TONIKA LEWIS JOHNSON

Social Justice Artist

TONIKA LEWIS JOHNSON

Media Coverage

April 8, 2022 - ArtNews, a premiere American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City, wrote an article about Inequity For Sale's installation for Weinberg/Newton Gallery at EXPO Chicago, the annual convening of nearly 200 leading international exhibitors of contemporary and modern art.

March 21, 2022 - Race, culture and politics reporter Natalie Moore covered Tonika's Inequity For Sale project for WBEZ. Click to listen to the full audio story and click the following link to read the article: https://www.wbez.org/stories/artist-shows-impact-of-contract-buying-in-chicago/28161102-a89a-4fa2-b070-561a7c49a92a

March 3, 2022 - Block Club Chicago reports on owner of abandoned Englewood home who removed a land marker, part of Tonika's Inequity For Sale project, from in front of his property. Click the following link to read the complete story: https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/03/03/after-homeowner-removes-sign-of-home-once-sold-through-racist-practices-englewood-activist-will-adjust-art-project/

February 23, 2022 - Block Club Chicago wrote about Inequity For Sale's first two landmarkers being installed. Click the following link to read the full story: https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/02/23/englewood-artist-launches-inequity-for-sale-exhibit-featuring-2-south-side-homes-sold-through-racist-practices/

February 22, 2022, NBC 5 Chicago features Tonika's Inequity For Sale project. Click the following link to watch the entire segment: https://www.nbcchicago.com/top-videos-home/artists-immersive-exhibit-invites-chicagoans-to-walk-through-englewood/2766586/

February 2, 2022, Fox 32 News Chicago covers Tonika's INequity FOr Sale project. Click the following link to watch the entire segment. https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1030237

December 21, 2021 - Crain's Chicago Business covered Tonika's Inequity For Sale project online and in print. Click the following link to read the complete article and listen to the podcast: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-real-estate/artist-maps-englewood-homes-where-land-sale-contracts-denied-black

November 17, 2021 - Block Club Chicago reports on Tonika's latest project, Inequity For Sale. Clock the following link to read the complete article: https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/11/17/black-chicagoans-were-cheated-out-of-owning-homes-for-decades-this-englewood-art-project-shows-racisms-lasting-impact/

“April 27,2021 - WTTW's Chicago Tonight discusses Chicago's new Arts 77 program with Mark Kelly, the head of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and artist Tonika . (Produced by Evan Garcia)

March 30, 2021 - March is Women's History Month, and all month long, CBS Chicago introduced local women trailblazing and making lasting change. Reporter Audrina Bigos featured Tonika Johnson as part of this series.

February 8, 2021 - Colossal contributor Paulette Beete spoke with Tonika Johnson in November 2020 via phone about Folded Map and her motivations to create it. This article is a condensed version of their conversation. Click the following link to read the entire interview: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/interviews/tonika-johnson/

December 10, 2020 - Folded Map was featured on CBS This Morning's series A More Perfect Union. Together, "Map Twins" from the Folded Map project have beautifully extending Folded Map's effort to tackle segregation and the inequity that comes with it with their Englewood Renaissance initiative. Watch the video to see how.

February 2, 2020 - Change Agents Podcast published their coverage of Englewood featuring the Englewood Arts Collective and Resident Assc. of Greater Englewood plus other R.A.G.E. members about how residents are changing the narrative with community initiatives, services and beautification projects. Click the following link to listen to the full story: https://changeagentsthepodcast.com/#episodes
www.englewoodartscollective.com
https://ragenglewood.org/

November 4, 2020 - Block Club Chicago covered the Folded Map Action Kit. To read the complete article, click the following link: https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/11/04/find-your-chicago-map-twin-and-better-understand-what-life-is-like-on-the-other-side-of-the-city-with-free-folded-map-kits/

Sept. 20, 2020, ABC 7 Chicago News featured the online opening of Tonika's Belonging exhibit at UIC's Chicago Justice Gallery as part of their Chicago Proud morning segment. Click the following link to watch the complete interview: https://abc7chicago.com/social-justice-initiative-chicago-gallery-belonging-exhibit-university-of-illinois/6465633/

SEPT 15, 2020 -
COVID-19 has served as a harsh reminder of the stark differences between Chicago neighborhoods. Tonika Lewis Johnson joined CBSN to discuss her "Folded Map Project," which sheds light on the disparities in the city.

