Posted inBIPOC LGBTQ+ Artist Spotlight

Take Up Space co-founders reach for community-building possibilities

Two Chicagoans are working to bring a new business—one part coffee shop, one part co-working space, one-part events venue—centering Black and queer identities to Lake View.  Co-founder M. Rashaad Barnett said he envisions the business, to be named Take Up Space, as “a leader in co-working and community that defies the need for barriers of […]

Posted inArts and Entertainment

Anastasia-Renée’s “Side Notes from the Archivist”

Anastacia-Renée is an award-winning writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDx speaker, 2020 Arc Fellow (4Culture), Jack Straw Curator, podcaster, and served as Seattle’s Civic Poet. Her fascinating new book of poetry is called “Side Notes from the Archivist.” As the title implies, the book is a historical document that provides insight into five decades of American […]

Posted inArts and Entertainment

Terry Loftis: Building a rainbow bridge between classical music and the LGBTQ+ community

Terry Loftis has been described as a “rainmaker” for the arts, and that description certainly fit his time leading The Arts Community Alliance, the organization that doles out grants to area arts organizations and has been helping theaters, dance companies and the like rebuild their foundations post COVID. But these days, the out arts advocate […]

Posted inArts and Entertainment

Art-felt: Chicago’s Pearl Dick helps young victims of trauma through glassblowing

Almost a decade ago, glass artist Pearl Dick and clinical psychologist Dr. Brad Stolbach co-founded Project FIRE (Fearless Initiative for Recovery and Empowerment)—an arts program that provides victims of trauma the chance to heal through glassblowing. Program components include mentoring, art and psychoeducation.  Project FIRE (in partnership with Healing Hurt People-Chicago, a hospital-based violence-intervention program) […]

Posted inArts and Entertainment

Director makes queer art for the stage in the big city and the suburbs

North Texas is never short on performing arts. With symphonies, operas, dance and theater flourishing in abundance throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area, there are always plenty of options for entertainment onstage. And the suburbs are no exception, especially with one area theatrical director finding ways to celebrate diversity and inclusion in the smaller cities as […]

Posted inBIPOC LGBTQ+ Artist Spotlight

Artist Kitoko Mai explores dissociative identity disorder through art

Meet Kitoko Mai. Mai is a Black, non-binary, disabled, emerging multidisciplinary performance artist, originally from Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mai’s pronouns are she/her and they/them. Also, meet Cheyenne, Niles, and Annie. They are three separate and distinct personalities, but they all exist within Kitoko Mai. As a multidisciplinary artist, Mai engages audiences in art […]

Posted inTop Stories

Drag performers of color reflect on ‘queer joy’ – and the current backlash to their art

With roots stretching back thousands of years, drag performers have recently become a cultural Rorschach test. Just as the art form has catapulted into mainstream spaces – thanks, RuPaul – it has elicited fear in cultural conservatives, who, as the Bay Area Reporter has been reporting, are seeking to limit its public visibility through state […]

Posted inBIPOC LGBTQ+ Artist Spotlight

Fabrizzio Subia navigates loss and grief through art

When it comes to loss, Fabrizzio Subia may know more about that than most people. Having dealt with everything from familial loss to the erasure of his history, the Ecuadorian-American multidisciplinary artist (who has also done things like host the open-mic event Tortas y Talento) has unveiled the video installation “Año Nuevo (2023)”—a grief performance […]

Posted inBIPOC LGBTQ+ Artist Spotlight

Chicago video game developer seeks to increase Black queer representation

Dani LaLonders (she/they) vividly remembers when “Lizzie McGuire: On the Go” first came out on the Gameboy Advance in 2004, joking that she was “probably one of five people” who played the game. The Chicago-based creator holds fond memories of various video games that inspired her throughout her childhood.  “I played a lot of girly […]

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