Beyond Vietnam, a walking meditation is a meditation that begins with a talk and moves into a collective walk led by Patricia Nguyen.

The first part of the meditation will focus on a short talk about the friendship and anti-war peace efforts of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Participants will share reflections on war and peace. We will end with a walking meditation from the Chicago Cultural Center to the Intercontinenal Hotel (formerly the Sheraton-Chicago Hotel), where the two leading figures first met in Chicago on May 31, 1966. The first part of the title draws on Dr. King Jr.'s speech "Beyond Vietnam," which called for an end to the American War in Vietnam and linked the civil rights movement's struggle against racism to militarism abroad. The second part, "a walking meditation" is inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh's Buddhist meditation practice, which was developed in the midst of war and centers on the importance of grounding one's practice of mindfulness to cultivate social transformation.

The walk ends in a reading of exchanges between Martin Luther King Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh performed by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, Yohance Lacour, and Dr. Patricia Nguyen, co-designer of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial.

black pit (work-in-progress) is a new performance* work in progress conceptually linking the ring shout, mosh pit, and crowdsourced archive to suppose the anarchic potentiality of coming together in spiral time. In other words, black pit is busy with the ways black formations--and formations within formations--occur, and what they might tell us about black sociality within the purview of the state. Beginning with the 2023 Montgomery, AL Boat Dock Brawl whose filming went viral, an ensemble of dancers work through the brawl's gestures as portal-opening technology, and its anarchy, care, violence, and mass serve as framing conventions. Re- and de-contextualizing a panoply of movement phrases arising from drills, martial arts, and performances of sacred spiraling, and using improvisation to set and re-set the Brawl as a series of scores and movement grammars, we consider uprising as form.

This presentation is a work-in-progress for a larger project that will premiere in 2028. The VAT iteration is devised and activated by Rahila Coats, Makini, Jeremy Guyton, keyon gaskin, Solmon Bowser, and Marguerite Hemmings. black pit is conceived and choreographed by Anna Martine Whitehead.

Photo by Melika Bass

Join us for Creative Rebellion exhibition tour, led by the curatorial team, with insights and perspectives from exhibiting artists. Explore the work, ideas, and stories shaping the exhibition.

Join us for a screening of the short documentary film, Between Sky and Sea, by the late Palestinian photojournalist and filmmaker Ismail Abu Hatab (1993–2025).

Part of Resisting the Long Wars, the 2026 Veteran Art Triennial, this panel brings together artists June Carpenter (Osage/Shawnee) and Ruth Tomoe Lainani Kaneko (Kanaka Wahine) for a conversation about art, resistance, and collective memory.

The conversation explores how artists reclaim imposed narratives through their practices, build counter-memory, forge solidarity across divided histories, and mobilize us to confront the everyday structures of warfare—including policing, prisons, borders, and occupation.

A hands-on workshop with artist William Estrada, inviting participants to engage with Josh MacPhee’s Lexicon of International Antimilitarist Graphics and Icons Against Militarism. 

Join artist Dorothy I. Burge for a walkthrough of her solo exhibition Freedom Fighters at the Grand Army of the Republic Hall, with invited guest Rachel Dukes, an independent curator, offering reflections on the works and joining the discussion.

Contribute to artist Sabba S. Elahi's embroidery project to memorialize the names of children—who were killed by US drone attacks in Pakistan.

The final day of the summit begins with a welcome gathering in the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Hall, followed by a performance by Charlie Reynolds and a reflection circle inviting participants to pause, process, and share as a community.