Rogers Park Arts Alliance

Join our mailing list for event updates! Rogers Park Arts Alliance is an evolving, project-driven consortium of individual artists, arts organizations and businesses with the mission to advance artistic engagement within our diverse community and to promote Rogers Park as the leading destination for art in Chicago.

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RPAA December Event A Caroling Bar Crawl Bars and Restaurants in the Glenwood Arts District Wednesday, December 4 // 7-9 PM Please join the Rogers Park Community Singers and the Rogers Park Arts Alliance for an evening of caroling through the Glenwood Arts District. All voices and instruments welcome, song sheets will be provided 🎶 Singing holiday favorites for our drinks 🍸   7:00 – Meet up at Pub 626, corner of Morse and Glenwood, 1406 W. Morse 7:30 – Sing at nearby bars and restaurants, and at the CTA station 8:30 (approximately) – End and relax at Le Piano, 6970 N. Glenwood If you can't be at Pub 626 by 7:30 just listen for us on or near Glenwood and join in at any time 🎉 Happy Holidays Rogers Park!

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June Event: Make Music Rogers Park

All Day

Friday, June 21

All Over Rogers Park

On Friday, June 21, across Chicago and in over 800 cities worldwide, musicians of every age and ability will be making music on street corners, in parks, cafes and concert halls. These free local performances are part of Make Music Chicago – as part of this city event, our own neighborhood will be celebrating Make Music Rogers Park. From the beaches to the main streets, watch for singers, drummers, fiddlers, trombonists and more. And as it is the Summer Solstice, once again there will be a special flag-raising at the Rogers Park Woman’s Club, 7077 N. Ashland at 7:00 – which will be celebrated by local musicians. Below is the schedule of free music in Rogers Park on June 21. Come out to hear a musician or two – or just take your guitar, flute, or drum and make some music for your local block!

MAKE MUSIC ROGERS PARK

Free Music Everywhere on June 21

(Listings from North to South)

Willye White Park

1610 W. Howard

4:30-5:30 pm

Mr. Pope, Soul/Hip-Hop

8:00-9:00 pm

DJ Rick J. Lenore, Electric Soul

Sherwin Beach

1215 W. Sherwin

5:30-6:30 pm

Eric Leonardson, Experimental

Solstice Flag Raising at the Woman’s Club

7077 N. Ashland

7:00-7:30 pm

Members of the Old Town School Community Choir

7:30-8:00 pm

No Class Combo Jazz Band

Indian Boundary Park

2500 W. Lunt

3:00-4:00 pm

Fiddle Club of the World Orchestra

Morse CTA Station

1358 W. Morse

6:00-6:30 pm

New Rhythm Arts Center Drummers

New Rhythm Art Center to Maria Hadden’s Office

1441- 1447 W. Morse (sidewalk)

5:00-5:30 pm - Katie Bender, jazz

5:30-6:00 pm - Hannah Frank, jazz

Argo Tea

6576 N. Sheridan Rd.

8:30-9:00 am

Bob Leininger, folk

Summer on the Plaza

6550 N. Sheridan Rd.

5:00-7:00 pm

Sam Lallas, folk

For more information and additional performance listings, visit Make Music Rogers Park – citywide information at makemusicchicago.org.

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May Events: Re•sil•ience Artist Talk Thursday, May 9 Northtown Library 6800 N. Western Avenue 6 – 7 PM + Exhibition Opening Thursday, May 16 Devon Bank 6445 N. Western Avenue 5 – 7 PM

Join the Rogers Park Arts Alliance for two May events with artist John-Michael Korpal on Western Avenue. There will be an artist talk at the new Northtown library this Thursday, and an exhibit opening at Devon Bank the following week!

The Gingko Tree has tolerated and survived adverse conditions for over 270 million years. It is a powerful symbol of physical and spiritual nourishment, transformation and liberation. The ability for an individual and their community to survive and flourish in adverse conditions is Re•sil•ience.

John-Michael Korpal has exhibited throughout the Midwest. His work has been featured at the Grunwald Gallery of Art – Kinsey Institute, Morpho Gallery, and Governor’s State University. Korpal was honored to receive Illinois Arts Council’s IAS Professional Development Grant in 2014 & 2019. In spring of 2018 he completed the Visual Arts Certificate Program from Graham School-University of Chicago and is currently participating in the Center Program at Hyde Park Arts Center. Korpal is a member of the Rogers Park Art Alliance, Chicago Calligraphy Collective, West Ridge Artists, and Third Estate Art. For more information, visit the website johnmichaelkorpal.com. Join us the next two Thursdays to celebrate John-Michael's new work!

