Lookingglass Theatre Company begins its 35th Season with a transcendent summer sunset ritual that draws us together waterside on July 27 at 7PM. Through music, movement, and word, Lookingglass Theatre commemorates the start of the 1919 Chicago race riots, incited by the tragic murder of Eugene Williams, a Black teenager stoned to death by a white man, George Stauber, after drifting into a “whites only” section of Lake Michigan. Sunset 1919 is meant to peacefully honor the lives of Black people impacted by the deadly racial attacks that swept the nation that summer. Sunset 1919 is a free community event, open to the public. Guests can RSVP using this link.
Curated & Coordinated by Artistic Producer: Culturalist and Strategy Designer Arkey Adams, Ensemble Member Kareem Bandealy, Ensemble Member and Mellon Playwright in Residence, J. Nicole Brooks, this year’s event will feature original spoken word by avery r. young, accompanied by movement from Cristal Sabbagh and live music from Edward Wilkerson Jr. The laying of 50 white carnations at Eugene Williams’s memorial marker will be followed by a DJ set featuring DJ Lady D. The Eugene Williams Memorial Marker is located at 125 Fort Dearborn Drive.
Sunset 1919: A Ritual
Wednesday, July 27 at 7PM
Eugene Williams Memorial Marker
125 Fort Dearborn Drive
Chicago, IL 60616
By establishing an annual artistic ritual featuring music, movement, and word, Lookingglass Theatre commemorates the start of the 1919 Chicago race riots, incited by the tragic murder of Eugene Williams, a Black teenager stoned to death by a white man, George Stauber, after drifting into a “whites only” section of Lake Michigan. Sunset 1919 is meant to peacefully honor the lives of Black people impacted by the deadly racial attacks that swept the nation that summer, the roots of which stretch back across centuries, and the fruits of which we continue to pluck – a moment in an unbroken line.
Curated & Coordinated by Artistic Producer: Culturalist and Strategy Designer Arkey Adams, Ensemble Member Kareem Bandealy, Ensemble Member and Mellon Playwright in Residence, J. Nicole Brooks, and featuring
Spoken Word Artist avery r. young
Mover/Choreographer Cristal Sabbagh
Musician/Composer Edward Wilkerson Jr.
DJ Lady D
This event is free and open to the public. Guests can RSVP using this link.
Watch the 2020 short film produced by Lookingglass Theatre Company here:
Sunset 1919: A World Premiere Short Film
About the Artists
Arkey Adams (she/her) (Artistic Producer: Culturalist and Strategy Designer, Co-Curator of Sunset 1919: A Ritual) With over 15 years of diverse experience in Chicago's philanthropic community, Arkey first joined Lookingglass in the development department. Acknowledging that Arkey’s experience in the philanthropic community was perfectly complimented by her deep commitment to the city of Chicago’s artistic sector, is now a member of the Artistic Team. From her earliest memories of going to see legendary folk artist Ella Jenkins as a student at Mahalia Jackson Elementary School, Arkey considers her primary authority to be that of an audience member. She considers art as text. To that text, Arkey deploys a thick description lens, to develop a broad interpretive reading of Lookingglass Productions and strategic wrap around programming. Arkey has partnered with organizations around the world, but her heart belongs to local organizations like Access Living, The Field Museum, The DuSable Museum, The Chicago History Museum, The National Museum of Mexican Art, Rootwork Gallery. She is passionate about cultural literacy, accessibility, and intersectional frameworks. Arkey has been appointed to the 2021 Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium Steering Committee. Arkey studied Anthropology and Philosophy at Northwestern University and York University. Her first seat in the Lookingglass Audience was in 2007!
Kareem Bandealy (he/him) (Lookingglass Ensemble Member, Co-Curator of Sunset 1919: A Ritual) has previously appeared at Lookingglass in Lookingglass Alice, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, Blood Wedding, Moby Dick (2015 & 2017), The Little Prince, Big Lake Big City, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The Last Act of Lilka Kadison, and Peter Pan (A Play). His play, Act(s) of God, had its world premiere at Lookingglass in early 2019. Other Chicago credits: A Christmas Carol (2014–2020), Rock N’ Roll, Gas For Less, and King Lear at Goodman Theatre; The Wheel at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Oklahoma! at Paramount Theatre; Mother of the Maid at Northlight Theatre; The Good Book and The Illusion at Court Theatre; Julius Caesar, Hamlet, The Caretaker, and Heartbreak House at Writers Theatre; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Edward II, and Romeo & Juliet at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; A Disappearing Number and Blood and Gifts at TimeLine Theatre Company; Othello (as Othello) at The Gift Theatre, and many others. Regional credits include The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Three Musketeers and The Tempest at Illinois Shakespeare Festival; Love’s Labours Lost at Notre Dame Summer Shakespeare; Julius Caesar and Stuff Happens at PICT Classic Theatre, and four seasons with Orlando Shakespeare Theater. He has appeared in several films including The Merry Gentleman directed by Michael Keaton, on TV in Chicago Fire (NBC), and is a recipient of the 2011 3Arts Artist Award. Kareem is also the Artistic Producer: New Work at Lookingglass Theatre Company. He lives in Albany Park with his two children Reza and Anouk.
