For AANHPI Heritage Month 2025, Anna is bringing that ethos to North Lawndale with a multi-sensory event that blends an art market, a photographic installation, and a celebration of intergenerational resilience. Anchored in tradition and driven by a commitment to queer, femme, and diasporic visibility. 

In "Notes on Haiti: A Guide to #FreeHaiti," Felton Edward Kizer compels us to look beyond our screens and take meaningful action towards global freedom. By weaving personal insights with critical resources, Kizer encourages a deeper understanding and active participation in the global movement for safety and liberation, emphasizing that freedom for one is freedom for all.

There's something magical about international Black spaces. On a Tuesday night in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, I witnessed that magic. But, before we get into the magic, let's set the scene. I walked into Juice@1340 many times as I’ve done before. Still, this time I was immediately greeted with vibes courtesy of Finding Ijeoma and Derrick C. Westbrook in his hoochie daddy shorts–immediately, I understood how my evening would unfold.

These days, I care a lot more about the brands I support and what/who they support. I’m twenty-seven and I’ve never had Chick-fil-a. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment, but I realized that there was power in my dollar and I intend to use it however I can.

I’m 10. All I can remember is how everyone shifted in their seat and gawked at me, my skin darker than their alabaster “purity,” which I so envied at the time. We were talking about the Civil War. I was the only mixed girl in my class, the only Other, the only person left looking in from elsewhere. I don’t remember much of the actual lesson my fifth-grade teacher discussed in class —

only that my classmates never stopped staring at me.

On Milwaukee Avenue, just around the corner from the Western blueline stop, KIP Studios has a room where many Chicago makers have found their footing. Mel Foley and Chris Elliott, who live in the Bucktown apartment building, founded the attached studio space in 2019 and began rolling out events that brought the varied and vital atmosphere of Chicago’s creative community together.

Microaggressions are common behaviors that manifest subtly, and often unintentionally, from deep-seated biases. They’re expressed in seemingly benign phrases like “You’re pretty for a Black girl,” or “I just love Asian women.” Unconscious of the subtle racism informing their comment, the aggressor may not understand the weight their words carry.

The post-apocalyptic genre is very similar, since stories of this genre take place in dark versions of the future that come after the end of the world. There is typically a protagonist or group of characters that try to survive in the new world or bring back something that was lost in the apocalypse, be it a way of life or a needed resource to keep the group or revive society.

Marina Kozak and Peter Diamond are childhood friends and interdisciplinary artists. Several years ago, they founded the existential-surrealist dinner party series “The Shrub Society.” Kozak is a multidisciplinary artist who focuses on graphic and environmental design. Diamond is an experiential strategist working at an advertising agency. After a hiatus, they’re thinking of bringing The Shrub Society back and reconnecting with the existential absurd.

Looking at how much change has come from social media activism, it seems infallible. Social change at the tip of everyones’ fingers, can you think of anything better? But lately, I’ve noticed an increase in online activism from people I know personally through Instagram stories pertaining to BLM. Some people I knew pleasantly surprised me by posting about petitions or infographics, when I would never expect them to really speak up. I had never really seen this level of activism within my smaller Instagram community, which is great, but also begs the question of why all of the sudden all these people are speaking out.

The unprecedented social upheaval caused by the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement has prompted many allies to reexamine their relationship with activism. Within Gen-Z, which has absorbed the image-consciousness of a culture that gave Instagram influencers unthinkable wealth and status, the optics of allyship have overshadowed meaningful change. But in 2020, information about non-optical allyship has spread quickly on the same platforms that favor superficial, performative posts of support. In sharing this, the predominantly younger users of platforms like Instagram seem to be seeking to counteract its fickle virality, which spotlights issues when they first trend but eventually buries them in favor of fresher, more marketable content.

Even though it’s unspoken, there’s a different kind of emphasis on that “Donate” request. Nonprofits and Black funds organizations aren’t asking for just any kind of contribution. They need funding, and that funding needs to come from the collective efforts of the populace, since those in power never divert the resources and funding that it’s common knowledge they have. It connects back to stepping out of one’s privilege, because there are those who were never able to step into privilege of their own that guarantees them education, love, support and safety.