Filtering by: HPP EVENT
Fifth City Revisited: Film Screening at Links Hall
Apr
12
7:00 PM19:00
HPP EVENT

Fifth City Revisited: Film Screening at Links Hall

Fifth City Revisited tells the story of a radical community movement from the 1960s-1990s on the Westside of Chicago. Part memoir, part history lesson, and part urban planning critique, Fifth City Revisited explores how we create healthy communities while also considering the scale at which we must do this work in order to grow and sustain it.

The work uses dance, story, and media to consider the impact of Fifth City's community power against the backdrop of city planning systems that have all but erased its work. What lessons does the Fifth City movement have to teach us in our current and cautiously hopeful era of grassroots change where a renewed commitment to neighborhood investment is bubbling up across Chicago’s West and South sides?

REGISTER HERE

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Chicago Black Social Culture Map: Dance Music, Party Culture, and the Westside
Apr
26
6:00 PM18:00
HPP EVENT

Chicago Black Social Culture Map: Dance Music, Party Culture, and the Westside

This session explores iconic Westside party spots like the Factory and Davinci Manor, the importance of media outlets like Dance Mania Records in the 90s and WalaCamTV in the 2000s, and the Fifth City Community Center as a haven for vogue balls and footwork battles in the same timeframe.

REGISTER HERE

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Creative Design Lab: If Then Artist Lab Series
May
3
2:00 PM14:00
HPP EVENT

Creative Design Lab: If Then Artist Lab Series

The If /Then Artist Lab explores performance as a divine instrument. How do we as creative beings tune in to higher plane energies? How do we build from the power and magic of collective creative decision-making using trust and intuition alongside structured methods? This lab invites participants and witnesses to engage in fluid combinations of play and ritual - a series of incantations and spells, casting of shells, deconstructing lists of directions & tasks, sculpting a recipe book of invitation, love, & cooperative joy - to encourage collective magic.

The Creative Design Lab (CDL) is an experimental space designed for individuals to explore new ways of devising and designing performance that resonate with the richness of AfroDiasporic cultures and feminist perspectives as they seek to rejuvenate their creative practices.

REGISTER HERE

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Chicago Black Social Culture Map: Preserving Chicago: A Panel & Practical Guide to Archiving
May
17
2:00 PM14:00
HPP EVENT

Chicago Black Social Culture Map: Preserving Chicago: A Panel & Practical Guide to Archiving

Join us for a two-part event that explores some of Chicago’s most important archives and the archivists who preserve its history. This panel will dive deep into the diverse collections, practices, and strategies behind archiving. Whether you're an aspiring archivist or just passionate about preserving history, you’ll walk away with practical tips and strategies for community, family, and special archives.

REGISTER HERE

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Fifth City Juneteenth Celebration
Jun
19
1:00 PM13:00
HPP EVENT

Fifth City Juneteenth Celebration

Join Honey Pot Performance for a Juneteenth celebration as we honor Black resilience and preserve our culture and history. Come hang out for a daylong gathering of food, music, performance, and community in the First Church garden. Bring your family recipes and other stories to archive. Catch a gardening workshop and cooking demo with local chefs. We are excited to share this joyful gathering with YOU!

REGISTER HERE

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Chicago Black Social Culture Map: Chicago Memory Keepers: Strategies for shaping community stories
Jun
20
6:00 PM18:00
HPP EVENT

Chicago Black Social Culture Map: Chicago Memory Keepers: Strategies for shaping community stories

This panel and workshop brings together archivists, memory workers, and cultural stewards to explore the power of preserving community histories. Through film, media, oral history, and archival work, this program highlights the importance of safeguarding personal and collective narratives for future generations.

REGISTER HERE

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Chicago Black Social Culture Map: Vinyl & Vittles in partnership with Honey Pot Performance
Mar
30
2:00 PM14:00
HPP EVENT

Chicago Black Social Culture Map: Vinyl & Vittles in partnership with Honey Pot Performance

Chicago's top rated record fair is back this Spring on Chicago's Westside in collaboration with Honey Pot Performance. Come shop records and enjoy delicious bites! Bring your flyers, fashion, images, and stories to share and map with the CBSCM's community archiving team.

REGISTER HERE

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Mar
22
12:00 PM12:00
HPP EVENT

Pleasure Power Portal: The Meet & Greet

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.”

