Art on My Mind A Chicago Critics Table Public Salon Series (Nov 8th)

Join us for a two-day public salon inviting writers, curators, artists, and cultural workers to engage with the ideas and reflections of the 2025 Chicago Critics Table cohort. Designed by this cohort’s facilitator, Tempestt Hazel, Art on My Mind will take the form of an open studio for writers. Drawing from the essay and book of the same name, these gatherings take on bell hooks’ call for us to deeply involve ourselves in visual culture and the politics of seeing, in community and conversation with one another.

Saturday, Nov 8 | Featuring: Jennifer Torwudzo-Stroh, Felicia Holman, Nekita Thomas, and Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel

Jennifer Torwudzo-Stroh | Conversations about Cultural Heritage in Bronzeville
A share-out of the stories gathered during her Chicago Critics Table Salon about Bronzeville and Black Chicago’s past, present, and future.

Felicia Holman | Pleasure Portal Praxis
Join Critic and hula hoop enthusiast for a conversation about interdisciplinary mind/body connection between a physical movement practice and a pleasurable creative life. Pleasure Portal Praxis is Felicia's culminating CCT 2025 research project– a hybrid facilitation / offering of intuitive somatic play w/ music, optional flow arts tools (i.e. hula hoops) & creative writing.

Nekita Thomas | No Logos: The Aesthetics of Chicago’s Superficiality
A reflection on Urban Alchemy Salon conversation and the ways in which the aesthetics of superficiality rechoreographs the city of Chicago.

Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel | Rooting in Artist Agency with BIYA BIYA Productions
In this discussion, Mikhaiel calls us to ask ourselves what is needed to sustain artists and build coalition and care networks between them and their communities. She offers a series of reconsiderations and recommitments as told through BIYA BIYA Productions, her new creative agency and production house, equipping artists of the diaspora with the space and opportunities to develop their craft.

All APL programs are free and open to the public. To help us continue to provide these programs and build a hub for arts & culture on the South Side, we appreciate donations of all sizes. Your support sustains the rich ecosystem of artists that make the Arts Block so vibrant. To make a donation, please visit our giving page.