Join the Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council for a unique "performance-dialogue" that weaves together the two art forms of sculpture and spoken word.

Sculptor THEASTER GATES connects Black history, African ancestry, and the legacy of making art from the Black Diaspora through his work. Poet KELLY ZEN-YIE TSAI traces Asian American ancestry through the experiences of war, displacement, and immigration through her poetry. In their performance, Theaster and Kelly blend the richness of their two cultural traditions into a larger ritual of re-membering and transforming word through contemporary performance.

Urban planner and sculptor Theaster Gates is a Teaching Artist at the Hyde Park Art Center. Theaster "sings" from his pottery wheel stories of the early Black American "maker," but his artistic voice also speaks of contemporary urban folklore.

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chinese/Taiwanese American spoken word artist, essayist, and playwright who has been featured at venues like the Nuyorican Poets Café, the House of Blues, the Apollo Theater, and two seasons of "HBO Def Poetry." Her full-length play, "Murder the Machine," was excerpted at Chicago’s first Hip Hop Theater Festival.

This program is part of Know More: Conversations That Matter and is made possible by the generous support of the Joyce Foundation.

This event isfree and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

For more information, please contact the Public Square at the IHC at 312.422.5580.