50×50: An Epic City-Wide Theatrical Flash Mob!
Ready to go Live for 50x50? Day(s) : Hour(s) : Minute(s) : Second(s) Free Street turns 50 this year, so we decided to celebrate by performing in ALL fifty wards of the city… IN ONE DAY! On June 23rd, we will be showing up in a neighborhood near you! We have 10...
A NOTE FROM FREE STREET’S ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: ON THE MEDIA, ERASURE, AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT.
Amores, this morning Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune published an article on the Green Line Performing Arts Center Grand Opening. It came with an outrageously misleading headline: “Finally, a Chicago-style Storefront for the Southside,” which received...
Call for Collaborators: Still Here
Call for collaborators! Free Street is looking for people to work on *still here: a manifesto for survival*. This ensemble piece, which will tour public spaces throughout the summer of 2019, draws on speculative fiction and acts of radical imagination to ask what the...
Join the Be Free Street Giving Collective
At Free Street, we joke that we have THE WORST business model in the world. We pay everyone that works with us (theater is a job) AND we offer all of our programming for free/pay-what-you-can (theater isn’t a luxury). We are committed to finding ways to break down the...
Papelitos Guardados/Paper Memories Documents Community Histories
For a long time, I have been OBSESSED with the notion of “papelitos guardados” (secret/guarded little bits of paper.) I first read about it in the Latina Feminist Group’s anthology and it really resonated it with me- the idea that most of us will...
Free Street Receives Additional Joyce Funds
Thanks to The Joyce Foundation, Free Street’s Storyfront in Back of the Yards will be expanding its programming beyond Meet Juan-ito Doe. In the coming months, look for a new weekly comedy show, a reinas/drag queen story hour, and a range of community-proposed...
REST is Reader Recommended!
It’s rare that we say this, but we love everything about this recent review of REST, our collaboration between the Free Street Youth Ensemble and performance artist/Nap Bishop Tricia Hersey. Dan Jakes of the Reader shouts out everything from the “natural,...
Working with The Jane Addams Hull House Museum to engage youth in dialogues on the School-To-Prison Pipeline.
When the Jane Addams Hull House Museum wanted to join an International Coalition of Sites of Conscience project around the school-to-prison pipeline, they sought a community partner who had a history of youth work, activism and leading difficult conversations. For the...
Helping ProPublica Engage Communities Across Illinois
At a time when journalists are combating concerns about “fake news” and media bias, ProPublica Illinois wanted to find new ways of building relationships with the people impacted by their reporting. “We knew that we’d need to think creatively how to bridge divides and...
