Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Citizen with baratun Day, a show
Speaker 1: where we reimagine the word citizen as a verb, reclaim
Speaker 1: it from those who have weaponized it, and remind ourselves
Speaker 1: how to wield our collective power. I'm barratun Day. I
Speaker 1: want to thank you you in general for listening, but
Speaker 1: some use in particular for the actions you've taken, or
Speaker 1: the messages you've shared, or just the way you've talked
Speaker 1: about the show. To the group of American teachers in Casablanca.
Speaker 1: It's an honor to have made it to your book club,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad we're helping you feel more close to home.
Speaker 1: Thanks for hitting us up at our email action at
Speaker 1: how to Citizen dot com. To a studios avala on
Speaker 1: I g. Thank you for turning our principles of what
Speaker 1: it means to citizen into amazing and beautiful art and
Speaker 1: using that hashtag how to Citizen We see you. And
Speaker 1: to Phoebe let at The New York Times, thank you
Speaker 1: for including us in your piece podcast to inform your vote.
Speaker 1: Phoebe wrote, and I quote in each episode Thurston That's
Speaker 1: me and his guests showed that the care American show
Speaker 1: for one another every day is reason for optimism, and
Speaker 1: the show's format practices what the content preaches. Yea, we
Speaker 1: just got recommended by the New York Times. That feels
Speaker 1: good and just a moment of celebration. All right, back
Speaker 1: to work. We recorded the episode you're about to hear
Speaker 1: with our live zoom audience, which you can join by
Speaker 1: visiting how to citizen dot com and signing up for
Speaker 1: the emails or text in order to get the link. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pass the mic to myself as we learned
Speaker 1: to build bridges not walls. So far in this series,
Speaker 1: we have grounded ourselves in love and power. We've explored
Speaker 1: how to citizen with COVID, with public safety, and with
Speaker 1: worker rights. In this episode, We're gonna citizen a little
Speaker 1: closer to home, literally closer to home. Part of how
Speaker 1: the citizen requires us to care about the collective and
Speaker 1: not just our individual selves, to be concerned with how
Speaker 1: our actions are the actions of our government, impact our neighbors,
Speaker 1: our communities, and our regions. Another part of how to
Speaker 1: Citizen centis on showing up and participating, being in relationship
Speaker 1: to others in our immediate proximity, not just our online friends.
Speaker 1: We are proud to have a guest today who embodies
Speaker 1: through her art how to citizen in her community, and
Speaker 1: she's created a profound project that can build bridges and
Speaker 1: communities around the world. Let me set the scene for you,
Speaker 1: the South Side of Chicago. What images, words, phrases occurred
Speaker 1: you when you hear that, Probably possibly at least something
Speaker 1: along the lines of criminal headlines and gun violence, and
Speaker 1: maybe Michelle Obama mixed in there. But the image that
Speaker 1: the media paints is of a community constantly in strife, struggle,
Speaker 1: maybe even words like carnage. And yet this is also
Speaker 1: a community of people living and working together to make
Speaker 1: lives better. No matter what else you see, read, or
Speaker 1: hear about this place, there is another story of this place.
Speaker 1: I know the story of this person thanks to you, literally,
Speaker 1: thanks to one of you who heard our first two
Speaker 1: episodes hit me up on I G I really do
Speaker 1: read them and said you need to know about this
Speaker 1: photo journalist as visual artist out of the South Side
Speaker 1: of Chicago. So I want to thank Chris new Router
Speaker 1: for putting me on our guest for this episode. Was
Speaker 1: born and raised in Inglewood, a neighborhood on the South
Speaker 1: side of Chicago. She's a visual artist and photographer, and
Speaker 1: in she helped co found Resident Association of Greater Englewood.
Speaker 1: She's also the co founder of Inglewood's Arts Collective. In
Speaker 1: sen she was featured in Chicago Magazine as a Chicagoan
Speaker 1: of the Year, and in ten she was named one
Speaker 1: of the Field Foundations leaders for a New Chicago That's
Speaker 1: Not Enough. Most recently, she was appointed as a member
Speaker 1: of the Cultural Advisory Council to the Department of Cultural
Speaker 1: Affairs and Special Events by the Chicago City Council. If
Speaker 1: you can't tell, she is Chicago, and she's here with
Speaker 1: us today to talk more about her project, Folded Map,
Speaker 1: which visually connects residents who live at car responding addresses
Speaker 1: on the north and south sides of one of America's
Speaker 1: greatest cities. We hope she's going to spark your creativity
Speaker 1: and imagination. Please welcome Tonica Johnson. Welcome to How to
Speaker 1: Citizen with barrattun Day. Thank you for making time to
Speaker 1: be here with us. Tanika, you started this project as
Speaker 1: a visual investigation of Chicago's neighborhoods. You were using the
Speaker 1: grid system in this beautiful spacetime star Trekky like, let's
Speaker 1: fold it way to directly compare photographs and videos of
Speaker 1: North and South Side blocks and residents for those who
Speaker 1: are unfamiliar, the South Side being predominantly black, lower income,
Speaker 1: the North Side being much more white and having many
Speaker 1: more resources. Why did you start doing this? What was
Speaker 1: your motivation as an artist for this work. So there's
Speaker 1: the inspiration of the idea that started while I was
Speaker 1: in high school, and then there is the motivation to
Speaker 1: do the idea. Well, I want it all, So let's
Speaker 1: go back to high school. So, um, in high school.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Inglewood, and when I was thirteen
Speaker 1: years old, I was commuting all the way to the
Speaker 1: North Side from Inglewood to my high school, which is
Speaker 1: fifteen miles north of Inglewood. And it is a selective
Speaker 1: enrollment school, which basically means that it has students from
Speaker 1: all over Chicago, and in the nineties, specifically selective enrollment schools.
Speaker 1: Because they had students from all over Chicago, they were
Speaker 1: able to curate the racial demographic of their student body
Speaker 1: to reflect the percentage of the racial demographic in Chicago.
Speaker 1: So there was equal percentage of each race. But you
Speaker 1: can imagine, you know, being immersed in new friendships from
Speaker 1: all over Chicago. But alongside of that, every day, while
Speaker 1: I was traveling from Inglewood, fifteen miles north to the
Speaker 1: predominantly white neighborhood that my high school is in, I
Speaker 1: noticed so many things on that commute, and and one
Speaker 1: was how different my neighborhood looked from the neighborhood that
Speaker 1: my high school was in. I noticed that my neighborhood
Speaker 1: definitely looked disinvested in. I noticed that we had vacant lots,
Speaker 1: fast food restaurants, no franchise restaurants, no cafes, And the
Speaker 1: neighborhood that my high school was in literally was the opposite.
