More than a year after Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick died, a lineup of musicians and friends is gathering at Constellation in Avondale to sing his songs and read his words aloud. The show, called “Something Beautiful: Words, Songs & Poems of Tony Fitzpatrick,” brings together collaborators who spent decades alongside the painter, poet and columnist, turning grief into performance the way Fitzpatrick himself once described doing.
According to Axios, the show is scheduled for November 18 at Constellation in Avondale, with performances from Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Kelly Hogan, Quin Kirchner, Al Scorch, John Szymanski and Rick Kogan. The performers will recite or sing the words of Fitzpatrick, who was a Chicago artist, poet, columnist and author, per the same report. The show was produced by John Soss, according to Axios, and WGN Radio reports the tribute actually spans two nights, November 18th and 19th at 8:00 PM at Constellation Chicago, where Soss and Langford joined Rick Kogan to discuss the production.
Songs Pulled From Old Collaborations
Several of the night's songs trace back to Fitzpatrick's long partnership with Langford. On Kogan's WGN show, Langford said Sally Timms will sing a song she wrote with Fitzpatrick long ago, and that he himself wrote a song with Fitzpatrick for Rosie Flores's album Girl of the Century, which Kelly Hogan will sing. Al Scorch is set to read a spoken-word piece with musical backing written by Langford and Fitzpatrick together, the report notes, and Langford, Kirchner and Szymanski rehearsed for the show ahead of the performance.
Soss told Kogan's program that the show's title arose back in 2023, during rehearsals for an earlier tribute show called Cinderella Blackbird, built to honor late Chicago DJ Lin Brehmer. That 2023 song cycle, also a Fitzpatrick-Langford collaboration, was presented at The Hideout, according to a prior Axios report. It was during that same period that Fitzpatrick said the most productive part of grieving is trying to make something beautiful from it, the line that now gives this month's show its name.
Ticket Pricing and Proceeds
Constellation is located at 3111 N. Western Ave., and a portion of the proceeds from the shows will be allocated to the Tony Fitzpatrick Family Trust, Axios reports. Ticket pricing is not entirely settled across available listings: Axios reports tickets cost $31, while a Constellation venue listing shows a $25 price for the November 18 show. Prospective attendees may want to confirm current pricing directly before buying.
Remembering an Artist Who Shaped a Scene
Fitzpatrick died of a heart attack at 66 roughly thirteen months before this latest tribute was announced. Family members said he was awaiting a double lung transplant and died at Rush University Medical Center, according to a WBEZ obituary. Around 1990, Fitzpatrick co-founded World Tattoo, a South Loop gallery that doubled as an art collective and performance space, and his work was later exhibited at institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, per the same obituary.
Langford's connection to Fitzpatrick ran deep, something he made clear in that same WBEZ piece. “I can’t think of my art without Tony. He showed me how to do it. He pushed me. He made me do it,” Langford said.
Fitzpatrick's death drew a wave of public mourning across the city. In November 2025, hundreds packed the Metro for a memorial, then marched through the Lakeview streets afterward to honor him, according to Block Club Chicago. More than a dozen close friends and family members took the Metro stage that day to tell stories, read poems and play songs, the outlet reported. Separately, Chicago artists staged another tribute called “Black Swan Elegies” inside the West Town Chamber of Commerce, honoring the Lombard native with a show reported by WGN-TV.
