Just Transition Visioning Project

William Estrada grew up in California, Mexico, and Chicago. His teaching and art-making practice focus on addressing inequity, migration, historical passivity, and cultural recognition in historically marginalized communities. He documents and engages experiences in public spaces to transform, question, and make connections to established and organic systems through discussion, creation, and amplification of stories through creativity already present. He is currently a faculty member at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) School of Art and Art History and a Teaching Artist at Telpochcalli Elementary School. For more info about William, visit werdmvmntstudios.com, and follow William’s work via his Instagram.

Kaitlyn Stancy is an artist and designer in Northwest Indiana. She believes in the power of transforming the world through creative response. While utilizing printmaking, photography, collage, and digital manipulation techniques, she makes work that ranges from documentary photography and abstract mixed media full of colors and textures to compositions alluding to otherworldly theories, pollution, deception, satire, and social commentary. She currently teaches graphic design at Indiana University Northwest (IUN) and does freelance work on the side. For more info about Kaitlyn, visit kaitlynstancy.com, and follow Kaitlyn’s work via her Instagram.

Emily Essling is an artist in Northwest Indiana who lives tucked back in a cabin in the woods. When she's not chilling on the shores of Lake Michigan, working in the garden, or cuddling her dog Unz, Emily hand carves linocut prints and makes jewelry inspired by the beach. Her art is influenced by nature, which she loves, and social injustices, which she hates. She believes that the beauty of art is that it can connect so many different issues and bring so many different people together. In times like these, we need to connect and build community however we can. Follow Emily’s work via her Instagram.

For all of his 26 years, Kevin Corrigan has called Beverly Shores home. A childhood spent in the town’s dunes, wetlands, and woods cultivated a deep appreciation for wildlife and the sublimity of Lake Michigan and its ecologies. After graduating from Denison University with an Environmental Studies degree, Kevin graduated this spring with a Masters in Landscape Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. He focused his final design studio on the Michigan City Generating Station, which NIPSCO slated to close by 2028. He conceived this project as a way to spread enthusiasm and generate creative thinking about the future of the site.

Hallie Sanclemente Morrison is a first-generation Colombian-American interdisciplinary a/r/tographer (artist, researcher, teacher), curator, and community organizer with Indigenous Guatemalan roots who is deeply reverent to Mother Earth's voice and dedicated to empowering others in their healing and creation capabilities. Hallie's practice revolves around 'living inquiry,” the concept of “becoming indigenous to place,” Indigenous wisdom, dreams, and human cognition. In line with restorative social justice practices, her artwork is healing in its own making and stems from art-as-therapy and contemplative methods.

David A. Holcombe is an award-winning narrative and documentary filmmaker and founding member of Soft Cage Films. As an independent artist, David is inspired to create expressionistic films in conversation with contemporary social issues. His feature films “Yellow,” “Graffito,” and "Human Capital" are visually bold and explore themes of economic injustice, artistic expression, and community. David wrote, directed, edited, and produced the horror film “RunRainbow,” which won several film festival awards. His recent music video, “Weight,” premiered at the 2023 Chicago International Reel Shorts Film Fest and is currently on the festival circuit. He worked as cinematographer and/or editor for over 50 episodes of the “Activism Now” docuseries, as well as the documentary “Bronzeville to Harlem” and the Spanish-language doc “La Casa de los Dioses.”

AJ Johnson is a film student in Chicago. AJ is currently a freelance photographer for local shows in the city and private shoots and videography collaborations, working on short films, from producing their own to working alongside peers as a cinematographer, script supervisor, or production assistant.

Lilia Wolf is a movement artist who was born and raised in Hammond. Lilia is currently getting her BFA in Contemporary Dance from Indiana University. She spends half of her time dancing and the other half organizing at Indiana University for Palestinian liberation. She is honored to be featured with this wonderful group of artists.

Mark Banks is a painter and mixed media artist, born and raised on the far southeast side of Chicago, where he still lives today. Having grown up in the Calumet Industrial Corridor in Chicago's 10th Ward, the long history of the former steel mills and the subsequent collapse of steelmaking at the dawn of neoliberalism have both played important roles in his family histories and his own life. Mark was born at the threshold of a transformation in capitalism whose immediate (but not only) historical effect was the emergence of the postindustrial rustbelt. The mill where his father worked closed the very year after his own birth as part of a cascade of similar, abrupt closures.