Speaker 1: It had so many cool things, boutiques, cafes, flowers, tree
Speaker 1: lined streets, and I also recognized that the streets were
Speaker 1: named the same. On this everyday commute, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, Ashland, and my neighborhood definitely doesn't look like this,
Speaker 1: you know, the same way that it does on the
Speaker 1: north Side. And so every day for four years, this
Speaker 1: is what I saw on my commute. And so I
Speaker 1: just listened to music and looked out the window and
Speaker 1: noticed the disparity between my neighborhood and the neighborhood my
Speaker 1: high school was in. But going to school is when
Speaker 1: I really felt like I was introduced to Chicago because
Speaker 1: our friendships are allowing us to explore each other's neighborhood.
Speaker 1: So by the end of senior year in high school,
Speaker 1: you can have a black boy from Chicago's West Side
Speaker 1: tell you that his favorite Filipino dishes pawn sick, you know.
Speaker 1: So this was the kind of diversity that we experienced.
Speaker 1: And I knew then that although our city was segregated,
Speaker 1: that relationships could be built across those racial lines. So
Speaker 1: that stuck with me, and it didn't matter to me
Speaker 1: as I got older and how many people talked about segregation.
Speaker 1: I experienced what diversity and integration looks like it feels
Speaker 1: like in Chicago, and I just carried that with me.
Speaker 1: So when I got older and started to do community work,
Speaker 1: and then the ten presidential election year came about, and
Speaker 1: you know, current president was talking about Chicago very horribly,
Speaker 1: primarily focusing on the gun violence, and I just felt
Speaker 1: like that was such a cheap way to talk about
Speaker 1: the larger systemic issues that created an environment for gun
Speaker 1: violence to become an issue. And I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: people just only want to focus on gun violence and
Speaker 1: not the root issue. Gun violence has not always been
Speaker 1: in neighborhoods like Inglewood and had a very clear beginning,
Speaker 1: and what happened before gun violence became an issue is
Speaker 1: something a lot of people don't know about. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to do a project that clearly showed what the
Speaker 1: present day impact of the historic segregation and discriminatory housing policies,
Speaker 1: what that made our neighborhoods look like today, and that's
Speaker 1: what prompted me to start working on Folded Map. Your
Speaker 1: attempt to recreate connection is only possible or necessary because
Speaker 1: there was a policy to create disconnection in the past.
Speaker 1: And you alluded to this already talking about how the
Speaker 1: present we're living in these decisions that were made a
Speaker 1: long time ago and you experienced it as a high schooler.
Speaker 1: Can you explain more about the other maps before you
Speaker 1: came and folded them that defined Chicago and what families
Speaker 1: could live where these red lining maps? Yes, so you know,
Speaker 1: as people in this day and time are learning about
Speaker 1: systemic racism. Um A huge part of how that was
Speaker 1: able to sustain in our country as metropolitan cities became
Speaker 1: more populated is the federal maps that essentially outline the
Speaker 1: neighborhoods and locations and growing cities where the black population
Speaker 1: was starting to move to and where the white pop
Speaker 1: relation we're living at and will move to. And those maps,
Speaker 1: the whole maps h l lc UM. They basically determined
Speaker 1: which neighborhoods banks should approve mortgages or business loans, and
Speaker 1: that ultimately affected how different white and black neighborhoods were
Speaker 1: a resource. So in addition to creating this segregation basically
Speaker 1: not approving a loan to a black family who were
Speaker 1: interested in moving into this neighborhood that was defined as
Speaker 1: a white neighborhood, they also had experienced discriminatory lending practices
Speaker 1: by banks in the neighborhoods that were defined as black.
Speaker 1: So those distinctions ultimately lead over the course of those
Speaker 1: next sixty years, has resulted in this disparity and how
Speaker 1: investment is in these neighborhoods. And so those were the
Speaker 1: maps that ultimately determined the segregation that we continue to
Speaker 1: see today replicated in so many different metropolitan neighborhoods. So
Speaker 1: not only did they define the race of neighborhoods, but
Speaker 1: they also determined where banks should and should not approve loans,
Speaker 1: not just mortgages, but businesses that wanted to get started.
Speaker 1: And due to the racist climate of that time, a
Speaker 1: lot of the black neighborhoods didn't receive loans of any
Speaker 1: kind to invest in their neighborhoods. So those are the
Speaker 1: maps that I definitely was thinking of in reference to
Speaker 1: creating and using Chicago's map as is a point of healing,
Speaker 1: because we had those maps that created an exacerbated fear
Speaker 1: not only for black families, but also white families. White
Speaker 1: families were told that, oh, black people are moving to
Speaker 1: your neighborhood. It's going to turn into a neighborhood that
Speaker 1: doesn't get loans. Your housing values are gonna go down.
Speaker 1: So there were white families who could possibly would have
Speaker 1: stayed in the neighborhoods to live with black people had
Speaker 1: they not been scared, you know, to the fact that
Speaker 1: they're housing the homes that they've invested in were going
Speaker 1: to lose value. And you know, those maps really cemented
Speaker 1: segregation into our country, and that's why it was important
Speaker 1: for me to use a map as healing. I really
Speaker 1: like this idea of a map twin It's one thing
Speaker 1: too conceptually and analytically think about this coordinate has a
Speaker 1: corresponding coordinate. It takes me back to geometry class. But
Speaker 1: there are people at those coordinates who have a story
Speaker 1: and an experience, and so you have created these really
Speaker 1: interesting possibilities for pairings of people that you call map twins.
Speaker 1: Can you explain more about this concept and how that's
Speaker 1: an entry point to participate in the fold of map. Yes.
Speaker 1: So in Chicago, we have normalized our segregations at the
Speaker 1: point of us joking about it, which you know, that's
Speaker 1: what happens when you normalize stuff, you end up having weird,
Speaker 1: unusual jokes about it. And so every Chicagoan jokes about
Speaker 1: the fact that when you take our Red Line train,
Speaker 1: you notice the colorship it goes from black on the
Speaker 1: south side to white on the north side. And so
Speaker 1: I really wanted us to, like, as Chicagoans interrupt, how
Speaker 1: we've normalized it, you know, for them to understand how
Speaker 1: it impacts our social networks. So I wanted to really
Speaker 1: utilize Chicago's grid map, something that is uniquely Chicago, and
Speaker 1: the fact that you have those coordinates that you know,
Speaker 1: not in a lot of different places, and so I
Speaker 1: wanted to use our grid map to reveal to people
Speaker 1: exactly what you said, that these addresses that we mistakenly
Speaker 1: go to sometimes, these addresses that feel like they reveal
Speaker 1: so much about people's live experience, but we don't really know.
