Esther Jones posts fliers for Ulimi TOC on the campus of Northeastern Illinois University, just before her WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM interview. (photo by C. Schandelmeier)
Esther Jones Creates Everything at Ulimi TOC
The soulful call of the African drum reached out and touched Esther Jones’ heart as she was driving home to Chicago from Evanston. She followed the call of the drum on a Monday night to Ridgeway Park where she met Guinean artist Abdoulaye Camara, an African performer, dancer and drummer. Camara now provides the heartbeat for the inaugural community workshop taught by Jones’ non-profit organization, Ulimi TOC. Here, children ages 7-12 years old learn about African culture, and language through drumming and dancing.
Ulimi TOC is a non-profit organization founded by Esther Jones in 2021, with the mission of educating the next generation about African culture and language. According to Jones, Ulimi is a Zulu word that means to speak, and TOC stands for tongue of culture. As a black woman in leadership, Jones is fostering artistic expression in the next generation, as Andrea Change is doing at the Guild Literary Complex. Jones’ aim in creating Ulimi TOC is to give African American children the opportunity to feel pride in their cultural roots. The workshops take place from 4-5:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Kamen Park, 1111 South Boulevard in Evanston, Illinois from August 11th through September 16th.
Abdoulaye Camara is an African performer, dancer, and drummer from Ghana, West Africa. He is also the first instructor for Ulimi TOC’s workshop at Kamen Park in Evanston.
Abdoulaye Camara demonstrates an African gourd Kalimba Mbira thumb piano.
The David Wood Fieldhouse at Kamen Park is where Ulimi TOC, a 501-C3 non-profit created by Esther Jones to connect children with African American Culture.
The strength and clarity of Jones’ vision have proven vital to the reputation that Ulimi TOC is developing as a new nonprofit organization. Jones, a forceful artist in her own right, is a singer/songwriter, the author of the bookThe Poems of Esther, has an MBA and raised three children as a single mother in Chicago. She has much in common with Andrea Change, as a artist, single mother and executive director of a non-profit organization. The idea for Ulimi TOC came to her while she was working as a substitute teacher in a Spanish-speaking kindergarten class in Oak Park District 97.
“Not only were the children learning Spanish language, they were learning about the culture. I thought, there is so much more to African Americans than slavery. African culture is so rich. African American children need to learn about the language and culture of Africa.”
She said in an interview with WZRD on August 24th. Jones went on to explain how Ulimi TOC is designed to engage minds by connecting young African Americans with that culture. Her goal is to eliminate black on black crime by giving young people knowledge about the common bond they share.
Abdoulaye Camara, Amy Osterman and Esther Jones outside of Kamen Park in the David Wood Fieldhouse, 1111 South Blvd. in Evanston where Ulimi TOC sponsored their first workshop.
As her idea for the organization took root, Jones researched the closest African cultural and language studies program in the Chicagoland area, and discovered it at Michigan State University. So, she reached out to them with her idea, and has been collaborating with them ever since. She also partnered with Northwestern Illinois University’s Segal School of Design whose students are responsible for Ulimi’s new website and marketing materials. To find out more, visit the Ulimi website, email Ulimitoc@gmail.com or call (773) 410-6602.
Esther Jones alerts the musical community at NEIU about Ulimi TOC’s African drumming and dance classes just before her WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM interview on August 24, 2024. (photo by C. Schandelmeier)
Cynthia Gallaher and Andrea Change chat after the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Induction ceremony on April 16, 2024.
As the cork popped out of the bottle, a diverse group of happy humans gathered at the Honeycomb Network on April 11, 2024, and cheered with jubilation. The successful launch of Nikki Patin’s new book Working on Me is a testament to the visionary and transformational leadership that The Guild Literary Complex is experiencing through the one and only Andrea Change.
Executive Director Andrea Change brought a group representing the Guild’s diverse arts community out of the country to Bogota and Quibdó in Colombia with financial support from The Poetry Foundation. In order to do this, Change initially worked with Christian Vasquez, a graduate student from Northwestern University, and cultivated a relationship with Velia Vidal an artist in El Chocó, Columbia.
