Logan Square Arts Festival
Installations
View Without a Room
Maven Kennedy
View Without a Room is a soft sculpture installation made from windows from the artist’s life hung amongst trees in the Square. Visitors are invited to move around the works, allowing for the view from the windows to shift with their changing perspectives.
Maven Kennedy's (they/them) interdisciplinary art practice responds to found objects, chosen places and the history embedded in material; the textiles, dyes and spaces their practice engages are linked to the artists' daily life and community. They received a Bachelor's Degree from Northeastern Illinois University and MFA from Northern Illinois University where they were awarded the Helen Merritt Fellowship.
They’ve received solo exhibitions from Belong Gallery, SXU Art Gallery, Roman Susan and Parlour and Ramp, as well as site specific installations with Charles Allis Art Museum, Terrain Exhibitions Biennial, and Purple Window Gallery. They have received artist residencies with ACRE, Ragdale, Roman Susan, Terrain Exhibitions, Awakenings, Lillstreet Art Center, and the Bridge Program at Hyde Park Art Center. They also serve as the Director at NEIU's Fine Art Center Gallery and teach at Northern Illinois University, their studio is based out of Chicago.
Interactive Art
mobile music makers iii
Madeleine Aguilar
mobile music maker iii is a modular, interactive sound making structure which invites multiple players at once to explore their sonic environment.
Madeleine Aguilar is a multidisciplinary artist + musician from Chicago. Their work is often mobile / modular / interactive and can be found in backyards, libraries, gardens, storefronts, homes, galleries, artist-run spaces & book fairs. They respond to existing environments, building structures + furniture + instruments that prompt users to actively reconsider & redefine their function(s) and freely engage with their sonic landscape. Using the archive as form, they mark time by cataloging lived spaces, collected objects, familial histories, personal relationships, natural phenomena, mundane routines, and collected ephemera.
Madeleine runs bench press, a risograph press based on friendship, play & collaboration. bench press often partners with artists + designers who are new to the book as form, utilizing the risograph as a tool for skill sharing and cultivating new friendships. They co-teach a risography & bookmaking course every summer at Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency. Their books live in the Franklin Furnace Archive in the Pratt Institute Library, the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the 8-Ball Library in NY, New York, the VCU Art Book LIbrary at Virginia Commonwealth University, and elsewhere. They currently run the Print Lab in the School of Design at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Everything on Wheels
Regin Igloria
Everything on Wheels is an interactive project that asks participants to contribute responses to question prompts. Using roving pedestals made of refurbished furniture parts, discarded lumber, and repurposed construction materials, the individual stations are placed in public spaces where passersby may encounter them. Viewers are asked to answer various questions within the pages of handmade books, creating a collection of hand-written and drawn entries. These responses encourage new viewers to engage directly with personal replies, creating an ongoing dialogue between strangers.
North Branch Projects swaps filled books with new blank books, typically made by participants during Community Binding sessions. Question prompts are generated in conversation with staff or individuals who work at specific venues (e.g. librarians, teachers, or administrative staff of institution sites). Completed books become part of the Neighborhood Archive and are used to develop .
Spaces that house Everything on Wheels pedestals are encouraged to host Community Binding workshops at various points during the duration of their occupancy (usually a temporary duration lasting from a few weeks to several months).
Regin Igloria is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in the Chicagoland area. His drawings, artists’ books, sculptures, and performances portray the human condition as it relates to the natural environment and inhabited spaces. In 2010, he founded North Branch Projects, an organization that builds connections through the book arts, which allows him to work with various communities to create crossover between disparate populations. Igloria has taught at places such as The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Rhode Island School of Design, Marwen, Snow City Arts, and Carthage College. He received a 3Arts Next Level Artist Award as well as local, national, and international grants, support through artist residencies such as Camargo Foundation and Ucross, and has exhibited internationally. He received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design.
Sculpture for CTA Blue Line Station
Instituto Grafico De Chicago
This project is a community invitation to help create a piece of public art.
