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.

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Tags: A Girly Show, AJ McClenon, Andres L. Hernandez, Berger Park Cultural Center, Carissa Pinckney, Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, Jared Brown, Jared Brown and AJ McClenon: A Girly Show, John Akomfrah, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, Lynneah McCarrell, Noa Micaela Fields, Regina Martinez, Remy Guzman, Rogers Park, Roman Susan