The Uplifted

A collection of portraits capturing everyday leaders and visionaries with their most prized items levitating before their eyes. Uplifting cities, one person at a time.

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Jackie Taylor grew up at the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago. She rose from modest roots to become a distinguished director, producer, actress, singer, playwright, and theater founder. Jackie's now 40-year-old Black Ensemble Theater (BE) is a strong institution committed to eradicate racism. “The more you know, the more you understand, and the better you can fight against bigotry,” she believes. “By erecting a building called the Black Ensemble Theater, and having it to represent all races gives a new spin on what black actually is” Jackie doesn't stop at being a phenomenal actress and performer, she has also written and produced more than 100 plays and musical biographies. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the BE theater, Taylor levitates a postcard of the play Don’t Make Me Over (The Story of Dionne Warwick) which she wrote and produced.

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Chef Rick Bayless is an American chef who specializes in traditional Mexican cuisine with modern interpretations. His award-winning contributions to Chicago's Mexican cuisine include the famous Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, XOCO, and Tortas Frontera. Among his several published books, the best-selling Mexico: One Plate at a Time is his beloved piece. But what separates Chef Bayless from others is his dedication to his activities outside the cooking world. He not only performs in theatre, but also has had his own production, Cascabel. He is not only a dancer, but an award-winning one who knows the rumba, cha-cha, salsa, and bolero. He not only practices yoga, but is a 20-year-devoted yogi (and can do splits!). Chef Bayless is the type of individual who rehearses, rehearses, rehearses, and rehearses and does not accept failure: he is a perfectionist. The chef is found in his kitchen making a batch of his famous guacamole, levitating the freshest ingredients.

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Stephon Alford, who has broken the barrier in the entertainment world, understands all about limitations. "Your imagination is your preview to life's coming attraction". Steve Harvey spoke this Einstein quote directly to him in November 2015, he recalls. Alford, strong in his Christian faith, believes that there is nothing impossible in Jesus Christ and everything happens for a reason. After being told that his height would get in the way of him being successful, he was told to stop modeling. Instead, he defied those very words that came to stop his dreams. From a Paris runway to his home city of Chicago, he is now a walking missile of hope. He is currently pursuing an acting career and is watching his dream unfold. His motto: never let anyone place limits on you because they simply can't see what you see. Alford levitates his Catou suit jacket in mid air to lead his way to wherever his faith takes him.

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Chicago's own WGN TV journalist, WLS-AM 890 radio talkshow host, and founder of the renowned a cappella group Straight No Chaser is the one and only Mr. Dan Ponce. In 2009, Straight No Chaser's album "Holiday Spirits" jumped to #1 on iTunes and Amazon.com and Ponce decided to leave ABC News, where he worked at the time, to join the group full time. Fast-forward to 2016: Dan now with a lovely daughter and a family, is back to follow his career path at WGN-TV. He has the magic touch when it comes to people—talking to him just makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. As a musically-gifted and avid piano player, Ponce levitates his precious piano in the middle of living room.

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The moment you walk into world-renowned equine artist Thomas Allen Pauly's Ravenswood art studio you instantly sense his passion for horse racing. Sporting art, jockey silks, saddle leather and other equestrian accents define the Ralph Lauren "Turf Club" inspired studio which allows this year's Official Artist of the Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby Bottle to produce his masterpieces. Since 1978, Chicago native Pauly has been honored to portray some of the greatest Thoroughbreds and jockeys in the Sport of Kings including last year's Triple Crown champion American Pharoah, which he was commissioned as his official portrait artist. Thomas Allen Pauly, who will be attending his 18th Kentucky Derby in May, proudly poses with his limited-edition Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby 142 Bourbon bottles levitated — the labels featuring his oil painting Barreling Down. (Woodford Reserve® is the Official Bourbon of the Kentucky Derby®)

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In 1990, a Dutch artist, Theo Jansen, started on what he is known for today: Strandbeest (Dutch: strand=beach; beest=beast) — large mechanisms made out of PVC that are able to move on their own, feeding off on only wind and water. His remarkable animated works are a fusion of art and engineering. Jansen’s art is making headway in philosophy and science as it tackles several complex challenges head-on, among them evolution, causality, origin of life, artificial life and so on. The Dutch artist effortlessly and graciously levitates one of his Strandbeests “Animaris Umerus Segundus” at a Chicago exhibit.

