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M I S S I O N
Insight Arts is a contemporary arts organization dedicated to increasing access to cultural work that supports progressive social change. Our unique organizational model allows us to engage in community based, regional and national work. We organize our work around three core values:
1. Access to information, education and art is a basic human right.
2. Meaningful social change is dependent on the creation of cooperative social and political structures.
3. Time for contemplation and analysis is crucial to community and individual empowerment.
These values have facilitated the development of an organization with three main areas of cultural work:
a. offering free arts education classes to youth and adults,
b. presenting regular performances, exhibitions and other special events related to our core values and
c. providing rehearsal space and administrative support for a wide variety of performance collectives and artist projects.
insightartsliberation.org
info@insightartsliberation.org
E V E N T S
The Official Insight Arts Calendar
Insight Arts
Adult Classes in Rogers Park - Ongoing
INSIGHT ARTS ADULT CLASSES IN ROGERS PARK
FREE. Art supplies are provided but participants are encouraged to bring other materials/supplies to work with.
ART CLASS
Teacher: Sandra Peterson
Weekly on Thursdays at Trilogy
1400 W Greenleaf
1:00 - 2:30 PM (except 4th Thursday : 2:00 - 3:30 PM)
In the drop-in room called BEACON
JEWELRY & FABRIC ARTS CLASS
Jewelry Teacher: Cheri Fields
Sewing Teacher: Jeannette Perkal
Weekly on Saturdays at Artist's Gallery, V12
6902 N Glenwood (next to the Post Office Boxes Bldg. at Farewell/Glenwood)
1:00 - 4:00 PM, street-level
NUTRITION CLASS - A collaboration with United Church Community Feast with funding from the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Kraft Foods. Teacher: Amanda Peterson
2nd & 4th Saturdays at Artist's Gallery, V12
6902 N Glenwood (next to the Post Office Boxes Bldg. at Farewell/Glenwood)
4:30 - 6:30 PM, street-level
This cycle will focus on:
a) Vegetarian and Vegan Diets, and
b) Understanding restrictions and dietary needs for diabetes, high bllod pressure, and high cholesterol.
COOKING CLASSES TO ENCOURAGE HEALTHIER EATING & NUTRITION BASED ON USDA "MY PLATE"
At United Church's 3rd Floor Kitchen (elevator available)
Held on one Saturday a month (11:00 AM - 1:00 PM) and one Thursday a month (5:00 - 7:00 PM).
Upcoming COOKING CLASSES
Saturday, April 28, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
"Easy Healthy Pizza for One" led by Naomi Safarin
Thursday, May 10, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
led by Maritza Bautista (menu tbd)
Registration for the COOKING CLASS is needed since space is limited. Call Anita at (773) 409-4678 or email Judy at JKline8252@aol.com.
Theatre of the Oppressed : Forum Theater Community Performance : Saturday, April 21
Please join us Saturday, April 21 for a FREE Forum Theater performance. Participants from the 3-Day Theatre of the Oppressed workshop will be headlining the performances. Je Nepomuceno who facilitated the workshops will be the joker.
We invite everyone to come out and participate!
Rumble Arts Center
3413 W North Ave
First Floor, Gallery
FREE
6 PM
more details to follow
Nights of Insight : Friday, April 20
TRAUMA, TECHNOLOGY, & RESISTANCE :
A Three Month Series of Art, Dialogue, and Action
Trauma, Technology, and Resistance: A three month series of art, dialogue and action.
The first quarter of 2012 has witnessed a number of innovative uses of new media technologies to address a number of important human rights struggles. The most remarkable has been the campaign of a well funded US based non-profit organization named Invisible Children to build public support for the capture of Joseph Kony the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Christian rightwing Fundamentalist Guerrilla group notorious for war crimes including the kidnapping and brainwashing of children and young adults in Uganda. Social media has also played a significant role in the campaign to address the murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17 year old African American boy by George Zimmerman, a community watch leader in a gated neighborhood in Sanford, Florida. Racial Justice advocates have also used new technologies to address the brutal murder of Shaima Alawadi, a 32 year old Iraqi immigrant woman within her own home in San Diego, California. Finally, international human rights advocates have attempted to publicize the plight of Yemeni Journalist Abdulelah Haider Shayne who has remained a political prisoner in Yemen because of the direct intervention of the United States.
