︎
ROMAN SUSAN
INFO
ARTISTS
SUPPORT

PRESENT
FUTURE
PAST
ANNEX is a series of site-responsive projects developed in collaboration with local nonprofits and domestic spaces. 

Land Acknowledgment with American Indian Center COSMiC SERPENT at Arts in the Dark and Mayday Parades Bibliothēca in various Public Libraries Movement Studies for Berger Park Cultural Center Community-Hosted Collections in the homes of neighbors Your Gift at MdW Fair Be Happy (SMS) via text messages Consonance in the streets of Rogers Park It makes me wanna at MirrorLab Birchbark, Wiigwaas + Property at Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society Restraint at Leather Archives & Museum Without Within at Experimental Sound Studio Streetlight + Slideshow at Wedge Projects One Thing Leads to Another at Ralph Arnold Annex, Loyola University Chicago Water Music on the Beach from 6018North to Lane Beach Woman’s Club at 7077 N Ashland Blvd 777 at Kim’s Corner Food Sungold Pastiché at Salon Pastiché Be Happy at Estes and Glenwood Avenue Be Happy (Street Fair) on N Glenwood Ave Blueprints at Chicago Industrial Arts & Design Center Cold In All The Sunshine + Dog Days + Starkfield, Massachusetts at W Birchwood Ave Plants to Prints at Howard Community Garden Streetlight + Parade at 1629 W Howard St Draw a line —> Relay + Peanut Colada + u.127 + The Wide Open + Draw a line —> Trial and Failure, Trial and Practice + Thresh/hold at 1637-1643 W Howard St ANNEX Map


The video above has been compiled from materials and archival images generously shared by the American Indian Center and Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society. During Winter 2021, narration of the video was recorded with Grayson Alexander, Isabella Chamberland, and Edelawite Sasahulih of the 49th Ward Youth Council.

The video has been shared at 1224 W Loyola in Spring 2020, and was subsequently on view as a part of the Summer 2020 exhibition Birchbark, Wiigwaas at Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society, featuring new work by Nora Moore Lloyd. The video was also featured as a part of Moore Lloyd’s installation for human / nature: the weight of our actions on the natural world at the Illinois State Museum in 2021-2022. Please let us know if you would like to add your voice.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT. IN RECENT YEARS IT HAS BECOME A TREND TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRADITIONAL HOMELANDS OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF A PARTICULAR AREA THROUGH A LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT. THIS TYPE OF ACTIVITY IS DESIGNED TO BRING MORE AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE HISTORY OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND THEIR TERRITORIES. BUT A LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT SHOULD ALSO BE MORE THAN THAT; IT SHOULD BE A CALL TO RETHINK ONE’S OWN RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE HISTORIES OF ALL PEOPLES. IN PARTNERSHIP, THE AMERICAN INDIAN CENTER AND ROMAN SUSAN ART FOUNDATION HAVE CRAFTED THE FOLLOWING LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO HELP ALL RETHINK THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE CITY, THE LAND AND THE ENVIRONMENT. THIS ACKNOWLEDGMENT DEMONSTRATES A COMMITMENT TO BEGINNING THE PROCESS OF WORKING TO DISMANTLE THE ONGOING LEGACIES OF SETTLER COLONIALISM. CHICAGO IS THE TRADITIONAL HOMELANDS OF THE COUNCIL OF THE THREE FIRES: THE ODAWA, OJIBWE AND POTAWATOMI NATIONS. MANY OTHER TRIBES LIKE THE MIAMI, HO-CHUNK, MENOMINEE, SAC AND FOX ALSO CALLED THIS AREA HOME. LOCATED AT THE INTERSECTION OF SEVERAL GREAT WATERWAYS, THE LAND NATURALLY BECAME A SITE OF TRAVEL AND HEALING FOR MANY TRIBES. AMERICAN INDIANS CONTINUE TO CALL THIS AREA HOME AND NOW CHICAGO IS HOME TO THE SIXTH LARGEST URBAN AMERICAN INDIAN COMMUNITY THAT STILL PRACTICES THEIR HERITAGE, TRADITIONS AND CARE FOR THE LAND AND WATERWAYS. TODAY, CHICAGO CONTINUES TO BE A PLACE THAT CALLS MANY PEOPLE FROM DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS TO LIVE AND GATHER HERE. DESPITE THE MANY CHANGES THE CITY HAS EXPERIENCED, BOTH OUR AMERICAN INDIAN AND ROGERS PARK COMMUNITY SEE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LAND AND THIS PLACE THAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A CITY HOME TO MANY DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS AND PERSPECTIVES.
COSMiC SERPENT
Ongoing

Next Event
 Arts in the Dark with Rough House Theater
October 18, 2025

COSMiC SERPENT is an interdimensional being. It is not knowable but shows glimpses of its infinite manifestations. . . . a 12-to-20-person costume with separate eyes, tongue, and rattling tail! Surrounding COSMiC SERPENT are cosmic entities: planets, shooting stars, clouds and creatures of the cosmos. Together we celebrate the ultramundane!



