NON:op Open Opera Works presents Viral Silence: Trap and Release at Saint Martin’s Episcopal Church in Chicago’s Austin Neighborhood. Sunday, May 22, 2022, at Saint Martin’s Episcopal Church at 5700 West Midway Park, Chicago 60644

This event is FREE and suitable for all audiences. Covid-19 precautions: masking and social distancing will be required and observed.

Trap and Release is an immersive, meditative environment with music and spoken word by community members describing their Covid-19 experiences over the last two years. Commissioned by NON:op Open Opera Works and created by JoVia Armstrong and Stephan Moore, Trap and Release is a collaborative project designed to release the tension built and trapped during the pandemic and of the summer of 2020.

The meditative soundscape will be played back through a multi-channel speaker system designed by Moore at Austin’s Saint Martin’s Episcopal Church. Participants and the rest of the community will be able to come to listen, relax, meditate, or just enjoy the sounds of their voices put to music. Armstrong writes, “Systemic discrimination and unconscious bias can make a person feel trapped within their situation. Trap and Release offers an opportunity for release and relief to people in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.”

For those unable to attend in-person LIVE-STREAM: Experimental Sound Studio’s YouTube channel. Visit the NON:op website, www.nonopera.org, for a direct link to the live stream.

Saint Martin’s is fully wheelchair accessible. For all other accommodation requests, please contact Theresa Pacione at pacionepaz@ameritech.net

Trap and Release is commissioned and produced by NON:op Open Opera Works in partnership with Saint Martin’s Episcopal Church and Front Porch Arts Center.

Viral Silence is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and a City Arts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.