2nd Annual Black and Brown Art Convening

Our 2nd Annual Black and Brown Solidarity was successful! We had over a hundred people attend the event to experience cultural food, dancing, music, and more!

The event opened with a moving spoken word performance by one of the youth on the B&B committee, Itzel. Right after was the reveal of the mural painting, made by Gabe, Amie, and Yekseny. The Mural, titled "Under the Same Sun," features vibrant colors of reds, oranges, and yellows. The imagery - hands formed in fists, raised in unity. This mural is to show that when we come together as a community, from different backgrounds, we come together as one and become stronger. Additionally, there was more artwork that ranged from self-drawn portraits and paintings. Thirteen youth artists from Proviso Township submitted their work! Additionally, we had various foods and desserts from Black and Brown cultures for guests to enjoy while appreciating the art. Tacos Regio also provided delicious tacos for event attendees! After the mural reveal, the B&B youth committee introduced community circles, explaining the importance of community healing. Soon, four circles formed at every table, with community members of different ethnicities, generations, and towns. To end the night of performances, dancers blended a variety of music styles, transforming them into dances that combined hip-hop, salsa, reggaeton, and more. The night was filled with so many aspects of culture; it was beautiful to see them all put together.

The committee also invited various non-profits to share their mission and services. Yosoyella, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting women’s emotional and mental healing. People also had fun at the Picture Perfect Photobooth, led by Radiant Vessels Community Services, capturing memories to take home in photo strips. The event wrapped up with an exciting raffle, where we announced the winners of Cubs tickets, a birthday party at Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor, a slow cooker, and others.

A heartfelt thank you to the youth committee for their dedication to this event, and we are also grateful for all our guests who came and showed their support!

2025 Black and Brown Solidarity Art Convening | Planning

We are so excited to announce our second annual Black and Brown Solidarity Art Convening with the help of Healing Illinois. This event is completely planned and executed by local youth.

So far, we are finishing the planning phase and getting into the execution phase. The youth committee started by participating in healing circles. These were co-led by Liz and Benjamin who are both trained as circle facilitators. This was to introduce the youth to restorative justice but also to build trust with one another, especially because they will be holding each other accountable during this process. After, the youth picked a topic for what this convening would be focused on. This year, it’s Creative Experiences within Proviso!

The Convening will be held on June 5th, 2025 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM. The youth are looking for creatives to submit their art to be featured at the convening. Please see the link below to submit your piece on your own cultural experiences or cultural experiences within Proviso.

Art Therapy

This week, we hosted Art Therapy for our community! This session, we painted sunflowers, to resemble that we can still grow within hardships. Sunflowers take up lots of sunlight but they are still able to survive off little water. Additionally, they produce many seeds when they are fully grown. Dana thought that this was a good symbolization that although sometimes there is no water in our cup, we still have the opportunity to grow and present seeds for out future. As the session went forward, the community talked about their experiences living in Maywood, and what they did to be a good neighbor!

Thank you to those who joined us! Thanks again to Dana for leading another session!

Art Therapy With Dana Harris

Photo Credit: Saffron

In mentorship on Saturday, the mentees relaxed with a bit of painting. Dana Harris, who has been painting for years, taught them that art can be therapeutic. She explained how art and painting can help with anxiety and calm nerves. She then guided them through painting beautiful cherry blossom trees. Dana also has a business of her own, Paint On Purpose, where she teaches art to people of all ages! Everyone had a blast creating and relaxing.

After their art session, our mentees moved on to website building with Lu’Cretia. In a previous workshop, they learned about website design and the different aspects of it. This time, they put that knowledge into action. Our mentees are at the beginning process of creating their own brands, so learning these steps of building a website are very important.

Photo Credit: Saffron

Art Meets Website Design

On Monday we welcomed Heather from Art Cures All to lead a workshop on collage art. Our mentees got to design their collage from magazines, as well as take a sneak peek of Heather’s artwork. Each table was set up with a stack of magazines, a pair of scissors, glue sticks, and finishing glue. It was exciting to see each person flip through pages and pages of magazines to find their favorite designs and photos to add to their collages.

Afterwards, Lu'Cretia, our Creative Project Manager, took over to lead a workshop on website design using Squarespace. We love that we can provide our mentees with this skill set as it will benefit them in the future. Lu'Cretia went over the basics of designing a website, what goes into designing one, and showed some amazing examples from some of our past mentees…Amanda Leon Calligraphy and Makeup By Mariah. Although designing a website is a process, we cannot wait to see what are mentees create!

Photo Credit: Mariah