Insight Arts is assembling an impressive collection of diverse artists, intellectuals, activists and journalists to reflect on these four intersections of new media and human rights struggles. We begin with a set of critical questions around the viral internet success of Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign. Insight Arts is highly critical of the campaign’s manipulation and distortion of the situation in Northern Uganda. We hope to create an environment where people can begin to offer analysis about why the campaign was initially so successful. What are some of the possible hidden agendas of the campaign? What other options are critics of this campaign offering for North Americans genuinely interested in standing in solidarity with progressive social justice movements in Uganda and throughout the two-thirds world? Does the Kony 2012 campaign actually endanger civilian life in Uganda as noted Ugandan intellectual Mahmood Mamdani and many other activists/intellectuals have suggested? Does it function as an advertisement for Western Imperialism? Does it function as an endorsement of White supremacy and colonialism? Would the enormous amounts of funds raised by Invisible Children have been better spent on reintegration programs for former child soldiers as Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict, has suggested?
Our project will also analyze the way social and mass media has been used by activists/organizers in response to the shooting of unarmed African-American teenager Trayvon Martin by Community Watch leader George Zimmerman and the murder of the middle class Iraqi immigrant, Shaima Alawadi within her own home in San Diego. We will examine the ways these two tragic incidents have been dealt with by the major media and by anti-racist activists. Particular emphasis will be placed on the social media campaigns such as the “I am Trayvon Martin” campaign on facebook.
This project also aims to centrally address the plight of Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shayne whose ongoing incarceration in Yemen came at the direct request of the US government. We hope to draw more attention to Haider Shayne’s case whilst also examining why his plight has not been addressed with as much intensity on the internet or in major US based media outlets. This seems particularly strange since Haider Shayne was a free lance contractor for ABC News, CNN and the New York Times. None of the US based news agencies Haider Shayne worked for have stepped forward to file a grievance with the US state department.
The project hopes to engage participants of an examination of the political choices that are made by mainstream media groups and non-profit organizations in selecting what constitutes an International human rights violation.
We have scheduled three core events (the third Friday of April, May June - during our Nights of Insight) and are open to coordinating more discussions and events based on participant feedback and interest. The events will be an engaged hybrid of performance, screenings, information sharing, dialogue and art making. We will also have reading and information packets available at each scheduled event. Events may also include national artists and intellectuals via skype. Insight Arts' hope is that these events will lead to the creation of strategies and tools for engaging a wide variety of audiences in the process of an intersectional analysis of oppression and political solidarity.
Join us Friday, April 20 for the first part of Trauma, Technology, & Resistance during our Night of Insight.
Rumble Arts Center
3413 W North Ave
First Floor, Gallery
FREE
7 PM
A Three Month Series of Art, Dialogue, and Action
Trauma, Technology, and Resistance: A three month series of art, dialogue and action.
The first quarter of 2012 has witnessed a number of innovative uses of new media technologies to address a number of important human rights struggles. The most remarkable has been the campaign of a well funded US based non-profit organization named Invisible Children to build public support for the capture of Joseph Kony the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Christian rightwing Fundamentalist Guerrilla group notorious for war crimes including the kidnapping and brainwashing of children and young adults in Uganda. Social media has also played a significant role in the campaign to address the murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17 year old African American boy by George Zimmerman, a community watch leader in a gated neighborhood in Sanford, Florida. Racial Justice advocates have also used new technologies to address the brutal murder of Shaima Alawadi, a 32 year old Iraqi immigrant woman within her own home in San Diego, California. Finally, international human rights advocates have attempted to publicize the plight of Yemeni Journalist Abdulelah Haider Shayne who has remained a political prisoner in Yemen because of the direct intervention of the United States.
Insight Arts is assembling an impressive collection of diverse artists, intellectuals, activists and journalists to reflect on these four intersections of new media and human rights struggles. We begin with a set of critical questions around the viral internet success of Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign. Insight Arts is highly critical of the campaign’s manipulation and distortion of the situation in Northern Uganda. We hope to create an environment where people can begin to offer analysis about why the campaign was initially so successful. What are some of the possible hidden agendas of the campaign? What other options are critics of this campaign offering for North Americans genuinely interested in standing in solidarity with progressive social justice movements in Uganda and throughout the two-thirds world? Does the Kony 2012 campaign actually endanger civilian life in Uganda as noted Ugandan intellectual Mahmood Mamdani and many other activists/intellectuals have suggested? Does it function as an advertisement for Western Imperialism? Does it function as an endorsement of White supremacy and colonialism? Would the enormous amounts of funds raised by Invisible Children have been better spent on reintegration programs for former child soldiers as Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict, has suggested?
