Art Ideology

By Michael D. Key Jr. & Jhordan Ruiz

Chicago has received a lot of headlines the past few years for the bad and the ugly. In the mainstream media, our city has become known for its crime. Chicago was ranked second in segregation, according to 2016 statics from 24/7 Wall St. Segregation in our city has resulted in chronically under-resourced neighborhoods, which are chronically plagued by crime, which our politicians fail to address.

Yet through it all, Chicago is still one of the biggest exporters of entertainers, musicians and all-round artists (Bernie Mac, Kanye West and Walt Disney). These are the names you know. But in our documentary we wanted to get up close to some of Chicago’s notable local artists, whose goal is to shed light on the beauty and creative side of Chicago. Through this documentary, we want to inspire change and bring a bigger following to the positive activism going on in our city. We want to wipe away Chicago’s negative stigma.

We had the opportunity to sit down with some impactful individuals, such as bria royal from For the People Artist Collective, Pidgeon, an intersex activist and designer, and Lori Branch, an AIDS activist, filmmaker and house DJ legend. We discovered that all these people shared a common goal: to break barriers of segregation and drive awareness and acceptance through art and activism.