time marked by economic strain and cultural uncertainty, staying grounded has become increasingly difficult. Anxiety is rising across the nation, and underserved communities are feeling the weight of these challenges most intensely.
#MyWestSideStory is a testament to the enduring strength of Chicago’s Westside, a visual diary that captures the soul of the community. Through my lens, I seek not just to document faces but to reveal lives in full: the struggles, the triumphs, and the undeniable resilience that defines this place. This project is a love letter to the streets, the culture, and the spirit that pulse through this neighborhood, honoring a Black experience too often overlooked.
I want to move beyond the headlines to show a world where life persists despite systemic hardships. Through intimate portraits and unguarded moments, this work challenges the limited narratives imposed on the Westside. These are faces of strength, unity and pride -- a counter to the nar row portrayals of crime and neglect.
This project is more than a collection of images; it is an invitation. I want viewers to feel the streets beneath their feet, hear the laughter rising from the corners, and sense the deep history in the air. It is a call to see this community not as outsiders but as part of a larger shared human experience. For the residents of the Westside, I hope these photographs reflect their power not as victims of circumstance, but as architects of their own narrative, proud of their past and empowered in their present.
From The Westside, With Love is not just a documentation of a place it is a celebration of its people. It amplifies voices too often silenced, giving them space to tell their own stories. The heart of this community beats not just in its trials, but in its triumphs, its beauty, and its unity.
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By DEBORAH BAYLISS Contributing Reporter
Black and Brown girls “understood the assignment” as they showed up wearing beautiful white dresses in a wide array of designs for Ase Production’s 5th Annual Uniquely You Tea Party held at Oak Park’s 19th Century Club Sunday after noon.
Held annually under one of five tenants -- friendship, resilience, creativity, culture and leadership -- the event is really a social and emotional workshop where elementary and middle school girls are surrounded by reinforcement to be proud of who they are and that being Black or someone of color, is a beautiful and special thing.
Juanta Griffin, Ase Productions executive director, added that because African Americans are sprinkled here and there through-
out Oak Park, Black girls are not necessarily aware that they are a part of a larger Black community until they get to junior high school.
Her daughter Yemi Griffin, now in 8th grade, attended Horace Mann Elementary School in northwest Oak Park which is predominantly white.
“So putting on events like the Tea Party is a way to help Black and Brown girls feel seen,” Griffin said.
What started with empowering Black girls in Oak Park has grown over the years to include girls from neighboring communities
“When we did that we got more girls with more experiences and we got a richer, more fulfilling workshop where the girls are really sharing, “ Griffin said.
Elementary and middle school girls are the focus of the event. With the exception of the 8th grade mothers who took part in the rite of passage ceremony, mothers are not allowed to attend so that girls feel free to express themselves
Ryann Dawson, a junior at Fenwick High School served as emcee for the event. An icebreaker session kicked off the event with 100
or so girls seated at tables covered in white tablecloths, chanting “I love being Black.”
“Speaking up, knowing when to listen,
and continuing to learn are three leadership characteristics,” Dawson told the girls, her voice filling the second-floor banquet hall
with a kind of “Black girl magic.”
Dawson also introduced the Inaugural 2025 Uniquely You Tea Party Court made up of 8th grade girls referred to as ‘butterflies’ which symbolizes their evolution from middle to high school.
Presented with class and elegance in an upbeat manner to the delight of all in attendance, the court entered the banquet room in step with Kendrick Lamar’s “They Not Like Us.”
Wearing white cowboy hats topped with lights, the court performed a line dance to the popular “Boots on the Ground” song with fan popping and audience participation part of their routine
The “It Takes a Village” saying was put into play with people from all walks of life in Oak Park and surrounding communities including elected officials who either sponsored, in some way supported or attended the event.
State Sen. Don Harmon, Oak Park’s village clerk’s office, The Nova Collective, Suburban Unity Alliance and Westgate Flowers sponsored the event. People from the community donated all of the swag bag items that were gifted to the girls.
Khalida Himes, a social worker at Oak Park and River Forest High School and mentor fo r the event, led this year’s leadership-themed exercise centering around putting the girls in
the mindset of creating a product and owning their own company.
“I like being here because a lot of these 8th graders are going to be seeing me next year,” Himes said. “So, it’s really important for them to see a Black woman in the building. I just love being involved with anything that’s going to help them with their social and emotional health.
