaces and museums such as: Tolima Art Museum, National Museum of Mexico City, Carillo Gil Museum, etc. in collaboration with other visual artists.
11 de diciembre de 2023 – Mitch Monroy es un poeta trans guatemalteco y artista multimedia que sueña despierto con lo queer y identidad. Sus proyectos exploran realidades trans a través de fronteras y esta tradición de ausencia. fueron seleccionados como becario de invierno de Tin House 2023. Sus trabajos anteriores han aparecido en The Polyglot Magazine, Parrish. Museo de Arte y Ashawagh Hall. También organizaron y fundaron Queer Lit Dreams, un programa en Lambda. Festival de iluminación. Actualmente residen en Chicago, IL. Conéctese con ellos en Instagram @mitch_monroy.
December 11, 2023 – Mitch Monroy is a trans Guatemalan poet and multimedia fine artist, daydreaming about queerness and identity. Their projects explore trans realities across borders and this tradition of absence. They were selected as a Tin House 2023 Winter Scholar. Their past works have been featured in The Polyglot Magazine, Parrish Art Museum, and Ashawagh Hall. They also organized and founded Queer Lit Dreams, a program at Lambda LitFest. They currently reside in Chicago, IL. Connect with them on Instagram @mitch_monroy.
26 de febrero de 2024 – Rojo Génesis es una artista visual e investigadora trans nacida en México. Creadora del colectivo audiovisual de mujeres trans Casa de Hadas en México. Elaboró el concepto de terror transexual a través del fotografía, vídeo y archivo desde el 2020. La propuesta estética de su trabajo gira en torno al terror corporal, intervención estética-clínica y transfeminidad. Actualmente dirige Disparo Transexual, espacio para la curaduria de fotografía y vídeo hecho por mujeres trans latinas, donde se hacen muestras de arte trans, foto publicaciones y actividades de formación. Conéctese con ellos en Instagram @_rojogenesis.
February 26, 2024 – Rojo Génesis is a visual artist and trans researcher born in Mexico. Creator of the audiovisual collective of trans women Casa de Hadas in Mexico. Elaborating on the concept of transsexual terror through photography, video and archives since 2020. The aesthetic proposal of the work revolves around body terror, aesthetic-clinical intervention and trans femininity. Rojo Genesis currently directs Disparo Transexual, a space for the curatorship of photography and video made by trans latina women, where trans art exhibitions, photo publications are made and training activities are held. Connect with them on Instagram @_rojogenesis.
19 de agosto de 2024 – Willy Palomo (él/ella) es autor de Wake the Other, ganador del Prefacio Indie Prize de poesía. En abril de 2023, lanzó de forma independiente su álbum debut de rap Enter Da Boombow. Un veterano de la escena poética de Salt Lake City, su ficción, ensayos, poesía y traducciones se pueden encontrar en páginas impresas y web, incluyendo Los mejores poetas nuevos 2018, Rebeldes latinos, La canción errante: Escritura centroamericana en los Estados Unidos, y más. Es el hijo queer de dos refugiados de El Salvador. Más información en palomopoemas.com.
August 19, 2024 – Willy Palomo (he/they/she) is author of Wake the Others, a winner of the Foreword Indie Prize in poetry. In April 2023, he independently released his debut rap album Enter Da Boombow. A veteran of the Salt Lake City poetry slam scene, his fiction, essays, poetry, and translations can be found across print and web pages, including the Best New Poets 2018, Latino Rebels, The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, and more. He is the queer son of two refugees from El Salvador. More info at palomopoemas.com.
21 de octubre de 2024 – Uniendo el lenguaje + baile, esta edición de FRUTAS presenta an Ana Mercado de Bacheteres Tikita (antes Queer Bachata). Aprenderemos los movimientos y la historia de la bachata mientras practicaremos el español en ambiente comunitario y queer. Gente con todos niveles de práctica en el idioma y la bachata serán bienvenidos, incluyendo los que son nuevos a ambos.
October 21, 2024 – Bridging language + dance, this edition of FRUTAS features Ana Mercado of Bacheteres Tikita (formerly Queer Bachata). Learn moves and the history of bachata while practicing Spanish in queer community. All levels of Spanish and bachata welcome-including being absolutely new to both!
