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This fall I've had the amazing opportunity to co-curate/co-organize "Neighbors in Nature – A free community event series creatively connecting neighbors around the environment" with Maya Jones for Neighbors for Environmental Justice (N4EJ).

It's happening this month! Come check it out, and bring a neighbor!

• • •

Join N4EJ, local artists and environmental advocates, and fellow community members of all ages to have fun and connect outdoors! Explore nature in the neighborhood through guided experiences, creatively engage through drop-in arts activities, and learn from each other through intergenerational community exchanges.

Saturday, October 1, from 10am-12pm – Birding, Trees, and Climate Change Outing

Saturday, October 15, from 12-2pm – Environmental Justice Tour

Saturday, October 15, from 2-5pm – Making and Movement

Tuesday, October 18, from 5:30-7:30pm – Canvassing Training and Practice

Thursday, October 20, from 4-7pm – Community Exchange

Sunday, October 23, from 1-5pm – Culminating Event

Events take place at various outdoor sites in the McKinley Park neighborhood. For event descriptions, fantabulous partners, and more info: https://fb.me/e/1NxbS89Pg

Images: Photos of the "Birding, Trees, and Climate Change Outing" (led by Citlally Fabela and Carmina Reyes), an environmental justice tour in progress, an activity from last summer's McKinley Park "Mobilize!" gathering (photo by Alejandro Reyes), and the "Neighbors in Nature" flyer in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Image descriptions in alt-text.

I traveled to western Michigan this weekend to facilitate a new day-long workshop, "Learning from Yourself (and Each Other): Creative Writing and Reflection."

What has shaped who you are and what you notice? What kinds of stories and characters are you most drawn to writing, and why? What values and influences are (or do you wish were) embedded in your work? This workshop will encourage participants to engage in creative self-study, drawing upon observations, experiences, and imaginings alike. Activities will include guided reflections and multimodal writing (e.g., mapping, visual journaling), as well as facilitated opportunities to share and learn from each other. This workshop aims to illuminate and also rejuvenate, and for participants to depart with ideas of how they want to learn from themselves next. Open to writers working in any form or simply to anyone wishing to reflect.

As with the other workshops for adults that I've offered through Ox-Bow's Art on the Meadow, I feel so moved by the thoughtfulness, generosity, and insight that the intimate group brought. Sending gratitude and wishes for continued creative generation to these and other past participants!

In October, the Mobilize Creative Collaborative (Aquil Charlton, William Estrada, Andrés Lemus-Spont, and myself) received the fantabulous surprise honor of the 2021 Park Activation Innovation Award from Friends of the Parks!

All 10 VIP Award Winners were announced at Friends of the Parks’ “Parks as Democracy?” Conference and then celebrated at an outdoor reception that included mini-golf at Douglass Park—at the amazing new Douglass 18 Miniature Golf Course. Redesigned and created by a group of youth and organizing artists (the Reimagination Award winners!), all 18 holes are inspired by different migratory birds that pass through the park! More info and the full list of wonderful winners online here. <3

Image: From left to right, a Friends of the Parks staff member, Aquil, Aquil’s son, and I pose for a photo with part of the Douglass 18 mini-golf course and Douglass Park behind us. Photo courtesy of Friends of the Parks.

One of the most tremendous blessings of this year was hearing that Andrés Lemus-Spont won a prestigious 3Arts* Award! It's still hard to express just how excited I am for Andrés, my partner in life and other endeavors. I believe so deeply in his practice, his brilliance, his playful and affirming approach to teaching, mentoring, making, critiquing, his general brilliance...the interconnected work he has been doing for a decade and longer. <3

Then, a few months later, I was floored to learn that I also received an award from 3Arts: a Make a Wave award! I felt especially honored, humbled, and collectively elevated when I saw the incredible group of 120 (!) other Make a Wave awardees—a group that includes numerous dear friends and colleagues, as well as so many artists who I've admired from afar or whose work I'm excited to learn about.

The online event for these and other awards happened on November 1; you can check out that celebration on YouTube. And I'm up for celebrating all this goodness outside of that too. :)

*3Arts is a nonprofit organization that supports Chicago’s women artists, artists of color, and Deaf and disabled artists who work in the performing, teaching, and visual arts. By providing cash awards, project funding, residency fellowships, professional development, and promotion, 3Arts helps artists take risks, experiment, and build momentum in their careers.

