Gay Crochet is a monthly queer craft club started by Arden Lapin / Human Up! in May 2022. The goal is to have a fun and low-stakes place to work on a craft, skill-share, and enjoy the company of new people.

All are welcome!

A suggested donation of $5 helps us cover space rental costs as you’re able to contribute, but is not a requirement or expectation.

BYO art supplies and anything you need to be comfortable to craft on the floor. Sharable food/drinks are encouraged!

Sports Boyfriend

Park Hills Circle

Ione

$15 at the door
air purifiers running
masks encouraged and KN95s available at the door

an interview series hosted by Sharon Udoh

with Mabel Kwan

sliding scale $10-$15

RSVP HERE ahead of time
or cash at the door

air purifiers running
KN95s available at the door

Gay Crochet is a monthly queer craft club started by Arden Lapin / Human Up! in May 2022. The goal is to have a fun and low-stakes place to work on a craft, skill-share, and enjoy the company of new people.

All are welcome!

A suggested donation of $5 helps us cover space rental costs as you’re able to contribute, but is not a requirement or expectation.

BYO art supplies and anything you need to be comfortable to craft on the floor. Sharable food/drinks are encouraged!

Erez Dessel
+
Chad M. Clark

$10-$15 sliding scale at the door (cash or venmo)
doors 7:30 / show at 8

air purifiers running
BYOB
masks suggested and provided at the door

join the atmospheric music alliance for their first New Year gathering! this members-only hang-out to kick off 2025, featuring complimentary drinks from Revolution Brewingand a live performance by A Never Ending Explosion.

this event is free to all AMA members.

to RSVP, email ama@stretchmetal.org with your name (+1’s welcome) to be added to our guest list.

not a member? Join AMA during our end-of-year drive (Tier 2 or higher) to receive an invite.

becoming a member of AMA is the best way to directly support the work we do at StretchMetal. our annual gathering is our way of saying “thank you” for your support. we hope to see you there!

Ballet Unboxed presents
Let’s go to the ballet!
with Ashwaty Chennat + Tuli Bera

A workshop that involves::
-recalling “dance” through the senses
-sharing early theatre-going and performance/backstage memories
-exploring how early dance memories have shaped our lives
-learning nostalgic choreography

RSVP HERE, limited spots available.

tickets range from $20-$180
INFORMATION + TICKETS

Share a meal guided by mindfulness, the senses, chakras, the gates of grief and play. Honor your grief. Honor your inner child. 

We eat in times of joy. We eat in times of loss. We eat together in community. 

Choose from 3 distinct experiences:

• A table for 13 to eat a 7 course meal prepared by TXA TXA

• 20 seats to witness dinner perfomance. While you may not be eating a meal, we have some special experiences planned for you!

• An intimate table for 2 in the home of the owners of bim bom studios for a behind-the-scenes experience. 

Doors open at 6pm for mocktails. Dinner at 7pm. Dinner is vegetarian.

Performed by Tuli Bera, Kate Laughlin, Helen Lee, Amanda Maraist, Hannah Marcus, Charles Pierson. 
Culinary experience by TXA TXA
Performance experience crafted by Helen Lee / Momentum Sensorium

facilitated by Kate Ziebart

community shake is a durational movement practice, consisting of shaking your body for one hour. Kate will lead a short talk through before the shake begins at 7:30pm. there is space for cooling down from 8:30-9pm.
curated playlist
focused dance party
come late if you need

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL

an evening of movement + sound

Ayako Kato + Chad M. Clark
Carol Genetti + Janna Lee
Amanda Maraist + Michael Macdonald

7pm
$10-$15 sliding scale
pay at the door (cash, venmo, zelle)
or ahead of time, here

air purifiers running
BYOB
masks suggested and provided at the door

LlNEUP

Tyresta with Cristal Sabbagh + Amanda Maraist
Airport People
Counterfeit Madison

7pm
$10-$15 sliding scale
pay at the door (cash, venmo, zelle)
or ahead of time, HERE

air purifiers running
BYOB
masking suggested and provided at the door

monthly sound series curated by Hunter Brown and Party Perfect Records.

Chris Corsana + Mabel Kwan
Kieran Daly
Hunter Brown + Jack Langdon

8pm
$15 at the door (cash, venmo, zelle)
air purifiers running
NOTAFLOF
BYOB

hosted by Links Hall

with SK Kerastas
food by Valen Sparks

TICKETS

This Silent Dinner is a distinctly collective, distinctly individual, distinctly Midwest dinner experience cooked and served for 8 people at bim bom studios, on Sunday July 28th. Please arrive at 5:45pm to begin the meal at 6:00pm.

The event is a collaboration between Links Hall Executive Director, SK Kerastas and Bless the Food Chef, Valen Sparks. Valen’s work explores food as a link between past, future, nature, and memory through multisensory culinary experiences.

At the start of the event, guests will be guided to set aside their phones, offered light instruction and text, and invited into silence for the duration of a multi-course vegetarian meal. In creating an environment with less distraction, participants are encouraged to relax into the sensations of eating – the sights, smells, sounds, textures, and tastes. In his Eating a Tangerine meditation, Thich Nat Hahn says that we can “look deeply to see the wonders of the earth and sky in what we are eating and drinking. We can see the hard work and all the causes and conditions that have brought us into this moment, and gratitude and wonder naturally arises.” The food becomes, “an ambassador of the cosmos.”

