Programs
2025
Architect's Roundtable 2025
This is partner program with Open House Chicago, a program of the Chicago Architecture Center.
Prepare Me (To Be) a Sanctuary
Featuring Lex Rofeburg (Judaism Unbound) and Rebekah Coffman (Chicago History Museum)!
This is partner program with Open House Chicago, a program of the Chicago Architecture Center.
Interfaith Dinner
It is customary during Sukkot to invite guests into one’s sukkah to eat and enjoy the space together. The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival is partnering with Stone Temple Baptist Church and Mishkan Chicago to host an Interfaith Community Dinner, inviting members of all faiths and cultural backgrounds to come together to break bread, share space, and create shared memories in the six sukkahs on the festival grounds.
The meal will be lovingly prepared by Everyday Feast and Flava Food 4 the Soul. Dress comfortably for the outdoors!
Registration is FREE, donations are encouraged to help support our catering expenses, and RSVP is required. The event will be capped at 50 people. Family friendly.
Neighborhood Bike Tour
The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival partners with Working Bikes to lead a bike tour the North Lawndale neighborhood. Visit sukkahs from previous editions of the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival (2022–2024) that are now installed at the facilities of participating community partners, and learn how they're functioning at their new homes.
Bring your own bike or scooter, or rent a Divvy on site at James Stone Freedom Square.
Poetics of Place: Humanities, Justice, & Movement
Poetics of Place weaves together poetry, live music, dance, and cultural fusion to explore resilience, memory, and belonging in North Lawndale. From powerful spoken word to soul-stirring performances and a klezmer–hip hop collaboration, the program invites audiences into an immersive afternoon of sound, story, and movement. Together, these performances transform the sukkahs into living stages of solidarity and creative expression.
This event is presented in partnership with the Chicago Humanities, featuring an opening poem by Marvin Tate, a performance by Zeshan B, melodies by klezmer musician Hannah Mira Friedland. Savera Iftikhar will create a live painting during the event that reflects our mission and vision of building third spaces where diverse communities gather, create, and envision just futures.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Zeshan B is a Billboard Top 10 and iTunes #1 singer, songwriter and bandleader blending American soul and South Asian traditions. His acclaimed albums—Vetted, Melismatic, and O Say, Can You See (executive produced by Preet Bharara)—have earned praise from Rolling Stone, NPR, MSNBC, Variety, and The New York Times, and led to performances at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Bonnaroo, Sundance, the Blue Note, and the White House for Presidents Obama and Carter. A three-time guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Zeshan’s work has appeared on PBS, CNN, and MSNBC; his single “Brown Power” was used by Biden’s 2020 campaign. He has held residencies at Lincoln Center and the Doris Duke Shangri-La Museum, using music for cross-cultural dialogue and social justice.
Hannah Mira Friedland is a fiddler, violist, Yiddish dance leader, and cultural worker in Chicago. Raised in a family of musicians, she studied classical violin and viola before falling in love with traditional folk music and dance. Hannah Mira graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she studied music, geography, and religious studies. She is a co-founder of the Upshtat Zingerai Klezmer Band, which has emerged as a central force in the continuity and evolution of klezmer music and Yiddish dance – the traditional music and dance of Eastern European Jews – in Chicago. She regularly participates in the KlezKanada festival, an international hub for Yiddish arts and culture, and has been awarded KlezKanada’s Azrieli Scholarship. Hannah Mira has learned traditional music and dance with master teachers including Alicia Svigals, Abigale Reisman, Michael Alpert, Avia Moore, Alasdair Fraser, Alex Koffman, Kurt Bjorling, and Sowah Mensah. Recent Upshtat Zingerai performances include Tantshoyz: A Klezmer Music and Yiddish Dance Series at Clara in Wicker Park, klezmer concerts hosted by local organizations, and artist markets, a Purim Tantshoyz and Cabaret at Color Club, a KLEZTRONICA collaboration with DJ Chaia, and music for many joyful weddings, b’nai mitzvah celebrations, birthday concerts, and parties.
Marvin Tate is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist, community activist, and art educator. Marvin has performed and recorded with Mike Reed’s “Flesh & Bone” in Poznan, Poland and at New York City’s Vision Fest 2016. His innovative style of spoken word and improvisation landed him a spot in the 2016 Hyde Park Jazz Festival. He recently collaborated with the French avant-garde composer and videographer Christophe Harvard and recorded “The Process” with the sound artist Joseph Clayton Mills. In addition to performing, Tate is also a noted poet/author and visual artist. In 2014 he was awarded a grant by the Poetry Foundation and the Prisoner Neighborhood Arts Program to teach poetry in the Statesville Correctional Center for adult men. His work as a performer stretches back nearly thirty years. Tate’s aim is to empower and build small communities within larger communities, to work as an agent for long-term change, and to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots by introducing underserved communities to recyclable art and singing in public spaces. Marvin grew up on the West side of Chicago and is invested in engaging youth from this area in artistic processes, specifically music, singing, and songwriting.
