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Austin Coming Together held its annual Membership Awards on Nov. 20 at Morgan MFG, 401 N. Morgan St. in the Fulton Market District. During the event, ACT honored honored major institutions while spotlighting three community leaders whose long-standing contributions have reshaped the community.
• Lurie Children’s Hospital, awarded for excellence in early childhood development and its role with the forthcoming Austin HOPE Center, which will offer pediatric and behavioral-health services.
• Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, honored for its neighborhood safety
and youth development efforts, including leading a community violence intervention hub as part of the SC2 network.
• ITW, recognized for workforce development and investment in a new local manufacturing facility to support economic mobility and job training.
• Habitat for Humanity, awarded for housing and neighborhood development, including building homes in Austin and supporting resident-led community projects.
W. ADAMS, VIETNAM WAR VETERAN: “I WAS JUST THANKFUL TO MAKE IT BACK”
W. Adams, 67, (he declined to share his first name), lives in Austin. He spent three decades in the military, first deploying to Vietnam in 1968. Adams shared some of his battlefield memories at a holiday luncheon hosted by the Austin Veterans Community Organization at the Columbus Park Refectory, 5701 W. Jackson Blvd., on Dec. 2.
“I went to boot camp on Sept. 7, 1967. On Jan. 28, 1968, I landed in Vietnam. I spent two tours over there. I spent about nine or ten months in Đông Hà. I came home for 30 days, and then I volunteered to go back for six more months, where I lived in a village near Da Nang.
“I came home the second time on Oct. 10, and in January 1981, I joined the Army Reserves. I was in the Reserves until 2008. So, I spent about 32 years in the military.”
He shared some of his memories of fighting in Vietnam.
“I got into my first firefight the day before my birthday. Scared the mess out of me. I hit a couple of skirmishes. I heard that a friend of
Rosetta Guy, 74, was in her element at the Austin Chamber of Commerce Christmas Tree Lighting & Parade in Austin on Dec. 5. Each year, she transforms into Santa Claus and entertains young people’s wish lists and smiles at events across the city. During the Dec. 5 event, she explained what sparked her interest in Saint Nick and revealed her many civic roles in the community that she holds while working full-time as an aide for Chicago Public Schools.
I started dressing up as Santa in 1973. I had my son, and I wanted to make sure he had a good Christmas, and wanted to make sure all the other kids had a good Christmas, too, so I started playing Santa Claus. I dress up for other holidays. On Easter, I’m the Easter Bunny. On Halloween, I dress as a clown. I do other holidays, as well.
I perform concerts for the homeless. We make sure they get clothing and food. We help them get housing. I go to the prisons, too. I work in the community. When kids go to jail, they’re still ours. So, I work with their probationary officers. If they get out and need community service, I help them set up their community service to clean up the blocks in the neighborhood.
I train young people to do everything I do. I have a nonprofit called CW Community Warriors. I have churches, community leaders, and aldermen working with me. I started with Congressman Danny K. Davis, former Secretary of State Jesse White, and former Ald. Ed Smith. I’ve worked with all the politicians in office. I campaign for them. I’m a deputy registrar, an election judge, and a precinct captain.
The first time I started as Santa was on the 600 block of North Springfield in Austin. I organized that block club. I got to know everybody. Now, I’m president of the block club where I now live on the 800 block of North Kedvale Avenue. We do best house and best yard contests. Things like that to build up the community.
For a long time, I was the only Santa many kids in the city knew. I even went to Cabrini-Green. Everybody else was scared to go up there. I’m like, ‘What they going to do to Santa? They going to take my toys? What?’ Hey, I jumped in a convertible, took a white lady with me—she was Mrs. Claus—and said, ‘Let’s go!’ When they tore the towers down, I still worked with those families.
mine had been killed over a radio broadcast. That was heartbreaking. The very last day before coming home the second time, I could’ve started a firefight, but I didn’t. After dark, we had the freedom to kill everyone not in their homes. I wasn’t looking to kill folks.
