NON:op's Immersive Platform for Virtual Performance and Participation
volume 6:6, August 2025
Please join us as we investigate alternative futures through
music, art, poetry, performance, research, observation, and activism.
SHARE. INTERACT. COLLABORATE.
AND SUPPORT OUR PROGRAMMING WITH A DONATION.
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UPDATE | Listening Across Neighborhoods
August - September 2025
North Lawndale, West Garfield Park, East Garfield Park
 NON:op kicked off our 2025 iteration of Listening Across Neighborhoods with daylong workshops at Theatre Y (August 9) and Legler Regional Library (August 16). Teaching artists, Sam Anthem, Mira Simonton-Chao, and Allen Moore led seventeen youth on soundwalks, listening activities, and learning presentations. Youth came together from neighborhoods throughout Chicago including Garfield Park, North Lawndale, West Pullman, Lincoln Square, Logan Square, Monticello, Chatham, Galewood, Burnside, Belmont Cragin, and East Side.
Guest Artist Marvin Tate led the first soundwalk where he took the youth on a journey to his past comparing the sounds of his youth in North Lawndale with the current sounds of neighborhood development. This past weekend, Guest Artist Damon Locks talked about his journey with sound introducing students to his electronic and sampling techniques.
This Saturday's final LAN sound workshop will take place at Walls Turned Sideways and feature Sound Artist Allen Moore who will introduce his creative practice and lead students in a DIY cardboard turntable activity. Alex Boutros will lead the morning soundwalk. Following a week off for Labor Day, youth will join youth leadership trainer Phillip Purkett for public speaking and presentation workshops on September 6 and 13 at St. Ignatius College Prep as they prepare their research presentations for the following public events:
September 27 • Walls Turned Sideways
2717 W Madison ST, Chicago, IL 60612
Walls Turned Sideways is wheelchair accessible.
For other accessibility requests contact non [at] nonopera [dot] org
October 25 • Guanacaste Listening Conference
St Ignatius College Prep • 1076 Roosevelt Rd, Chicago, IL 60608
St Ignatius College Prep is wheelchair accessible.
For other accessibility requests contact non [at] nonopera [dot] org
For more information about these events contact lan [at] nonopera [dot] org.
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SAVE THE DATE | STN Commission Concert
Saturday, October 11 at 7pm
Theatre Y, 3611 W Cermak Rd
Join us on October 11 at Theatre Y in North Lawndale as we honor and celebrate the 2025 SAY THEIR NAMES commissioned artists, Donna "Dante" Marie Gary, Pugs Atomz, and Dr Tara Betts, with Anthony R. Green.
October 11, 7pm • Theatre Y
3611 W Cermak Rd, Chicago, IL 60623
For accessibility requests contact non [at] nonopera [dot] org
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FRONTIERES SANS FRONTIERES
Theatre Y's Current Production
"A brightly colored, comic fantasia on cultural imperialism. There is much beauty in this abundance, and something deeply unsettling, too." - The New York Times
Theatre Y, presents the Chicago premiere of Phillip Howze’s Frontiers sans Frontiers. Directed by Kezia Waters, don’t miss the final weekend of Theatre Y’s summer production.
 Here, at the corner of a country that feels both foreign and familiar, three orphaned, stateless youth have built a simple life out of recreation and mischief-making. Their world is rocked as a parade of immodest strangers slowly invade, offering gifts of language, medicine, art, and commerce. As the lure of development blurs their beliefs, life and landscape mutate, threatening their long-held values, community, and humanity. In a comic spectacle to challenge the pretense of altruism and civilization, Frontieres Sans Frontieres asks what happens when generosity looks a lot like self-interest? How to comprehend when the promise of language matures to the tyranny of words? Who wins and who loses in a war to hold on to the people and places we love?There’s resistance in how we remember things, there’s imagination, there’s a spark of something ancient and wise—embodied knowledge, art, presence—that reminds us we weren’t always THIS way. Humans are not wired THIS way, and therefore there is also resistance in how we forget things.
The questions at the heart of this play are both simple and profound: What becomes possible when we unlearn? And another strikingly timely question posed by Toni Cade Bambara, “What are you pretending not to Know?”
Remaining Performance Schedule
August 21, 23, 24, 2025
Showtimes
Thursdays 7 pm, Saturdays 3 pm & 7 pm, Sundays 3 pm.
Location
Theatre Y - 3609 W Cermak Rd, Chicago, IL 60623
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[ PARTICIPATE ] MSAE's Summer Soundwalks 2025
Guided listening in Chicago Public Parks
FREE & WELCOME TO ALL
Between June and September, everyone is invited to explore the art of soundwalking in 6 different public parks. Led by teaching artists and special guests, these soundwalks will guide our listening awareness across the natural and cultural dimensions of Chicago. How can we contemplate the sounds around us, and where does collective listening lead us?
