The 6th Annual CGTA Textile & E-Waste Drive and Costume Exchange
Chicago Theatre and Arts Community, the time has finally arrived!
The 6th Annual CGTA Textile & E-Waste Drive and Costume Exchange is October
22nd-24th 12pm-4pm.
Three days of of dropping and swapping! Items accepted: Clothing, Costumes, Shoes,
Accessories and Household Textiles. PLUS E-Waste! (CRT Monitors not accepted)
The event will take place at Chicago Children’s Theatre – 100 S. Racine Ave.
Chicago, IL 60607. The textile/costume event will take place inside the theatre
space. The e-waste collection will be outside in the parking lot. Masks must be
worn at all times by staff and patrons.
Dismantling Racism Learning Lab
Equity Quotient is facilitating a two-day Dismantling Racism Learning Lab for Chicago’s artists, arts administrators, and cultural workers. EQ’s Lab offers a shared learning experience and open dialogue about one of the toughest issues the nation is beginning to address – systemic and structural racism.
As artists and cultural producers these are just some of the questions the sector is struggling to address:
1. What role does the cultural sector play in America’s ongoing cultural war?
2. What does it mean to be in solidarity with various movements?
3. What exactly is an ally and how does one become an ally?
4. What is the difference between race and racism, between equity and equality?
5. Microaggressions abound, but what is a microaggression, or a macroaggression?
Through a power analysis, the Lab makes visible the role the cultural sector has historically played in shaping our common understanding of ourselves as individuals, communities, and as a nation. How can arts organizations, artists, activists, organizers, and culture workers lend their considerable weight to expand the stories and story makers on our stages and in our rehearsal rooms?
Participants will share stories, come away with concrete tools to foster continued dialogue, and resources to foster continued learning as this work of dismantling racism is a process, a journey, one 569 years in the making.
The Learning Lab is for those new to this work, and for those who may have attended prior League sponsored workshops and want a refresher or to see how the work has evolved, hint, a lot! If you’re interested in new tools, approaches, and processes to facilitate this effort, EQ Dismantling Racism Learning Lab may be just the place for you!
This event will be held in person October 13 and 14 from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM at Theater Wit, 1229 West Belmont. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test (negative pcr test within three days or a negative antigen (rapid) test within the past six hours) will be required for entry and masks will be required.
Participants are required to attend both days and no recording will be made.
What’s Next for Theater in Chicago? – A Panel Discussion
October 7, 6:30-8:00 PM
Join us for a Zoom panel discussion focused on the immediate horizon for Chicago theatre hosted by Mark Larson, author of ENSEMBLE: AN ORAL HISTORY OF CHICAGO THEATRE, and J. Nicole Brooks, actor, author and director (HER HONOR JANE BYRNE), educator, and social justice warrior.
What is already happening and what needs to happen for Chicago theatre to return safely and equitably? In what ways does the Chicago theatre movement’s 80-year history benefit us, and in what ways is it an encumbrance? What new plans and practices are currently being implemented or discussed and what deep and abiding commitments do we, as individuals and as an artistic community, need to make in order to sustain a booming, vital, fair, and anti-racist theatre scene well into the future? And, in what ways does Chicago have the potential to become a national leader in these efforts?
Panelists will include:
- Megan Carney, artistic director, About Face Theatre
- Ilesa Duncan, artistic director, Lifeline Theatre
- Lorena Diaz, co-artistic director, Teatro Vista
- Harry Lennix, actor, producer and creator of the Lillian Marcie Center
- Ken-Matt Martin, artistic director, Victory Gardens Theater
- PJ Powers, artistic director, Timeline Theatre
- Jackie Taylor, artistic director, Black Ensemble Theater
Register here, a Zoom link will be sent out 2-3 days before the event.