“There was one firefight where we had landed on a hilltop — the last time I lived in a bunker. We would live in the village for a number of hours before night fell. We got ready to move out, and a young kid was running the other way, hollering, ‘VCs, VCs,’ which meant that there were some VCs (Viet Congs) ahead, but we didn’t know where. Before the young kid was out of sight, all hell broke loose. The guy in front of me got shot in the head. It was his first day there.”
He shared his first moments back in the United States after being at war.
“My sister came to get me from the airport, and it was almost midnight. No big greeting. No big welcome. I was just thankful to make it back.”
By MICHAEL LIPTROT
Club Chicago
Black Panther Party members gathered Dec. 3 outside a Near West Side two-flat where, almost 56 years ago to the day, Chairman Fred Hampton was assassinated alongside fellow Black Panther Mark Clark.
The two-flat at 2337 W. Monroe St., where Hampton and Clark were killed by Chicago police, is now the latest site to be commemorated as part of the Black Panther Party Heritage Trail. A vigil and plaque dedication was held at the site last Wednesday by the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party to mark the site and the anniversary of the assassinations.
“They died with the people in their hearts,” Black Panther chapter member Wanda Ross said at the vigil. “Their memory and sacrifice we can never forget, because we are revolutionaries. … We must continue until we are free from racism, free from classism [and] free from hate.”
Hampton, Bobby Rush, and Bob Brown founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in August 1968 ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which saw widespread violence in clashes between demonstrators and police. The local chapter of the Black rights group provided free breakfast to young people and impoverished residents across Chicago.
In his brief stint as deputy chairman for the Illinois chapter, Hampton made it his mission to reach across racial barriers and build unity between members of the working class. He
founded the Rainbow Coalition, where he collaborated with local groups and street gangs like the Young Lords, Brown Berets, and Young Patriots on joint survival projects and demonstrations.
Hampton, then 21, was killed alongside Clark, the Black Panthers’ defense captain, during a police raid at the Monroe Street apartment building on Dec. 4, 1969.
Hampton was sleeping in his apartment with his pregnant fiancée, fellow Black Panther Akua Njeri, when, in the early morning hours, undercover officers stormed the building and fired
over 90 times, including with machine guns, through the walls and windows of the building. His killing was part of the FBI’s targeted Counterintelligence Program that systematically attacked and dismantled left-wing activist groups from 1956-1971, including the Black Panthers. Rush, who served for decades as a congressman after co-founding the Illinois chapter, reflected on Hampton’s significance in his life at the vigil.
“Fred Hampton was the most courageous man that I have known. … At age 21, whatever he said, he meant it,” Rush said. “We could not
have conducted a revolution by ourselves. We knew we had to have a message behind us, so we went out to organize the masses.”
Wednesday’s vigil also served to mark the home as the second location on the Black Panther Party Heritage Trail.
A plaque was presented to be installed as one of the places central to the Black Panther Party’s history in Chicago and Illinois. In August, a plaque was installed at the former headquarters for the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party on the Near West Side. Another plaque is already installed in Peoria.
The sites were added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 2023 in an effort spearheaded by the Historical Preservation Society of the Illinois chapter of Black Panthers, which unveiled the plaques last year.
Other sites to get a plaque honoring the Black Panthers:
• Better Boys Foundation, 1512 S. Pulaski Road, which was the site of the first free breakfast for children program
• The People’s Medical Care Center, 3850 W. 16th St.
The vigil was immediately met with protest from Hampton’s son, Fred Hampton Jr., who is opposed to the Illinois Chapter’s preservation efforts. He hosted an impromptu press conference to address his father’s legacy and how he should be remembered.
“We will say his name, we will study his work, and we will continue his fight because we are all united by his words: ‘You can murder a liberator, but you can’t murder a liberation,’” Hampton Jr. wrote on Instagram.
Applications for the committee, which is chaired by West Side school board member Jitu Brown, are due by 5 p.m. on Dec. 15
BY MILA KOUMPILOVA Chalk Beat Chicago
The Chicago school board is seeking applicants for its Black Student Achievement Committee seven months after its members voted unanimously to launch it.
