In 1958 Chief Bill Logan founded the Chessmen Club of the North Shore, a volunteer organization of Black men, Evanstonians, modeling excellence in business, education and public service. For 64 years the Chessmen have served us in every area of our community and this year they have shown up as healers.
The 2022 Chessmen gala Oct. 14 was a night of Black joy and healing. Being Black in America is a constant navigation of systemic harms and inherited and lived trauma and to seek and celebrate Black joy is a radical and healing act.
The honorable Peter Braithwaite, a long-time Chessman, was a lively gala co-emcee, and referred to the night as “Blackity Black Black:” translation is: We are proud, we make no apologies, we embrace the beauty of our Blackness and we will celebrate us, each of us.
Many thanks to the Chessmen for creating space for our joy and our wellbeing. The gala was a high form of internal reparations – Black people using our internal resources toward our repair and healing.
We honored our culture, our leaders and each other. We celebrated our past and lifted our future. We poured gratitude all over each other. The room felt like love and power. The smiles were from the soul, the laughter was liberating, we danced like victors. We each overcame something different but based in the same pain. We were the vibrant African diaspora.
The vibe gave me butterflies and I am in awe of who we are together.
Let us hold onto the spirit of these moments together and may we greet each other in the energy of this occasion every day.
We know tomorrow the struggle for racial justice continues but let us move onward balancing our fight with intentional moments of joy. Do it to honor the ancestors, ourselves and our future.
What a gift it was for me to be acknowledged alongside two extraordinary women, YMCA President and CEO Monique Parsons and ESPY award winner Olivia Ohlson, on such a beautiful night.
Thank you again to the Chessmen Club and all the sponsors that made this joyful healing night possible.
More joy.
Robin Rue Simmons
Executive Director, FirstRepair