September 15, 2020 - Reporter S. Nicole Lane writes a reflection piece about Tonika's Folded Map project, its expansion into a short animated film plus the controversy between her, New York Times and accalimed Magnum Photographer Alec Soth. Click the following link to read the article: https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/folded-map-project-tonika-lewis-johnson/Content?oid=82799005

August 12, 2020 - Associated Press interviewed Tonika about the recent lootings that occured in Chicago. She says Black neighborhoods on the south and west sides have been neglected over decades through disinvestment, leading to a lack of opportunities that breed issues like gun violence and unrest.
Link to story: https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/chicago-artist-disinvestment-led-to-unrest/vi-BB17TeIi

August 10, 2020 - Al Jazeera covered Tonika's Folded Map project. Click the following link to watch the ful story: https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/newsfeed/2020/08/map-project-brings-chicago-residents-200810091338862.html

July 24, 2020 - The Chicago Tribune featured the new Englewood Renaissance initiave recently created by Folded Map's first "Map Twins," where they introduced their neighbors to eachother and titled it "Block Twins." Click the following link to read the article: https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/mary-schmich/ct-met-schmich-englewood-renaissance-20200724-uwrike7ntfgrlprmc5bqq77ki4-story.html

August 2, 2020 - Reuters covered Folded Map and Tonika's hopes that her project – which brings together residents from the North and South Sides – can serve as a model for "awkward but necessary" conversations on racial inequality nationwide.
http://ca.mobile.reuters.com/video/2020/08/02/chicago-artist-tackles-urban-segregation?videoId=716687134&videoChannel=118169

February 11, 2020 - WTTW's Chicago Tonight featured Folded Map. Click the following link to see the segment: https://news.wttw.com/2020/02/11/folded-map-project-highlights-chicago-segregation-gentrification

November 18, 2019 - This article about Tonika, her Folded Map project, growing up in Chicago and her 2020 plans is featured in VICE Magazine's 2019 Profiles Issue. This edition looks to the future by zeroing in on the underrecognized writers, scientists, musicians, critics, and more that will shape our world next year. They are "the Other 2020" to watch. Click the following link to read the full article: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43kevq/this-artist-is-rewriting-the-narrative-of-a-segregated-chicago-v26n4

Nov. 8, 2019 – Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich wrote about Tonika bringing her Folded Map home to Englewood as an exhibition at Englewood Branded apparel store promoting its opening reception Saturday, November 9, 2019, 6-9pm. To read the complete article, click the following link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/mary-schmich/ct-met-schmich-tonika-johnson-englewood-20191108-uchfvr375jc6terilgw6xpgsje-story.html

September 18, 2019 – Tonika posted a video clip to her social media of a room full of predominantly white, Northwestern University freshman all raising their hands in response to her question: “Have you been told to NOT go to the South Side?” Acclaimed Chicago Tribune columnist, Mary Schmich, viewed it and contacted Tonika to write an article about her question explicitly exposing how Chicago’s segregation is perpetuated person to person. Now Tonika is inviting people who have been told "Don’t go to the South (or West) Side," to share their story with her to be part of a new project in 2020! If you’d like to share your story, email foldedmapthoughts@gmail.com. Click the following link to read the full article: https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/mary-schmich/ct-met-mary-schmich-tonika-johnson-south-side-segregation-20190918-65ezg43ksjd6ldeg26bqpzmyc4-story.html

July 15, 2019 – The Christian Science Monitor, a Pulitzer Prize winning, non-profit news organization, featured Tonika as a person "Making a Difference," for her Folded Map Project. Click the following link to read the complete article – https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2019/0715/How-a-Chicago-photographer-uses-art-to-bridge-racial-divides

April 16, 2019 – Tonika Johnson, Paola Aguirre (Creative Grounds) and Aysha Butler (Resident Assc. Of Greater Englewood) hosted “Ain’t You Heard – What Happens to a Dream Deferred,” a storytelling event on the playground at Woods Academy, an Englewood elementary school that closed in 2013, that included a musical performance by rapper Roy Kinsey. Click the following link to read the full story in South Side Weekly: https://southsideweekly.com/aint-you-heard-robeson-high-school/

February 26, 2019 – Tonika Johnson recently earned a fellowship from the nonprofit Images and Voices of Hope (ivoh) to expand her Folded Map project to the West and Northwest Sides. She stopped stopped by WBEZ’s Morning Shift show on Election Day to talk more about her project, and what it can tell us about the inequalities the next mayor will have to address. Click the following link to hear the full interview: https://www.wbez.org/shows/morning-shift/photographer-tonika-johnsons-folded-map-project-expands-westward/b06a178c-ac1c-4b33-a325-cabfc2699211?utm_source=url&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Web-Share

