Zoom RSVP Form

A Table Talk, A Check in is an open format conversation to acknowledge and address our critical and somatic responses as an art community to support Black Lives Matter. In solidarity and out of respect to our community working on Black and Indigenous Futures, we can not move forward with exhibition and programming making without acknowledging inherent racism in the arts and want to provide the time and space to individuals who want to share reflections, responses and actions collectively.

We will bring up questions such as: How can we continue exhibition and program making with the ongoing task of embodying anti-racism and anti-colonial practices? How have our past practices of communication, care, trust and community building efforts center Black voices?  How can we use our privilege in the arts and society to help defund the police?

Organizers, curators, artists, makers etc. are encouraged to come and share actions, space and time. This table talk is initiated by non-Black Latinx art organizers; Silvia Inés González, Jose Luis Benavides, and John H. Guevara.

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Silvia Inés Gonzalez is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator in Chicago actively participating in spaces where collective wellness takes on critical dialogue, art making, and community building.  She is a member of the Chicago Teachers Union as a delegate, Chicago ACT Collective, Multiuso, and the 96 ACRES Project. As an organizer of the group POC (People of Color) Artist Space, she connects artists of color from across Chicago to resources through meet-ups and development opportunities.She was awarded with the 3Arts Make A Wave Award in 2018 and CAC Maker’s Grant in 2020 for community engaged work.

Jose Luis Benavides is a queer Latinx artist, filmmaker and educator. His work has screened internationally at: Revolutions Per Minute Festival, Univ. of Mass. Boston, MA, US (2020); Istanbul International Film Festival, Istanbul, Turkey (2019); Mizna’s 14th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, Minneapolis, MN, US (2019); and CinHomo Muestra Internacional de Cine y Diversidad Sexual, Valladolid, ES (2019). Benavides is a co-coordinator with Illinois Deaths in Custody Project which seeks to document, archive, highlight and mourn the deaths of all peoples in Illinois jails and prisons. He also curates Sin Cinta Previa: Latinx & Queer Archive Video Series, which was awarded a POWER Project grant from the Art Leaders of Color Network (2018) and a Propeller Fund grant (2019).

John H. Guevara currently runs Chuquimarca. Chuquimarca is a library project space focused on the Native, Mexican, Caribbean, and Central and South American contemporary art and culture discourse in Chicago.