Resilience Arts Festival

The Resilience Arts Festival highlights the human experience from the perspective of people impacted by the criminal legal system, told by award-winning writers who have lived it. From torture survivors who have been on Death Row to those who spent decades wrongfully incarcerated, the Resilience Arts Festival utilizes art to transform experiences of isolation into sources of community connection.

Please feel free connect with a member of Definition Theatre staff prior to arrival at [email protected] to arrange any necessary accommodations.

Definition is a 15 minute walk from the 55/56/57 Metra stop.

If arriving from the Garfield Green Line, take the 55 bus Eastbound toward MSI.

Parking is free along both 55th Street and S Woodlawn Avenue. Allow for ample time when searching for street parking.

Please know Definition does not operate its own parking facility, nor does it validate for any nearby parking structures.

More info at definitiontheatre.org/visit.

Info: Meet and mingle with the artists and organizations that are part of the Festival! Refreshments provided.

Info: Meet and mingle with the artists and organizations that are part of the Festival! Refreshments provided.

Info: A one-man play written and performed by Marvin Alexis.

Info: A one-man play written and performed by Marvin Alexis.

Info: A reading of original poetry by incarcerated artists submitted to the Toussaint Daniels Emerging Writers Fellowship. Winners of the fellowship will also be announced.

Info: Meet and mingle with the artists and organizations that are part of the Festival! Refreshments provided.

Info: The Reclamation Project Group at Women's Justice Institute presents artwork by women inside Pr*son in collaboration with women who have been released.

Info: Join Feather Bricks and Reparations Media in a hands-on creative storytelling workshop. System-impacted authors and artists will share their writing process for crafting stories with emotional appeal and impact. Contributors to Feather Bricks magazine–a brave space to celebrate creative, encouraging, and instructive expressions by and about writers serving long-term Pr*son sentences in Illinois– and collaborative storytellers from Reparations Media’s Change Agents podcast and Our Underground Library civics education series will provide ideas and writing prompts for all to participate.

Info: Meet and mingle with the artists and organizations that are part of the Festival! Refreshments provided.

Info: A performance of Jabril's Chains, a play written by executive director of The Mud Theatre Project, Brian Beals. The play will be followed by a brief talkback.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Definition Theatre, 1160 East 55th Street, Chicago, United States