EVENT P GRAM
6:00 PM
WELCOME | Performance Hall
Tonight’s hosts, Shaleyah Carter, Brooke Elston and Angeth Mayen Grab your seats and settle in for an impactful evening.
ROOTED: A SCREEENING | Performance Hall
Watch how two Southside Chicago business owners have fought against the odds to nourish their community’s bodies and souls.
6:45 PM
PANEL CONVERSATION | Performance Hall
The stars of our screening will be joined by Celebrity chef, food justice activist and author, Bryant Terry for a brief conversation and Q&A from the audience. Moderated by Madelin De Jesus Martinez, President of the Black Graduate Coalition.
7:15 PM
LITE BITES & BREWS | Gidwitz Lobby
Savor dishes from our guest of honor, Bryant Terry’s cookbook, Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora.
WHAT DOES RESILIENCE LOOK LIKE | Gidwitz Lobby
Take part in our photo art installation, created by our featured artist, Blake D. Lenoir. Snap a pic with friends and fam, or shine solo and show us what resilience looks like!
7:30 PM
BOOK SIGNING | Gidwitz Lobby
Bryant Terry is a chef, food justice activist, and critically acclaimed author fighting for a more just and sustainable food system. Join him in the Gidwitz lobby for a special book signing featuring his 2 latest books, Black Food and The Best American Food and Travel Writing.
NERS
The Organization of Black Students (OBS) at the University of Chicago is a dynamic, student-led community dedicated to empowering Black voices, fostering academic success, and celebrating rich cultural heritage. Through innovative programs, events, and advocacy, OBS creates inclusive spaces for dialogue, support, and the promotion of Black excellence on campus.
The African and Caribbean Student Association (ACSA) at the University of Chicago fosters a vibrant community that celebrates and elevates African and Caribbean cultures, histories, and achievements. Through cultural events, dialogues, and advocacy, ACSA cultivates inclusive spaces for academic, social, and personal growth, uniting students in pride and community em-
The Black Graduate Coalition (BGC) at the University of Chicago is a vibrant network of Black graduate students dedicated to fostering academic excellence, professional development, and social empowerment. Through workshops, networking events, and community-building programs, BGC fosters strong peer connections and elevates Black voices across campus.
The Crown School Black Student Association (BSA) at UChicago has a goal of nurturing a cohesive community among the Black students at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy & Practice as well as the entire Black Diaspora at The University of Chicago. Through sacred spaces and building community and connection, BSA fosters a safe, supportive, and enjoyable community for Black students.
CLIFF ROME
ME E NEL
Chef Rome is an acclaimed culinary leader whose journey spans from Chicago to Europe, including experiences in Paris and Cannes, as well as aboard luxury yachts that shaped his global outlook on food and hospitality. In 2000, he founded Rome's Joy Companies, which includes Peach's on 47th, grab-and-go venues at the University of Chicago, Rome's Joy Catering, RJC Sausage, Parkway Social, a fine arts gallery called Blanc, and Rome and a Day Productions, a nonprofit organization, all based in Chicago's Bronzeville community.
Through his culinary training program, Mise en Place, Chef Rome has created job opportunities for at-risk youth in the culinary sector, while his Clean Habits program expands career paths beyond hospitality. His Rome's Joy Institute, recognized by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, focuses on education and workforce development.
With over 30 years in the industry, Chef Rome has garnered numerous awards and partnerships with organizations like After School Matters and Chicago Public Schools. He is also an advisory board member for Washburne Culinary School. Chef Rome's latest initiative, BAMJoy, will enhance food service at the Obama Presidential Center, set to open in Spring 2026.
Monica Haslip is a renowned community leader, social entrepreneur, artist, and racial healing practitioner. As the Founder and Executive Director of Little Black Pearl (LBP), a Chicago-based arts and cultural hub established in 1994, she has developed a 40,000-square-foot campus focused on community, care, and artistic expression.
Raised in Roosevelt City, Alabama, Haslip brings over 30 years of experience at the intersection of art, racial equity, and community development. She believes that art, love, and belonging are essential for collective healing.