Speaker 1: To use those addresses as a way to connect us
Speaker 1: all and to let people know that you do have
Speaker 1: a very distant neighbor fifteen miles away from you on
Speaker 1: the same street, because we have so many streets in
Speaker 1: Chicago that run the full north and south of Chicago,
Speaker 1: and I wanted people to start thinking about they're distant neighbors,
Speaker 1: regardless of the neighborhood, as family. And so I wanted
Speaker 1: people to connect using the addresses or the neighborhoods that
Speaker 1: would touch each other if you were to foe Chicago
Speaker 1: in the middle, but then also to view them as
Speaker 1: as family, because we are, whether we like it or not,
Speaker 1: we are a family in this city, in this world,
Speaker 1: and it's best that we start to get to know
Speaker 1: each other. And so that was the way that I
Speaker 1: wanted to create maps wins for people to feel some
Speaker 1: kind of connection to someone who they share a street
Speaker 1: name with. There's something that strikes me about the fear
Speaker 1: that the government planted in white residents to say, you know,
Speaker 1: black people are gonna bring your property values down, They're
Speaker 1: gonna bring their neighborhood problems with them. It's like, those
Speaker 1: are neighborhood problems because of what you did to them.
Speaker 1: You don't get to blame people for the thing that
Speaker 1: you did to make the situation be that way. Um,
Speaker 1: A map as a tool of healing as opposed to
Speaker 1: just a tool of division is a really powerful idea.
Speaker 1: And these pairings that you've helped facilitate are powerful and
Speaker 1: occasionally awkward. And can you talk through when you get
Speaker 1: to map twins together, what are you going for? What happens?
Speaker 1: I mean, I can tell you I watched the video
Speaker 1: clip where I didn't know you're gonna ask people how
Speaker 1: much they paid for their houses, And when you see
Speaker 1: people react to each other. Somebody was like, I was
Speaker 1: glad to get a deal for five hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and the black person is like, and like, we about
Speaker 1: to paid thirty tho dollars for this house. So to
Speaker 1: talk about the interaction amongst the twins and what has
Speaker 1: happened there, I just always uplift them because These are
Speaker 1: people who self selected to participate. I did a mass
Speaker 1: solicitation to people on blocks that I was going to
Speaker 1: include in the project. So the maps wins are the
Speaker 1: people who said, I want to try this weird thing out.
Speaker 1: And regardless if awkward moments happened, all of them were
Speaker 1: connected in the fact that they thought it was important
Speaker 1: enough for them to even participate. And so I think
Speaker 1: them knowing that with each other created a sense of
Speaker 1: trust and a sense of I know that this person
Speaker 1: wants to improve the very thing that will reveal itself
Speaker 1: in this conversation as being awkward. So a lot of
Speaker 1: the map twins, you know, hadn't experienced each other's neighborhoods
Speaker 1: just on a peer resident level. You know, a few
Speaker 1: of the residents who lived on the North Side had
Speaker 1: come to the South Side before, but primarily through volunteering,
Speaker 1: so they hadn't met someone as just a neighbor. And
Speaker 1: so a lot of them started to understand who has
Speaker 1: benefited from the segregation that exists in Chicago. And it
Speaker 1: is uncomfortable, you know, when you meet someone who you
Speaker 1: have learned to be interested in and then you all
Speaker 1: answer the question of what's missing in your neighborhood, and
Speaker 1: one person says basic stuff like oh, better schools, community
Speaker 1: center for children, restaurants, grocery store, just the basic needs,
Speaker 1: and you can't even come up with anything in your neighborhood.
Speaker 1: You start to develop empathy, and then the person who
Speaker 1: is saying the things that they don't have in their
Speaker 1: neighborhood feels as if, oh, someone cares. Like the people
Speaker 1: who actually have the very thing that I'm saying we
Speaker 1: need in in my neighborhood, who I possibly thought didn't care,
Speaker 1: They're actually listening. So it was reciprocal listening and learning.
Speaker 1: So all of them had that. Even if there were
Speaker 1: varying degrees of awkward moments, all of them were rooted
Speaker 1: in that. And I think there are great examples of
Speaker 1: how to model those kind of conversations. We haven't talked
Speaker 1: about that with each other before, especially in such a
Speaker 1: place specific project like Chicago, and it's gonna be weird.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be awkward and unusual, and we need to
Speaker 1: just get okay with that. Need to start being okay
Speaker 1: with saying the prices of stuff, because that is what
Speaker 1: reveals the true impact of inequity and how it is
Speaker 1: a barrier to people progressing not only in their life,
Speaker 1: but you know, from generations from now, and we have
Speaker 1: to start being okay with saying words like black, white, Latino,
Speaker 1: Asian and then also being corrected, you know. So I
Speaker 1: think the Maps Wins conversations reveal all of that. MHM.
Speaker 1: How did you learn to facilitate that sort of necessary
Speaker 1: but uncomfortable series of conversations. Well, I would say formally
Speaker 1: and just creating the questions. That is rooted in the
Speaker 1: fact that I went to college for journalism, and prior
Speaker 1: to that, in high school, I was, you know, one
Speaker 1: of them weirdo our kids, but my interest was in
Speaker 1: witchery and writing articles. So I've always been interested in
Speaker 1: interviewing people, which really comes down to me just being nosy,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just nosy and people are so interested
Speaker 1: to me, and going to high school with so many
Speaker 1: different people, you just like start to ask questions like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, where do you live, where are you from,
Speaker 1: what do you like to do? Wow? So all of
Speaker 1: that was carried over into folded Matt. But what was
Speaker 1: difficult for me to do that I really hadn't learned
Speaker 1: in journalism school was how to not interrupt people answering
Speaker 1: your questions that are ultimately in conversation with each other.
Speaker 1: So I would start, you know, by asking them both
Speaker 1: the same questions, questions that I had asked them separately,
Speaker 1: just to get them used to it. So no one
Speaker 1: was really going to be surprised by what they were
Speaker 1: thinking of or how they were thinking of answering the question.
Speaker 1: You were only going to be surprised by what you
Speaker 1: heard someone else answering. So for me, I had to
Speaker 1: learn how to just shut up, like after you asked
Speaker 1: the question, let people talk, and then when the awkward
Speaker 1: moments happened, don't interrupt, like see how they fix it,
Speaker 1: see what they resort to in order to fix it.
