Designed as a home for the creative life of the University of Chicago campus and the city of Chicago, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts is a partner, resource, and catalyst for developing deeper cultural networks and richer creative projects citywide and beyond. The Logan Center is a place where boundaries dissolve and artistic work is amplified through a web of collaborative partners. More than just a building, it is an innovative hub for arts education for UChicago students and Chicagoland students and families, a platform to showcase today’s most innovative creators across all media, and a locus for impactful and collaborative artistic innovations with partners in nearby South Side communities and across Chicago.

Artists of the Logan Center

PERFormance Hall Artists

Translator.01 [Love]

We acknowledge, recognize, and respect Indigenous and/or First Nation People as traditional stewards of this land and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous/First Nation Peoples and their traditional territories.

 This performance of Translator.01 [Love] is dedicated to the 215 bodies of school children found in a mass grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia [Canada], and the Black and other bodies of color belonging to the names behind hashtags. This performance asks that we continue to work towards what unites us and work in that power of collaborative force.

avery r. young, an interdisciplinary artist and educator, is a 3Arts Awardee, Cave Canem fellow and a co-director of The Floating Museum. His poetry and prose have been featured in anthologies such as BreakBeat Poets, Teaching Black, Poetry Magazine, and alongside images in photographer Cecil McDonald Jr’s In The Company of Black. As artist-in-residence at the University of Chicago, young created a series of assemblage and sculpture along with his first recording, booker t. soltreyne: a race rekkid. His theater credits include co-writing and co-producing the soundtrack for Lise Haller Baggeson’s Hatorgrade Retrograde: The Musical and writing the libretto for The Chicago Lyric Opera’s Twilight: Gods. His performance and visual work have been exhibited and/or presented at The Art Institute, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The National Jazz Museum and other institutions. An award winning teaching artist, young co-mentors the Rebirth Poetry Ensemble. He is the featured vocalist on Nicole Mitchell’s Mandorla Awakening and has tours planned with his band de deacon board. Young’s latest full length recording tubman. is the soundtrack to his first collection of visual and traditional poetry, neckbone: visual verses. www.averyryoung.com

M.A.D.D. rhythms

 Dreams and Nightmares

is a visual expression of Donnetta Jackson’s spiritual journey with the Meek Mill song with the same name as the performance piece through the media of tap dance and Chicago footwork. It is a tribute to her creation brother Kendall who, after his transition, flows through Jackson through this song and continues to push her to new heights. 

"CYPHERS" are our way of paying homage to the HOOFERS of old and the traditions they set. A Cypher is a gathering of tapdancers who come together and just jam.  Tapdancers form a circle and take turns “shedding” to the music and/or to the beat established by the other tapdancers. This is how tapdance was created! The “Hoofers” or Original tapdancers would dance all day and all nights in the streets of Harlem. When it got dark, they would jam or trade under the streetlights. This is how tap was born. From Master Juba to Chuck Green, Hoofers would create, practice and perfect this artform….OUTSIDE! In those times, the United States still had a long way to go when it came to black people and their treatment. Many dance schools didn’t allow African Americans, so the streets became our studios and the dance became our resistance & perseverance at the same time. 

Bril Barrett is a dedicated tap dancer, whose mission is to preserve and promote tap dance as a percussive art form, foster respect and admiration for the history and culture of tap, and continuously create opportunities for the art form and its practitioners. Barrett is the founder of M.A.D.D. (Making A Difference Dancing) Rhythms, director of The Chicago Tap Summit and founder of The M.A.D.D. Rhythms Tap Academy. His Performance opportunities include Riverdance, Tap Dance Kid, Derrick Grant, Aaron Tolson’s Imagine Tap, The Kennedy Center, Jumaane Taylor’s Supreme Love, the Democratic National Convention and many others. Television appearances include The Oprah Winfrey Show, Steve Harvey Show, Jenny Jones Show, NBC’s Someone You Should know and ABC’s Windy City Live. Bril has taught and/or performed in Prague, Canada, Germany, Finland, Turkey, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Albania, Amsterdam, Brazil, the Bahamas, the U.K. and across the United States. He was named A Chicagoan of the Year and has his very own Ted Talk. Barrett has started many outreach programs in Chicago’s public schools, Park districts and even a performing arts high school in Gary, Indiana. He ran an After School Matters Youth Tap Program for more than 10 years and has provided after school and summer jobs for more than 300 youth from underserved communities. As a Taptivist, Bril has spent many years creating an alternative to the school to prison pipeline that exists for many black and brown youth. Barrett is determined to make a difference in his community by using tap and it’s history to expose our youth to the art form that saved his life!

Donnetta “Lilbit” Jackson is a dynamic and versatile dancer whose skill has brought her international acclaim.  She was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, IL, where she began dancing at The Sammy Dyer School of the Theatre at the age of 7. At 11 years old, she became one of the original members of the prestigious M.A.D.D. Rhythms tap company and later joined the Chicago footwork group Creation Battle Clique/Creation Global, which led her to the internationally recognized dance ensemble  the Chicago FootworKINGz, which resulted in her performing with them on season 6 of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew. Later she was a featured dancer for Grammy award winning artist Chance The Rapper’s  “Sunday Candy” and “Angels” music videos, and is now one of his choreographers/dancers. She performed with him at the 2020 NBA All-Star game and also Rolling loud and Good Morning America to name a few.  She was just recently on the MTV Video Music Awards performing with Missy Elliot during her Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award performance.  Respect the dance!!

Starinah “Star” Dixon is an assistant director, choreographer, and original principal dancer of world renowned tap company, M.A.D.D. Rhythms. She has taught and performed at the most distinguished tap festivals in the country including The L.A. Tap Fest, DC Tap Fest, RIFF Dallas, Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Rhythm World, and MADD Rhythms own Chicago Tap Summit. She’s performed internationally in Poland, Japan, and Brazil to name a few. Performance venues include Jacob’s Pillow, Kennedy Center, and the Lincoln Center. Outside of M.A.D.D. Rhythms, she’s performed as a guest with such companies as Michelle Dorrance’s Dorrance Dance and Savion Glover’s All Funk’d Up. Star is currently on staff at numerous dance studios in and around Chicago.

Penthouse Artist

Sam Trump

The Midnight Hour | SPAIN

Throughout the pandemic, Sam Trump rediscovered his space in live performing through solo sets for The Midnight Hour, a recurring Live Stream event that supplemented event-goers with a virtual rendezvous full of interaction, spontaneity, and community. Spain was the most requested vibe in this virtual space because of its dreamy feel, enticing lyrics, and catchy melody. In true Midnight Hour fashion, Sam Trump performs solo with his looping station, voice, and trumpet. 

Spain takes attraction from "like" to "get to know each other better". It's a pure love song, which I feel is something missing in Soul/R&B music lately. As a woman, we love being complimented and hearing sweet nothings in our ear. I feel like this song represents the comfort that takes the woman from thinking the guy is attractive to, I think I like him. 

- SharmonJarmon!

Sam Trump is a multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, and 3Arts Recipient with 15+ years of experience in live performance, vibe curation, and self management. From maintaining years of performance residencies, putting on tribute shows and special events, and booking his peers at premiere venues, Trump has become a household name in the Chicago live music scene. Trump is co-founder of multiple Chicago-based organizations and is a business owner and entrepreneur. Most recently, Trump has become the project lead for a new initiative with “Build Bronzeville” to establish a Creative Incubator at “The Forum”. Here, he uses his full arsenal of skills to bring more gathering, networking, and education to the community.