The Project
Janet Austin and Instituto Gráfico de Chicago (IGC) are creating a public sculpture to be permanently installed at the Logan Square Blue Line CTA station in Chicago.
The Big Idea
Instead of just making the sculpture by themselves in a studio, the artists want the artwork to reflect the actual people of Chicago. They want it to tell stories about how we travel through the city, what we see every day, and how we welcome people to our neighborhoods.
How You Can Get Involved
They are hosting free poetry and printmaking (drawing/stamping) workshops this summer. Follow them on Instagram to learn more about upcoming workshops and events!
The Goal
If you go to a workshop or catch them at a festival, the poem you write or the drawing/print you make may be selected and literally be embedded (built into) the final sculpture.
In Short
They are asking you — and anyone else in Chicago — to come hang out, make some art, and have your voice become a permanent part of a CTA train station. It’s a way to turn a public transit stop into a community scrapbook.
The Instituto Gráfico de Chicago (IGC) is dedicated to maintaining the critical activist tradition of Latino printmaking that unites communities of struggle around the world. They are inspired by the socio-political art of Mexico's Taller de Grafica Popular (The People's Print Workshop) and use their art as a platform to inform and generate community discourse about urgent social issues. IGC believes that art is not separate from public life.
IGC advances the legacy and vitality of printmaking by fostering collaboration and solidarity amongst print artists through transnational dialogue and art making. They also create programming outside of formal education settings that celebrates and demystifies printmaking techniques and process for the public. IGC's praxis responds to the social conditions that impede equity and access to art-making and critical consciousness.
Over the past 25 years, Janet Austin has produced a rich body of work in both the studio and the public realm. By combining traditional sculptural materials—including glass, steel, bronze, ceramic, concrete, and mosaic—and frequently incorporating text, she creates works that are both visually compelling and intellectually engaging. From intimate bronzes such as Larvae for a Better Tomorrow, to monumental outdoor sculptures like The Nightingale in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, to expansive land art projects such as Embark/Embrace on San Juan Island, Washington, Austin’s work takes many forms.
Accessibility is an essential component of her practice, achieved through approachable subject matter and opportunities for direct participation. By inviting community engagement, she creates work that connects with a broad and diverse audience.
Jose Luis Gutierrez (elgtz) was born and raised in Chicago, IL., he is an artist and a founding member of Instituto Grafico de Chicago (IGC) a printmaking organization that has organized the annual printmaking festival “Grabadolandia” in the Pilsen Neighborhood for the past thirteen years. He is a Chicago Public Schools art teacher, teaching artist, art education consultant, veteran and musician. He was formerly the associate director of education at the National Museum of Mexican art where he oversaw after-school and community art programs that were implemented in the Chicagoland area. He curated art exhibitions and developed educational curriculum related to art exhibitions. Work he continues to do through IGC. His artwork and music explore social issues like: relationships, politics, and idiosyncrasies of the human and social condition. He strives to build collaborative art projects, curriculum and music that address issues of identity, race, self-expression and social justice. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign with a dual Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting and Art Education and earned a Master of Arts in Art Education from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Stamp of Sunshine
Festival goers are invited to write and send free postcards to anyone in their life! Stamp of Sunshine postcards are designed by Logan Square artists as a part of their Neighbor Series! Founder Alexandra Mamalakis's neighbors have been her "village" over the past 5 years in Logan Square.
Special thanks to Alexandra Tzougros, Laura Devitt, Cam Gasser, and Lucas Gonzalez.
Stamp of Sunshine is a Logan Square born non-profit with a mission to build community by creating space for genuine connection through handwritten messages. We invite you to pause and write a letter to someone in your life! We provide free materials, stamps, a mail drop, and send the cards out the next day.
