Krista Franklin reads at "Reparations On My Soul" exhibition, October 2013 at Art In These Times
Public Initiatives & Programs
- CTJM holds its first public event at Jane Addams Hull House Museum and issues an open call for speculative proposals to memorialize the Chicago Police torture cases, June 2011
- Forgetting to Remember: The Meaning of Memorials, Mess Hall, July 2011
- Design Charrette at Experimental Station, 2011
- CTJM and Black People Against Police Torture (BPAPT) host a community conversation on “Creative Activism and the Chicago Police Torture Cases” at the Southside Community Art Center, 2011
- Torture Survivors Roundtable at NEIU’s Center for Inner City Studies with David Bates, Darrell Cannon, Mark Clements, and Anthony Holmes, 2011
- Open call for speculative proposals, 2012
Exhibitions
- Opening the Black Box: The Charge is Torture, 2012, Sullivan Galleries (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
- Reparations on My Soul, 2013, Art In These Times
Actions
- Participatory Memorial Action at Daley Plaza, 2014
- CTJM/Project NIA/We Charge Genocide/Amnesty International organize a Holiday Action to Pass the Reparations Ordinance that begins with a march from Chicago Police Headquarters to City Hall and culminates in the delivery of a petition with of over 40,000 signatures in support of the Ordinance and the construction of an ad hoc memorial for torture survivors in front of the Mayor’s office. During the march to City Hall, Alderman and Mayoral Candidate Bob Fioretti announces his support for the Ordinance, 2014
- Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) organizes an action at Daley Plaza in support of the Reparations Ordinance as part of their #BlackHolidaze Kwanzaa week. BYP100 call on supporters to pressure Alderman Ed Burke to convene a hearing on the Ordinance.
- On the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, CTJM/Project NIA/WCG/AI organize a sing-in outside Chicago’s City Council’s Finance Committee meeting. This prompts journalists to ask Mayor Emanuel about the Reparations Ordinance and he goes on record saying that he will meet with the aldermanic sponsors and that he believes some form of redress is necessary, 2015
- The Chicago Light Brigade and Project NIA stage a “Reparations Now” light installation outside Mayor Emanuel’s house and call on him to support the Reparations Ordinance, 2015
- Over 250 people attend CTJM/Project NIA/WCG/AI’s Rally for Reparations: A People’s Hearing at the Chicago Temple on Valentine’s Day. Speakers include torture survivors Darrell Cannon, Mark Clements and Anthony Holmes, chief aldermanic sponsors Joe Moreno and Howard Brookins Jr., mayoral candidate William Doc Walls, coalition members and other allies, all of whom urge the crowd to support the Ordinance, 2015
- WCG and the Chicago Light Brigade organize a #TrainTakeOver for reparations on the eve of the Mayoral and Aldermanic election, 2015
- WCG and the Chicago Light Brigade organize Reparations Not Black Sites: A Rally For the Run Off at Daley Plaza in response and to call attention to The Guardian’s exposé of the Chicago Police Departments’ Homan Square, where Chicago residents continue to be subjected to torture, physical abuse and harassment, 2015
- CTJM organizes an action to pack the Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee meeting and demand a hearing. The night before, CTJM is informed that Mayor Emanuel’s administration will agree to have a hearing on the Ordinance during a special session of the Finance Committee on April 14, 2015
- WCG/Project NIA/CTJM hosts a Pop-Up Exhibition outside Mayor Emanuel’s Office at City Hall, March 2015
- CTJM and Project NIA launch #Teach Burge calling on educators, organizers and activists to lead teach-ins on the Burge torture cases. 13 teach-ins are held across the city, 2015
- Kuumba Lynxmembers perform “Reparations are owed to the 110 black men” at the 2015 Louder Than A Bomb Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, 2015