Speaker 1: And that was really the gold of the project is
Speaker 1: seeing how two strangers interact around these seemingly simple questions,
Speaker 1: but that clearly reveal a different lived experience. And so
Speaker 1: I I had to learn how to shut up and
Speaker 1: stay out of the way. There were so many times
Speaker 1: where I understood both point of views and I was
Speaker 1: and I wanted to explain and like, no, what you
Speaker 1: really means is, but I couldn't. So that was a
Speaker 1: learning lesson for me. It's an act of journalism, an
Speaker 1: act of community building, and act of art all in one.
Speaker 1: How do you see yourself? Well, now, I changed the
Speaker 1: title on my artist's website so often. At first it
Speaker 1: was photographer, then it was a social justice activist, then
Speaker 1: I was like social justice artist, then it was trans
Speaker 1: diisciplinary artists. So I don't know I changed it, you know,
Speaker 1: according to what people tell me. I am um, but
Speaker 1: I just say artists and the and the medium that
Speaker 1: I use is photography, but even that's changing because you know,
Speaker 1: I've included video, I've included so many other things, like
Speaker 1: you know, public installations, so just artists. I think that's
Speaker 1: what I've grown to accept, partly because my neighborhood like
Speaker 1: bestowed that title on me. I was trying to avoid
Speaker 1: it for so long because I felt like in order
Speaker 1: to really claim yourself as an artist, you have to
Speaker 1: I've had produced something, and they were calling me an
Speaker 1: artist way before I had my first exit vision, way
Speaker 1: before I thought of folded map. And so once they
Speaker 1: told me no you are you are just accepted, I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I am and me taking on that
Speaker 1: title because they uplifted me enough to say, no, you're
Speaker 1: an artists and we're proud of you. That allowed me
Speaker 1: to open my mind up to think of projects, you know,
Speaker 1: like actually doing folded map. I would add Tonica that
Speaker 1: your medium is far greater than photography. Your medium is
Speaker 1: your city, and your medium are these people who you
Speaker 1: treat with such respect. You create a space for them
Speaker 1: to have dialogue, and then you trust them enough to
Speaker 1: let them have it. That's art. That is not facilitation,
Speaker 1: That is not lawyer ring, that is not conflict resolution NG.
Speaker 1: That is creating and it's very powerful. So I just
Speaker 1: wanted to observe that as an outsider to tell you
Speaker 1: what you do. You are an artist, but you are
Speaker 1: your medium is also us and I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm to use that you should use that. We're recording
Speaker 1: so you can get it. You get it perfectly. There's
Speaker 1: a quote that we found about you. I want to
Speaker 1: share with you and then ask your thoughts about how
Speaker 1: this connects to your work. Since then, she has transformed
Speaker 1: this project into an advocacy and policy influencing tool that
Speaker 1: invites audiences to open a dialogue and question how we
Speaker 1: are all socially impacted by racial and institutional conditions that
Speaker 1: segregate the city, So can you tell me more about
Speaker 1: how this project is being used as an advocacy tool
Speaker 1: and how it's affecting policy. When you create a piece
Speaker 1: of work, like you have no idea how people are
Speaker 1: going to respond, and so you can't ever foresee what
Speaker 1: that response will make you do or feel as an artist,
Speaker 1: is what it will influence you to create after that.
Speaker 1: So I had only seen Folded Map as an art project,
Speaker 1: like this project that was in my head that I
Speaker 1: finally got out and once people started responding and connecting
Speaker 1: to the idea of a map twin, the idea of saying, yes,
Speaker 1: the city is segregated and it has contributed to maybe
Speaker 1: some racist thoughts I have, or yes it's unfair that
Speaker 1: this North Side neighborhood has exactly what my neighborhood needs.
Speaker 1: So it was more of an affirmation that Chicagoan started
Speaker 1: to use to say, you know, look, this is what
Speaker 1: it is. And because the response was so great and
Speaker 1: people wanted to participate find out if I was gonna
Speaker 1: do more map twins, it really started to generate a
Speaker 1: larger citywide conversation and primarily through my social media, that
Speaker 1: started to grow and people that wanted to see what
Speaker 1: I was sharing and then comment on it, and eventually,
Speaker 1: you know, it led to policy influence and organizations becoming
Speaker 1: aware of it, like Metropolitan Planning Council. Most recently, our
Speaker 1: president Tony Preckwinkle, who ran for mayor. She saw my
Speaker 1: folded map animated film and quickly identified the fact that
Speaker 1: it could prove certain policies that she wanted to introduce.
Speaker 1: That it's a clear visual example using our grid map
Speaker 1: to demonstrate the neglect and the unfairness of what our
Speaker 1: city has experienced fifty sixty years ago. And so a
Speaker 1: lot of organizations and individuals who are working hard and
Speaker 1: tirelessly two kind of resolve this inequity, began to refer
Speaker 1: to folded map, and so they didn't have to refer
Speaker 1: to a report primarily with just statistics. They were able
Speaker 1: to say, this report reveals this, but look at this project.
Speaker 1: These are people who met each other who are clearly
Speaker 1: talking about the inequity between home ownership amenities. So they
Speaker 1: started to use folded map as evidence of something that
Speaker 1: reports just weren't able to translate. And also having the photographs,
Speaker 1: you know, I definitely have started to accept the pioneering
Speaker 1: impact of photographing Chicago's two different sides and comparing them
Speaker 1: because I think in courts um that hasn't been done before.
Speaker 1: No one really thought of, oh, let's just photograph these
Speaker 1: streets that are the same and just show the difference. So,
Speaker 1: you know, that is my contribution to understanding the present
Speaker 1: day impact of segregation in Chicago, and I think all
Speaker 1: of the reports that have been done it was really
Speaker 1: just missing the the visual and the human aspect to it.
Speaker 1: And so that's what a lot of policymakers have been
Speaker 1: using Folded Map to push their efforts forward. But then
Speaker 1: also the Folded Map family is I call them. A
Speaker 1: lot of them are educators and a lot of them
Speaker 1: are people who want to learn more. So they're also
Speaker 1: learning about different issues and policies through Folded Map. So
Speaker 1: that is how it just transformed into a tool that
Speaker 1: educators and policymakers are using to push their work forward.
Speaker 1: Are there any other outcomes that you hope to see
Speaker 1: from this project? Yes, one in particular that I'm holding
Speaker 1: up actually is the Folded Map action kits. So many
Speaker 1: people told me they wanted to participate in Folded Map,
Speaker 1: but I had to let people know, like I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna do this forever. I can't pare people up. Maybe
Speaker 1: I can create something where you all can do it yourself.
