About HotHouse
The Center for International Performance and Exhibition dba HotHouse has been an integral component of the Chicago cultural landscape since 1987. Noted for its ground-breaking approach to multi-culturalism and first-voice narratives, HotHouse was among the first to pioneer many approaches to arts presenting now considered inimical to the field. Over the past 34 years, HotHouse developed numerous festivals and multiple attenuated series of multi-disciplinary events that reflected these priorities, and consequently enjoys a relationship with audiences, presenting partners, collaborating artists and cultural workers world-wide. In addition to a robust roster of public programming, the organization has been developing a site for its new home in Bronzeville. This has been a multi-year facility development project that involves numerous stakeholders, including the board of directors and many local interested parties.
In April of 2020, HotHouse created an online arts presenting platform ( HotHouseGlobal) that set the goal of paying musicians affected by shuttered venues, serving as a connector for social justice organizers and building support for the cultural sector affected by the pandemic. Utilizing social media, offering mostly free and non-ticketed access, and targeting a global audience, HotHouseGlobal has successfully produced more than 40 online events and attracted more than 1 million unique views for these programs.
STATEMENT BY THE ORGANIZERS
Break the Siege: Medical relief for Gaza
Over the last two months, the people of Palestine rose up for justice and liberation. In all the regions of Palestine, including Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza strip, the lands occupied in 1948, and even the refugee communities in Lebanon and Jordan spoke up in a loud and unified voice: Palestine will be free from the river to the sea! We are joining together in our support for Palestinian liberation, rooted in love, which is at the heart of all projects of decolonization.
What started out as a campaign to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods in Jerusalem, quickly turned into a national uprising “the Unity Intifada,” reunifying the people, land, and struggle from Gaza, to Haifa, to Jerusalem, to al-Lydd, to Nablus, and Umm al-Fahm.
In true settler-colonial form the Israeli response to the uprising was an unspeakable campaign of violence. For eleven-days, Gaza, which has been described as an open-air-prison, was subject to brutal airstrikes, during which more than 256 men, women, and children were killed. Up to nine entire families were wiped-off the civil registries. In other parts of Palestine, occupation forces murdered at least 29 unarmed protestors. Thousands have been injured and more than 3,000 arrested, many of whom are subject to “administrative detention” without evidence, charges, or trial.
The world was horrified by the injustice and the violence coming out of Palestine leading to massive protests in almost every major city in the world. Although this latest bout of violence captured the attention of the world’s media, Palestinians know all-too-well that this was neither the beginning nor the end of the violence. They have been resisting the colonial occupation of their homeland for over a century and the genocidal ideology of Zionism has, throughout the past 100 years, attempted to rid the land of its indiginous people.
This is why all people who care about justice must continue to raise their voices and demand that their governments take action to end settler-colonialism in Palestine. For decades the people of Palestine have called on governments, trade-unions, businesses boycott, divest from, and impose sanctions on Israel. The Palestinians of Gaza in particular have borne the greatest brunt of violence over the last 15 years due to the suffocating siege imposed by the Israeli Occupation forces. This is why our call to action is to Break the Siege on Gaza. There can be no peace, nor justice so long as Palestine continues to be colonized.
