FPC x Expo 2025

For generations, First Presbyterian Church of Chicago has stood as a key site on the South Side—a place where resilience, culture, and creativity intersect. In 2025, as part of Chicago Expo Art Week, we are opening our doors to amplify the voices of South Side artists, honoring the rich legacy of this neighborhood while celebrating the new lives and visions that continue to thrive here.

This marks three years since the launch of the Arts Program at First Church, a space where artists, collaborators, and community members converge to explore the fusion of art, culture, and spiritual energy. We invite you to join us in activating the church space through a series of creative interventions, performances, exhibitions, and gatherings—each an expression of the Chicago spirit in its boldest, warmest, and most vibrant form.

Throughout Expo Art Week, artists and collaborators will engage in a decentralized yet intentional way, offering unique perspectives and talents that tie into the broader artistic dialogue happening across the city. Whether through music, film, talks, or immersive experiences, we aim to hyper-activate the church, making it a nexus for connection, reflection, and celebration.

We welcome artists, curators, and cultural practitioners to participate, contribute, and shape this moment with us. Let’s come together to reclaim, pronounce, and reimagine the creative potential of this space and this community.

Event Highlights

Event 1

First Floor
The AACM is a non-profit organization and a collective of composers and musicians dedicated to nurturing, performing and recording high artistic level programs designed to magnify creative music.
The AACM’s mission is to uplift humanity and enhance cultural understanding through the celebration of Great Black Music, to cultivate young musicians in the practice of creative music, and to push the boundaries of contemporary music through composition and improvisation, while providing an environment that encourages the development of its member-artist.
The AACM's School of Music provides free training programs for disadvantaged youth. AACM composers, through their experience as members, often grow to be heralded for groundbreaking innovations in contemporary music.

Event 2

First Floor
The AACM is a non-profit organization and a collective of composers and musicians dedicated to nurturing, performing and recording high artistic level programs designed to magnify creative music.
The AACM’s mission is to uplift humanity and enhance cultural understanding through the celebration of Great Black Music, to cultivate young musicians in the practice of creative music, and to push the boundaries of contemporary music through composition and improvisation, while providing an environment that encourages the development of its member-artist.
The AACM's School of Music provides free training programs for disadvantaged youth. AACM composers, through their experience as members, often grow to be heralded for groundbreaking innovations in contemporary music.

Event 3

First Floor
The AACM is a non-profit organization and a collective of composers and musicians dedicated to nurturing, performing and recording high artistic level programs designed to magnify creative music.
The AACM’s mission is to uplift humanity and enhance cultural understanding through the celebration of Great Black Music, to cultivate young musicians in the practice of creative music, and to push the boundaries of contemporary music through composition and improvisation, while providing an environment that encourages the development of its member-artist.
The AACM's School of Music provides free training programs for disadvantaged youth. AACM composers, through their experience as members, often grow to be heralded for groundbreaking innovations in contemporary music.

Event 4

First Floor
The AACM is a non-profit organization and a collective of composers and musicians dedicated to nurturing, performing and recording high artistic level programs designed to magnify creative music.
The AACM’s mission is to uplift humanity and enhance cultural understanding through the celebration of Great Black Music, to cultivate young musicians in the practice of creative music, and to push the boundaries of contemporary music through composition and improvisation, while providing an environment that encourages the development of its member-artist.
The AACM's School of Music provides free training programs for disadvantaged youth. AACM composers, through their experience as members, often grow to be heralded for groundbreaking innovations in contemporary music.

All Happenings

2023

"And Still I Rise" brought together members of the church and local community to honor and pay homage to music, art and poetry of Black musicians, poets and artists. Led by Chicagoland musician and performer Rodney Gipson and his band, the event also featured music and singing by Sylvia Christine and Deborah Cullen. We were also graced with wonderful storytelling by Naomi Davis, founder and Executive Director of Blacks In Green and poetry recitals by several friends featuring the works of Margaret Walker and Langston Hughes amongst others. Projection Artists Max Li and Maddie Ma created a wonderful display of artwork by Black artists from over the years, which became the backdrop to this special evening. We are grateful for the many talents and gifts that everyone brought to help make our inaugural Black History Month celebration truly memorable!
ALTARed States, an evening of sharing about our spiritual experiences with psychedelics. Accompanied with live music set, projection light show and poetry reading.
Young Life is a Life Time, an exhibition curated by a local high school senior as their graduation thesis. Comprised of art works in multiple mediums through an open call to local young artists, the exhibition explores the theme of youthhood, and invites guests to join to experience what youth was, is, and what it holds for us now.
First Church Community Open House, a night of open mic, conversation, sound therapy, and delicious snacks accompanied with an exhibition of visual arts from the three artist-in-residence.
Featuring tintype photographs and a temple made of moving boxes, "Twenty-Four Thinking Positions" is a solo exhibition by Max Li and presents encounters of various kinds. Mediating his own artworks through tintype photographs, Max reframes contemporary art as old photos and explores the temporality of visions. In this exhibition, different contact points are vivified—between the audio and visual, talk and contract, ritual and art space, and pulsing and thinking. Those points and pieces of thought compile twenty-four thinking positions and far beyond.
The Junk Room, a DJ-in-residence program, where host Takashi Shallow invites guest DJs to conduct electronic/avant-garde/contemporary live music sets. Each set runs for under an hour, with brief interviews about their perspectives on sequencing unique and expressive sound situations.

2022

Life Springs Eternal, is an evening of vocal music by Jianing Li and Yitao Li, to present to community series of classical music accompanied with sound active projection light show.
WHERE WERE YOU is an exhibition of sculptural works by CM Clemente and Jacob Pet, based on the Book of Job and its commentaries. Clemente has constructed clay tablets etched with figures in extreme positions. Pet has used fabric to represent the dubious character of Job's comforters. Both are primarily concerned with lament and communication. How can lament be spoken through bodily gestures? How does one respond to lament, in words or silence? Can only God provide a justifiable answer?
Sound and Light, an evening of cosmic healing music, by Xochipillai with Avreeayl Ra, accompanied with immersive projection art by Maddie Ma.
Forest of Sin is a student run semi-professional musical production. The Forest of Sin’s uses the medium of a whimsical, humorous musical to explore the inherent complexities of faith in the modern world. Through a comedic lens, the story aims to reflect on the future direction of religion amongst younger generations raised on cutting-edge technology, widely-accessible knowledge, and an increasingly cynical worldview as the most fundamental pillars of society is being constantly challenged and deconstructed.
Throughout this weekend we create, commune, critique, and dine. As we explore and participate in the HyperUse of this sacred place (The First Presbyterian Church of Chicago), we envision creating a community here where we build new context for our practices, artistic and/or spiritual. In doing so, we hope to foster a welcoming, exciting and respectful environment for creation.
With five courses representing Japanese, Tibetan, Korean, Moroccan, and Italian cuisines, the Last Calligraphy Supper favors "fun dining" over "fine dining" and brings together a group of like-minded people to appreciate different cultures by transforming foods into calligraphic artworks in varied languages. In such an event, we value like-mindedness, inclusiveness, and generosity by making a card exchange, gifting each other artwork, and sharing our cultures. In a sense, "Last Calligraphy Supper" not only means the last dinner in an academic quarter but also means a lasting one in people’s memories.