Westside Conversations

"Art is Business" © 2026 Vanessa Stokes. All rights reserved.

Community doesn't develop through presentations. It develops through participation.

That's the spirit behind Westside Conversations: Living Studio, a new series of gatherings that will begin this August at Austin Library.

Rather than asking people to attend another meeting, Living Studio invites neighbors, artists, organizers, practitioners, and anyone curious about community into a shared creative practice. Together we'll ask questions, tell stories, explore ideas, and imagine what becomes possible when community engagement itself is approached as an art practice.

These gatherings won't be about arriving with all the answers. There'll be spaces for inquiry, reflection, experimentation, and collective imagination. Every conversation becomes part of an ongoing practice of creating the conditions for human development.

Scan the QR Code in the flyer above to register.

A Note About This Work

Many of the ideas, frameworks, practices, and methodologies shared throughout this publication are original works developed through Creative Development Solutions. They represent years of practice, observation, documentation, and refinement, and continue to evolve through ongoing work in community.

© 2026 Vanessa Stokes. All rights reserved.

From Westside Review

"Art is Business"© 2026 Vanessa Stokes. All rights reserved.

A Note About This Work

Many of the ideas, frameworks, practices, and methodologies shared throughout this publication are original works developed through Creative Development Solutions. They represent years of practice, observation, documentation, and refinement, and continue to evolve through ongoing work in the community.

This month's featured article is Community Engagement as an Art Practice™.

In this article, I explore the idea that community engagement is more than a strategy for gathering input. It is a creative practice rooted in listening, curiosity, relationship, and shared authorship. When we approach engagement as an art practice, we move beyond participation toward creating conditions where people can meaningfully shape the places they call home.

Read an excerpt below, then subscribe to Westside Review on Substack and read the full article online.

Artists work with paint, clay, photography, movement, words, and sound. Increasingly, I have come to understand my own medium as relationship, conversation, observation and presence. The act of showing up and paying attention. Community engagement, at its best, is not outreach or public participation. It is the creative practice of witnessing.

 

Vanessa Stokes from Substack article “Community Engagement as An Art Practice™”

 

From Westside Lens

Stories don't belong to one person.

Over the coming months, Westside Lens will document the people, places, conversations, and everyday moments that make our neighborhoods extraordinary. Through short films, photography, interviews, and visual storytelling, we'll capture development as it happens—not just in buildings, but in relationships, creativity, and community life.

Westside Lens is also an invitation.

If you're photographing Austin, writing reflections, documenting neighborhood history, or simply noticing the beauty of everyday life, I'd love to hear from you. In the future, there will be opportunities for community members to contribute photographs, stories, poems, essays, and other creative work that helps tell the story of our neighborhood from the inside out.

The lens belongs to all of us.

Click here to subscribe to Westside Lens

 

Growing the Garden

A few weeks ago, I claimed my plot at Harambee Garden. Before I planted a single seed, there was work to do because the weeds had taken over.

I filled five burlap bags before I could even see the soil beneath them. Then I added fresh topsoil, returned a few days later, and finally planted tomatoes, onions, peppers, and herbs.

Gardens have a way of reminding us that development cannot be rushed.

The ground has to be prepared to make room for what wants to grow. That is intention. Then there is the waiting game, tending, observing and trusting in the process. 

One of my favorite moments happened before I even finished planting. I met someone I'd only known through Facebook, and we spent time talking about community and what it means to create spaces where people genuinely belong.

That conversation stayed with me and in many ways, it became part of what is now emerging as Westside Conversations: Living Studio.

Sometimes development begins with a seed and sometimes it begins with a conversation. Often, they're the same thing.

 

Ways to Participate

If this work resonates with you, I'd love your support.

I'm currently raising funds to launch Westside Conversations: Living Studio, expand my ongoing community engagement practice, and continue building the public programming that will one day live inside Outwest Gallery & Café.

Your contribution helps create spaces where neighbors can gather, artists can lead, stories can be documented, and new possibilities for our community can emerge.