Jared Brown and AJ McClenon
A Girly Show
Berger Park Cultural Center (Coach House)
6215 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
Variety Show
Friday, October 4 at 7 PM
Saturday, October 5 at 1 PM
A Girly Show is a collaboration between local artists, Jared Brown and AJ McClenon. Featured performers include: Noa Micaela Fields, Remy Guzman, Andres L. Hernandez, Regina Martinez, Lynneah McCarrell, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, and Carissa Pinckney.
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.
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. This program is 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. This event is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
JeeYeun Lee
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
On the Edge Speaker Series Thursday, September 26 at 6:30 PM
Join artist JeeYeun Lee to hear about the ongoing Shore Land project, and to experience Lee’s narrative walking guide for Berger Park. To best experience this work, bring headphones and an internet-connected device to stream the audio. Transcripts will be provided, and we will have a few additional headsets to share.
The event will begin at 6:30 PM in the Berger Park Cultural Center. Visitors will be encouraged to move through the park while listening and/or reading the track for Berger Park, which features an interview with Billie Warren (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), and readers Mehrdad Azemun, Mark Diaz, Heather Miller (Wyandotte Nation), and Zachary Nicol. Visitors then return to the Cultural Center for a short presentation by Lee about the project.
JeeYeun Lee is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and activist based in occupied Potawatomi territory now known as Chicago. Through performance, objects, and socially engaged art, her work explores dynamics of connection, power, violence and resistance. Her work has been shown in Chicago, Detroit, Santa Fe, Ohio, Missouri, and France. She has worked with social justice and community-based organizations for over thirty years in immigrant rights, economic justice, LGBTQ issues, and domestic violence. She holds an M.F.A. in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art, M.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, and B.A. in Linguistics from Stanford University. For additional information, please visit jeeyeunlee.com.
This event is being co-hosted with the Berger Park Advisory Council, as a part of their ongoing series On the Edge. This program is 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.
Roman Susan programming at Berger Park Cultural Center is part of Movement Studies – programming investigating social and environmental transitions. Shore Land is a part of Navigations, artist projects in and about public space. This work has been supported by the Awesome Foundation (Chicago Chapter), the Puffin Foundation, and the Individual Artist Program of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Michael James
Rising Up Angry: Our Fight for a Better World
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
Book Release and Reading Monday, November 20 at 7 PM
Join us for a book launch with Michael James celebrating the work of Rising Up Angry. The first 30 attendees will receive a free signed book. Rising Up Angry was both a newspaper and radical community based organization in Chicago. From 1969-1975, 82 issues of the paper were published and distributed throughout Chicago and beyond. The organization worked to bring people of all races and ethnicities together, hoping to build a better World. Like other members of Chicago’s Rainbow Coalition, RUA set up and ran a series of Serve the People Programs, including a free legal clinic and a free medical clinic. RUA also produced peoples’ dances, had a peoples’ sports institute, and worked with returning veterans to help end the war in Vietnam. RUA supported the Black Panther Party, Young Lords Organization, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the American Indian Movement. This collection of writings, photographs, and graphics will introduce you to the important and inspirational work RUA did during its time, food for thought for today’s activists working for social, economic, and political justice.
Michael James is a photographer, teacher, actor, and activist/organizer. He graduated from Lake Forest College in 1964, and spent that summer working on a study of Southern white migrants in Chicago’s Uptown. That fall he headed to UC Berkeley to study sociology on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. There he was arrested in the Free Speech Movement, joined Students for a Democratic Society, and then returned to Uptown to work with JOIN Community Union, an SDS project in Chicago’s Uptown seeking to build an interracial movement of the poor. He co-founded the newspaper and organization Rising Up Angry in 1969, and the venerable Heartland Café in 1976, a progressive community based restaurant he co-ran for 36 years. He has worked in major motion pictures (Above the Law, The Fugitive, Chain Reaction, et cetera), is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and teaches at DePaul. He has published three books of his photography and is working on more. James produces and hosts the Live from the Heartland Show, which airs Saturdays 9 AM Central on 88.7 FM and wluw.org, on CANTV21 Thursdays at 9 PM Central, and on YouTube. His photos are online at michaelgaylordjames.com and selections of his writing at theragblog.com.
This event is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
Lucky Pierre
In the Future Something Will Have Happened
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL 60660
Friday, September 1 from 10 AM to 8 PM
Saturday, September 2 from 10 AM to 5 PM
If you could fast forward time and skip ahead into the future—a month, a year, or a decade—which would you choose? Two people sit in a room talking. Two people take a silent walk. The probable is sidelined in favor of the possible. By the time a letter from the future arrives, something will have happened.
