Amid the hustle and bustle of a busy Jackson Blue Line station, a small crowd of CTA passengers gather around 24-year-old Erica Sosa, who, with nothing but a hula hoop and an upbeat tune, dances with the energy and finesse of a highly-skilled performer.
Sosa is one of many artists who spends her days in the depths of the CTA subway system performing for a stream of tourists, commuters and transit workers.
“I do this every day, Monday through Saturday, for like four hours,” Sosa said.
The Rogers Park resident has made street performing her livelihood, making roughly $100 a day in tips.
“I’m raising money to go back to school and right now I don’t really have, like, a job,” Sosa said. “I do have some small side gigs sometimes, like I teach hip-hop classes in Evanston to second- and third-graders, but this is my steady consistent thing that I do like every day.”
You’ll likely find her on the Jackson Blue Line platform; she feels she makes the most money there. And according to Sosa, she’s on the higher end of the subway performer pay grade.
“I’ve asked other performers what they make, and when I tell them how much I make, they’re like, ‘Whoa!'” she said.
“When I was here like three years ago, I used to make like $50 for the four hours. “But back then, I guess I wasn’t sure what I was doing, and it was more for fun. But now, I have a goal. I want to go back to school, so I tell people that, and … it touches their hearts like, ‘Oh, she wants to go back to school, like she wants to do something with her life,’ so I think that helps me to make more money.”
Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about street performers is they’re all struggling financially. Sosa said people often assume she’s lazy, begging or should feel ashamed of performing in the subway. But for her, hula hooping is so lucrative that she doesn’t need another job.
“One time, one man came up to me and he was so mad, and he told me like, ‘There are so many jobs, you should go upstairs, go to any store and they’ll get you a job.’ He was so mad at me. People assume I don’t make money, but I do.”
Sosa said she began hula hooping in the subway roughly three years ago. Her curiosity was sparked when she was in college after seeing other performers on her way to class.
“I’ve always liked dancing, so I thought, ‘Hmm, I wonder what it would be like to be doing this?’ So I went up to one of the performers and I asked him how to get a permit,” Sosa said. “He told me, and I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to try it.’
“My life was kind of boring at that point, and it needed some excitement. Back then I was more shy, so [performing] helped me to overcome my shyness, like dancing in front of people.”
She ended up dropping her college classes shortly after getting her permit and started making a living dancing in the subway. After about a year, she took a break and ended up landing a job teaching ballroom dancing. She eventually quit that job to spend more time with her husband and has been back in the subway performing since June.
“It’s just so much fun,” she said. “I’m pretty much getting paid to do something that I like doing. And then sometimes there are those random awesome human beings that are just so spontaneous, and when they see me dancing, they start dancing with me.
“So sometimes I create like little mini dance parties out of nowhere, and it’s just those awesome little moments that I love about performing.”
How to become a CTA subway performer
>> The CTA has only three locations within the subway where performers are allowed: the Washington Blue Line platform, and the Jackson Red and Blue Line platforms.
>> A performer’s permit costs $10; you must go to CTA headquarters with a valid photo ID to obtain one.
>> You can sign up to do anything—dancing, singing, playing an instrument, etc.
>> Keep your permit with you when performing at CTA locations. If you don’t have it on you or perform somewhere other than a designated area, you could be issued a citation.
>> Performances are on a first-come, first-serve basis in the subway.
WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE
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@RianneCoale | rcoale@redeyechicago.com
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