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Celebrating 10 years of CBSCM
Nov
17
12:00 PM12:00
HPP EVENT

Celebrating 10 years of CBSCM

A celebration and overview of the CBSCM’s development over the past decade from a performance project to a digital archive to the addition of live programs and community archiving. We will create an exhibit featuring documentation and new commissioned creative works that explore the meaning and value of preserving Black social cultural heritage and knowledge.

SCHEDULE

12:00-12:30PM Opening/Welcome
12:30-1:00PM JayaFeM & Band, a musical performance
1:00-3:00PM Addressing the gap between house and hip hop with Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum, presented by Artistic and Danta Williams
1:00-3:00PM Westside Word Search: A life-size word search puzzle with Alexie Young
3:00-4:15PM Black Chicago Dynamics: A Conversation about Southside and Westside cultural connections with Alexie Young
4:30-5:45PM 10 years of the CBSCM: A Conversation with the Chicago Black Social Culture Map & Honey Pot Performance team, moderated by Skyla Hearn. Featuring Duane Powell, Lauren Lowery, Darlene Jackson, and members of the HPP/CBSCM core creative team.
5:45-7:00PM Closing Set with DJ Erica Kane
Ongoing Our Legacy, Our People, Our House: Ten Years of Archiving the Culture and Voices of House - Exhibition curated by Jeneca Onikoyi

Register: https://givebutter.com/pkOEfC

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Celebrating 10 years of CBSCM
Nov
16
12:00 PM12:00
HPP EVENT

Celebrating 10 years of CBSCM

A celebration and overview of the CBSCM’s development over the past decade from a performance project to a digital archive to the addition of live programs and community archiving. We will create an exhibit featuring documentation and new commissioned creative works that explore the meaning and value of preserving Black social cultural heritage and knowledge.

SCHEDULE

12:00-1:00PM Opening/Welcome
1:00-3:00PM Special screening: Excerpts from House Music: A Cultural Revolution (Chicago Stories, WTTW), followed by an in-depth conversation curated by Vintage House Show's Lauren Lowery. Moderator: Kevin "Mega" McFall. Panelists: Ctrlzora, Gene Hunt, and David Chavez.
1:00-3:00PM Westside Word Search: A life-size word search puzzle with Alexie Young
2:00-5:00PM Back Down Memory Lane, an interactive archiving experience curated by the CBSCM Archiving Advisory
3:00-4:15PM DJs in Conversation & Craft with DJ Jaytoo + DJ Jo de Presser 
4:30-6:30PM Dance Cypher & Conversation curated by Bravemonk and K-Soul featuring sounds by CtrlZora
6:45-9:00PM Closing Set with DJ Sadie Woods
Ongoing Our Legacy, Our People, Our House: Ten Years of Archiving the Culture and Voices of House - Exhibition curated by Jeneca Onikoyi

Register: https://givebutter.com/pkOEfC

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Fifth City Revisited screening & conversations
Oct
12
4:00 PM16:00
HPP EVENT

Fifth City Revisited screening & conversations

  • First Church of the Brethren (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Part memoir, part history lesson, and part urban planning critique, Fifth City Revisited explores the creation of healthy, thriving communities and the scale necessary to sustain them. Through dance, storytelling, and multimedia, McNeal considers the significance of Fifth City’s story amid city planning systems that have nearly erased its achievements. In an era of renewed interest in grassroots change and neighborhood investment across Chicago’s West and South Sides, this performance asks: “What lessons does Fifth City offer us today?”

The October premiere will feature a filmed version of the performance alongside a Fifth City Revisted online exhibition that explores West Side community histories and creativity curated by Adia Sykes and Victoria Sockwell (Online Exhibition Curators).

Two conversations will also bookend the viewing including community voices committed to a revitalized, well-resourced West Side:

  • Pre-screening Conversation @ 5pm: “Imagining Fifth City: Building community power and city visioning strategies.” Moderated by Mary Scott Boria with panelists Lilly Fox, David Weathersby, and Keli Stewart

  • Post-screening Conversation @ 8pm: "Fifth City’s Future: Visions of Westside flourishing.” Moderated by Meida McNeal with panelists Alexie Young, Spankey Davis, Stephanie Jeter, and Vanessa Stokes .

