What is the Chicago Creatives for Justice?
The Chicago Creatives for Justice Arts Fellowship is a 10-week program designed to support emerging movement artists and strengthen the capacity of member organizations involved in social justice work.
Meet The Fellows
As part of the fellowship, eight selected fellows were paired with active campaigns, allowing them to contribute their creative talents to real-time organizing efforts while gaining hands-on experience and mentorship within the movement.
Alondra Jara (she/ella)
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Alondra Jara (she/ella) is a queer Chicana multidisciplinary artist, organizer, and educator born in Indianapolis, IN, to Mexican parents from Jalisco and Zacatecas. Her work weaves together themes of land, play, magic, and community.
She has collaborated with movement groups and spaces such as: Movimiento Cosecha, Unity Center Migrant Support, McKinley Park Community Garden, Freedom Fighter Herbs, Communities Not Cages, Ziibiwing Center of Anishinaabe Culture and Lifeways, the Village of A’ukre, and more.
Deeply committed to expanding access to arts education, she approaches teaching as a non-hierarchical, reciprocal process rooted in curiosity. Her community organizing efforts inform much of her creative practice, where art serves as a tool for storytelling, connection, and collective resistance.
Kali Casab (she/her)
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Kali Casab (she/her) is a Chicago based multimedia artist, somatic healing teacher, and gender-based violence activist. As a graduate from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Kali earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Health and Wellness, a minor in Minority and Inequality Studies, and an Associates Degree in Art and Design. Pairing her degrees with her background in community organizing, Kali works to amplify, support, and uplift those affected by social injustices through art, mindfulness, and community building.
Melanie Diaz (she/her)
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Raised in Mexico, Melanie is a Chicago based multimedia artist with a focus on illustration and graphic design. She is a creative fellow driven by a passion for social justice, bringing a widely versatile skillset, having proven the ability to deeply connect with diverse communities through previous fellowships and international nonprofit work. She has a passion for impactful visuals, where she is dedicated to crafting compelling artwork and designs that can resonate and engage with a broad range of audiences and individuals.
Mere Montgomery (she/her)
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Mere is a multidisciplinary art director, designer, and artist whose work blends branding, motion graphics, and storytelling to elevate purpose-driven brands and communities. In her work, she seeks to draw upon history and origins to tell compelling visual stories. As a former arts educator, youth organizer, and service worker, her work is deeply rooted in using art and design to help all people realize their voice in movements for equity, joy, and liberation. See more work at: https://www.mere.design
Mia Festo (they/them)
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I’m Mia (they/them), an artist-turned-activist using creativity to advance social justice. With a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I’ve worked across disciplines to expose how systems of injustice fail us. I currently lead design at Mixte Communications and have led creative strategy for nonprofits nationwide—from Vote.org to Chicago Votes—earning recognition from the Webbys, Amplifier’s UNFK the World Award, and the Davis Projects for Peace grant. As a 2025 Chicago Creatives for Justice fellow, I helped document Chicago’s mental health movement and co-developed May Our Flowers Bloom, a campaign built to scale grassroots momentum into lasting change.
If you’ve got a story to tell, let’s connect through my website, email, or LinkedIn.
Navjot Heer (she/they)
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navjot heer (nuh-v-joh-th) is a multidisciplinary artist and organizer of south asian-panjabi immigrant descent with a practice that spans architecture, urban planning, graphic design, floral design, collage work, oral histories, community organizing, facilitation and storytelling. navi credits thier gemini rising for the insatiable interest in all types of creative experiments, love for collaboration, and expansiveness that allows for projects to become what they need to be. Her work is grounded in themes of home, belonging, land, ritual, relationships, and resistance, and aims to center the voices of those most impacted by systemic violence. navi has contributed movement art and design work to spaces such as the Stop ShotSpotter campaign, Defund CPD campaign, Young Cultural Stewards, Chicago Community Bond Fund, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Spirit of West Fresno oral history project, national buildable memorials project, and more.
Nida Hasan (she/they)
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Nida (ni-duhh) Hasan (she/they)—a South Asian multidisciplinary artist, strategist, and advocate raised in Illinois by a Karachi immigrant family. She/they dissolves the boundaries between creative practice and movement building by weaving social change through storytelling, community-centered design, and relational stewardship to amplify Illinois’ justice-seeking communities through their own vibrant visual identities, voices, and cultural narratives.
Nida’s depth of creative range includes utilizating media justice to bring research to life with the Free2Move Coalition’s campaign to end pretextual traffic stops impacting communities of color in Chicago to creating youth led art builds such as West (F)ridge Love Fridge building a network of food sovereignty on Chicago’s North West Side. Nida’s direct advocacy, in working with constituents and mobilizing storytelling driven by ‘people-power’, has contributed to legislative victories such as increased funding for immigrant services, a requirement for AAPI history to be taught in Illinois public schools, and expanded access to abortion for Illinois’ youth.
Nida has worked with: Impact for Equity—formerly BPI, Free2Move Coalition, Indo American Center, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Love Fridge Network, For the People Artist Collective, United Working Families, BlackRoots Alliance, and more!
Tonal Simmons (they/them)
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Tonal Simmons (tuh-nawl) is a freelance portrait photographer based in Chicago, Il. Their work explores the intersections of nature, queerness, and Black personhood. With a focus on stor ytelling, they create images that honor the full spectrum of identity, often incorporating personal elements, colors, flowers, and meaningful locations to deepen the visual narrative. Tonal approaches photography with an understanding that images hold layers of meaning, just as people do. They are intentional about visibility and consent.
Their photography practice extends beyond portraits, capturing art installations and rebranding projects for creatives and organizations. Their work has been exhibited at the Indianapolis Art Center, Side Street Studio Arts, Pilsen Community Art House, and they have contributed photography to Sixty Inches From Center, Southside Weekly and The Triibe.
Discover the Art Behind Every Campaign
The program aims to foster collaboration between artists and grassroots initiatives, amplifying the role of art in community-led change.
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