Uplifting Chicago’s Performing Artists

Musical comedy sets Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' in 1930s Harlem, with a soundtrack of Duke Ellington's greatest hits.

Full of showstopping musical numbers, the Goodman Theatre’s top-tier theatrical production of “The Color Purple” will leave audiences singing its praises. If you’ve somehow missed reading Alice Walker’s masterpiece or seeing either of the two film adaptations, then indulge in the stage musical version of this American literary classic.

Clarity, movement, purpose and arrival—four words that describe where the venerable Red Clay Dance Company and its Founding Artistic Director and CEO Vershawn Sanders-Ward are at.

“Multihyphenate artist, performer, and Chicago’s inaugural Poet Laureate avery r. young” has announced the “world premiere of ‘safronia,’ a new Afro-Surrealist opera written and composed by young and commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago.

This summer is the first time the Goodman Theatre has staged the musical, based on the classic Alice Walker novel.

The season opens with Cloudline, a luminous and heartfelt piece by Robyn M. Williams. Williams, whose work has been presented at prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Jacob's Pillow, American Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, and MCA Chicago, brings a deeply personal yet universally resonant voice to the stage

The performances in conjunction with the excellent exhibition “Ceremonies Out of the Air: Ralph Lemon” at MoMA PS1, which ended in March, included the premiere of “Low,” a collaboration with Darrell Jones.

Applications for small businesses, local entrepreneurs, artists, non-profits, and food vendors to participate in Sundays on State are open now through June 16.

Arena's 75th season celebrates a significant milestone and the continuation of its commitment to amplifying dynamic work that reflects the voices of its community and country.

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago announces 16 by Red Clay Dance Company for three performances only, April 17-19, 2025, featuring Founding Artistic Director and CEO Vershawn Sanders-Ward (‘02)’s new staging of Written on the Flesh and a premiere by Bebe Miller—commissioned and set on Red Clay Dance Company dancers including Columbia alumni Amaya Arroyo (‘23) and Celeste Brace (‘23).

A residency this month at Hungry Brain gives Ulery a platform for his uncorkable creativity. Ulery brings four different groups to the West Lakeview venue, including his Pollinator band and sprawling Nonet. He wraps the residency with his new Mother Harp band, a thrashing union of punk rock, jazz and folk. The group releases a self-titled album the same day on Ulery’s Woolgathering Records label.

Vershawn Sanders-Ward is a visionary director, choreographer, educator and ARTIVIST who is transforming the landscape of contemporary dance through her art and activism. As the Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Red Clay Dance Company, she blends African diasporic dance forms with modern techniques, creating performances that inspire social change and provoke thought.

La Havana Madrid, a nightclub on Chicago’s North Side in the 1960s, was a place of celebration and belonging for Cuban, Colombian and Puerto Rican immigrants new to America.

Broadway SIX star Brittney Mack will lead the company of a new staging of The Color Purple at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, starring as Celie. Performances will run June 21–July 27, with opening night set for June 30. Lili-Anne Brown is directing the musical, adapted from Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning novel.

The Lyric Opera’s new season encompasses two world premieres, two Lyric premieres, three new-to-Chicago productions, more Movie Nights at Lyric, a solo recital by one of opera’s most legendary stars, and musical theater performances.

DOWNTOWN — The Lyric Opera of Chicago just announced its 2025-26 season, and its jam-packed schedule features two new world premieres by two pioneering Chicago artists: a reimagining of The Smashing Pumpkins’ most acclaimed album by frontman Billy Corgan and a familial Great Migration story by Chicago’s first poet laureate, avery r. young.

The world premiere of "A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness" will be on stage at Lyric Opera House in late November.

Also, Chicago's first-ever poet laureate, avery r. young, will present his second collaboration with the Lyric in April 2026. It’s called "safronia," in which he writes and stars in. It's billed as a personal story about the Great Migration.

LA HAVANA MADRID was written by Sandra Delgado, with original music by Cristian Amigo and lyrics by Sandra Delgado. The production will run March 21st through April 27th, 2025 with previews taking place March 21st through 28th, with an Opening Night Reception on March 29th, 2025. 

When Robyn Mineko Williams was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” 10 years ago, she was on the precipice of a choreographic career after 12 years onstage with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She created at a feverish pace through 2019, but since then, Williams has slowed down, taking on fewer commissions and working on protracted, site-specific, independent projects further developing her signature ethereal style.

When it came time to select a college, Columbia College Chicago had some of the things Vershawn Sanders-Ward was looking for. The others, she had to find on her own. 

“African dance was in the basement; it was one class,” she said. “When I was at a point where I had the confidence to say, ‘I really need this,’ I had to figure out a way to make it work.”

To support. To love. To care. That's what "Mama" Nikki Giovanni meant to Chicago Poet Laureate Avery R. Young. Colleagues through the arts community, Young revered Giovanni's work and shared a few laughs with the legendary poet during her life.

The footwork crew members Chief Manny and Litebulb talk their Combo Pack EP, learning to rap as dancers, and the future of the craft

Digital Editor Gabriela Furtado Coutinho attended the Platform Awards on Monday and included the event in her Chicago theater round up for this month. She wrote that the existence of the Platform Awards as a new, major grant opportunity for artists, encouraged her as she reflected on recent theatrical events.

On this edition of The Arts Section, host Gary Zidek catches up with Oscar-winning animator Adam Elliot to talk about his new film MEMOIR OF A SNAIL. The Dueling Critics, Kelly Kleiman and Jonathan Abarbanel, join Gary to review the world premiere EVIL PERFECT. Later in the show, Gary checks in with acclaimed theater director Lili-Anne Brown to look back at her career and chat about an award she recently won. And we’ll hear from best-selling horror author Grady Hendrix.

This weekend, Red Clay Dance will do something a little unusual for the company: present a mixed-repertory concert.

The nonprofit Black Arts & Culture Alliance of Chicago, an organization that collectively advances excellence in the work of the Black arts and culture sector, has announced Vershawn Sanders-Ward as its new board president, effective immediately. 

When Elizabeth Walder was a teenager, she wanted to be a professional musician. A clarinetist by trade, she would commute to New York City to play with the Juilliard pre-college orchestra and internationally in classical and ethnic ensembles. 

Hisako’s House is where the heart is for choreographer and dancer Robyn Mineko Williams, who invites audiences to experience the 50-minute piece performed in her grandmother’s mid-century home in Lombard. Rebellious caught up with the show’s creator, RMW&A (Robyn Mineko Williams and Artists) director and Walder Foundation Platform Award winner, to discuss the evolution of this immersive project.

The Walder Foundation announced $2.4 million in 12 unrestricted grants of $200,000 to Chicago-area performing artists through its inaugural Platform Awards.

Poet avery r. young says tables that extend and invite the displaced to eat pasteles, pozole, pierogi, pizza and collard greens.