04/14/2025
In a quiet hallway on Chicago’s South Side, long after the final bell has rung, a janitor named JJ pushes his mop down soiled tiled floors that have sustained more pain than promise. He’s not just cleaning up spilled milk or tossed crumpled paper, he’s wiping away the silent tears of students whose dreams are slipping through the cracks of a broken system. This is Mop and Bucket Blues, a play that dares to tell the stories most people avoid, written and directed by eta alumna L.A. Holts, and co-produced by eta, Holts, and Carma Newman.
The lights of eta will rise again this fall. Our May 3rd talent showcase will be more than entertainment; it will be a lifeline for this production and the community it represents. In schools across Chicago, especially in the inner city, the arts and athletics have been slashed and gutted by budget cuts. For so many students, those who fear facing bullets on their way to school, who navigate hunger, grief, abandonment, art and sports have been the only way out, the only space where they have felt seen and heard.
Mop and Bucket Blues amplifies those voices. It stands in the gap for students who can’t say what they’ve seen, for teachers who show up every day despite feeling invisible, and for communities who’ve long been overlooked and forgotten. eta has always been a home for our stories and now, we need your support to relaunch its season with a production that tells the truth, heals the soul, and can spark a movement.
With your donations, you’re not just funding a play, you’re investing in justice and in dreams that deserve to be lived out loud.
Let’s raise the curtain together and remind the world that eta still sings, still fights, and the creative arts still matters.
Purchase tickets to the Talent Showcase and make donations to the Mop & Bucket Blues production here:
https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/eta-creative-arts-foundation/eta-poets-r-people-2-talent-showcase #
All donations received will go towards production costs of Mop & Bucket Blues and eta expenses.
Eta is looking for sponsors for the upcoming production season.
Chicago's leading African American cultural performing arts institution since 1971. 