Savera Iftikhar is a Visual Artist, Art Educator and Art Therapist whose creative journey transcends traditional boundaries. While her studio practice primarily revolves around drawing, Savera fearlessly dives into various mediums, constantly pushing artistic limits while her fascination with the intricacies of the human experience continuously informs her work. In her studio and beyond, Savera is on a mission to connect and tell stories. Continuing to collaborate with others while empowering them and herself to share their narratives with the world, Savera hopes to continue on her artistic odyssey - where each stroke of her pencil, every creative endeavor and connection becomes an integral chapter in a lifelong tale waiting to be unveiled.
Stick around after the event and join our Neighborhood Bike Tour and/or our annual Interfaith Dinner (RSVP Required).
2025 Opening Celebration
Join us for the Opening Celebration of the fourth annual Chicago Sukkah Design Festival! Visitors will experience the five unique sukkahs for the first time and learn more about the Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot. Over the course of the afternoon, attendees will enjoy food, art-making activities, participatory workshops, communal dance, and live music performances. Family friendly!
1:00–3:00 pm: Art-making Workshop – Co-Creating Sanctuary and Hospitality: Rooted in the spirit and teachings of Sukkot, join us for an afternoon of collaborative art making. We'll provide supplies—markers, watercolors, paper, scissors & glue, collage materials, linocut relief print materials—and prompts to inspire our creative process. This activity is designed for people of all ages and faiths. Organized by Jewish Museum of Chicago.
2:00–3:00 pm: Afrofuturist dance workshop, a participatory, communal experience led by Ytasha Womack, a critically acclaimed author, filmmaker, dancer, and champion of the imagination. Beats and grooves by DJ Shannon Harris.
3:00–5:00 pm: Make-your-own lulav workshop: Join artists Sivan Spector and Dani Kosover for an interactive, sensory lulav building experience where we will use local plants provided by Patchwork Farm to create an (un)traditional lulav. Decorate the lulav, and your sukkah, with stamps made from local produce. Participants will be invited to experience the beauty, aromas, symbolism, and movement of shaking the lulav in any or all of the sukkahs on the festival grounds.
3:00–4:00 pm: Capoeira workshop featuring Lotta Yanong of Rise Training Academy. This workshop will introduce participants to Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art which has played a central role in resistance to oppression.
4:00–5:00 pm: Chicago Klezmer Ensemble performance and communal dancing, featuring famed clarinetist Kurt Bjorling.
No RSVP Required.
Architects' Roundtable
Meet our architectural design teams and learn more about their participatory design process during this panel discussion moderated by design thought leader Nekita Thomas.
Afterwards, extend your architectural experience of North Lawndale by participating in one of the building or garden tours that are part of Open House Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Center’s free annual event that provides behind-the-scenes access to architecturally, historically, and culturally significant sites. Stone Temple Baptist Church is one of the Open House Chicago sites, and will hold guided tours of the building (originally the First Roumanian Congregation synagogue) every half hour from 1:00–5:00 p.m.
Neighborhood Bus Tour w/ Shermann “Dilla” Thomas
The acclaimed Chicago Shermann “Dilla” Thomas will lead a guided bus tour through North Lawndale that starts and ends at the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival grounds. Dilla will unpack the social, cultural, and architectural history of the neighborhood, with an opportunity to see the permanent re-installation of sukkahs from past editions of the Festival along the way.
The tour is pay-what-you-can. Suggested donation $20. RSVP is required.
Interfaith Dinner
It is customary during Sukkot to invite guests into one’s sukkah to eat and enjoy the space together. The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival is partnering with Stone Temple Baptist Church, Metro Chicago Hillel, and the Jewish Community Relations Council to host an Interfaith Community Dinner, inviting members of all faiths and cultural backgrounds to come together to break bread, share space, and create shared memories in the six sukkahs on the festival grounds.
During the meal, the Chicago History Museum will lead discussions around how place, space, migration, and belief relate to our ideas of shared heritage.
The meal will be lovingly prepared by Diaspora Dinners and Flava Food 4 the Soul. Dress comfortably for the outdoors!
Registration is FREE, but RSVP is required. The event will be capped at 45 people.
Chicago Sacred: What is a heritage of belief?
Join the Chicago History Museum’s Rebekah Coffman, Curator of Religion and Community History, Joanna Bak, Program Associate, and Greg Storms, Senior Public and Community Engagement Manager, for a discussion on the diverse ways sacredness has been preserved, shared, and activated in Chicago from the past to the present. We will explore the question: what does it mean to safeguard heritages of belief for the future? This program will include a time for discussion as well as a time for activation through a heritage reflection activity.
This program is co-presented with the Chicago History Museum.
No RSVP Required.
2024 Opening Celebration
Join us for the Opening Celebration of the third annual Chicago Sukkah Design Festival! Visitors will experience the five unique sukkahs for the first time and learn more about the Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot. Over the course of the afternoon, attendees will enjoy food, art-making activities, participatory workshops, communal dance, and live music performances. Family friendly!