Images: At top, a video still from YouTube. Superimposed text includes "Andrés Lemus-Spont, Teaching Artist, 3Arts / HMS Fund Awardee." A circular photo of Andrés smiling is layered over another video still, of several children selecting toy parts from crates at a FrankenToyMobile workshop. At bottom, a bio photo of me, shown from the chest up and smiling slightly, in front of a brick background; photo by Gaby FeBland.

The Winter Supply Drive for Chicago Community Jail Support* is happening now through January 10!

While all items on the above wishlist are welcomed, I'd especially encourage coats, other warm clothing, hats, and gloves (these items can be secondhand/gently used), as many people are released from Cook County Jail without sufficient layers for the weather. Some evenings we distribute dozens of sweatshirts and coats.

Dropping off supplies:

My apartment in McKinley Park is a drop site! People who know me can email me directly to coordinate a time if that location works well.

For other drop sites and for people who don’t know me, you can DM as noted on the flyer (or, if you don't use those apps, email chicommunityjailsup at gmail dot com).

*In brief, CCJS is an all-volunteer mutual aid network offering direct aid to support immediate needs of people released from Cook County Jail, such as phone calls, warm clothing, snacks/drinks, transportation, and even emergency housing. Learn more about CCJS and how to volunteer.

Image: A web flyer with colorful shapes. It reads: Chicago Community Jail Support Winter Supply Drive. Drop off items December 10th-January 10th at various locations around the city. Drop off locations in Avondale, Edgewater, Humboldt Park, Logan Square, McKinley Park, Pilsen, and Rogers Park. Please DM for drop off addresses and more information! Or drop off outside of the County Jail on December 18th from 2pm-4pm. Please bring: sports drinks, Newports, individual chip packs, fruit snacks, Slim Jims, lighters, soft granola bars, winter hats, gloves, belts, scarves, socks, longsleeve shirts, coats (size M-3XL), sweatshirts, sweat pants. Instagram: chicagocommunityjailsupport. Twitter: @ChiCommunityJS. CashApp: $ChicagoJS."

Exciting news!!! This summer, the Mobilize Creative Collaborative (MCC; Aquil Charlton, William Estrada, Andrés Lemus-Spont, and me), will expand upon our existing work through the “Mobilize! Creative Blocks, Collective Dreams” project: a series of free, weeklong community gatherings, which will be hosted outdoors in five neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and Southwest Sides, co-designed with an incredibly talented team of Partner Artists and Partner Organizers who are rooted in those places. Beginning on July 25th in Little Village—and continuing throughout the summer in Roseland, Kenwood/Oakland/Bronzeville, Washington Park, and McKinley Park—these gatherings will bring together local residents, artists, and organizers of all ages to engage in creative workshops, critical dialogues, and playful explorations focused around justice and the dreams of their communities in ways that center imagination, joy, and people-led solutions.

We are very honored to have received an Artist Response Program grant ($100,000) from DCASE, as well as a Critical Response Fund grant ($5,000) from the Crossroads Fund, in support of this project! These generous grants will cover the majority of project expenses.

However, we still need to close a financial gap, and are currently seeking to raise the funds needed to achieve our team’s vision. ANY & EVERY DONATION to our GoFundMe can help us make these multi-community arts engagements happen, and sharing the GoFundMe link helps too! Especially if you are in a situation of financial surplus, please consider supporting. The more we can raise BY JULY 20th, the more equitably these funds can be distributed across all five neighborhood sites.

And of course! There are many other ways to get involved or support if you're interested, a few of which are:

Participating in-person: If you live in or near Chicago, join us out at events! Follow us via our new website (where later this month we'll start posting the schedules for individual neighborhoods) and Instagram (@mobilize_creative) as we share updates.

Amplifying: If you live in or near one of the neighborhoods where these community gatherings will be happening, or have friends who do, please feel free to help spread the word to your neighbors!

Getting in touch: Anyone who wants to inquire about participating in the community gatherings or to otherwise get in touch can click the “Contact Us!” link on our website.

