We will chicago
As the first citywide planning effort of its type in half a century, We Will Chicago seeks to develop a people-focused vision for all aspects of the Chicago government using three guiding principles: EQUITY. DIVERSITY. RESILIENCY.
Each of these principles can be applied to nearly all challenges faced by Chicagoans, including transportation, economic development, sustainability, public safety, education, and other issues. These guiding principles can help Chicago create the first people-focused plan in the city’s history — one that prioritizes investment in families and neighborhoods, which will inform priorities for government programs and projects and guide future budget decisions.
Chicago's legacy as a world-class city continues to be diminished by systemic inequities that have undermined its success for decades. These social and economic disparities touch nearly every aspect of Chicago life and government.
Recent planning efforts in Chicago have been largely place- or policy-focused, limiting the City’s ability to comprehensively address systemic issues that impact different neighborhoods in different ways. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession further underscore these issues and the need for Chicago, its leaders and its citizens to develop a more equitable and strategic path forward.
The City of Chicago, led by the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), will join its partners to launch a public engagement effort in fall 2020 to solicit feedback on the broad, overriding goals of We Will Chicago and the process for the initiative itself.
As part of this work, Honey Pot Performance has been selected as the lead public engagement artist to support aspects of this greater planning initiative.
HONEY POT PERFORMANCE’S VISION FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Honey Pot Performance is inspired by the Fifth City model, a radical community experiment from the 1960s-1980s in Garfield Park. Their work was about scale, consensus-building strategies, and focusing on community as leaders, experts, and problem solvers. So is ours. We look at the lessons we can apply in our current moment moving towards more equitable neighborhood-based planning.
The artist engagement facilitated by Honey Pot Performance attempts to reach both the depth and breadth of the city. We will design a community-centered process focused on creative dialogue, interactive participation, and consensus-building. Our process will emphasize strategic thinking, patience, and agile imagination in city visioning, planning, and implementation.
We imagine working with a cross-section of emerging and established cultural workers and community organizers rooted in place. We will harness this process not only to support the creation of a people-centered citywide plan but to uplift Chicago’s neighborhood cornerstones who are foundational to change across the city. We believe change has to happen at the neighborhood level to be sustained.
We also take inspiration from this moment’s focus on mutual aid and collective care. We believe people and communities can create solutions if they can access the right resources to implement them. We will work to reimagine how communities can engage with city departments and civic institutions -- from planning, transportation, and public health to arts & culture, parks, libraries, and schools -- to foster a different kind of exchange and support. We will imagine together what this new city could be like.
CORE QUESTIONS
What do we want to keep? What do we want to change?
What is urgent right now?
Communities are experiencing planning fatigue. Why another asset gathering and planning exercise? What are the incentives to participate? What do they get back? What does reciprocity look like?
How do we position artists, organizers, residents, and other local stakeholders as experts, knowledgeable contributors, and problem solvers?
PROCESS PHASES
Our job is to ensure that the We Will Chicago initiative begins and ends with a people-first plan that represents and positively impacts all of the people of Chicago. Honey Pot Performance will work with a core group of artists and community organizers to guide the work.
Artist and organizer teams will be selected aligned with the 7 core pillar issues of the We Will Chicago initiative: lifelong education, housing, economic development, infrastructure + transportation, arts + culture, health, and environment, energy + climate.
Teams will engage with the community in a two-part approach. Teams in community anchor hubs will address issues in assigned neighborhoods throughout the city, and a mobile team will cover the remaining communities. Each team will have its own programming - workshops, conversations, design exercises, knowledge and skill shares, etc. - to activate the ideas and concepts that are most important to its community’s interests.
Following a period of learning, experimenting, making, and dialogue, each hub will generate an action plan and some form of creative output based on the core ideas, solutions, and recommendations that emerge from their time together. Communities will work with the artist/organizer teams to realize these outputs as creative work, series, or other public-facing actions.
TIMELINE
May-June:
Welcome, Onboarding, & Planning with Pillar Hub Teams
June:
Welcome, Onboarding, & Planning with Mobile Teams
July-September:
Public engagement programming
Teams submit community action plans
Sept-Oct:
Data Analysis & Recommendations to the City
WWC Contract Positions
Honey Pot Performance is contracting positions to implement the WWC Initiative through Summer. As positions become available, click on the links below to apply.
