Kindred Civic Arts Forum

Kindred Civic Arts Forum Using arts, culture, and civic engagement to expand opportunity, belonging, and community across Chicago’s West & South Sides.

🚨 CHICAGO — TOMORROW WE GATHER. - THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT!!!!!We did it y'all, this event is sold out. So if you registe...
09/29/2026

🚨 CHICAGO — TOMORROW WE GATHER. - THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT!!!!!

We did it y'all, this event is sold out. So if you registered, you need to show up, cause it's going to special.

Tomorrow night we're gathering in Austin for an evening of film, food, conversation and Chicago love.

🎬 Love Jones
🍽️ Dinner
🎤 Panel + community conversation
📸 Art + storytelling
❤️ Black love. Black creativity. Chicago.

If you've been saying, "I need to get to one of those Just(Us) Dinners…"

This is your invitation.

Come eat with us.
Watch with us.
Talk with us.

Come add your voice to the love letter.

📅 TOMORROW — WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
⏰ 6:00–9:00 PM CST
📍 SPILL THE BEANS CAFE | AUSTIN, CHICAGO

🎟️ RESERVE YOUR SEAT:
https://brushfire.com/kcachicago/alovelettertochicago/640283

📸 MEET THE ARTIST. EXPLORE THE WORK. BE PART OF THE STORY. THIS EVENT JUST SOLD OUT!!!!!!!I REPEAT, THIS EVENT JUST SOL...
09/28/2026

📸 MEET THE ARTIST. EXPLORE THE WORK. BE PART OF THE STORY. THIS EVENT JUST SOLD OUT!!!!!!!

I REPEAT, THIS EVENT JUST SOLD OUT!!!!!!!

Love Jones gave us one unforgettable lens into Black life, Black love and Chicago.

Now we're bringing that conversation into the present.

Our September 30 Just(Us) Dinner will include a special introduction to Donielle Rochelle-Smith and her work, Love on the Green Line: A Love Letter to Chicago—a photographic journey celebrating connection, belonging and shared civic love across Chicago's West and South Sides.

This isn't only about looking back.

We're asking:
What does a love letter to Chicago look like NOW?

Experience the film.
Meet the artist.
Join the conversation.
Add your story.

📅 September 30 | 6:00–9:00 PM
📍 Spill the Beans Cafe | Austin, Chicago

Before September exits, one final invitation.Bring the images you cannot forget. Bring the stories that arrive in fragme...
09/28/2026

Before September exits, one final invitation.
Bring the images you cannot forget. Bring the stories that arrive in fragments. Bring the questions that have outgrown language. Bring the creative life you are beginning, deepening, or reclaiming.
Krista Franklin, Michelle Major, Reesheda Nicole Berry, and Kindred Civic Arts Forum are preparing a ten-session journey through collage history, technique, community, retreat, responsive practice, and exhibition.
Ten makers will enter. Something none of us can fully predict will emerge. That is not a flaw in the plan. That is the beautiful unknown.
Put your name in the room.
Apply: https://f.mtr.cool/pjn0tzvlrn

Clarity is a form of care. Here is what participants should plan to bring - and what Kindred Civic Arts Forum will hold....
09/26/2026

Clarity is a form of care. Here is what participants should plan to bring - and what Kindred Civic Arts Forum will hold.
YOU BRING
- reliable Zoom access through an internet-connected device;
- a working camera and microphone;
- an estimated $250 for your individual supply kit; and
- your curiosity, commitment, and full participation.
Accepted participants may request supply assistance. Assistance must be approved and is not guaranteed.
KCAF COVERS
- round-trip transportation to and from the artist retreat;
- retreat lodging; and
- some meals during the retreat.
The full requirements appear at the beginning of the application. Please read them carefully before submitting.
Apply: https://f.mtr.cool/el4rcphlb0

🎬 FILM. FOOD. CONVERSATION. CHICAGO LOVE.That's the night.But the magic is what happens between all four.We're bringing ...
09/25/2026

🎬 FILM. FOOD. CONVERSATION. CHICAGO LOVE.

That's the night.

But the magic is what happens between all four.

We're bringing people together around the table to experience Love Jones and then do what Just(Us) Dinners does best:

Talk. Listen. Connect. Remember. Imagine.

We'll explore Black love, Black creativity, Chicago's neighborhoods and what it means to tell stories about a city we love—with the people who actually live here.

Good food.
Great people.
Real conversations.

Same city. Deeper conversations.

