Counterpublic Announces Schedule for Inaugural Convening: CIRCUS OF LIFE
Curated by Laura Raicovich, this free festival in St. Louis unites artists, thinkers, and advocates—including Bread and Puppet Theater, author Roxanne Gay, and poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph—to reimagine art, community, and collective futures.
Fri, October 24 – Sun, October 26, 2026
The Big Top, St. Louis
Counterpublic – a St. Louis-based triennial exhibition reimagining the possibilities of art in public life – announces the schedule for its inaugural convening, CIRCUS OF LIFE, taking place October 24-26, 2025 at The Big Top in St. Louis.
Free and open to all, this three-day festival, organized by writer and curator Laura Raicovich with Ringleaders Kenneth Bailey, Galen Gritts, Jeanne van Heeswijk, and Nontsikelelo Mutiti, channels the spirit of the circus—its spectacle, unruliness, and embrace of society’s margins—into a platform for collective gathering, joy, and imagining of new ways of being together in the world.
Publics will be welcomed to the circus grounds and offered a variety of experiences to choose from, including performances and presentations under the Big Top; booths where artists and local organizers present activities, games, and encounters; and in-depth workshops where small groups will spend time exchanging and making together. Visitors are encouraged to explore at their own pace, enjoying talks, dance, performances, music, poetry, and more. All ages are welcome, and all sites are fully accessible, with outdoor tents, concessions, and ASL interpretation for Big Top talks.
CIRCUS OF LIFE unfolds across five acts throughout the weekend.
The full schedule follows. For more information, please contact counterpublic@culturalcounsel.com.
CIRCUS OF LIFE SCHEDULE
Day 1
Act I: Speaking Truth to Power
Friday, October 24 at The Big Top (3401 Washington Ave, St. Louis, MO 63103)
Festivities kick off on Friday evening — Amid circus booths and activities, the legendary Bread and Puppet Theater, renowned for their towering puppets and uncompromising political vision, will open the CIRCUS with raucous fanfare. The full list of Circus Booths taking place on Friday and Saturday is found below.
6:00pm: Circus Booths Open
6:30pm: Bread and Puppet Theater Side Show
7:00pm: Opening Remarks
7:15pm: Marc Bamuthi Joseph Talk
7:45pm: Bread and Puppet Theater Performance
Day 2
On Saturday, the circus grounds burst to life with Acts II–IV. Keynotes and performances take place under the Big Top, while the grounds host all-age activities. Highlights include a dance performance by Rashida Bumbray; a conversation between Roxane Gay and artist Chloë Bass; music by Ali Sethi and Nicolás Jaar; a talk by Nermeen Shaikh co-host of Democracy Now!; and an evening of performances emceed by artist Larry Krone. The full list of Circus Booths taking place on Friday and Saturday is found below.
Act II: Undoing + Redoing
Saturday, October 25 at The Big Top
10:00am: Welcome Back + Circus Booths Open
10:15am: Kayla Reed Talk
10:35am: Sarah Kendzior Talk
11:00am: Ali Sethi + Nicolás Jaar Musical Performance
12:30pm: Circus Harmony Performance
1:15pm: St. Louis Youth Poet Laureate Poetry
1:30pm: Chloë Bass, Lecture-Performance
1:45pm: Roxane Gay Talk
2:00pm: Roxane Gay and Chloë Bass Conversation
2:45pm: Rashida Bumbray Performance
Emcee Treasure Shields Redmond
Music by Soumir
Roving circus performers by Circus Harmony
Act III: Resisting + Existing Together
Saturday, October 25 at The Big Top Grounds
Artist-led workshops provide hands-on engagement, blending entertainment with exchanges of knowledge and ideas. Participants can experiment, learn, and create alongside practicing artists, fostering dialogue, curiosity, and play.
Act III Workshops:
Artist collective Hilma’s Ghost invites participants to learn about often-forgotten artists who engaged in the esoteric as part of their art practice, and to cast spells.
The St. Louis social circus, Circus Harmony, teaches publics the essential interdependence of circus acts via their hands-on circus skills workshop.
Ringleader Kenneth Bailey and the Design Studio for Social Intervention invite a rich conversation and idea generation to reinvent our cities.
Department of Transformation with artist/designer P! Krisnamurthy and curator Sam Rauch bring people together through healing and experimental exercises and conversations to reimagine how we spend time together and make change.
Act IV: Cultivating Radical Love
Saturday, October 25 under The Big Top
Saturday evening features a reconvening under the circus Big Top, with performances emceed by artist Larry Krone.
