It’s On Us: A Day of Art and Action
@ DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center
740 E 56th Pl, Chicago, IL 60637
Opening Saturday, June 13th, from 4 PM - 8 PM
Ofreceremos traducción al español de 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. en este festival! Nos vemos allí!
It’s On Us is a day of art and action on Saturday, June 13th in celebration of Chicago freedom struggles. RSVP to join us for the day’s free activities, which include workshops, resources for resistance, soapbox speeches, and performances and art programming by Jamila Woods, Taína Asili, Damon Williams, Maria Gaspar, Kristiana Rae Colón, and the Social Justice Initiative at UIC.
It’s On Us invites us to imagine: what blooms when ICE melts? The answer is on us to manifest together. Under authoritarian conditions and in times of repression, we are encouraged to desensitize ourselves, to ignore what we see, hear, smell, taste and feel. On this day, we call our neighbors to awaken their senses and one another: to see clearly, to listen deeply, to touch the ground and each other in solidarity, to taste the sweetness of shared life, to smell the earth that sustains us. By engaging our senses together, we embody liberation and practice radical imagination, building community through mutual aid, mobilization, and solidarity. When ICE melts, what blooms next is not inevitable, it is something we grow and cultivate together. Freedom begins when we remember that it’s on us.
SCHEDULE
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM: Citywide neighborhood Activations
Blocks Together – 3711 W Chicago Ave – Feeding Freedom : Wellness Workshop, Yoga, Vegan Meal, and Garden Planting – 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Free Street Theater – 4625 S Ashland Ave – Social Justice Puppet-Making Workshop – 1:00 – 2:00 PM
HANA Center – 2741 W Montrose Ave (Horner Park) – IGNR Drumming Performance & Workshop, plus Community Picnic
Kuumba Lynx – 4434 S Lake Park Ave (Kennicott Park Fieldhouse) – Interactive Poetry Workshop – 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Sistas in the Village – 5800 S Ada St – Flower Bouquet Making, Flower Pressing, and Tea Making Workshops – 9:00 – 11:00 AM
18th Street Casa de Cultura – Good weather: outside 2057 W 18th St / Rainy weather: Casa Ilumina at 2032 W 18th St – Grabados para el Pueblo / Prints for the People – 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
4:00 – 6:00 PM: Arts Activities, Workshops, and Resource Fair at the DuSable Black History Museum & Education Center
Seed Songs with Maria Gaspar
Disappearance Jail (Hole Punch Collage) with Maria Gaspar
Mobile Street Art Cart with William Estrada
Banners of Resistance with Yehimi Cambrón Álvarez
Paper flower making for a mural and portrait frames with Kush Thompson and Silvia Inés Gonzalez
Survival Skills Workshop with Jenna Anast
Tabling by community organizations, including Chicago Torture Justice Center, Walls Turned Sideways, Pilsen Arts & Community House (PACH), Free Street Theater, and Illinois Humanities
Soapbox speeches by Richard Wallace (Equity and Transformation), Rey Wences (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights), Rev. Jaime L. Fluker (Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation), and more
And more!
6:00 – 8:00 PM: Performances and poetry at the DuSable Museum Theater
Featuring a Chicago Second Line procession with music and dance, leading in to performances by Jamila Woods, Taína Asili, Kristiana Rae Colón, and Damon Williams
We are grateful for the support of Illinois Humanities, Woods Fund Chicago, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, Crossroads Fund, and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago.
Sign up for updates about this event and other UIC Social Justice Initiative programming at go.uic.edu/subscribeSJI.
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