The committee will help steer the district’s implementation of its Black Student Success Plan, an initiative that sets out to boost the number of Black teachers, reduce Black student suspensions and embrace more culturally responsive curricula. The plan landed in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts shortly after the district unveiled it in February. The plan is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Officials at the dwindling federal department have said they will withhold millions in federal magnet school grants if the district does not scrap that initiative and its transgender student policies.
Chicago Public Schools leaders have said they won’t do that.
Board member Jitu Brown, who will chair the committee, told Chalkbeat last summer that he was considering a cross-section of district employees and community members for the committee. In September, Brown said he would introduce the committee members that month.
Some community advocates have voiced frustration with the delay in announcing the committee’s membership, arguing that board members must bring urgency to the task of addressing the academic and discipline dis-
Chalk Beat Chicago reported on Dec. 1 that Chicago Public Schools has found buyers for three long-vacant school buildings — including Henson Elementary School in North Lawndale — and plans to ask the Chicago Board of Education to vote on the sales later this month. The buyer for Henson intends to demolish the building and build roughly 27 single-family or two-flat homes on the site.
The push to sell these vacant properties reflects CPS’s broader effort to stop paying the high annual maintenance costs ($75,000–$150,000 per property) for unused buildings and instead return them to “productive use.”
While the sale may open the door for new housing in North Lawndale (potentially contributing to neighborhood renewal), it also underscores the long shadow cast by past school closures — and the challenge of balancing redevelopment with community needs for education infrastructure.
parities Black students have long faced. The committee was mandated in a bill Illinois lawmakers passed in 2024 that set the stage for Chicago’s transition from a mayor-appointed school board to an elected one.
Brown said last month that the board remains adamant about forging ahead, but it rethought the approach to picking committee members more recently.
“I do understand the sense of urgency because this institution has not historically done right by Black children,” Brown said. “It’d been a place where inequity has nested. We’re committed to disrupting that.”
But Brown added that “we wanted to have a process that the public can trust.”
He said the board sent about 500 applica-
tions to people who had expressed interest in serving on the committee.
Students, parents, CPS employees, and residents can apply for one-year terms on the 14-member committee. They must live in Chicago, complete the district’s vetting process for volunteers, and have a “demonstrated commitment to racial justice and public education.”
A school board press release said applicants would complete ethics, Freedom of Information Act, and other training before their names are announced publicly in early 2026. Those interested can apply here. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on Dec. 15.
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
Chicago’s search for a new Chicago Public Schools CEO has stalled, leaving the district in limbo as the school board weighs whether to appoint a permanent leader before the transition to a fully elected board in 2027, Chalkbeat Chicago reported. Interim CEO Dr. Macqueline King has led CPS since July, and concerns about instability have prompted the Chicago Westside Branch NAACP and other community groups to publicly call for her appointment through the 2026–2027 school year.
In a statement, the NAACP said the search lacked transparency and argued that students need consistent, proven leadership, citing Dr. King’s balanced FY26 budget, historic labor agreements, strengthened accountability systems, restored Safe Passage funds, and improved communication with state and local leaders. The branch is urging the full elected board to make the final decision to ensure democratic accountability and stability for CPS families.
The West Side’s roster of makers, artists, and entrepreneurs has you covered this holiday shopping season
The West Side’s bustling scene of artists and makers is offering plenty of holiday gift ideas to help you tackle your shopping list this holiday season. Whether it’s tools to tend to your backyard garden, a hand-blown ornament, or a “West Side is the Best Side” specialty salt gift set, local creatives and businesses are here to help you shop local.
By MICHAEL LIPTROT | Block Club Chicago
Bitoy’s Sweet Treats, 5957 W. Chicago Ave. | Austin | bitoysbrands.com
Air travelers at O’Hare and Midway airports know all about Bitoy’s, the Austin-based, Black-owned maker of all kinds of treats and confectionery. Its Chicago Avenue store is stocked with popular gifts such as popcorn, cookies, and candies.
