Bios

Elvira Arellano is a Mexican immigrant-rights activist who was threatened with deportation after 9/11 but was able to win cases for herself, her young son, and other immigrant workers at O'Hare Airport by gaining community support.

Big Smith is a performance ensemble combining original percussive music, performance art, poetry, and activism with a deep commitment to using art as an instrument for political and social change.

Reverend Finley C. Campbell is a committed anti-racism activist and the Chair of the Social Justice Council of The First Unitarian Church.

Carols Cortez's father was Mexican Wobbly and his mother a German socialist-pacifist. Following in both of their footsteps, he became a renowned activist, poet, and graphic artist. He died in his Chicago home on January 18, 2005.

Kathleen Duffy's interdisciplinary practice includes community-based performance, writing, and installation art. She has taught workshops and performed poetry in New York, Portland, Buffalo, and Chicago; and published internationally. Kathleen co-founded Anti Gravity Surprise to forge alliances with other artists, activists, community groups, and the general public. Using collaboration as a political force, she is the Education and Outreach Director of The Dill Pickle Food Co-op initiative in Chicago.

Netron Howard-Bernal and Sonji Murray-Allen are community health advocates and nursing-home aids who are organizing workers, residents, and their families to fight cuts in nursing-home care.

Dan Godston is a musician and poet who creates interdisciplinary performances.

K.A.R.A.O.K.E is a music collective who inspire people to sing popular songs with political twists.

Jennifer Karmin is a poet, artist, and educator who has published, performed, exhibited, taught, and experimented with language throughout the U.S. and Japan. Intersecting writing with sound and image, she is co-founder of the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise and curator for the SpareRoom Time-Arts Cooperative. Currently at home in Chicago, Jennifer works in the public schools as a Poet in Residence and teaches creative writing to immigrants at Truman College.

Mrs. Rao's Growl is performing LAUGH in public spaces all over the U.S., presenting laughter to protest, heal, and create community.

Bryan Saner is a carpenter and member of the performance group Goat Island. He has been involved in alternative education throughout his whole career, including developing a cooperative child-directed elementary school with housing collective in Chicago.

Earl Silbar is a Chicago union organizer who helped to plan the 2004 Million Worker March in Washington D.C.

Spunn engages audiences with ritual, spectacle, fire, and drums.

Jeni Swerdlow is a drummer, artist and art therapist/educator who enjoys bringing people together in playful, creative ways through rhythm. Jeni is the founder of Drummm programs, which feature drum circles, workshops, residencies and performances to a vast array of communities and venues. Jeni has performed, taught and exhibited internationally at a wide range of theaters, museums and galleries and conferences. Jeni's passion for drumming is matched only by her playful spirit and commitment towards building community.

Marvin Tate is a pioneer in the genre of fusing poetry, performance, spoken-word, and music. He is the Author of "School Yards and Broken Dreams" and has been featured on NPR's "This American Life," Art-Beat Chicago, Wild Chicago and has shared the stage with the likes of Amiri Barka, Nikki Giovanni, Annie Sprinkle, Ken Nordine, Malachi Thompson, and many others.

Peter Zelchenko is an informal political art historian, activist, and the author of a book about the theft of the 1999 First Ward aldermanic Chicago election.