The first manifestation of COSMiC SERPENT was created through a collaboration by spectacle-maker Blue Lady and Roman Susan founder Kristin Abhalter. The project debuted at Mayday 2025 in Minneapolis, Minneasota. Roman Susan traveled to the Twin Cities with Great Lakes aritsts and paraders Aaron Cody, Molly E, Danielle Euer, Eliza Fernand, Yelena Kalinsky, Elaine Lemieux, Siobhan Leonard, Nathan Margoni, blake nemec, Andy O’Connor, Lara Oppenheimer, Sara Zalek, and Fancy.



maydaympls.org: Our Mayday celebration began in 1974, initiated and shepherded by In the Heart of the Beast Theatre (HOBT) as an annual event with broad community participation. For nearly 50 years HOBT enacted the Mayday Parade, the Tree of Life Ceremony, and the Festival in Powderhorn Park. In April 2023, HOBT announced that it would no longer produce Mayday, and “released it” to the community. Now, in 2025, there is no single organization producing Mayday; the Parade is built by decentralized community groups hosting puppet-making workshops and the Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts is sponsoring an artistic cohort and workshops to create the Tree of Life Ceremony. Festivities in Powderhorn Park following the Parade will be quite different than in HOBT years, with no organized food trucks or large music stages. You are encouraged to bring picnics and enjoy the beautiful park.



The first iteration of COSMiC SERPENT was created through community workshops and making sessions at Berger Park Cultural Center in Edgewater, and at Interfacing Studio in Rogers Park. Traveling paraders were joined by 25+ participants in Minneapolis, and the group were one of 50+ crewes marching in the 2025 Mayday Parade.



The images above were created by artist and parader John William Marks. The image below is from another friendly Minnesotan!
Movement Studies for Berger Park Cultural Center presents screenings, performance, research, and workshops created by artists investigating social and environmental transitions.

Next Events
What to Keep?
Wednesday, November 5 from 4-6 PM
Wednesday, November 12 from 4-6 PM
Wednesday, November 19 from 4-6 PM



Past events: Mooove Voice 5.17.24 + 3.15-6.12.25 Tending to the Mother in Me 5.23-6.07.25 Screen Test 9.21.22 + 10.18.23 + 4.05.25 FRUTAS 10.23-11.13-12.11.23 + 2.26-4.15-6.17-8.19-10.21-12.09.24 A Girly Show 10.4-10.5.24 On the Edge 9.26.24 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

Featuring Mark Alcazar Diaz, Christopher Corey Allen, Crystal Beiersdorfer, Lichen Bouboushian, Jared Brown, Maddie Brucker, Ruth K. Burke, Salome Chasnoff, Ben Creech, Leslie Crum, Shir Ende, Eliza Fernand, Noa Micaela Fields, Ellie Durko Finch, FRUTAS, E. Mar Garcia, Rojo Génesis, Ali Georgescu, Amber Ginsberg, Laura Glover Rivera, Laura Goldstein, Sky Goodman and Cris War, Remy Guzman, Andres L. Hernandez, HIJACK, Felicia Holman, Michael James, Linda Jankowska, Lucky Pierre, Hyeji Kang, Mel Keiser, Tracie Kunzika, Maya Lea, JeeYeun Lee, Elaine Lemieux, Ro(b)//ert Lundberg, Matt Martin, Regina Martinez, Lynneah McCarrell, AJ McClenon, Kristin McWharter, Ana Mercado, Mitch Monroy, Sofía Moreno, Laleh Motlagh, Craig Neeson, blake nemec, Kim Nucci and Driven Arts Collective, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, Willy Palomo, Mina Patel, Alan Perry, Carissa Pinckney, Klaus Pinter, Ruby Que, Catherine Reinhart, Jordan Rosenow, Christine Shallenberg, Karen Sherman, Anna Marie Shogren, Aurora Tabar, TAITAI xTina, Ramin Takloo-Bighash, Jane Tao, Oona Taper, Paige Taul, Gizeh Trejo, Tianjiao Wang, Loraine Wible, Katherine Young, Cherrie Yu, Sara Zalek, Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson, and visitor-participants.