This hour-long performance is for a single audience member and will be performed multiple times Labor Day Weekend. The performance begins and ends at the Berger Park Cultural Center and includes a short walk. Audience members of all abilities are encouraged to join. When registering for the performance, please indicate any accommodations needed.
Lucky Pierre is a Chicago-based art making collective working in performance, writing, objects, events, and education. Since 1993, they have collaboratively created numerous works and initiatives. More info at luckypierre.org.
These performances are being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
Diamond Hardiman
Where yo Wurkz/Where yo Mental
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
Battles + Cyphers August 19 from 12-3 PM
Where yo Wurkz/Where yo Mental hosts footwork and all-styles battles, dance cyphers, and shares resources for mental wellness. To introduce this all ages event, organizer Diamond Hardiman aka Dreka will discuss her mental journey in dance and footwork culture. This will be followed by two rounds of battling, with $200 grand prizes for the footwork and all-styles battles. Sounds will be provided by DJ Mya Unique and DJ Stepz.
Dreka aka Diamond Hardiman was born and raised on the West Side of Chicago in the Austin. Dreka began dancing at the age of 10 and started battle footworking at the age of 13 and grew through legendary crews Aggression, 187/Nemesis, HA2(active), TerraSquad, and now House Of Wurkz. Today Diamond lives on the North Side of Chicago and represents Chicago footwork and HipRoll culture independently on platforms such as Red Bull Dance Your Style and Wala Cam throughout the whole country. During her journey of dance Diamond worked for Chicago Park District, where she worked with children and young adults, using dance to teach confidence and how to express in healthy matters during after school hours. Diamond is also a Dance Mom of a beautiful daughter who also loves to dance. Diamond wants to be able to give back to her community and start her own dance company and also own a dance space for all ages to express themselves in a safe manner!
The image above was created by @williamfrederkingphotography.
This event is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
*between the tongue and the taste*
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
Call for Art-Writers Waitlist
Sessions Wednesdays April 19, May 17, June 21, July 19, August 16, September 20 from 6:30-8:30 PM
The third assembly of the art-writing group *between the tongue and the taste* is now in session. The group meets to read, discuss, and offer helpful criticism of the writing of its members for six meetings, April through September 2023.
Joining the group at Berger Park are Lichen Bouboushian, Maddie Brucker, Deirdre Colgan Jones, Eliza Fernand, Laura Goldstein, Millicent Kennedy, Maya Lea, Annette LePique, Craig Neeson, Caroline Preziosi, Robin Reid Drake, Taylor Rogers, Sara Zalek, with guests Kayla Anderson and Amber Ginsberg.
The group interprets the idea of art-writing loosely, serving as a space for its members to receive feedback on writing that constitutes part of their artistic practice. The group encourages diverse forms, including but certainly not limited to: pieces of writing meant to be artworks in their own right, performance scripts, poetry, fictocriticism, statements, studio logs, etc. The purpose of this group is to give its participants access to an audience of critical readers—a rare resource outside academic institutions—as well as to further develop Chicago's strong community of artist writers.
Each monthly session features a guest art-writer, and three members volunteer to share a piece for the following session. Pieces are anywhere from loose ideas to final versions, and writers include a brief statement with each piece about the type of feedback for which they’re looking.
*between the tongue and the taste* is led by Mel Keiser and Matt Martin. The upcoming events are being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions. Previous iterations of the group in 2018-2019 were hosted at Wedge Projects.
Catherine Reinhart
The Collective Mending Sessions
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
Workshop Saturday, March 25 from 1-4 PM
The Collective Mending Sessions is a series of socially engaged workshops led by artist Catherine Reinhart, centered on collectively mending abandoned quilts. This project cultivates care for cloth and community through the meditative process of slow stitching. Since 2018, Reinhart has led over 40 workshops both in-person and online, repairing seven quilts with hundreds participants from around the world. These workshops resemble a quilting bee where participants learn basic mending and textile care, while building community in a warm, inclusive environment. They cultivate care for cloth and community through mending together and discussions centered around the value of repair. The resulting quilts are transformed from unwanted textile objects into contemporary fiber artworks through the work of many hands, moving toward a more egalitarian model of work. Shared alongside the workshop is an extensive library of resources, ranging from instructional texts on mending to textile history to cultural and craft theory.