Whether you make a donation, share the campaign with a friend, subscribe to Westside Review, or simply forward this newsletter, you're helping build something that belongs to all of us.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

— GoFundMe

 

Looking Ahead

August marks the beginning of a new chapter.

Here's what I'm looking forward to sharing next month:

The launch of Westside Conversations: Living Studio.

A new essay in Westside Review.

Continued fundraising and development updates for Outwest Gallery & Café.

More from the evolving Creative Development Model and Creative Development Solutions.

New opportunities to participate in community conversations and creative practice.

The work continues to grow, and I'm grateful to have you walking alongside me.

 

Until next time...

The studio is always open.

The practice continues.

Outwest Gallery & Cafe - July 2026 Progress Update

"Art is Business"  Building More Than a Café © 2026 Vanessa Stokes. All rights reserved.

From the Living Studio

For the past several years, many of you have followed the journey of Outwest Gallery & Café. You've read newsletters, supported grant campaigns, attended events, shared ideas, and encouraged this vision as it has continued to grow. One thing I've noticed recently is that many people assume we're already open. In a way, they're right.

While the doors to the café have not yet opened, the work has never stopped. The institution has already been taking shape.

That realization led me to create this new series: From the Living Studio.

A living studio is more than a physical space. It is a practice. It is a place where ideas are developed in relationship with people, community, observation, experimentation, and reflection. Rather than waiting until something is finished to share it, a living studio invites others into the process while it is unfolding.

Development often brings to mind construction sites, architectural drawings, and large capital projects. Those are certainly forms of development, but they are not the only ones.

Gardens develop, neighborhoods develop, artists develop, relationships develop, organizations develop. Even an idea has to be cultivated before it can take root in the world.

Every meaningful act of development asks something similar of us: patience, curiosity, attention, care, and the willingness to try, observe, learn, and begin again. Rarely does anything meaningful emerge fully formed. It grows through practice.

Over the past month, I have been given something I haven't had in a long time: the space to pause and reflect on decades of work. I've spent countless hours writing, diagramming, asking questions, testing ideas, and connecting experiences that at one time felt separate. Community engagement. Media. Institution building. Cooperative development. Leadership. Public art. Neighborhood practice. Cultural development.

What surprised me wasn't discovering something entirely new. It was realizing that I had been practicing the same philosophy all along.

For years, I simply called it my work.

Today, it has a name: Creative Development Solutions™.

Creative Development Solutions isn't a new direction. It is the language that finally brings together the work I have been practicing for decades. It is a philosophy rooted in the belief that development is a creative act—that communities, organizations, institutions, and people all develop through intentional practice, thoughtful engagement, and continual learning.

This realization has brought tremendous clarity. It has also created a foundation for everything that comes next.

Over the coming months, I'll be sharing more about the ideas, methodologies, and public practices that are emerging through this work. You'll hear more about Community Engagement as an Art Practice™, Field Practice™, Living Studio™, Media as a Civic Practice™, and the Creative Development Model™. These aren't just concepts. They are practices that are already shaping how Outwest Gallery & Café is being developed and how I'll continue working alongside communities in the years ahead.

The first public expression of this next chapter will be Westside Conversations: Living Studio, a series of community gatherings launching this August in Austin. Together, we'll create spaces for conversation, inquiry, creativity, and shared learning. More details will be announced soon, and I hope you'll join us.

This month has also been an exciting one for Outwest Gallery & Café. We've continued refining our capital campaign, strengthened our development strategy, completed new grant applications, and advanced the planning needed to move this project closer to construction. Every one of these milestones is another step toward opening a permanent cultural home on Chicago's West Side.

As we move into this next phase, we're also relaunching our fundraising efforts. If you believe in this vision, I invite you to share our campaign, tell someone about the project, and consider making a contribution. Every act of support helps move this work forward.

Thank you for walking alongside me through this journey. Your encouragement has carried this vision farther than I could have imagined.