📅 Wednesday, September 30
⏰ 6:00–9:00 PM CST
📍 Spill the Beans Cafe | Austin, Chicago

Your seat is waiting.

🎟️ https://brushfire.com/kcachicago/alovelettertochicago/640283

❤️ WAS LOVE JONES ACTUALLY A LOVE LETTER TO CHICAGO?Think about it.The poetry.The music.The friendships.The love.The nei...
09/24/2026

❤️ WAS LOVE JONES ACTUALLY A LOVE LETTER TO CHICAGO?

Think about it.
The poetry.
The music.
The friendships.
The love.
The neighborhoods.

Chicago wasn't simply the backdrop. The city had a presence of its own.

Nearly 30 years later, we're bringing that conversation back to the table.

So we're asking:
What did Love Jones get right about Black love and Black Chicago?

Drop your answer in the comments. 👇🏾

Then come continue the conversation with us.

📅 Wednesday, September 30
⏰ 6:00–9:00 PM CST
📍 Spill the Beans Cafe | Austin, Chicago

🎟️ RESERVE YOUR SEAT:
https://brushfire.com/kcachicago/alovelettertochicago/640283

Presence is part of the practice.The Art of Collage is an intimate, cumulative, and highly collaborative experience - no...
09/24/2026

Presence is part of the practice.
The Art of Collage is an intimate, cumulative, and highly collaborative experience - not a drop-in workshop series. Before applying, please be certain that you can:
- commit to all ten sessions;
- miss no more than two virtual Zoom sessions;
- keep your camera and sound on throughout every Zoom session;
- attend the complete in-person artist retreat; and
- participate fully in the culminating artist exhibition.
Accepted participants will also be required to sign a media release and liability waiver. Media participation, the retreat, and the exhibition are conditions of participation and cannot be waived.
Every person's presence shapes what the cohort can become. Please apply only if you are prepared to honor the complete journey.
Application: https://f.mtr.cool/liwnx5lhx3

Artists often begin in private: one table, one question, one pair of scissors, one fragment they cannot stop touching.Th...
09/23/2026

Artists often begin in private: one table, one question, one pair of scissors, one fragment they cannot stop touching.
Then the work asks to be witnessed.
Session ten culminates in a public artist exhibition - the moment private acts of making become public inheritance.
Participants will offer work developed across the master class, inviting exhibit patrons into the histories, memories, tensions, beauty, and imagination that gathered inside the cohort.
Our hope is not simply to hang work on a wall. It is to make something meaningful enough to remain with the artists and the people who encounter it for years to come.
Exhibition participation is required.
Apply: https://f.mtr.cool/zgb6mtdqtt

❤️ CHICAGO, THIS ONE IS FOR US.What happens when a love story becomes a love letter to a city?On September 30, Just(Us) ...
09/22/2026

❤️ CHICAGO, THIS ONE IS FOR US.

What happens when a love story becomes a love letter to a city?

On September 30, Just(Us) Dinners comes to Austin for A Love Letter to Chicago: Love Jones — The Conversation Continues.

We're gathering around the table for an evening of film, food, Black love, art, storytelling and the city that holds all of it.

🎬 Love Jones
🍽️ Dinner
🎤 Panel + community conversation
📸 Love on the Green Line: A Love Letter to Chicago
❤️ Community

This isn't just a movie night.
It's a love letter.
To our people.
To our places.
To our stories.
To Chicago.

📅 Wednesday, September 30
⏰ 6:00–9:00 PM CST
📍 Spill the Beans Cafe | Austin, Chicago

Come take your seat at the table.

🎟️ RESERVE YOUR SEAT:
https://brushfire.com/kcachicago/alovelettertochicago/640283

Collage has never been only glue and paper.It is play. It is protest. It is memory rearranged. It is the art of placing ...
09/18/2026

Collage has never been only glue and paper.

It is play. It is protest. It is memory rearranged. It is the art of placing unlikely things close enough that they begin telling the truth about one another.

Participants will explore four doorways into the form:
- papier colle: pasted and cut paper;
- decoupage: layered decorative paper;
- photomontage: recomposed photographs; and
- assemblage: found objects brought into dimension.

We will study a lineage that includes Max Ernst, Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Hoch, Raoul Hausmann, Martha Rosler, Romare Bearden, Ray Johnson, Robert Rauschenberg, Wangechi Mutu, and Lorna Simpson.

A lineage at our backs. A new language in our hands.

Apply: https://f.mtr.cool/vl35cbj2wd

Address

200 West Madison Street, 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL
60606

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