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.

Catch up on the dance world promotions, appointments, departures, and notable awards from the past month. Plus, a new funding opportunity is available for dance artists.

$2.4 million to give unrestricted support, professional development, and networking opportunities to 12 performing artists in music, theater, dance, and related fields in the Chicago area.

Chief Manny (Brandon Calhoun), Brendan Fernandes, Darrell Jones, Vershawn Sanders-Ward, and Robyn Mineko Williams are among the inaugural recipients of the Walder Foundation’s Platform Awards, each of which includes a $200,000 unrestricted grant and professional development opportunities.

Lili-Anne Brown, a Chicago native and a veteran of stages in Chicago and across the country, comes to Writers to direct this hot, new play, winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama by celebrated writer Katori Hall (The Mountaintop, P-Valley, Broadway’s Tina: The Tina Turner Musical).  

Experience an immersive performance by Robyn Mineko Williams and Artists with HISAKO’S HOUSE, running from August 16-25, 2024.

The Walder Foundation has announced that it will award $2.4 million to Chicago-area performing artists through the inaugural Platform Awards. Twelve music, theatre, dance, and interdisciplinary arts professionals will receive unrestricted grants of $200,000 each.

The Walder Foundation has named three Chicago-based performing artists, including two Columbia College Chicago alumni and one faculty member, as recipients of its prestigious 2024 Platform Awards.

“When you’re inside a rhythm, it entrains you, it imprints on you, it saturates along an infinite scale,” says Co-Curator and Associate Professor Darrell Jones who received an inaugural Platform Award from the Walder Foundation this past week.

Chicago’s Walder Foundation will award $2.4 million to performing artists through its inaugural Platform Awards, to support area mid-career music, theater, dance and interdisciplinary artists enriching the city’s creative and civic landscape.

Walder Foundation will award $2.4 million to performing artists through its inaugural Platform Awards.