Coming Soon, 2024.
Acrylic, mixed media. Purchase

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Art by Andrea Cole – NILAM Taché Art
Poem by Rocio Franco

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How I Explain Gentrification To My Daughter

We walk down 18th Street
and observe a flock of vultures
deep in the cavity
of a recovered wasteland.
Now an area with charm,
culture, and palatable tacos.

18th Street used to be rough
like bricks in rubble,
blocks hot to the touch,
streets buried
in divestment,
and big-city neglect.

Chicago allows us to cocoon
in our hoods until they
metamorphose into neighborhoods.
Property emerging cheap
to turn into a gallery, brewery,
or some fusion bullshit.

Those vultures
who now flock safely
will never understand
how I found Love as I sat
on a tuft of brown grass
in Harrison Park.

How the paletero
signaled summer
with his cartful
of rainbows and fire
hydrant waves was
our only way to swim.

How my favorite taqueria
introduced me to tongue.
That it can be savored,
and not something
they can peck
into silence.

Our home was never a wasteland.
This is sacred ground
full of swift-hand migrants
and first-gen hustlers
who refuse to be displaced
or gorged on like prey.

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Rocío Franco is a Chicana warrior poet from Chicago. She holds fellowships from Rad(ical) DreamYard Consortium, The Watering Hole, Roots Wounds Words, and Periplus Collective.  Her work has been supported by the Frost Place Conference on Poetry, Jericho Brown’s advanced workshop at The Lighthouse, Voices of Our Nations (VONA), and Tin House’s Summer Workshop. She is a “Best of the Net” nominee, and her poetry has been taught to high schoolers in New York. Her poems have appeared in The Acentos Review, Outpatient Press, the Chicago Reader’s Poetry Corner curated by José Olivarez and the Poetry Foundation, the Exposition Review, the Latinx Anthology: What They Leave Behind, Peggy Robles-Alvarado’s La Libreta, La Raîz Magazine, Snapdragon Journal, Newcity Magazine, and Lunch Ticket. Her poems are forthcoming in December magazine and AGNI. She works full-time as a health insurance counselor at a non-profit union health fund and strongly believes in universal healthcare. She loves exploring the city with her family on the weekends, practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and approaching the world with a social justice lens.

Andrea Cole | NILAM Taché Art | I never left a sheet of paper dull, I always said that I give life to paper. We all have thoughts that can never be conveyed unless they were told as a story and my art tells a story. I put my pain into art and change it to power…so every piece I create is a part of me somewhere hidden. My study focuses on women and children. I want to capture the pain, wonder and power in my art. Women represent the pain into power while children are the wonder of art. My art is color and I am black and white I don’t break the rules but my art does

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1000 Words | Home Not Home Artists + Writers

Noa Alemán + Tamar Brooks • Jacqueline Almaguer + Alanis Castillo Caref • Lexi Alvarado + Isabela Ortega • Danielle Arend + Janina Gatilao • Sofia Brunwin + Spencer Hutchinson • Andrea Cole + Rocio Franco • Lydia Collins + Tarnynon Onumonu • Gregory Diaz + Irvin Ibarra • Danielle Dykerhouse + Betsy Van Die • Jonathan Espinoza + ben-aki • Jaymes Fedor + Maria Requena • Samantha Franco + Angeles Rangel • Ines Gardea + Angelica Davila • Frank Geiser + Penny Mann • Evelyn Hernandez + Valeria Osornio • Stephanie Hererra + Neha Chawla • Ivana Jarmon + Theo Sullivan • Vivian Jones + Luz Silva • Lewis Lain + Thulasi Seshan • Cesar Luna + benedicta m badia • Marie Magnetic + Jasmine Rodriguez • Delisha Mckinney + Paloma Velasco • Diana Noh + Juj-Lepe • Andrew Rehs + Corbett Berger • Clau Rocha + Maria Jose Ramos Villagra • Amyia Ross Brittanii Batts (Tanae b) • Fawaz Sakaw + Arianna Maggio • Lucero Sanchez + Clay-Cofre • Ramin Takloo-Bighash + Yiwen-Lyu • TEEL ONE + Melody Contreras • Pamela Trejo + Kim Yeoh • Cindy Uriostegui + Scum Drop • Ami Vasilopoulos + Stephanie Cruz Rincon • Ivy Waegel + Aryn Hills • Emily Schroeder Willis + Angelica Flores • Raine Yung + Micaela Petkus