The nonprofit Rogers Park Business Alliance is excited to host Chicago’s only chalk art festival Chalk Howard Street. The chalk festival returns to transform the street surface into blank canvases for national and local street artists, neighbors, families, and street art lovers with new and returning entertainment and vendors on Saturday, August 26, 2023 from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m., along Howard Street between Paulina and Ashland, east of the Howard Red Line ‘L’ stop. This free-admission street art festival features live music, local vendors, food and drinks, while offering striking and immersive street art experiences as well as street squares available for public purchase. Chalk Howard Street is sponsored by Howard Street/Jarvis Square Special Service Area #19. For more information on the festival, visit chalkhowardstreet.com.
Chalk Howard Street 2023 features nationally renowned 3D street artists Amanda-lee Harris, Randy Segura, Craig Rogers, and Zach Herndon as well as 2D street artists Asia Bell, April Tolliver, Heather Drost, and Rebecca LaFlure, who will create vivid and interactive chalk drawings for art enthusiasts, and festival attendees. This year, Chalk Howard Street will offer a limited amount of street squares available for purchase to individuals, families and groups who wish to have a creative space and draw their own chalk art. Each square is priced at $25 and includes a supply of chalk. To register and purchase street squares in advance, visit chalkhowardstreet.com.
The live music lineup includes DJ Slacky J (12-3 p.m.), Four Star Brass Band (3-3:45 p.m.), Indika (4-4:45 p.m.), Urban Rhythm Band (5-5:45 p.m.), Cally & the Snags (6-6:45 p.m.), and Fruteland Jackson (7-7:45 p.m.).
Art, food, retail and nonprofit vendors include and are not limited to A Girl and Her Pug Woodworks, Badou Senegalese Cuisine, Black Box Record Club, Bourbon and Spark, Briightlyart, Chiro One – Chiropractors, Comfortably Queer, Emaloe’s Thingys, Inclusive Funeral Care, Jaunitas Mexican Food, Made With Love, OuroHermetica, Sideboard Stitch, and Urban Tables.
Howard Street Chicago, located on the edge of Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood and suburban Evanston, offers an unexpected, eclectic city experience. It is alive with an engaging personality represented by its vital diversity, welcoming nature, and entrepreneurial spirit. Howard Street is home to an international array of cuisine options, creative art shops, and multiple theaters, and offers easy access to the beach and Lake Michigan. Howard Street/Jarvis Square Special Service Area #19 is a business improvement district managed through Rogers Park Business Alliance and by a team of Commissioners representing local businesses. For more information, visit www.howardstreetchicago.com.
Rogers Park Business Alliance is a nonprofit organization that has served Chicago’s diverse Rogers Park neighborhood for 30 years. RPBA works to cultivate and sustain a thriving economic environment in Rogers Park, serving businesses and residents with a variety of public events and business initiatives. RPBA programs include the GROW/PROGRESANDO entrepreneurial training program, the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Rogers Park Business Alliance, annual Best of Rogers Park awards, Chalk Howard Street Festival, Taco Crawl, and the Glenwood Sunday Market farmers market. For more information, visit RPBA.org.
Photos left to right: 3D art by Zach Herndon (Dinosaur art), Shawn McCann (Dragon art), Craig and Jamie Rogers (Dolphin art) and Randy Segura (Skull art).