The eastern and southern perimeters of Jackson Park, which includes the 63rd Street Beach, the marina, Lake Shore Drive, LaRabida Children’s Hospital, and the 67th Street playlot tucked into a narrow strip outside the fenced in golf course, vibrate with sound and memory of children who live nearby or are visiting one of these spaces for healing or pleasure. Soundwalkers will gather at the 63rd Street Pavilion, share what they know or have heard about the history of the circular route we will take and their relationship to the area. We will experience soundscapes that children and the adults who care for them may hear, and imagine those they may have heard in the past, along the route, as well as note the proximity and pathways or barriers to access all Jackson Park has to offer if you are a child or family living in a community adjacent to the park.
Jackson Park is located at 6401 S. Stony Island Ave. Meet at 67th Street Beach parking lot on the east side of LSD. Please note the rain date for this event is July 26, 2026 11:00 AM → 12:00 PM. RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeYLXSOcMpG4ABmuJ6wKY8lI-KmlJwCwVc7Zft0aBrChfJbyQ/viewform
About Deirdre Harrison
Deirdre Harrison grew up in Puerto Rico, Canada, and across the USA. She received her BA from Yale University and was the only American in her class at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in the first cohort to earn its three year acting certificate. She earned an Executive Education Scholar Certificate from Kellogg Center for Nonprofit Management. In her acting days, she workshopped and premiered many new plays and European premieres of new American works and is the voice of Athena on Pete Townsend’s Psychoderelict. She is a dual national of USA/Eire, speaks Italian, and has been a proud member of the British Equity and Actors Equity Association unions for 30+ years.
After years as a performing artist and director based in London, Rome and NYC, Deirdre settled in Chicago where she has served as a lead administrator and consultant in the nonprofit arts, education, and healing sectors for over two decades including: Gateway to Learning, NAMI Chicago, Gateway Foundation, Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, Snow City Arts, Eighth Blackbird and the first iteration of the Blackbird Creative Lab, Creative Partners, Civitas Ensemble, Rush Hour Concerts/Make Music Chicago, Music Institute of Chicago, and Baker Demonstration School. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Sit Stay Read!, a Chicago literacy nonprofit that leverages the power of the human-canine bond by bringing Certified Reading Assistance Dog teams into its early and family literacy programs.
In 2014, with percussionist Kyle Gregory Price, she co-founded The Lucky Trikes (https://www.theluckytrikes.com/), a literacy chamber band that performs in unexpected public spaces with Chicago’s top free jazz and new music artists. She has served on and assisted in the development of the nonprofit boards for the World Listening Project, Actors’ Gymnasium, MOCREP ensemble, and New Music Chicago and in 2023 co-produced the 30th Anniversary Conference of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology at The Atlantic Center for the Arts.
About Katie Mazzini
Katie Mazzini was born on Long Island. She graduated in 2012 with a B.F.A in Musical Theater from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Shortly after, she moved to Chicago where she began working professionally in Tracy Letts’ adaptation of Three Sisters (Steppenwolf Theater Company). Her early credits include Singin’ in the Rain (Drury Lane), and Erica Mott’s devised opera, 3 Singers, where she first met master vocal pedagogue and formative mentor, Fides Krucker. In 2013, she joined Chicago’s Walkabout Theater Company and spent 8 years co-devising original pieces across the United States, India, and Poland. In 2021, Katie spent a year as a member of the Focused Research Team in Art as Vehicle at the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Pontedera, Italy. As part of the Workcenter, she performed in The Underground and Songs of Tradition throughout Italy, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. She is currently a teacher in training with Krucker and developing projects with collaborators around the world. Katie is fat. She’s a passionate researcher, a dedicated TV viewer, and a builder of unconventional bridges across creative fields and forms.
About Avreeayl Ra
Drummer/percussionist Avreeayl Ra grew up in Chicago in a house full of music: his father, Arthur “Swinglee” O’Neil, was a tenor saxophonist who mentored many young Chicago musicians, including John Gilmore. He studied drums with Kelan Philip Cohran, one of the cofounders of the AACM and has since remained a member of that organization. Ra has performed and/or recorded with Fred Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Fontella Bass, Lester Bowie, Ari Brown, Oscar Brown, Jr., Charles Gayle, Henry Grimes, Billy Harper, Joseph Jarman, Edward “Kidd” Jordan, Nicole Mitchell, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Malachi Thompson, and many others.
According to the Chicago Tribune he is “an indispensable Chicago innovator, Avreeayl Ra shapes the music-making swirling around him with remarkable precision and poise… extraordinarily sensitive percussion.”