Our community has put a lot of blood, sweat into making Reunion a thriving ecosystem and for that, we say THANK YOU + YOU’RE WELCOME!

Musical Practitioners:
Messy Miss Demeanor Elliot
Shaun J. Wright
The Wife of Wrath
Mister Wallace

Moments of Wonder:
SAKI
Eric Dontè
Darling Shear
Saya Naomi

Reunion Family History:
In 2016, Cultural Producers Kristen Kaza and Elijah McKinnon assumed management of the space formerly known as Rational Park, once a workspace co-op home to a rotation of cisgender, white straight men, and lay the groundwork to flip the script, making a home for LGBTQ, people of color and women & nonbinary people to make work. After trying their best to work at various coworking communities and spaces around the city, they became increasingly disappointed with the lack of diversity, intention and social landscape of workspace environments, and imagined a more intersectional and collaborative space with “Reunion."

Named for its intentions of being a welcoming space that engenders feelings of home and belonging, Reunion has become one of the only and most essential spaces in Chicago centering LGBTQ, people of color, and women, femme and nonbinary people. Over the course of three years, Reunion has welcomed over 100 organizations, groups, institutions and brands through its doors, producing over 500 events that would otherwise have trouble finding a space that could meet its budgetary, community and creative needs. In an effort to truly enact its mission of economic accessibility, Reunion operates on a sliding scale pricing model for rentals and residencies. Remarkably, this structure has sustained the overheard for over three years in the black. Reunion has yet to accept any support from public funding or community fundraising, therefore has successfully kept its doors open self sufficiently.

As we enter our fourth year, we're throwing our first community fundraising initiative to help us keep our doors open and accessible to our family. Not only are we committing to a two-year lease, the longest least we've signed to date, we have also become fiscally sponsored in an attempt to accept larger donations and begin applying for public funding opportunities. Like many spaces in the city, we are facing a rental increase come July that will make it difficult to maintain our sliding scale rates so we are turning toward our community to help us continue our mission. The Family Reunion Fundraiser kicks off at YOU'RE WELCOME, on June 1 at Reunion and will run throughout the entire month of June. You can support by attending one or all of the events taking place during our Pride & Power series or by making a tax-deductible donation online. All proceeds go towards space improvements, accessibility enhancements and low-rental costs for our community.