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April Event: PO Box Mail-In Show

Sunday, April 28

PO Box Collective

6900 N. Glenwood Avenue

4 – 7 PM

Join the Rogers Park Arts Alliance to celebrate the opening event of a new space in the neighborhood! PO Box Collective, a group of your Rogers Park neighbors, are creating a community art space in the old PO Box storefront at Glenwood and Farwell. PO Box invites everyone to help create the first exhibition at 6900 Glenwood – PO Box Mail-In Show. To honor the history of the space, the collective are seeking contributions in the form of mail – a letter, postcard, or package. What it is: Contribute any piece of mail that reflects something you'd like to share with the community. It could be a postcard you find beautiful, a piece of Rogers Park ephemera, or something you make yourself. It can be funny, sad, mundane, elaborate, or simple, such as:

📯A poster, zine or pamphlet that is related to the neighborhood 📯

💌A note that shares your hopes for—or memories of—the neighborhood 💌

📬An old letter that relates to the history of our community 📬

🌈Anything you can mail celebrating where we live 🌈 

Mail something to:

PO Box Mail-In Show 6900 N. Glenwood Ave Chicago, IL 60626 🎉📸You are also welcome bring your piece of mail to the opening 📸🎉 🖌✂️Or make something there on April 28th ✂️🖌 Join us to celebrate this new space!

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March Event: Protest in Fashion Show Saturday, March 30 United Church of Rogers Park  Overdier Hall 1545 W. Morse Avenue 5 – 7 PM What would justice look like if you wore it? Join the Rogers Park Arts Alliance in attending a community-produced fashion show that focuses on the interaction of fashion and social and political movements. Featured are:

*The history of protest in fashion from the 60's on, including Civil Rights, Black Power, Native American, Chicano, Women's & LGBTQ struggles and the hippie movement. 

*A showcase of contemporary Chicago designers emphasizing freedom of expression in response to incarceration and oppression.

*"Thrift hip" styles proving that fashion isn't only about class and money.

The show will be followed by spoken word performance and comments by the pastor. It is organized by UCRP's New to You thrift shop along with Circles & Ciphers and many other community members. 

The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, so arrive promptly. Overdier Hall is on the third floor of the UCRP and is accessible to all thanks to an elevator in addition to stairs. 

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February Event: Access to Care Salon Saturday, February 23 The Factory Theater 1623 W. Howard Street 7:30 – 9:30 PM Join the Rogers Park Arts Alliance with Third Estate Art for a salon-style event where artists and activists will present their work on the theme "Access to Care." Think health care, child care, mental health services, community support, and all the things we rely on to live good lives and that are increasingly hard to get. Each participant will use 10-20 minutes to talk, read, sing, perform, or however they'd like to showcase what they do for you. The event will end with a Q&A. Featured guests include Jae Green, Michele Hays, Khloe Janel, and PO Box Collective – Jae will perform a piece about maternal health care in rural Alabama – Michele will share her work with Back on Their Feet – Khloe will perform poems that explore what self-care looks and feels like in 2019 as a black queer woman – PO Box will share the work they’ve done to turn an old post office into a community art space. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, and there will be a limited number of free tickets available. Third Estate Art is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, so consider paying a little more if you can. All ticket sales go to recouping venue costs and paying the artists and presenters. For more info, please visit thirdestateart.org.

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RPAA January Event: Fillet of Solo Kick-Off Wednesday, January 16 The Heartland Event Space 7006 N. Glenwood Avenue 7:00 – 8:30 PM Join the Rogers Park Arts Alliance for the free kick-off event of the 22nd annual Fillet of Solo Festival on Wednesday, January 16 at the Heartland Event Space! Lifeline Theatre's Dorothy Milne will host an evening of performance and conversation with Fillet of Solo storytellers. Learn about the form, the history of the festival, and details on Chicago's many storytelling nights from the people who make them happen — all while hearing stories of different styles interspersed throughout. Attendees will have a chance to purchase 50% discounted Fest Passes for performances happening January 18 through February 2 in the Rogers Park Glenwood Avenue Arts District. Fillet of Solo 2019 will feature performances by Laura Biagi, Archy Jamjun, Kristina Lebedeva, Earliana McLaurin, Roberta Miles, Janki Mody, Anne Purky, plus the work of the following storytelling collectives: 80 Minutes Around the World: Immigration Stories, GeNarrations, the kates, The Lifeline Storytelling Project, Loose Chicks, OUTSpoken, Serving the Sentence, Stir-Friday Night, Sullivan High School, The Stoop, Sweat Girls, and Tellin' Tales Theatre featuring Tekki Lomnicki. Over 95 performers will share their stories with audiences over the course of the festival! Join us for the launch – more info at lifelinetheatre.com/fillet.

