Queering Chaos Conversations: Queering Dreaming & Dreams

It is time to dream, and dare to bring those dreams into reality. But, what does it mean to dream, and then act on those dreams, in times of chaos?

Queering Chaos is a project about Queers who dare to Queer with the Chaos Man at the steering wheel of the American Empire. In our last Queering Chaos Conversation the host and creator of the project, Dr. Nicole Rawls, is in conversation with two Queer artists and friends who she dreams with regularly - Dr. Moya Bailey and Forest Brooks - as a way to show what it means to conjure new worlds through a Black Queer lens.

Doors at 6pm and our conversation begins at 7pm. Dorothy remains open after the event until 11pm.

Tickets are sliding scale $10-20 in advance and $20 at the door.

Dorothy is 21+ and requires physical ID for all to enter. Dorothy is also ADA accessible with elevator access on Campbell Ave. If you are a guest who requires elevator access, please wait by the black door with our logo in the window and call our staff to assist: 773-770-3799

Please note: refund requests are only available until 24h before the event (2/17, 7pm). No other refund requests will be honored.

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ABOUT THE PANELISTS & HOSTS

Dr. Nicole Rawls is a Black Queer cultural strategist, anthropologist, astrologer and artist who guides individuals and organizations toward liberated futures by reconnecting them to the wisdom of their bodies, stories, and ancestral knowledge. With a PhD in Anthropology from Michigan State University, Dr. Rawls spent over 15 years in higher education as a professor and senior administrator, leading human-centered initiatives, founding institutes, securing over $7 million in grants, and designing nationally recognized programs. She has held roles at institutions including Michigan State University, the University of Bristol (UK), Beloit College, and Brown University before leaving academia in 2021 to fully step into her own creative and strategic vision. Now the founder of two entities—Embodied Futures Lab, her consulting and learning studio, and Dream Praxis Studio, her creative and storytelling space—Dr. Rawls has developed a signature methodology called Embodied Strategic Dreaming. This praxis-based framework blends critical analysis, somatic inquiry, spiritual insight, and liberatory strategy to help people and institutions reclaim their agency and craft bold, human-centered futures. Her current project is examining the ways Queer communities are navigating the current socio-political and economic moment, and what it means to lead with one's queerness in a time of chaos.

Forest Brooks is an artist, songwriter, producer, sound architect, DJ, essayist, instructional designer, and cultural preservationist. He uses his knowledge and experience to work with artists to connect with and concentrate their human experience into culturally grounded works of art. He obtained a B.A. in English from Southern Methodist University in 2007. His most recently published essay “Breaking To Build: Lessons For A Renaissance “ is in “The Renaissance Reader: Beyonce and Black Queer Popular Culture” (2026).

Dr. Moya Bailey: is a kitchen witch descended from Rebecca, Mamie the Midwife, Flossie, and Alberta, all from scratch cooks who use food as art, medicine, and magic. Moya Bailey is a Professor at Northwestern University and is the founder of the Digital Apothecary and co-founder of the Black Feminist Health Science Studies Collective. She is the digital alchemist for the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network and the Board President of Allied Media Projects, a Detroit-based movement media organization that supports an ever-growing network of activists and organizers. She is a co-author of #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice (MIT Press, 2020) and is the author of Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance (New York University Press, 2021). She is an award winning documentarian after completing the short documentary You Just Watch & See(2025) featuring her late Cousin Dollie, and is completing a docuseries Misogynoir in Medicine.

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