Artists-in-Residence

Brandon Boler is a native of North Lawndale and holds a degree in Theatre Performance from Bradley University in Peoria, IL. He is currently serving as the Assistant Director and Assistant Stage Manager for William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth with Invictus Theatre Company at the Windy City Playhouse.

As part of his artist residency, Brandon will launch The Boler Collective Inc. This organization aims to enhance the creative arts scene in Lawndale. The Boler Collective will collaborate with local organizations to preserve and promote Lawndale’s rich culture by creating an event called "Pedal Powered Picnic," which will take place at Leo Roscoe Boler, Sr. Park. This event will offer creative opportunities for poetry and art, inviting audience members to engage in activities that are powered by bicycles.

To learn more about his projects, go to www.BrandonBoler.com.

Barber (he/him), a newly selected cohort member of the 2024-25 Ignite Fund, has an impressive track record in the Arts. He has participated in events such as the MdW Art Fair, The Other Art Fair (2023 and 2024), EXPO CHICAGO (2023), Chicago Artists Coalition's 2023-24 HATCH program, along with residencies across the country and globe.

As part of his artist residency, Barber will focus on project MORE LIFE, which seeks to celebrate the culture of North Lawndale through Black America with an urban monument and Black American Flag ceremony. SAIC Homan Square and the Chicago Public Library Douglass Branch will collaborate and host the outdoor sculpture. The project is modeled after urban memorials typically found in Black American neighborhoods nationwide. The Black American flag ceremony will be accompanied by a poem and craft contest promoting cultural enrichment and artistic expression. The goal of Barber's MORE LIFE is to amplify Black Americans’ cultural preservation.

Hyero celebrates Black portraiture focusing on portraying matriarchs and their stories. She is a teaching artist dedicated to sharing resources with artists to support representing Black people in their artwork. Her fall residency highlights matriarchs within the Black community through detailed portraiture investigating themes that shape the community. She sees a need for accessible tools and resources to support artists to authentically draw Black people, ensuring cultural representation in art, and will use this time to research the foundations and legacy of Black portraits.

Shonna Pryor is a conceptual art maker and art programs producer. Her creative practice is inspired by references to food and its peripheral objects and concepts as a lens through which to engage memory, play, and power politics. Her paintings, installation, and found object materials nourish pathways for generative futurist speculation of the historical past. Pryor is an educator at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with national exhibitions including Chicago, Detroit, and New York, and residencies that include Hyde Park Art Center’s Jackman Goldwasser Artist Residency, Chicago Artists Coalition Hatch Residency, and Chicago Council on Science and Technology. 

Johnaé Strong is a writer, filmmaker, and community organizer committed to healing Black girls all over the world through cultural production. Johnaé’s artwork is heavily influenced by her tenure as co-founder and leader of BYP100 in Chicago from 2013-2017. Within this period she organized for justice for Rekia Boyd and Laquan MacDonald while teaching in Chicago Public Schools. Her academic background is in human rights and education for which she has a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Chicago. She now uses art and community building to express the sacred right to the liberation of all Black people through teaching and making. Specifically, through her writing and film skills which she honed as an MFA student at Northwestern University. Johnae’s work centers her identity as a Black woman, mother, and healer to curate spaces of connection, joy, and resilience.

Jay is a Chicago-based photographer and curator specializing in portrait, storytelling, and architecture photography. He is a North Lawndale native, and his most recent project he's working on is called Westside Glory: Chicago’s Westside Architecture & Portrait Storybook. It is devoted to the Westside’s rich architectural heritage, history, and unique culture, and documents the remarkable stories of homeowners and their buildings. Westside Glory explores the second great migration of southerners to the west side of Chicago; highlighting key aspects of homeownership which also provide the context for the architect and developer. This project changes the narrative of the perception of the west side of Chicago through authentic storytelling and the archiving of the west side's rich architectural heritage, people history, and unique culture.