Category: Uncategorized
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Hirsch: The Last Pillar Standing
100 Years of Legacy, Loss, and Love in Chicago’s South Side By Christopher Tru Hood Hirsch: The Last Pillar Standing 100 Years of Legacy, Loss, and Love in Chicago’s South Side. A Multimedia Capstone by Christopher “Tru” Hood The clock above Hirsch Metropolitan High School’s main hall has ticked for nearly a century. From…
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Your Voice: No Kings, Just Stories
Your Voice: No Kings, Just Stories https://youtu.be/tGUo2_OK1js?si=vIeGHjitv2oe9kQ1 In today’s world, we hear a lot about freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought. And yet, when we look around, it often feels like that freedom is more fragile than we were taught to believe. From the skyscrapers of Chicago to the streets…
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A Divine Disruption: How a Brother’s Music is Healing a City’s Trauma
A Divine Disruption: How a Brother’s Music is Healing a City’s TraumaBy Christopher Tru Hood Zeke Locke – https://livefreeillinois.org/ On the eve of Independence Day, inside the historic sanctuary of APC Morgan Park on Chicago’s South Side, the room felt like a pressure valve opening. The SOVA Gospel Mass Choir—an international ensemble from Geneva—rose in a…
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Celebrating Black Legacy: The Enduring Significance of the Bud Billiken Parade
Celebrating Black Legacy: The Enduring Significance of the Bud Billiken Parade By Christopher Hood CHICAGO (Aug. 17, 2025) For nearly a century, Chicago’s South Side has claimed the second Saturday in August as its own holiday. The Bud Billiken Parade, now in its 96th year, marched again this weekend down King Drive with all the…
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Healing Voices Uplifts South Side with Global Sound and Local Heart
Healing Voices: A Sound of Restoration Echoes in Morgan Park By Christopher Tru Hood On the South Side of Chicago, where trauma and triumph often collide, something extraordinary broke through the noise — a sound not of protest, but of healing. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Q3milfzh8dghttps://youtu.be/npqkXj9stho On the evening of July 3, 2025, inside the historic walls of APC…
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Papa Was a Free Man: Fatherhood, Freedom, and the Fight for Recognition on Juneteenth
By Christopher Tru Hood Chicago, IL — The sun beats harder on Father’s Day weekends when Juneteenth is near. The air feels heavier—not just from the heat rising off the streets of Chicago but from the weight of memory, history, and unspoken truths. For Black fathers like me, these two holidays—though separate on the calendar—collide…
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Being Chosen to Strive: A Reflection on Purpose, Passion, and Persistence
Being Chosen to Strive: A Reflection on Purpose, Passion, and Persistence By Christopher Tru Hood Some people are hired. Others are called. I’ve come to realize—I’m the latter. Called to serve. Called to create. Called to lead. Called to build. Last week, someone asked me if I could run a photography workshop. I said, without…
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From Beats to Belief: How Trap Worship Is Reaching — and Challenging — Chicago’s Youth
From Beats to Belief: How Trap Worship Is Reaching — and Challenging — Chicago’s Youth “Lights. Lens. Legacy in motion.” This behind-the-scenes moment captures recording artist Zeke Locke (center, brown jacket) during a HSH Management and Tru Hood Studio Media Day shoot for his upcoming single, “I’m Walking.” Beside him is Jason and Rich…
