I was born on the northwest side of Chicago. My great aunt, a nun, was the administrator of Resurrection Hospital, which served at that time Chicago’s huge Polish population. Though I’ve been fortunate to travel around the country and the world, and to have spent wondrous months in New Orleans in particular, I’ve spent most of my life in Chicago. I’ve never been able to see the city with the amazed eyes of someone getting their first glimpse of the architectural wonders of the Loop at sunset, with the vastness of Lake Michigan behind it. In truth, it makes me a little jealous.

Chicago remains the third largest city in the United States, despite the exponential growth of Houston and the exodus of Chicagoans fleeing the violence and ridiculous taxation initiatives. Chicago is a great city in which to be creative, though. It has always prided itself on being big enough to be respected, but also intimate enough so an artist isn’t lost in the crowd. Chicagoans are also honest and humble, traits that I doubt most Americans would apply to the residents of our two largest cities. Finally, despite all its segregation, Chicago is a community.

The Harold Washington Library, just northwest of Columbia College Chicago

If you want to do something in Chicago, you can. There is no creative mafia standing in your way demanding alms or that you pay your dues first. This is why Chicago is such a great theatre town – one can start acting right away in any of the countless off-Loop independent theatre companies we have. Among many, many others, Chicago spawned Steppenwolf and A Red Orchid Theatre – companies Hollywood has mined for years.

Chicago has a special unspoken initiative to use the arts as a way of community building. Two artists I have the pleasure of knowing, Theaster Gates and Maria Gaspar, are doing particularly great things. Gaspar’s long-running 96-acres project examines the long terms effects of incarceration on communities of color, and uses the walls around Chicago’s Cook County Jail as a canvas for murals. The internationally known Theaster Gates is always wearing many hats. My favorite initiative of his is the Stony Island Arts Bank, an abandoned bank on Chicago’s underserved South Side that Gates purchased and turned into a beautiful library, museum, community center, and maker-space.

A detail of the library in the Stony Island Arts Bank

As I’m a writer, let’s not forget our writers. Many cities (and not a few smaller towns) can claim they produce great writers, but I don’t think they identify with their cities as fiercely as do our Chicago scribes. We have the old chestnuts like Richard Wright, Studs Terkel, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Nelson Algren, but Chicago is bleeding ink in a vibrant way as I write this. Sandra Cisneros, Christina Henriquez, Chris Ware, Stuart Dybek, and Nami Mun. I’m not even mentioning the riches right here at Columbia College Chicago (OK, just a few: Patricia Ann McNair, T Clutch Fleischmann, Joe Meno, Don DeGrazia, Jenny Boully, CM Burroughs, and Aleksandar Hemon, whose Reasons I will Never Leave Chicago is an eloquent explanation of the power of this city).

In some ways, I’ve never been able to appreciate Chicago in the same way as someone who has moved here does. But, looking back over this blog I realize I have immense pride in my city. A few years ago, Chicago went up against Brazil in a bid to host the summer Olympics. We lost, one story said, because the image of Chicago was one of “fat people eating” whereas Brazil’s image was one of “naked people dancing.” Well, I’ve never been to Brazil but my image of Chicago is one of “creative people being nourished by their city.”