Let’s create and dream together!

Image description: A Mobilize Creative Collaborative workshop in Back of the Yards, August 2019. Photo by Alfredo Romo. The photo shows a workshop in progress in a park. Participants of all ages, almost all people of color, are congregating around tables, mobile making stations, and blankets, where they are creating buttons, toys, poems, and more. In the background are trees, a playground, and an apartment building. The ground is grass and concrete.

While aspects of my creative process (particularly related to my writing) benefit greatly from privacy and quiet, there's something quite fitting and meaningful to me about doing prep for free public arts workshops while outside in public! This weekend, I spent a few hours on my block re-painting political signs to prepare them for future participants’ messages. It was so great to get to connect with neighbors and curious passersby as I worked!

P.S. Sign re-painting/re-claiming will be but one of the drop-in activities happening at the Mobilize Creative Collaborative's community workshop at Kennicott Park next Wednesday!

Image description: The photo shows Marya Spont-Lemus standing outside in the grass between a sidewalk and a street. Marya, a white person wearing a green shirt and fuchsia pants, stands above a table that is covered in brown paper, using a wide brush to create a textured blend of pink and red paint on a white plastic sign. Immediately behind Marya are a dozen or so completed signs, color-blocked in different colors over the political yard signs' original text. Cars, trees, apartment buildings, and houses stretch down the street behind her.

On Thursday, I'll be facilitating a break-out conversation as part of this public event with Neighbors for Environmental Justice—a virtual Earth Day community discussion about environmental justice work in McKinley Park and Chicagoland.

Images: The event poster in English and Spanish, with white and yellow text on a green background. In English, it reads: “Let's talk. Earth Day Community Conversation with Neighbors for Environmental Justice. Join N4EJ for an informal conversation about environmental justice in Chicago and share ideas about what *you* want to see happen in our community. We'll start with some short updates on MAT Asphalt, the rapid growth of trucking / distribution / logistics warehouses (TDLs) on the South Side, and our collaborations with other communities fighting environmental racism. Then we'll split up into small groups so we can get to know our neighbors, ask questions, and share ideas about how we can make our neighborhoods greener, safer, and more welcoming. http://bit.ly/EarthDayCC (it's free, but please register to attend). Thursday, April 22nd, 6:30-8:00pm. N4EJ.org”

In June, I'll be returning to Ox-Bow to facilitate a new daylong workshop entitled “Sensing Our Selves, Finding Our Frames: Perception and Possibility through Writing.”

What shapes who you are and what you notice? What values and influences are—or do you wish were—embedded in your writing? What questions and tensions do you want to explore, for an audience or for yourself? Through guided reflection as well as open-ended exercises, we will zoom in and zoom out—to examine our own perception and experiences (and those of our characters) and how seemingly simple details might connect to larger structures and histories. Activities may focus on description, point of view, setting, texture, layering, and scale, with particular attention to how we frame and re-frame, make and break patterns, and probe interconnections and causality.

This workshop will center on writing, while drawing upon concepts and tools from various creative forms, but no previous writing experience is required.

More information about this and other workshops being offered as part of the Art on the Meadow series can be found on Ox-Bow's website.

If you know folx in Michigan or who might drive up from Chicago for the day, please feel free to spread the word! Note: This is not a free event, but if you’re intrigued let me know and I can notify you if I lead similar workshops in the future.

Image description: An image from the website, with a “Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency” logo and “Welcome to Ox-Bow” superimposed in white all-caps text over a photo of nature. The photo shows a lake framed by full green trees. The clouds are pastel pink and blue and reflect off the lake below. What appear to be the remains of an old boardwalk or bridge cut through the water.

For three and a half years now I've been involved with Sixty Inches from Center (my favorite Chicago arts publication and archival initiative) through various roles as a transcriber, writer, and team member. Earlier this month I was honored to speak with Sixty co-founder and co-director (and dear friend!) Tempestt Hazel about my work with and outside of Sixty. This conversation was part of a new series called Flowers for Ourselves—Instagram Live chats that celebrate and show love to the writers, artists, and editors who work largely behind the scenes with Sixty. I'd never done anything like this (Instagram? Live?), but deeply love Tempestt and Sixty and was trying to challenge myself.