Our project will also analyze the way social and mass media has been used by activists/organizers in response to the shooting of unarmed African-American teenager Trayvon Martin by Community Watch leader George Zimmerman and the murder of the middle class Iraqi immigrant, Shaima Alawadi within her own home in San Diego. We will examine the ways these two tragic incidents have been dealt with by the major media and by anti-racist activists. Particular emphasis will be placed on the social media campaigns such as the “I am Trayvon Martin” campaign on facebook.
This project also aims to centrally address the plight of Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shayne whose ongoing incarceration in Yemen came at the direct request of the US government. We hope to draw more attention to Haider Shayne’s case whilst also examining why his plight has not been addressed with as much intensity on the internet or in major US based media outlets. This seems particularly strange since Haider Shayne was a free lance contractor for ABC News, CNN and the New York Times. None of the US based news agencies Haider Shayne worked for have stepped forward to file a grievance with the US state department.
The project hopes to engage participants of an examination of the political choices that are made by mainstream media groups and non-profit organizations in selecting what constitutes an International human rights violation.
We have scheduled three core events (the third Friday of April, May June - during our Nights of Insight) and are open to coordinating more discussions and events based on participant feedback and interest. The events will be an engaged hybrid of performance, screenings, information sharing, dialogue and art making. We will also have reading and information packets available at each scheduled event. Events may also include national artists and intellectuals via skype. Insight Arts' hope is that these events will lead to the creation of strategies and tools for engaging a wide variety of audiences in the process of an intersectional analysis of oppression and political solidarity.
Join us Friday, April 20 for the first part of Trauma, Technology, & Resistance during our Night of Insight.
Rumble Arts Center
3413 W North Ave
First Floor, Gallery
FREE
7 PM
Mixed Movement Chicago: Saturday, March 17
We invite the community to join us for an evening of solos and spontaneous duets across movement styles improvised to live beats and sounds. Mixed Movement is a showcase of multi-genre choreography and a jam session hosted by award-winning performance artist Baraka de Soleil featuring KrisDeLaRash, along with live music by special guests representing some of Chicago’s best artists! This is an Insight Arts event, co-produced by DUNDERBELLY, and hosted by Rumble Arts Center.
Mixed Movement is an open stage for dancers to improvise with live musicians while sharpening and sharing their skills. At its essence Mixed Movement is a place where no matter what your movement background, you can come together and celebrate with others the joy of dance, whether you sign up and participate, or just watch.
The night begins with improvised solos. In the second round these eight dancers are paired up, their names pulled out of a hat, and then magic of Mixed Movement manifests. Movers from different backgrounds find and create a common language of the body in the moment. Next we turn to the audience for the inspired Wild Card Section, where we invite three to five members to improvise a group piece on the spot. All ranges and styles welcomed.
Mixed Movement Chicago
Rumble Arts Center
3413 W North Ave
Gallery, First Floor
an accessible space
$7, first 30 RSVP
$10, door
The night begins with improvised solos. In the second round these eight dancers are paired up, their names pulled out of a hat, and then magic of Mixed Movement manifests. Movers from different backgrounds find and create a common language of the body in the moment. Next we turn to the audience for the inspired Wild Card Section, where we invite three to five members to improvise a group piece on the spot. All ranges and styles welcomed.
Mixed Movement Chicago
Rumble Arts Center
3413 W North Ave
Gallery, First Floor
an accessible space
$7, first 30 RSVP
$10, door
This exciting and revolutionary event is the brainchild of NY/UK based dancer, theatre artist, and poet DawN Crandell - who created an open-stage event for dancers after being frustrated with the lack of spontaneous opportunities for performance.
Once just happening in NY, this is now an international event that has connected different dance & performance communities of NYC, Manchester, London and now CHICAGO! Come watch and maybe even participate with some of the best that Chi-town's performing community has to offer!
Once just happening in NY, this is now an international event that has connected different dance & performance communities of NYC, Manchester, London and now CHICAGO! Come watch and maybe even participate with some of the best that Chi-town's performing community has to offer!
Nights of Insight: CIRCA Pintig featuring Lani T. Montreal
Please join us Friday, March 16 for our Nights of Insight cultural series featuring the one act play PANTHER IN THE SKY by Lani T. Montreal.
Panther in the Sky is a new play by Lani T. Montreal about four mothers and four sons dealing with poverty, violence, and racism in the city of Chicago. Reading directed by CIRCA Pintig Executive Director Ginger Leopoldo.
