Our Stories, Our World: A community-driven podcast series Public Narrative, A Picture's Worth

Shohn Williams is the Dean of Students at Lindblom Math & Science Academy in Chicago’s West Englewood neighborhood. In this conversation with Lindblom Academy student Daniel Animashaun, he talks about what public education means to him, and shares stories behind and inspired by the photo at left: a photo taken in the school’s gymnasium as part of an event he organized for Chicago youth. It focused on supporting their life skills, financial literacy and sense of community accountability—oh, and they played basketball, too.

In our second episode on public education, Chicago alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez shares a photo of Koko, a Black trans woman whose irrepressible joy shines through in this photo from their Chicago alternative high school classroom, a place Rodriguez worked to make safe and nurturing for her students. Interview by Kaylen Brandt. Content Warning: Anti-trans violence and transphobia.

In our third episode, we focus on the topic of Public Safety. This episode features retired police officer Vanessa Westley in conversation with Andrea Hernandez, who first met Westley as part of the Chicago Police Department’s Youth District Advisory Council (YDAC). Westley shares a photo from one of the first YDAC leadership sessions: it features a white male police officer (left) seated alongside two young men of color (center and right). They all are all sitting at eye level around the same table, a positioning that Westley sees as an important recognition of the value of all voices in conversations about community safety.

In our fourth episode, we once again focus on the topic of Public Safety, but this time from an abolitionist perspective. This episode features community organizer and abolitionist Tynetta Hill-Muhammad in conversation with interviewer Andrea Hernandez. A student and community outreach worker, Hill-Muhammad, 25, also works as the Chicago Chapter Organizer for BYP100, or Black Youth Project 100. The photo they describe in this episode was taken on Aug. 19, 2021, at a rally outside a Chicago Police Department district office in Englewood. They stand speaking to a crowd and the press, in front of a banner that reads, in part, “Defund the Police.” For Hill-Muhammad, the photo represents a moment in time that reinforced their belief that police are not necessary for public safety—in fact, only community members have what they need to keep one another safe.

In our fifth episode, we introduce our final topic, Public Health, as seen through the eyes of an adoptee and immigrant rights activist. This episode features Taneka Hye Wol Jennings in conversation with interviewer Kaylen Brandt. In the photo she shares, Jennings stands in front of the US Capitol Building, about to be willingly arrested as part of a Citizenship for All protest. For Jennings, citizenship is a public health issue, determining who does and doesn’t have access to health care. As a Korean American and a transracial, inter-country adoptee, she is dedicated to adoptee and immigrant rights work, as well as building authentic solidarity with others who have been marginalized by systems and structures that perpetuate injustice.

In our sixth and final episode, we once again focus on Public Health. This episode features Dr. Shyam Prabhakaran in conversation with interviewer Daniel Animashaun. The neurologist and health researcher shared a screenshot of a virtual meeting of the Chicago Community, Media & Research Partnership (CCMRP) that took place during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the partnership of community leaders, community media journalists, and community-engaged health researchers was just a few months into a two-year project dedicated to making health research more accessible through community media. Looking at this photo, Prabhakaran sees a group of people with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences who came together with a common goal: improving health equity. That diversity, he said, is essential to his work in public health—and to finding creative and impactful solutions to the problems we face throughout our society.