Jess Patterson is a self-taught artist who creates images of the emotions of women while capturing the full story within the gaze of interpretation. Jess' multifaceted practice encompasses studio painting, public art, community collaborations, face painting, and craft. While owning her own Art Business, JessTimeless L.L.C. is also a Teaching Artist. She partners with various art organizations and Chicago Public Schools to teach visual arts while hosting painting classes for all ages under her business. JessTimeless L.L.C. desires to be the guide that helps you see your vision in art form while knowing, like ART, your choices in life are “Just Timeless.” Everyone is their own artist, and Jess/JessTimeless commits to providing creative opportunities to bring us all together.

Gyan Samara, an American artist based in Chicago, brings a transatlantic perspective to his vibrant creations. He was born in France and educated across the U.S. and Europe. Holding both a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and a Master of Education, Gyan's seasoned expertise shines through his fauvist-realist style, employing acrylic markers on handmade paper to infuse his impressionistic works with vivid colors and dynamic lines and brushstrokes.

Sofia Leick is a Graphic Designer located in the Chicagoland area. Sofia is currently a student at Indiana University Northwest majoring in Bachelor of Arts/Fine Arts. She holds a General Studies degree with a Minor in Graphic Design from Indiana University Northwest. In December 2022, she established Creative Expedition LLC to provide freelance graphic design work. 

Nevaha Pam is a Visual Design Communications major at PNW, who has been doing art recreationally since she was in first grade and on a semi-professional basis since she was a freshman in high school. Now twenty-years-old, Nevaha wants to spread her wings a bit more as an artist while taking on causes that she has a passion for, such as environmental consciousness and green design.

Jocelyn Romero is currently a student at Columbia College Chicago with a focus in graphic design and user interface and experience. Jocelyn’s focus and basis when it comes to art is deeply rooted in her Hispanic heritage, so much so that I've delved into practices from famous printmaking groups like el Taller de Grafica Popular to learn how to better integrate and communicate social and environmental issues to art.

Casey King from NWI and is a 2020 fine arts graduate of Indiana University Northwest, residing in Hammond, Indiana. Casey is a multimedia freelance artist/designer as well as a traveling/retailing artist who vends at markets/fairs throughout the Midwest. He first began coming to Paul Henry's Art Gallery in my late teens. Casey is now 31 years old. In 2020, he helped in the fundraising effort led by artist Carol Estes to replace the failing roof of Paul Henry's by making a "Bee Kind, Save the Hive" shirt and posters. He is a member of Wild Ones Gibson Woods and a founding member of Whiting Robertsdale Environmental Neighbors.

Maria Hoang is a student at Purdue University Northwest, where she studies Environmental Science. She is increasingly interested in the diversity and environment of the Lake Michigan area and hopes to improve the region through ecological restoration once she graduates. In her spare time, Maria has been learning more about gardening from her parents and others and has happily noticed it coming more naturally to her.

Abby Sofia Bucio is a Chicago-based Latine artist who is currently pursuing a BFA degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Abigail has experimented with different mediums over the years to continue her practice as an artist of self-discovery and explore different concepts within the human mind and one’s very essence, including herself. She has experimented with fibers and textiles, various 2-D mediums that include painting and drawing, and natural materials. Each material that Bucio utilizes creates a unique experience between her and the medium, allowing her to aim closer to a main practice that is cohesive to her art.

David Vosburg is an interdisciplinary artist living and working on Chicago’s Southside. David has been fortunate to show my work across Chicago, the United States, and internationally. He is a DCASE Individual Artist Grant recipient and has had multiple residencies and fellowships, most recently in the Center Program at Hyde Park Art Center. He studied film as an undergraduate and earned an MLA from Johns Hopkins University.

Mike Owens is an artist and musician working in a variety of mediums. Originally from Southern Missouri, Mike has lived in several states and currently resides in Valparaiso. He started drawing as a very young boy. He studied photography, figure drawing, ceramics, and general humanities, earning an Associate Degree at St. Louis Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Photography Degree from Northeast Missouri State University. He has been a laborer in truck patches and greenhouses, washed pots and pans in a restaurant, worked on the farm, in an automotive plant, a furniture factory, a meat packing plant, as a construction laborer, at stuffing sale paper mailings, worked on the railroad, and served as a railroad union representative, to name a few. He also served in the U. S. Army in Vietnam. In Mike’s art and music, he seeks to depict the personal moments, challenges, and life questions of the many earnest, hardworking people that I’ve had the good fortune to know, work with, and share life with.