Speaker 1: So I created the Folded Map Action Kit, which is
Speaker 1: a literal kick um that we're mailing to some of
Speaker 1: the select people on Folded Map contact list, but that
Speaker 1: will be available for download on folded Map website, where
Speaker 1: it's a self guided invite to run errands in your
Speaker 1: map twin neighborhood and share back your experience. I wanted
Speaker 1: people to be able to contribute to the expansion of
Speaker 1: Folded Map, but in a more personalized way that would
Speaker 1: allow them to not enter into a neighborhood good with
Speaker 1: the preconceived ideas or the stereotypes. Because as a photographer,
Speaker 1: I know very well that what you're told about a
Speaker 1: location and a group of people will be reflected in
Speaker 1: what you pay attention to. So it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a self fulfilling prophecy. So if you're told that elin
Speaker 1: is horrible, you're gonna pay attention to things that look
Speaker 1: horrible to you. You know, you won't notice other things.
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to create a project or an
Speaker 1: activity where it allowed you to meet regular residents just
Speaker 1: you know. And so that's when I came up with
Speaker 1: the idea to have people run errands in your map
Speaker 1: twin neighborhood, and errands that are associated to the very
Speaker 1: specific inequities. So go buy an organic apple in your
Speaker 1: map twin neighborhood. Go take out twenty dollars at an
Speaker 1: a T M go By lotion. That's a very different
Speaker 1: experience in neighborhoods. People wouldn't think it is, but it is.
Speaker 1: Um go see your local post office, local library, so
Speaker 1: people can as close as possible feel what it is
Speaker 1: to walk in their distant neighbors shoes. But that is
Speaker 1: something that I am excited for Chicagoans to do and
Speaker 1: for people in other cities as well. It's activity that
Speaker 1: can be applied to so many cities in our country.
Speaker 1: And I really just view Chicago as a microcosm of
Speaker 1: what is really going on in our nation with a
Speaker 1: segregation and equities that is just what it is, and
Speaker 1: a lot of metropolitan cities. And so that's what I'm
Speaker 1: hoping with the expansion of folded Map into this action kit,
Speaker 1: that people will enter neighborhoods in a way that isn't
Speaker 1: just gazing you know that they can actually create some
Speaker 1: empathy to the neighborhoods that they visit that don't have
Speaker 1: the resources, and then for the people who visit neighborhoods
Speaker 1: that are over resourced, for them to think about, Wow,
Speaker 1: this neighborhood has things that I'm entitled to. Some people
Speaker 1: don't know how over resourced other neighborhoods are, and unfortunately
Speaker 1: they can start to think that that's the norm. That
Speaker 1: my neighborhood being disinvested in is how it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1: And so that's my goal with the Activity Kid is
Speaker 1: to have this conversation become more personalized. I want you
Speaker 1: to dream with me for a second, Tunika. I love Chicago,
Speaker 1: and I've never been a full time resident, visited a lot,
Speaker 1: spent to summer there. I like to claim my little piece.
Speaker 1: But as you said, our whole nation is segregated and
Speaker 1: has been pulled apart by various maps of division rather
Speaker 1: than maps of healing. What other elements could you see
Speaker 1: emerging from this? Maybe you've got a hint of it.
Speaker 1: Maybe you just had some advice for the non Chicago
Speaker 1: wins out there about principles they could apply to proceed
Speaker 1: on their own down this path. What do you say
Speaker 1: to that you can connect with people through your passion?
Speaker 1: And I think that's something our country has not had
Speaker 1: the opportunity for individuals to experience. You know, we we've
Speaker 1: associated our where we should live based on class, you know,
Speaker 1: the amount of money we make. Now just imagine if
Speaker 1: people determine where they live based off of the community
Speaker 1: of people they shared a passion with. And I just
Speaker 1: hope that people take away from folded map that they
Speaker 1: can apply to where they live. It's just meeting people
Speaker 1: through your interests and your passions, not focusing on people
Speaker 1: who have the same lived experience is you because passions
Speaker 1: cross the racial divide, the geographic divide, and it allows
Speaker 1: you an opportunity to see someone from a different lived
Speaker 1: experience as your equal because you have a shared passion.
Speaker 1: And so I just hope that people really start to
Speaker 1: think about how and why we're divided racially, because I
Speaker 1: know that there's a huge population of us who don't
Speaker 1: want to interact that way. We don't want to be divided.
Speaker 1: We see the value and the benefit of connecting with
Speaker 1: people from different lived experiences and it's fun. It's so
Speaker 1: fun to learn other people's culture and to see what's different,
Speaker 1: to see what you view is weird or what you
Speaker 1: don't like. It's fun and it also expands your world view.
Speaker 1: And we're in a place and time where it's global,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not living in places where it's just
Speaker 1: people who look like us. And so that's what I
Speaker 1: would hope people would take away, just the curiosity of
Speaker 1: getting to know history, the curiosity of wanting to get
Speaker 1: to know other people. I've got one more for you,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna go open up the floodgates of
Speaker 1: questions and comments. The strong foundation of this show is
Speaker 1: that we see the word citizen as a verb rather
Speaker 1: than strictly as a legal status. If you interpret citizen
Speaker 1: as a verb, how do you define what it means
Speaker 1: to citizens? I would say to learn about your life
Speaker 1: in your family's history and how that connects two our
Speaker 1: larger history. Because sometimes when you learn history in school,
Speaker 1: you don't feel the immediate connection to your present day life.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we go and look for stories of how
Speaker 1: to humanize history in books and other people, and really
Speaker 1: it's just already within your family, you know. So I
Speaker 1: would say one easy way to citizen is learn your
Speaker 1: family history and learn how that has impacted maybe decisions
Speaker 1: you've made in your life and beliefs that you have
Speaker 1: or that you disagree with now, but really your family history. Yes,
Speaker 1: that was great. I feel so vindicated too, because I
Speaker 1: told somebody something like that the other day and then
Speaker 1: this dope artist just said it. So now, thank you.
Speaker 1: It's not about me, but thank you. Yes, there's a
Speaker 1: comment that I pulled from one of your videos that
Speaker 1: I I want to get to as a guy named
Speaker 1: Wade who I saw in one of your videos. He's
Speaker 1: one of your map twins. You know Wade as you're
Speaker 1: smiling and recognition and you know you asked Wade, or
Speaker 1: someone asked what about would you encourage people to take
Speaker 1: part in the folded Map project? And he said, quote,
Speaker 1: having an open mind and being willing to do something
Speaker 1: new and get out of your comfort zone is important
Speaker 1: if we're going to become a more united city and
Speaker 1: as citizens of the city really have a connection with
Speaker 1: the entire city and not just half of it. You've
Speaker 1: got to sometimes take the initiative and do the uncomfortable thing.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage anyone who wants to bridge that
Speaker 1: gap that we all know was there. You should just
Speaker 1: do it. That's my boy, right, Like I said, that's
Speaker 1: your medium, then I gotta set this up. This is
Speaker 1: exciting because this is the person who actually first mentioned
Speaker 1: Tonica Johnson and the Folded Map project to me. So,
Speaker 1: Chris new Router is in the house. I'm Christie Router.
