The South Side of Chicago has been home to a number of significant cultural events that convened and connected artists, institution-builders, and cultural leaders.
Presented as part of the Smart Museum of Art’s exhibition The Time Is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960–1980, the Revisited/Reflected program series will address the history of these events while pulling forward key issues that are still deeply relevant for the South Side cultural community.
“The cultural production happening in present-day South Side Chicago is part of a lineage that is directly linked to the foundations that were laid by cultural workers, artists, and pioneers from the 1960s and 1970s, many of which are still active today,” writes Revisited/Reflected series organizer Tempestt Hazel. “By adapting the design of Black FolkUs and Alice Browning's International Black Writer’s Conference—both lesser-known gatherings of Black creatives that took place during those decades—Revisited/Reflected intends to explore past artistic concerns and seek out connections between the artists, organizations, and spaces that have and continue to nurture the South Side Chicago’s artists while also honoring the legacies that make today’s work possible.”
Revisited/Reflected programs are modeled after their namesake events and include both small, closed gatherings and open, public conversations that bring together Black artists, writers, radical thinkers, and others working across Chicago’s creative communities.
Black FolkUs, Revisited
Saturday, October 27, 11am–4pm
Black FolkUs, Revisited is modeled on an annual symposium and festival held between 1968 and 1981 that addressed how to “build and maintain strong Black institutions.”
This day-long event will mix discussions and performance, focusing on Chicago cultural institutions across artistic disciplines and of varying size, organizational age, and operational capacity. It features a keynote and historical anchoring of the discussion by founding member of The Catalyst, Dr. Carol Adams. Other participants include Adyodele Drum and Dance, Coco Elysses, Tempestt Hazel, Emily Lansana, Useni Eugene Perkins, Lauren Williams, and avery r young.
By invitation to Black cultural institutional workers, artists, curators, organizers, and anyone else working in Chicago's Black cultural landscape who feels this discussion is relevant to their work. Lunch will be provided. Location details will be shared with those who RSVP.
Please contact Tempestt Hazel for more information.
International Black Writers Conference, Revisited
Saturday, November 10, 11am–6pm
Parkway Ballroom, 4455 South King Drive
The International Black Writers Conference, Revisited reflects on a conference that has served as an important convening of Black writers since 1970.
The event brings together a range of local writers—novelists, journalists, short story writers, playwrights, children’s authors, cultural critics, poets, and storytellers—and others for discussions around Chicago’s rich Black literary history and the ongoing challenges, points of progress, and pressing questions of the industry.
The keynote will be delivered by Dr. Haki Madhubuti of Third World Press. Other featured speakers include Monroe Anderson (journalist), Angela Jackson(poet, playwright, Organization of Black American Culture [OBAC]), Sandra Jackson-Opoku (poet, OBAC), Pemon Rami (Filmmaker), Ginger Mance(Poet), Erisa Apantaku (South Side Weekly Radio), Adrienne Samuels Gibbs(Freelance writer for Essence, Ebony, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times),Lolly Bowean (Chicago Tribune), Sydney Chatman (Black Girls Can Fly!),McKenzie Chinn (poet, actor, Growing Concerns Poetry Collective), Aymar Jean Christian (Open TV), Grace Deveney (curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago), Mykele Deville (musician, poet, Growing Concerns Poetry Collective), Sabrina Greig (arts writer, curator, Fry Foundation), Jeffreen Hayes (curator, arts writer, Threewalls), Morgan Elise Johnson (The Triibe), Jovan Landry (musician, filmmaker), Natalie Moore (WBEZ), Lee Ann Norman (arts writer), and avery r young (& de deacon board).
FREE, but space is limited. Please register in advance.
Revisited/Reflected is organized by Tempestt Hazel, an independent curator, writer, artists’ advocate, and founder and director of Sixty Inches From Center. It is presented in conjunction with the Smart Museum of Art's exhibition The Time Is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago's South Side, 1960–1980 and Art Design Chicago, a citywide exploration of Chicago’s art and design legacy.
Support for the program is made possible in part by Terra Foundation for American Art and The Richard Driehaus Foundation. This program is also supported by the Field Foundation and Alphawood Foundation. Additional significant support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and Illinois Humanities (which is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities [NEH] and the Illinois General Assembly [through the Illinois Arts Council Agency], as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations).