Good afternoon, Chicago.
Rekia Boyd would have been 36 years old last month. To honor that milestone, A Long Walk Home — the art organization that empowers young people to end violence against Black girls and women — held a party for family and community to celebrate her life.
An off-duty Chicago police officer shot and killed Boyd near Douglass Park in 2012. She was 22 years old. The officer was acquitted of criminal charges in the case.
ALWH has been saying her name ever since — honoring her and the Black girlhood that she and others like her embody. ALWH provides artistic, advocacy and leadership programming to Black girls and young women to help them drive change within their communities. Boyd was one of several Black girls and women featured in ALWH’s “Black Girlhood Altar,” a community monument to missing and murdered Black girls.
The November celebration at Homan Square’s Nichols Tower was ebullient with food, camaraderie and conversation about Boyd’s legacy. Many attendees wore Boyd’s favorite color, yellow, and commiserated amidst pictures of a young, smiling Boyd and renderings of projects artists hope will be developed to pay homage to Boyd in North Lawndale’s Douglass Park. Artists Nina Cooke John, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Tiff Massey, Sonja Henderson and Nekisha Durrett gave presentations. The proposals are finalists for the Rekia Boyd Monument Project.
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