Bitoy’s online shop also sells several gift boxes, including the Taste of Bitoy’s ($89.99), which includes two bags of popcorn and three 3-packs of your choice of brownies or cupcake cookies. There’s also a popcorn sampler three-pack ($19.99) and a sweetand-savory bundle ($56.99)
Store hours are 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday. (773) 417-3296
Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park Ave. | Garfield Park | garfieldconservatory.org
The staple of the West Side and Chicago’s botanical scene has a variety of giftable items for sale in its gift shop, which has relocated to the conservatory’s horticulture hall as the lobby and primary gift shop undergo renovations.
Notable gifts for the holiday season include ornate planters with faces ($34), a community garden board game ($45), and logo T-shirts ($25-$30).
The gift shop also sells candles in a wide range of scents ($15-$27), books and garden growing kits ($16).
The gift shop is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. ThursdaySunday. 773-638-1766.
Schweet Original Homemade Chicago Cheesecake, 5248 W. Chicago Ave. | Austin | schweetfoods.com
The Austin pastry shop has been operating since 2016, serving artisanal cheesecakes inspired by homemade recipes passed on from the grandmother of owner Chamille Weddington.
This holiday season, the bakery is featuring new flavors of tiramisu and Oreo cheesecake alongside longtime favorites such as pumpkin cheesecake and Viola Strawberry, named after Weddington’s grandmother Viola Simmons.
You can sample cheesecake flavors in 4-inch-round “Moo Moo” cakes ($6), get a gift card for a loved one, or choose two cake flavors with the “Deuces” two cake special ($70).
The store is delivery-only from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays. (312) 620-9469.
The community art and glassblowing studio is celebrating the season with holiday decor items available for purchase online.
The studio’s online-only seasonal decor store offers a glass pumpkin for $35, a hand-blown red glass rose for $35, and glass candy cane ornaments for $15. You can also find vase sets for $100, hand-blown cocktail stirrer sets for $15 and other decor and sculptures.
Twenty percent of all purchases at Firebird Community Arts go to sustaining the studio and its artists. The studio’s hours of operation vary by class and scheduled sessions. (773) 907-0841.
Beelove Cafe, Sweet Beginnings, 1111 S. Homan Ave. | North Lawndale | bee-love-buzz.myshopify.com
Beelove is a line of hive-to-jar, honey-based products made by staffers in North Lawndale Employment Network‘s Sweet Beginnings program.
The honey and beeswax are gathered from around the city, including at O’Hare Airport, and used to make skincare products to be sold in the organization’s online shop and at Beelove Cafe, 1111 S. Homan Ave. This year, the organization partnered with South Sidebased SenTEAmental Moods to offer artisan teas for the holidays, including Chicago Passion and Water Colours (both $12.50 for 12-16 serving packs).
Other items include lip balm ($3.50), body balm ($13.50) and body lotion ($5). Gift sets include a travel bath-and-body collection ($30), a bath and moisturizing collection ($40) and a spa collection ($50). Beelove Cafe is open 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays.
Open Books is a literacy nonprofit with a headquarters and store in North Lawndale. This summer, the organization launched a books-on-wheels program, bringing a mobile book library to neighborhoods including Pilsen, Englewood, Austin, Garfield Park and North Lawndale.
Holiday offerings include “The Christmas Dress: A Novel” by Courtney Cole ($8.50), “Green Is for Christmas” by Drew Daywalt ($5), and “Christmas in Cowboy Country” by Janet Dailey ($4). Gift cards and memberships are also available.
“Whether shopping with us for the holiday season or throughout the year, you are directly helping ensure free, equitable access to books and literacy programs for children and families in Chicago,” said Open Books CEO Jennifer Steele in a statement to Block Club.
Open Books North Lawndale is open to the public 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays.
Keep It Savory Salt Co., available inside Forty Acres Fresh Market, 5713 W. Chicago Ave. | Austin | Farm On Ogden, 3555 W. Ogden Ave. | North Lawdale | keepitsavory.com
The North Lawndale-based salt company offers hand-crafted culinary salts cured with fresh ingredients sourced from the West Side. Farm on Ogden, Windy City Youth Farm, and Forty Acres Fresh Market provide ingredients for the salts to ensure freshness, owner Johanna Thompson said.