According to Founding Executive Director Michael Warr, (whose archives provided documentation), in 1993-1994, the Guild Literary Complex did an international exchange program with artists from the Goethe Institute in Berlin, Germany. According to Change, a group of poets representing the Guild Literary Complex also traveled to Norway when the Guild had former Executive Director John Rich at the helm. Nonetheless, through her work, Change is creating a legacy that sets the foundation for other black women in leadership roles, because never before has the Guild Literary Complex gone out of the country to work with people who have had such similar ancestral roots as they do in Quibdó, a city which is located in an isolated region of Columbia known as El Chocó. Change spoke in a March 9, 2024 interview with WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM;
“One of the reasons we were asked to come down there was because Quibdó is an underrepresented community. It’s mostly Afro-Latin, so instead of mostly white-facing Latin folks, this is the black-facing or people of color of Latin descent in that community. They really wanted us to bring folks who look like them to this community. So, all of the writers who are going are of Latin descent. They have brown skin, they have curly hair like me. It will extend the Guild’s mission to another part of the world, but it is still the Guild’s mission to be with underrepresented marginalized groups, and so, this is a city, but it is a small city, and it is a small community. But to be there, and be representing Spanish culture to people who look like us, or who look like me, is a privilege.”
Born and raised in Chicago, Change has been active in the Chicago literary scene, specifically the poetry scene for over 30 years. She knows the sacrifice involved with being a single mother, and the hardships of being the lone head of household in the city. Change described her process to becoming executive director of the Guild Literary Complex where she began as a poet and audience member, then was a volunteer, and eventually, served as an officer on the board of the Guild Literary Complex. The Guild Complex initially began as a brick-and-mortar bookstore under the leadership of Founding Executive Director Michael Warr.
Founding Executive Director of the Guild Literary Complex, Michael Warr in Clarion Alley, San Francisco. (Photo by Patricia Zamora, used with permission.)
According to Warr, the Guild Complex began as a bookstore, and had a reputation for being a gathering place for artistic souls that long encouraged cross-cultural collaboration. Warr is a former BBC reporter, published poet of WE ARE ALL THE BLACK BOY (1991 ), and Armageddon of Funk (2011), and both published by Tia Chucha Press and editedOf Poetry & Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin, published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2016. While Warr has experience running the Guild Literary Complex as an executive director, talent agent, performance artist and poet Naiya Davis (aka Clou9aiya), whose Ted Talk Ouch…Did You Really Mean That? drives home the impact of microaggressions, is like Change, a black woman in leadership. During a June 29, 2024, interview with WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM, Davis said:
“When some people find out I am a leader, they look at me funny.”
Naiya Davis is a talent agent, spoken word artist, and poet. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier).
According to a recent Pew Research report, women are behind men in holding leadership positions. However, if Change has had this issue, it doesn’t show. As Mary Hawley, who was part of the Colombia expedition with the Guild Literary Complex and is also a Palabra Pura volunteer, stated “Andrea is humble.” Professor of English Literature at City Colleges of Chicago, Lynn Fitzgerald discussed Change’s leadership at the Guild Literary Complex during a July 6, 2024, WZRD interview:
“Andrea Change has been an instrumental cornerstone in the city of Chicago…she is also a woman of color, she is again, a woman! Women have to make their way in this world of art… Andrea has been instrumental in getting people out in the public eye and getting it known that these people have a voice, which is excellent…She takes more of a behind-the-scenes role, but I don’t think the Guild would be the Guild without her! She is so necessary, she is intuitive, and understands people very very well.”
Change’s acute understanding of marginalized people came through during a March 9, 2024, interview when Change was at WZRD, a week before her historic leadership role in taking the Guild Literary Complex and its representatives on their international odyssey. She described the Guild Literary Complex, which is historically a grassroots organization known for collaborating with other community groups on social and restorative justice issues in the city of Chicago in this way:
The Guild Literary Complex’s Executive Director, Andrea Change, networking after Patricia Smith was honored with the Fuller Award from the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame at the Poetry Foundation on July 11, 2024.
“Grassroots is a nice stamp, but this year we just celebrated our 35th anniversary…grassroots just refers to how we operate in the sense that we like to stay in touch with the community, which is challenging, I’ll say because Chicago is a really big city!”
Now, with Change, who is a gifted poet in her own right, as the Executive Director and support from the Poetry Foundation, the Guild is boldly stepping outside of location-specific arts programming to embrace national and international partnerships. The Guild provides arts and advocacy programming for marginalized voices, specifically black and brown people, including persons with disabilities, those who are incarcerated, and those identifying as LBGTQIA+. Terry Lonaric, poet, author, and journalist said,
“I like the way the Guild partners with community organizations to raise issues of social justice. When the arts become a part of community life, they reach their true potential.”
As Executive Director of the Guild Literary Complex, Andrea Change is helping diverse people reach their potential while creating pioneering and innovative forms of art. Historically, the Guild Literary Complex initiated the National Poetry Video Festival. It also was recognized by the 2022 New City “Lit 50” Awards under the leadership of Andrea Change. It has sponsored poets like Aviya Kushner, author of Wolf Lamb Bomb whose work was hailed as “noteworthy” by the New York Times in 2021. Change had been a long-time supporter of the Guild Literary Complex when she suddenly found herself cast into the role of volunteer at an event, according to Warr (who now lives in San Francisco) as he recalled in a podcast created from a virtual radio broadcast on May 5, 2024 with WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM.