This is only the beginning.

Welcome to the Living Studio.

— Vanessa Stokes

Founder, Outwest Gallery & Café

Founder, Creative Development Solutions

June's Bronzeville Trail Framework Plan open house

"Art is Business" https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/bronzeville-trail-framework-plan/home.html

Save the date for June's Bronzeville Trail Framework Plan open house

The June 3 event will provide updates on a community-led, long-term planning process to create a trail and green space atop the former Kenwood rail embankment between Lake Park Avenue and State Street.

Stop by any time between 5:30 and 7:30 PM at Wendell Phillips Academy High School, 244 E. Pershing Road.

Register to attend or visit the Bronzeville Trail Framework Plan website

Overview

The Chicago Department of Planning and Development (DPD) and the Department of Transportation (CDOT) are seeking community input on the proposed conversion of the Kenwood embankment into an elevated trail and green space.

The embankment was used by the Kenwood branch of the city's rapid transit system between 1907 and 1957, when it linked Bronzeville to the Union Stock Yards, the Loop, and other destinations. Countless South Side residents used the line for daily commuting and transit needs, contributing to the thriving cultural, spiritual, and professional identity of the greater Bronzeville neighborhood. Almost no evidence of the former stations or tracks remains beyond the embankment's concrete walls, with wild vegetation covering most of the surface.

A long-term, community-led visioning process to improve the embankment and adjacent land was initiated in fall 2025 with the Bronzeville Trail Framework Plan. Led by DPD in partnership with the Bronzeville Trail Task Force, MUSE Community + Design, DePaul Institute for Housing Studies, and Nurture Architects, the framework could be finalized and presented to the Chicago Plan Commission for adoption in early 2027 as a formal guide to planning decisions and public expenditures. As of early 2026, no timetable exists for a proposed trail project that is expected to require years to finance, design, and construct.

Sign up for email updates about public engagement opportunities during the framework process. 

Upcoming Events

The Bronzeville Trail Task Force is leading community participation in three public meetings through 2026 that will help ensure the vision for the trail and adjacent land reflects local goals. Times and dates to be announced in early 2026.

Open Lands: Tree Planting in honor of National Arbor Day.

"Art is Business. 

On Arbor Day, the Village of Hazel Crest Beautification Commission hosted a Village Clean Up Day and Tree Planting, and the dedication of a new metal People Chair sculpture by artist Alpha Bruton at Art in the Woods. The event took place at the Hazel Crest Open Lands Arboretum on Saturday, April 25, 2026.

The afternoon included an outdoor digital photography workshop led by William G. Hill and a presentation on the AI-Narridin Plastic Woven Recycle Bag project, which covered the display logs.

Address:   Hazel Crest Police Department

 3000 W 170 Pl. Hazel Crest, IL 60429 

(Parking is available)

Installed at the Village of Hazel Crest Open Lands, Kedzie at 171st. 

Installation: April 18, 2026, Dedication of Sculpture: April 25, 2026, Village of Hazel Crest, Illinois

This is People Chair #29, of public art installations known as "Metal People Chairs," created by Shonna McDaniels, founder of the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum in Sacramento, California. Each chair in the collection honors artists of the Harlem Renaissance and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). 

The Harlem Renaissance marked the emergence of Harlem, New York City's Black cultural mecca in the early 20th century—a center of social, artistic, and intellectual flourishing. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the era is widely regarded as a golden age of African American culture, expressed through literature, music, theater, and visual art.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was an ambitious employment and infrastructure program created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, during the bleakest days of the Great Depression. Over its eight years of existence, the WPA put roughly 8.5 million Americans to work building schools, hospitals, roads and other public works. Perhaps best known for its public works projects, the WPA also sponsored projects in the arts—the agency employed tens of thousands of actors, musicians, writers and other artists.