It was 13-year-old Journi Bolar’s third time taking part in the event.
“I feel special and I lear n something every time.”
Sophy and Katara Watson were among the mothers and daughters who took part in what was a tearful, and emotional rite of passage ceremony for the eighth-grade girls.
they’ve received “This event allows my daughter to be involved culturally and to experience sisterhood,” Sophy said.
Juanta and her own daughter, Yemi, were also part of the rite passage ceremony.
ERICA BENSON
Eighth-grade members of the Butter y Cour t dance during the tea party.
The ceremony was also an opportunity for words of appreciation, encouragement and support as mothers placed a gold key – symbolic of unlocking the door to the future –around their daughter’s neck.
The daughters in turn presented their mothers with a meaningful bouquet of flowers and a word describing the parenting
In a touching exchange, Juanta told her daughter that her wish for her was that when she made decisions for herself, that she would also make them for others and also fo r her community. Yemi expressed her appreciation for her mother’s hard work.
“I love being part of the event,” Yemi told Wednesday Journal prior to the ceremony. “It’s a way for [girls] of color to feel included They come here and feel supported. My main takeaway is women empowerment. I’m in a room filled with powerful women.”
Tara Stamps. 1st District Cook County commissioner, has been part of the event since the beginning
“Juanta does so much for the community at large,” Stamps said. “Specifically trying to amplify the voices, the images and the selfconfidence of Black and Brown girls in the Oak Park community which has a history of being very liberal and welcoming but that’s not always the experience of our girls.”
Vicki Scaman, Oak Park village president, was in attendance, telling Wednesday Journal the event was a display of Black excellence.
What’s behind the big numbers in participation? Griffin said she thinks it’s because people want to connect culturally and belong.
“I like cotillion culture,” Griffin said. “That’s a part of our culture that I want to reclaim. This is like a mini cotillion. Our girls deserve to be presented and held in the highest esteem and have beautiful things around them and to dress beautifully. I think this is important for all Black girls.”
KENN
SNOW CONES, CHIC AG O ’S WESTSIDE, 2024: One person hands a snow cone to another on a warm day, a simple act of care and connection.
SPLASH , CHIC AG O ’S WESTSIDE, 2024: Children play on a hot summer day, running through sprinklers and chasing laughter across the street.
SMILE, CHIC AG O ’S WESTSIDE, 2024: is photograph captures a bright, open smile from a Westside resident.
DAYDREAMING, CHIC AG O ’S WESTSIDE, 2024: A quiet moment of pause when someone is lost in thought while the neighborhood continues around him.
MACA R THUR’S LOBB Y, CHIC AG O ’S WESTSIDE, 2024: is photograph was made inside the lobby of MacArthur’s Restaurant, a place deeply tied to my ow n memories of the Westside.
BIG & LIT TLE RALPH GO FOR A WALK , CHIC AG O ’S WESTSIDE, 2024: A father and son walk together, their steps in rhythm with each other and the street around them.
Whether you’re making improvements or purchasing your first home — FPB can help make it happen.
DEBORAH BAYLISS Contributing Reporter
As an eight-year-old son of a sharecropper in 1949 who spent his days picking and chopping cotton in the sweltering fields of Parkdale, Arkansas, Danny K. Davis could never have foreseen he would become a noted African-American member of the U.S. House of Re presentatives with a tenure spanning decades.
Davis, a Democrat who currently re presents Illinois’ 7th Congressional District that includes parts of Cook County, this summer announced his retirement from public office. He will trade Capitol Hill for quiet mornings and peaceful evenings chatting with wife Vera G. Davis.
At the end of next year, Davis will have been in public office for 46 years including the 11 years he served on the Chicago City Council as an alderman prior to serving in Congress.
He said he always has seen his primary responsibility to be to help lift the lives of those that have been stuck at the bottom.
“That’s been my focus but not to the neglect of any other segment of society,” he said. “I just feel good when I see the desolate person uplifted. When I see a kid go to colle ge who wouldn’t have been able to go unless they got some help which is what we did with my scholarship fund.”
Reflecting on where it all started, Davis, born in 1941, credits his parents, his teachers and his church, for bestowing upon him the foundation necessary to reach the highest plateaus this country offers.
“We lived on a farm and my parents were sharecroppers,” Davis said in his distinguished baritone, echoing the cadence of Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery, later a free man, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman who played a crucial role in the fight against slavery.