Alexandra started Stamp of Sunshine after she was going through a hard time in 2020 and people in her life wrote her letters. Those handwritten letters still are up on her wall today and remind her of who she was during that time. Alexandra wants everyone to have a tangible reminder that they are known and loved, and invites all of you to come reach out to anyone in your life – stamped and sent for free!
In 2023 a Logan Squarian, Alexandra Mamalakis (MSW), had her neighbors over for a spontaneous evening to make and write cards. It was a connective art filled night. The next week, she brought the idea to Sip of Hope and hosted another pop-up where everyone could write cards to people in their life. Now in 2026, Stamp of Sunshine is a non-profit and over 7,500 postcards have been sent and 200+ pop-ups have been hosted in community spaces.
Stamp of Sunshine is excited to be back at the LSAF for the second time this year! A special shoutout and thank you to our artists from our "Neighbor Series." Alexandra Tzougros, Cam Gasser, Laura Devitt, and Lucas Gonzalez. Those neighbors who came to the very first event are now artists for Stamp of Sunshine. We are so excited for you all to send your words on their art that will be send around the world.
Alexandra started Stamp of Sunshine after she was going through a hard time in 2020 and people in her life wrote her letters. Those handwritten letters still are up on her wall today and remind her of who she was during that time. Alexandra wants everyone to have a tangible reminder that they are known and loved, and invites all of you to come reach out to anyone in your life – stamped and sent for free!
Performances
The Mill Presents: The Last Word is Not a Word
Millstone Mag
The Last Word is Not a Word explores the possibilities of how to write towards endings that open up a poem rather than close it. The real purpose of that common writing advice to "show, don't tell" is that the meaning writers cast their nets for is often found most fully in what is not said, or even at times in what is unable to be said. As Ludwig Wittengenstein wrote, "There is indeed the inexpressible. This shows itself." The workshop will feature a discussion of readings by Eve Ewing and Tracie Morris followed by a writing prompt.
The Mill is a variety show and open mic that features local artists from a range of mediums and genres, such as poets, puppeteers, dancers, comedians, musicians, comic book artists, and clowns.
Millstone curates a monthly variety show and open mic called The Mill on the third Thursday of every month to help raise money for local charities. The show features local artists from a range of mediums and genres (poets, puppeteers, dancers, comedians, musicians, comic book artists, clowns, and more). The micropress also publishes the literature and arts journal Millstone, along with other zines and books throughout the year.
Millstone was founded from a desire to return to an emphasis on local community building and DIY art scenes, as well as a desire to offer an alternative to contemporary paradigms of meaning, such as the commodified performance of the self. Millstone attempts to foreground authenticity and exploration, with the belief that genuine speech will result in the creation of genuine community.
Rabbit Foot Puppetry
Wind Piece
Lauren C. Sudbrink
Wind Piece takes form at the festival through the installation of 840 pinwheels, creating a pathway for three performers to perform their interpretation of wind, while two-three musicians live-score the performances on their wind instruments. After the performance, the audience is invited to walk the pinwheel path and take as many pinwheels as they like.
As an artist, composer and performer, Lauren C. Sudbrink's work is concerned with possibilities of social engagement, collaboration and play. Her intermedial work considers possibilities of the participatory function of art within an ever shifting constellation of systems and processes. With a background in visual art, performance and music, Lauren endeavors to create projects that are accessible to a wide range of audiences, presenting exhibitions and opportunities in which anyone from the novice to the expert can find something relevant to their lives, practice or experience. Her creative practice brings folks together via collaborative and interactive exhibition prompts and themes, leading to community-building and connection-making with artists across disciplines and audiences of all backgrounds.
Sudbrink's hope for future work is to continue providing and expand upon ways to provide opportunities to explore the possibilities and inspirations for artists, musicians and creativity of all stripes considering their roles in labor and the re-inscription of the creative process. She is committed to creating artistic environments that are inclusive, diverse, accessible and culturally relevant, where performers and audiences alike are invited to be active participants in the work.