The Hazel Crest Open Lands "Art in the Woods." This placemaking project is an exciting initiative that aims to transform our community's landscape by blending art with nature. This project seeks to engage residents throughout the process, inviting them to participate in both the design and installation of a captivating collection of sculptures. These artworks will serve as visual focal points and promote connection during community gatherings.

Pickup and delivery day at Peter N Gray Studio, young, enterprising artists to assist with movement. 

My family came out to celebrate: Herbert Raney Jr, Jazmin Bruton Davis, and Dani Davis.

Location of the Sculpture Installation facing 171st/Kedzie Open Lands

Alpha Bruton- Artistic Statement: My "Curatorial Practice" spans 46 years.

This project is essential to my career trajectory because I am focused on creating art in non-traditional settings as an environmental installation artist, working outside the traditional gallery context. I have traveled nationally and internationally as a resident artist, engaging communities in the art of artmaking in empty lots, national forest preserves, on land held in conservancy, in alternative galleries, and in museum settings. 

William G. Hill Center for the Arts

Digital Photography Workshop Presented by William G. Hill

William G. Hill founded the William G. Hill Center for the Arts (WGHCA), a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the Woodlawn community in Chicago. The mission of WGHCA is to support and improve creative and artistic expression. The organization aims to design programs that enhance, beautify, and revitalize communities physically, socially, and economically, utilizing multi-platform, culturally informed approaches to art and nature.

This placemaking project was a collaborative team: 

The Village of Hazel Crest Board of Trustees, Beautification/Open Lands Commission. 

Public Alpha Bruton, lead artist and muralist; Peter N. Gray, fabrication of the metal chair; and Harry Detry, embellishment of metal leaves. Works Department.  

William G. Hill Center for the Arts, the Phantom Gallery Chicago Network, and Allies for Community Business Chicago. 

RESEARCH:

MARGARET BURROUGHS

The Composition:

MARGARET BURROUGHS, an artist advocate for art, founded the Southside Community Art Center, the DuSable Museum, and the African American Association of Museums. An active member of the African American community, she also helped establish the South Side Community Art Center, which opened on May 1, 1941, and was dedicated by the first lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt. There, at the age of 23, Burroughs served as the youngest member of its board of directors. A long-time educator, she spent most of her career at DuSable High School.

Taylor-Burroughs was a prolific writer, with her efforts directed toward exploring the Black experience and toward children, especially in fostering their appreciation of cultural identity and in introducing them to art and fostering their growing awareness of it. 

Freedom Railroad Quilt Patterns

Why Railroad Quilts Design? Great Migration

In 1890, William McClintock relocated from Ohio to Hazel Crest, where he established a depot for a local milk train. This depot became a vital transportation hub to Chicago and beyond, serving as the area's first real estate office, a public meeting space, a Sunday school, a day school, and the local post office.

The Underground Railroad, often misunderstood, was not an actual railway but a secret network of courageous individuals who helped enslaved people escape from the South during the 19th century. These escapees traveled to hidden "safe houses," guided by the North Star, toward northern states and Canada, where freedom awaited them.

Embellishment of wrought iron leaves, by Harry Detry

Installation of Ivy leaves attached to the screws from the back of the 1/8 " Metal plate.

Metal Oak Leaf flattened, and edges sanded smooth.

The oak leaves are attached to the metal with two rivets, creating a flush surface.

Chair fabricated by Peter N. Gray of Metal-i-genics Studio.o

Concrete pad 46" x 46"

Apply the primer coat, position the leg flaps, and ensure that the screws face each other from the inside.

Added a lip to attach to the top of the chair frame

Metal panels were delivered in two pieces for the chair's seat and back.

THE FABRIC OF FREEDOM: QUILTS AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

The Fabric of Freedom: Quilts and the Underground Railroad Denise Brown

This color study of the headpiece was based on the YouTube video "Celebrating Black History Month." Presenting Sunshine Coast artist Denise Brown's Fabric of Freedom collection, including 19 square watercolor paintings that honor the quiet revolution of the Underground Railroad through the unique, mysterious storytelling quilts that represent.