My conversation with Tempestt is online here. Tempestt's subsequent Flowers for Ourselves conversations with Ireashia M. Bennett and S. Nicole Lane are at the respective links. Find Sixty on IG Live @sixtyinchesfromcenter to join in future discussions.

Images: At top, a colorful illustration of spring flowers; artwork by Kaleem Jones. Then, a still photographic image from Instagram Live of Tempestt and Marya, during the interview.

Early last week, I made a zine: What if we don't want another ____ (adj.) TDL*? – 3535 S. Ashland

Right around the corner from where I've lived for over a decade, this site has been in various stages of (noisy, dusty, maybe endangering) demolition for months and is soon expected to become an Amazon facility. Such an appearance is not exceptional on the Southwest Side of Chicago, nor is it unusual on the South or West Sides! This particular TDL (*transportation/trucking, distribution, and logistics) facility, the larger situation, my own personal history with post-industrial spaces, and the failure of imagination (and community engagement) around this project are just a few of my points of inspiration for the zine.

Handmade version at tinyurl.com/WIWDWAT-3535z (cut along the light grey dotted line in order to fold). Screen-readable version at tinyurl.com/WIWDWAT-3535.

Sources—and sites for further information—include: Southside Summit on Transportation, Industrial Site Map–June 2020 (acquired via FOIA by Neighbors for Environmental Justice), this South Side Weekly article by Amy Qin, and this Crain's Chicago Business article by Alby Gallun.

Image description: Several photos showing a folded-paper version of the zine in-hand or on a dark wood table top. Page-by-page text and image descriptions of the zine are available here.

It's been below freezing and there are feet of snow on the ground, and still the Chicago Community Jail Support team shows up outside of Cook County Jail every evening, supporting folx as they are released! We need funds to support people released from the jail during these dangerously cold days.

You can support financially through our Cash App: $CHICAGOJS . Your money will go toward emergency housing, transportation in the form of rides home or CTA passes, and warm clothes.

We also accept donations of new or used items, like winter coats (especially "men's" XL), hoodies, long-sleeved shirts, gloves, hats, scarves, socks, and boots. A few other much-needed purchases are hand warmers, Gatorade, chips, and Newports.

If you know me personally and want to donate physical goods, feel free to reach out and I may be able to pick up on the way to my next volunteer shift.

With gratitude! And for love and justice. <3

Image description: From the original Instagram post, "White poster with black lettering with the above text. In the lower left corner a picture of our volunteers outside CCJ behind our table with snacks, hot drinks and more. They are all clearly very cold wearing many layers and huge jackets in the snow. Three volunteers are sitting in chairs and one is standing with their foot on a chair. Two are throwing up peace signs and they are all joyfully ready to support those being released."

For this installment of “Beyond the Page,” I interviewed Quenna Lené Barrett—actor, educator, writer, director, activist, scholar, and lifelong Chicagoan. We spoke in late November about her ongoing project, “Re-Writing the Declaration,” and its recent production; how her many forms of work inform each other; and using applied theater as a tool for civic participation and Black liberation.

Read the interview on the Sixty Inches from Center website. Barrett’s audio play, among other works!

Image description #1: A headshot of Quenna Lené Barrett. The photo is a close-up of Barrett, a Black woman, that shows her face from her chin to just above her eyebrows. She looks directly at the camera, slightly smiling with a knowing expression. Her face occupies the center of the image, framed by her hair, and she wears a dark blue top. Photo by Juli Del Prete. Image courtesy of Quenna Lené Barrett.