The vegetarian menu will be conceived and cooked by Chef Valen Sparks.

Organizers will communicate directly with guests around dietary restrictions.

The dinner experience will last roughly 90 minutes.

We are selling individual seats to this special meal.

____

Valen Sparks is a granddaughter of the Great Migration hailing from Chicago, a food writer, and the founder of Bless the Food. Valen leans on her Midwestern heritage paying homage to ancestral food traditions combined with modern flavor interpretations, food preservation, and cooking techniques. Valen’s menus are inspired by seasonal and local produce sourced directly from farmer’s markets and local purveyors whenever possible.

SK Kerastas (they/them) is the current Executive Director of Links Hall. They are a justice-driven live arts leader, community organizer, and artist rerooted back home in Chicago after 8+ years in the SF Bay Area. They have organized with the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, East Bay Meditation Center, and Dhamma Dena Meditation Center.

facilitated by Laura David and dollop dance theater

open class is a low stakes environment to explore various ways of embodying the passage of time, music, and whatever you pursue for the hour and a half we share. we will begin with inner micro-movement that is mindful and meditative. by the end of class we aim to find ease and joy through movement.

all levels and abilities welcome.

$0-20 donation-based class

RSVP HERE

three nights of WIP performance sharings from movement-based artists currently rehearsing at bim bom.

RSVP HERE

7/19 LINEUP

-Peyton Jones
-Ginger Krebs
-Chih-Jou Cheng

$10 or PWYC, NOTAFLOF.
all funds go to the artists.
BYOB
masks required, we’ll have some on hand to share. air purifiers running

post-performance discussion and facilitation by Sophie Minouche Allen.

with support from Cook County Small Business Bureau, all participating makers and facilitators have been compensated $160 each for the evening. funds gathered at the door will be split among the artists.

ABOUT THE WORKS

Peyton Jones
Dream Escape is a piece I’ve been working with since September 2023. This piece is inspired by dreaming of relationships that no longer exist in waking life and how they continue on in the dream world. Themes of control, secrets, and confusion are prevalent in this work. This work is currently 5 minutes, and I’m hoping to expand into a second section exploring healing and freedom from the bounds of the first half.

Ginger Krebs
This solo plays with absurdly polarized extremes of hetero-normative female and male socialization. Personas morph from the “good listener”, so flexible and accommodating she can barely hold her head upright, and the mirror-glazed enchantress, who magnetizes the viewer by reflecting him back to himself, to the cop in aviator glasses, throwing his “weight” around, and the nobleman of courtly love, whose stilted, cartoon shape hops around the room, propelled by the footwork of fencing. I’m curious about how these binaries co-create and reinforce one another, so images melt into, or oscillate quickly between, one another, as in surrealism or science fiction.

Chih-Jou Cheng
This work continues to explore my identity as a Taiwanese immigrant. The dance explores the diversity and intersectional nature of Taiwanese people that are rooted in the country’s rich history, interweaving the performers’ yearning and homesickness for their motherland. The piece attempts to illustrate the warmth, sincerity, the down-to-earth quality of the people and the place, as well as the confusion, conflicts, and solidarity manifesting throughout Taiwan’s journey to international visibility and recognition. A bittersweet ode to the origins and transformations of the land and its forever cherished, embodied memories.

monthly sound series curated by Hunter Brown and Party Perfect Records.

LINEUP
Christoper Riggs (solo)
Hunter Brown (solo)
Christopher Riggs + Hunter Brown (duo)
Graham Stephenson + Jason Soliday (duo)

8pm
$15 at the door (cash, venmo, zelle)
air purifiers running
NOTAFLOF
BYOB

hosted by Fever Dream Dance Collective
facilitated by Laura Baumeister

NOT SERIOUS! VERY IMPORTANT.

Come exactly as you are! This guided movement process is designed to keep you rooted in imagery and sensory seeking, while leaving space for individual movers to explore personal desires. You’ll be led through different world building narratives with a focus on letting go of movement expectations and letting the mind fully submerge into narrative.

PWYC
To register, Venmo @Anna-caffarelli-1
air purifiers running

facilitated by Alain Sinandja

Alain is a Togolese choreographer and dancer based in Japan. His dance practice is drawn from Traditional African dance and contemporary dance influenced by the Acogny technique. The class will be an introduction to Togolese traditional dance. We will connect different body parts through the spine and vibrations in the body, called Malkonseague, and emphasizing the relationship of the body to the floor. All levels are welcome to join.

Here's a link to view a clip of what to expect from Alain’s class.

Sliding scale: $0-$15 (zelle 847-868-6252 or cash)

RSVP HERE

facilitated by Camila Rivero Pooley

DEMBOW is a dance practice that revolves around exploring different latin american aesthetics.

In this class you will not only dance but push up your stamina, stretch dynamically and engage with others through social choreography. And JUNE is for all our LGBTQ+ Latiné artists out there !!

