Community Dance Battle with Christopher “Mad Dog” Thomas

CHICAGO – Dancer, activist, and youth mentor Christopher “Mad Dog” Thomas invites the Wicker Park and beyond community to attend his community event as part of Links Hall’s Co-MISSION Curatorial Residency program in The Honeycomb Network, located at 2659 West Division St. from 6 - 9 p.m. on Friday, May 26. As part of Links Hall’s Co-MISSION series, Thomas will host an open-to-the-public Juke dance battle featuring J4L’s own DJ COREY.

In the summer of 2022, Chris “Mad Dog” Thomas with creative direction by Kuumba Lynx, developed Juke for Liberation (J4L). A reconciliation of Chicago’s Juke DJs & producers and Footwork battle cliques & dance communities, J4L has engaged 6 Local Juke dance groups, 5 DJ’s, and 6 footworking artists totaling 255+ dancers and music makers from across Chicago. Together, these premiere dance teams, battle cliques and Juke producers are stewarding a more unified and loving Chicago Juke community.

In collaboration with Links Hall is Kuumba Lynx, an urban arts youth development organization founded in 1996 by three women, Jaquanda Villegas, Leida Garcia-Mukwacha, and Jacinda Bullie. For two decades, alongside many of Chicago’s artists, activists, educators, and youth communities, KL has honed an arts-making practice that presents, preserves, and promotes Hip Hop as a tool to reimagine and demonstrate a more just world. KL’s Program Facilitators are a collective of artists, activists, educators, and healers.

Sponsored by Links Hall, the Co-MISSION Curatorial Residency program supports a group of independent Chicago dance curators, producers, and social practice artists presenting new and existing performances by and for their communities. Artists will present work both at Links Hall and at neighborhood locations outside of a formal theater environment for their respective communities.

This event will take place at 2659 West Division St. from 6 - 9 p.m. on Friday, May 26 at The Honeycomb Network. Tickets are FREE, but online registration is encouraged. For more information on the event and others in the Co-MISSION Cultural Residency, visit linkshall.org.