The company sells salts, brine kits, and merchandise. Its vanilla bean sea salt ($21.50) and garlic scape sea salt ($12.50) have both won Food & Beverage Magazine awards. The company also offers a dry-rub brine kit to season meats ($15.50). A holiday highlight for the store is the “West Side is the Best Side” gift box of three salts featuring ingredients sourced from the area ($45.50).
The shop is online-only, with some products available at Forty Acres Fresh Market at 5713 W. Chicago Ave., Farm On Ogden at 3555 W. Ogden Ave., and other stores across the city.
By MICHAEL ROMAIN
Culture
Isaiah Brandon, a village trustee in Maywood and a proud alumnus of the village’s Proviso East High School, had been making the same call to the Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, Va., for years. Several weeks ago, he finally got a response.
“I had been thinking about taking Proviso East culinary students to Salamander for some time, because it just made sense,” Brandon said in a recent interview. “The resort has so many opportunities and such a strong connection to the culinary arts sector.”
But that’s not the main reason Brandon had been reaching out. The resort has particular resonance for him because it’s owned by Maywood native, proud Proviso East alum, and billionaire businesswoman Sheila Johnson.
Johnson, along with her then-husband Robert L. Johnson, co-founded Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 1979. The pair sold the network to Viacom in 2001 for roughly $3 billion. Over the years, Johnson parlayed those resources into building a hospitality empire. In 2005, she founded Salamander Hotels & Resorts, and the following decade opened Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, Virginia.
Her resort has grown into a signature property: a 340-acre estate with 168 rooms, a full-service spa, equestrian facilities, fine dining, and more — blending luxury with Virginia’s horse-country heritage.
After connecting with Salamander, Brandon moved quickly to launch an initiative he called Think Big Proviso. He fundraised from community donors, and the resort offered a discounted rate, paving the way for six Proviso East culinary arts students to make the trip.
Proviso East culinary arts instructors Ryan Thomas and Jasmine Morrow selected the students based on academic performance and attendance. The goal, Brandon said, was to give them a real-world view of luxury hospitality — exploring everything from fine dining kitchens to guest services, spa, equestrian operations, and resort management.
According to Brandon, Johnson personally welcomed the group — reportedly even singing the Proviso East fight song, “On Proviso” — and remained involved through the two-day stay. By the end of the weekend, he said, she expressed interest in continuing the program and possibly even modifying its name to reflect her partnership.
Efforts to reach Johnson or her represen-
with racial hostility and bureaucratic barriers throughout the process. Johnson eventually restored the historic name “Salamander Farm,” and later passed it to the resort and the company she formed.
Brandon said that, for the Proviso East students, seeing what Johnson built mattered much more when they understood what she had to go through to build it.
The trip left a lasting impact on 17-year-old senior Alexander Rivera, who plans to study art at Northeastern Illinois University in the fall.
“The food was great, and everything was so well put together,” he said. “For future generations who go on this trip, I really want them to know how lucky they are.”
culinary arts teacher Jasmine Morrow, herself a Proviso East alumna, noted Johnson’s genuine pride in her roots.
“You could tell she wanted to give back,” Morrow said. “She kept saying, ‘I’m from Maywood, I went to Proviso East. Why wouldn’t I give back?’”
Morrow added that she was impressed by the resort’s design.
“You could see the resort was vintage but modern,” she added. “It smelled like home. It was very clean. My favorite part was the living room — fireplaces on both ends.”
District 209 Supt. Krish Mohip said the trip provided “an exceptional opportunity” for students to see firsthand how classroom learning can translate into high-end hospitality careers — especially significant given Johnson once walked the same hallways.
Brandon said he’s hoping Johnson can make a trip to Proviso East. If that happens, he said he plans to be just as gracious and hospitable as his fellow alum.
tatives for comment for this story were unsuccessful. But Johnson’s Maywood ties and her vivid memories of her hometown are well-documented.
In her 2023 memoir, “Walk Through Fire: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Triumph,” Johnson writes vividly about her childhood in Maywood. Her family arrived there in 1959, when her father secured stable work as a physician at what is now the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital.
A Renaissance figure — Johnson’s paintings hang throughout Salamander, and as a movie producer (2013’s “The Butler” is among her many film credits) she’s hosted celebrities at the resort — the businesswoman began taking music lessons as a student at what was then Irving Elementary School in Maywood.
Johnson purchased the Middleburg property in 1996. As her memoir recounts, she learned it had once belonged to Bruce Sundlun, a World War II bomber pilot whose plane crashed behind enemy lines. After escaping across Nazi-occupied territory and joining the French Resistance, he was given the code name “Salamander.” According to legend, a salamander is the only animal that can walk through fire and survive.
When Johnson heard the full story, she understood instantly why the name resonated. In the years after her divorce, she had faced significant emotional and financial challenges. She writes that building Salamander was another walk through fire, as she was met
“We’ll be out in front of the school singing the fight song,” he said.
The Greater West Side is a section featuring interesting people, places, and issues animating life in communities just west of The Culture’s immediate coverage area of Austin, North Lawndale, and Garfield Park. Those communities—from nearby Oak Park west to Berkeley, a small suburb on the edge of Cook County—are what constitute the Greater West Side. If you reside in the west suburbs and have interesting story ideas and pitches you’d like us to consider, send them to stories@ourculture.us.
By MICHAEL ROMAIN The Culture
On Nov. 29, I found myself standing in the Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago in Ukrainian Village, where the Haitian American Museum of Chicago (HAMOC) held a fundraiser. It was a fitting, if unexpected, pairing. As I walked past photos of Ukrainian resistance fighters and artifacts of centuries-old struggles for independence, I felt the undeniable connection between Haiti and Ukraine—two nations that have wrestled mightily against empires and refused to surrender their sovereignty or cultural identities.
Haiti, the world’s first Black republic, emerged from an 18th-century uprising that dismantled the brutal machinery of French slavery. That revolution changed the trajectory not only of Haiti but of the Western Hemisphere. Ukraine, for its part, has spent much of
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• Legal Aid Chicago, named Member of the Year for providing civil legal aid, especially via its partnership with the Aspire Center and helping clients with re-entry and youth-violence prevention efforts.
• As “Champion of Collective Impact in Austin,” Deloitte Chicago was honored for leveraging its resources and partnerships (notably with United Way of Metro Chicago) to support community and economic development.
• Morris Reed, the CEO of Westside Health Authority, was recognized for his leadership in a range of economic development projects that have revitalized Austin, including the redevelopment of the former Emmet School that’s now the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation.
its modern history resisting imperial domination—first from czarist Russia, then the Soviet Union, and now Russian aggression. Ukrainians and Haitians alike live with the memory of occupation, the assertion of dignity, and the insistence on self-governance.
For Elsie Hector Hernandez, the founder and CEO of HAMOC, the connection was much more than symbolic. Her relationship with the Ukrainian museum was built through the generosity of Jaroslaw “Jerry” Hankewych, the Ukrainian National Museum’s late executive director, who died of COVID in 2020.
“Why the Ukrainian Museum? Why Haiti and Ukraine?” Hernandez told guests at the fundraiser. “At the end of 2013, I was working at Norwegian Hospital in Humboldt Park, and I was walking on Western Avenue. I went into an accounting firm and said, ‘I have a museum, and I don’t know how to do the accounting part of it.’ Jerry, the president of the Ukrainian museum at the time, told me he would help me.”
Hernadez said their relationship never felt transactional, deepening into friendship and institutional solidarity.
“We would have lunch together. I would stop by his office. He did my 2013, 2014, 2015 accounting for free,” she said. “Not only that, Jerry became such a friend that he suggested HAMOC join the Chicago Cultural Alliance. We were among the few ethnic museums that were members of the Alliance. So I have a personal connection with the Ukrainian museum.”
As Hernandez spoke, I kept thinking about the importance of ethnic museums to sustaining cultural identity. What kind of world would we be without them?
