Free Neighborhood Tour

Free Neighborhood Tour: Fostering an Appreciation of Puppetry Throughout the City

The Free Neighborhood Tour fosters an appreciation for puppetry throughout the city by bringing free, family-friendly performances to locations outside of Chicago’s theaters, but areas in the city where people may not have the chance to see puppetry very often. The tour offers a range of high-quality puppetry styles in order to create moments of community enjoyment while expanding the base of puppet enthusiasts. This year, Little Uprisings presents My Night in the Planetarium based on the award-winning book by Innosanto Nagara, a graphic artist and acclaimed author/illustrator of “A Is for Activist” and “Counting on Community.” Presented with support from The Marshall Frankel Foundation and Cheryl Henson.

Dates and Locations

Thursday, January 19 at 4:30pm
Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center
4048 W. Armitage

Friday, January 20 at 4:30pm
Marshall Field’s Garden Apartments / Art on Sedgwick
1408 N. Sedgwick St.

Saturday, January 21 at 12pm and 2pm
Navy Pier
700 E. Grand Ave.

Sunday, January 22 at 11am
ETA Creative Arts Foundation
7558 S. South Chicago Ave.

Cost: FREE, no reservations required

Ages: All Ages

Running Time: 45 mins

ADA Accessible? All locations except for Art on Sedgwick

My Night in the Planetarium

My Night in the Planetarium is based on the award-winning book by Innosanto Nagara, a graphic artist and acclaimed author/illustrator of “A Is for Activist” and “Counting on Community.” Nagara tells his own true story of facing dictatorship and oppression in his childhood in Indonesia. It is a child’s view of a particular place and time—but it is also an introduction to Indonesia, a story about colonialism, and a message about the power of creativity.

Little Uprisings uses a multi-faceted, creative approach that centers the beauty and power of Blackness to build long lasting, deep and sustainable relationships in order for change to take root, growing a practice that allows justice to take hold daily. My Night in the Planetarium is the culmination of a multi-year partnership between founder Tanya Nixon-Silberg and Puppet Showplace Theater that explored the power of puppetry to translate complex, difficult realities of colonialism, dictatorship, and dissent into kid-centered stories and scenes.

Learn more at littleuprisings.org