KRISTEN KAZA is an award-winning cultural producer on a mission to foster community, connection, and activate joy. For nearly two decades, she has dedicated herself to bridging the worlds of creative laborers and institutions in pursuit of building a more equitable entertainment industry. As Founder of No Small Plans Productions, Kristen has been the architect of hundreds of “parties with a purpose,” collaborating on events designed within an intersectional framework for partners like: HBO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Community Trust, Nike, United States Artists, Navy Pier, Pitchfork Music Festival, Howard Brown Health, and more. She has been featured in TIME, Forbes, the Chicago Tribune, ABC, Chicago Magazine, and others, and she was a recipient of the Windy City Times’ 30 Under 30 awards in 2009, voted Best Party Promoter numerous year by the Chicago Reader and was featured in Chicago Social magazine as one of 30 Most Fascinating Chicagoans in 2024.
Kristen is most widely known as Producer and resident Party Mom of legendary Chicago LGBTQ+ party series Slo ‘Mo, beloved by many for its joyful, intergenerational vibes since 2011. In 2016, Kristen co-founded Reunion Chicago, a Humboldt Park sliding scale event space and project incubator for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC creatives that impacted a prolific number of artists and grassroots organizations until it closed in 2021. Kristen is also an educator, having taught communications at her alma mater Columbia College for a decade, as well as a consultant, speaker, and workshop facilitator. She currently serves on the LGBTQ+ Advisory Board to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration and on the board of the historic Ramova Theatre music venue in Bridgeport. Kristen expanded her maternal role in 2022 when she became a mom of identical twins, who she is raising with her wife and an abundant village of loved ones. She is dedicated to building a future where queer families can thrive.
Bio as of 3/2025
Photo by Paul Octavious