Connected.

Four members of Elgin's newly emerging Social Justice Collective, Councilman Corey Dixon, Amanda Harris, Dr. Rise' Jones, and Paige Roeber join SSSA Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg to discuss the obstacles and inspirations that are emerging from their Making Space project, which was developed in response to Elgin's Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020. The project consists of four parts: a mural, a documentary, a Juneteenth partnership, and a scholarship. Making Space FB Page:https://www.facebook.com/ElginMakingSpace.

SSSA Assistant Director, Ivette De Santiago, sits down with Florida based artist Kelsey Wilkerson to discuss her art practice and her journey of self re-discovery during the pandemic. Kelsey discusses how she went from working in a busy Manhattan office to taking the office with her through out several cities in Florida, including onto a boat. She has discovered a love for wilderness photography that she manages to do while on a kayak. She is also exploring with watercolor painting, and loves to make digital paintings of Sheera the cat. Kelsey graduated from the University of Florida with a BFA and now works as a Senior Creative Designer at Innovid. She is also taking a class to become an unofficial wilderness explorer, or a wilderness tour guide. instagram @kelseywilkerson.art

SSSA Founder and Executive Director Tanner Melvin talks with Chicago-based and L.A. born artist Jocelyn Ingram. Jocelyn is our newest recruit as the talent sourcer for Side Street TV, AND she's the brainchild behind the stop-motion animation studio, Plastic Buddies.

Side Street Founder and Executive Director and Going Dutch Festival Artistic Director Erin Rehberg talks with Chicago-based dance artist Sophie Allen, who is one of two 2021 Going Dutch Festival Artists-in-Residence. The festival, a celebration of the female voice in the arts, will be held in and around downtown Elgin in June, and Allen will be performing, leading a workshop, and involved in the community for the duration. Sophie pushes gender, playfulness and absurdity to the forefront of her work and continues to hone her sense of musicality and humor to connect with deeper subtexts. She is fascinated by acts of subversion, confrontation, confession and concealment in performance—specifically for the purpose of reimagining personal and collective histories. She enjoys the magnetism of interdisciplinary collaboration and loves nothing more than when a dance doesn’t make sense until it does. Sophie is excited to be performing for real people again. Her living room and her computer screen were growing tired of her… and vice versa.

And, Jordan Reinwald, GD Artist-in-Residence.Jordan Reinwald(she/her), is a dancer, aerialist, and choreographer currently based in Chicago. She has performed professionally, nationally, and internationally with Winifred Haun and Dancers, Khecari, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theater, The Catskills Ballet Theatre, The Civic Ballet at the Ruth Page Center for the Performing Arts, Aerial Dance Chicago, C5 Create With No Limits, and as a promotional performer for Theater Mama with Cirque Du Soleil, among others. She was recently a featured aerialist with Q Productions Las Vegas, and is an active member of The Drifter’s Collective, a multi-disciplinary contemporary circus troupe. She currently creates work with Michel Rodriguez Cintra under the name Once. The pair’s work has been featured at Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, Columbia College Chicago, LatinX Arts Festival, and at Northwestern University. Reinwald is the Director of Document Cuba, a collaborative choreographic research project which aims to provide choreographic inquiry opportunities for Reinwald, Rodriguez Cintra, and Osnel Delgado Wambrug, Founder and Artistic Director of Malpaso Cuban Dance Company. Reinwald has taught ballet, creative movement, Acro, and composition for River North Chicago Dance, Chicago Public Schools, The Jillana School, and The Actor’s Gymnasium, among others. Reinwald is a 2019 graduate of the Actor’s Gymnasium Professional Training Circus Program with specialties in Clown, Rope and Harness, and additional focuses in Silks and Bottle Walking.

SSSA Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg talks to her musical family with roots in the Elgin area music scene. Melva Rehberg Schultz Swigart and Bob Swigart talk about growing up with music, the scene and artists from "back in the day", and how they are still evolving their artistic practices today in Arizona. They take us from The Village Squire in West Dundee to Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and beyond. They may even close with a tune!

SSSA Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg talks with Chicago-based artist Raúl Ortiz who will be featured in the Gallery at Side Street Studio Arts during the month of May. The two discuss his identification as a "late bloomer" in the art world, his range of influences from his mother to black and white movies, and what the audience can expect to see in PATTERNS, opening Friday, May 7 at 6pm.

Today on CONNECTED our guest is Omnia Sol, an artist currently living/working/playing in Chicago. We get down and dirty talking glitch art, smudging, VHS collections, The Fast and The Furious, and of course, Harvey Pekar. Find out more atwww.omniasol.art. But for now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the dulcet tones of Tanner Melvin and Omnia Sol.

Nick has a conversation with actor, writer, vlogger, and YouTube personality, Vickie Eisenstein. They talk about her journey from Chicago to Korea to Chicago to LA, her training at The Second City, and Who’s On First.

You can learn more about Vickie on her Facebook Page, https://www.facebook.com/VickieComedyPage and see her videos at https://www.youtube.com/vickiecomedy

Our special guest on this episode of CONNECTED is Andy Victory. Musician, father, skeptic, and self-proclaimed non-painter, Andy and Tanner chat about life, art, ghosts, mountains, and three-legged tables. Check outhttps://linktr.ee/DarlingVictoryto see everything Andy and crew are up to.

Founder and Executive Director Erin Rehberg talks with Rachel Elizabeth Maley the creator of Still Life Meditation, a center for meditation and self-inquiry in downtown Elgin, IL. The two revisit Rachel's time as Artist-in-Residence at Side Street, creative practice and process, and Rachel's work in and exploration of meditation.