Marketing, Communications & Technology
Contact/Info for inquiries: jobs@honeypotperformance.org
Pillar Artist Teams
PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY
ALEXANDRIA WILLIS
Alexandria Willis is a passionate and steadfast advocate for vulnerable populations, healthcare and Chicago communities. With more than 10 years of professional experience in the health industry, Alexandria has served as a geriatric nurse specialist, program manager, health educator, population health specialist, strategy and innovation analyst and project manager while maintaining strong roots and involvement with a number of community organizations.
As a resident of the Bronzeville community, she has utilized her spare time to work directly with organizations whose goals and focus are to strengthen resources to the community and advocate directly for residents that are homeless, at-risk youth, senior citizens, and members of the neighborhood that want a better quality of life.
Alexandria holds a B.A. in Communicative Sciences and Disorders from Hampton University and a M.A. in Public Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Alexandria’s educational background in healthcare, policy, and administration as well as her practical experience analyzing large and diverse data sets and making recommendations to senior leadership has prepared her to work collaboratively for the betterment of the Chicago community.
HOUSING & NEIGHBORHOODS
PARRISH BROWN JR.
Parrish Brown Jr. is a senior at the University of Chicago at Illinois majoring in Urban Studies. He was born on the west side of Chicago but has primarily spent his life growing up on the southside of Chicago organizing for over 10+ years. He is most known for organizing to get a level 1 trauma center at the University of Chicago, fighting to keep Walter H. Dyett high school open, getting Public Act 1225 (Community Youth Employment Act) passed, helping to get 20th Ward Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor elected, supporting to get Lakesia Collins elected as the state representative of the 9th district, and more. Currently, he works as a Youth Organizer & Restorative Justice Coordinator with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. He is an abolitionist and a known community organizer. His number one goal is to create spaces to push for Black Liberation.
ARTS & CULTURE
AALIYAH CHRISTINA
Aaliyah Christina is an administrator, curator, improvisational movement maker, and writer based in Washington Park on the South side of Chicago. As Artistic Coordinator at Links Hall, she ensures the voices of artists are centered through the process of programming and creating new works. She is currently an artist-in-residence with High Concept Labs and Co-organizer/Content Curator for Performance Response Journal 2.0.
ARTS & CULTURE
WISDOM BATY
Wisdom Baty is a Chicago based interdisciplinary artist and arts collaborator interested in curating space for black and brown mothers and their children. With over a decade of community organizing, her practice reimagines physical space, autonomy and historical accuracy in support of black motherhood through the lens of intersectionality. She is the founder and creative director of Wild Yams: Black Mothers Artist Residency.
An artistic collaborator, Wisdom has co-organized 6018N Windows to the World exhibition 2020, the inaugural Black Experience: Panel and MFA Showcase at SAIC Sullivan Galleries in 2015, and The Black Family Reunion 2017 with Threewalls and Reunion. Baty was a 2017 Marwen Teaching Artist Resident, a 2007 fellow at the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art and Music, participated in the Museum of Contemporary Art Teacher Institute and currently has work represented on the Field Foundations website under the program areas section. Baty received her BFA in Painting at UIC’s School of Art and Design 2012 and Masters degree in Arts Administration and Policy, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018.
PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY
GLORIA I. RIVERA
Chicago based artist, Gloria I. Rivera is a self-taught visual artist and muralist. She continues to hold residency in the city’s south side Back of the Yards neighborhood where she was born and raised. She recently participated in an 8 month extended residency in Honduras. While there, she lived on a coffee farm where she created 4 murals, designed and updated the restrooms for the farm hands, designed a new entrance gate to the farm, and taught English to Honduran children and adults. The entirety of Rivera’s work focuses on encouraging viewers to go inward and work on self-love, self-acceptance, and to face the outward world with love, understanding and respect
ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE & ENERGY
CAT MAHARI
Mahari’s practice is built from a richly layered body history, stemming from an archive of research, physical training and intent of manifesting an intellectual, material and informal legacy through documentation. Through an examination of personal cultural markers she creates transformational processes. She references genealogies of being to expand a liberationist agenda affecting her built inner and outer environment. She is the founder and director of 31st&Brklyn, a platform for performance art and community engagement, a 2021 Chicago Esteemed Artist, and a Charlotte St Foundation Generative Performing Artist Fellow. Her upcoming experimental work Loving Each Other, recipient of a Propeller grant, is a cinematic investigation into Blackness, intimacy, trust, and vulnerability (2021), and was most recently in-community as part of Chicago-based Three Walls In-Session programming. Her post-disciplinary solo, the mixtape series: Violent/Break, has been in development at Imir Scene Kunst in Norway (2019). The BAM! series beginning with Expectation of Violence/Rites due Spring: B-BAM! (2015) is an immersive ensemble work, focusing on Blackness, America, and violence. Mahari is a culture bearer of Hip Hop and House, and former member of the Krump family Gool, with a BFA in dance performance from the Conservatory of Music and Dance, and a MA in Performance, Practice, and Research from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
JORDAN EVANGELISTA
Jordan is a non-profit organizer who likes to take an unconventional approach to meet challenges. He has worked primarily in education-focused organizations where he has planned events, led workshops, and organized outreach to enhance the wellness and impact of teachers across the country. Jordan explores Chicago by bicycle and even occasionally guides others on rides to participate in service projects like park clean-ups. He is currently completing the final semester of his Master’s of Public Administration degree and expects to finish in the summer of 2021.
LIFELONG EDUCATION
JACOB WATSON
Jacob Watson is a socially-engaged artist, researcher, and educator. He designs plays, workshops, conversations, and public programs that move people into deeper understanding of themselves and their communities. Jacob is a founding member of the FYI Performance Company at the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health and an organizer for Swarm Artist Residency. He has also been a researcher at Project Zero and a program manager for interdisciplinary learning initiatives at Columbia College Chicago. He currently works as a consultant and coach specializing in learning and community engagement, through a justice lens. Jacob received his Ed.M. in Arts in Education from Harvard University and B.A. in Theatre from Northwestern University. He is also a scenic designer, performer, graphic designer, singer, mover, facilitator, deep thinker, teacher, and scholar.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
VANESSA STOKES
Vanessa Stokes is an Artist, Curator, Photographer and Owner of VS Creative Consulting LLC. VS Creative Consulting is an artist management, project management and community engagement firm where her main client is Dorrell Creightney, Vanessa’s Father. Dorrell Creightney had the first black owned commercial photography studio in Chicago and after his death left behind a 300,000 image collection. In addition, she is a cultural organizer and curator of several public art displays in the Austin community, including 2 displays of the work of Dorrell Creightney located inside the train stations at Austin and Central on CTA’s Green line train.
Currently, Vanessa is managing Special Service Area 72 (AV72) in the Austin Community and collaborating with local artists and community members creating the future of art and public art on the Westside of Chicago. She is the Co-president of the Austin Town Hall Park Advisory Council and the Chair of the Austin Town Hall Park Art & Culture Committee. Lastly, Vanessa is the President of the board at A House In Austin, on the board and the Chair of the Advisory Board at the Austin Renaissance Council volunteers on The Hatchery Community Advisory Committee and Advisory Circle at the Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation.
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
YARITZA GUILLEN
Yaritza Guillen is an urban planner, horticulturist, and environmentalist with a strong focus on interdisciplinary practices, community-based design, and story mapping. She has a background in collaborating with nonprofits and designers to educate institutes on effective ways to work with BIPOC communities in Chicago. She has worked for and collaborated with Lurie Garden, Chicago Park District, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion, and UIC Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition.
She enjoys exploring natural ecosystems throughout the world and learning about the historical and cultural significance of plants. Originally from Chicago, she is passionate about including eco-friendly philosophy into urban design and considers herself a social pollinator.
LIFELONG EDUCATION
QUENNA LENÉ BARRETT
Quenna Lené Barrett is a Chicago-based theater artist + practitioner, developing programs to amplify teen + community voices and hold space to rehearse, tell, and change the stories of their lives. She serves as the Associate Director of Education at the Goodman Theatre, is a company member with ICAH’s For Youth Inquiry company, an Associate Artist with Pivot Arts, and is a member of the new leadership circle of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice. Quenna received her BFA from NYU Tisch Drama, MA in Applied Theatre from the University of Southern California, and is currently pursuing an educational doctorate in Educational Theatre at NYU Steinhardt. As a director, performer, facilitator, and writer, she has worked with a number of companies including NYU Steinhardt, Oklahoma State University, Ohio State University, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Sojourn Theatre, The Theatre School at DePaul, Free Street, Pegasus, Court, eta, and Theater Unspeakable. Continuing to build the world she wants to see/live in, her most recent project was Re-writing the Declaration.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ENNERESSA “REESIE” DAVIS
Enneressa “Reesie” Davis received a bachelor’s degree in secondary education with a concentration in social studies teaching and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Indiana University Northwest. She was an educator for five years at the secondary level.
