Wills Glasspiegel

Wills Glasspiegel (born November 23, 1982) is an American filmmaker,^[1] artist,^[2] scholar^[3] and community organizer from Chicago.^[4] Dr. Glasspiegel has spent several years working alongside electronic musicians and dancers from Sierra Leone (bubu music), South Africa (Shangaan electro) and Chicago (Footwork (genre)). In 2017, he co-founded the arts and racial justice nonprofit, Open the Circle.^[5] He has produced public radio segments for All Things Considered^[6] and Morning Edition, and was recognized as a co-recipient of a Peabody Award in 2014^[7] for his contributions to the public radio program Afropop Worldwide. Wills' collaborations have been featured in a variety of publications including CNN,^[8] FADER Magazine,^[9] Dazed Magazine,^[10] Pitchfork,^[11] New York Times,^[12] Wall Street Journal,^[13] The Guardian,^[14] and Chicago Tribune. He worked from 2016-2023 as an artist and filmmaker with The Era Footwork Crew,^[15] including as creative director for The Era's touring performance,IN THE WURKZ, a show that won the National Dance Project award in 2019 from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Glasspiegel's work has been recognized with prizes from the MacArthur Foundation, the Field Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Chicago. His films and installations have screened at Stony Island Arts Bank,^[16] the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago,^[17] the Walker Art Center,^[18] Minneapolis Institute of Arts,^[19] MANA Contemporary,^[20] Shibuya crossing in Japan (Neo Shibuya^[21]), and several times with Art on the Mart in Chicago.^[22]