Celebrating Chicago’s Independent Creative Spirit
Chicago has been keeping me BUSY. I have to be honest. There’s a lot to be upset about on so many fronts. But this has also been an inspiring time to witness the City coming together in common cause. And the creative ecosystem here is a big part of that. SPEAKING UP and SPEAKING OUT.
Part of how that happens here is the deep well of collectives, platforms and people-centered movements that keep pushing us forward. And the creative ecosystem has a role to play in this. I wanted to share two recent highlights that exemplify Chicago’s unique creative spirit:
The Independent Productions Initiative has launched!
Playwright and Arts Advocate L.C. Bernadine is spearheading this awesome project, which is galvanizing creative networks and philanthropic leaders to fund Chicago theater artists directly – not via gatekeepers, not even through some subjective metric of what’s trending or prestigious. Peter Handler, is co-chairing this effort with L.C., and I’m proud to serve on the committee.
We just announced our first round of funded projects!
The process wasn’t perfect or easy by any means, but this is the start of something powerful, and urgently needed. Too many of our arts organizations have fallen away recently, and the challenges are sobering and immense. But artists are gonna make art, and I’m proud to do what I can to create more opportunities.
2. OTV’s 10th Anniversary is Here!
OTV has also marked its 10th Anniversary as an independent streaming platform, grounded and founded by diverse intersectional artists. I was excited to be in the mix at the 10th Anniversary events a few weeks back at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. And there’s a whole podcast about the journey, co-hosted by my partner Aymar and OTV”s Executive Director, Elijah McKinnon:
Those are just two big moments from recent weeks. They are great examples of vision-driven movement frameworks, which is something I champion as both an artist and advocate for our communities.
And both of them have helped feed my own creative engine, which continues to grind grind grind… More on that later.
