CITY OF WATER | JULY 10-12, 2026

Set during the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, City of Water is a work of poetic realism following a former emcee and her teenage daughter as they navigate survival in a system failing them in real time. When a dangerous piece of her past resurfaces with an opportunity that could change everything, she must choose between escape and survival while her daughter imagines a world beyond the heat.

RHYME DEFERRED | JULY 17-19,2026

A hip-hop reimagining of Cain and Abel, Rhyme Deferred follows two brothers—one a fading mainstream star, the other an underground prodigy—locked in a battle over artistry, integrity, and survival within a predatory industry.

About RITUAL & RHYTHM : An Immersive Reading Series

About Ritual & Rhythm | Rhythm and ritual are the foundation of this festival’s form and function. Featuring City of Water and Rhyme Deferred, we are interested in how repetition, music, movement, and language create containers for memory, grief, joy, and release. Rhythm lives in breath, in heartbeat, in the cadence of speech; ritual lives in what we return to; habits, traditions, survival practices, and acts of care. These readings are not static presentations, but living environments. Audience and performer share space in a way that blurs observation and participation. Through heightened language, hip-hop aesthetics, and embodied storytelling, we investigate how ritual can hold pain without spectacle and how rhythm can guide both rupture and healing.

Tickets can be purchased