Conversations With The Citizen

The Greater Chatham Initiative recently hosted their inaugural fundraising gala, Greater Chatham Strong, at Stony Island Arts Bank.

Eunice Smith, director of operations for Contexture Media Network recently sat down with Conversations With The Citizen to discuss their upcoming event to be held in Chatham.

A local activist, Demetrius Nash, recently founded the nonprofit organization Replace Guns WIth Hammers as a way to reduce violence in Chicago's most underserved communities. The goal of the organization is to give young men an opportunity to work on a building renovation as an alternative to committing violence.

Local author D. A. Rhodes recently released her newest novel The Day Hate Stood Still. The much-anticipated sequel to her first published novel, Why?, is set in 1980’s Chicago, a time when Harold Washington was becoming the city’s first African American mayor and there was a new hope for black communities and residents. While excitement is in the air for the city as a whole, the Boxx family is once again dealing with a tragedy that will change the course of their family’s future forever.

Nearly a dozen residents from several of the communities surrounding Jackson Park recently came together to organize Southside Neighbors For Hope (SSN4H), an advocacy group in favor of the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) coming to the park. Erin Adams, co-founder and chair of the new organization, visited the Citizen to have a conversation about their newly established goals and their vision for the area.

Afenya Montgomery, the founder of the iCAN Collective, will hosts the 2018 #GoalGetHer Conference on Nov. 16 to 17 at The Connection, 4321 S. Cottage Grove, in Bronzeville. The annual conference celebrates diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship and features inspirational speakers, panel discussions, and interactive workshops.

Citizen Newspapers recently hosted Chicago Football Classic Co-Founder Larry Huggins. Huggins sat down with the Citizen to discuss the CFC Scholarship Fund 2018 wrap up and the future goals for 2019. During Huggins Conversation with the Citizen, he spoke on Miles College and how over a Million dollars in scholarships were given away this year at the game to students inspiring to attend Miles College.

The Englewood Public Safety Taskforce recently announced that they were awarded a $953,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). The grant will be dispersed over three years and will assist with researching and creating a crime prevention strategy in the community. RAGE will be working as the community engagement arm, and then there will also be a staff person who will be coordinating these efforts with us,” said Asiaha Butler, President of RAGE.

Leonard Lucas, better known by his stage name Baba Griot, was recently honored at the second annual National Spoken Word Awards with the 2018 Living Legend Award. Baba Griot was honored for his five decades of writing and reciting poetry along with mentoring young poets.

Local film-maker and Emmy award-winning video editor, Don Howze, produced, “Whole Foods Englewood, Changing Chicago’s Food Desert,” a 30- minute documentary film that first aired in April 2017. Now, Howze is releasing the film to the public on Amazon where it is available for purchase.