Register: https://givebutter.com/pkOEfC

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Chicago Black Social Culture Map Program #3: Flourishing
Oct
6
2:00 PM14:00
HPP EVENT

Chicago Black Social Culture Map Program #3: Flourishing

“Flourishing” highlights the innovations and entrepreneurship of musicians, producers, record shop owners, and other ways of building capital and community wealth through Chicago Black social culture. We’ll be exploring the rich history, present developments, and future possibilities in arts, culture, and nightlife through powerful storytelling and archival presentations, followed by a roundtable discussion and an opportunity to network during the closing DJ set and social hour. Don't miss this incredible lineup!

- Opening Performance: A live vogue and ballroom-inspired performance by Fabulous Freddie

- Storytelling and Archival Presentations: Featuring cultural historians and producers, including Jenna Pollack, Duane Powell, Lori Branch, Vick Lavender, and Jerry Morrison

- Roundtable Discussion: Focused on actionable solutions for sustaining Black arts and culture in Chicago

- Closing DJ Set and Social Hour: Music by FINDING IJEOMA

Register: https://givebutter.com/pkOEfC

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Ladies Ring Shout 2.0
Jun
23
3:00 PM15:00
HPP EVENT

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0

The Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 is a Black feminist quality-of-life performance project, first created and performed in 2011. This restaging/reimagining, features HPP’s artistic core alongside an intergenerational community cast of Black women/femmes who have worked in collaboration with HPP, to devise a new iteration of the work. Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 focuses on themes critical to Black women and femmes’ lives such as representation, love and relationships, scars/trauma, work-life balance, quality of life, nurturing and parenting, spirituality, healing, and defining our communities of care. Creative writing and embodied exercises are supplemented with experiments in other artistic mediums including collective play with still image, video, audio and reading excerpts from the work of relevant BIPOC women writers and poets. 

Wirtz Theater (Room 203) 
Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for Performing and Media Arts
Chicago Campus 
Abbott Hall 
710 N. Lake Shore Drive 

Get Tickets: https://wirtz.northwestern.edu/ladies-ring-shout-2/

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Ladies Ring Shout 2.0
Jun
22
7:30 PM19:30
HPP EVENT

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0

The Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 is a Black feminist quality-of-life performance project, first created and performed in 2011. This restaging/reimagining, features HPP’s artistic core alongside an intergenerational community cast of Black women/femmes who have worked in collaboration with HPP, to devise a new iteration of the work. Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 focuses on themes critical to Black women and femmes’ lives such as representation, love and relationships, scars/trauma, work-life balance, quality of life, nurturing and parenting, spirituality, healing, and defining our communities of care.

Wirtz Theater (Room 203) 
Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for Performing and Media Arts
Chicago Campus 
Abbott Hall 
710 N. Lake Shore Drive 

Get Tickets: https://wirtz.northwestern.edu/ladies-ring-shout-2/

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Open House at First Church
Apr
13
12:00 PM12:00
HPP EVENT

Open House at First Church

We are excited to announce that Honey Pot Performance is officially in residence at First Church of the Brethren on Chicago’s West side! Please join us at our Open House, on Saturday, April 13th. Enjoy a tour of our office and Creative Design Lab spaces, while taking a peek at archives of past performances and events.

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Dec
2
11:30 AM11:30
HPP EVENT

Radio Stations - A CBSCM event

On the Radio, Radio, Radio: Local Radio Stations & the Rise of House Music

Aplomb Creative Salon

1010 W 35th Street, Chicago, IL 60609

Join us as we discuss, reflect, and archive historic Chicago radio artifacts symbolic of the impact of college radio, local stations, and Herb Kent's Punk Out platform on the development House Music and Culture here in Chicago.

The event includes two panel discussions and a day of archiving where we will be digitizing your nightlife items including photos, flyers, fashion, recorded mixes (we can digitize tape!), and short oral histories to add to the growing CBSCM map. In return, we will give you a thumb drive of the digital copies!

Interested in adding to the archive? Please complete our form to make an onsite appointment here.

All day archiving, and always FREE! Reserve your entry ticket today! REGISTER HERE.

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Jul
22
1:00 PM13:00
HPP EVENT

Recapturing Memories of the Black Ark: A Celebration of Chicago’s Social Dance History (CBSCM + MCA Partnership)

Coinciding with the career survey exhibition Gary Simmons: Public Enemy, a series of MCA programs activates Gary Simmons’s sculptural installation work, Recapturing Memories of the Black Ark. Inspired by the Black Ark—Lee “Scratch” Perry’s famous recording studio in Kingston, Jamaica, where he pioneered dub reggae—Simmons’s sculptural installation serves as a flexible stage for conversations, music, and performance.

