Exhibit at Navy Pier celebrates 40 years of house music — in the city that started it

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

For Lori Branch, getting into The Warehouse nightclub on South Jefferson Street in the 1980s was like going “to Mecca.”

“It was everything to me,” said Branch, 61, who used a fake I.D. to get into the venue, known as the birthplace of house music. ”I was like, ‘OK, there’s a community I can connect to. There’s this incredible music that’s happening all around me.’ It really cemented the desire in me to become a DJ.”

More than four decades after joining the house movement, Branch is helping to document the now-global phenomenon. The fruits of her labor can be seen in the “Chicago: Home of House” exhibit, which opened at Navy Pier on Wednesday, and runs through Oct. 31.

The exhibit is presented by Branch and her partners at The Vintage House Show Collective, as well as the Design Museum of Chicago. Located near Kilwins between door five and six, the show features an extensive, colorful timeline mounted on the wall. Patrons can also view a memorial to late house pioneers, as well as other text and photo displays painted on nearby pillars.

The exhibit is part of the 40th celebration of house music, which is being honored with additional events at the pier and throughout the city until the end of the year.

The goal of “Chicago: Home of House” is to preserve the legacy of the genre, honoring its pioneers, milestones and origins as a Chicago art form.

“To share that story at a place where tourists are coming from all over the world is important,” said Lauren Lowery, a member of The Vintage House Show Collective, which has been documenting the genre’s history for years through its podcast and radio show on WNUR. “If we don’t preserve it and celebrate it, then how do people know it’s Chicago music? How do people know this is a Black music [genre] that should be respected and studied, just like jazz or just like hip-hop? This is how we start that movement.”

By reading through the timeline, visitors will learn about the careers of house legends such as promoter Robert Williams, DJ Frankie Knuckles, DJ Ron Hardy and DJ Jesse Saunders, who released "On and On" — the song that is considered the first house record — in 1984. They will be informed about the city’s “anti-rave” ordinance that impacted underground clubs. And they will be educated on younger artists like DJ Honey Dijon, who is carrying on the legacy.

“[House] brought many communities together in a way that they weren’t necessarily being accepted in other places and spaces,” said Kevin McFall, a former DJ and prominent publicist, who represented house acts such as Ten City, Cajmere and Ron Trent. “And so it was a very powerful thing for house to originate here in Chicago, a city that has all of these other dimensions, things like segregation and political turmoil. And yet a new musical genre was able to be born and flourish in the Black and Latino communities.”

The 40th anniversary of the genre will continue to be honored at Navy Pier, with “Wave Wall Wax” each Saturday, featuring house DJs including Branch, who will play on June 15. The pier is also partnering with the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events on four free events, culminating in the Chicago House Music Festival at Millennium Park on June 2. (A full schedule can be found at navypier.org.)

Providing space for the "Chicago: Home of House" exhibit is part of Navy Pier’s mission to provide free access to Chicago arts and culture, said Erika Taylor, vice president of arts, culture and engagement at the pier.

She also stressed the importance of partnering with local groups like The Vintage House Show Collective to educate others about local art forms.

“They’re the experts, and we want to give space to people to showcase their culture and their history,” Taylor said. “Navy Pier is not going to be the place to tell you what culture is, but we want to give people the platform to be able to do that in their own words.”