THEATRE Y We Lawndale

from page 1 purple plastic tablecloths, scattered around the room. Tea light candles flickered at the center of each the melodic sound of a piano fills the room, almost speakeasy. This is Theatre Y, a Chicago-based inter theater incubator that has operated in Chicago to re-think theater as a tool of liberation and collaboration.

On Monday, Chicago hip-hop ar tist and youth PHENOM energetically took the stage to present he curated “We Lawndale,” part of Theatre event series “Monday Night Buzz.”

“A theater that has just been generating beautiful and thoughts and emotions and experiences throughout Chicago decided to come to Lawndale NOM said. “Why? A bunch of reasons, one of are Lawndale is a very rich in community spac Unsur prisingly, he tur ned up the energy in PHENOM has shared stages with ar tists as big

The Rapper and Kendrick Lamar He is now one of the four ar tists in residence curating the “Monday Night Buzz.”

The serie s, running until the end of this year, was created to “try to eng age with the Nor th Lawndale community as close to the sidewalk” according to Melissa Lorraine, ar tistic director of Theatre Y, which opened the doors to its new building in Lawndale last month. Every Monday night, one of the four ar tists in residence will create a unique ar tistic event open to the public

“We have this front space that has been dark for 40 years. … This is the first initiative of the space, having an extraordinary local perfor mer curate their particular Monday night [event],” said Lorraine.

For his event, Teh’Ray Hale, who goes by the ar tistic name PHENOM brought graduates of his Emcee Skool program to perfor m and co-curate an ar tistic experience. On Monday, local hip-hop and visual ar tist Khing Kwon perfor med his own songs while directing the audience to

Rush

Fall construction eyed

from page 6 has been Taliafer ro’s priority since Sears closed. But during his Aug. 30 community meeting, the alder man said that, while Jewel-Osco expressed strong interest, Novak decided to go with a medical tenant. During the Dec. 14 meeting, Jake Paschen, senior vice president of Novak Construction. said the developer had “several extensive discussions” with grocery tenants that eventually fell through. He indicated that they were still looking paint ar t pieces collaboratively by taking tur ns in painting one piece, a method known as exquisite corpse in the ar ts, what Khing Kwon calls a “Franken-beauty.”

“You’ re putting things to gether unknowingly and your amalg amation is a wonderous thing of two dif ferent identities, two dif ferent creativities coming to gether at once,” Kwon said as he demonstrated how to create these pieces.

Kwon is one of PHENOM’s first participants in Emcee Skool, a six-month program that trains Chicago youth who aspire to be emcees or rappers. Since its creation in 2018, five classes have graduated from the program.

“I am a weapon of mass construction,” PHENOM said in an interview, a unique way of describing his career as an inter national hip-hop artist and educator for the grocery store that would go south of the medical building.

Ru sh sp okes pers on Tobi n Kl in ger confirmed th at the he alth system ha s not hin g to do with the gr oc er y store pl an s for the site

The pl an s unveiled du ri ng the Ma rch 20 pr es s confer ence fell in li ne with wh at Nova k sh ar ed on De c. 14 . The 60 , 000 -s qu ar e- fo ot out patient faci lity wi ll of fer pr im ar y and sp ecia lt y serv ic es found in ot her Ru sh faci lities It would not of fer su rg er ie s or any ot her in -p at ie nt serv ic es It wi ll have “approxi mately 90 ex am , cons ult and pr ocedur e ro om s.”

The ce nt er wi ll have 20 0 pa rk in g spac es .

The intersection is al so served by mu ltiple CTA and Pace bu ses.

In 2017, PHENOM visited Iraq as a hip-hop ambassador with the Hip Hop Detoxx program. PHENOM said this trip helped him realize how far his craft had allowed him to go, so he decided to “train, teach and pass it on to the younger generations” in Chicago.

His work as a youth mentor dates to 1995 when he participated in Public Allies youth violence prevention program, then led by Michelle Obama. In 2019, he was awarded the inaugural “Brother Mike Award,” an initiative of the nonprofit Chicago Lear ning Exchange and Chance the Rapper’s Social Works to reco gnize mentors in the out-ofschool space in Chicago.

On Monday, Emcee Skool graduates Khing Kwon and Mani Jurdan perfor med with local DJ and producer The Ambi/\nce for a small, but cheerful audience who listened to their hip-hop beats and powerful rhymes as they painted collaborative ar t pieces.

“I trained these young ar tists to use their ar t as instruments of peacebuilding,” PHENOM said in an interview. “That model solidified relationships that allowed for the proper dif fusion of conflicts.”

PHENOM said Emcee Skool is rigorous so the youth lear n to be disciplined in their ar tistic career. But the focus is also on building relationships that prevent youth from being exposed to or involved in violence. “It’s more than a program, it’s a family.”

More graduates of Emcee Skool will participate in the Monday Night Buzz events curated by PHENOM, taking place on the second Monday of each month. Phenom said attendees will eng age in craft-making activities where they will create something to take home and something to leave behind at Theatre Y.

“When I got my training from Michelle Obama, they made sure that whatever we did had an element of sustainability,” PHENOM said, adding by the end of the year, there will be a collection of 10 collaborative ar t pieces created by the event participants, the same number of letters in his series name “We Lawndale.”

“We Lawndale made this. And that opens the idea for people who are not from Lawndale to come and have ownership in that community, to acknowledge that it’s real. Not we nor th Lawndale or we south Lawndale but we Lawndale, to gether.”

Due to the PU D zoni ng, the new faci lity wi ll require city counci l approval Ru sh al so ne ed s to get approval from the Il li nois He alth Faci lities and Servic es Review Board. The appl ic ation ha sn’t be en submitted as of Ma rch 20, but the he alth system indicate d th at they would do it in the nex t few we ek s. Under the cu rrent me eting sche du le, the ea rl iest the review board ca n consider the appl ic ation is on May 9. Ru sh ex pect s to get the appr oval in ti me to begi n cons tr uc tion in fa ll 20 23 , with the go al of op en in g by Ja nu ar y 20 25

Dr Di no Ru moro, CEO of Ru sh Oa k Pa rk Ho spit al , 52 0 S. Maple Ave., describe d the new faci lity as a way to br in g out patient serv ic es to pa rt s of Ch ic ago, Oa k Pa rk , River Forest and El mwoo d

Pa rk fu rt her nort h, wher e the he alth sy ste m do es n’t cu rr ently have any faci lities

“I nves tments li ke thes e not on ly pr ovide be ne fits to patients in ne ed of care , but they al so repr es ent a si gn if ic ant inve st me nt by Ru sh in jobs , ac cessibil it y and he alth equity,” he sa id . “T hi s new lo cation wi ll br in g out st andi ng patient care to the communit y, providing patients and communities with convenient access to RUSH’s national ly ra nked cl inic al programs.”

Taliaferro said he suppor ts the project.

“This is a very exciting time,” he said “This is an opportunity for our ward to bring jobs — but more importantly, this wi ll bring health care to a neighborhood that is in need of a centrally located facility.”