Founding Executive Director of the Guild Literary Complex, Michael Warr discussed the history of the Guild Literary Complex and how Andrea Change first became involved with the 501-3C not-for-profit organization founded in 1989.
Susana Sandoval remembers when Andrea Change took the first step in her evolution from poet and audience member to volunteer. Susana, who, for the last seven years has been a human rights commissioner within the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, is a journalist by training and was employed by the Guild Literary Complex as one of its two staff members, (along with Jen Abrams) under the leadership of Michael Warr in the mid-nineties.
In a virtual interview on July 6, 2024 from Ecuador, she explained that the Guild Literary Complex was a meeting place not only for academics, but for young lovers. She pointed out how she met Kahil El’Zabar, her former husband, and the father of her children at Guild Literary Complex. She also noted that the Lansanas, (Quraysh Ali Lansana and his wife, the poet and community builder Emily Hooper Lansana) met at the Guild as well. The Guild Literary Complex by all accounts was a safe place where artists and academics of any cultural background could go and feel accepted. Andrea Change, a single mother of Phillip, (who is now grown and living with his fiancé in St. Louis) was among them.
“But I don’t look my age!” laughs Change, “…This was one of those things where, and I tell this to people all of the time. ‘I am the executive director, but I like to say that I am sort of an accidental tourist. The work that I have done in the past was laying the foundation for the work that I do now.’”
The Guild Literary Complex is perhaps most well known in the literary community for their annual Brooks Day event honoring renowned poet Gwendolyn Brooks. In 1950, Brooks became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. In a fitting example of symmetry, Change noted how poet Tyehimba Jess, still claims the Brooks prize in his biography, although like Brooks, he has gone on to win a Pulitzer Prize for his 2016 book Olio.
According to Change, this year the Guild will break from their usual tradition of celebrating Gwendolyn Brooks on June 7th, which is her birthday, instead celebrating Brooksday in October, 2024. The literary tradition of Brooksday is well documented, for example in this article by the Visualist.
Validating the Guild Literary Complex and their decision to present their annual Brooksday event in October, Professor Fitzgerald noted,
“October is Artists’ Month, and I remember working on Chicago Calling with Dan Godston and number of other people, we would have artists who were Zoomed in – this was before Zoom became some hot topic word – and we were connected on a stream in a Cafe or a Bar from other parts pf the world. So all of October was dedicated to artists. Galleries were just breaking apart at the seams with events! I don’t know if the Guild will resurrect some of that – they probably can because they have such international interactions with people. It is quite possible that they will. October will be a good month for the Gwendolyn Brooks event.”
The Guild Literary Complex embraces the non-binary community through its Press Room Transvengence series, hosted by trans artist Joss Barton. Barton explained during an interview with WZRD on April 30, 2024 how her disco-drag performance at a social justice fair hosted by Exhibit B led to her eventually being recruited by Change to host the series:
Joss Barton dreams of writing a nature collection, based on her experiences growing up in rural Missouri. Here, Joss is on the campus of Northeastern Illinois University, home of WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier)
“I did this piece…performing disco-drag numbers in between spoken word for the Social Justice Fair – so when Andrea, the Executive Director of the Guild Literary Complex – was in the audience and she saw me do that body of work, she really really enjoyed it! She introduced herself to me after the show, and kind of just pitched the idea of doing something for trans writers with the Guild, and wanted to see if I had any ideas. So, I said ‘Let me think about it.’ So I pitched her the idea of Transvengence.” Barton continued, “Our art can be vengeance. You can take away our rights, but you can’t take away our stories.”
She flashed her dark eyes, flipped her hair, and stood strong in her identity as a trans woman, artist, and storyteller.
Joss Barton prepares to leave WZRD after her interview in April. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier)
Andrea Change introduces Transvengence featuring the work of Joss Barton, Jack, and Lynzo Heartthrob on June 18, 2024. (Photograph and videography by C. Schandelmeier)
On June 16, 2024, Transvengence featured Joss Barton (far left), Jack (on the mic), and Lynzo Heartthrob in an honest, candid conversation after the performance. The show is supported by the Guild Literary Complex Press Room Series. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier)
Change worked with Lansana to promote his 2024 book, Killing the Negative: Poetic Interventions, which he created with artist Joel Daniel Phillips. She explained how Phillips reached out to Lansana after he had discovered the depression-era film negatives of people archived at the Library of Congress with a single hole punched in each that was a destructive act known as “killing the negative” which served as the inspiration for the book. Such innovation through the lens of diversity is not new to Change. In the same interview, Change commented:
“Because of the nature of what we’ve done, we’ve had a strong connection to the poetry community, the African-American community, and other groups. Interestingly enough, we have always had a person of color either in a leadership role or on our board. We have always had someone who represented the LGBTQ community on our board, and someone of Latin descent on our board. It’s been a part of who we are. It is strange when I hear about people’s other boards…for me, it was always the norm to have a culturally diverse group of people who I have worked with.”
