Pleasure Power Portal explores acts of memory, pleasure, and ancestral connection through the relationships, places, and things that bring us fulfillment. Using story and performance, this work will map complex stories of Black humanity on Chicago’s Westside, a region of the city that is often overlooked and misperceived. In partnership with First Church of the Brethren in Fifth City, Honey Pot Performance invites Westsiders to join in conversations and performance experiments that map personal and collective pleasure histories as acts of empowerment: Our joy matters.
This multigenerational process will engage seniors, adults, and young people to identify unique stories of pleasure, digging into the myriad ways residents define this mode of feeling through their everyday lives. This sensuous body/mind/spirit exploration serves as foundational research for a new original multi-sited performance work that will premiere at First Church and several other Westside locations in 2026.
✨ You’re invited, beloveds! ✨
We’re kicking off something very special—Pleasure Power Portal, a community-driven exploration of Black pleasure. And we want YOU there. Join us for an afternoon of Q&A, pleasure mapping, and big dreaming about what this portal will be. Our facilitators will be on deck to walk you through the vision, share the 2025 event lineup, and, most importantly, listen—because this is about us.
Mark your calendars and tell a friend! Let’s imagine, build, and embody radical pleasure together.”