Speaker 1: I'm a middle aged white lady who lives on the
Speaker 1: North Side. I'm in a weird neighborhood called Bowmanville, which
Speaker 1: is pretty close to Edgewater, which is sort of the
Speaker 1: north Side focus of Folded Map. My day job is
Speaker 1: in forensic engineering, so I have like an architectural background,
Speaker 1: and I first fell in love with Folded Map because
Speaker 1: of the beautiful sort of architectural photos that that Tanka took.
Speaker 1: And so I went down to Englewood Branded and saw
Speaker 1: the exhibit after hearing it on NPR, and I just
Speaker 1: fell in love. And I've a comment and then some questions.
Speaker 1: One of the things that is really great about Tanka
Speaker 1: is that there's so much joy and celebration of these communities,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's north Side, the you know over
Speaker 1: resource neighborhood I live in, or um you know, south
Speaker 1: side communities like Englewood that frankly are getting just horrible
Speaker 1: media coverage and it bothers me as a Chicagoan who
Speaker 1: loves my city that you know, it's described as a
Speaker 1: war zone and we forget I think that people live
Speaker 1: in these neighborhoods, even if there's you know, a gang
Speaker 1: problem on a block. These are thriving neighborhoods that people
Speaker 1: live in and we need to stop measuring our communities
Speaker 1: only in terms of, you know, monetary wealth. And that's
Speaker 1: what I really love about this project in particular. One
Speaker 1: of the questions I had for Tuanika is how do
Speaker 1: you see this being applied in other communities? I see
Speaker 1: a lot of the chat was really focused on that.
Speaker 1: Thank you for asking that question. Um, I've been thinking
Speaker 1: a lot about that, and when I've spoken in other
Speaker 1: cities of the States, I've always ended up saying every
Speaker 1: place has a fold. So that is going to be
Speaker 1: the next guide that I create after I commit to
Speaker 1: getting this action kid out in two weeks, is a
Speaker 1: find your fold. And it doesn't matter what kind of
Speaker 1: mapping system your city has. There is segregation and there's
Speaker 1: usually a street, a house, a landmark, something that divides
Speaker 1: and I want to help people know that you don't
Speaker 1: need an exact grid map to do this or replicate
Speaker 1: this in your city, just your reflection about where the
Speaker 1: divide is fold it right there. Even if it's in
Speaker 1: a classroom or a lunch room, there is usually a
Speaker 1: divide a fold, and so I want to be able
Speaker 1: to encourage people to find that fold and use art
Speaker 1: to think of the fold like. It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be so rigid, you know, conceptually, it could be a
Speaker 1: fold in instruments, certain students in class picks. There is
Speaker 1: always something that is a division, and the goal of
Speaker 1: Folded Map is to use that divide to bring people together.
Speaker 1: So I'm definitely going to create find your Fold guide,
Speaker 1: explaining to people my process and how I did folded Map,
Speaker 1: and you know, give them the instructions on how to
Speaker 1: do it in their location. So that's soon to come. Maybe. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, We've got a live question from Mama Sarah Great,
Speaker 1: Thank you. Hi. I'm from Rochester, New York. Are the
Speaker 1: folks here in the city, Roots Community, Land Trust and
Speaker 1: Rochester have been doing tremendous work around educating about redlining
Speaker 1: how our city was divided, and I'm just curious who
Speaker 1: you're connecting with around efforts to educate beyond your project
Speaker 1: into how your communities can rebuild from the grassroots, maybe
Speaker 1: through land trust or other things. So beyond folded MAP,
Speaker 1: I'm definitely connected with community organizations that are trying to
Speaker 1: really specifically increase home ownership in neighborhoods like Inglewood. Land
Speaker 1: trust is one of the you know, tools that people
Speaker 1: are talking about. But then there's also the other issue
Speaker 1: of repurposing schools that have been closed in neighborhoods like Inglewoods.
Speaker 1: So all of those things are definitely being talked about
Speaker 1: and Lord, but since neighborhoods in Chicago are like a
Speaker 1: universe of their own, you can't apply one strategy to
Speaker 1: all of these neighborhoods. Each neighborhood is very unique. Um
Speaker 1: An example I can give is there's another South Side
Speaker 1: neighborhood called Auburn, Gresham and Chatham, and these are neighborhoods
Speaker 1: that have a strong home ownership base, but they're mostly
Speaker 1: older Black people, and so their neighborhoods, even though they
Speaker 1: have high home ownership, they don't have the other amenities
Speaker 1: that you know, this aging population deserves, and so they
Speaker 1: don't have grocery stores in abundance, so their efforts is
Speaker 1: gonna look different from a neighborhood like Inglewood folded map
Speaker 1: has definitely been included in those conversations of how people
Speaker 1: can be helped. And so that is one of the
Speaker 1: other primary things that's being discussed publicly in Chicago. It's
Speaker 1: just the banks banks still not offering fair lending practices
Speaker 1: to the neighborhoods that were a redline. And then also,
Speaker 1: you know, even beyond land trust conversations about the appraisal process,
Speaker 1: how that also hinders home ownership value increasing in certain neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: So all of those things are in conversation and on
Speaker 1: the table. So yes, this is thank you for the question,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I'm going to read a question
Speaker 1: from Aaron Masked, some of which you addressed. He asks,
Speaker 1: how do we bridge the gap? This gap between that
Speaker 1: I courted Wade referring to how do we bridge that gap?
Speaker 1: How do we talk to people who don't think that
Speaker 1: gap exists? You don't talk to people who don't think gap,
Speaker 1: don't You just don't waste the time with that. Another
Speaker 1: thing Wade saying that really stuck with me. He said,
Speaker 1: you know, dismantling racism and segregation seems like such a
Speaker 1: big thing you just can't fix. And he said, you know,
Speaker 1: folded map providing him a way to feel like he was.
Speaker 1: And that's just what I want to remind people that
Speaker 1: we're still struggling with racism and segregation and systemic racism.
Speaker 1: Although we have policies and laws, but that doesn't work.
