Chicago History Museum

It's your last chance to see the traveling Let Freedom Read Dress on display in the Museum lobby!

Created by Kirby Gene Anderson and Rachel Jane Wittmann, this dress celebrates the American Library Association’s 2023 Banned Book Week’s theme “Let Freedom Read,” which is a phrase adapted from “let freedom ring,” the closing chorus of the patriotic song “America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee)” written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831.

In opposition to these book challenges, especially to those books with LGBTQIA+ content, Salt Lake City drag artist Gia Bianca Stephens wore the Let Freedom Read Dress in conjunction with Banned Book Week 2023. https://ow.ly/88UK50ZlLak

On June 21, 2023, the City of Chicago officially recognized “Inti Raymi Day,” an important day for the Kichwa Otavalo people of Ecuador who reside in and around Chicago. The Kichwa Otavalo people in the Chicago area have passed down their cultural identity from one generation to the next through Kichwa cultural school, Kichwa language education, and the celebration of the four annual Kichwa Otavalo seasonal rites, or Raymis.

Inti Raymi, celebrated each June around the solstice, is the most important of these rites. This celebration connects to the Kichwa Otavalo agricultural calendar, following the timeline of the corn crop and harvest. For the Kichwa Otavalo people in Chicago, who organize and celebrate Inti Raymi with a gathering each year, it is more than a cultural celebration. It’s also symbolic of their resistance and perseverance, despite being far away from their native land.

You can learn more about the Kichwa Otavalo people in Chicago in our exhibition Aquí en Chicago: https://ow.ly/6KYQ50ZeKCo. And check out our Indigenous Language Maintenance Project on SoundCloud: https://ow.ly/LbTm50ZeKCk.

📸: Members of the Kichwa Community of Chicago dressed in traditional costumes and clothing for Inti Raymi, 2015. Courtesy of the Kichwa Community of Chicago; Aya Huma ceremonial mask on display in Aquí en Chicago. Photograph by CHM staff