{"id":79237,"date":"2025-07-20T23:50:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T23:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/79237\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T23:50:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T23:50:18","slug":"mca-after-hours-party-back-with-a-queer-club-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/79237\/","title":{"rendered":"MCA after-hours party back with a queer club takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

The windows at the Museum of Contemporary Art,\u00a0220 E. Chicago Ave., glowed a bright\u00a0purple\u00a0late\u00a0into the evening\u00a0of July 18.\u00a0Hundreds of people\u00a0waited\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0line that wrapped around the block\u00a0to get into\u00a0Prime Time, an after-hours party\u00a0hosted\u00a0by the museum.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prime Time began 10 years ago, but with this party, it returned to the MCA for the first time since the pandemic began. The event is usually in response to an ongoing exhibition at the museum. This was one paired with City in the Garden, which highlights Chicago\u2019s unique\u00a0role in queer art and activism through history. The exhibit features works from 30 artists and collectives and splits into five sections: Garden, Club, Street, Cinema, and Utopia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Director of Adult Programming Daniel Atkinson said the MCA is uniquely positioned to respond to existential threats to the queer community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of erasure happening right now,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the response, rather than to run, is to say, \u201cOkay, well, we have this amazing megaphoning platform. So, what are we gonna do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LGBTQ+LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project co-founders and co-facilitators Adam Greteman and Karen Morris. Photo by Carrie Maxwell<\/p>\n

\"LGBTQ+LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project participant Phyllis Johnson (left) in conversation with event attendees. Photo by Carrie Maxwell<\/p>\n

The event was a major collaboration between some of Chicago\u2019s queer institutions: Gerber\/ Hart Library and Archives, 6500 N. Clark St., the LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project and Queen!, a weekly dance party at smartbar, 3730 N. Clark St..\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was hosted by Queen!\u2019s hosts, Lucy Stoole and Nico. Queen!, a house and disco party that\u2019s been at smartbar on\u00a0Sundays for more than a decade, is its own Chicago mainstay.<\/p>\n

Stoole\u00a0said\u00a0Queen!\u2019s\u00a0takeover of the MCA makes\u00a0sense:\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s fitting,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is\u00a0the community a lot of us are already a part of. This party has touched every pocket of this city so\u00a0many\u00a0different ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 21+ party included multiple interactive programs.\u00a0Adult programmer Atkinson said that having lots of options for people to engage with was intentional.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding these different ways of being for folks and ways of togetherness is really, really important for us,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the theater on the first floor, Gerber\/ Hart and the Dialogue Project set up multiple tables onstage for people to peruse archival LGBTQ+ material and to start conversations with queer elders from the Project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gerber\/ Hart loaned some of their archival material to the City in a Garden exhibit and contributed photographs to projections playing on the dance floor. Gerber\/ Hart\u2019s Operations Director Erin Bell said that, beyond introducing many partygoers to the archive for the first time, places like this help to remind Chicagoans that\u00a0queer people have always been a part of the city\u2019s history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Gerber-HartGerber-Hart Library and Archives Staffers Michael Rashid, Erin Bell and Jen Dentel. Photo by Carrie Maxwell<\/p>\n

\"AttendeesAttendees look at Gerber-Hart Library and Archives materials. Photo by Carrie Maxwell<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Carrie Maxwell<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just like forging these connections and reminding people about our history and introducing people to our history,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re here, we\u2019ve always been here. Chicago has a rich, rich history and a very important role in our queer history as well, as a nation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the second floor, Chicago DJ mainstays Ralphi Rosario\u00a0and Michael Serafini played house music all through the party. The second floor is also where City in the Garden is situated. The name for the exhibit is the English translation of Chicago\u2019s official motto: Urbs in Horto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the top floor, a bedazzling station allowed people to personalize a colored bandana\u00a0and learn more about gay hanky code, a color-coded system\u00a0historically used by gay men to\u00a0non-verbally\u00a0signal sexual preferences.\u00a0Attendees indeed waited in long lines to\u00a0participate\u00a0in\u00a0much\u00a0of\u00a0the programming, and some people\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0experience it before the party ended at 10 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the first hour\u00a0of the party, performance artists activated one of the artworks,\u00a0\u201cThe Rite\u201d\u00a0by Brendan Fernandes.\u00a0The performers\u00a0danced\u00a0inside\u00a0a cage-like structure,\u00a0interacting with it and\u00a0exploring\u00a0the tension.\u00a0Made in 2019,\u00a0the work is recontextualized in a\u00a0tense political moment for queer people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a duet,\u201d Fernandes said about the piece.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s two bodies\u00a0moving together, looking for each other, finding each other. But also, within a queer space, [it\u2019s] the idea of cruising, finding encounters, coming together, breaking apart, coming back together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The piece will be activated again<\/a> on September 12 and March 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With City in a Garden and Prime Time, the\u00a0MCA is emphasizing the idea that art, activism, rhinestones and dancing are all part of the classic queer experience. Atkinson\u00a0said it\u2019s more important than ever to center joy and celebration in the midst of so much political strife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are really, really bad,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of sadness and\u00a0anger and despair. Part of it for me, in doing an event like this, in fore-fronting joy and togetherness and\u00a0dancing, is partially because we need time to celebrate. But it\u2019s also a very specific political statement. We will still have joy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The windows at the Museum of Contemporary Art,\u00a0220 E. Chicago Ave., glowed a bright\u00a0purple\u00a0late\u00a0into the evening\u00a0of July 18.\u00a0Hundreds…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":79238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[1037,960,54604,5386,1818,54605,11597],"class_list":{"0":"post-79237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-gerber-hart","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois","13":"tag-intergenerational-dialogue-projec","14":"tag-mca"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114888247631958426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}