This mosaic tile work by Thomas Hill was used for her portrait composition. The portrait of the museum's founder, Margaret Taylor Burroughs, is as resistant to fading as her artistic legacy.

The texture and three-dimensional quality of mosaic wall art interact with the light and the angle of viewing. The timeless quality of mosaic portraits seems to resonate with all of us. The DuSable Museum of African-American History in Chicago has several fine mosaic tributes to influential figures. 

I have always used color studies and clipping files to create collages of the ideas that inspire my compositions. These come from sources such as Paper Quilting, photos of pops of color in the natural environment of the Open Lands, and a leaf-printing workshop held there. 

 I like the texture and the use of leaf-printing.  

   Color studies for my head adornment

Texture leaves study for the seat

William G. Hill presents Landscape Photography

"Art is Business"

Remembering ‘Mama Gerri’ Oliver & Chicago’s legendary Palm Tavern

"Art is Business"  This project was funded by DCASE-NAP 2023 Awardee. 

Mural dedicated to the late Gerri Oliver- Remembering ‘Mama Gerri’ Oliver & Chicago’s legendary Palm Tavern,  by artist Alpha Bruton. 

 Join us on Friday, September 20, 2024, as we celebrate the season's last Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour. The film screenings will begin at dusk and conclude at 9 p.m. at 436 E. 47th Street. The film screening is a pop-up temporary installation curated by the Phantom Gallery Chicago and film project manager Suzetta Withtaker. WTTW is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

  CHICAGO — There’s an empty lot near the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and 47th Street in Chicago’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood. It’s been vacant for nearly two decades since the culturally significant Palm Tavern was torn down in the name of progress and urban renewal.  

Longtime owner Gerri Oliver, a Bronzeville icon, died last December at 101.  

Feb 12, 2021 / 05:04 AM CST

“I felt it was just such a travesty the way the Palm Tavern was closed, and she left without any commemoration, without any celebration — the Palm Tavern should have had monumental status,” said Grammy-nominated blues musician Billy Branch, who wrote a song to commemorate the longtime owner and legendary nightspot, “Going to see Miss Gerri one more time.”

The Palm Tavern opened in 1933. Prohibition had just ended.

“It was the first tavern on the street, first place on the street that could legitimately sell liquor,” said Timuel Black, a prominent Chicago historian.  

“Genial” Jim Knight — the honorary mayor of Bronzeville — was the first owner. He named the spot after the palm trees of an African desert oasis.  Oliver took over for Knight and ran the Palm Tavern for nearly 50 years.  

 

Have you seen the new mural in Bronzeville?

Check out the impressive new mural on the container behind 'The Great Migration Sculpture Garden'! It boasts 3 works by Marlene Campbell, Alpha Bruton, and Andre Guichard, honoring the African Diaspora and the movements of Black People in Africa and to places like Bronzeville. The mural also pays homage to the historic Palm Tavern and jazz improvisation. Joe Cujo expertly created the graphic fusion and vinyl wrap installation.

The mural was completed with a grant from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

Andre Guichard, artist

 Joe Cujo expertly created the graphic fusion and vinyl wrap installation.

Marlene Campbell, artist

Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour 2024!

"Art is Business"

Welcome to the **Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour 2024!** Join us on **Fri Jun 21, 2024, and every 3rd Friday through September** at **Gallery Guichard and other participating venues** for a fun and exciting evening exploring the vibrant art scene of Bronzeville. Hop on the double-decker businesses and visit the art galleries, studios, and art spaces showcasing the work of talented local, national, and international artists. Immerse yourself in the creativity and culture of this historic neighborhood. Take advantage of this opportunity to discover new artists and support the arts community in Bronzeville. See you there!

Blanc Gallery Chicago

Bronzeville Artist Lofts

Faie Afrikan Art Gallery

Gallery Guichard and Event Space

South Side Community Art Center

Ride the Double-Decker bus that will take you to the 5 participating art galleries and art institutions in Bronzeville. Featuring some of the best fine art and entertainment in the city of Chicago. Free and Fun for the entire family! Please share with your art friends and family.

