For 25 years, Honey Pot Performance has worked hard to support and uplift PGM/BIPOC communities, always making sure that PGM/BIPOC artists and scholars are leading the way in our organization. Through performances, sharing knowledge, archiving, and engaging with the public humanities, we create a space where the perspectives of artists of color are front and center. Our work focuses on how people navigate their identity, sense of belonging, and differences in their lives and communities.

Each year, we invite communities to join us through collective storytelling, archiving, and creative exploration—offering space to express, mark intentions, challenge societal norms, and expand together. This year we focus back in on roots community storytelling, activation and performance through themes of joy as we enter Phase 2 of our project, Pleasure Power Portal. We also continue our longstanding public humanities work with the Chicago Black Social Culture Map, inviting communities to chronicle and preserve the lived experiences of Black Chicagoans, from the Great Migration through the rise and future of House music.

2026 SUMMER PROGRAMS

The SHE-lectors: Women striving & thriving in Chicago's DJ Community

Saturday, June 27th, 2026

1pm @First Church of the Brethren (425 S. Central Park Blvd)

Curator DJ Celeste Alexander brings together Lori Branch, DJ Breathlezz, Nicky DVine, and Yolanda Chioma Richards for a spirited discussion exploring women's experience navigating Chicago's DJ industry. The program will include a brunch mixer, inviting women at various stages in their DJing practice to network over light bites and refreshments. Following the discussion will be an open Jam session featuring each panelist.

Schedule:

1pm - Brunch Mixer

2pm - SHE-lectors Panel Discussion

4pm - DJ Jam Session

Freedom From, Freedom To

Saturday, July 18th, 2026

7pm @First Church of the Brethren (425 S. Central Park Blvd)

Freedom From and Freedom To (FFFT) is an improvisational, cross-medium performance event that invites an ensemble of movers and sound-makers to perform while integrating elements of chance and audience participation. During the performance, the audience is called upon to randomly draw combinations of dancers and musicians who perform together. The randomness usually produces unfamiliar combinations. This surprise and disorientation requires that performers offer the truest version of themselves during the improvisation. The series asks the artists to consider themes of freedom from various limitations and boundaries, and to consider what could be if these limits were obliterated, as well as holding space for vulnerability and sensitivity.

Featured Artists

Solomon Bowser. Aaliyah Christina. Kopano. Gaby Martinez. Cristal Sabbagh. Dani Oblitas. Deacon Weekend Denis. Tia Pinson. Victoria Nassif. Jordan “J.Ro” Ordoñez. Paige Brown. Allen Moore. Naydja Bruton. Julian Otis. Najee-Zaid. Gentle Flames. Anaiet Soul. Fenix Divine. BelleAime. Kezia.

REST. RESET. REIMAGINE: a collective rejuvenation workshop

Saturday, July 25th, 2026

12pm @First Church of the Brethren (425 S. Central Park Blvd)

The Reiki For All team will give respite from the daily grind by providing mind, body, and energy-based healing modalities for renewal and reconnection to self. This three hour regenerative workshop will revitalize participants through communal rest and release. Participants will begin their journey with a nourishing CommuniTea-- food, fellowship, and herbal elixirs prepared by Zen Vegan Life. Feel the body soften and relax through dialogic exchange and Ear Seeds, a traditional Chinese form of acupressure to relieve pain and tension, administered by Toni Asante LIghtfoot. Decompress at the cellular level during a dream-inducing sound bath, with Shannon Harris' Audiopharmacology. Record your past and future memories in your new dream journal, with writing and drawing prompts from Sonja Henderson. This collective rest and relaxation ritual serves as a personal reset and reconnection to ancestral wisdom, nurturing sleep, prophetic dreams, and our reimagined selves.

Creative Design Lab 3: Ways of Knowing

Saturday, August 29th, 2026

HPP's creative process workshop and public-facing laboratory series centered on experimentation, presence, and collective inquiry.

Details to come soon!

Honey Pot Performance Summer 2026 Programs