“Speak Easy”, was a site specific installation and happening conceived by artists Juan Angel Chavez and Michael Genovese at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. This temporary installation was a reconstruction of an illegal speak easy they visited while in Philadelphia, PA., that was an apartment repurposed as a private after hour club. They used the museum as a point of contention where they critiqued the purpose of public and social space and invited a select number of curators, collectors and museum professionals to share an intimate reenactment of their experience.

Complete with a DJ Booth, a T shaped lit stage flanked by bleachers with a neon sign that read “Guts” that hung from stage curtains, a gambling table, and an unsanctioned bar. The repurposed space at the Hyde Park Art Center was activated by a choreographed series of performances that included the filming of silent amateur hip-hop videos by war veterans, and transgender actors from Josue Pellot’s documentary film that danced to the sedated trance music Dj’ed by Salem’s Jack Donoghue.

The term "speakeasy" might have originated in Pennsylvania in 1888, when the Brooks High-License Act raised the state's fee for a saloon license from $50 to $500. The number of licensed bars promptly plummeted, but some bars continued to operate illegally. The era of Prohibition saw the growth of organized crime in the United States. Gangsters such as Dutch Schultz, Al Capone, and Lucky Luciano made fortunes by supplying illegal beer and liquor to speakeasies across the country. Some speakeasy were used as homes and offices by gangsters, who adopted an extravagant and easily identifiable lifestyle. Successful gangsters could be identified by their fashionable silk suits, expensive jewelry, and guns.