Oscar Gabriel Sanchez, son of Leovy and Francisco Javier, grandchild of Marcelino and Carmen; members of the Chichimecas tribo de Mexico. Oscar is a storyteller and community strategist in Chicago’s mighty 10th ward, the southeast side; previously the steel-producing capital of the world; it is where his family laid roots. Oscar has brought people together to build power to address community needs and interests; elected board member on IL-State Education Boards, co-founding the Southeast Youth Alliance in 2018 and Southeast Response Collective in 2020, and recently running for Aldermanic Office in 2022. Oscar believes in developing city-wide power and solidarity through being part of anti-violence and environmental justice campaigns. Oscar previously worked as Director of Youth and Restorative Justice Programming and currently serves as the Southeast Environmental Task Force’s Co-Executive Director. Oscar was one of the leaders in the Stop General Iron Campaign and participated in a 30-day hunger strike.

Born in 1955, Matthew Kaplan grew up in Whiting, Indiana, amid the oil refineries and steel mills of the Calumet Region. He began photography in 1970, in his high school yearbook. After attending Indiana University Bloomington and Columbia College in Chicago, he embarked on a freelance photographic career that spans more than four decades and continues to this day. Kaplan's work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and annual reports. Corporate assignments have taken him to over 20 countries on four continents. Currently, Matthew Kaplan's personal work has returned to a sharp focus on the Calumet Region, including the southeast side of Chicago, which he began documenting in the 1970s. Shooting in all seasons and at all times of day, Kaplan's work examines the area's industrial landscape, with its close juxtapositions of industry with natural and residential areas, as well as the effects of time and economic forces on the region's built environment. 

Tim Fab-Eme served as the Issue 7 poetry editor of Reckoning: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice and was a Cove Park writer-in-residence on climate action. Holding bachelor's and MFA degrees from Niger Delta University and the University of Notre Dame, respectively, Tim received the Samuel and Mary Anne Hazo Poetry Award and the CSC International Justice Poetry Fellowship. He has participated in readings for the Firecracker Awards and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Currently a research associate at the Center for Social Concerns, Notre Dame, his works have been featured in numerous prestigious publications such as The Malahat Review, New Welsh Reader, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Delmarva Review, The Fiddlehead, and more. His poetic endeavors explore environmental and social justice themes through various forms, while his additional projects delve into the lore, myth, and experiences of marginalized populations and exploited ecosystems.

Janine Harrison wrote the memoir/guidebook, Turning 50 on El Camino de Santiago: A Solo Woman's Travel Adventure (Rivette Press, 2021), poetry collection, Weight of Silence (Wordpool Press, 2019), and chapbook, If We Were Birds (Locofo Chaps, 2017). Janine's work has appeared in Haiku for Hikers; Veils, Halos, and Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women; Not Like the Rest of Us: An Anthology of Contemporary Indiana Writers; A&U; Gyroscope Review; and other publications. She teaches creative writing at Calumet College of St. Joseph and serves on the Highland Arts Council. Formerly, She was a Highland Poet Laureate, an Indiana Writers’ Consortium leader, and a poetry reviewer for The Florida Review.

Donavan Barrier is a journalist for a county paper as well as a writer for an art magazine based in South Bend. Donavan is also a volunteer firefighter and poet who has had his work published in various publications.

Cheryl Chapman is a retired early childhood educator. Cheryl has been writing poems and stories ever since childhood and has even published a couple of picture books. She has lived in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Germany, and Kentucky and is happy to be settled down in the Dunelands. Currently, she is a community volunteer and especially loves her post as 'Book Grandma' and a board member at the Paladin Head Start program in Michigan City. Active with the League of Women Voters (LWV), Lake Michigan Water Pollution Prevention Roundtable, a Faith in Place Green Team at Trinity Episcopal Church, NW IN Urban Waters Partnership, and of course with Just Transition Northwest Indiana (JTNWI), she enjoys being an advocate for a clean and beautiful future for Lake Michigan.

Alexandra Magallanes is a student at Bishop Noll Institute. Alex fronts an all-girl band named Silent Lamb, makes music, and writes poetry. She lives in Hammond and wants to give the region's residents more access to art and music opportunities while helping fix systemic issues.

Cheryl Flory is a full-time tutor and grandma of 13 grandchildren. She loves walking, gardening, and taking photos of nature. She has also done various forms of writing and promotional work. She loves singing, particularly in harmonies.