Making Spaces: Lesbians Imagining and Building Community in Chicago
Women's History Month
March 26, 2024
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location
Latino Cultural Center, Lecture Center B2
Address
803 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
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Promotional poster: Purple text on a tan background describing the event (same info on this page). In the center are photos of the featured speakers. At the bottom is the Chicago skyline with buildings in a rainbow of colors. Multicolored swirls are at the top and bottom.
We invite you to a panel exploring what happens when Lesbians decide to come together to build something--a team, an organization, a movement, an intervention--as well as the joys and the challenges in sustaining them, and the ways Lesbians have helped us develop tools for constructing a more livable city and world.
Hosted by the Women's Leadership and Resource Center, Gender and Sexuality Center, Gender and Women's Studies, and Honors College.
Food, Safety, and Accessibility:
- Please wear a mask if you will be attending in person. We will have masks available onsite.
- Snacks will be provided.
- The LCC is wheelchair accessible.
- Captions will be enabled on Zoom.
Please contact us with any questions or access requests: wlrc@uic.edu or (312) 413-1025.
Registration has now closed. Please feel free to join us in person at LCC even if you haven't registered.
Date posted
Mar 13, 2024
Date updated
Mar 26, 2024
Speakers
Tracy Baim | Co-founder; longtime publisher and journalist | Windy City Times
Tracy Baim is co-founder and owner of Windy City Times. She is former publisher of the Chicago Reader newspaper. Baim has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the 2013 Chicago Headline Club (2013) and the Chicago Journalists Association (2022). In 2014, she was inducted into the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Association for Women Journalists-Chicago Chapter Hall of Fame in 2018. She is also in the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. She has won numerous LGBTQ community and journalism honors, including the Community Media Workshop’s Studs Terkel Award in 2005 and the Lambda Legal Bon Foster Award in 2023. Baim has written and/or edited 13 books and produced three films. She is also an advocate on many issues.
Evette Cardona | Vice President of Programs | Polk Bros. Foundation
Evette Cardona is a native Chicagoan and a graduate of the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, where she received the 2010 U of C’s Leadership in Diversity Alumni award, the 2008 Elizabeth Butler award for outstanding professional success and achievement in social work, and where she teaches a course in philanthropy and public policy. In 2012 she was appointed the Vice President of Programs for the Polk Bros. Foundation where she began as a program intern in September 1997. She is also a past chair of the board of directors of Forefront. Prior to joining Polk Bros. Foundation Evette worked with an Ounce of Prevention program for adolescent mothers and their children at Christopher House, was an Urban Gateways teaching-artist, and did freelance photography/audio-visual work. She received her Bachelors of Arts in Art and Design from University of Illinois at Chicago. Evette has also been honored with numerous awards for her professional and community work including most recently the Association of Fundraising Professionals 2020 Professional Grantor Award, and awards from Crain’s Chicago’s Notable LGBTQ Executives, the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, National Museum of Mexican Arts, the Center on Halsted, the ACLU/Chicago office, Mujeres Latinas en Accion, the Illinois Women’s Bar Association, Latinos Progresando, the Illinois Association of Hispanic State Employees, the Near Northwest Neighborhood Network, the Coalition of African, Arab, Asian, European, Latino Immigrants of Illinois, Literacy Powerline, and Association of Latinx Motivating Action. She is the co-founder of Amigas Latinas and was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 2002 along with her wife of 28 years Mona Noriega.
Neena Hemmady | Vice President, Support Services | ComEd
Neena Hemmady is a long-standing member of Chicago’s LGBT community. In the mid-1990’s, Hemmady co-founded Khuli Zaban, an organization for South & West Asian Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender women in Chicago. Over the years, Neena has been involved in organizing efforts to help advance equity and human rights for all people - including LGBTQ people, young people, people of color, and immigrants & refugees. Some of this work over the years has taken place with numerous volunteer organizations and governmental organizations including the Crossroads Fund, Equality Illinois, and the City of Chicago’s Advisory Council on Gay & Lesbian Issues. Neena currently serves on the board of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and is on the Steering Committee of the South Asian Solidarity Movement (SASM). She is also an environmental engineer, and a 25-year veteran of the electric utility industry serving in roles working on climate change mitigation, electrification, and helping to enable the clean energy transition. Hemmady is married and has two children.
Lisa Marie Pickens | Co-founder | Affinity Community Services
Lisa Marie Pickens is a native Southsider of Chicago, born to parents who migrated from the south during the great migration. Her parents taught her an appreciation for gardening, the important of maintaining a connection to her roots, respect for all people, the collective power of people and that she had an obligation to contribute to the change she wanted to see in this world. Lisa Marie has substantial experience working directly with community members, leaders, and organizations engaged in racial justice-centered systems change as a participant, grant maker, evaluator, coach and consultant. Lisa Marie is the co-founder of Affinity Community Services – soon to be a 30- year-old social justice organization that works with and on behalf of Black LGBTQ communities, queer youth, and allies to identify emergent needs, create safe spaces, develop leaders, and bridge communities through collective analysis and action for social justice, freedom, and human rights.