Nowadays, Hernandez is working to build something even stronger. HAMOC is transitioning from its longtime Ravenswood home at 4410 N. Clark St. to a new location at 4623 N. Clark St. in Uptown, expanding its ability to tell the history of Haitians in Chicago—a history too few Chicagoans know.
“Just being around the history inspires
• Malcolm Crawford, the founder and director of the Austin African American Business Networking Association (AAABNA), was recognized for his role in enhancing Austin’s business and economic development.
• Elizabeth Abunaw, the owner and operator of Forty Acres Fresh Market, was r ecognized for her “extraordinary leadership and unwavering commitment to the Austin community.”
me,” Ariel O’Neal, 30, a member of HAMOC’s advisory board, told me during Saturday’s fundraiser. “It’s important to know that Chicago was founded by a Haitian man. The city’s a melting pot. We should learn how it originated.”
You can support HAMOC by donating at its website, hamoc.org. Proceeds will go toward programming and capital expenses for its new location, which is slated to open in a few months. Hernandez’s new book, “Haitians in Chicago (Images of America),” will be published on Dec. 30. You can pre-order the book through Chevalier’s Books: chevaliersbooks.com.
And while you’re at it, consider supporting the Ukrainian National Museum, which continues preserving its community’s story even after the loss of Hankewych. Visit the museum’s website at ukrainiannationalmuseum.org.
The Quiet Before is a column about attention, thought, and the demystification of history and everyday life.
The Austin Veterans Community Organization celebrated local servicemembers at a holiday event at Columbus Park Refectory on Dec. 2
By MICHAEL ROMAIN
Culture
West Side veterans gathered on Dec. 2 for a holiday luncheon hosted by the Austin Veterans Community Organization, a grassroots group that supports former service members through year-round programming. Attendees received free meals, holiday gifts, and information about benefits and services available to veterans.
The luncheon, held at the Columbus Park Refectory, 5701 W. Jackson Blvd., drew men and women who served in conflicts ranging from Vietnam to Desert Storm.
Cassandra Norman, founder of the Austin Veterans Community Organization, said events like the luncheon help keep veterans connected — especially those who may feel isolated.
“A lot of times we meet on Zoom, and in the summer we meet out in the Veterans Peace Garden,” Norman said. “I want to keep bringing veterans together. We’re all in this together.”
Norman said the organization is working to expand its partnerships with agencies and institutions that help veterans access disability benefits, Medicare enrollment support, and other services.
Robert Brown, 57, served in Panama and in Operation Desert Storm after entering the Army in 1986.
“I stayed active duty until ’91, then did 20 years in the Reserve,” Brown said. He later worked in the medical field in Memphis before returning to Chicago in 2017.
Brown said events like Tuesday’s luncheon help veterans find the support they need — particularly when navigating disability claims and health services.
“These events open up doors so we can get the right help,” he said. “People need to know what services are out there.”
Brown also spoke about an injury he suffered during training exercises in Korea in 1987, when a tank ditch collapsed.
“It crushed the bones in my right hand,” he said. “It just collapsed. It’s arthritic and everything. But I’m handling it.”
Lisa Scott, who served in West Germany
from 1982 to 1985, said she worked in family support operations during peacetime, helping civilians evacuate in the event of an emergency.
Scott, who lives in North Lawndale but attends church in Austin, said she was grateful to discover the event.
“I think it’s awesome,” she said. “I’m glad I found out about this Austin veterans event. I’m going to become a member and stay informed.”
Norman said the organization plans to continue holding regular gatherings and hopes to strengthen its base of volunteers and supporters.
The Austin Veterans Community Organization hosts meetings every third Wednesday of the month throughout the year and maintains seasonal programming from May through late fall at the Veterans Peace Garden, 5413 W. Madison St. in Austin.
Learn More
Email avco5413@gmail.com for more information on the Austin Veterans and Community Organization.
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL ROMAIN
The Austin Chamber of Commerce and numerous community organizations like Westside Health Authority, Good Neighbor Campaign, Loretto Hospital, and Toys for Tots hosted the annual Christmas Tree Lighting and Parade. The event began at the 15th District Police Station and ended at the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation.
