CHF’s commitment to celebrating Chicago has evolved into our Neighborhood Initiative. With a series co-created with 20+ local partners on the South Side and with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Initiative focuses on building deeper, sustained connections in Chicago neighborhoods through programming that reflects community priorities.

For more information about the history of CHF’s Neighborhood programming, click here.

Tara Betts is a Community Facilitator with the Chicago Humanities Festival's Neighborhood Initiative. She is the author of Break the Habit, Arc & Hue, and the forthcoming Refuse to Disappear. In addition to her work as a teaching artist and mentor for young poets, she has taught at several universities, including Rutgers University and University of Illinois-Chicago. Recently, she taught poetry workshops for three years at Stateville Prison via Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project. Tara is Poetry Editor at The Langston Hughes Review. Dr. Betts is also in the process of establishing the nonprofit organization The Whirlwind Learning Center on Chicago’s South Side.

Kaitlin Devaney is the Predoctoral Research Fellow with the Chicago Humanities Festival's Neighborhood Initiative. She is completing her PhD in Criminology, Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago where her work integrates Critical Race Theory and Racial Formation Theory to contextualize neighborhood homicide rates in Chicago communities. She graduated from the University of Chicago where she played collegiate basketball and double-majored in Public Policy and Latin American Studies. Kaitlin went on to earn an M.A. in Criminology, Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) with a concentration in Violence Studies.

Ira S. Murfin is appointed to the position of Program Manager, Neighborhood Partnerships at CHF as a Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow. He holds the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre & Drama from Northwestern University, and an MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His research investigates the relationship between media, cultural institutions, and disciplinary categories in late 20th Century artistic vanguards. His creative practice focuses on extemporaneous talk as a performance material. Ira has a long history in Chicago’s literary and performance communities, and has presented work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, Links Hall, Neo-Futurists Theater, and Rhinoceros Theatre Festival, among other places. His scholarship and criticism has appeared in both scholarly and general interest publications, and as an audience enrichment specialist he regularly leads conversations, gives talks, and writes contextual material for Chicago performing arts institutions, including eight seasons as a PreAmble Scholar with Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Prior to joining CHF in Fall 2019, he was the Assistant Director for Programming with the Guild Literary Complex.

Ashal Yai is a Community Facilitator for CHF’s Neighborhood Initiative. As a first-generation immigrant from Sudan, she has always found purpose in altruistic endeavors such as youth empowerment activities, community organizing, and facilitating events that help build community. In addition to her work at CHF, Yai works as a Policy and Communications Coordinator for the 20th ward Alderwoman. She also enjoys woodworking, reupholstering furniture, and running her own political commentary channel in her downtime.

[Image description: The banner image at the top of the page is a graphic that features three images. The left-most image is an aerial photograph of a Black man playing piano, wearing a black hat, white button down shirt, and black dress pants and suspenders. In the foreground of the middle photograph is a leafy plant that is being watered by a Black man holding a bright green watering can, in the background is greenery and a blue sky. The right-most image is a silhouetted photograph of a film crew on the waterfront at sunset: one crew member holds a boom mic above the heads of a group of actors.]