Speaker 1: It has to be through our personal lives, like we
Speaker 1: have to make it personal. That's the only way that
Speaker 1: systems can stop becoming systems, because we have to change
Speaker 1: the thoughts. It's the thoughts that are systemic. What people
Speaker 1: think of each other is systemic. And the only way
Speaker 1: you can change thoughts is by changing yours. And the
Speaker 1: only way you can do that is by getting to
Speaker 1: know other people. And how you choose to do that
Speaker 1: can be up to you, but it is a very
Speaker 1: real way that works. I don't want people to minimize
Speaker 1: the impact of literally getting to know someone who has
Speaker 1: a different lived experience. It's powerful, has been proven that
Speaker 1: that's a guaranteed way to develop empathy. So you know,
Speaker 1: there is another version of erring out there in some
Speaker 1: other neighborhood. You know, and dis imagine if you all
Speaker 1: met each other, you know what, the issues that he
Speaker 1: has will become important to you. And that is the
Speaker 1: goal of folded Map is to help people become more empathetic.
Speaker 1: So that's what I would suggest, you know, just keep
Speaker 1: it simple. If you find someone interesting who is different
Speaker 1: than you, strike up a conversation, talk to them, and
Speaker 1: just pursue the relationship. Yeah. I'm gonna do a potentially
Speaker 1: annoying thing here, but go to quote myself, which is
Speaker 1: in my ted talk about deconstructing racism. I've made this
Speaker 1: comment that systems are just collective stories we all believe in.
Speaker 1: And what you've answered to Aaron's question tonka Is reminds
Speaker 1: me of that in a different way. If enough people
Speaker 1: do believe the gap exists, and enough people work to
Speaker 1: build that bridge, create that dialogue, and establish a relationship
Speaker 1: that can become the new system, It's almost the numbers game,
Speaker 1: and there are many people who are interested in doing that.
Speaker 1: We may not all be aware of how many of
Speaker 1: us there are. I'm going to read a question from
Speaker 1: Betsy from the Great NYC. Are you creating programs that
Speaker 1: teachers can use like a teaching guy, Yes, I am
Speaker 1: actually doing that right now. So one of my goals
Speaker 1: was to have Bolded Map be a curriculum in Chicago
Speaker 1: Public school system, but my collaboration with them, a partnership,
Speaker 1: was kind of interrupted by them adopting you know, New
Speaker 1: York Times six nineteen project, which is amazing. So I
Speaker 1: still wanted teachers and educators to be able to access
Speaker 1: um not only just the material from Folded Map, but
Speaker 1: from my other projects interviews. So I am in the
Speaker 1: process of creating a website that educators or just the
Speaker 1: public in general can access and use as instructional resources
Speaker 1: for existing curriculums. So the goal is to eventually have
Speaker 1: a Folded Map curriculum, but until then, I want to
Speaker 1: make my interviews, the clips I have of Inglewood, the photography,
Speaker 1: the maps, win interviews, all of those things from all
Speaker 1: of my collective projects available for the public to use
Speaker 1: as instructional tools for whatever it is they're doing. Because
Speaker 1: there's a lot of great curriculums already out there, and
Speaker 1: I know that people and educators are constantly looking for
Speaker 1: resources to support or to make their curriculums fresh. So
Speaker 1: I just decided to kind of go that route, and
Speaker 1: we will be hopefully making that website available in Thank
Speaker 1: you Betsy from the great NYC for that great question.
Speaker 1: And now we're going to hear from Ned. All Right,
Speaker 1: I'm that kid. I'm calling from Madison and Wisconsin. You know,
Speaker 1: we have a definite divide in my child's school between
Speaker 1: you know, the families to live. On one side of
Speaker 1: the street, that's mostly apartments, mostly black families, mostly poorer families.
Speaker 1: On the other side of the street, it's houses, mostly
Speaker 1: the white folks who go to the school. To school
Speaker 1: itself is incredibly diverse, but we don't live near each other, right.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I guess, just as
Speaker 1: as I've been listening and I've been thinking about, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of these flip line I think about the issues
Speaker 1: of like low income housing solutions and other things. The
Speaker 1: question I want to ask you, though, as you've been
Speaker 1: working on this project, how have you personally seen your
Speaker 1: concept of what racial justice social justice in some of
Speaker 1: these issues like housing and other things. What does that
Speaker 1: look like for you? How has this work impacted you
Speaker 1: personally in your thoughts on those things. Yes, so thank
Speaker 1: you for the question. One specific example I can give
Speaker 1: is when I expanded the project to include map twins
Speaker 1: from the western side of the city, which is very
Speaker 1: different from the north and south side. So Chicago is
Speaker 1: like a triangle, you know, like North South and then
Speaker 1: it extends here and then there's a western part, and
Speaker 1: so on that western part, it's still the North South
Speaker 1: racial divide, but it's just ten minutes apart as opposed
Speaker 1: to our apart. And so when I interviewed those map twins,
Speaker 1: they talked about gentrification, which wasn't something that was brought
Speaker 1: up North South maps wins because that really has happened
Speaker 1: from white to black communities. Traditionally in Chicago, Latino neighborhoods
Speaker 1: get gentrified and because of that gentrification, they move into
Speaker 1: neighborhoods where they can afford, which is generally black neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: So the maps win started talking about gentrification, and it's
Speaker 1: always people against the gentrifiers. And so I've used that
Speaker 1: conversation to help people understand how we have to redirect
Speaker 1: our anger, and we have to redirect it to our
Speaker 1: elected officials and the people who create the housing policies
Speaker 1: that determine low income, high income neighborhoods, because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. The white people who are viewed
Speaker 1: as gentrifiers to whatever neighborhoods, honestly, they're viewed as dollar
Speaker 1: signs by the developers incorporations, and they can't really help that.
Speaker 1: Wherever they move for affordability, businesses just follow them, like
Speaker 1: everything they ever want just follows them. So I just
Speaker 1: told people, you know that if we're gonna continue having
Speaker 1: this conversation about gentrification, we cannot be blaming you know.