1:00–5:00 pm: Make-your-own lulav workshop with artist Rachel Ellison of Bat Sarah Press; learn about the cultural rituals surrounding these unique harvest bouquets, and take one home with you!
2:00–3:00 pm: Afrofuturist dance workshop, a participatory, communal experience led by Ytasha Womack, a critically acclaimed author, filmmaker, dancer, and champion of the imagination.
3:00–3:30 pm: Samba performance featuring Joshlean Fair. Enjoy a rooted and meaningful interactive samba performance that connects us all with our best selves individually and collectively.
3:30–4:00 pm: Capoeira workshop featuring Dr. Kamau Rashid. This workshop will introduce participants to Capoeira, an African Brazilian martial art which has played a central role in resistance to oppression.
4:00–5:00 pm: Chicago Klezmer Ensemble performance and communal dancing, featuring famed clarinetist Kurt Bjorling.
No RSVP Required.
Architects' Roundtable: Designing Sukkahs to Amplify Civic Life
Meet our architectural design/build contributors and learn more about their participatory design process co-creating sukkahs alongside their community organization partners. The panel discussion will be moderated by Nekita Thomas, a designer, educator at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and researcher dedicated to using design as a tool for social impact. Afterwards, extend your architectural experience of North Lawndale by participating in one of the building or garden tours that are part of Open House Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Center’s free annual event that provides behind-the-scenes access to architecturally, historically, and culturally significant sites. Stone Temple Baptist Church is one of the Open House Chicago sites, and will hold guided tours of the building (originally the First Roumanian Congregation synagogue) every half hour from 1:00–5:00 p.m.
Collective Memory Performance
Join Lawndale Pop-up Spot and the Collective Museum for a 90-minute program led by Mohamed Fariji and Eugénie Forno. The Collective Museum will instruct participants on how to collect “People’s Histories” through a series of actions and practices designed to collect and preserve ordinary people’s voices, stories, memories, artifacts—a practice to both create new museum practices and also preserve undervalued and invisible histories.
Design For Liberation
Join the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) and Freedom House in a youth-led facilitated discussion about the shared struggles of combatting anti-Blackness and antisemitism as well as the collective cultivation of identity, dignity, place, and belonging. This program is centered on teens and college-aged young adults.
The JCUA brings together the Jewish community to pursue justice in Chicago and Illinois. Freedom House is a North Lawndale-based organization led by Haman Cross III that is dedicated to transforming communities through the arts and creative placemaking.
Interfaith Dinner
It is customary during Sukkot to invite guests into one’s sukkah to eat and enjoy the space together. Stone Temple Baptist Church, Metro Chicago Hillel, and the JUF’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) will be exemplifying this practice by partnering to host an Interfaith Dinner in the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival space, inviting members of all faiths and cultural backgrounds to come together to break bread and create shared memories in the sukkahs.
During the meal, the Chicago History Museum will present an interfaith program that explores themes of adaptive reuse and religious identity through the lens of changing uses of sacred space in North Lawndale, including a group discussion around how place, space, migration, and belief relate to our ideas of shared heritage.
The meal will be lovingly prepared by Diaspora Dinners and Flava Food 4 the Soul. Dress comfortably for the outdoors!
Registration Closed. No seats remaining!
Sustenance for the Soul
“Sustenance for the Soul” is a beloved weekly event in the North Lawndale neighborhood focused on community-building and fighting food insecurity. Every Monday afternoon, dozens of community members come to the Historic Stone Temple Church for free cooked meals, fresh produce, and connection with neighbors.
During the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival, “Sustenance for the Soul” will move across the street to James Stone Freedom Square to enjoy the spaces of the sukkahs.
Sustenance for the Soul 1:00-3:00pm; Sukkahs open 12:00-5:00pm.
No RSVP required
2023 Opening Celebration
Join us for the Opening Celebration of the second annual Chicago Sukkah Design Festival! Visitors will experience the six unique sukkahs for the first time and learn more about the Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot. Over the course of the afternoon, visitors will enjoy food, art-making activities, communal rituals, participatory performances, and more. Family friendly!
1:00–4:00pm: Artist Rachel Ellison of Bat Sarah Press will lead a make-your-own local lulav workshop; learn about the cultural rituals surrounding these unique harvest bouquets, and take one home with you!
1:30–2:00pm: Pastah J of Lawndale Christian Community Church and Rabbi Lizzi of Mishkan Chicago will lead a participatory, interfaith song session.
2:00–3:00pm: Norman Teague Design Studios will offer a flag-making workshop inspired by African and African-American quilting practices.
3:00–4:00pm: Ytasha Womack, a critically acclaimed author, filmmaker, dancer, and champion of the imagination, will lead a communal Afrofuturist dance experience.
At 3:00pm, the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival will join forces with the Terrain Biennial block party, also located at James Stone Freedom Square, for additional festivities!
No RSVP Required.
Past Events
Explore
The festival will take place at James Stone Freedom Square, located at the intersection of Douglas Boulevard and Millard Avenue (3615 W Douglas Blvd, Chicago, IL 60623) with sukkahs changing location afterwards to more permanent locations around the neighborhood.