What to Keep?
(a talk circle guided by Carole McCurdy)
Berger Park Cultural Center
6205 N Sheridan Road, Chicago IL

Fall Sessions
Wednesday, November 5 from 4-6 PM
Wednesday, November 12 from 4-6 PM
Wednesday, November 19 from 4-6 PM

We all own physical items—clothing, photographs, mementos, to name a few—that we aren't sure what to do with. We may no longer use or even see them on a regular basis. Some may feel burdensome and hard to think about.

This is an invitation to talk about such items, to think aloud about what you want or need to keep . . . and what you want or need to let go of.

Our supportive talk circle will encourage discussion of:
  • things that hold stories about you or loved ones;
  • things that you’ve intended to sift through (and maybe discard) for a long time, but it’s been too overwhelming;
  • things that you absolutely need to hold on to, or save for others;
  • things that are hiding away in storage, and who even knows what they are;
  • things that you’ve already discarded, and how you managed it.

Our talk circle can allow for silence as well. The main goal is to share our experiences and ideas without any judgment or advice or insistence on solutions. Talking and listening together may help us find our individual solutions at our own pace. In other words, no pressure! If you have questions, please reach out to us!



Carole McCurdy is a Chicago-based artist whose work addresses grief and anxiety, duty and resistance, and the absurd mysteries of embodiment. She has performed at spaces including the Chicago Cultural Center, Epiphany Dance, Links Hall, Hamlin Park, High Concept Laboratories, Defibrillator Gallery, and Movement Research (NY). She received a 2016 Lab Artist award from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum and was a Fall 2016 Sponsored Artist at High Concept Laboratories, Chicago. She created and directed an ensemble piece, WAVER, with support from Chicago Dancemakers Forum, High Concept Labs, and 3Arts Chicago. Recently, she created Just Passing Through (2022) and Death Cleaning (2024) at Roman Susan. For more information, please visit carolemccurdy.com.

These events are being shared at Berger Park Cultural Center as part of Movement Studies – a programming series investigating social and environmental transitions.
Bibliothēca is an open-participation prompt, encouraging artists and writers to contribute works on paper which are individually installed in libraries. Contributions are placed within books in the stacks – an insert, an annotation to the ever-growing accumulation of public dialogue and shared creation. If you would like to participate and have your work recognized through our online archive, please place your contribution in a book as a gift to the next reader, and share your work with us.
Community-Hosted Art Collections

Roman Susan Art Foundation assembles exploratory art collections in order to place contemporary works of art in the lives of local residents. Community members help maintain and expand the collections, hosting the work, and sharing it with family, friends, and neighbors at their home. At regular intervals, the art is transferred to another host, circulating the works throughout our community. New artwork (and new collections) will be added periodically, putting art in more homes, expanding the narrative from household to household. If you are interested in hosting work, please visit romansusan.org/host.

The first collection RS1 consists of works donated by the Roman Susan board of directors. Vexillum, the second collection, shares artist-made flags and banners. A third collection Foundation features work from artists featured in Roman Susan programming for each year 2012 to present. Community-Hosted Collections Index (PDF).
Artists Run Chicago: Here and Now
 Navy Pier, Chicago IL
April 11, 2024 - April 14, 2024

At EXPO Chicago, Roman Susan joined fellow artist-run spaces Contra Corriente, in c/o Black women, and Space Shift Collective as a part of the special exhibitions program organized by Art Design Chicago and Hyde Park Art Center. We're grateful to have this opportunity to share elements from ongoing Navigations projects by Christa Donner, Eliza Fernand, J. Kent, John-Michael Korpal, and JeeYeun Lee.



Navigations + Artists Run Chicago (pdf)

EXPO Chicago Puts the Second City on the World Stage | Loyola Phoenix – April 17, 2024


Your Gift
MdW Fair
2233 S Throop St, Chicago IL
September 9, 2022 to September 11, 2022

10 years into the process, Roman Susan is becoming a real nonprofit – we have tote bags for our supporters! If you’d like to share your Roman Susan love with the world through tangible swag, make a personally significant donation via romansusan.org/support.



We know there are too many totes already in the world – and maybe too many nonprofits? Reusable bags are only worthwhile if they are actually used, and reused, and reused, without necessitting more new material production, more accumulation, and more excess.

All of our totes are hand-constructed by RS founder Kristin Abhalter with thrift store fabrics – or printed directly over the top of existing token bags. The work behind this includes many folks – importantly: Kit Rosenberg devised the original reverse ‘Roman Susan’ design; Vida Sačić helps us look sharper in all things graphic-designed; and John Lacefield is doing the printing.



Do you have excess tote bags we can use in this project? Reach out to art@romansusan.org and we’ll make them newly new and reused. Want a tote but can’t donate right now? We are live screen printing bags on Saturday, September 10 in the Printing Zone on the 2nd floor of MdW. BYOTote and then share the Roman Susan icon wherever you go grocery shopping, gathering, foraging, prepping, or hoarding other things. . . .

