Arts & Culture | Year in Review

a Chicago-based Black, trans-led LGBTQ+ center providing affirming services on the west and south sides. Wilson’s funk-infused rap resonating with so many fans over the summer suggests there could be more of a balance in the world of activism, centering the love of people over money. “People say artists should be a reflection of the times.”

Rivka Yeker & Morgan Martinez Founders of

Hooligan Magazine

For more than six years, independent publication Hooligan Magazine , founded by best friends Rivka Yeker and Morgan Martinez, has always centered BIPOC voices, but this year, Martinez says, “forced us to experiment with the way we approach interacting with our readership and community.” For instance, she and Yeker crafted Hooligan Hangouts , an Instagram Live show where folks could virtually enjoy live performers or be led through a healing session with artistic cooperatives like the Black, trans-led organization Activation Residency. “We have this future that we’re committed to make sure we can still produce content that’s valuable because I really do believe popular media is never going to give information you actually need,” Yeker says.

Maira Khwaja & Trina Reynolds-Tyler Founders of TM Productions

Work partners Maira Khwaja and Trina Reynolds-Tyler met while working at south sidebased journalism company the Invisible Institute, where the two continue to work, but wanted to produce content surrounding the importance of elections designed for young people. They started o with original multi- media content to combat misinformation on social media, but further continued this with their strategic communications-based company TM Productions to make legal and political information more accessible to Black and Brown people. In addition, this year, the duo decided to run for local school council—and won (Khwaja in Hyde Park, Reynolds-Tyler in South Shore). Khwaja and Reynolds-Tyler also built up “an ecosystem of mutual aid,” which Khwaja says is “a form of direct action,” with Reynolds-Tyler distributing food for south siders with The People’s Grab ‘N Go and Khwaja with Market Box, a collaboration with Star Farm Chicago to ensure food security for the west and south sides. “We fit so well together,” Reynolds-Tyler says. “The work that we do creates an impact on people’s lives: people who are not on the Internet, people who don’t have access to fresh produce, people who are, in many ways, the forgotten people.” As for the new year ahead, Khwaja is hopeful. “2021 will be about leveraging and strengthening so we can continue to generate that power.”

Pidgeon Pagonis Intersex activist/writer

Pidgeon Pagonis found out they were intersex after retrieving their medical records at 18 during their freshman year at DePaul University, and thus the journey toward ending the unnecessary medical procedures began. At the time, Lurie’s Children’s Hospital, where Pagonis was harmed at birth in the late 80s, was across the street. This past July, with the unstoppable work by the Intersex Justice Project, cofounded by Pagonis, Lurie’s released a statement acknowledging the harm done to patients and is making conscious e orts to end intersex surgeries. “A lot of us who are in a social movement come from a place of oppression or trauma,” Pagonis says. “When you grow up di erent [in a way] that’s so foundational to society [like] the [gender] binary, you feel like you’ll never be loved as you are.” Now at 34, Pagonis is focusing on writing their memoir coming out in fall 2021 and plans on taking steps toward restorative, healing practices, citing, “Activism can be an addiction.”

If there was a power couple of the Black Liberation Movement in Chicago, it would be cofounders Damon Williams and Jennifer Pagán of the Black-led healing through arts and organizing #LetUsBreathe Collective. During the uprising protests this summer, Williams, also the cohost of Chicago favorite AirGo Radio, and Pagán, a cultural worker and educator, were attacked and arrested by the Chicago Police Department during a Black Lives Matter protest. Reflecting on the incident six months later, Pagán says the events over the summer have been a “transformative experience.” “I feel more grounded in what has come of it,” she says. And what has come of it was building the Black Abolitionist Network, which ran the campaign for #DefundCPD. “What’s really frustrating is that we’re not saying anything new,” Williams says. “We’ve been saying it for five years [but] we just now had the momentum. It pushed us to be what we’ve been naming, to go back to this point of radical imagination. We’ve been summoning thousands of people demanding this, and we didn’t even have to talk to them directly for its manifest.”