CrowdMateFor Thursday, September 17 through Sunday, September 20, the most coherent music plan arrives in a single West Loop address. Epiphany Center for the Arts lines up two Golden Hour sessions in its Café Bar, beginning Friday, September 18, and then sets a Saturday evening centerpiece in Epiphany Hall with Nina Simone Reimagined. The useful appeal is the pacing: early sets begin at 5 p.m., leaving room for a meal, gallery viewing, conversation, or a later ticketed program under the same roof. Golden Hour runs Thursday through Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.; the venue presents it as free live entertainment, with specials ending at 7 p.m. Its 201 South Ashland Avenue campus also keeps the movement between spaces short and simple.[1][2][3]
Friday’s CBBeatz set opens the route
Golden Hour featuring CBBeatz begins Friday at 5 p.m. in the Café Bar. CBBeatz is billed by Epiphany as a Chicago-based producer and DJ whose work moves through the city’s hip-hop scene, alongside a renewed focus on DJ performance and curation. That makes this an easy first stop for listeners looking for a set built around selection and flow, while the surrounding series establishes a three-hour window instead of a late-night commitment. The Friday booking carries indie, folk, and hip-hop tags in the live calendar, though the venue’s own artist note puts the closer emphasis on CBBeatz’s production and DJ practice. Arrive early enough to use the 5-to-7 p.m. specials window, then treat the full set as an unhurried start to the weekend.[1][2]
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Saturday moves from house-inflected selections to Simone
Saturday’s 5 p.m. Golden Hour edition brings Sol Ley and St. Sinclaire to the Café Bar. Epiphany describes Sol Ley’s sets through Afrohouse, classic house, and R&B, while St. Sinclaire’s background draws on soul, R&B, funk, disco, jazz, and Chicago house. The pairing creates a specifically dance-minded lead-in for the evening, with the music ending at 8 p.m. At 7 p.m., Nina Simone Reimagined begins in Epiphany Hall, creating an overlap that lets attendees choose a direct move from the Café Bar into the ticketed performance. The venue identifies Chicago vocalist Harmony Grace as the artist behind the program, which incorporates voice, dance, and spoken word in an interpretation of Simone’s catalog.[3][4]
A tribute with a wide musical inheritance
The Simone program gives Saturday’s sequence its weight. Simone’s official biography traces a repertoire that joined classical piano technique with jazz, blues, folk, pop, and spiritual material; it also places her work at the forefront of music addressing civil rights and social change. Harmony Grace’s billed approach—soul, jazz, and contemporary expression—fits that breadth without reducing the evening to a single genre label. For listeners arriving from the DJ sets, the transition is part of the point: a room shaped by house, disco, and R&B vocabulary gives way to a songbook rooted in an artist whose influence crossed jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, pop, and classical traditions.[4][5]
Golden Hour featuring CBBeatz starts at 5 p.m. Friday, September 18; Golden Hour featuring Sol Ley and St. Sinclaire starts at 5 p.m. Saturday, September 19; and Nina Simone Reimagined begins at 7 p.m. Saturday in Epiphany Hall. Golden Hour is listed as free with RSVP, while the Simone event is ticketed and restricted to guests 21 and older with valid identification. Recheck Epiphany Center for the Arts’ official event pages before heading out for current entry, ticket, schedule, and venue details.[2][3][4]
These concerts happened on 18–19 September 2026
The next dates at these venues: Epiphany Center for the Arts
Sources
- Epiphany Center for the Arts Home Page — Epiphany Center for the Arts
- Golden Hour Featuring CBBeatz — Epiphany Center for the Arts
- Golden Hour featuring Sol Ley & St. Sinclaire — Epiphany Center for the Arts
- Nina Simone Reimagined — Epiphany Center for the Arts
- Biography — The Official Home of Nina Simone