Design a liberation flag, create an homage to your family, and sing along with performances by Miss Katie Sings. This day of educational and creative programming draws inspiration from the exhibition, Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica.
Don’t forget, Illinois residents enjoy Free Winter Weekdays from January 6–March 14. Stop by on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays to enjoy free admission to our galleries.
Activities
All activities are free. We hope you’ll drop by!
Special Performance by Miss Katie Sings
12:30–1:00 and 2:00–2:30 in the Art Exchange
Tap, clap, and sing along to mindful songs about courage, equality, and community care with Miss Katie Sings.
The Artist’s Studio: re/Assemblage
11:00–3:00 in the Art Exchange and Studio B
In this multimedia art-making activity, collage gems, images, and more to create an affirmation medallion that can be worn, traded, or displayed in our collective gallery. This family assemblage activity was designed by hybrid poet and disability justice advocate Saleem Hue Penny.
Family Studio: Liberation Flags
11:00–3:00 in Studio A
Take inspiration from the works on view in Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica to design your own Liberation Flag with teaching artist kee mabin.
Teen Open Studio: Culture as Collage
11:00–3:00 in Studio C
Experiment with collage techniques to create your own and/or contribute to a large-scale paper mural. All materials will be provided, and no prior experience is necessary.
Making a Difference: A Tour for Families
Self-Guided Tour
Explore works of art in our galleries with activities that invite you and your family to envision peace, imagine new futures, and create just spaces. This self-guided tour is available online, but you can also stop by the RLC for a printed copy.
The Culture We Carry: A Teen Art Competition Showcase
McCormick Gallery, through summer 2025
Admire the talent of 30 competition winners whose artworks reflect on hope, dignity, resistance, healing, identity, equality, and interconnectedness.
About the Teaching Artists
Miss Katie Sings is an Asian American songwriter, performer, and media maker for children. Having previously taught and performed at the Old Town School of Folk Music, she now performs across the US and virtually for a global audience. Likened to Mister Rogers by TODAY, her songs focus on social-emotional learning, imaginative play, and community care. Miss Katie Sings’ recent album, “Just the Way You Are” helps children to celebrate all of who they are.
Saleem Hue Penny (him/friend) is a Black, disabled, “rural hip-hop blues” poet who punctuates his hybrid/mixed media work with drum loops, Jim Crow artifacts, and birch bark. A proud Cave Canem Fellow, 2024 Disability Futures Fellow, and a member of O|Sessions Black Listening cohort, Saleem edits at Bellevue Literary Review and was a 2021 Poetry Coalition Fellow. He is a worker-owner of Cooperation Racine, L.W.C.A in Englewood, Chicago.
kee mabin (formerly alkebuluan ‘kee’ merriweather) is an electronic sound artist and aspiring ethnomusicologist working within the mediums of photography, music sampling, collage, videography, and storytelling through Black archival theory. She is also the founder of archives including the Black Matriarch Archive, Homagetoblkmadonnas (now acquired by Black Beauty Archives), and crunk music archive.