September 16, 2018 – ABC 7 Sunday News invited Tonika Johnson to their studios for a live interview about her Folded Map project. Click the following link to view the full interview – https://abc7chicago.com/entertainment/folded-map-project-puts-chicagos-inequalities-on-display/4243730/

January 23, 2019 – Tonika Johnson’s “Folded Map” project made it into Atlas Obscura, the go-to hub of the world’s hidden wonders and curious places. Click the following link to read the full article – https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chicago-folded-map-project

January 23, 2019 – Loyola Phoenix, the official student newspaper of Loyola University Chicago, wrote about the trajectory of Tonika Johnson’s Folded Map project and its evolution into a stage play plus spoke to the "map twins," in her project about it. Read the complete article by clicking the following link: http://loyolaphoenix.com/2019/01/unfolding-chicago-how-one-artists-critical-eye-united-two-sides-of-a-segregated-city/ .

January 9, 2019 – The Citizen covers the stage adaptation of Tonika Johnson’s Folded Map project as their cover story. Click the following link to read the full article – http://thechicagocitizen.com/news/2019/jan/09/tonika-lewis-johnsons-folded-map-transformed-stage/

November 12, 2018 – The Broadway World publication features an announcement of the January debut of Tonika Johnson’s Folded Map play with social justice, theater company, Collaboraction as part of their two-week performance series, Encounter. . https://www.broadwayworld.com/chicago/article/Tonika-Lewis-Johnsons-FOLDED-MAP-Project-to-Be-Adapted-for-Stage-Within-Encounter-Series-20181112

October 18, 2018 – Sun-Times columnist and author of “The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation,” wrote about her personal "Folded Map," experience in her article about Tonika Johnson’s Folded Map exhibit at Loyola University Museum of Art. View the complete article at the following link: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2018/10/18/18441139/who-s-your-north-side-or-south-side-twin-in-culturally-polarized-chicago

September 4, 2018 – Tonika Johnson was interviewed on Channel ABC 7's Windy City Live about her Folded Map project. She was joined on the show with her first Folded Map "Map Twins," Englewood resident, Nanette and Edgewater resident, Wade. Link to story here – https://abc7chicago.com/society/folded-map-project-capturing-the-division-of-the-city/4154771/

Tonika Johnson and Loyola University Museum of Art’s curator Natasha Ritsma sat down together to talk to Bad At Sports about Folded Map, how they met, plus other things. Click the following link to read the full transcribed conversation: http://badatsports.com/2018/tonika-johnson-and-natasha-ritsma/

September 25, 2018 – Non-profit, online arts publication and archiving initiative, Sixty Inches From Center, featured their interview with Tonika. Click the following link to read the complaete conversation: http://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/tonika-l-johnson-uses-visual-activism-to-combat-distorted-truth/

September 12, 2018 – Loyola University featured their interview with Tonika Johnson about her Folded Map exhibition on their website and alumni magazine. Reda more here – https://luc.edu/foldedmap/

September 10, 2018 – Online journalism & storytelling publication, A Beautiful Perspective, featured an article about Tonika Johnson and her Folded Map project. Read complete article at the following link – https://abeautifulperspective.com/2018/09/in-racially-divided-chicago-map-twins-break-down-barriers/

August 30, 2018 – Keith Johnson of WBBM News Radio interviews Tonika Johnson about Folded Map. Click link to listen to the interview and read the story: https://wbbm780.radio.com/articles/newsmaker-making-difference-tonika-johnson-folded-map-project

August 30, 2018 – CITYLAB featured Folded Map and included quotes from acclaimed socialogist and authot of Black Picket Fences, Mary Pattillo as well as Folded Map’s first Map twin, Wade Wilson and Nanette Tucker. Click link to read full article: https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/08/folded-map-twins-chicago-south-side-segregation/568903/

August 26, 2018 – Chicago Magazine interviews Tonika Johnson about her Folded Map project, what she hopes it accomplishes, and her future plans to expand it. Click the following link to read the complete interview: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/September-2018/Tonika-Johnson-Bridges-Neighborhoods-to-Break-Down-Walls-of-Segregation/

August 26, 2018 – Photographer Yvette Meltzer interviews Tonika Johnson about her artistic process, her childhood in Englewood, and how her work is only one aspect of her community activism. Read the full story here: http://lenscratch.com/2018/08/photographers-on-photographers-yvette-meltzer-on-tonika-lewis-johnson/

