- This event has passed.
ART & Race
April 21, 2021 @ 5:30 pm
Virtual Event
Event Navigation
We are so sorry to anyone who tried to join us for the ART & Race event on April 14 and experienced technical difficulties with the video playback! YouTube was having issues that were unfortunately beyond our control.
The ART & Race conversation is extremely important to us and we want to make space for it again. So, we’re offering two ways for you to participate:
1. You can watch the video any time on YouTube (the video is stable and no longer “glitchy”) – note that if you previously watched part of the event, YouTube will autoplay from where you left off and you can manually restart the video from the beginning:
Click here to watch ART & Race on YouTube >>
OR:
2. Tune in with us on Zoom for a watch party and community discussion on Wednesday, April 21st at 5:30pm Central. We’ll re-air the video and have an open chat discussion for anyone who wants to engage.
ART & Race – Watch Party & Community Conversation
Wednesday, April 21, 5:30pm on Zoom
To join us, visit zoom.us and click “Join a Meeting.” Enter the following information to join:
Meeting ID: 983 9194 9617
Passcode: 579742
We deeply appreciate your patience and flexibility; we hope you will absorb this conversation at a time that works for you on YouTube, or plan to join us April 21 for the watch party and conversation on Zoom!
ART & Race is the second event in a six-part speaker series (ART &), part of Urban Gateways’ 60th Anniversary celebration in 2021.
ART & Race features an important conversation about using the arts as a tool to disrupt racism, and combatting systemic racism within the arts sector. Read on to learn about the speakers for this event!
Through the ART & Speaker Series, Urban Gateways invites our supporters and community members to explore connections between the arts and a variety of timely and thought-provoking topics. Presented in a virtual speaker series format, ART & events feature creative and insightful contributors including artists, arts and community leaders, art enthusiasts, and more. ART & events will also be made available as recordings for on-demand viewing.
The ART & series is free to the public, although a $19.61 ticket donation is suggested for those who are able to contribute (in honor of Urban Gateways’ founding year, 1961). Make a donation here >>
ART & Race featured artists & speakers (scroll for bios):
Tonika Lewis Johnson (speaker, pictured above left)
Tonika Lewis Johnson is a photographer/social justice artist and life-long resident of Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Englewood. She is also co-founder of two community-based organizations, Englewood Arts Collective and Resident Association of Greater Englewood, that seek to reframe the narrative of South Side communities and mobilize people and resources for positive change. Within her artistic practice, Tonika often explores urban segregation and documents the nuance and richness of the black community, countering pervasive media depictions of Chicago’s violence and crime. In 2017, she was recognized by Chicago Magazine as a Chicagoan of the Year for her photography of Englewood’s everyday beauty; projects of note include Englewood-based photography projects “From the INside” and “Everyday Rituals”, as well as her Folded Maps project, which visually investigates disparities among Chicago residents who are “map twins” living on opposite ends of streets that span the city’s racial and economic divides. Learn more about Tonika and her work >>
Patrick Santoro, Ph.D. (speaker, pictured above center)
Patrick Santoro is an educator and theatre director who believes in the transformative power of stories to enact change. He is Associate Professor and Artistic Director of Theatre and Performance Studies at Governors State University, where he teaches courses in storytelling, performing culture and identity, performance and social change, performance art, and writing as performance. He received his doctorate in Performance Studies from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and his master’s degree in Communication Studies and bachelor’s degree in Humanities from the University of South Florida. Patrick has worked as a director and performer in professional and educational theatre for 20+ years. Representative directing credits include The Laramie Project, A Raisin in the Sun, Fat Pig, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Fahrenheit 451, Anne Sexton’s Transformations, and a contemporary retelling of Alice in Wonderland from the perspective of the #MeToo movement. He is the recipient of the 2017 Ellis-Bochner Autoethnography and Personal Narrative Research Award. Learn more about Patrick >>
Ian Damont Martin (moderator, pictured above right)
Ian Damont Martin (he/they) is a writer/director by passion and a creative executive by trade. Ian is the artistic director of Haven Chicago, and the executive director of Inclusion & Belonging at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ian has worked with a number of arts and cultural institutions, including Enrich Chicago: a collaborative of arts, culture, and funding institutions collectively engaging in the work of anti-racist and racial equity organizing. In 2016, he was awarded the Joyce Foundation-funded artistic producing apprenticeship at Goodman Theatre. Selected directing credits include Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest; an adaptation of The Ridiculous Darkness by Wolfram Lotz for Sideshow Theatre, The Toilet by Amiri Barka for Haven Chicago, and a reading of The America Play by Susan Lori-Park for Goodman Theatre. In August 2021, Ian will premiere his debut short film “Save Face”, produced by Haven Chicago and Ramone Hulet. Originally from Cincinnati, OH, Ian gives love and gratitude to the people who helped shape the person he is today. Learn more about Ian >>
Urban Gateways has been engaging young people in arts experiences to inspire creativity and impact social change since 1961. Visit our 60th Anniversary page to keep tabs on more events & celebrations, and view the full speaker series schedule at our ART & page.
ART & events:
ART & Storytelling: February 10th
ART & Race: April 14th
ART & Resistance: June 9th
ART & Healing: August 11th
ART & Changemaking: October 13th
ART & Looking Ahead: December 8th
Special thanks to our ART & Race sponsors:
