Train of Thoughts makes every storyteller their own conductor.

This unique storytelling and placemaking initiative by Build Bronzeville engages and brings together Bronzeville residents by sharing important neighborhood stories against the west facade of The Forum with commuters at the 43rd Street Green Line stop.

These stories can provide the seeds to Bronzeville's revival. They can help us come together to rebuild our institutions and our neighborhoods rather than to succumb to gentrification.

It is our hope to gain public buy-in towards The Forum reconstruction project. The stories shared will be targeted to inspire the public to become a part of bringing back to life a critical component of our history. 

Train of Thoughts programming will span multiple artistic mediums including: 

• Home movies and amateur films from Chicago Film Archives collection;

• Original music compositions; 

• Original poetry and spoken word recordings;

• Stories collected from UJF oral history collecting efforts; 

• Bronzeville historical facts and anecdotes; 

• Short documentary films;

• Filmed performances;

• Interviews with historians, artists, activists and community residents

Working towards the economic and cultural prosperity of Bronzeville.

Build Bronzeville uses Bronzeville’s unique assets to restore commercial activity and revitalize our historic neighborhood. A century ago, Bronzeville was the Chicago destination of the Great Migration, becoming the home to hundreds of thousands of Blacks fleeing oppression in the South. Commerce flourished, jobs were abundant, and innovations in music, literature, theater and beyond attracted people from across Chicago and defined America. It was the Black center of Chicago. Today, following decades of disinvestment and the exodus of three-quarters of its population, Bronzeville has many challenges as well as opportunities.

An effort of Urban Juncture, Build Bronzeville works with diverse partners to combine local leadership with public, private, and philanthropic support to establish a critical mass of positive culture-based enterprises, drive sustainable community change, and re-establish Bronzeville as a powerful Chicago hub of progress. It is comprised of five closely-linked initiatives that merge social, economic, civic, and creative approaches to achieve comprehensive community development:

1. The Bronzeville Incubator

2. Boxville®

3. Bronzeville Cookin’

4. The Forum

5. Engage Bronzeville

Built in 1897, The Forum includes a beautiful social and assembly hall and several oversized retail slots located adjacent to the 43rd Street Green Line Station. For the first three-quarters of the twentieth century, The Forum stood at the heart of Black Chicago’s social, political, cultural and commercial life. The iconic Forum Hall hosted music greats from Nat ‘King’ Cole to Muddy Waters to the Jackson 5 as well as political speeches, sorority balls, union meetings, dance classes, civil rights events, and so much more.

Forum Hall shut in the 1970s, a casualty of decades of government and private sector disinvestment.

Today, Urban Juncture is working to restore The Forum as a hub for cultural programming, hospitality and socializing as part of its Build Bronzeville initiative. Rehabilitation of the three retail slots at 318 - 322 E 43rd Street that make up The Forum’s West Annex is well underway.

Please join us as we work to bring The Forum back to life. Tell us your stories of The Forum, follow us on social media or make a donation to support our efforts. We’re excited to welcome you back to The Forum.