In this one-on-one, Nicole Jeanine Johnson sits down with Mayor Brandon Johnson as he reflects on his first year in office and what he plans to achieve moving forward. Below is part two of the full transcript, with appropriate edits for clarity.

Longtime residents and advocates look to affordable housing plans and intentional investment to keep the celebrated Black neighborhood Black.

Demetrius France, 55, is just 15 credits shy of earning his Associate’s degree.

“I started college in the early 1990s and studied electrical engineering and aviation at Florida Memorial University.”

When his heart led him to Chicago, he hoped to finish college, too. But life and a few challenges: marriage and separation, unemployment, and children delayed those goals. And now homelessness pushes that goal even further away.

Today, France is a resident of Inner Voice’s Systemizing Options and Services (SOS) – Joint Transitional-Rapid Rehousing Program on Chicago’s West Side.

Sheila Dantzler, a Bronzeville real estate agent and developer, aims to provide quality housing through her nearly two decades of work in Chicago.

Aniya Foster’s claim to fame as a wellness coach is that she has helped hundreds of women lose thousands of pounds. Growing up in East Chicago, thriving in Chicago has always been a dream of hers.

She shares how Venezuela’s historic economic crisis contributed to the mass exodus of Venezuelans from neighboring countries in South America to Chicago.

Over the last year and a half, Chicago’s Sanctuary City designation has been tested. As of August 2022, the city has absorbed over 21,700 migrants, spreading them throughout. The influx of migrants raises one simple question among many Chicagoans: “What’s going on in Venezuela? Followed by, “Is it that bad that they have to come all the way here?”

Award-winning singer and songwriter Erica Campbell has released her third studio album, “I Love You.” This album is an open invitation to a world that could use a little bit more love.

Campbell used the pandemic to create something beautiful.

“I chose to focus on something else,” said Campbell. “Positive was the first song written during the pandemic when ‘positive’ was a scary word.”

The battle to approve an equitable map for the proposed Chicago Elected School Board continues.

On Thursday, a coalition of Black community activists, elected officials, and educators convened a press conference outside the Chicago Board of Election meeting. The group gathered to illuminate the challenges that Black students face in Chicago Public Schools. It demanded sufficient representation in the forthcoming Chicago Elected School Board by creating an equitable map and a legally binding Black Student Achievement Advisory Board.

An equitable map is critical to ensure that those elected to the school board will prioritize Black students’ needs and be accountable for improving their academic achievement.