Workshops
Experimental Parkour and Poetry
Gabe Life 100
Participants will write movement-focused poetry and plan exploratory parkour moves using a worksheet developed by Gabe Life 100. Then, the group will move outside and try their moves together. Finally, the group will come together for a short reflection and debrief.
All approaches to movement will be celebrated. No experience necessary!
Gabe Life 100 is an artist based in Chicago working with movement, writing, participatory performance, and sculpture. He does an ongoing project climbing and traversing signs, stores, and architectural features. His poetry practice is exploratory, tactile, and humorous. He uses structured writing prompts to envision body movement and actions in real space.
Gabe has performed at No Nation Art Lab, Locker Room Chicago, Apple Computer, Compound Yellow, Southwest Creative Studio, Ma’s, California Clipper, Marmalade Preserve, Prout Chapel, outside, and online. He values DIY, art, content, performance in public, and poetry.
Somatic Circus Play
Maya Anuligo
🫶 “Play is the opposite of trauma.”
Somatic Circus Play invites participants to reconnect with their bodies through gentle circus-inspired movement, play, and mindful somatic release. Together, we’ll use soft acrobatics and grounding lower-body work to cultivate safety, joy, and embodiment — encouraging the nervous system to release tension and restore flow.
🤩 Maya is a passionate circus artist, teacher, and choreographer dedicated to helping people reconnect with their bodies through play, presence, and creative movement. As graduating student in the Aloft Circus Arts full professional training program, Maya blends technical aerial and circus skill with a deep interest in embodiment and somatic practice.
She recently choreographed her first student showcase piece, an experience that strengthened her belief that circus is more than tricks — it’s an invitation to explore trust, courage, and self-expression in community.
💖 In her classes, Maya brings warmth, creativity, and a trauma-informed and inclusive perspective, drawing on her experience with soft acrobatics, beginner tumbling, partner acro, and active flexibility. Her teaching is rooted in the idea that play is the opposite of trauma — when we soften, ground, and move with curiosity, we remember our bodies are a safe place to come home to.
Through Somatic Circus Play, Maya creates space for students to laugh, release, and strengthen together — building not just physical skills but resilience, connection, and delight in their own bodies.
Maya Anuligo's work seeks to bring poetry into form. She is interested in authenticity, research and experimentation, mood, musicality, centering neurodivergent perspectives, and de-centering western ideologies. Through performance, Maya aims to create intentional experiences that invite reflection, spark questions, and open a dialogue between artist and audience.
Through aerial movement and dance, Anuligo explores how form, expression, timing, atmosphere, and music can translate complex emotional landscapes into a visual language. Her aerial/movement practice is an extension of her poetry practice—the questions are the same; only the medium changes.
Rooted in poetry and contemporary circus, Maya's work blends technical skill with curiosity and human connection. Rather than pursuing spectacle for its own sake, she create performances that invite audiences into shared experiences of wonder, presence, and recognition, offering space to consider new ways of inhabiting ourselves and relating to one another.
Writing with Millstone Magazine
Golden Shovels and Dandelion Killers
Join poet Lemmy Ya'akova and learn how to write a "Golden Shovel" – featuring performance pieces and an essay on limitations and poems from their unpublished chapbook.
Lemmy Ya'akova is an advocate for y2k low culture, an amateur pool player, a popcorn enthusiast and a cat parent to their son, Moose. They’re the author of the poetry collections Overflowing the Tub, Night Gallery Press, 2024 and Tiger’s Tail, General Things Press, 2024. Their other work can be found in HAD (Hobart After Dark), Anti-Heroin Chic Magazine, SAND Journal and more.
Recently in their writing, Lemmy has been focusing on editing and submitting two new manuscripts, the intersection where poetry and archival meet and how to consciously break form. Otherwise, you can find them on the pool tables of Wicker Park and West Town, finishing crochet commissions on their couch watching movies, or working at their photobooth studio job. You can keep up with their life on instagram @anoma__ly.