Enneressa is an experienced professional dancer and artist. She is also the CEO and founder of Praize Productions, Inc., an arts-based, not-for-profit organization on the South Side of Chicago. Enneressa has written, produced, and choreographed nine full-length productions. Five of her theatrical productions won the coveted Black Excellence Award from the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago for “Best Overall Dance Production.” Her production Smells Like Freedom also received a Black Theater Alliance Award. She is an award-winning choreographer, and her work has been highlighted on television outlets including Windy City LIVE, ABC’s Heart & Soul, and WGN’s Around Town. Davis sets work for other companies and studios throughout the United States. In 2019, she choreographed for Folks Operetta's American premiere of the critically acclaimed production, "The Flower of Hawaii."
HOUSING & NEIGHBORHOODS
MICHELLE E.L. MERRITT
Reared on Jamaican spices of the Caribbean and mirepoix of New Orleans Southern gumbo, creative gadabout, Michelle E.L. Merritt was born on the planet of Brooklyn and for over two decades has called the Windy City home.
For over a decade, Ms. Merritt dedicated her career to the community and economic development real estate sector, revitalizing distressed communities and robust community engagement. In 2013, she earned a Master of Arts in Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago and shifted her career focus to follow her personal creative passions in the arts and culture sector.
In 2015, Ms. Merritt pursued an entrepreneurial opportunity and opened an ‘arts salon’ where she co-led the curating of emerging artist exhibits, event planning, and arts-related programming. Currently, Ms. Merritt is developing a social practice focused on engaging arts and culture as a tool in equitable community building and preservation.
In addition, Ms. Merritt works as an independent consultant supporting local, small non-profit organizations and social enterprise start-ups in curating pop-ups, events and programs, capacity building, and business development. She also teaches arts-entrepreneurship to youth in the Woodlawn community.
Ms. Merritt is a graduate of Hampton University (BA History) and Columbia College Chicago (MA Arts Administration).
Mobile artist team
MOBILE TEAM LEAD
JEEYEUN LEE
JeeYeun Lee is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and activist based in Chicago. Through performance, objects, and socially engaged art, her work explores dynamics of connection, power, violence and resistance. Her work has been shown in Chicago, Detroit, Santa Fe, Ohio, Missouri, and France. She has worked with social justice and community-based organizations for over twenty-five years in immigrant rights, economic justice, LGBTQ issues, and domestic violence. She holds an M.F.A. in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art, M.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, and B.A. in Linguistics from Stanford University.
MOBILE TEAM
ENRIQUE MORALES
Enrique Morales is an artist, researcher, and educator. He views all three facets as integral to his creative practice. As an artist, he is installation- and lens-based, while simultaneously immersed in his social practice. As a researcher, his focus is cultural policy with an emphasis on the Art and Sport industries. As an educator, his approach is to enhance critical and creative thinking, using questioning and listening as pedagogical tools. Additionally, he makes time for tennis, film, and nature.
MOBILE TEAM
NATALIE FRAZIER
Natalie Frazier is a Chicagoan who utilizes her eclectic background in filmmaking, food service and journalism to cultivate a healthier and more self-sustaining Westside.
MOBILE TEAM
MECHIYA JAMISON
Mechiya Jamison (she/her) is a Curator, Placemaker, Urban Farmer, Urban Planner, Holistic Healer, Facilitator, Activist,Story Teller, Painter, Singer, Songwriter, and Poet. Dedicated to liberation and environmental justice, She uses art as a tool to build solidarity, cultural understanding, and a means of collective power and consciousness.
