** This is my final recap of 2013…

Chicago has been in the spotlight over the past few years as the epitome of urban violence. The city has been dubbed the “murder capital of the U.S.” even though this is actually untrue. I’ve written and will continue to write about the various organizing and advocacy efforts by Chicagoans to address interpersonal and structural/systemic violence. Lots of people in this city are working to address violence; many in very creative ways.

Today, I want to focus on some of the creative interventions to address violence in Chicago that I’ve either been part of or have otherwise come to my attention in 2013. Thousands of people were engaged through these projects. There were of course many other efforts that I left off this list. I invite you to submit your suggestions in the comments section. Think about how you can contribute to ending violence in your own communities and then get to work!

1. 500campaign

From NBC 5 Chicago:

After the murder totals in Chicago started racking up after January of this year, South Side native Bryant Cross decided he’d seen enough.

The 28-year-old speech communications professor started thinking of effective ways to spread an anti-violence message and came up with the 500campaign, head shots of Chicagoans with the slogan “Angry Because Over 500 Youth Were Murdered in Chicago.”

**Note: The 500 youth number cited is not at annual number. Over the course of 5 years about 500 young people under 20 years old were victims of homicide in Chicago. One is too many but it’s important to be clear about what these numbers represent.

See more photos on pinterest or instagram.

Below is the founder of the 500campaign, Bryant Cross, talking about his campaign:

2. How Long Will I Cry? A Play and A Book

According to the Steppenwolf Theatre website:

“Woven together from interviews gathered by journalist Miles Harvey and his students at DePaul University, How Long Will I Cry? provides raw, truthful insight into the problem of youth violence. By giving voice to those who know the tragic consequences of violence first-hand—families of the victims, residents of crime-ridden neighborhoods and especially young people—How Long Will I Cry? inspires all of us to join together in search of a solution.”

The play was performed for a month earlier this year and the stories have now been compiled into a book that is available for free to Chicagoans.

“The book contains interviews with 35 people, told in Studs Terkel-style first person: current and former gang members, parents and siblings of young people who have been killed, and cops, lawyers, nurses, and community activists who are working to stop the violence.”

How Long Will I Cry – Book Trailer from Big Shoulders Books on Vimeo.

3. Uproar Chicago: A Community-Curated Audio Collage About Chicago Violence

I initiated this project and solicited support and help from friends to execute it. We asked Chicagoans to summarize their feelings about violence in one sentence. We used a central hotline to gather responses from people across Chicago. The responses were assembled into audio collages. In late April, community members gathered to listen to the audio collage and to participate in a peace circle where we could discuss our experiences and the impacts of violence in our lives.

I talk more about the project here. Below is the main audio collage.

Visit Soundcloud to listen to all of the audio from this project.

4. Now Is The Time

“Now Is The Time is a citywide initiative inspiring young people to make positive change in their communities and stop youth violence and intolerance. The Chicago Public Library, Facing History and Ourselves, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company join forces to start this conversation in Chicago’s many neighborhoods, along with theaters involved in Now Is The Time to ACT and dozens of other organizations and institutions.”

Below is a video that features some of the young people who participated in the program:

5. Louder Than A Bomb

“Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) was founded in 2001, by Kevin Coval (YCA Artistic Director) and Anna West. LTAB is the largest youth poetry festival in the world, featuring over 100 zip codes within the Chicago-land area.

LTAB was created to give youth around the city of Chicago a platform to share their stories. The festival has since become a “bridge” for young people from many different backgrounds to come together and find a common ground through their narratives.”

In 2013, young people who were incarcerated at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center were given an opportunity to participate in their own version of LTAB. The young people “gave heartfelt spoken word performances talking about their hopes, dreams, fears, longings and aspirations.” You can listen to those performances here.

6. Picturing A World Without Prisons

Regular readers know that I co-curated and co-organized this exhibition with my friends at the Free Write Jail Arts & Literacy Program this fall. Special thanks to my friends at HumanThread Center/Gallery for being gracious hosts to us and wonderful partners. You can find some of the submissions here.

Below is a collaborative vision created by me, Sarah Jane Rhee and her 9 year old daughter Cadence.

It was Victor Hugo who said: “He who opens a school door closes a prison.” It is therefore surreal to live in Chicago in 2013 where we just experienced the single largest mass closure of schools in American history. Rahm Emanuel & his hand-picked school board shuttered 49 schools displacing over 30,000 mostly black children. If we believe Hugo, this means that Chicago has opened the door to 50 new prisons.

So when we envision a world without prisons, we think of children reading piles of books for pleasure. We think of them getting lost in imaginary lands dreaming of all of the adventures they’ll have. A world without prisons is one where there is no ceiling placed on children’s imaginations… It’s a world where we close the doors of prisons and open ones to new schools. Preferably schools near water & sand…

There’s more to come about this project in 2014. Stay tuned!

7. Chicago Torture Justice Memorials: “Reparations On My Soul”

This was a new exhibition following on the heels of last year’s “Opening the Black Box: The Charge is Torture.” Opening the Black Box was an exhibition of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Project (CTJM) that presented a selection from more than 70 submitted proposals for how to memorialize reported cases of torture by Chicago Police.

This year “Reparations on My Soul” explored “reparations as a meaningful act of redress for over 100 African American men who were systematically tortured by former Commander Jon Burge and other white detectives under his command on the South Side of Chicago. Displaying works by local and national artists that imagine speculative memorials that recall Chicago’s history of police torture and the struggle against it, this exhibit honors the survivors of torture, their families and the African American communities affected by the torture.”

8. Community Safety Looks Like…

I’ve written about this project started by my friend Sarah Jane Rhee and me here. We hope that more people will join in 2014. You can see the project here.

9. Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project: Perspectives From A Life Held Captive

Prison Neighborhood Arts Project presented an exhibition of creative work from a year of classes and collaborations between free and incarcerated artists, scholars, and writers at Stateville Prison. Additional events included a film screening and a roundtable discussion.

See more photos here and here. Listen to some prose and poetry from the writers at Stateville here.

10. Black & Blue: Policing, Violence, & Resistance

My organization invited artists (youth & adults) to contribute prints and posters relating to policing, violence, and resistance for an exhibition. The exhibition was designed by my friend Billy Dee. It ran from March 19th until March 28th at the Pop-up Just Arts Space located at 729 S. Maxwell St. in Chicago, Illinois. It was accompanied by a film screening, discussions, and a reading. My friend Eva Nagao digitized the exhibition and you can find it ONLINE.