AMFM L!ve | Episode 2

Join AMFM and Working From_ at The Hoxton, Chicago for AMFM L!ve, a quarterly evening talk show inspired by the popular classic, The Tonight Show, but with our own Chicago twist. Come hang in the West Loop to listen in with a free bev (or two) in hand.

AMFM Founder, Ciera Alyse McKissick, welcomes visual artists, musicians, and fashion creatives to be in conversation about their practice and all things Chicago with fun interviews, games, and performances, accompanied by Resident DJ, FINDING IJEOMA, in front of a live audience.

Episode 2 kicks off on Wednesday, May 1st from 7-9PM. Featured guests include Lawrence Agyei, Chad Kouri, Sal Yvat with live musical performances made possible by Red Bull.

Attendance is free and RSVPs are limited so snag your spot now at the link in bio.

About Our Guests:

Lawrence Agyei

Currently based in Chicago, Lawrence Agyei (b. 1990) is a visual storyteller who draws inspiration from his cross-continental upbringing. His work is influenced by his multifaceted identity as a third culture child, and it touches upon notions of multiculturalism as a way to celebrate the juxtaposition between his Ghanaian heritage, Italian background, and life in the American Midwest.

Focusing on enhancing Black culture and the beauty of its people as a whole, he blends the lexicon of documentary photography with portraiture while taking cues from fashion. Through his visual essays, he offers a genuine reading of cultural identity while capturing the beauty of the human spirit. He’s had the pleasure of working with companies and publications, such as Apple, Nordstrom, Teen Vogue, Adobe, Vanity Fair, Studio Magazine, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Google, and many other publications and brands. His work has toured internationally in the exhibition, The New Black Vanguard, curated by Antwaun Sargent. Additional exhibitions include The Promised Land at the South Side Community Art Center and Creator Labs by Google. Agyei has been featured in i-D and Soho Magazine, among several other media outlets, and he has sat on panels at Apple and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. In 2020, Agyei was ranked among the "30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch" by i-D, and in 2022, he was awarded the Booooooom Photo Book Award for his photo series DRILL.

Chad Kouri

Chad Kouri is a Chicago-based working artist, musician, and storyteller interested in the healing powers of color, sound, and abstraction. His mixed-race identity is mirrored by his multidisciplinary studio practice with interests focusing broadly on social justice and community empowerment, color theory, visual communication, improvisation, radical joy, and Chicago’s monumental history of resistance music, jazz, and the avant-garde. Utilizing a wide range of skills and strategies, Kouri reminds us to stay curious and make time for play, rest, and introspection, enabling us more bandwidth for personal exploration, grounding, acceptance, and empowerment.

Sal Yvat

Sal Yvat is a Chicago-based multi-disciplinary artist who has created work in fashion, film, and experimental production. As a wardrobe artist and founder of styling company Look Authority, she has executed wardrobe direction for brands like Conde Nast, Moet & Chandon, Footlocker, and Brach's Candy. Her experimental documentary project, entitled "Beyond The Bias," was a recipient of Open Television's #OTVLife grant. Grounded in Southern traditionalist and afro-futurist thought, themes of reclamation, identity, and connection encapsulates her work. Through creating reimagined experiences digitally and IRL, she fuses her passion for authentic storytelling, history, aesthetics, and introspection with a uniquely queer eye.

FINDING IJEOMA

FINDING IJEOMA is a creative platform intended to curate meaningful forums that celebrate heritage and uplift Afro diasporic values and lifestyles— using DJ sets, educational forums, and intentional gatherings to grow in community with others.

As a DJ, FINDING IJEOMA applies distinct methods of sampling and mixing found audio and archives with music genres such as afrobeats, house, disco, kuduro, r&b, soul, and amapiano to amplify femme voices, recall collective wisdom, and invite ancestral memory. Since 2012, FINDING IJEOMA has studied Black music and its origins ranging from various genres such as jazz, blues, house, and hip-hop alongside poetry movements like the Chicago Surrealist Group, OBAC, and Afrosurrealist movement.

FINDING IJEOMA’s current musings include the use of Afrofuturistic technologies, drum patterns, sonic archives, and communion with the living word, in order to harmonize and call into existence love, liberation, creativity, peace, and abundance on a daily and ongoing basis. She has appeared performing for leading musicians such as 2wobunnies, Uncle Waffles, Noname, and Sudan Archives; on radio and in television; and was recently awarded by the Nigerian American Professional Association for Artistic Excellence (2023).

Your Host: Ciera Alyse Mckissick

Ciera Alyse McKissick is an independent writer, curator, cultural producer, and the founder of AMFM, an organization whose mission is to promote emerging artists. She created AMFM, originally a web magazine, as an independent study project in 2009 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she studied Journalism and Mass Communications. Her work since then often involves collaboration through supporting Black and brown artists, local arts organizations, and seeks to stimulate community engagement that's driven by inclusivity, accessibility, intention, and care. She is also the Public Programs Manager at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Ciera, along with projects and events have been featured in Artsy, Terremoto MX, Newcity, Sixty Inches From Center, Saatchi Art, ABC 7 Chicago, The Chicago Tribune, WGN, WTTW, Chicago Reader, The Chicago Sun Times, South Side Weekly, Afropunk, and more.

About AMFM

AMFM is a Chicago media based arts platform that supports and features emerging visual and interdisciplinary artists, musicians, designers, and creatives from Chicago, and all over the globe, with an emphasis on Black, Brown, and LGBTQIA artists. We support artists through our web content, curated events, exhibitions, partnerships, and activations. We connect artists to opportunities to showcase art with partner spaces and venues like the Bronzeville Winery, The Promontory, and Practical Audacity, an LGBTQIA centered therapy practice at the Kimball Arts Center. Through programming, AMFM combines the arts in traditional and nontraditional spaces to cultivate community, diversity, inclusivity, intergenerational engagement, and of course, good vibes with a purpose, mission, or cause. Noteworthy past projects include our programming and exhibitions at our former gallery space from 2016-2018, The Jazz Series, a pop up music showcase featuring musicians specializing in contemporary music influenced by jazz, Feast, an art and music festival raising awareness about food deserts on the South and West sides, and partnering with Saatchi Art's The Other Art Fair, EXPO Chicago, and The Hoxton for AMFM L!ve, a talk show in front of a live audience centering Chicago creatives. Learn more about us at www.amfm.life.

About Working From_

The comfy lobbies of The Hoxton have been unofficial workspaces-of-choice for laptop warriors since opening its doors in 2006. Taking everything learnt to date, Working From_ was born to create cozy shared workspaces with nice perks, rip-off-free rates, and none of the distractions of home. Learn all about the flexible memberships at Working From_Fulton Market, Southwark (London), and Brussels here. Time to get shit done, when and how you want.

Event Venue

Working From_Fulton Market, 200- 208 North Green Street, Chicago, United States