For this day-long celebration of Chicago’s social dance history, the piece is being temporarily installed under the glittering chandelier of the South Shore Cultural Center Dining Room to commemorate the importance of the neighborhood and the history of Black social culture in Chicago.

2-3pm: Performance – Shiny Stockings with Cristin Carole  Whitney Young High School Dancers

3:30-4pm: Performance – Benji Hart, Dancer as Insurgent

4:30-6pm: Talk: The Changing Vocabulary of House Dance, Co-moderated by: Erika Jarvis and Rae Chardonnay Taylor; Panelists: Amansu Eason and Jarvis Mason with Lefunktion dancers, Kitti O. and Forty

6:30-7:30pm: Workshop with Jarvis Mason / Le Funktion & Amansu Eason

7:30-9pm: Dance Party with DJ Diaspora

*1-7pm: Community Archiving Day with CBSCM - Bring your flyers, fashion, photos, stories, and other artifacts representing Chicago’s social culture to add to the map. Our team will be on site to digitize artifacts, record oral histories, and demonstrate how to use and add entries to the Chicago Black Social Culture Map site. Sign up for a spot to digitize your ephemera and/or record your oral history with us here.

Register here.

This event takes place at the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore Dr.
CART captioning provided, except during the dance party.

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Roller Rinks - a CBSCM event
May
20
11:00 AM11:00
HPP EVENT

Roller Rinks - a CBSCM event

Join us Saturday, May 20th for an all day event of conversations, community archiving, and skating (workshop + open skate)!

Bring your pictures, flyers, fashion, and stories to add to the Chicago Black Social Culture Map. We want to include your knowledge and stories of Black leisure, play, and community connection!

11-12:15pm Panel 1: Chicago Roller Rink History

12:30-1:45pm Panel 2: Chicago Skate Style & Culture

2-2:45pm Skate workshop with Josh “Batsmoke” Smith

2:45-4:15pm Open Skate (in collaboration with HP Skate)

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Ladies Ring Shout 2.0
Apr
30
7:30 PM19:30
HPP EVENT, LRS

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0

Save the Date for Ladies Ring Shout 2.0!

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 is a Black feminist quality-of-life performance project, first created and performed in 2011. This restaging/reimagining, features HPP’s artistic core alongside an intergenerational community cast of Black women/femmes who have worked in collaboration with HPP, to devise a new iteration of the work. Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 focuses on themes critical to Black women and femmes' lives such as representation, love and relationships, scars/trauma, work-life balance, quality of life, nurturing and parenting, spirituality, healing, and defining our communities of care. Creative writing and embodied exercises are supplemented with experiments in other artistic mediums including collective play with still image, video, audio and reading excerpts from the work of relevant BIPOC women writers and poets. This work is in partnership with First Church of the Brethren. Tickets can be purchased at https://givebutter.com/LRS2023. The ticket price is pay-what-you-can. Select "Register" to select tickets and/or make a donation using a credit card, PayPal or Venmo. Alternatively, you can pay here directly on our website, or use the Cash App. 

*Adult themes and explicit language

*Brief intermission with concessions for purchase

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Ladies Ring Shout 2.0
Apr
29
7:30 PM19:30
HPP EVENT, LRS

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0

Save the Date for Ladies Ring Shout 2.0!

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 is a Black feminist quality-of-life performance project, first created and performed in 2011. This restaging/reimagining, features HPP’s artistic core alongside an intergenerational community cast of Black women/femmes who have worked in collaboration with HPP, to devise a new iteration of the work. Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 focuses on themes critical to Black women and femmes' lives such as representation, love and relationships, scars/trauma, work-life balance, quality of life, nurturing and parenting, spirituality, healing, and defining our communities of care. Creative writing and embodied exercises are supplemented with experiments in other artistic mediums including collective play with still image, video, audio and reading excerpts from the work of relevant BIPOC women writers and poets. This work is in partnership with First Church of the Brethren. Tickets can be purchased at https://givebutter.com/LRS2023. The ticket price is pay-what-you-can. Select "Register" to select tickets and/or make a donation using a credit card, PayPal or Venmo. Alternatively, you can pay here directly on our website, or use the Cash App. 

*Adult themes and explicit language

*Brief intermission with concessions for purchase

View Event →
Ladies Ring Shout 2.0
Apr
28
7:30 PM19:30
HPP EVENT, LRS

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0

Save the Date for Ladies Ring Shout 2.0!

