FEATURED FUNDRAISER EVENTS | RITUAL & RHYTHM : An Immersive Reading Series

About Ritual & Rhythm | Rhythm and ritual are the foundation of this festival’s form and function. We are interested in how repetition, music, movement, and language create containers for memory, grief, joy, and release. Rhythm lives in breath, in heartbeat, in the cadence of speech; ritual lives in what we return to; habits, traditions, survival practices, and acts of care. These readings are not static presentations, but living environments. Audience and performer share space in a way that blurs observation and participation. Through heightened language, hip-hop aesthetics, and embodied storytelling, we investigate how ritual can hold pain without spectacle and how rhythm can guide both rupture and healing

CITY OF WATER

JULY 10-12, 2026

a new work by Isis Elizabeth Directed by Lo Williams

Friday, July 10 | 7:30pm Saturday, July 11 | 3:00pm Saturday, July 11 | 7:30pm Sunday, July 12 | 3:00pm

Set during the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, City of Water is a work of poetic realism following a former emcee and her teenage daughter as they navigate survival in a system failing them in real time. When a dangerous piece of her past resurfaces with an opportunity that could change everything, she must choose between escape and survival while her daughter imagines a world beyond the heat.

presented through our New Play Initiative, First Beat and is part of our Immersive Reading Series: Ritual and Rhythm.

PERFORMANCE DATES & TIMES

All performance will be held at eta Creative Arts Foundation 7558 S. South Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL. 60619

RHYME DEFERRED

JULY 17-19, 2026

by Kamilah Forbes with Chadwick Boseman

Directed by Aaron Reese Boseman

Lyrics by Chadwick Boseman

Additional Lyrics by Oberon K.A. Adjepong & Jabari Exum

Friday, July 17 | 7:30pm Saturday, July 18| 3:00pm Saturday, July 18 | 7:30pm Sunday, July 19 | 3:00pm

A hip-hop reimagining of Cain and Abel, Rhyme Deferred follows two brothers—one a fading mainstream star, the other an underground prodigy—locked in a battle over artistry, integrity, and survival within a predatory industry.

presented through our Immersive Reading Series: Ritual and Rhythm.

PERFORMANCE DATES & TIMES

All performance will be held at eta Creative Arts Foundation 7558 S. South Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL. 60619

TBA MAINSTAGE

PREVIEWS BEGIN SEPTEMBER 11

SEPTEMBER 20- NOVEMBER 1

Directed by Aaron Reese Boseman

TO BE ANNOUNCED JUNE 2026