Project Documentarian Team
PROJECT DOCUMENTARIAN
CHRIS SAINT MARTIN
Chris Saint Martin (He/Him) is an interdisciplinary artist and edu- cator working in film, music and mixed-media on Chicago’s South and West Sides. His work has been exhibited at The International Human Rights Film Festival in Vienna, Austria and The Video Art Festival in Turku, Finland. He has performed with members of Art of Culture at the Chicago Blues Festival. Chris is the recipient of a 2020 Individual Artist Grant from the City of Chicago/DCASE. He is currently working with members of the Chatham and Roseland communities as an Artist in Residence with the Chicago Park Dis- trict. Chris received his MFA in Independent Film and Digital Imaging from Governors State and recently completed his decades long, genre bending, feature length film entitled, Black Women In Blonde Wigs, which examines intersections between identity politics, and decolonization.
PROJECT DOCUMENTARIAN
IREASHIA M. BENNETT
Ireashia M. Bennett (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist and transmedia storyteller who explores the complexities of trauma, survival and healing within Black communities. They earned a B.A. in Journalism from Columbia College Chicago. They produce multimedia essays, short documentaries, and experimental films to ensure complex issues are accessible to all. With multimedia collage, Ireashia weaves together archival materials with captured imagery to explore how trauma, and the process of healing through meaning-making, is embedded in Black queer people’s genealogy, ancestral memory, and history. Their artistic work has been exhibited locally in art spaces such as the Sullivan Galleries, Arts Incubator, Stony Island Arts Bank, and Chicago Art Department as well as nationally at the Museum of African American History in Boston, MA.
SOCIAL MEDIA & MARKETING MANAGER
ALYSSA (UHH-LEE’SA) GREGORY
Alyssa (Uhh-lee’sa) Gregory, originally from Northern Virginia is a Chicago-based performer, choreographer, teaching artist, and arts administrator. She holds a BFA in Dance & Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Masters of Arts in Performing Arts Administration from Roosevelt University. During her time in Chicago, she has worked with companies and artists such as The Moving Architects, Joanna Furnans, Kristina Isabelle, The Leopold Group, Jenn Freeman, and Erin Kilmurray. Her work has been presented at the Chicago Fringe Festival, Salonathon, The Fly Honey Show and the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. Alyssa teaches dance all around the Chicagoland area and has worked as associate choreographer for The Fly Honey show for the past four years. Alyssa is the creator and host of The Process. A podcast highlighting Chicago dancers and dancemakers. House Targaryen. Proud Slytherin.
PROJECT DOCUMENTARIAN
ADIA IVEY
Adia Ivey strives to forefront underrepresented stories in their work by exploring relationships -- with ourselves, our community, and the obstacles that influence how we navigate the world. They explore this through a Black Queer womanist lens using various genres and mediums of storytelling. When she's not documenting with Honey Pot Performance, Adia is lead producing the collaborative documentary project, "MANIFOLD".
WEBSITE MANAGER
MILES BLAKELY
Miles Blakely is a Chicago based visual designer and visual artist. They like to explore how visual elements can enhance a person's experience while interacting with physical and virtual spaces. This exploration can be found in both professional work as well as personal practice. Miles' work ranges from working with brands to create visual elements needed to build websites to animated and video content used for marketing and advertising
PROJECT DOCUMENTARIAN
BREE WRIGHT
Bree Wright is a North Carolina Native with a BA in Criminal Justice. She is currently studying Cinematography at DePaul University. Bree is also a freelance Photographer and Filmmaker. She loves working with youth and helping them explore new and creative ways to express themselves
COMMUNITY DATA MANAGER
TONY SANTIAGO
Tony is a Chicago-based artist, producer, and creative engineer who supports access and connections to local art with technology and data. Tony is the Programs and Theater Manager at Arts + Public Life in Washington Park and is the founder of Chicago Arts Access. Recent producorial credits include Spinning Home Movies, Illinois Humanities' Rapid Response Series, Asian Improv Arts Midwest Sudden Impact Series, Walder Foundation's Chicago Takes 10, The Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival, and Real Freedom Projects. Professional highlights include Arts Alliance Illinois, The Roustabouts, Lyric Opera, Theater on the Lake, Seasons in the City Adventure Camp, and Oracle Productions. Tony recently served as a Board Member for Edgar Miller Legacy and currently serves on the Board of the Katherine Dunham Museum in East Saint Louis.