EARTH DAY CELEBRATION AT SOJOURNER TRUTH AFRICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM

"Art is Business" FRCBP   Report by Daphne Burgess Bowens

The public outreach campaign involves high school students from Luther Burbank High

School, a school within the Sacramento City Unified School District. The project includes a paid

internship program where students will adopt the area around Luther Burbank High School and

develop ideas for improvement. 

This self-directed outreach campaign may consist of options such as performing litter source assessments, conducting business outreach to offer local businesses cigarette and trash receptacles, adopting an area to routinely clean up litter, organizing clean-up events, and beautifying the neighborhood with public art. Students will be led by a paid college student(s) and guided by Keep California Beautiful mentors and local business owners.

The broader community beautification stretches from the Florin Square Shopping Center

(home of the Sojourner Truth African American Museum) along Florin Road and towards Highway

99. The Project will include creative placemaking such as banners, box wraps, murals;

water/sound features; interactive structures; wall poetry; landscaping; and museum signage. The

works of art will provoke thought by providing an educational platform for children, youth, and

families to engage and read the historical content created on the art pieces.

The first Earth Day in 1970 mobilized millions of Americans from all walks of life to birth the modern environmental movement. Since then, Earth Day has evolved into the largest civic event on Earth, activating billions across 192 countries to safeguard our planet and fight for a brighter future.

EARTHDAY.ORG is unwavering in our commitment to end plastics for the sake of human and planetary health, demanding a 60% reduction in the production of ALL plastics by 2040. Our theme, Planet vs. Plastics, calls to advocate for widespread awareness of the health risks of plastics, rapidly phase out all single-use plastics, urgently push for a strong UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution, and demand an end to fast fashion. Join us as we build a plastic-free planet for generations to come!

“What Makes a Great Place?” What are Streets as Places?

"Art is Business" https://www.pps.org/article/uses-activities

Like a few other places, streets are a public stage where life unfolds. From town parades and trick-or-treating to markets and public gatherings, they celebrate and come together with our neighbors. They're where we bump into friends and one of the few places where we routinely encounter people different from ourselves. They're where people have gathered to protest injustice for centuries. That's why Project for Public Spaces has advocated that streets are more than just a means of mobility. Streets are critical public spaces that can enrich our communities' social, civic, and economic fabric.

The four elements of great places: Uses & Activities; Comfort & Image; Access & Linkages; and Sociability.

Resources

1. PRINCIPLES

2. ACTIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS

3. ACTIONS FOR COMMUNITIES

4. ACTIONS FOR GOVERNMENT

5. A PLACEMAKER'S PRIMER ON ROAD DIETS

6. STREETS AS PLACES ACTION PACK

What are Streets as Places?

Donald Appleyard may have said it best: "Streets have been where children first learned about the world, where neighbors met, the social centers of towns and cities, the rallying points for revolts, the scenes of repression." Streets showcase the lives of our communities, and being exposed to the good and bad of the world on our roads can make us more compassionate, empathetic, and connected citizens.

Of course, an essential function of streets is facilitating travel from one place to another. But many of the roads in our communities - especially those in our downtowns, Main Streets, and residential areas - can be so much more than just a conduit for traffic. Streets as Places is about helping people begin to see streets in their entirety: not just their function in transporting people and goods but their vital role in animating communities' social and economic life. It's about communities owning and reclaiming their streets, participating in civic life, and directly impacting how their public spaces look, function, and feel.

Streets typically represent the largest area of public space a community has - for example, Chicago's streets and sidewalks represent 24 percent of the city's land area and over 70 percent of City-owned public open space. We also spend tremendous money to build and maintain our street and highway networks - $155 billion a year between federal, state, and local funding sources. Shouldn't we be getting the most we can from these investments?