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 is a Black feminist quality-of-life performance project, first created and performed in 2011. This restaging/reimagining, features HPP’s artistic core alongside an intergenerational community cast of Black women/femmes who have worked in collaboration with HPP, to devise a new iteration of the work. Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 focuses on themes critical to Black women and femmes' lives such as representation, love and relationships, scars/trauma, work-life balance, quality of life, nurturing and parenting, spirituality, healing, and defining our communities of care. Creative writing and embodied exercises are supplemented with experiments in other artistic mediums including collective play with still image, video, audio and reading excerpts from the work of relevant BIPOC women writers and poets. This work is in partnership with First Church of the Brethren. Tickets can be purchased at https://givebutter.com/LRS2023. The ticket price is pay-what-you-can. Select "Register" to select tickets and/or make a donation using a credit card, PayPal or Venmo. Alternatively, you can pay here directly on our website, or use the Cash App. 

*Adult themes and explicit language

*Brief intermission with concessions for purchase

View Event →
Ladies Ring Shout 2.0
Apr
23
7:30 PM19:30
HPP EVENT, LRS

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0

Save the Date for Ladies Ring Shout 2.0!

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 is a Black feminist quality-of-life performance project, first created and performed in 2011. This restaging/reimagining, features HPP’s artistic core alongside an intergenerational community cast of Black women/femmes who have worked in collaboration with HPP, to devise a new iteration of the work. Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 focuses on themes critical to Black women and femmes' lives such as representation, love and relationships, scars/trauma, work-life balance, quality of life, nurturing and parenting, spirituality, healing, and defining our communities of care. Creative writing and embodied exercises are supplemented with experiments in other artistic mediums including collective play with still image, video, audio and reading excerpts from the work of relevant BIPOC women writers and poets. This work is in partnership with First Church of the Brethren. Tickets can be purchased at https://givebutter.com/LRS2023. The ticket price is pay-what-you-can. Select "Register" to select tickets and/or make a donation using a credit card, PayPal or Venmo. Alternatively, you can pay here directly on our website, or use the Cash App. 

*Adult themes and explicit language

*Brief intermission with concessions for purchase

View Event →
Ladies Ring Shout 2.0
Apr
22
7:30 PM19:30
HPP EVENT, LRS

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0

Save the Date for Ladies Ring Shout 2.0!

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 is a Black feminist quality-of-life performance project, first created and performed in 2011. This restaging/reimagining, features HPP’s artistic core alongside an intergenerational community cast of Black women/femmes who have worked in collaboration with HPP, to devise a new iteration of the work. Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 focuses on themes critical to Black women and femmes' lives such as representation, love and relationships, scars/trauma, work-life balance, quality of life, nurturing and parenting, spirituality, healing, and defining our communities of care. Creative writing and embodied exercises are supplemented with experiments in other artistic mediums including collective play with still image, video, audio and reading excerpts from the work of relevant BIPOC women writers and poets. This work is in partnership with First Church of the Brethren. Tickets can be purchased at https://givebutter.com/LRS2023. The ticket price is pay-what-you-can. Select "Register" to select tickets and/or make a donation using a credit card, PayPal or Venmo. Alternatively, you can pay here directly on our website, or use the Cash App. 

*Adult themes and explicit language

*Brief intermission with concessions for purchase

View Event →
Ladies Ring Shout 2.0
Apr
21
7:30 PM19:30
HPP EVENT, LRS

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0

Save the Date for Ladies Ring Shout 2.0!

Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 is a Black feminist quality-of-life performance project, first created and performed in 2011. This restaging/reimagining, features HPP’s artistic core alongside an intergenerational community cast of Black women/femmes who have worked in collaboration with HPP, to devise a new iteration of the work. Ladies Ring Shout 2.0 focuses on themes critical to Black women and femmes' lives such as representation, love and relationships, scars/trauma, work-life balance, quality of life, nurturing and parenting, spirituality, healing, and defining our communities of care. Creative writing and embodied exercises are supplemented with experiments in other artistic mediums including collective play with still image, video, audio and reading excerpts from the work of relevant BIPOC women writers and poets. This work is in partnership with First Church of the Brethren. Tickets can be purchased at https://givebutter.com/LRS2023. The ticket price is pay-what-you-can. Select "Register" to select tickets and/or make a donation using a credit card, PayPal or Venmo. Alternatively, you can pay here directly on our website, or use the Cash App. 

*Adult themes and explicit language

*Brief intermission with concessions for purchase

View Event →