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RPAA December Event A Caroling Bar Crawl Bars and Restaurants in the Glenwood Arts District Thursday, December 6 // 7-9 PM

Please join The Rogers Park Arts Alliance and The Rogers Park Community Singers for an evening of caroling through the Glenwood Arts District. 

All voices and instruments welcome, no choral experience required 🎶Singing Christmas and Hanukkah favorites for our drinks 🍸    7:00 – Meet inside Lifeline Theater, 6912 N. Glenwood 7:15 – Start singing at Rogers Park Social, 6920 N. Glenwood 7:30 – Sing at bars & restaurants up to the Heartland Café, 7000 N. Glenwood 9:00 – End and relax at the newly opened Le Piano, 6970 N. Glenwood   If you can’t make the 7:00 PM start, just listen for us on or near Glenwood, and join in at any time. December 6 is St. Nicholas Day and in the midst of Hanukkah – come sing in the season with us for Rogers Park!

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RPAA November Event Heather Raquel Phillips Short Ones|Long Ones Leather Archives & Museum 6418 North Greenview Avenue Saturday, November 3 // 2:30-4:30 PM

Join Rogers Park Arts Alliance at the Leather Archives & Museum on Saturday, November 3 for a screening of Short Ones|Long Ones: Time based work by Heather Raquel Phillips, followed by a public conversation between Heather Raquel Phillips and Kirin Wachter-Grene, Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and LA&M Visiting Scholar 2017-18. This kick-off screening and discussion is FREE for the public 18+ only & no museum admission required! Short Ones | Long Ones is a month-long screening program of 11 works by multimedia artist Heather Raquel Phillips. Ranging in duration from 1 minute to 34 minutes – and from performative action videos, loops, and genre-defying experimental works – Phillips’ time-based work centers, and renders radically visible, her Philadelphia community of femme, POC, trans, and kinky rebels. Positioning herself on both sides of the camera lens, Phillips frames (and is framed by) an intimate, critical, celebratory, and don’t-give-a-f**k gaze and sensibility that stirs the visual pot of taste, tropes, and stereotypes of various normativities. Organized by Jose Santiago Perez, Short Ones | Long Ones will be screened throughout the month of November on Saturdays and Sundays at 3 PM at the Leather Archives & Museum.

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RPAA September Event: Find your inner Zen ~ Haiku Workshop Flying Dolphin Studio 6660 North Damen Avenue Friday, September 28 // 6:30-8:30 PM

Front door is located on the side of the building – buzz unit 3E, top floor!

Join Rogers Park Arts Alliance on Friday evening, September 28 at Flying Dolphin Studio for a fun and interactive writing workshop. Relax and enjoy the art of Haiku poetry while creating several of your own personal Haiku to experience the legacy. Hot tea will be served – and Flying Dolphin Studio is BYOB friendly!

You might ask what does a Haiku look like – A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Often focusing on images from nature, haiku emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression.

The best-known Japanese haiku is Bashō's "old pond":

古池や蛙飛び込む水の音ふるいけやかわずとびこむみずのおと (transliterated into 17 hiragana)

furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto  (transliterated into rōmaji)

This separates into on as:

fu-ru-i-ke ya (5)ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu (7)mi-zu-no-o-to (5)

Translated:

old pond

frog leaps in

water's sound

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/haiku for more info on this creative tradition!

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RPAA August Event: Ponder Food as Love  Archie's Cafe 1228 W Loyola Avenue Thursday, August 23 // 7-9 PM

RPAA and Archie’s Cafe invite you to Ponder Food as Love with us this Thursday for the closing celebration of food-gazing works by Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman. Archie's is just steps away from the west exit of the Loyola Red Line at 1228 West Loyola Avenue – join us! 7:15 Artists’ talk by photographers Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman 🍏 7:30 Reading by author Judith Cooper from her short story Breathless 📓 8:00 Conversation creating a future feast to counter the toxicity of the times ❤️

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RPAA July Event: Swing Hustle Event Glenwood Dance Studio 7017 N Glenwood Avenue Friday, July 27 // 6-7 PM Free – RSVP Online

This July, join the Rogers Park Arts Alliance for a one-night intro to the Hustle Swing at Glenwood Dance Studio. Instructor Brennen Renteria will teach you basics in this friendly, fun class for all levels. There is limited capacity for this event, so read more and then RSVP below if you would like to join. Hustle Swing is a partner dance that is sometimes referred to as "New York Hustle". The 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever showed both the line and partner forms of the hustle. Though the line dance version has faded away, the popularity of the partner version known as the Hustle Swing has continued and has taken a place beside jitterbug swing, cha-cha, tango, rumba, bachata, salsa, nightclub two-step and other popular partner dances.

