TLDR come thru to WE THE PEOPLE: A PEOPLE’S SALON with Illinois Humanities at Haymarket House in Chicago this Wednesday 3/25 6-9pm, FREE with free food+drinks and amazing lineup

I was going to title this “When Jane Beachy Calls, I Answer,” and if you know Jane Beachy you know she certainly deserves all the personal shoutouts. But of course I remembered there are so many other names I could list in addition, those names being the people who put together the kind of low-stakes, high-investment creative gathering spaces that I came up in: the salon hosts, the split bill producers, the night-at-X-bar-where-we-do-Y-thematic-performance emcees. The Gatherers of the Artists, indeed.

Taylor Tomlinson recently spoke about how the rhythms of standup comedy practice allow people to try shit out, get feedback, and rinse+repeat in a way that’s just not possible through the one-time high-profile opportunities people crave and strive after from entertainment industry success. In the independent performance world I traffic in, the corollary is the recurring community salon nights vs. That One Time The Big Venue Programs You. You grind for the One Big Time, but you grow and hone and become yourself through the weeknights along the way.

And so when longtime Chicago cultural worker/producer/curator Jane Beachy asked me to perform 5-7min at Illinois Humanities’ upcoming salon series, WE THE PEOPLE: A People’s Salon, THIS WEDNESDAY 3/25 6-9pm in Chicago, I ignored the fact that I was going to be, uh, technically out of town and in the middle of a 50-hour work week and said yes!! (You may know me for my Amtrak fealty, but I’ve also long been intimate with Spirit Airlines.)

It’s going to be a really lovely night. The event is FREE and will take place at Haymarket House in Uptown. There will be food from TXA TXA Club and drinks from several local libationers! And apparently free books and activations by Eleanor Kahn! And I’m reallllly thrilled to be sharing the bill with Andrea Faye Hart, Meida McNeal, and Silvia Inés Gonzalez.

I’ll be performing a short bit from the extended universe of Sharp Cheddar, my drag persona that came about thanks to another Chicago community weeknight gloryzone, Notes on Masculinity, the bimonthly drag king-centered cabaret hosted by Po’Chop and Switch the Boi Wonder. I’ll be forever grateful to Po’ and Switch for inviting me to Notes last spring, because Sharp Cheddar has been such a gift that I didn’t even know I needed let alone had in me. (This is what I’m saying about the weeknights!) I’ve performed as Ched at every chance I’ve had over the past year, and am grateful to have another this week.

IL Humanities does this salon series semi-regularly, and this time the theme is WE THE PEOPLE because (I assume) they’re one of many orgs who have funding from the Trump-2.0-era National Endowment for the Arts, who this year are funding art about the 250th birthday of the America hahahaha. Seriously, look around, your favorite friendly local arts org is probably doing something on this wavelength. (Jane or others, if you read this and I’m wrong, I’m ready to stand corrected! Also not judging, I totally get it, and tbh I’m embracing the container. #NoKingsJustHoles.)

If you’re not in Chicago or can’t be there but want a taste of this Cheddar, click that link to see what I taught myself to make on Canva during a long bus ride last night, featuring a short excerpt from Ched’s premiere last spring. What I’m doing Wednesday will be very different, probably more standup-meets-lecture, but I’ll keep it as cheeky as I can manage. (No, not that kind of cheeky.)

Thanks for showing up to all the things, and more soon,

Nora