Body art

Chicago is a major center of “crip culture,” as it’s referred to by its participants, so it seems appropriate that our city is hosting a ground-breaking cross-genre celebration of disability arts and culture. The inaugural Bodies of Work festival, taking place April 20–30, includes offerings from hundreds of artists and venues. Here, we feature a few of this year’s most noteworthy performers—see Around Town, Art & Design, Dance, Kids and Theater for additional coverage and listings. For more info and a complete schedule, visit www.bodiesofwork.org.

Alana Wallace
Wallace is the founder and artistic director of Dance>Detour, a professional dance company that includes performers with and without disabilities. Wallace uses a wheelchair as a result of childhood polio, and incorporates the chair into her pieces. Wallace and the rest of Dance>Detour will perform in the Bodies of Work opening-night production.

How do you describe what you do to people who can’t picture a person dancing in a wheelchair?
It’s hard; I can spout off some elaborate definition, but it’s easier to just say that the wheelchair can be a beautiful accessory to the dancers. The movement is like ice dancing, the way skaters glide across the ice. But of course, the best way to “get it” is to see it.
What’s the most outrageous thing anyone’s said to you about your disability?
One time, people were talking about what they would wish for if they could wish for anything, and someone jumped in and spoke for me. They said, “You’d wish your disability away.” And that is not the case, that’s not what I’d wish for—though of course you can imagine why someone would assume that.
Opening Celebration: Thu 20, 6:30–8pm. Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E Washington St, 312-742-4716, TTY: 312-744-2947. Free, reservations required. Bodies that Dance: See Dance, Fri 21, Sat 22. Young People’s Festival of Disability Arts and Culture: Apr 29, 10am–5pm. St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church, 5649 N Sheridan Rd, 773-388-8839, www.opendoorsnfp.org. Free.

Alana Wallace - Bill Shannon

Bill Shannon
Shannon considers himself a conceptual artist, not a choreographer or dancer. And yet his work incorporates urban freestyle dance, and he’s invented a school of movement he calls Shannon Technique, which draws from street-dance and skater culture. Shannon performs on crutches (which he’s used since he was five) and often on a skateboard. He holds a B.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago, and lives in Brooklyn.

In the piece Traffic, which he will perform on three consecutive nights, Shannon wheels through downtown Chicago on a skateboard, propelling himself with custom-designed crutches. The audience follows him in a souped-up CTA bus that’s outfitted with cameras and a sound system. A DJ spins on the bus, and Shannon wears a microphone, so bus riders can listen to what he hears and says.

What is your work about?
The cultural connotation of skating is “taking big risks and jumping on things and falling down and getting scabs.” The cultural connotation of crutches is “Oh, too bad you can’t dance. I hope you make it up the stairs—be careful.” With my work, it’s about mixing that up.
Why a city bus?
I was really happy to see the CTA has made their buses accessible to wheelchairs. Part of my audience is a wheelchair audience, and getting a person in a wheelchair onto a regular tour bus is really hard.
Traffic: Wed 26–Fri 28, 6pm. Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Chicago Ave, 312-280-2660. $22 ($18 for MCA members).

Riva Lehrer
Lehrer paints and curates art shows in Chicago; she’s also the originator and cocurator of the “Humans Being” exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center, a cornerstone of the larger Bodies of Work festival that features pieces from 32 artists, including graphic novels and digitally manipulated photos. Lehrer’s own body of work includes portraits of disabled artists, including self-portraits. The show includes one piece by Lehrer (Edgewater Beach, shown here).

What is Edgewater Beach about?
Most of my work, I don’t have a hard time talking about, but with this one, I do. I have spina bifida, and in some ways I’m much more mobile than many people who have it, and I’ve escaped many of its predations. At the same time, I’ve had 43 surgeries. If I’m living as if everything’s fine, something happens to remind me that it’s not. If I live as if I’m not capable of doing very much, well, that’s not the truth, either. I have to make almost constant choices about what’s the dominant reality in my life just then.
What are some of the challenges faced by artists who focus on disability?
Almost none of the galleries here in Chicago are accessible. I’ve got a lot of people who I’d like to show in these galleries, and I can’t get them into the building. They’re literally being shut out. And so people will say, “Nobody’s doing work about that.”
“Humans Being: Disability in Contemporary Art”:Through Jun 4. Michigan Avenue Galleries, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E Washington St, 312-742-4716, TTY: 312-744-2947. Free.

Riva Lehrer - Tekki Lomnicki

Tekki Lomnicki
Lomnicki is an actress, playwright, and the cofounder of Tellin’ Tales Theatre, which organizes storytelling workshops for adults and kids with and without disabilities. Lomnicki co-wrote and is directing the Bodies of Work opening-night performance.

How has directing the opening-night show been a challenge?
Even though I personally have a disability, and I think I’m so politically correct, I had to be sensitive to other types of disabilities. For instance, at one point, I was talking to a performer, a deaf comedian, when she had her back turned to me. But she was patient. That’s like me—I’m a little person, and I get the same questions over and over. And I just have to say the answers over and over and not bite a person’s head off. They’re just asking questions that occur to everybody.…One of the most outrageous questions I’ve gotten is “Do you have sex?”
What other projects are you involved with during the festival?
I’m doing a solo comedy show as Second City’s offering in the festival, and I’m also performing for a gigantic group of kids on the last Saturday of the fest. My piece for the kids is called The M Word, because people end up using the word midget when referring to us, and we hate that word.
Opening Celebration: See page 20. Blurred Vision: The Relapse (Lomnicki’s solo comedy show): Tue 25, Wed 26, 8pm. Second City e.t.c., 1608 N Wells St, 312-337-3992. $15. Young People’s Festival of Disability Arts and Culture:.