ALL MY CHICAGO PEOPLE. LISTEN TO YOUR LOCAL LIBRARIAN:
Don’t know which judicial candidates to vote for this primary election? @injusticewatch.org has researched all of the candidates for their 2026 Cook County judicial election guide. #CheckYourJudges 2026primary.injusticewatch.org
Now, Ojala is opening the first Latino-led mosque in Berwyn, already welcoming the community for daily prayers this #Ramadan.
Read the full story: www.15west.org/featured/how...
✍🏾: Sumaiyya Siddiqi
📸: Jordan Esparza-Kelley
Every week, volunteers show up to with food, care packages, and ICE safety updates for neighbors.
“I knew that I could be Mexican and I could be Muslim, and those things are never in conflict with each other,” said Jordan Esparza-Kelley, Ojala member and Communications Coordinator at CAIR-Chicago
Palestinian and Mexican flags at Ojala's Eid celebration. Provided by Jordan Esparza-Kelley
8% of Illinois Muslims identify as Hispanic.
For Chicago’s Latino Muslim community, finding a space that felt like home meant building one yourself.
For years, that’s exactly what Ojala Foundation has been doing in Berwyn: a home for Latino Muslims, and a neighbor to everyone else.
“Ismail believed that transmitting feeling is more powerful than transmitting news,” said Ghada Hamwi of ByPalestine, the organization Abu Hatab founded.
Full story: www.15west.org/featured/in-...
Several photographs clipped to a clothesline with wooden clothespins, showing various scenes including ocean views and people at a beach. Additional photos are visible in the background on what appears to be a desk or table surface.
It featured photos by Gazan photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab, who was killed by an Israeli missile strike in June 2025 before the show opened at Walls Turned Sideways in East Garfield Park.
Photograph suspended on a clothesline capture moments of everyday life and a coastal scene in Gaza
How often have you seen Palestinian children smiling?
A Chicago exhibition called “Between Sky and Sea” aimed to change that.
@laminda.bsky.social 🔥🧡 🔥
If there’s still room, could we be added?
Mayor Frey: "I just saw a video of more than 6 masked agents pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death…How many times must local and national leaders must plead with you, Donald Trump, to end this operation and recognize that this is not creating safety in our city."
Yessss! Neat indeed!
Read the full story and download our “Grow Your Own” zine here:
www.15west.org/featured/fro...
✍🏽 Liana Ordoñez
🎨 Alex Kraus
From sliding‑scale farm stands and permaculture food forests to youth apprenticeships, Chicago’s urban gardens are rewriting WHO gets to access green space.
Across the West Side, and state lines, everyday people are turning abandoned lots into gardens, cultivating a future rooted in shared care.
Co‑director Paula Acevedo and her neighbors have built more than a garden; they’ve created a living commons where monarchs migrate, elders teach, kids harvest, and community members reclaim their relationship to the land.
A family of four water a larger than life, split down the middle tomato. There’s a silhouette of a city in the background and swirling green vines atop brown dirt.
Celebrating the remaining hours of an unseasonably warm day by honoring the people who aren’t afraid to get a little dirty to build something better.
El Paseo Community Garden in Pilsen — once a polluted “brownfield” — is now a sanctuary where land stewardship, culture, and resistance grow.
Here’s the story I’m most proud of writing in 2025. It says what many know.
We don’t need more data or another white paper stating the obvious.
We need ACTION - leaders with integrity.
We need to give communities of color what they need to live FULL, thriving lives.
Why is this so hard? 😔
“Someday, we’ll be together, and we will win,” said McCarty as the program ended, Diana Ross playing and candles swaying.
Read the full story: www.15west.org/candlelight-...
✍🏼/📸: @nabeelawashington.com
Survivors Nwaji Nefahito, Blair “Brother BJ” Anderson, and Joan Foster McCarty stood alongside former Black Panthers, community organizers, and inheritors of a revolution that refuses to die.
www.15west.org/candlelight-...
Woman looks down while holding a candle high in her left hand during a candlelight vigil and moment of silence to honor and remember the assassinations of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark on Dec 3.
56 years after the FBI-coordinated assassination, all survivors of the raid on 2337 W. Monroe St. gathered together for the first time.
During the historic vigil, candlelight illuminated the West Side block as the site was dedicated as part of The Black Panther Party Heritage Trail in Illinois.
Learn more about Chicago Winds at thechicagowinds.com
And Got Her Back girls football camp: www.igotherback.com
The team is also building community.
Before tryouts, 50 girls ages 6-18 joined the free “Got Her Back” football camp, learning from Chicago Winds players.
Women's tackle football has found its home in Chicago. 🏈
Full story by Zoë Takaki:
www.15west.org/after-playof...
Two athletes are seen hitting the field to earn their spot with the Chicago Winds for the 2026 season. A girl in bright pink shorts jumps up to catch a thrown football. A player behind her attempts to block it. | Zoë Takaki/15 West
After a record-breaking playoff debut, the #ChicagoWinds are recruiting for Year 2.
89 athletes competed for 53 roster spots at recent tryouts in Oak Park.
"I never want to leave. This is exactly where I want to be," said quarterback Sarah Teubner.
📢 Where to find future trainings:
• PUñO (pilsenunidos.org)
• Belmont Cragin (instagram.com/belmontcraginunited)
• The Vietnamese Association of Illinois (hnvi.org)
• Advancing Justice Chicago (instagram.com/advancingjusticechicago)
By documenting abuses, protecting families, and coordinating support, they’re proving that community defense can overcome federal enforcement, and offer a model for cities nationwide.
Visit 15west.org to read the full story. #STOPIce
A gathering of hundreds attend Whistlemania I throughout Chicago’s Northwest and West sides. Photo shows a rapid response training in motion; participants are seated. | Photo by Lauren Neher/15 West
Chicago organizers are responding with a rapid-response model that mobilizes neighbors, legal aid, and advocacy groups within hours of a raid or detention.
A table of Volunteers assemble whistle kits at Pizzeria Martello's in the Hermosa neighborhood. Whistles, Know-Your-Rights zines and more are laid around the table.| Photo by Lauren Neher/15 West
“ICE broke up my family. F— em!”
This isn’t just anger — it’s the lived reality of families torn apart by shifting immigration enforcement tactics.
“There is an art of gathering what to burn.”
In her latest exhibition, a mascletà for burning and flowering at Leisure Gallery, artist Natasha Mijares asks: What traditions do we inherit? What violence do they carry? And how do we choose what blooms in their place?
In the second of three parts, her photo essay #WeWereHere explores how Chicago’s West Side communities insist on presence and dignity in the face of displacement, revealing the persistence of life where others see only absence.
www.15west.org/we-are-here-...
Community members line up outside Stone Temple to receive fresh produce, pantry staples, and hot meals. | Genesis Falls/15 West.
On the West Side, the spirit of community is alive.
“Stone Temple has become an anchor for those drifting in uncertainty. Today, under Pastor Reshorna’s leadership, the church continues to serve as a reminder that the solution to displacement includes small acts of care,” writes Genesis Falls.