The Puerto Rican flag sculptures along Paseo Boricua in Humboldt Park signals Palabra Pura poets and audience members that their destination of La Bruquena. 2726 W Division St, Chicago, IL is near. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier, July 17, 2024).
Change brought transformation to the Guild Literary Complex through the Guild’s recent trip to Bogota and Quibdó, Colombia where they worked with MoTeTe. Change and other members of the Guild Literary Complex such as Mary Hawley (Palabra Pura volunteer and translator) and Hawley’s husband, poet Mike Puican (former board president for the Guild Literary Complex) traveled with a delegation of Spanish speaking black and brown writers (thanks to a grant provided by the Poetry Foundation) in order to interact with their South American artistic peers.
Poet Elizabeth Marino, author of Debris and poet Shontay Luna author of Reflections of a Project Girl, both participated in the One Poet: One Poem event held July 17. 2024 by the Guild Literary Complex’s Palabra Pura series hosted by Gregorio Gomez at a Bruquena. 2726 W Division St, Chicago, IL. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier)
The Guild Literary Complex representatives did this all while writing, learning, and exploring an environment which echoed their own diversity and linguistic roots. The group of American artists, led by Change, included Kianny N. Antigua and Luis Tubens among others. Followed by a documentary crew, this was the first international experience for The Guild Literary Complex. The release of the documentary based on this epic journey is slated for October, 2024.
Mary Hawley is a translator and long-time Palabra Pura volunteer for the Guild Literary Complex. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier)
Poet Mary Hawley is the translator and long-time volunteer of the Guild Literary Complex’s Palabra Pura series who joined the Guild Literary Complex on their epic adventure to Colombia. Hawley spoke to WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM in an April 27, 2024 interview about the once-in-a-lifetime experience after the journey. She explained how , Vásquez (originally from Colombia) became involved with The Guild Literary Complex, and then introduced Vidal to the organization when she participated in a virtual reading for Palabra Pura during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Because of this professional association through the spoken word, the group went to an annual literary festival in a region of Colombia called El Choco’. The festival, which has officially been in existence for 7 years, is known as FLECHO (so-called because of its initials) and was created thanks to the leadership of Velia Vidal. As Hawley explained,
“When they were organizing this year’s festival, Andrea Change, who is the Executive Director of the Guild Complex, was able to get grant money to send an international delegation of poets from Chicago and the US to this literary festival in El Choco’ with a particular focus on the African diaspora. So our group included Kianny Antigua, who is a poet, novelist, and translator from the Dominican Republic. She teaches at Dartmouth. Luis Tubens otherwise known as ‘Loco Lu’ from Puerto Rico who is here from Logan Square and a few other participants who went with us. We were there for a week.”
James Stewart III is the author of “Defiant Acts” being published by Acre Books out of the University of Cincinnati in 2025. He is also the president of the board of directors at the Guild Literary Complex, and co-founded Exhibit B.
James Stewart III, the President of the Board at The Guild spoke to WZRD Chicago 88.3 FM on July 20, 2024 about Exhibit B, the literary variety show he co-founded. He explained how they had reached out to Andrea Change for support through the Guild Literary Complex. Change welcomed Exhibit B and their innovative ideas (Exhibit B members came together as recent graduates of the Master of Fine Arts program at the School of the Art Institute). He noted that while the Guild pays a hundred dollars per gig at the most, it is more than the average because most people seem to think that artists can live off nothing. Change knows better than this.
True to her name, Change is concerned about preparing the next generation of leadership to take over the Guild Literary Complex, which continues to develop deep meaningful connections within a historically marginalized community. The fact that Change has had health issues increases the urgency of this work. Change is at the cutting edge of creating a difference in the world for all people. If only the rest of the world could pivot into this type of change. To find out more about the Guild Literary Complex go to: GuildComplex.org.
Alanis Zoe Castillo Caref and Emily Maciel are best friends who met in their high school poetry club. They also co-host a spoken word open mic in Wicker Park.
To connect with more like-minded people who support the role of literary women leaders like Andrea Change, visit the Facebook page:
Andrea Change reaches across the aisle in conversation with David Gecic, publisher of Puddin’head Press at the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on April 18, 2024. (Photo by C. Schandelmeier)
Poetry in Chicago 