Presented by The Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council as part of series Know More: Conversations that Matter
CHICAGO—Join the Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council for a unique "performance-dialogue" by sculptor and urban planner Theaster Gates and poet Kelly Tsai as they weave together their two art forms of sculpture and spoken word. "Speaking of Passage: Two Artists in the Conversation of Migration" will take place on Saturday, November 4, 2006 from 2:00—4:00 P.M. at the West Englewood Branch of the Public Library (1745 W. 63rd St.). This event is free and open to the public and reservations are not required. For more information, please call 312.422.5580. Free pizza will be served.
Sculptor THEASTER GATES connects Black history, African ancestry, and the legacy of making art from the Black Diaspora through his pottery and sculpture. Poet KELLY TSAI, Chicago poet and spoken word artist, traces Asian American ancestry through the experiences of war, displacement, and immigration. 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.
Theaster Gatesis a Teaching Artist at the Hyde Park Art Center who "sings" from his pottery wheel stories of the early Black American "maker," but his artistic voice also speaks of contemporary urban folklore. Kelly 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.
Part of the Know More: Conversations That Matter series, this event is sponsored by the Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) and is made possible by a grant from The Joyce Foundation. The Know More: Conversations that Matterseries is designed to bridge the gap between the arts and social issues that are of current concern to Chicago’s Englewood community. Programming has included visits from hip hop artists, activists, and scholars Jeff Chang, David Stovall, and Lavie Raven; Africana Studies scholar William Santiago Valles; performer Will Power; and poet Elizabeth Alexander.
For a full calendar of Public Square at the IHC events or for more information, please visit www.thepublicsquare.orgor contact the Public Square at the IHC at 312.422.5580 or via email at info@thepublicsquare.org.
Founded in 2000, The Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) has carved out a unique place in the cultural life of Chicago through innovative programming that fosters debate, dialogue, and exchange of ideas about cultural, social, and political issues with an emphasis on social justice. All Public Square at the IHC’s programs promote participatory democracy by creating space for public conversations. The Public Square was adopted by the Illinois Humanities Council on December 1, 2004.
D A R E T O K N O W
# # #