Designing streets that function as great places is more than just a "nice" thing to do. As Peter Kageyama, founder of the Creative Cities Summit, explains: "No longer is it sufficient to build places that are merely functional and safe. Our placemaking aspirations must be as high and grand as our economic goals because they are bound together." In an age when people are more mobile than ever, and cities and businesses compete to attract talent, great streets are essential to boosting economic development and tourism.

That Project for Public Spaces developed, where streets become part of a network that links a city's best assets and places together, making them easily accessible. At a local scale, which could encompass several blocks in a distinct neighborhood, Streets as Places have 10 or more essential destinations, while each of those individual places has many things to do. The Power of 10 speaks to the importance of layering multiple activities. It uses together - opportunities to sit and relax, eat, socialize, recreate, shop, and so on - to create dynamic streets that attract many people and encourage them to spend time there.

SOUNDSCAPE TAPESTRY EXPERIMENTAL FILM SERIES

"Art is Business" 

JOIN US ON FRIDAY, JULY 21, 2023, FOR AN EVENING OF EXPERIMENTAL FILM DURING THE BRONZEVILLE ART DISTRICT TROLLEY TOUR. FEATURING TACTICAL URBANISM IN THE HORIZONTAL LANDSCAPE-- SOUNDSCAPE TAPESTRY.

Alpha Bruton, lead artist, and the Phantom Gallery Chicago is my curatorial practice. I'm collaborating with composer and musician Reggie Nicholson. This project is designed as an intensive experience.

We are creating a work with an interdisciplinary approach and will present the final product during community programming. This project occurs in and around the Bronzeville community, collecting sounds from the horizontal landscape to produce the Soundscape Tapestry.

CEFF 

Featured Speaker: Ife Olatunji

Topic: Collective Voices Ethnographic Film Festival Preview

Olatunji is a visual anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, and film critic. Born into a family of artists and activists, she graduated from Syracuse University with a BA in Anthropology ('06) and a minor in photography and African American History. Ife completed her MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester, UK ('10) after creating a short documentary on daily life for girls in Rajasthan, India. She has since lived in Chicago, teaching documentary and film production to youth as young as 6 to adults at community centers and The Art Institute of Wisconsin. She has been a media educator with Facets Multimedia for the past four years, teaching media literacy, narrative editing, and documentary filmmaking. As a Diverse Voices in Documentary fellow with Kartemquin, Ife developed her own short observational film and worked with others to produce and edit their projects. Ife has continued to work with The Community Film Workshop, Reel Black Filmmakers, and Collected Voices: Chicago's Ethnographic Film Festival. An advocate for diversity and inclusion, Ife believes race and gender should not be categories of film festivals but rather the very topics film seeks to explore: www.collectedvoicesfilmfest.com.

Raymond A. Thomas, Studio/Film 12 MINUTES | 2001

CINEMA

N'spire Entertainment Inc. is the film and video production subsidiary of Raymond A. Thomas Studios.

In 2000, Raymond A. Thomas wrote, directed, and produced his first film project, 12 MINUTES. The 30-minute film short was an official selection to over 20 film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards and honors. The film, which deals with the issues of mass incarceration and the death penalty, continues to be used in community arts engagement efforts with screenings in correctional facilities nationwide. Thomas has written over a half dozen feature screenplays, several of which have been optioned by major motion picture studios. In 2013, Thomas won an EMMY for serving as an associate producer on the documentary COLORBLIND: Rethinking Race, which aired on television station WYCC in Chicago.

Lavon N. Pettis, project manager for the 2023 Phantom Gallery Chicago Tactical Urbanism Film Series.

A Published ethnographer/researcher with program development, piloting, pre and post-evaluation, and background for hire. Civic and community engagement project manager. Best practices, technical savvy, and additional perks include negotiation. Skills include but are not limited to infrastructure setup, operations, lead planning, special events, capacity building, arts, and entertainment. Career experience includes public/social policy strategist, state director, sponsorship procurement, and fundraising.