August 14, 2018 – VICE media covers the impact and significance of Tonika’s photography of her home, Englewood. Read the complete story at the following link: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbjzzd/these-powerful-images-of-chicagos-south-side-are-filled-with-love

August 14, 2018 – Tonika’s Folded Map project is a feature article on the website of Next City, a non-profit organization witha mission to inspire social, economic, and environmental change in cities through journalism and events around the world. You can read the full article by clikcing the following link: https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/chicago-segregation-mapping-project-makes-real-life-connections

August 7, 2018 – Tonika Johnson spoke to Kevin Coval on WGN’s Cornerstore Podcast about documenting Englewood, her Folded Map exhibit at Loyola University Museum of Art, and countering the dominant and problematic narrative of Englewood with her photography. Click the following link to listen to the full conversation: https://wgnradio.com/2018/08/07/tonika-johnson-documenting-englewood-telling-a-broader-story-of-chicago-and-more/

July 5, 2018 – ABC 7 Chicago interviewed Tonika Johnson about her Folded Map exhibition at Loyola University Museum of Art until October 20th! Click the link to watch the full video: http://abc7chicago.com/society/art-exhibit-looks-at-chicago-segregation-in-new-way/3712630/

June 20, 2018 – Tonika Johnson catches a ride with Fox 32's Anthony Ponce on Backseat Rider to discuss her Folded Map project opening at Loyola University Museum of Art July 3rd and running until October 20th! Click the link to watch the full video: http://www.fox32chicago.com/backseat-rider/341606371-video

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018 – Tonika Johnson’s #FoldedMap project was the cover story of The Chicago Tribune. Click here to read the full article online – http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-folded-map-project-chicago-20180521-story.html

June 8th, 2018 – Newsy features Tonika’s Folded Map Project. Click the following link to view video: https://www.newsy.com/stories/artist-s-folded-map-project-aims-to-break-down-barriers/

Saturday, May 26, 2018 – U.S. News & World Report writes about #FoldedMap online. Click here for full article: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/illinois/articles/2018-05-26/chicago-photographers-project-shows-disparities-in-the-city

May 23rd, 2018 – Tonika Johnson discusses her #FoldedMap project on WBEZ’s Morning Shift with Tony Sarabia. Click here to listen: https://www.wbez.org/shows/morning-shift/folded-map-project-addresses-segregation-in-chicago/0bd42eb0-2aa8-4acb-b11e-5249b0902805

Saturday, May 12th, 2018 – Tonika Johnson discusses her #FoldedMap project on WGN Radio’s Outside The Loop show. Click here to listen at the 18:53 time mark.

Saturday, May 12th, Tonika Johnson discusses her #FoldedMap project on WGN Radio’s Outside The Loop show. Click here to listen at the 18:53 time mark.
http://wgnradio.com/2018/05/12/otl-604-chicago-mini-maker-faire-the-folded-map-project-the-secret-history-of-the-weaker-sex/

Tonika’s "Everyday #Englewood," photo "Her Name is Yoshi," (16x20, edition 3/10) will be included in Filter Photo’s annual Cocktail Reception & Print Raffle fundraiser, Thursday, April 19th at The Boarding House. To attend, purchase tickets at http://filterphoto.org/cocktail-reception-and-print-raffle/

March 1, 2018 National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2018/march/women-photographers-african-diaspora/
Tonika Johnson’s photo from her "Everyday Rituals," Englewood-based photography project was featured in National Geographic’s article about MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora

January 24, 2018 The JAM TV

Tonika Johnson’s photography of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood are included in the historic and groundbreaking book, MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora that features 118 photographers from across the globe. http://mfonfoto.org/

With her exhibit Everyday Rituals: Bridging the Black Secular and Divine, Chicago based photographer Tonika Johnson aims to subvert the national narrative of the Englewood community as a crime riddled war zone. Johnson believes that Black culture has always been reflected in everyday things like going to the barbershop or preparing food, but outsiders don’t always see it that way. Tonika Johnson spoke with Jesse Menendez about how ‘Everyday Rituals’ captures the beauty of regular life in Englewood. The Morning AMp airs M-F 8-10 AM on 91.1 FM (CHI) / 89.5 FM (NWI) and streaming at www.vocalo.org

VOCALO: In our monthly ongoing series, This Is What Chicago Sounds Like, we feature voices and people who contribute to our city’s rich cultural diversity. In this episode we highlight photographer and creator of the Everyday Rituals exhibition, Tonika Johnson.

WTTW Chicago Tonight (July 10, 2017)

http://www.pbs.org/video/3002656320/

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Folded Map 2018 Exhibition