LBP features various initiatives, including the Carver 47 Food & Wellness Café, which highlights the cultural significance of food; C47 Catering, providing meals and culinary jobs while promoting food justice; the C47 Membership Lounge for connection and relaxation; and the Thriving Leaders Center, which fosters healing-centered leadership through the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) framework. A recognized facilitator in racial healing, Haslip was trained by Dr. Gail Christopher and was named a White House Champion of Change by President Barack Obama.
MONICA HALSIP
BRYAN TERRY
Bryant Terry is a multidisciplinary artist, chef, publisher, and author whose work intersects cooking, sculpture, sound, video, and social practice to examine resilience, cultural memory, and liberation. From 2015 to 2022, he was the inaugural Chef-in-Residence at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, where he curated programming that linked food, health, farming, art, and activism.
His work has been showcased at major institutions including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and The Hammer Museum at UCLA. As founder and editor-in-chief of 4 Color Books (part of Ten Speed Press/Penguin Random House), he collaborates with visionary creatives of color to create remarkable nonfiction titles, including�The Scarr’s Pizza Cookbook�and�Black Food, the latter receiving acclaim as the top American cookbook of 2021.
Terry has authored five acclaimed cookbooks and has received several prestigious awards, such as a James Beard Award and an NAACP Image Award. He holds an MFA in Art Practice from UC Berkeley, an MA in History from NYU, and culinary training from the Natural Gourmet Institute. He frequently speaks at events across the country.
Madelin De Jesus Martinez is a Master of Science student in Computer Science and Public Policy (CAPP) with a concentration in Health Administration. Her academic and professional interests focus on data-driven storytelling and applying machine learning to support equitable health policy decisions.
She is an applied machine learning research assistant at the University of Chicago, contributing to NIH-funded health policy research that analyzes Transformed Medicaid Analytic Files (TAF) data to assess state and federal policies related to Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and the broader U.S. opioid epidemic. Previously, she completed analytical projects in partnership with maternal healthcare centers, experiences that sparked her interest in health policy research and led to roles in applied policy analysis.
Madelin currently serves as President of the Black Graduate Coalition, where she works to foster community and cultivate a safe, inclusive space for Black graduate students on campus. In this role, she is committed to creating opportunities for engagement, learning, and celebration of the Black diaspora. She is deeply dedicated to public service, health equity, and evidence-based policymaking. Outside of her academic work, she enjoys reading, cooking new recipes, and exploring new cuisines.
MADELIN DE JESUS MARTINEZ
Featured Artist
Blake Darrell Lenoir or B. LEN, BFA born July 6th, 1991, in Chicago. Lenoir is currently practising as a fine artist and muralist in Chicago. Lenoir creates and finds new space as an artist working in what can be described as contemporary surrealism. As an interdisciplinary visual artist working predominantly via non-profit work, commission work, and brand partnerships, surrealism finds a home in. As a muralist as well, Lenoir’s work navigates and draws inspiration from burgeoning potentials and/or new solutions to recurring antiquated problems, attempting to rewire society through constructive cynicism.
Lenoir’s original work is heavily based on distortional entendres that he identifies as an inception of ideas and/or conversations necessary to bring about relief of the given conflict or conversation. Lenoir’s work is intended to both be therapeutically comical, yet cynical to the human experiences of interaction, where he aims to evoke conversational healing by challenging his audience to decipher a better outcome. Lenoir does this by primarily navigating and focusing on creating work with intention to spark a conversational dispelling of generational and societal curses, over a sea of themes in the black living experience over years of societal offsets. Lenoir uses conversations, shared interactions and words themselves and finds ways to orchestrate & guide the imagery he creates and chooses to give light to.
Lenoir graduated and received his Bachelor’s of the Fine Arts from Western Illinois University, where he minored in Sociology, studying and specializing in intersections of Minorities in the Media and Generational Reoccurrence.
BLAKE D. LENOIR
ANK YOU!
Thank you for joining us, celebrating with us, and most importantly, learning with us. We’re honored that you spent your evening celebrating Black history and Black
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