Chicago Critics Circles position criticism as a vital cultural practice—one that not only reflects Black progress, but actively participates in shaping it. As the final gathering of Court Theatre’s Spotlight Reading Series, this program offers a space to pause, reflect, and collectively ask: What does it mean to inherit, interpret, and carry forward a century of Black cultural life?
Chicago Critics Circles is grounded in an expansive definition of storytelling—one that includes not only performance and text, but also place, publication, memory, and assembly. This program asks:
How has Black progress been documented, debated, and circulated?
What spaces—physical and imagined—have made Black cultural life possible?
What does criticism look like as a liberatory, communal act?
Rather than a traditional panel format, this event centers roundtable “circles” that prioritize dialogue, proximity, and exchange. Each circle brings together intergenerational participants whose work reflects different dimensions of Black cultural production.
2:00pm | Part I: Black Authorship: Writing Our Worlds
This conversation centers Black publications as sites of cultural production, political imagination, and narrative control. Featuring a crucial network of local critics, writers, and cultural workers dedicated to archiving, amplifying, and shaping the documentation and interpretation of Black life, this discussion examines the role of self-determination and narrative sovereignty in A Century of Black Progress.
Opening Invocation: Candance Hunter
Moderator: Adrienne Brown
Participants:
Camille Bacon
Anna DeShawn
Skyla Hearn
Donna Rose Weems
Intermission
• Music by Zahra Baker and Shanta Nurullah
3:30pm | Part II: Claiming Space and Being in Public
This conversation offers a deep, multi-layered exploration of the important role that both physical and social spaces play in the cultivation, preservation, and evolution of Black cultural life. Join us as we critically consider the lifecycle of these environments, how space is intentionally created out of necessity, fiercely held against the pressures of displacement and gentrification, tragically lost to systemic disinvestment, imaginatively reclaimed by new generations, and an essential pillar of cultural survival.
Moderator: Tempestt Hazel
Participants:
jada-amina
Tara Betts
Adam McMath
Regina Victor
5:30 pm Part III: Mixer
Join us for a closing moment to extend dialogue beyond the program into relationship-building and cultural exchange.
DJ: Duane Powell
In partnership
This program is presented as part of Court Theatre’s Spotlight Reading Series, A Century of Black Progress, marking a decade of this acclaimed and transformative program. This 10th-anniversary celebration arrives on the heels of the centennial of Black History Month, which began in 1926 as Negro History Week, and looks ahead to the conclusion of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle with Court Theatre’s 2027 production ofJoe Turner’s Come and Gone. By weaving together the past, present, and future of Black storytelling through a series of immersive events, the Spotlight Reading Series celebrates the soul of Chicago’s cultural ecosystem and pays tribute to one hundred years of cultural excellence and resilience. All events are free and open to the public, and reservations are recommended.
The Chicago Critic’s Table is a biennial, eight-month paid incubator hosted by Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago and funded by the Mellon Foundation. Designed for emerging cultural critics, the program breaks down traditional silos to expand who gets to be a critic and what is considered “worthy” of criticism, with a deep emphasis on supporting South Side arts and culture.