Black Chicago Resists is based on the photographic work of Chicago-area photographer, Owen Lawson. The exhibit provides a glimpse into the varied and layered forms of political resistance by Black Chicagoans and their supporters over the past several years, including Black Lives Matter Chicago, the Freedom Square encampment, fights against school privatization, and organizing against police killings and US-backed wars.

Mr. Owen Lawson is a former Chicago history teacher turned documentary photographer whose provocative and far-reaching photographic images constitute a visual historical narrative. For several decades, he has captured Chicago’s Black life in motion, from marches and rallies to cultural events and funerals. More than 100 of Mr. Lawson’s photos have appeared on the front pages of Chicago area papers. Beyond his Chicago base, Lawson has documented the experiences of people of African descent throughout the world, from Africa, to South and Central America, to the Caribbean, Canada and other parts of North America.