Image description #2: A poster for “Re-Writing the Declaration,” designed by Naimah Thomas. The image is a layered collage of illustrations, text, and photographs. In the center of the poster is an illustration of a Black woman in profile, looking into the distance, with a textured gold circle behind her head. She wears Bantu knots, a thin braid with pink and purple beads, fuchsia eyeshadow and lipstick, a thick gold necklace, and a black shirt. Below and next to her is an illustration of a Black person in judicial robes and a white wig, holding a gavel and a rolled piece of paper in hands with fuchsia nails. Layered over that figure is an illustration of Lady Justice, with brown skin and black hair. Most of the background is a photo of a blue, green, and white galaxy sky. The background of the bottom left-hand corner is plain black, positioned like a horizon. A photo of Mount Rushmore is partially visible as the background of the bottom right-hand corner, with the black shirt of the Black woman in profile seeming to drip around George Washington’s left eye, and a pink and purple butterfly’s wing obscuring Abe Lincoln. Five other butterflies (with pink, purple, red, and orange wings) fly around the image. The title, “Re-Writing the Declaration,” is written in gold, formal-looking script, and “Directed by Quenna Lené Barrett” is in futuristic white text, both over a black background. The poster’s other text is: “What happens when a class of young Black women and non-binary folx of color take a trip to 1776?”; the dates “Oct 30th – Nov 8th”; the logos for the Speranza Foundation, Free Street Theater, and NYU Steinhardt; and “Link for info: bit.ly/RecTheDec.” Image courtesy of Quenna Lené Barrett.

On Thursday, the Museum of Contemporary Art–Chicago (MCA) laid off 41 staff members (including me), ranging from full-time to part-time and across departments. These same-day layoffs come after months of institutional unrest between staff and museum leadership, sparked by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing calls for racial justice. These are in addition to the nearly 30 people forced out of their positions over the summer, many after publicly denouncing the museum’s white supremacist practices.

Some of us fellow former staff launched a MCA Layoff Relief Fund fundraiser this morning, with the ambitious goal of seeking to raise $30,000 by February 15th. Particularly if you are in a situation of financial surplus, I invite you to DONATE! Money raised will help support former MCA staff during this transitional time. In particular, we hope these funds will make it easier for laid-off MCA workers to avoid signing “separation agreements” in order to access severance pay (which amounts to less than $200 for some part-time workers!) and to thus enable these individuals to retain their right to free speech that is in opposition to the institution. Read more at the GoFundMe link, from which this is adapted.

Note: Anyone who has been laid off or forced out of work by the MCA since March 2020 can request a portion of these funds using this request form, also by February 15th.

Image description: A photo of a sit-in protest outside the MCA, July 2020. A multiracial group of a dozen or so people sit spread out on the steps leading up to the museum's main entrance, most of them wearing black and holding signs. Courtesy of MCAccountable.

The Mobilize Creative Collaborative is a collective of four artists—Aquil Charlton, William Estrada, Andrés Lemus-Spont, and me—who (usually) utilize bicycle-based makerspaces to provide free arts workshops for youth and adults in public places. We work to thoughtfully engage individuals and communities through interdisciplinary creative collaboration, critical conversations about what participants care about, and mobile mobilizing.

This past summer, the MCC was scheduled to facilitate a number of in-person workshops in public spaces through the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks initiative. As you might guess, those didn’t happen, but we were excited to be invited to create a short video workshop as part of the revised Your Night Out At Home* programming instead.

So the guys and I came up with “Let’s Make Do!”

In this video, the Mobilize Creative Collaborative's members facilitate a playful interdisciplinary arts workshop from their homes. The MCC invites you and your loved ones to participate in these creative making and thinking activities with whatever things you have around you, drawing upon your own experiences.

Adapting our longstanding approach (of very open-ended, participant-responsive or participant-led, reused-material-heavy, drop-in and happened-upon, etc., etc.), public collaborations to an edited, unidirectional, 20-minute workshop was definitely challenging. And some of my favorite parts of our original recording—especially a several-minute jam session led by Aquil—ultimately had to be cut because of the ways in which Zoom captured the multi-source sound. But I do think the final video reflects important aspects of the spirit of our engagements, and offers something not so possible in person. We made the video in September and it went live in October, months when we would typically be winding down our annual programming. Even now, with subfreezing temperatures and snow on the ground outside, this workshop can be done at one’s leisure, in one’s own time and space, hopefully indoors.

*Tons of amazing artists from around the city were also invited to do this! Check out more 2020 Your Night Out at Home performances and workshops here.

