AUSTIN —The PEACEBOOK 2017 fall tour, a free festival for theater and the arts, makes its final stop this week in Austin’s LaFollette Park, 1333 N. Laramie Ave.
Organized by Collaboraction Theater in Wicker Park, the traveling festival features theater, dance, music and spoken word from Chicago artists and activists looking to promote peace in Chicago.
Beginning at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, Bril Barrett of Making a Difference Dancing Rhythms will host a pre-show workshop before the event officially kicks off at 7 p.m. with a live DJ and the world premiere of eight short films about peace. The festival begins at the same time Friday.
On Saturday, the festival will begin at 3 p.m. and feature a free community meal and a “peace panel” featuring local community organizers from Austin and across the city.
The festival is touring local parks as part of the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks program, which presents arts programming in neighborhoods throughout the city in collaboration with the Chicago Cultural Plan.
One work being featured in the festival in LaFollette Park is “Some Thoughts On Race and Racism In Chicago From Some People Who Aren't Sure What To Do And Who Sat Down And Talked About It,” written and directed by Sarah Illiatovitch-Goldman, which discusses race through “white eyes” and uses quotes from a collection of interviews.
Another piece featured in the festival will be “Dear Masculinity,” written by West Side native Eneale Pickett and directed by Rain Wilson, which is a collection of letters written by men to their masculinity.
Now in its fifth year, the Night Out in the Parks program’s goal is to host over 1,000 cultural events at more than 250 neighborhood parks throughout the city, with the goal of creating community hubs. The Park District has partnered with more than 100 arts and community organizations to expand the series.
Learn more about this week's festival on Collaboraction’s website.
