“In this day and age, how we transport information is primarily visual. It’s through the application of photography and visuals that allows artists to tell their stories”
Tonika Lewis Johnson is synonymous with bold, transformative projects that challenge segregation and inspire fresh, critical thinking about Chicago’s history and future. A social justice artist and longtime resident of Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Englewood, she uses art to expose systemic inequities and reimagine possibilities for disinvested communities.
Her Folded Map Project gained national recognition for visualizing Chicago’s segregation by connecting “map twins”—residents living on the same street but miles apart in racially and economically different neighborhoods. She later created Inequity for Sale, an award-winning public art and research project that highlighted the lasting impact of racist land sale contracts that exploited Black homebuyers in the 1950s and ’60s. As part of this project, Tonika designed and installed large-scale landmarkers in front of homes that were effectively stolen from Black residents, making visible the generational harm caused by systemic housing discrimination.
That work directly led to UnBlocked Englewood, an ambitious creative placemaking initiative to rehabilitate a block in her home neighborhood that was devastated by these practices. She reimagined the project as public art, securing funding through the City of Chicago’s public arts program to support housing repairs, community engagement, and the reclamation of vacant lots for neighborhood activation.
In 2024, Tonika published her first book, Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It, co-authored with Dr. Maria Krysan. Expanding on Folded Map, it shares the stories of 25 Chicagoans shaped by segregation, revealing how racial divisions persist and urging action to disrupt them.
Tonika’s work has been featured at renowned institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Chicago Cultural Center, and Loyola University’s Museum of Art. In February 2024, she debuted her first solo exhibit at the Gordon Parks Foundation Gallery in New York.
Her contributions have earned numerous accolades, including the 2024 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship, the 2025 Pritzker Fellowship at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, Chicago Magazine’s Chicagoan of the Year, and the 2022 Landmarks Illinois Influencer Award. In 2022, Architect Magazine recognized her as a visionary reshaping design and the built environment in their Game Changers issue. In 2023, she expanded her creative journey internationally as an Ateliers Médicis Artist in Residence in Paris, France.
Through her work, Tonika demonstrates how creative placemaking can serve as a powerful tool for community repair, storytelling, and spatial justice. She is the co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective and Creative Executive Officer of the Folded Map Project nonprofit. She serves on the boards of FirstRepair, a national organization advancing local reparations policies for Black Americans, and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity, and she is a member of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) Cultural Advisory Council. In 2024, she was appointed to the City of Chicago’s Reparations Task Force, where she brings an artist’s perspective to shaping reparative justice policy.
Her work exemplifies how artists can be agents of change—using creative interventions to reclaim space, disrupt harmful narratives, and catalyze community-driven solutions.
