THICK: Studies in Refusal

THICK: Studies in Refusal emerges from the ruins of THICK: a crumbling freak show, a multimedia solo performance that premiered March 2025 at Columbia College Chicago. It is what’s left after the tent has disintegrated, an archive built from fragments and residue.

In this gallery installation, film loops, sound, and task-based performance unfold as a constellation of embodied study. Projections recall scenes from THICK while objects such as a cast-iron skillet or crumpled dollars carry traces of labor.

Throughout the exhibition, Jenn Freeman—who also performs under the name Po’Chop—is present, offering time-based scores and gestures as studies on how value, labor, and mythology intersect in the Black femme body.

THICK: Studies in Refusal transforms Blanc Gallery into an afterimage, an altar to endurance and everyday labor. It invites reflection on how acts of refusal become a practice of reclamation. It asks us to consider what is owed to Black women and femmes. Is that it?

December 5, 2025 | Blanc Gallery (4445 S Martin Luther King Dr, Chicago, IL 60653) | 7:00pm

Please note that this is a time-based performance and guests are encouraged to move throughout the space. Engage with readings, objects, and a slower pace of watching and witnessing.

Photo of Jenn Freeman by William Frederking.