Open to all levels, no previous experience is required

Sliding Scale : $0 - $25
Venmo @camila-riveropooley
Zelle 312-937-2587
cash

RSVP HERE

hosted by Amanda Maraist

to RSVP: email amandamaraist@gmail.com

an invitation to come over, hang out, byo-bev of choice.
we'll put the lights down low, chat, dance and listen to some badass folk tunes that have been an important part of the research for FOLK.

like... when you want to dance FOR REAL at the club but that's kind of awkward for other people... you can do that here. wear whatever makes you feel good.

-masking required
-air purifiers running
-respect and protect the space of others! don’t touch people without explicit consent! obviously.

facilitated by Camila Rivero Pooley

DEMBOW is a dance practice that revolves around exploring different latin american aesthetics.

In this class you will not only dance but push up your stamina, stretch dynamically and engage with others through social choreography. And JUNE is for all our LGBTQ+ Latiné artists out there !!

Open to all levels, no previous experience is required

Sliding Scale : $0 - $25
Venmo @camila-riveropooley
Zelle 312-937-2587
cash

RSVP HERE

facilitated by dollop dance theater and Laura David

dollop is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary dance company creating accessible, approachable works dealing with a variety of socially pressing issues through a light-hearted lens of humor and humility.



calling all former & future dancers

come move and groove with us @ our open level company class

$5+ suggested donation via Venmo

RSVP HERE

facilitated by Camila Rivero Pooley

DEMBOW is a dance practice that revolves around exploring different latin american aesthetics.

In this class you will not only dance but push up your stamina, stretch dynamically and engage with others through social choreography. And JUNE is for all our LGBTQ+ Latiné artists out there !!

Open to all levels, no previous experience is required

Sliding Scale : $0 - $25
Venmo @camila-riveropooley
Zelle 312-937-2587
cash

RSVP HERE

hosted by Links Hall

with SK Kerastas
food by Kim Upstill

TICKETS

This Silent Dinner is a distinctly collective, distinctly individual dinner experience cooked and served for 20 people at bim bom studios, on Friday June 7th. Please arrive between 6:30pm and 6:45pm to begin the meal at 7:00pm.

At the start of the event, guests will be guided to set aside their phones, offered light instruction and text, and invited into silence for the duration of a multi-course vegetarian meal. In creating an environment with less distraction, participants are encouraged to relax into the sensations of eating – the sights, smells, sounds, textures, and tastes. The dinner is a gentle somatic experiment of intimacy and connection— with the present moment, with impermanence, with pleasure, with body, with group and with self. We’re thinking about large-scale parallel play, slow dancing with the inanimate, the slippery, the sticky, and the space that emerges in shared quiet.

The menu will be conceived and cooked by Kim Upstill.

* We have limited capacity to adhere to individual dietary restrictions, but the meal will be nut-free and have non-dairy options.

_______

Kim Upstill is an artist, chef, writer and dancer. She cares about sensation and poetics, systemic and creative thinking, and somatic work. She seeks out collaborations that move across disciplines and modes of making / forms of knowing. Kim holds a Masters Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives and works in Chicago.

SK Kerastas (they/them) is the current Executive Director of Links Hall. They are a justice-driven live arts leader, community organizer, and artist rerooted back home in Chicago after 8+ years in the SF Bay Area. They have organized with the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, East Bay Meditation Center, and Dhamma Dena Meditation Center.

facilitated by dollop dance theater and Laura David

dollop is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary dance company creating accessible, approachable works dealing with a variety of socially pressing issues through a light-hearted lens of humor and humility.



calling all former & future dancers

come move and groove with us @ our open level company class

$5+ suggested donation via Venmo

RSVP HERE

facilitated by Camila Rivero Pooley

DEMBOW is a dance practice that revolves around exploring different latin american aesthetics.

In this class you will not only dance but push up your stamina, stretch dynamically and engage with others through social choreography. And JUNE is for all our LGBTQ+ Latiné artists out there !!

Open to all levels, no previous experience is required

Sliding Scale : $0 - $25
Venmo @camila-riveropooley
Zelle 312-937-2587
cash

RSVP HERE

facilitated by dollop dance theater and Laura David

dollop is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary dance company creating accessible, approachable works dealing with a variety of socially pressing issues through a light-hearted lens of humor and humility.

calling all former & future dancers
come move and groove with us @ our open level company class
$5+ suggested donation via Venmo

RSVP HERE

facilitated by Camila Rivero Pooley

DEMBOW is a dance practice that revolves around exploring different latin american aesthetics.

In this class you will not only dance but push up your stamina, stretch dynamically and engage with others through social choreography. We are continuing the series focusing on reggaetón + trap~

SUN 05/05 from 11:30 am - 12:45 pm
THU 05/09 from 7pm - 8:15 pm
FRI 05/10 from 7pm - 8:15 pm
MON 05/27 from 7pm - 8:15pm

Open to all levels, no previous experience is required

Sliding Scale : $0 - $25 [ Venmo @camila-riveropooley OR Zelle 312-937-2587 OR cash]

RSVP HERE