A Listening Space

Monday - Friday

8:30AM–4PM

After hours with DJ Sean Alvarez

Monday - Wednesday

4PM–9PM

Theaster Gates and Rebuild Foundation are pleased to announce the opening of A Listening Space, the latest activation of the former currency exchange at 305 E. Garfield.

This experimental endeavor is another example of Rebuild’s investment in creating iterative projects that demonstrate the value, dynamism and cultural possibility in Black space on Chicago’s South Side. A Listening Space invites the public to engage with the Dinh Nguyen Collection, an archive of music which holds over 14,000 records, CDs, cassettes and other audio ephemera, including examples of blues, jazz, reggae, dub and disco, along with African pop and Vietnamese funk, classical, world folk and other experimental and obscure sounds.

A Listening Space offers an alternative, anti-capitalist model for the creation and operation of communal spaces, ones driven by a belief in hospitality as a practice rather than a commercial tool. Visitors enter a calming and restorative space—one candlelit and with records always spinning—that encourages active engagement with the Dinh Collection, offers an intimate experience with artwork by Theaster Gates and provides free tea.

Gates first encountered the Dinh Nguyen Collection after an introduction by Chef Armand Arnal to Nguyen’s widow, Danielle, during the first year of his extended project at LUMA Foundation in 2023. The sonic corpus of Dinh Nguyen, a French Vietnamese DJ from Réunion Island and a colleague of Arnal’s at La Chassagnette, immediately resonated with Gates. Wanting to support the family in their grieving process, while also recognizing the cultural value of Nguyen’s collection and its relationship to his work with other important record collections, including the Frankie Knuckles Collection, Jesse Owens Collection, Marva Jolly Collection and the Dr. Wax Collection, Gates committed to honoring Nguyen through the material traces of his love of music.

“This vinyl collection represents nearly 20 years of work and dedication to find the most precious pieces,” says Millie Nguyen, Dinh Nguyen’s daughter. “It is not the collection itself that holds immeasurable value, but rather the love for music that my father devoted nearly his entire life to. I am honored to have worked on this project, allowing me to share what my father would have wanted to pass on to as many people as possible. His soul remains forever present through his music.”