Catherine Reinhart is an interdisciplinary artist living in Ames, IA, U.S.A. Reinhart creates fiber work and conducts social practice with abandoned textiles around themes of domestic labor, connection, and care. She received her BFA in Integrated Studio Arts in 2008 from Iowa State University. In 2012, she completed her MFA in Textiles from the University of Kansas. Her works have been exhibited locally, regionally, and nationally. Catherine is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies. She was recently honored as a 2020 Iowa Artist Fellow, a 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Terrain Residency in Springfield, IL, and an inaugural recipient of the Alex Brown Foundation’s Artist-in-Residence in Des Moines, IA (2022). The Collective Mending Sessions was recently selected for the "Mending and Making" Workshop presented by Endangered Material Knowledge Programme, The British Museum (London 2023). For more information, please visit collectivemendingsessions.com.
This event is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
Reading the Landscape
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
September 28 + November 2 + December 7, 2022
January 11 + May 31, 2023
Join us for an evolving reading group, named after our seed text Reading the Landscape by May Theilgaard Watts. The 1957 edition of this work carried the subtitle: ‘An Adventure in Ecology’ and this is what we wish our group reading and discussion to be – purposefully following where the text/landscape takes us.
You do not have to read a particular book to join or participate in this group. With Reading the Landscape as a starting prompt, we will chart and document the unpredictable path of ourselves reading, as the group spreads out to follow individual curiosities, and gathers together to share field reports on what we have learned. Broad themes under discussion are related to Chicagoland, Ecology, and Art. We have started a small give-a-book, take-a-book shelf in the library of Berger Park Culture Center to reflect and share related texts.
May Theilgaard Watts was a naturalist at The Morton Arboretum, and many of the ecologies examined in ‘Reading the Landscape’ are in close proximity to the City, including the Indiana Dunes, Rock River, Wisconsin lakes and forests, Wheatland prairie, Chicagoland highways, and elsewhere. For additional biographical information about May Theilgaard Watts, and to view samples of the diagrammatic and botanical drawing style which are found throughout her published texts, please visit The Morton Arboretum online archive.
Roman Susan will aim to have a handful of copies of Reading the Landscape we can loan to anyone who would like to participate. Right now we are reading the second edition of this work, Reading the Landscape of America, which was published 18 years after the first publication. This edition includes postscripts to chapters that revisit landscapes described decades earlier. You can start wherever you want – first version, revised, or something else entirely, in the spirit of ‘An Adventure in Ecology’ – let us know what you find!
This event is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
Movement Studies: Ende, Taul, Yu
Berger Park Cultural Center (Coach House)
6215 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
October 18, 2022 at 7 PM
Join us for a screening of films by Shir Ende, Paige Taul, and Cherrie Yu at Berger Park. The program features short works that reference and reframe canonical moving image by Bruce Nauman and Yvonne Rainer, alongside new narratives, choreography, and personal storytelling.
Shir Ende is a Chicago-based artist and educator. Ende received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has shown at University of Illinois Springfield, Riverside Art Center, Comfort Station, Chicago Artist Coalition, Hyde Park Art Center, Heaven Gallery, Gallery 400, Terrain Biennial, Mana Contemporary, Woman Made Gallery, and was a sponsored artist at High Concept Labs. She has participated in the Center Program at the Hyde Park Art Center and was a 2018 - 2019 Hatch Resident at the Chicago Artist Coalition. For more information, please visit shirende.com.
Paige Taul is an Oakland, CA native who received her B.A. in Studio Art with a concentration in cinematography from the University of Virginia and an M.F.A from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Moving Image. Her work engages with and challenges assumptions of black cultural expression and notions of belonging. Her interests lie in observing environmental and familial connections to concepts tied to racebased expectations and expose those boundaries of identity in veins such as religion, language, and other black community based experiences. To view more work by the artist, please visit paigetaul.com.
Cherrie Yu is an artist born in Xi'an, China and lives in the US. They work in choreography, moving image, writing, and installation. They have been an artist in residence at ACRE, McColl Center, Yaddo, Monson Art, and Kala Art Institute. Their works have been exhibited at Contemporary Calgary Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Mint Museum, Links Hall, Wassaic Project, and Roman Susan. For more information, please visit cherrieyu.cargo.site.
This event is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions. The first image above is a still from How to Make a Structure with the Horizon/How to Make Windows for the Horizon by Shir Ende, 2019; second image: still from What’s good bruce? by Paige Taul, 2018; third image: still from Trio A Translation Project by Cherrie Yu, 2022.