J. Nicole Brooks (she/they) (Lookingglass Ensemble Member, Mellon Playwright in Residence, Co-Curator of Sunset 1919: A Ritual) is an actor, playwright, and director. Recent theatrical credits include Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre), Beyond Caring (Lookingglass Theatre Company), and Immediate Family (Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theatre). Directing credits at Lookingglass include Thaddeus & Slocum: A Vaudeville Adventure (co-directed with Krissy Vanderwarker), Mr. Rickey Calls A Meeting, and Black Diamond. J. Nicole is author of Fedra: Queen of Haiti, Black Diamond: The Years the Locusts Have Eaten, The Incredible Adventures of Yuri Kochiyama, and HeLa. Her most recent Lookingglass work, Her Honor Jane Byrne, was produced in 2019, 2021, and as an audio play for WBEZ. TV work includes season four of Fargo (FX).
DJ Lady D (she/her) (DJ) DJ Lady D performs charismatic sets of house, disco, and open-format for fan-filled, brand influencer, charity and celebrity events throughout the world, including appearances at the North Coast, West Loop Arts, Westfest, Noise Pop, House of Sol, Summerdance, Chosen Few, Wanderlust, SXSW and Lollapalooza festivals. A media darling featured editorially and in brand campaigns for print, television, and digital, Lady D appears on film in the documentaries, Slipcue, Godfather of Disco, Girl, and Girls Gone Vinyl and in campaigns for The Chicago Public Library, CSO, and The City of Chicago. In 2016, Lady D was featured alongside Chaka Khan, Nile Rodgers and other music superstars in the long-awaited book, "Disco Demolition" (about the infamous event). Since 2004 she has owned and operated D'lectable Music, a premiere house music record label and marketing group. Currently, Lady D is a mixshow DJ on Friday nights for Vocalo.org/91.1FM.
Cristal Sabbagh (she/her) (Visual and Multidisciplinary Performing Artist and Educator) Cristal Sabbagh’s performance practice, rooted in improvisation and Butoh, walks a line between the everyday, the divine, the personal, and the political. In embodying in her art transformational memories while simultaneously celebrating pop culture and the experimental, she challenges power structures and awakens viewers’ senses. Working both in a solo capacity and with collaborators, Sabbagh is equally attuned to individual perspectives and collective structures. In various configurations, these collaborators have regularly engaged in improvised performances, opening up new avenues for Sabbagh’s material and conceptual exploration. She is the creator and curator of Freedom From and Freedom To events that are improvisational performance environments which interrogate movement and sound. In 2021 Cristal was awarded a 3Arts / Make a Wave Artist grant.
Edward Wilkerson Jr. (he/him) (Musician/Composer) is an internationally recognized composer, arranger, musician, and educator based in Chicago. As founder and director of the cutting-edge octet 8 Bold Souls, and the 25-member performance ensemble Shadow Vignettes, Wilkerson has toured festivals and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. "Defender", a large-scale piece for Shadow Vignettes, was commissioned by the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund and featured in the 10th Anniversary of New Music America, a presentation of BAM's Next Wave Festival.
His music can be heard on 30 recordings, including two film soundtracks and the critically acclaimed albums Birth of a Notion, and 8 Bold Souls, both on his own Sessoms Records label.
One of the great saxophone and clarinet players on the Chicago scene, Wilkerson from the 1980s into the new millennium may have become best known as a bandleader and composer, particularly associated with medium- to large-scale projects (somewhat daunting in an era when creative music bandleaders are challenged to keep even small ensembles together). He has also been a major presence in Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), teaching composition at the organization's music school and serving for a time as AACM president.
He was an original member of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (formed by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar upon El'Zabar's 1976 graduation from the AACM school) and remained with the group until 1997. However, while appearing on such Ethnic Heritage Ensemble recordings as Three Gentlemen From Chicago (Moers), Hang Tuff (Open Minds), and Dance With the Ancestors (Chameleon), Wilkerson was also becoming more involved in leading his own projects, which characteristically saw the reedman thinking big. His most ambitious project, Shadow Vignettes, was initiated in 1979; with 25 musicians and incorporating dance, poetry, and visual arts, the ensemble's influences include the big band work of Muhal Richard Abrams, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Sun Ra. Shadow Vignettes released one CD, Birth of a Notion, on the Sessoms Records label in 1985. One of Shadow Vignettes' major pieces is entitled "Defender", commissioned by the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund and featured in the tenth anniversary of New Music America, presented by the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival.