RSVP HERE – Follow the instructions below! First step is to sign in or create and account. Then select the Beginning Hustle Swing class for Friday, July 27:

Then, select the "Register as unpaid" option:

We're looking forward to hustling with you this July 27!

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July 27 is the first class of the session and is a wonderful introduction to Hustle Swing.

ONLY the first class of the session, July 27 is free through the RPAA July Event. If you decide at the end of this class that you would like to come back for the remaining classes you may pay the single class rate of $15 ($10 student/pro) or if you are a new student you can purchase a 5-class card for $40 (regular price $65).

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June Event: Woman's Club – Solstice Celebration & Procession to the Lake

Meet at 7077 North Ashland Thursday, June 21 // 7 PM Rain or Shine

Once again, RPAA invites you to a community gathering in observation of the longest day on the calendar:

🎭7PM ~ Flag-Raising & Theater Tours at 7077 N. Ashland 🎭 👣7:45PM ~ Procession from Ashland & Estes to the Lake 👣 ☀️8PM ~ Celebration of the Solstice at Loyola Park ☀️

This year we will meet at 7077 North Ashland for Woman's Club: Olivia Jade Juárez with Remy Lucien Bordas – a collaborative project organized by The Cuckoo's Theater Project and Roman Susan. There will be a flag-raising celebration at the corner of Ashland and Estes, as well as tours of the former Rogers Park Woman's Club, which is being renovated into a theater and performing arts center. From there, we will gather in a loose procession and parade our way to the lakefront to celebrate our vitality and the energy of the sun. Bring your musical instruments, home-made flags, signs, banners, kites, frisbees, swimsuits, and sun-worshipping costumes of any sort – kid friendly, all welcome – come join us as we raise our voices to the sky and sing to the light!

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May Event: Entanglements Friday, May 11 KB Studio // 1523 W. Morse Avenue 6:00 – 8:30 PM Join us for the opening of an exhibition of mixed-media artworks by Chicago artists Virginia Carstarphen and Sue Teller at KB Studio. The exhibition has been inspired by current ecological issues facing our world.

KB Studio is a fine arts education center founded and directed by artist and educator Kaye Buchman. The studio is dedicated to helping students explore contemporary visual arts practices to enrich their lives and the world around them. Come support this young arts space!

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April Event: Spring Garment Swap Saturday, April 21 Archie's Cafe 1228 W. Loyola Avenue 2 – 4 PM Join us for a neighborhood clothing swap at the new Archie's Cafe on Loyola Avenue – bring one or two bags of clean well-loved clothing to trade with friends and neighbors to make up your new warm-weather wardrobe. Archie's is a small cafe serving light bites with strong tea and coffee – drop in for a drink and a snack, swap some garments, and check out the current installation of wire art by Rich Salamander throughout the cafe!

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March Event: Rogers Park Tuesday, March 6 Chicago Filmmakers 5720 N. Ridge Avenue 8 – 10 PM Set in our own community, Rogers Park explores the effect of midlife pressures on the relationships of two inter-racial couples over the course of a tumultuous year. To achieve greater authenticity, it was written through a collaborative process of improvisational workshops that included the cast, the writer, Carlos Treviño, and director, Kyle Henry – both of whom will be at the March 6 screening to host a Q&A. The Chicago Filmmakers was founded in 1973 to organize artist-run film screenings. Their exhibition program has evolved into one of the longest-running showcases in the country for independent film. The organization have created a media arts center that includes classes, equipment access, and film preservation. Chicago Filmmakers is in the process of renovating the 1928 firehouse at 5720 N. Ridge Avenue, which opened its doors last year. The movie will be shown in the Filmmakers new 75-seat screening room. Tickets ($8) can be purchased at rogersparkfilm.com/screenings. If you are driving, access the space by entering via Hollywood Avenue to the south. If you can't make the March 6 show, Rogers Park is also being screened on Thursday, March 1, at 7:00 and 9:15 at the New 400 Theatre, 6746 N. Sheridan Road. Tickets available through the same link, above.  

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February Event: Be Mine! Friday, February 9 RESCHEDULED: Friday, February 16 Greenleaf Art Center 1806 W. Greenleaf Avenue 7 – 9 PM

Looking ahead to Valentine's Day, a group of artists interpret Be Mine in a variety of media. Meet the artists, enjoy cocktails and snacks, celebrate art, love, and the Greenleaf Art Center this Friday in Rogers Park!