NEAR WEST SIDE — More than a dozen children filed into a Near West Side classroom for an art class on a recent Wednesday, excited and joking to each other as a tall woman at the front of the room began to speak.
The woman informed the kids of the theme of the lesson — gratitude — and asked them to think of what they’re grateful for. As the children began to paint, one boy simply drew “Mom” on the canvas and talked about how she means everything to him. Several women in the room said they feel the same about their children.
This gathering at Major Adams Community Committee, 125 N. Hoyne Ave., was an expressive art workshop led by Ladies of the Arc, a collective of Chicago mothers of gunshot victims, and its founder, Cecilia Rodhe, the mother of former Chicago Bull Joakim Noah.
Rodhe created and leads Ladies of the Arc and the art program, Expression from the Inside. Both are part of the Noah’s Arc Foundation, a violence prevention nonprofit founded by her and her son.
Ladies of the Arc, which began meeting nine years ago and formally launched in 2023, hosts classes that help mothers tap into their grief through art and train them to lead Expression from the Inside art classes.
Rodhe said she has seen how trauma-informed art courses help both children and mothers.
“We saw that [the mothers] were able to express very, very deep feelings of grief without having to speak about it, but it came through colors, from emotions that the colors represent,” said Rodhe, a registered expressive art educator and consultant. “They have shown incredible resilience, strength and inspiration for the young people that we’re serving, especially the young men afflicted by gang situations.”
Dinah Felton, a member of Ladies of the Arc since 2023, said being part of the group has helped her mourn her son, who was killed in 2002 on his 15th birthday while living in Roseland.
“This helps me heal. I love coming to this,” Felton said. “It eases my pain.
Through the classes, Felton has created art and mementos that also helped her when her mother died in 2015 during the week of her son’s death anniversary.
Chrissy Morgan, an Englewood native, lost her daughter to gun violence in 2020 while living in Houston. For years, Morgan said she felt lost and unsure of what to do with herself, eventually moving back to Chicago.
In 2023, Morgan joined Ladies of the Arc. Being able to help others in their grief journey through art or simply by giving a hug has done a lot for her own growth, she said.
“It’s freeing, so having the art and being able to work with the children was a double win for me,” Morgan said.
At last week’s art class, more than a dozen children made and presented art based on the theme of gratitude. Their creations ranged from dedications to their mothers to abstract paintings of a nighttime sky.
Ladies of the Arc holds about 10 workshops a year, often coinciding with the schedule of the One Basketball League, a separate arm of the Noah’s Arc Foundation. The league offers boys and young men ages 16-25 a paid opportunity to play basketball while learning about violence prevention and conflict resolution, as well as financial literacy and other life skills programs. Ladies of the Arc members also meet players to share their stories and lead classes.
Omarion Austin, a 13-year-old seventh-grader who lives near the United Center, held up his painting of purple, brown, orange and yellow vertical columns. Each color represents values he cherishes, he said.
“It was hope, love, trust and loyalty. The reason I picked that was [because] those are really the things I live for, I can’t live without,” Austin said. “If somebody gives me that, that means a lot to me.”
For Jameal Hill, a seventh-grader at Learn Romano Butler in North Lawndale, spending time playing basketball and making art after school at the Major Adams community center allows him to destress, he said.
“Being artistic while being somebody that’s athletic, I could describe my feeling towards the game through art … expressing my feeling through art,” Hill said. “When I have some anger, art can calm me down and make me be able to be around people more.”
He drew a basketball player dunking and said his dream is to make it to the NBA.
“[Expression from the Inside] allows them expression without feeling like they’re being probed, without being judged. It puts them in a happy place,” said Ken Butler, executive director of the Major Adams Community Committee. “They can express concerns whether it’s things at home, bullying in the streets, gang intimidation or drug use.”
To learn more about Ladies of the Arc, Expression from the Inside classes or the Noah’s Arc Foundation, visit the foundation’s website.
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