Speaker 1: Of course, once gentrification happens, the people who are new
Speaker 1: to the community should pay attention to the community that
Speaker 1: existed there before. But the issue does not start with
Speaker 1: people who move into a neighborhood and then eventually the
Speaker 1: neighborhood changes not as a result of what they said
Speaker 1: they want, but because of what follows them, which is resources,
Speaker 1: which is money and development. And so the only way
Speaker 1: we can tackle that is becoming unified and addressing that
Speaker 1: saying no, it's not fair that neighborhoods where young white
Speaker 1: professionals move because they want to live someplace too that
Speaker 1: they can afford, that the neighborhood starts to change because
Speaker 1: of developers and corporations who view them also as dollar
Speaker 1: signs and so that is one way that we've been
Speaker 1: kind of having that conversation in Chicago that kind of
Speaker 1: addresses the class part of it, because at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, people move to neighborhoods that they feel
Speaker 1: like they can afford. How they determine the criteria for
Speaker 1: the neighborhood deals. That's a lot of other stuff, but
Speaker 1: remembering that commonality that people live where they can afford,
Speaker 1: and we have to question what goes into making a
Speaker 1: neighborhood affordable or not. So that's just very general conceptual answer,
Speaker 1: but you know, that's just part of the conversation that
Speaker 1: has to happen for people to even think differently about
Speaker 1: the income. Yeah, thank you for an excellent question Ned
Speaker 1: from Madison, Wisconsin and uh in an excellent answer to
Speaker 1: Nika Johnson from Chicago. I just want to say what
Speaker 1: an incredible pleasure this has been. I knew from seeing
Speaker 1: the project from the outside this was something special. We
Speaker 1: had a brief call with Tanika a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: It was clear this was special, and I think what's
Speaker 1: remarkable is some of what we've already heard that Tanika,
Speaker 1: your medium is also the people that you've in beauty
Speaker 1: level of trust in us to go through this process
Speaker 1: and not try to fix everything like the mess is okay,
Speaker 1: and it's a part of the process, and it ties
Speaker 1: back to so much of what we believe in this
Speaker 1: show that relationship building is key to citizening, and so
Speaker 1: you've demonstrated a really beautiful, literally artistic way to do
Speaker 1: that that adds a third dimension to the reports of
Speaker 1: what our communities are like and gives us a bit
Speaker 1: more language and imagination to create the communities that we
Speaker 1: actually want to live in. All that is tremendous and remarkable,
Speaker 1: and uh, thank you, thank you, thank you. We're gonna
Speaker 1: find that fold We are beyond grateful to Tonica Johnson
Speaker 1: for joining us. You can follow Tonica J on Instagram
Speaker 1: t O n I K A J and visit Folded
Speaker 1: map project dot com. Find this episode, a full transcript,
Speaker 1: show notes and more at how do Citizen dot com,
Speaker 1: and please show you a support for the show in
Speaker 1: the form of a review and or a rating. Makes
Speaker 1: a big difference with these algorithmic overloaders, y'all. But now
Speaker 1: for the fun part this episode's actions. We start off
Speaker 1: with our internal actions. There's three of them. The first
Speaker 1: pretty light and they get a little heavier from there.
Speaker 1: I want you to listen to another podcast, this American Life,
Speaker 1: not the whole series that's like thousands of hours, two
Speaker 1: episodes that sit under the title House Rules. These two
Speaker 1: episodes examined segregation in the United States in a beautiful way.
Speaker 1: You can find the link in our show notes on
Speaker 1: the website of the Digital Scholarship Lab for the University
Speaker 1: of Richmond in Virginia. You can explore this interactive map
Speaker 1: that lets you see where segregation got planted in the
Speaker 1: United States in so many ways by looking at the
Speaker 1: loan rating codes from the Home Owners Loan Corporation around
Speaker 1: the time of the New Deal. Find your city and
Speaker 1: look at that history and think about is it's still
Speaker 1: reflected today. The third internal action has a lot of
Speaker 1: detail I want you to find at how to citizen
Speaker 1: dot com, but I lay it on your pretty simply
Speaker 1: like this. We think we came up with a way
Speaker 1: for you to explore a folded map like experience for
Speaker 1: theo who don't live in Chicago right without having to
Speaker 1: move to the city of Chicago, which is a great place.
Speaker 1: But that's a big commitment for a podcast where you
Speaker 1: are try this Instead of that first step, reflect on
Speaker 1: your neighborhood and write down the things you love, the
Speaker 1: things you depend on, the specific places that you frequent,
Speaker 1: the library, the grocery stores you go to, the cultural
Speaker 1: institutions you value, the news sources you trust at a
Speaker 1: very very local level. Then I want you to think
Speaker 1: about the neighborhood you don't go to. Think about that
Speaker 1: part of town that you think of as too dangerous
Speaker 1: or too bad to visit, or maybe it's too wealthy
Speaker 1: and too unwelcoming to visit. Either way, there's a part
Speaker 1: of your town or your region that you do not frequent.
Speaker 1: I want you to picture this place, find it, name it,
Speaker 1: and then I want you to explore it using the
Speaker 1: same lens you used to think about your neighborhood. Find
Speaker 1: a restaurant there that serves the food you love in
Speaker 1: order to take out or delivery. Find a library there
Speaker 1: and compare its programming to the one offered by your
Speaker 1: own library. We're in COVID time, so I'm not going
Speaker 1: to encourage you to physically explore a bunch of neighborhoods
Speaker 1: and indoor spaces, but find artists and cultural institutions and
Speaker 1: local news sources in the part of town you never
Speaker 1: go to and tune into that. Our goal is to
Speaker 1: help you become a better citizen of your own neighborhood
Speaker 1: and your greater city and regional area, not just your neighborhood.
Speaker 1: On the external front. For those who live in Chicago,
Speaker 1: you better sign up at that folded map project dot com.
Speaker 1: Do it now. Tonica has finished the action kit and
Speaker 1: it is available for you, so please check that out.
Speaker 1: And whether you live there or not, if you know
Speaker 1: an educator, share this project with them. In particular. Folded
Speaker 1: map Project dot com slash video has resources designs specifically
Speaker 1: for educators. So download the action kit and try to
Speaker 1: do it. Try to do it, and if you take
Speaker 1: any of these actions as always, share them with us
Speaker 1: by sending an email to action at how to citizen
Speaker 1: dot com. Put the word bridges in the subject line.
Speaker 1: That'll help us sort this out and brag online about
Speaker 1: your citizen in using the hashtag how to citizen. You
Speaker 1: can also send us general feedback or ideas to comments
Speaker 1: at how to citizen dot com and you can text
Speaker 1: me two oh to eight nine four eight eight four
Speaker 1: four drop the word citizen in there, so I know
Speaker 1: how you found me and I'll give you extra special
Speaker 1: attention and alert. How does Citizen with barrettun Days production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio podcast Executive produced by Miles Gray,
Speaker 1: Nick Stump, Elizabeth Stewart, and barrettune Day Thursty, Produced by
Speaker 1: Joel Smith, Edited by Justin Smith. Powered by You