Wilkerson's best-documented ensemble as a leader is 8 Bold Souls, an octet initiated in January 1985 with a series of Thursday-night concerts at the Chicago Filmmakers performance space. The popularity of the concerts led Wilkerson to establish 8 Bold Souls as a working band, and since their formation, four Souls CDs have been issued: 8 Bold Souls on Sessoms Records, Sideshow and Ant Farm on Arabesque Records, and Last Option on Thrill Jockey. Influenced by the small groups of Duke Ellington and Jimmie Lunceford, 8 Bold Souls also made plenty of room for adventurous experimentation in the AACM spirit, drawing fully on the unusual sonic possibilities of the group's instrumentation of two woodwinds, trumpet, trombone, cello, tuba, bass, and trap drums.
In addition to his work with 8 Bold Souls, Shadow Vignettes, and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Wilkerson has also played with the AACM Big Band, Roscoe Mitchell, Douglas Ewart, the Temptations, Chico Freeman, Geri Allen, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Muhal Richard Abrams, Aretha Franklin, Great Black Music Ensemble and George Lewis.
Wilkerson's most recent release is the ensemble performance, Frequency, on the Thrill Jockey label. Encompassing distinctive compositions, and high-quality improvisational flights plus World and Native American sonic echoes, this debut CD confirms both the talents of the band Frequency and the continued adaptability of AACM members.
Wilkerson has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the Community Arts Assistance Program, and has been cited in numerous music polls.
In his free time, Wilkerson, past president and longtime member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), teaches composition at the AACM School of Music.
avery r. young (he/him) (Interdisciplinary Artist) Interdisciplinary artist avery r. young, is a winner of the 2022 Macarthur and Field foundation New Leader award and an award-winning teaching artist who has been an Arts and Public Life Artist-In-Residence at the University of Chicago. In the foreword of his most recent book neckbone: visual verses (Northwestern University Press), Theaster Gates called him “one of our greatest living street poets...one of the most important thinkers on the Black experience,” Black Grooves referred to his most recent album tubman. (FPE Records) as “brilliant” and “supremely funky.” Young’s poems and essays have been published in Cecil McDonald's In The Company of Black, The BreakBeat Poets, The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, AIMPrint, and other anthologies. His album booker t. soltreyne: a race rekkid engages matters of race, gender, and sexuality in America during the Obama Era. avery’s work in performance, visual text, and sound design has been featured in several exhibitions and theatre festivals---notably The Hip Hop Theatre Festival, The Museum of Contemporary Art, and American Jazz Museum. He is the featured vocalist on flutist Nicole Mitchell’s Mandorla Awakening (FPE Records) and is 1 of 4 directors of The Floating Museum, co-mentoring Rebirth Youth Poetry Ensemble and performing with his band, de deacon board.
Thank You to Our Season Sponsors
BMO Harris Bank
Hearn
HMS Media
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
Waldorf Astoria Chicago
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About Lookingglass Theatre Company
Inventive. Collaborative. Transformative. Lookingglass Theatre Company, recipient of the 2011 Regional Theatre Tony Award, was founded in 1988 by eight Northwestern University students. Now in its 35th Season, Lookingglass is home to a multi-disciplined ensemble of artists who create story-centered theatrical work that is physical, aurally rich and visually metaphoric. The Company, located in Chicago’s landmark Water Tower Water Works, has staged 70 world premieres, received 161 Joseph Jefferson Award Nominations, and produced work all across the United States. In 2016, Lookingglass received the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions and in 2017, was the recipient of the League of Chicago Theatres’ Artistic Achievement Award.
Lookingglass continues to expand its artistic, financial, and institutional boundaries under the guidance of Artistic Director Heidi Stillman, Executive Director Rachel L. Fink, a 29-member artistic ensemble, 22 artistic associates, an administrative staff, and a dedicated board of directors led by Chair Diane Whatton.
For more information, visit lookingglasstheatre.org.
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Event Listing for Sunset 1919
Sunset 1919: A Ritual
Wednesday, July 27 at 7PM
Eugene Williams Memorial Marker
125 Fort Dearborn Drive
Chicago, IL 60616
Curated & Coordinated by Artistic Producer: Culturalist and Strategy Designer Arkey Adams, Ensemble Member Kareem Bandealy, Ensemble Member and Mellon Playwright in Residence, J. Nicole Brooks, and featuring
- Spoken Word Artist avery r. young
- Mover/Choreographer Cristal Sabbagh
- Musician/Composer Edward Wilkerson Jr.
- DJ Lady D
The Chicago Race Riots of 1919: Its roots stretch back centuries. Its fruits we continue to pluck. Lookingglass, in music, movement and word, honors Black lives stolen.
Sunset 1919 is a free community event, open to the public. Guests can RSVP using this link.
More information: https://lookingglasstheatre.org/2022-23-season/