Tuesday, February 17th @ Stage Two (618 S. Michigan, 2nd floor), 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

All In: Making Art and Community in Chicago
In complement to the Engage/Connect exhibition, curator Felicia Holman moderates a 90-minute panel discussion with Chicago-based artists Krista Franklin, Carron Little, Baraka de Soleil , and arts administrator Marie Casimir. The discussion will center on the value and means of collaboration/experimentation in an artist’s creative & entrepreneurial processes. Exploring the manifestations, impact & value of ephemeral social concepts (i.e. transactional v. relational interactions, distance v. proximity), this is the spine of the ‘Engage/Connect’ exhibition.

Lifelong Chicagoan Felicia Holman is co-founder/Communication Director of Honey Pot Performance, Marketing/Studio Manager at Links Hall and curator of the 4th annual Chicago Curates Columbia student exhibition, Engage/Connect. With Honey Pot, Felicia creates and presents original interdisciplinary performance which engages audience and inspires community. Credits include The Ladies Ring Shout (2011), Price Point (2013), Juke Cry Hand Clap (2014) and current work-in-progress, Masking Her (2015-2016) which debuted at Pritzker Pavilion as part of last month’s 2nd annual REVIVAL residency & showcase, presented by DCASE.

In addition to performing, Felicia writes essays & content for online outlets including Sixty Inches From Center Magazine, The Working House Blog and This Is HCL (the High Concept Laboratories blog). She is also chief editor of monthly e-newsletter, HPP News and is an admitted Facebook junkie. This April with Honey Pot, Felicia begins a five-month ‘Crossing Boundaries’ residency at the Washington Park Arts Incubator. Felicia sums up her dynamic artrepreneurial life in 3 words—“Creator, Connector, Conduit”

Panelist Krista Franklin is an interdisciplinary artist whose work floats between the literary and the visual. Her art draws from the well of African diasporic histories, popular culture, personal narrative, folklore, black spiritualism, ritual and magic, and the psychic interiority of people of color. Her practice engages a diverse range of artistic mediums from collage, hand papermaking, print, poetry and performance, installation, artist books and sound. She is the recipient of the Propeller Fund and the Albert P. Weisman Award, and has held residencies at A Studio in the Woods, Cave Canem, and the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life Initiative. Her poems and visual art have been published in Black Camera, Copper Nickel, Callaloo, Vinyl, BOMB Magazine and Encyclopedia, Vol. F-K, and her chapbook of poems Study of Love & Black Body (Willow Books) was published in 2012. She is the co-curator of the city-wide poetry and art initiative, Ekphest: A Festival of Art + Word, co-founder of 2nd Sun Salon, a community meeting space for writers, visual and performance artists, musicians and scholars, and a frequent advocate for creative collaboration. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts – Book & Paper from Columbia College Chicago.

Panelist Carron Little creates interactive performances in public space devising pieces that are unexpected and visually luxuriant. Her philosophy and mission is to create transformative experiences for viewers and participants so they leave each performance feeling liberated and empowered. Little’s visual practice celebrates being a woman in all her deliciousness and deconstructs notions of power. Carron received her undergraduate degree from Goldsmiths College, London UK in 1996 and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute in 1999. She worked with the Art Not War Collective in London for seven years and the Red Velvet Curtain Club for three years prior to moving to Chicago in 2009. Little founded Out of Site in 2011 with Whitney Tassie. In 2014 she was artist in residence for Ragdale and DCASE working on a whole city performance project entitled City Alive With Dreams. Carron has exhibited around the U.S, U.K. and Morroco and works with in collaboration with Daniela Ehemann. Little has performed most recently at the Cultural Center, Hyde Park Art Center, 6018North, Open House Chicago and for Defibrillator as part of their Air Pocket Project for Wicker Park Fest. She teaches in the Performance Art Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Changing Worlds as an artist in residence working on public art projects.

Panelist Baraka de Soleil is an award-winning creative practitioner, curator and consultant. He has been working within the live arts scene for the past two decades and is the founder of D UNDERBELLY: an interdisciplinary network of artists of color. His directing, performing, and creative endeavors speak to the expanse of contemporary art; utilizing body-based techniques drawn from the African diaspora, post-modern traditions and conceptual social forms. Baraka is a recipient of the Katherine Dunham/ “Viv”AUDELCO Choreography Award for excellence in NY Black Theater. Baraka currently serves as the consultant in audience and community engagement for The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, curated humanities discussion series, “Moving Dialogs”, and was appointed to the Cultural Advisory Council for The City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. Emerging in 2015: Creative Peoples Caucus, a national/international forum for exploring the intersection of live, social and civic art practices; and ShepparddeS, a dual creative force centered on his evolving dance work with noted disabled artist/activist Alice Sheppard. His poetics & reflections on dance, performance and culture can be found at dunderbelly.wordpress.com.

Panelist Marie Casimir is Associate Director of Links Hall, produces Poonie’s Cabaret and co-produces Links Hall’s Artistic Associate Festivals and NPN Residencies. She serves on the Audience Architects Steering Committee for Citywide Marketing/PR Initiative and has served on an AA Steering Committee for Diversity and Inclusion. She is the Arts & Culture Community Consultant at the Haitian Consulate in Chicago and Chair of the DuSable Heritage Association Haitian Film Festival Committee. When Marie is not producing art she tries to squeeze in her own performance and writing practice. In 2015 she will be touring with Sharon Bridgforth’s River See, performing her own work at North Park University, Constellation and a couple small house gatherings. Marie holds a Masters in Nonprofit Administration (MNA) from North Park University and B.A. in Journalism from Ithaca College.