'Art and Pep' spotlights the life and love of Chicago civil rights leaders
Thu. April 1, 2021 9:20 AM
by
Ross Forman
photo credit // artandpep.org
'ART AND PEP is the love story behind the long battle to love – and live – freely,' says director Mercedes Kane
Art Johnston was doing a two-year theatre program at Northwestern University when some guys in the theatre department told him that about bars in Chicago “for people like us.” Johnston soon thereafter walked into a gay bar in 1973 named Shari’s, where a bartender that night was named Pepe.
“Pep came home with me and has never left,” Johnston said with a smile.