What Do You Bring
to This World
This event is a photography installation and a fundraising event that highlights extraordinary women from the Chicago area whose lives and work are transforming their communities. These women are seekers of justice and through their advocacy work and artistic endeavors, they have shown their commitment to improving the life condition of those in need while providing growth opportunities to those they serve. This year, we are bringing attention to the following 20 women who are making history! They Get Up, they Rise Up and they Show Up! Visit their sites and be ready to get Inspired!
Alicia Vega’s work is about affirming children, youth, and young adults in all the layers of their identity. She creates positive spaces were young people’s identities are affirmed, celebrated and embrace. www.changingworlds.org
Karen Benita Reyes, PhD is the Executive Director of ArtReach at Lillstreet, a non-profit dedicated to bringing arts programming to under- served populations throughout Chicago. www.artreachchicago.org
Elena Quintana works at the Institute on Public Safety & Social Justice (IPSSJ) to create an infrastructure in community to retrieve young people from the clutches of the legal system. www.adler.edu (IPSSJ) www.rjhubs.org
Lisa Kock Kornick is the founder of the First Women’s Bank of Chicago. The FWB will provide education, networking , and access to capital for women and women entrepreneurs.
Mary F. Morten is an activist and advocate, consultant and filmmaker. She is president of Morten Group LLC, a national consulting group. www.mortengroup.com
Sharon Exley, is “a modern-day Tinkerbell” as she so lovingly refers to herself. As a hybrid professional, she wears multiple sets of wings; soaring as designer, educator, author, mentor, and studio president responsible for experience design and branded interiors. She is the co-founder of Architecture is Fun where you can find her working along with her biggest supporter and partner in crime, her husband, Peter Exley. www.architectureisfun.com
Tracy Baim, is a trailblazer, a mentor, activist, a mover and shaker in Chicago. She is the Publisher and Executive Director at Windy City Times and the founder of the Pride Action Tank and the Illinois LGBT Chamber of Commerce among many other things. www.windycitymediagroup.com
Jade J. Maze is a musical artists and Author of "Walking Until Sunrise", an autobiography in all its rawness and authenticity. She is a Survivor, one of "The Last Girls" who rose above her circumstances to become the remarkable woman she is today. Walk Until Sunrise - Amazon.com
Cara Megan Lewis is an artist, a collaborator, a curator, a wife, daughter and friend who makes art and curate exhibitions in order to meaningfully connect with others and to create deeper connections to the native planet.
The project that most exemplifies this ethos is a participatory artwork that I began in 2016 with my husband Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera titled 34,000 Pillows www.diazlewis.com/34000-pillows www.carameganlewis.com/curatorialpractice
Jamie Hayes is a Fashion Designer who’s goal is to encourage others to adopt a "slow fashion" ethos. Her studies on labor rights in the garment industry at the University of Chicago and her work in the fair trade moment in Chicago inspired her to launch her own clothing line, Production Mode. www.productionmodechicago.com
Laura Ng is the Executive Director of Traffick Free, an anti-human trafficking organization that provides the greater metropolitan area of Chicago with tools and sustainable programs to combat human trafficking and transform the lives of survivors and communities www.traffickfree.org
Melissa Sönmez is the founder of Bright Side, a community where creative immigrants can share their inspiring stories to empower each other and show the world their positive impact on society. www.thebrightside.co www.melissonmez.com
Shannon Downey aka Bad Cross Stitch, self described as instigator, Shannon “make things happen”!. She blends politics, activism, and art into projects that are designed to inspire others to take action, think, discuss, engage with democracy and their community, and find some digital/analog balance
www.BadassCrossStitch.com www.SeriouslyBadassWomen.com www.BadassHERstory.com
Shawn Lent is committed to Global Peace & Equality through the Art of Dance. Shawn currently leads Dance Peace, a collaborative initiative creating dance and music opportunities for Middle Eastern, Arab or Muslim refugees alongside their diverse neighbors in Chicago, including Orthodox Jews www.shawnlent.com
Indira Johnson is a sculptor, cultural worker, peace activist and educator. Ten Thousand Ripples, Johnson’s current Chicago area initiative is the largest public art project that she has undertaken. www.indirajohnson.com
Christine Esposito is the Founder of The Ex.Change Project, a Terracom initiative that uses art – inspired by science – to help innovative green and sustainability-minded organizations cut through today’s digital clutter to grow their impact and drive business.
Laura McMahon is co-founder of SUSU Accessories committed to preserve the knitting tradition of the ancestral art of the indigenous Wayúu culture of Colombia. www.susuaccessories.com
Pearl Dick is a fine artist, educator, activist and co-founder of Project Fire, an artist development employee program that offers healing through glass blowing, combining glass arts education, mentoring and trauma psycho-education to support trauma recovery and create jobs for youth injured by gun violence. www.projectfirechi.com www.pearldick.com
Sam Kirk creates artwork to celebrate people and to inspire pride and recognition for underrepresented communities. www.iamsamkirk.com www.provokeculture.com
Laura Delman launched her clothing line as a means of transforming a trauma into treasure. LauraDelman, LLC www.lauradelman.com