He added: “I had two wonderful parents. My dad finished the fourth grade when he was 19 years old. My mother finished the eighth grade. Where we lived, they didn’t always have a school and they certainly did not have a high school.”
Young Blacks who were of high school age had to go to another town to continue their education, Davis explained.
“Parkdale was real rural but the people were wonderful,” he said. “The average family size was five or six. In my family there were nine of us children. In our church we had about 10 families. When you added all the children in, there would be about 100 people at church on a Sund ay.”
Despite working hard on the farm, chopping and picking cotton and all the other labor that was necessary, along with the hardships Black families faced during those times, Davis describes his childhood as “pretty cool.”
Cong. Danny Danis has deep West
roots.
“There were always chores, including milking a cow,” he said. “You learned to do it all and generally started when you were eight or nine years old. You talk about child labor…We’d actually do what you would
call a full day’s work and you only went to school about five months out of the year.”
From the middle of July until the middle of August was referred to as the “lay by season,” meaning there was no work to be done because the crops had all been planted and cultivated. Davis explained.
The congressman moved to Chicago in 1961, after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arkansas A.M. & N. Colle ge at 19. He subsequently earned both Master’s and Doctorate de grees respectively from Chicago State University and the Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“I was part of what you would call that last big migration wave that came from the rural South,” Davis explained. “Chicago was ‘poppin’” in the neighborhood I came to live in which was the North Lawndale community. There were just eons of people. I mean Black people were leaving the South, trying to get away from racism and there were plenty of jobs so people came.”
Things were also changing in terms of technology so work on the far ms was decreasing. The previous manpower or womanpower needed to work a farm was no longer as necessary due to farm machinery becoming more proficient.
Davis has never lived in any other area in Chicago except the West Side.
“When I got here, I had two sisters who lived here so of course my first stop was living with them,” he said. “Quite honestly, I fell in love with the West Side and decided as I sized things up, that this was where I was going to live and where I was going to try and be helpful.”
Davis had not set his sights on Congress at that point but knew he wanted to be publicly eng aged.
After working a short while for the postal service, Davis began a teaching career in the Chicago Public School system in North Lawndale at age 20, something he said he always knew he would do.
“This was during the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. “I went to meetings and listened to (Rev.) Dr. (Martin Luther) King and all of those things,” Davis said. “That was my motivation to do public work. I was teaching G.E.D. classes at one of the Urban Progress Centers when I met Ms. Rosemarie Love who was chairman of the personnel committee for the Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission.”
Love convinced Davis to leave his “good” teaching job to work for the Conservation Commission, his entry into public involvement. From there, it was a continuation of working for one agency or another.
As an alderman during the Harold Washington era, Davis was known as an inde-
pendent who was not part of the “political machine” that was still the dominant force in Chicago politics, he said.
Davis was elected to the Cook County Board where he remained for six years and was elected to Congress in 1996 and started his service in 1997.
“At the end of next year, I will have spent 30 years as a member of the House of Re presentatives,” he said.
“You’re asking people to put their faith and trust in you to re present them and their positions on things.” Davis said of his role in public life. “So, if they’re going to give you that kind of responsibility, then you got to try and live up to it.”
Davis responded to the Trump administration’s ef for ts in turning back civil rights and other gains made over the years,
“The road has been rugged,” he said. “We made progress during the reconstruction period where we elected African Americans to public office, even two Black Senators from Mississippi. Then all of those individuals were put out. There were ef for ts to make them look bad and redistricting. These are the things that the Trump administration is doing now.”
He added: “The only thing I can figure out about the Trump administration is that they must be checked! They must be fought and we have to say ‘we’re not going back.’ The courts in some instances have been complicit. It seems to me that some of them are following the Trump law more than they are following the constitution of the United States.”
In order to get back on track, Davis said it is time to change leadership.
“If we don’t change leadership, we don’t change our direction, so there’s no other way,” the congressman stressed. “I’m amazed at the number of people who did not vote in the last election so, everywhere I go, I’m saying vote.
Josie Ware, Davis’s scheduler and office manager, has worked with him for years.
“I am proud to have known Re p. Danny K. Davis for at least 40 years, if not more,” Ware said. “He has served in several elected government positions and has proven to be a trailblazer throughout his public service career, who always put the interest of the people he re presents first.”
Davis has two sons, Jonathan and Stacey (deceased), and is a member and Deacon of the New Galilee M.B. Church
