Starting May 28 you have an opportunity. Grab it up! This year’s Pivot Arts Festival theme is “Celebrate Community!” and inherent in that idea is that we can come together and celebrate our common humanity, and our differences, through the arts.

Edgewater and Uptown, where the Pivot Arts Festival takes place, are special places. I share office space with a premiere LGBTQ theater, a few blocks south is the heart of Chicago’s Vietnamese community and few blocks north is Swift School, where over 50 languages are spoken. I feel lucky to have such diverse and interesting neighbors and wish that we had more opportunities to interact in a genuine way.

The Festival is an opportunity to come together and be a part of something bigger than our familiar routine. There’s an Edgewater Crawl on 5/28 led by the inspirational artist Toaster Henderson, there’s a Community Parade on 5/30 with large-scale puppets that culminates in performances from 1-4pm. Come check out the “Memory Bank,” a transformed storefront at 1050 W. Bryn Mawr open June 1 – 14.

There are 10 days of innovative, exciting theater, dance, spoken word, clowning & music performances. Go see them and have fun! Then come hang out with us at Bar 63 the first weekend and then at Crew Bar and Grill the second. The festival culminates on June 6 with BAATHHAUS, whose electric music will have you dancing at the Uptown Underground.

Often we find ourselves coming together in response to tragedy. The Pivot Arts Festival is an opportunity to come together to celebrate as a community.

Don’t Miss Out: pivotarts.org/festival.

Photo of the Neo-Futurists by Joe Mazza, Brave Lux. The Neo-Futurists perform as part of FESTIVAL TAPAS NIGHT along with RE Dance, About Face Theater and Ami Saraiya and the Outcome on May 29th