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Bluford (Blu) Putnam is the Chief Economist of CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace. He has a gift: he is able to browse through weather reports, unemployment numbers, and currency trends around the world to formulate powerful economic outlooks. Not only he is a major spokesperson for the Exchange, but also currently leads the company's advances in big data and analytics. He proudly levitates his first published book, “The Monetary Approach to International Adjustment,” which he wrote in 1982.

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“It’s a treasure hunt every single day” says Stuart Grannen, who for 50 years has traveled the world looking for unique antiques. Grannen proudly founded Architectural Artifacts, Inc. in 1987 and has always focused in obtaining intriguing pieces, objects of a lost world, the aesthetic and the beautiful all around us.

Grannen is excessively driven: he goes all the way once he has a goal in mind. When he is not traveling, this modern-day treasure hunter runs marathons all over. Grannen was captured here in his enormous 80,000 square feet showroom, the largest salvage warehouse in the city, juggling three artifacts that the world is keen to learn more about (architecturalartifacts.com).

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Melissa Stockwell USA is an all-American paratriathlete, former Paralympic swimmer, and a U.S. Army officer (an overall badass). As a first lieutenant, she was the first female soldier to lose a limb in the Iraq War. She lost her left leg when she was leading a convoy in Baghdad and a roadside bomb exploded.

“Be the best I can” is her daily motto. Stockwell who is also a co-founder of Dare2tri Paratriathlon Club, a Chicago-based triathlon club specifically for athletes with a disability, strives and thrives in all aspects of her life, to lead by example for her first newborn baby boy. She levitates her two prosthetic legs as she trains for her next competition.

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Jonas Friddle settled in Chicago in 2008 after a year of traveling around the world with his fiddle and banjo, learning the traditional sounds of every community he visited. Now, he spends much of his time teaching what he learned throughout his life to students. He has a passion for the open-backed banjo and a particular love for teaching kids. As a performer, Jonas composes new music and uses his claw-hammer style banjo for contemporary tunes. With his band, Jonas Friddle and The Majority, he has achieved multiple awards including “Song of the Year” from The John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Although his new music seeks to innovate, you can always hear tradition at it’s core: jonasfriddle.com. Jonas is seen here, focused as always, levitating his dear banjo out of the case for his stage practice.

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“Everything started at Sportsman's Park's when my friend's horse, Rusty Win, captured the featured race by five lengths. I was hooked. That was back in 1978” - reminisces Thomas Allen Pauly, an award-winning equine Chicagoan artist. Pauly is also now the official artist of a Triple Crown horse, American Pharaoh (horseartist.com). Thomas is seen here with his paintbrushes levitated before his 5' x 12' triptych: a triple-panel masterpiece. (His cap has the initials "PDJF" that stands for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, of which he is an avid supporter.)

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A decade ago, when YouTube was just becoming the YouTube of today, a video of a musician playing a song went viral overnight. The song was “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and was played on a ukulele. The musician’s name was Jake Shimabukuro. This Hawaii native is now regarded as the “Jimi Hendrix of the Ukulele”. Having started playing the ukulele at age four, Jake has quickly become a world sensation with his unmatched creativity and unparalleled skill of the instrument. He has been touring around the world the last decade, mesmerizing the audience with every performance. I found Jake levitating his dear ukulele at a Chicago venue before he takes the stage.

