AMFM L!ve | Episode 3

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 3 kicks off on Wednesday, August 7th from 7-9:30PM (doors at 7pm + show at 7:30pm). Featured guests include Jacqueline Surdell, Rhea The Second, Olu of Pgrssn 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:

Jacqueline Surdell

Jacqueline Surdell hand-manipulates rope and other industrial textile materials to make relief-like wall, floor, and ceiling sculptures exploring themes of power, place, and perception. While contributing to a legacy of textile and fiber practices the world over, Surdell’s work resists categorization. Her work transforms the woven canvas into a space of undulation and growth, blurring the lines between painting and sculpture. In this way, her work calls attention to other binary categorizations like rigid and collapsed, ontological spaces between body and sculpture, and construction techniques coded as masculine or feminine. Jacqueline Surdell has an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

Website: www.jacquelinesurdell.com

Rhea The Second

Born in Detroit and now thriving in the city of Chicago, Rhea the Second is an Alternative Pop and R&B artist with over a decade of experience sculpting her craft for both the airwaves and the stage. Her impressive resume includes performing at Coachella alongside rapper Noname, singing background vocals for Leon Bridges, and appearing in Jeymes Samuel’s music video "Hallelujah Heaven" with Shabba Ranks, Buju Banton, and Lil Wayne. Rhea has also taken center stage at Pride Fest Chicago and collaborated with numerous Chicago-based artists such as Akenya, Roy Kinsey, SWAM, The O’My’s, Melvin Knight, Loona Dae, Demetruest, and Amyna Love, among others.

Rhea the Second has firmly established herself as a gem in Chicago's vibrant music scene. She views her music as a boundless wellspring of creativity, fun, uniqueness, storytelling, and style. Her debut EP, ALT POP RNB, served as a bold declaration of her place in the industry, showcasing a distinct blend of Alternative Pop and R&B. She recently teamed up with a fellow Chicago artist named MVTE and producer, Mike Jones, and recorded her second EP titled Mama's House. Hailed as one of the year's most distinctive and enjoyable releases, Mama's House is now available and can be heard on all major streaming platforms.

Website: www.rheathesecond.com

Olu of Prgssn

Olu is a Creative Director and Graphic Designer based in Chicago, IL specializing in unique storytelling through a Black lens. Deeply connected to his community, Olu uses art as a platform to highlight injustice while creating items that start a dialogue around solutions.

Olu is the proud owner of prgrssn, a clothing brand focused on recreating moments in Black history via apparel. He holds a Master of Design (MDes) degree from the University of Illinois Chicago. Past partners include SocialWorks Chicago, Chicago Blackhawks, Nike Chicago, femdot., and Nico Segal.

Website: www.prgrssn.com 

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