A Long Walk Home is a national art organization that empowers young people to end violence against girls and women. Since its inception in 2003, A Long Walk Home has built a powerful collective of artists, activists, healers, survivors, scholars, and women and girls of color leaders. We are committed to increasing resources and opportunities for society’s most vulnerable girls and women in the Chicago area — low-income girls and women of color, those with disabilities, and LGBTQ-identified — and those most impacted by violence.
During the uprising and global pandemic in 2021, A Long Walk Home’s Chicago-based artists Scheherazade Tillet and Robert Narciso created The Black Girlhood Altar. The Black Girlhood Altar is a multimedia, artifact-based, video, and object-based artwork to create sacred spaces and honor the lives of Black girls and young Black women who have gone missing or been murdered. As a mode of urgent healing – weaving together commemoration and advocacy – the Black Girlhood Altar is built on years of engaged work in Chicago and taking on national prominence. This temporary monument traveled through various neighborhoods in Chicago before being exhibited at Chicago Cultural Center. Other installations were at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Project Row Houses in Houston, Project for Empty Space in Newark, and the Minnesota State Capitol in St Paul. As a vital cultural institution in the heart of Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Center represents the democratization of arts for public life. This iteration Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar supports a necessary dialogue with the City of Chicago about the crisis of missing and murdered Black girls and young women. The exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center creates a space for artists, families, organizers and young people to engage in a public conversation.
Programming Schedule
Sunday, November 5
2-4pm
Reimagining and Remembering Series: The Rekia Boyd Monument on Rekia’s 34th Birthday
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Saturday, November 18
12-2pm
Reimagining and Remembering Series: Superheroes and healing powers lead by Elizabeth Gerald, Wisdom Baty, and Scheherazade Tillet
Learning Lab, 1st Floor South
Monday, November 27
12-1pm
Artist Gallery Talk: Scheherazade Tillet and Robert Narciso
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Wednesday, December 13
12-1pm
Reimagining and Remembering Series: Brown Bag Lunch Conversation with Advocates on Missing and Murdered Black Girls
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Saturday, January 13
12-2pm
Daughters of Yemaya: Spiritual Altar Making
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Wednesday, January 17
12-1pm
Taking Care: A Discussion on Doula and Midwifery Care
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Friday, February 9
12-1pm
In Solidarity of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Thursday, February 22
6-7:30pm
Protecting Black Women & Girls: A Conversation Between A Long Walk Home and A Call To Men
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Saturday, February 24
12-2:30pm
Reimagining Remembering Series: Say Her Name/ Douglass Park
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
Saturday-Sunday, March 9-10
Time TBD
Black Girl Takeover: The Black Girlhood Altar Festival
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East