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“That’s my Pippen!“–pointing to the picture of the cute dog on the wall. Paula Fasseas, Founder & Chair of PAWS Chicago smiles proudly at the sight of her puppy. "Once I heard that Greece’s stray dogs were being poisoned by farmers, we decided to add one more furry member and bring him all the way back here”

Fasseas first got involved in local animal welfare in 1997. She was horrified to learn the number of stray animals put to death in Chicago each year: 42,500 in 1997 alone. “More than 90 percent of the animals that came to the pound were being killed,“ Fasseas recalls from an early research trip, “I absolutely had to do something.”

PAWS is currently the first state-of-the-art cage-free shelter in the Midwest—and one of only four in the country. They focus on sterilization of animals on top of adoption. Paula is found levitating the one thing that uplifts her, her playful pup.

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"Everything started in 2005 with the Sunday Dinner Club. We held small dinner parties with changing menus and a focus on great local ingredients. One dinner we loved serving was fried chicken. When we accidentally dipped a crispy drumstick into fresh whipped honey butter, we knew what had to happen next - Honey Butter Fried Chicken was born!" Joshua Kulp & Christine Cikowski—Executive Chef/Co-Owner Honey Butter Fried Chicken (Avondale)

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Ed "Mr. Pen" Hamilton is the proud owner of the last standing pen shop, Century Pens, in Chicago located in heart of downtown (321 S LaSalle St.). Ed shares his history, "My pen experience goes back 36 years, and I've opened seven pen stores over those years. Two of the stores were for myself and five for other people. And to think all of this started with a part time job in 1980 after I left the teaching profession. Now I've outlasted all the other pen stores to be the only pen shop in Chicago." He has been in the pen business for so many years, many of his regular customers simply call him Mr. Pen. In the meantime, he doesn't hide his remorse on how younger generation nowadays type and swipe only, even e.g. prestigeous college grad students can't sometime read cursive letters on paper. 23 January is a National Handwriting Day, Mr. Pen is found with his real life-size pen levitated before him -- he smiles and says "Pen is (actually) mightier than sword" [Disclaimer: the pen is actual life size]

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Martial artist LuciLa Espedido can be described in a single word - badass. Originally from the Philippines, she has been involved with Degerberg Academy of Martial Arts in Lincoln Square for over 20 years. “Just come, be, and work what's there”, she says. “It is the way of finding the self, emoting, expressing, projecting meaning, and affecting the world around from that place within.” Lucila is a mother of twins with a strong language and education background. At one point, she was fluent in five languages. She also studied linguistics, as well as child development, at the The University of Chicago and is continually involved in projects in the visual, performing and literary arts. On top of that, she is an attorney with experience in corporate matters, transactions, commercial real estate, and constitutional law. She serves as trustee on a board for an educational institution. Over the decades, she has been a teacher of multiple martial arts, including Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Savate, Muay Thai, Boxing, Bando and Letha Yoga. She is found practicing with the blades levitated. This symbolizes the exquisite pain and pleasure of becoming. It represents the process of developing oneself among the community of those who wish to learn along with her, and by extension, from the masters and grandmasters who have passed their knowledge on through many decades of training.

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A born natural competitor, Josh Deth, is the founder of Chicago’s now iconic brewery, Revolution Brewing. Any local beer lover would recognize these names: Anti-Hero IPA, A Little Crazy, Bottom Up Wit, Eugene Porter, Coup D'etat, Fist City, among many more. The reason he is able to produce such quality unique products one after another (with very catchy names, too) is because Josh started brewing in college when he was 19 years as his "homework" for his eventual endeavour! He even landed at a brewery for his first job. The one thing you should know about Josh is that he has conviction and drive, no little thing shakes him easily. He typically comes up with those beer names; in fact, the man on Little Crazy actually exists--- and Josh admits it’s his actual friend who is, well, a little crazy. Having started with only a few good friends helping him out he now has 180 employees. He doesn’t yet know when to stop expanding but he will continue as long as it keeps him happy. That’s the key to success he says: smiling. He is found taking a break, levitating his new line of beer "Fist City" as it begins to pour for the company's holiday party at Revolution Tap Room.