"An organic cotton tote needs to be used 20,000 times to offset its overall impact of production, according to a 2018 study by the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark. That equates to daily use for 54 years — for just one bag."

    ––Grace Cook, The Cotton Tote Crisis


Thomas Kong
Be Happy (SMS)
 (773) XXX-XXXX to (312) XXX-XXXX
March 19, 2022 - April 15, 2022

At the end of Winter 2022, Thomas Kong began sending text messages of daily work to Roman Susan director Nathan Abhalter Smith. After a few days and many collages, the pair decided to share this work in an online project, highlighting daily compositions until this was no longer what they were doing. The correspondence lasted about a month, and more work in this mode by Kong are available daily via @thomaskkong. These images are best viewed on a phone.



Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 1:15 PM. See the full exchange here: romansusan.org/sms
Julietta Cheung
 Consonance
September 1, 2021 - December 21, 2021
 
Consonance is a series of photographic street posters that explores the nature of public speech. Using the graphic forms of the alphabet to inspire prototypes of objects for use in street demonstrations (such as bullhorns, flags, and barriers), the work depicts language as the tools for ongoing collective action.



Consonance is shared by Roman Susan Art Foundation as street posters on buildings, construction sites, and common infrastructure across Chicagoland, as a partner program for The Available City of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Julietta Cheung is an interdisciplinary artist who works with language and everyday objects. Her themes and approaches are informed by her experience as a second language user and her background in graphic design. Through her textual appropriations, typographic experimentations, reading performances, and sculptural explorations, Cheung's body of work work examines collective attitudes and common assumptions. For more information, please visit juliettacheung.net.
Paige Taul
It makes me wanna
MirrorLab
3400 Cedar Ave, Minneapolis MN
December 4, 2020 - December 13, 2020

An exploration of the expression one makes when the music is just that good. Meant to expand on the assumption of universality and generality in Black expression and whether or not such a feeling is a common experience. It makes me wanna will be projected after dark, visible directly from the street at 3400 Cedar Ave while the space itself remains closed to the public.



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.

MirrorLab is a collective studio and programming space located at 3400 Cedar Ave in South Minneapolis, formerly The White Page Gallery. It makes me wanna at MirrorLab is part of an emerging series Intermittence unfolding during Winter-Spring 2021. For more information, please visit mirror-lab.com and follow @themirrorlab.



Paige Taul | 60wrd/min - November 17, 2020 + Newcity - November 27, 2020

Artist talk with Ruth Hodgins and John Marks | December 8, 2020
ROMAN SUSAN ANNEX is a series of site-responsive projects that activate public and domestic spaces. If you have a suggestion for a new location or collaborative programming ideas, please write to us via art@romansusan.org. The first ANNEX location was in the Howard Theatre building at 1637-1643 W Howard St. The second location was a domestic installation at W Birchwood Ave and Sheridan Rd. The third location returned to the Howard Theatre building at 1629 W Howard St. The fourth location occurred in the Hello Howard Garden at 1545 W Howard St, followed by additional programming at Birchwood and Sheridan. The fifth location was at 6433 N Ravenswood Ave for a collaborative project with the Chicago Industrial Arts & Design Center. The sixth location was at 7363 N Greenview Ave for a collaborative project with the Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society. The seventh location was on Glenwood Ave between Morse and Lunt as a part of the annual Glenwood Ave Arts Fest. The eight location is along the train embankment at the intersection of Glenwood Ave and Estes Ave as a part of the Mile of Murals. The ninth location is at 1226 W Loyola Ave, in Salon Pastiché. The tenth location was at 1371 W Estes Ave, in Kim's Corner Food. The eleventh location is at 7077 N Ashland Bldv, courtesy of The Cuckoo's Theater Project. The twelfth location was on Lane Beach at Sheridan Rd and Thorndale Ave for a collaborative project with 6018North. The thirteenth location was at 1131 W Sheridan Rd, at Ralph Arnold Fine Arts Annex, for a collaborative project with Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Loyola University Chicago. The fourteenth location is at 1448 W Sheridan Rd, at Wedge Projects. The fifteenth location was at 5925 N Ravenswood Ave, at Experimental Sound Studio. The sixteenth location was at 6418 N Greenview Ave at the Leather Archives & Museum. The seventeenth location was at 3400 Cedar Ave in Minneapolis, home of MirrorLab. The eighteenth location was at 2233 S Throop St, Chicago IL. The nineteenth location is in public libraries, in Chicago and elsewhere. The twentieth location is at 6205 N. Sheridan Rd at the Berger Park Cultural Center. 

View Fullscreen