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Allison Parssi
Allison Parssi is a Chicago based artist + DJ, who is continually reclaiming their art practice through music curation, collage, image making, writing, and sending art via snail mail. Parssi got their start as a DJ hosting a variety of day time and specialty programs at their college radio station in Rochester, NY. After trading one Great Lake for another and moving to Chicago in 2017, Parssi expanded their radio involvement by joining CHIRP Radio. As a former Music Co-Director, recontextualizing music and bringing new voices to the airwaves drove their work. Parssi has collaborated with artists and educators throughout Chicago bringing art fairs, projects, classes, and workshops to fruition. In March 2023 they started Shokoufeh, a DJ night focusing on SWANA music from across genres and decades. Over the past year, they've brought this night to Sleeping Village, The California Clipper, Cafe Mustache, and other venues across the city. You can find Allison at a show many days of the week and at the lake any time of the year.
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Ashir Badami
Ashir Badami is quite likely the least interesting person in the room. His only claim to fame is bouncing around South and SouthEast Asia as a kid with his family before somehow landing in Malta where the azure blue seas turned his wanderlust into a love of travel writing and poetry. He has lived in the shadows as a closet writer, and aspiring journalist (Go Medill!), and his passion for writing and literature has endured parochial boarding schools in South India (where Kerouac was banned) and even the vagaries of the West Coast Tech Bro scene where he made his living as a marketing zombie. He recently returned to the Chicago area with his amazing wife and highly-entertaining five-year-old. He currently teaches media innovation at his alma mater, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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Hope Rehak
Hope Rehak is a lifelong Chicagoan who keeps leaving and coming back. She sometimes lives in LA, but is thrilled to be here today. She used to be young and perform stand-up before the pandemic and is now an agèd hermit. She regularly teaches comedy and creative writing online and in person. She wrote this bio when she was single so feel free to flirt harmlessly.
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Soli Santos
Soli Santos is a native Chicagoan and graduate of The Second City Theater. She's a co-producer of The Laugh Lounge Comedy show and has performed at various comedy clubs across the country such as The Laugh Factory, The Laughing Skull and The LA Comedy Club.
Follow her on IG: @SoliComedy
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Megan Kirby
Megan Kirby is an artist, writer, and zinemaker. She has published in places like The New York Times, The Chicago Reader, TIME Magazine, and McSweeney's. She runs a zinemaking and storytelling show called Meanwhile. In her daily life, She likes long walks, thrift stores, pop music, and sleeping in.
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Fraxiom
Fraxiom is a writer, producer, and performer of music and musical ideas. With hits early in their career like the seminal 21st-century anthem "Thos Moser" as part of Food House (Fraxiom's duo project with super-producer Gupi) and the cheeky Skrillex reprise "scawy monstews and nice spwites :3," Fraxiom's stardom ignited brightly in early 2020 and was catapulted into the Fifth Dimension. Since then, having toured the US coast-to-coast, having sold out shows across the UK, and enjoying nods from Dog Show Records founder Dylan Brady and PC Music founder A.G. Cook, Fraxiom is a luminous, musical force to be reckoned with.