BOUNDARYMIND
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
May 28, 2022
Hi! We are Katie Young and Linda Jankowska, musical long-distance collaborators and creators of the multimedia project boundarymind. Much of the music comes from recordings of personally significant objects. You are invited to explore the sounds of your own object with personal significance. All you need to bring is the object! Any object! Childhood toys, tattered T-shirts or sentimental souvenirs. Anything! Without damaging the object, you can scrape, tap, bow, boing, ping, and otherwise resonate it. Play around. Explore the quiet details it offers. We will provide microphones and other tools so you can listen in to your object and the memories it holds. You will get a copy of the recording, and, with your permission and if you’d like to participate, your recording could be added to a database of sounds for participants and future iterations of boundarymind.
BOUNDARYMIND is a collaborative work which will culminate in an evening-length electroacoustic sound piece and aggregating installation that explores and transgresses the geographical, cultural, psychological, and musical boundaries that impact how we share our past, present, and future selves with others. Related events this season include community recording at PO Box Collective and a premiere performance at 6018North. For full project information, please visit boundarymind.com.
This event is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
Mark Alcazar Diaz
Drift
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
September 25 + October 16, 2021
Drift is a video documentation of a constructed native habitat situated in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. The camera lens surveys its prairies and woodlands and visual intimations of its very nature as a built environment. The focus slowly shifts to birdwatchers, as the area is a recognized resting place for migrating birds that traverse states, countries, and continents. Their behaviours and desire to track and identify borderless birds become the subject of observation.
Mark Alcazar Diaz, born in Manila and lives and works in Chicago, Illinois, is an artist, educator, and arts administrator. He works in a variety of media, including video, drawing, and object making, to examine issues around migration, memory of place, and natureculture. As an extension of his artistic practice, Diaz has facilitated youth art collaborations through several community arts organizations in Chicago. He also develops and leads interactive workshops for teachers and artists to form dynamic collaborations to explore the intersection of aesthetics and pedagogy. He received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois Chicago.
Drift is being shared as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions. This work is being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center in alignment with The Available City as a partner program of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson
In-betweening
Roman Susan to Berger Park Cultural Center
1224 W Loyola Ave to 6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL
July 23, 2021
In-betweening is an animated listening tour about the tenderness of insecurity. Written text and imagery will be the flawed, wiggly guide for sensing how everything is in a constant state of change.
Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson focuses on what is habitually avoided. Her experimental animations are spells to transform violent cycles, expose the illusion of isolation, and celebrate each other as interconnected, weird phenomena. She has presented work at Weinberg/Newton Gallery, Roots & Culture, Roman Susan, the Experimental Sound Studio, Constellation, Hyde Park Art Center, and 6018North in Chicago; St. Charles Projects in Baltimore; FRISE in Hamburg; and @ptt in Geneva. Her work has appeared in Newcity Chicago, Chicago Artist Writers, the Chicago Reader, and Chicago Magazine, and is included in collections at FRISE and the Institute of Contemporary Art Library in Baltimore. She holds a certificate in Deep Listening, is a member of the anti-racism collective Make Yourself Useful, and thinks all bios are deceptive. For more information, please visit gwynethvzanderson.com.
In-betweening is a part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
Movement Studies, Twin Cities
1224 W Loyola Ave, Chicago IL
March 29, 2021 - May 9, 2021
Initially planned for Berger Park Cultural Center, this selection of moving image works by artists from Minneasota was shared at Roman Susan during Spring 2021 – on view directly from the street after dark, while the space was closed to the public due to COVID-19. Works by Christopher Corey Allen, Ellie Durko Finch, HIJACK, Jordan Rosenow, Karen Sherman, Anna Marie Shogren will be shared again as a group presentation at Berger Park in the future as part of Movement Studies.
Ellie Durko Finch
And So Which / W*tching Body
May 3, 2021 - May 9, 2021
Anna Marie Shogren
Professionals
April 26, 2021 - May 2, 2021
Karen Sherman
Hildas and Trojans + The Part That’s Human
April 19, 2021 - April 25, 2021
Jordan Rosenow
A Place to Fall Into
April 12, 2021 - April 18, 2021
HIJACK
JEALOUSY
April 5, 2021 - April 11, 2021
Christopher Corey Allen
una cosa che sente
March 29, 2021 - April 4, 2021