The two remaining soundwalks are:
Tune In, Take Turns – led by Deirdre Harrison with Katie Mazzini
Saturday, August 23, 2025 10:30 AM → 12:00 PM
Columbus Park, 500 S Central Ave
Singing Insects Soundwalk – led by Eric Leonardson with Negin Almassi
Saturday, September 6, 2025 6:30 PM → 7:30 PM
Jackson Park Wooded Island, 1686 E Hayes Dr
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[ NEW PROGRAM ] Equipment Sharing Program
Do you need AV equipment for your next show or project,
but can't afford to purchase or rent it?
?
NON:op Arts and Humanities is now offering audio and video equipment and services to other small Chicago non-profit organizations and individuals with whom we share a vision and creative aesthetic. This high-quality gear—purchased with funding from DCASE's CARP grant—may be used for both in-person and live-stream productions. Equipment and services will be made available at a very reasonable rate and/or in exchange for equipment and resources that we do not have.
Click HERE or above for more information about this exciting new program
or contact Theo at esp@nonopera.org.
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[ INTERACT ] New Digital Home and...
We are very, very excited to roll out our NEW NON:op Arts and Humanities website. After a year-long development with Designed Advantage (shout out to Greg Denagall!!) it HERE!!! This new interactive website will make it easy to directly participate in multiple NON:op projects. Check it out!
[ INTERACT ] New Physical Home!
We are very, very excited to announce that NON:op Arts and Humanities is moving to the Theatre Y building at 3611 West Cermak Road in North Lawndale. We are thrilled to be welcomed at Theatre Y by Melissa, the Actors, and Staff. At the beginning of 2025 we embraced the humanities programming we have been doing since 2020 by changing our organization's name to NON:op Arts and Humanities, and now we are moving to the Theatre Y building in North Lawndale to be closer to the communities that we serve. While we will not move in until later this year, we will be spending most of our time on Cermak. Come visit us!
Already in the past month, NON:op has provided technical and video support for Theatre Y’s Not To Be, a documentary shot inside Stateville Correctional Center. And NON:op's artistic director, Christophe Preissing, made his Theatre Y debut as a metaphor for police violence in Tortured By Blue by Stanley Howard, for which also created sound.
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[ PARTICIPATE ] 2025 Performances and Events
Mark your calendars for the following 2025 performances and Events:
- August - October: Season two of Listening Across Neighborhoods
- September 16: Performance of STRESS TEST, a new collaborative work by Christophe Preissing and Matt Bodett, Experimental Sound Studio
- October 11: SAY THEIR NAMES commission concert, Theatre Y
- December 11: Christophe Preissing, Liliana Wosko, and Eric Leonardson, Elastic Arts Improv Series
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[ WOW ] Fundraising News!
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IMPACT THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES: JOIN THE NON:op BOARD!
NON:op is growing, and like many organizations coming out of the pandemic, we are growing with projects, installations, and performances. It's quite an exciting time for us! Are you savvy about one or more aspects of running a non-profit? Join our board of directors. Do you have a passion for planning engaging events and projects? Join our programming committee. For more information, contact Christophe at non [at] nonopera [dot] org. And to find out more about NON:op Arts and Humanities and our initiatives visit our WEBSITE.
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Governing and Programming Board Positions
Do you believe in the work we are doing? If so, please contact non [at] nonopera [dot] org to find out how you can support NON:op as a Board member. NON:op is seeking creative, passionate, and inspired individuals to join our board of directors in one of the following roles:
Programming Committee
The programming committee meets monthly with the artistic director and is responsible for supporting current programming and devising and producing future programming and events.
Governing Committee
The governing committee is responsible for finances, governance, and legal matters in support of the organization and its programming. The governing committee meets once per quarter and is joined by members of the programming committee.
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 Volunteer, Intern, and Other OpportunitiesNON:op is seeking volunteers, interns, participants, assistants, artists, and all who have creative ideas and who would like to work with NON:op to implement a shared vision. Please contact Christophe at non [at] nonopera [dot] org if you would like to find out more and join us as we create an alternative future.
Click here to order and support NON:op and its artists. |
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Thank you for taking care of each other by staying indoors and practicing social distancing.
We hope you and yours are well and staying safe as we work to create an alternative future.
SHARE. INTERACT. COLLABORATE.
Christophe, Saba, Theo, Ja Nelle, Jason, and all of NON:op's creatives, staff, volunteers, and interns
NON:op is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Please consider supporting NON:op's program initiatives, creatives, and mission with a donation today.
All donations are tax deductible according to federal guidelines. Thank you.
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NON:op kicked off our 2025 iteration of 
Guest Artist 
Here, at the corner of a country that feels both foreign and familiar, three orphaned, stateless youth have built a simple life out of recreation and mischief-making. Their world is rocked as a parade of immodest strangers slowly invade, offering gifts of language, medicine, art, and commerce. As the lure of development blurs their beliefs, life and landscape mutate, threatening their long-held values, community, and humanity. In a comic spectacle to challenge the pretense of altruism and civilization, Frontieres Sans Frontieres asks what happens when generosity looks a lot like self-interest? How to comprehend when the promise of language matures to the tyranny of words? Who wins and who loses in a war to hold on to the people and places we love?
Volunteer, Intern, and Other Opportunities
