Tonika Johnson and Bisa Butler in Conversation

February 26, 2025 6:00pm
The Gordon Parks Foundation Gallery

The Gordon Parks Foundation
48 Wheeler Avenue, Pleasantville, New York, 10570

Held in conjunction with the opening of Tonika Johnson: Englewood at The Gordon Parks Foundation Gallery.

Tonika Johnson is a 2024 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellow in Art.
Bisa Butler is a 2022 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellow in Art.

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Tonika Johnson is co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective and the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, where she actively challenges and reshapes narratives about Chicago’s South Side. With a sharp focus on urban segregation and a commitment to preserving Chicago's Black cultural memory, Tonika uses her art and advocacy to confront systemic inequities embedded in our built environment, policies, and social networks. A trained photojournalist and former teaching artist, Tonika has earned widespread recognition for her impactful artistry. Chicago Magazine named her a Chicagoan of the Year in 2017, celebrating her photography that captures the everyday beauty of Englewood. Her projects, including From the INside and Everyday Rituals, have been exhibited at prominent venues such as Rootwork Gallery, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Harold Washington Library Center, and Loyola University's Museum of Art (LUMA). Tonika’s groundbreaking Folded Map project debuted at LUMA in 2018, uncovering stark disparities between "map twins"—residents living miles apart on opposite ends of the same streets in racially segregated neighborhoods. Through photography and storytelling, the project has sparked critical conversations about Chicago's racial and economic divides. In 2020, she formalized Folded Map into a nonprofit organization, where she serves as Creative Executive Officer, using the platform to address the social impacts of systemic segregation. Tonika’s creative vision extends beyond traditional art installations. In 2021, as the Artist as Instigator for the National Public Housing Museum, she launched Inequity for Sale, a powerful project exposing the exploitative Land Sale Contracts that devastated Black homeowners in Greater Englewood during the 1950s and 1960s. This work earned her recognition as one of Landmark Illinois' 2022 Influencers and the Metropolitan Planning Council’s Community Impact Award in 2023. Her latest initiative, UnBlocked Englewood, reflects her innovative approach to reversing the damage caused by racist housing policies. Partnering with the Chicago Bungalow Association, Tonika spearheads the ambitious effort to rehabilitate an entire block in her home neighborhood, Englewood—an area deeply scarred by predatory housing practices. The project focuses on transforming a block where descendants of families impacted by Land Sale Contracts still reside. By providing critical home repairs, beautification, and fostering community cohesion, UnBlocked Englewood showcases the power of art as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization. Redefining the project as public art, Tonika creatively secured funding through Chicago’s public arts program, demonstrating what it takes to uplift communities after decades of systemic disinvestment. In 2024, Tonika released her first book, Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It (Polity Publishing), co-written with Dr. Maria Krysan. The book reveals how generations of Chicagoans have perpetuated fears about the city’s South and West sides, presenting essays from everyday Chicagoans—those who defied warnings to avoid “don’t go” neighborhoods and those who live in these very same neighborhoods. Through these personal stories, the book examines the deeply racist roots of these narratives, their ongoing impact, and offers actionable solutions to segregation. The book expands the mission of Folded Map into a narrative-driven platform for change. Beyond her artistic practice, Tonika’s leadership has been instrumental in shaping Chicago’s cultural and civic landscape. Named one of Field Foundation's Leaders for a New Chicago in 2019, she serves on the Cultural Advisory Council of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). Her commitment to reimagining equity through art and advocacy continues to inspire transformative change in Chicago and beyond.

Bisa Butler was born in Orange, New Jersey, the daughter of a college president and a French teacher. She was raised in South Orange as the youngest of four siblings. Butler’s artistic talent was first recognized at the age of four, when she won a blue ribbon in an art competition. Formally trained, Butler graduated Cum Laude from Howard University with a Bachelor’s in Fine Art degree.  It was during her education at Howard that Butler was able to refine her natural talents under the tutelage of lecturers such as Lois Mailou Jones, Elizabeth Catlett, Jeff Donaldson and Al Smith Jr.It was at this time that she began to experiment with fabric as a medium and became interested in collage techniques. Butler then went on to earn a Master’s in Art from Montclair State University in 2005. While in the process of obtaining her Master’s degree, Butler took a Fiber Arts class where she had an artistic epiphany and she finally realized how to express her art.  “As a child, I was always watching my mother and grandmother sew, and they taught me. After that class, I made a portrait quilt for my grandmother on her deathbed, and I have been making art quilts ever since.” Butler was a high school art teacher for 10 years in the Newark Public Schools and three years at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. In 2022, Butler was awarded a Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship and will be exhibiting in Switzerland during Art Basel this coming June with the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Bloomfield College this past May. Butler’s work was the focus of a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, the second stop of a traveling exhibit which began at the Katonah Museum of Art. Many institutions and museums have acquired Butler’s work including: The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Perez Museum of Miami, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Nelson-Atkins Museum, 21cMuseum Hotels, The Kemper Museum of Art, The Orlando Museum of Art, The Newark Museum, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Hunter Museum of American Art and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.