7:00pm: St. Louis Aerialist Collective Pre-Show
7:30pm: Welcome Back with Larry Krone
7:45pm: Nermeen Shaikh Talk
8:15pm: Brontez Purnell Reading
8:45pm: Larry Krone and Friends Performance
Day 3
The day honors the experiences, ideas, and connections fostered over the weekend, providing a joyful and reflective conclusion to the CIRCUS OF LIFE.
Act V: What We Hold in Common
Sunday, October 26
Act V closes CIRCUS OF LIFE on Sunday with a celebratory parade from The Big Top to Counterpublic House, a few blocks away.
At the House, publics will participate in a communal meal and conversation. The Final Act: Reflections for the Future is organized by Ringleader and artist Jeanne van Heeswijk and artist and chef Joia Walker, and will feature unique reflections on the weekend by Circus Harmony’s Jessica Hentoff, writer Molly Pearson, musicians the Kendrick Smith Quartet, and art collective NEU ER WORLD.
11:30am: Closing of the CIRCUS at the Big Top and parade
12:30pm: The Final Act: Reflections for the Future (including a communal meal)
Circus Booths
Friday, Oct 24; 6pm–10pm at The Big Top Grounds
Saturday, Oct 25; 10–7pm at The Big Top Grounds
Booths:
Collective painting facilitated by Bread and Roses Missouri
Native advocacy and history led by Galen Gritts
Magik reading room and sigil making with Hilma’s Ghost
Posters and affordable art for sale by Bread and Puppet Theater
NEU ER WORLD creates space for conversation and community
Drawing workshops hosted by Bad Drawing Club
A participatory performance presented by Tania El Khoury
Mask lanyard making guided by Finnegan Shannon
Interactive games designed by Kameelah Janan Rasheed
Collective making with Lauren Bon
Organizing efforts and ways to get involved with St. Louis community organizations:
Earthdance Farms
4theVille
Invest STL
Book sales by Left Bank Books
St. Louis Design Week
Metro Trans Umbrella Group
Action St. Louis
East St. Louis Organizations
Support:
Lead support for the Counterpublic Convening comes from the Regional Arts Commission ARPA for the Arts grant. Additional support comes from the Wagner Foundation and Strive Fund. Support for The Big Top comes from the Kranzberg Arts Foundation.
About Counterpublic:
Counterpublic is a triennial exhibition reimagining the role of art in public life. Located in St. Louis, Counterpublic connects art with lasting impact by bringing together bold ideas with the region’s most pressing challenges. As one of the largest public art exhibitions in the nation, Counterpublic celebrates and spotlights the St. Louis region as an epicenter of art and culture through ongoing partnerships and artistic programming. The focal point is a three-month, citywide exhibition with dozens of the world’s leading artists.
Working in public places, cultural institutions, historic houses, and community gathering spaces, Counterpublic commissions artists, and cultural leaders, and civic stakeholders to make and present artworks and ideas that engage history and imagine new futures. In addition to presenting artworks, programs, and publishing, Counterpublic rethinks the model for art exhibitions, seeding civic initiatives that extend beyond the exhibition. Guided by community engagement, each three-year cycle focuses on a new set of dynamic sites and questions, remaining responsive to the moment and aligning with the most impactful opportunities in the region to cultivate generational change.
Counterpublic was founded as a 501c3 nonprofit in 2021. For more information, visit counterpublic.org.
About Laura Raicovich:
Laura Raicovich is a New York City-based writer and curator known for her critical work on arts institutions and dedication to more equitable cultural production. Her recent book, Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest, was published by Verso Books and is being translated into Italian, Arabic, French, Polish, and Portuguese. In 2023, with a collective of artists, musicians, and culture workers, Raicovich opened The Francis Kite Club, a public social club in NYC’s East Village. She served as editor and curator of Protodispatch, a digital publication featuring artists’ takes on the local and global conditions that make their work necessary; she initiated the forum with Mari Spirito and Protocinema in 2022. In 2020, Raicovich co-founded Urban Front, a transcontinental consultancy addressing the challenges facing cities through a progressive cultural and activist lens. Prior to these projects, Raicovich served as Director of the Queens Museum and Interim Director of the Leslie Lohman Museum of Art; she was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow at the Bellagio Center, and the Tremaine Curatorial Fellow for Journalism at Hyperallergic. She is the author and editor of several books. She lectures internationally, and continues to work on projects that explore art, freedom of speech, and equity.
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