Chicago Welcomes a One-Of-A-Kind experience with Free Street

This spring, Free Street merges their Pulaski Park and Storyfront Youth Ensembles to create the moving production, 57 Blocks. This immersive play investigates issues of education, immigration and incarceration in the city, helmed by directors Katrina Dion, Marilyn Carteño and Sebastian Olayo. Audiences will arrive at Pulaski Park, and be welcomed to their first day, not as audience members, but as accomplices to youth in Chicago in their mission to change the face of education as we know it. During this two hour “orientation,” audience members will learn about the history of education in our city and are invited to listen to the personal stories of the youth leading them, while being taken on a school bus ride reflecting the storytellers’ lives

During October 2020, the company began the process of 57 Blocks. The play centers around three main questions, “What pathways are set up for youth in Chicago? What pipelines do we wish to dismantle? And if we could create portals to new realities, what would be waiting there for us?” To create this play they conducted research, reading books like “Ghosts in the Schoolyard” by Eve L. Ewing and “We Do This Til’ We Free Us,” by Mariame Kaba, along with interviewing dozens of community members and partnering with Liberation Library, to lift the work they are doing for youth currently incarcerated.

Over the next two years, the youth have met three to five times per week, having dialogues, trying out new scenes, learning immersive theater techniques through a production mentorship from Birch House Immersive and even producing a digital version of the show, which premiered to audiences in May 2021.

“57 Blocks is a love letter to Chicago students, a cry for radical changes across Chicago, and a reminder of how we got where we are today,” said Free Street Theater Director of Education, and Co-Director Katrina Dion..

"To me, 57 Blocks is an incredibly important culmination of youth voices in a time when our country and school systems are reckoning with social injustices. It's not enough to be an ally, we must be accomplices to youth, and this show shows us what that looks like. It is a firm reminder that youth know firsthand what they need and teach us how to imagine a world where education is in their hands. Every educator, mentor and youth worker has to see this and make the commitment to give youth a seat at the table when it comes to decisions that affect them, said Co-Director Sebastian Olayo.

“Growing up in Chicago I felt like I could always see patterns of issues taking place in my community. I could see the gaps in resources and could see that there was a clear pathway that my peers and I were being pushed toward, but I also felt like it was in my head that no one was talking about what was going on, so maybe it wasn’t real. Through their own reflection process and research, the 57 Blocks ensemble has been able to articulate the systemic issues that they experience and are embedded in their schooling systems and they also know what they want for their schools and their own future. We need to listen to what they are sharing with us and actually do something,” said Co-Director Marilyn Carteno.

With their performance, 57 Blocks, Free Street hopes the audience will find themselves dreaming of radical possibilities for Chicago and its educational system.

Public Performances begin Wednesday, June 1 and continue June 2, June 8, 9 13, 16, 17 all at 7:30 p.m. with an additional matinee on Saturday, June 18 at 2 p.m.. The production begins at Pulaski Park, 1419 W Blackhawk St. and ends at The Storyfront, 4346 S. Ashland.

Tickets may be purchased at http://57blocks.eventbrite.com. For more information visit https://freestreet.org. Additionally, ticket buyers who would like transportation from The Storyfront to Pulaski Park, may request this option on the site upon check out.