The Transformative Power of Art: Building a More United Chicago

On January 21, community activists, leaders and residents from across the city braved one of the coldest nights of the year to gather in the Kenwood neighborhood for the National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH) 2025 convening. We gathered for a shared purpose – not just for an event – but for each other, proving that even in  challenging conditions, solidarity prevails.  

This year’s gathering, hosted by Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Greater Chicago in collaboration with Little Black Pearl, centered on the power of creative expression as a means of healing and connection. Panelists and attendees engaged in deep dialogue, voicing concerns from rising economic instability and a struggling education system to food insecurity and ongoing disparities. As I reflect on this year’s NDORH, one undeniable truth emerged: our city is yearning for more spaces of human connection. 

Throughout the day, there was a palpable longing for deeper human connection. So many openly shared smiles and tears signified the need to move beyond our silos and into spaces where people can feel love and express it fully, where creativity becomes a vessel for healing, and where community is more than just a concept—it’s a lived experience. At the heart of transformation is relationship, and our collective healing depends on our willingness to show up for one another with open hands, open hearts, and the courage to build together. The antidote to fear and trauma is connection, and one of the most profound ways to foster connection is through the creative arts.  

In Chicago, there are targeted efforts to overcome the barriers that have crippled communities of color, threatening our physical, emotional, and financial well-being. As history has shown us time and again, we survive. But in 2025, how do we thrive? In keeping with this year’s NDORH theme, Art Making Change, art offers us a way forward as a catalyst for transformation. It helps us to process trauma, reclaim our narratives, and build the solidarity necessary to challenge unjust systems. It reminds us that while oppression seeks to divide, creativity has the power to unify. Whether through music, visual arts, or storytelling, art engagement and education help us to see our struggles reflected in each other’s stories…to grieve, to hope, and to reimagine a better future.  

But art alone is not enough, we need action. We must create more opportunities for civic participation, ensuring that historically excluded South and West Side communities are heard in decision-making spaces. We must invest in creative initiatives that promote healing, unity and justice. Most importantly, we must show up for each other, not just in times of crisis, but as an ongoing commitment to solidarity. I always say to my mentees, “Love is ACTION!” I tell them that solidarity is not a passive state but something we actively build together.    

Every resident has a role to play in shaping Chicago’s future. Civic engagement is key, and this year’s NDORH theme calls for us to lean into art as a tool for systemic and social change. Support local artists, engage in creative expression, and use art to foster conversations that bring us closer together.