Image description: A video title card. The image is an illustration with many shades of green, depicting a tree-lined cityscape and a starry night sky, with an owl (the Night Out mascot) in the bottom left-hand corner, waving to the viewer; the owl stands on a black, slightly rolling hill. In the center of the image, it reads in white text: “YOUR NIGHT OUT" with “AT HOME” tacked on; “Let’s Make Do!” and “MOBILIZE CREATIVE COLLABORATIVE”; and the hashtags #NightOutInTheParks and #MyChiParks. Along the bottom are logos for Night Out in the Parks, Music in the Key of Chicago, CHI | DCASE, and ComEd.

[edit: I initially wrote "subzero" instead of "subfreezing"; was on C instead of F, lol]

#mobilizecreative #aquilcharlton #williamestrada #andreslemusspont #mobilemakers #communityarts #chicago #makerspace #nightoutintheparks #mychiparks

Almost a year ago now, I officially joined Neighbors for Environmental Justice (N4EJ) as a member of the advisory board. This work thus far has taken many forms, most of which I haven't posted about. One aspect that has been especially meaningful to me has been the weekly food distribution events we did from June through September, working with a variety of partners and neighbors. Our final such event of 2020 was this past Wednesday, and truly a community effort.

Long story short, thanks to funds raised through a beautiful Empty Bowl collaboration between artist Lan Tuazon, Gnarware Workshop in Pilsen, and McKinley Park Mutual Aid, our group—with a couple dozen returning and new volunteers, of all ages!—was able to support the purchasing, assembly, and delivery of 144 (overflowing!) bags of produce and non-perishables around our broader community, both in McKinley Park and elsewhere on the South and Southwest Side.

This event—the whole collaboration—was the kind of experience that reminds me to have faith, that not all is horrible—a feeling I welcome at the close of this year. That I am surrounded by incredible people, who care and share and try and fight, in lots of different ways. <3

Image description: All photos by Alfredo Romo of N4EJ. In the top image, several volunteers move around a school cafeteria, amid hundreds of containers of different kinds of food. The bottom left image shows several assembled bags, with parts of celery, bananas, and oats popping out of them. The bags are white reusable grocery bags that read “Cermak Fresh Market.” Objects in the foreground include a copy of a holiday note to the recipient, beginning “Enjoy!”, a delivery list, and a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in it. The bottom right image shows a volunteer (Andrés!) counting the number of bags in his full truck. Alongside the white Cermak bags are bags of potatoes and of mandarins.

#neighborsforenvironmentaljustice #lantuazon #gnarwareworkshop #mckinleyparkmutualaid #fooddistribution

Just launched! "Warm Violet: A Compilation for Chicago Community Jail Support," featuring 46 tracks a.k.a. 3 hours of new music! by Chicago-based artists, to help raise money for Chicago Community Jail Support (CCJS).

CCJS is a fully volunteer-run and grassroots-funded abolitionist mutual aid project. It first started as a rapid response effort after the mass arrests of Black Lives Matter protesters in late May, and has since continued daily to support anyone being released from Cook County Jail.

All the artists on this compilation have generously donated their cut to CCJS, which is currently raising funds for a vehicle and supplies needed to winterize operations, to continue this work year-round. You can also follow the links at the end of each track to that artist's Bandcamp page, if you want to send them some direct support.

I am incredibly excited to see so many artists I know and love, including current and past collaborators, represented on this album, along with dozens of musicians whose work is new to me but which I now love too! Very proud and humbled to have had a small hand in bringing this comp to fruition. Hope you feel warmth from it, too. <3

Images: At top, cover art by Izzy True. The illustration’s main text and graphic appear as if made of rolled clay, with other text small in cursive. Main text reads “Warm Violet,” and other text reads “a benefit for chicago community jail support,” in violet against a sandy-colored background. Graphic shows lilac chains with the center link broken. At bottom, a photograph courtesy of CCJS. A volunteer, their back to the camera, reaches up to secure a purple wall to the purple tent, which is about 8 feet tall. The photograph was taken facing east, away from Cook County Jail. The afternoon sun casts shadows of the photographer and another volunteer on the exterior tent wall. A double-rainbow arches through a cloudy sky streaked with sunlight.

#chicagocommunityjailsupport #warmviolet #chicagomusic #mutualaid #abolition #jailsupport #communitycare

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