HOMEROOM

Thank you to everyone who came to the final Comfort Music + performance, and to our four performers, Caroline Jesalva, Katinka Kleijn, Aquarius Ester Alegria, and Avin HannahSmith. What a great way to close out the month.

Every Monday in June
Doors 7PM / Show 7:30 PM
Comfort Station, 2579 N Milwaukee Ave Chicago
Suggested donation at the door

📸 Anna Howerton

Join us for the fifth and final performance of this year's Comfort Music + series on June 29!

Curated by Scott Rubin, Monday's performances feature Caroline Jesalva (violin), Katinka Kleijn (cello), Aquarius Ester Alegria (film), and Avin HannahSmith (media art). Stop by Comfort Station on Monday, June 29, for a visually stunning finale.

June 29, 2026
Doors 7 PM / Show 7:30 PM
Comfort Station, 2579 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Suggested donation at the door

About the Artists:

Caroline Jesalva is a musician, improviser, multidisciplinary artist, and curator. Jesalva works in many disciplines, including experimental theater, songwriting, puppetry, performance, classical music, poetry, and free jazz. Throughout these disciplines, she expresses self-identification, anger, heritage, surrealism, ritual, a love for unconventional spaces, and the intermingling of violin and vox.

Katinka Kleijn is a Dutch-born cellist cultivating an exploratory, interactive creative practice at the fertile intersection of improvisation, composition, and performance art. Much of Kleijn’s work illuminates the cello’s anthropomorphic qualities, often by placing the instrument in thought-provoking new contexts, such as natural environments or in response to new media installations and technologies.

Aquarious Ester is an Afro-surrealist filmmaker, performance artist, and recovery support specialist focused on trauma identification and healing. Through film, poetry, movement, and research, Ester reflects on chronic pain, generational trauma, mental health, and the tools that help her and others move through those experiences. In both her work as an artist and an educator/specialist, she uncovers the human mind's penchant for creativity, resilience, and recovery.

Avin HannahSmith is a multidisciplinary artist and educator born, raised, and based in Chicago. His work is about how Black and Indigenous people of color create grids of societal understanding to sort through systems of oppression that have been forced upon them. HannahSmith connects with his audience through various media, including sound, animation, Web3, painting, and sculpture.

📸 Tim Schmoll
📸 Marcos

“Homeroom champions programming that traditional venues often deem too risky.”
— Tim Daisy, Chicago musician + composer

That risk is the point. Help us say yes to supporting more Chicago artists next season. $2,500 by June 30. Link in bio to give!

Photo of Tim Daisy during Homeroom Residency in April 2026 at Elastic Arts, taken by Scott Teresi

Scott Teresi
Timothy Daisy
Elastic Arts

Moments from the June 22 Comfort Music + performance, featuring Fred Jackson, Naydja Bruton, Irene Hsiao, and Alexander Dupuis in an interdisciplinary quartet. Thanks to everyone who came to see the show and to all the performers!

Every Monday in June
Doors 7 PM / Show 7:30 PM
Comfort Station, 2579 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Suggested donation at the door

📸 Theo Luna

Comfort Music + is back at Comfort Station on Monday, June 22, with two new performances!

Join us for an evening of music, movement, and animation, curated by Scott Rubin and featuring Fred Jackson (saxophone), Naydja Bruton (percussion), Irene Hsiao (dance), and Alexander Dupuis (animation).

June 22, 2026
Doors 7 PM / Show 7:30 PM
Comfort Station, 2579 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Suggested donation at the door

About the Artists:

Fred Jackson is a jazz saxophonist and flutist. Jackson has been passionate about Jazz music since he was a kid, and now aims to share both his passion and knowledge with future generations. Jackson has been performing in Chicago since 2001 and has toured internationally in Poland, Germany, and France with artists such as fellow musician Saalike Zyiad and the AACM New Generations ensemble.

Naydja Bruton is a drummer, composer, and teacher exploring how music leads to greater healing and empathy. They understand music as a way to foster community and build positive, vulnerable spaces. Having experienced firsthand how music can facilitate compassion, confidence, and intimate bonds, Bruton hopes to pass that experience on to others.

Irene Hsiao is a dancer, writer, and multidisciplinary artist. She creates performances in conversation with visual art in museums, galleries, and public spaces, a practice that includes site-specific interaction with visual artworks and experimental engagement with artists, institutions, and the public.

Alexander Dupuis is an animator and guitarist creating animations and interactive visuals for short films, concerts, installations, and visualizations. His animated work draws on sci-fi cartoons, op art, odd lifeforms, classic scientific illustrations, mythological tales, and systems that feed back into themselves.

For 18 years, Homeroom has said yes to supporting ambitious multidisciplinary work. Last week, that meant ceramics, dance, electronics, and viola sharing the bill at Comfort Station!

Next season, we want to say yes in more ways, giving artists the support they need to make their most ambitious ideas real – paid rehearsal time, rehearsal space stipends to prepare, professional documentation they can use to secure their next gig.

Before our fiscal year ends on June 30, we’re raising $2,500 to start building that capacity.

Help us say “yes” by making a tax-deductible donation at the link in our bio. Every bit helps!

Photo: Comfort Music + June 8, 2026 featuring QuJie + Scott Rubin, taken by by Theo Luna

A recap of yesterday's Comfort Music + performances, featuring Lia Kohl, Xiaolu Wang, Hannah Marcus, and Sofia Carbonara.

A big thank you to all the performers and everyone who came out to see their collaborations. See you next Monday!

Every Monday in June
Doors 7 PM / Show 7:30 PM
Comfort Station, 2579 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Suggested donation at the door

📸 Theo Luna