Events
Join us for an evening with current Gray Center Mellon Collaborative Fellows Fadi "the fdz" Baki, Ghenwa Hayek (UChicago Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations), and Omar Khouri in conversation with artist and designer Hatem Imam. Along with Baki and Khouri, Imam is one of the co-founders of Samandal Comics operating out of Beirut.
Join us in celebrating the second issue of our bi-annual publication, Portable Gray. With a thematic focus on sound and music, this issue features contributions from Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Robert Bird, Seth Brodsky, Africa Brown & Maggie Brown, Yao Chen, Majel Connery, Stephanie Cristello, Mladen Dolar, Robyn Farrell, Kim Gordon, and more. A free copy for all that attend!
Past events
Join us for an evening with Ben R. Caldwell as the artist, renowned L.A. Rebellion filmmaker, and founder of the KAOS Network community arts center in Leimert Park, Los Angeles discusses his multifaceted work and its connection to Afrofuturism. Since 2017 Caldwell has guided the Gray Center's Sankofa City program.
Join us for an evening with Seth Kim-Cohen as he presents a new performance/lecture that deals with art, music and neoliberalism entitled, Apocalypse Karaoke. Followed by a conversation with Matthew Jesse Jackson, Chair of the Department of Visual Arts.
Chicago filmmakers Brandon "Manny" Calhoun and Wills Glasspiegel from The Era Footwork Crew screen and discuss a series of short films from their archive that explore and expand upon the history of Chicago footwork. Calhoun and Glasspiegel's work engages footwork as a catalyst for collaborative filmmaking, community organizing and nonprofit activism through the arts. Footwork started as a dance to house music on the west side of Chicago in the 1980s. Today, it's an internationally recognized dance and electronic music. This hour-long screening and group discussion, moderated by UChicago music scholar and Cinema 53 curator Seth Brodsky, will be followed by a Chicago footwork party, DJ'd on vinyl by the originator of the footwork sound, RP Boo.