Friday, March 16
7 to 9 PM
FREE
Rumble Arts Center
3413 W North Ave
Gallery, 1st Floor
an accessible space
Lani T. Montreal is an educator, writer, performer, and community activist. Her writings have been published and produced in Canada, the U.S., the Philippines and in cyberspace. She is the recipient of the 2008 3Arts Ragdale Residency Fellowship for Playwriting, the 2001 Samuel Ostrowsky Award for her memoir "Summer Rain," and the 1995 JVO Philippine Award for Excellence in Journalism for her environmental expose "Poison in the River." Lani holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Roosevelt University. She teaches English & Communications at Malcolm X College. She is a member of Pintig CIRCA Cultural Group, former program director for Insight Arts, and was among the first batch of the Mango Tribe Performance Collective.
Friday, March 16
7 to 9 PM
FREE
Rumble Arts Center
3413 W North Ave
Gallery, 1st Floor
an accessible space
Lani T. Montreal is an educator, writer, performer, and community activist. Her writings have been published and produced in Canada, the U.S., the Philippines and in cyberspace. She is the recipient of the 2008 3Arts Ragdale Residency Fellowship for Playwriting, the 2001 Samuel Ostrowsky Award for her memoir "Summer Rain," and the 1995 JVO Philippine Award for Excellence in Journalism for her environmental expose "Poison in the River." Lani holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Roosevelt University. She teaches English & Communications at Malcolm X College. She is a member of Pintig CIRCA Cultural Group, former program director for Insight Arts, and was among the first batch of the Mango Tribe Performance Collective.
Social Justice Issues : The Oscar's : A Critical Discussion : Saturday, February 18, 2012
Please join us Saturday, February 18, for our monthly critical discussion at the Center for New Possibilities at 4:30 PM.
Center for New Possibilities
1505 W Morse Avenue
an accessible space
This month we are going to explore the 84th Annual Academy Awards, The Oscars. Specifically, we will take a close look at Best Picture nominees (The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, War Horse) (watch trailers by clicking on the titles).
The critical discussion will revolve around The Help.
Below are some helpful links in preparation for the critical discussion.
Watch This Must-See Debate Between Tavis Smiley, Viola Davis + Octavia Spencer About "The Help" by Cynthia Reid. Taken from Shadow and Act, On Cinema of the African Diaspora on IndieWire.
Viola Davis: The Fresh Air Interview from NPR.
Viola Davis on a Mind-Set that She Says Harms Black Actors by Melena Ryzik. Taken from The Carpetbagger, The Awards Season Blog of The New York Times.
Our critical discussions are free and open to the public. As always, donations are appreciated.
Nights of Insight: #Crapitalism Listening Party / Panel Discussion, Friday, February 17
Please join us Friday, February 17 from 7 to 9 PM for Night of Insight : #Crapitalism Listening Party / Panel Discussion featuring KrisDeLaRash.
#Crapitalism Listening Party / Panel Discussion featuring KrisDeLaRash
Rumble Arts Center
3413 W North Ave
Friday, February 17
7 to 9 PM
...Monumental hip-hop is often highly expressive, vivid, risky, and aggressive like no other in its dissection of peoples and motivation. Oh, and full of contradiction (Like its makers). I think #Crapitalism is exemplary in all of these pursuits. -Emanuel Vinson @emancan
KrisDeLaRash has spoken her ever-evolving truth through her art, music, and poetry. Hailing from the south side of Chicago, Kris sculpts a (sometimes abrasive) reality that impels her audience to critique, embrace, and improve our world. Kris extends her art to activism, performing all across the nation at benefits, fundraisers and community festivals to crowds of all demographics, for causes such as LGBTQ Rights, Rape Victims Advocates, Hate Crime Awareness, AIDS Awareness, and in solidarity with the people of Haiti and Palestine. At present, Kris boasts working with the legendary Oscar Brown Jr., as well as sharing the stage with HBO Def poets such as Suheir Hammad, Kristiana Colón, and Kevin Coval, in addition to opening for musical acts such as Kid Sister, K-Os , and John West. Now holding a Bachelor's of Communication and Media Studies from DePaul University, Kris teaches critical thinking and media literacy through creative writing and performance arts. She is the author of two publications of poems, Kliff Notes and Visceral.
DOWNLOAD #CRAPITALISM -> http://
Night of Insight: #Crapitalism Listening Party / Panel Discussion will include live performances from "#Crapitalism" as well as a panel discussion on U.S. economic policies, the 2012 Presidential Election, the Occupy Movement, and other current events. We invite you to join us and share your perspectives!
Panelists:
-Craig Harshaw
-Natasha Correa
-Jasson Perez
-Johnathan Fields
-KrisDeLaRash
This event is free, all ages and open to the public event -- However, "#Crapitalism" does contain Explicit Language. Discretion is advised.
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