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Arabic 8-class Course for Beginners

By Beit Nabala

Online, Nabala Cafe · Uptown · Sep 20 – Nov 8

This beginner Arabic course introduces students to the fundamentals of Arabic reading, writing, and pronunciation of a Palestinian dialect. Students will learn the Arabic alphabet, letter forms, vowels and diacritical marks, and practice reading and writing. Participants will be provided with the content as well as worksheets to ensure regular, structured practice. The course comes as a bundle of 8 classes (6 online lessons every Sunday, 2 in-person lessons at Nabala). The instructor is Yasmin Amin, an educator born and raised in Palestine. She began teaching cultural and language-based programs as a means of re-empowering individuals who have lost connection to their Arab heritage while living in the diaspora.

Oracle of Evergreen: Black Plant-It Exhibit

By Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance

Garfield Park Conservatory · Garfield Park · Sep 24 – Nov 15

The Oracle of Evergreen positions nature not merely as landscape, but as wisdom keeper. This year’s Black Plant It exhibition invites artists to explore the regenerative intelligence embedded in land, ritual, and Black cultural memory. Through plant dyes, botanical materials, earth pigments, textile manipulation, and weather-resistant sculpture, participating artists interpret nature as both archive and prophecy — a living system that carries ancestral knowledge forward. The exhibition, curated by Art West Chicago, foregrounds nature-centered practices in contemporary art, including works infused with indigo, turmeric, chlorophyll, rust, clay, and organic fibers. Sculptural submissions are encouraged to engage with durability and environmental responsiveness, acknowledging the conservatory setting as both site and collaborator. Installations may evoke gardens, altars, seed banks, ceremonial objects, or speculative ecological futures.

Vampire Playlist

By Concrete Content

El Schomburg · Humboldt Park · Oct 2 – Oct 31

No, f'real: Why are vampires always European and listening to bad techno in movies? Vampire Playlist counters cliché and asks what if undead bloodsuckers were Latino? What songs would they listen to? Those queries are answered in Concrete Content's latest production, Vampire Playlist, a 75-minute piece immersive theatrical experience that mixes cultural memory, movement, and music in a site-specific play in El Shomburg. Lose yourself in this dark, brown, bloody, and biting theatrical experience. Showings on Fridays and Saturdays in October.

Where Memory Lives: 40 Years of Día de Muertos

National Museum of Mexican Art · Pilsen · Sep 25 – Nov 29

Rooted in ancient Mesoamerican beliefs and Catholicism, Day of the Dead has transformed over centuries, with each region of Mexico incorporating its own customs and beliefs into memorial celebrations. Mexican families on both sides of the border and worldwide gather each November 1 and 2 to welcome back the souls—and the memories—of their loved ones. This year's exhibition is in honor of Dr. Gilberto Cárdenas (1947-2026), a dedicated scholar, pioneer of Chicano Studies, and a dear friend of the Museum. Gilberto believed in the power of art to honor the histories and voices of Mexican, Chicana/o, and Latinx communities in the US. His vision contributed to our Permanent Collection, and his legacy lives on through the art and memories the community preserves together.

Immigrant Owned: Solo Exhibition by Jonathan Michael Castillo

By OH Art Foundation

OH ART Center · Bridgeport · Oct 16 – Nov 13

Immigrant Owned presents recent photographic work by Jonathan Michael Castillo as one of two featured solo exhibitions in the 3rd Annual Latinx Festival of the Arts. The exhibition is installed in a storefront on South Morgan Street, a working commercial room on a block shaped by successive generations of arrival. Site and subject converge: photographs of immigrant-owned businesses are shown within one. Opening reception will be held on October 16 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the storefront gallery.

Poets for Chicago: A Night of Arts & Community Benefitting the ICIRR

By Chicago Poetry Center, Haymarket Books

Haymarket House · Buena Park

A night of arts and community featuring readings by Taylor Byas, Faisal Mohyuddin, Diego Báez, Snežana Žabić, and Lina María Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas, with 100% of proceeds benefiting the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights.

Citizenship for All: Storytelling Through Nonggi Making

HANA Center · Albany Park · Oct 10 – Oct 17

Artist Aram Han Sifuentes will facilitate an ongoing NongGi (Korean folk banners) making workshops for multi-generational, multi-ethnic immigrant communities in Chicago through storytelling and hands-on creation to achieve immigrant and racial justice. Learn about the history of NongGis and how to make them using sewing, quilting, painting, and other creative techniques. No prior skill required and family, children friendly!

Body, Border, & Collective Care Panel

Hyde Park Art Center · Hyde Park

Join artists and cultural workers Jasmin Cardenas, Érika Ordosgoitti, and Nazafarin Lotfi for a conversation moderated by Susan Gzesh as they explore the intersection of community arts, sanctuary, and civic action.

BMRC 2026 Virtual Annual Meeting

By Black Metropolis Research Consortium

Virtual · Virtual

Join the Black Metropolis Research Consortium for its 2026 Annual Meeting virtually, celebrating the work carried out during its 20th anniversary year. Special guests and BMRC research fellows will discuss their forthcoming book, Return to the Black Metropolis: New Histories of Black Chicago.

Lecture and Book Signing with Leigh Raiford

By Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, School of Visual Arts

600 S Michigan Ave · South Loop

MoCP and the School of Visual Arts at Columbia College Chicago welcome Leigh Raiford for a lecture and book signing as a partnership program between Lectures in Photography and the Art Now! Lecture Series. Leigh Raiford is Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she teaches, researches, curates, and writes about Black visuality and world-making. Building on the practices of Black American artists and activists, her recent book, When Home is a Photograph (Duke University Press, 2026), asks how Black people use images to make home in the world. Books will be available for purchase on-site.