Borderless Magazine

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Friday, Aug. 12 – 🦋 Enjoy a celebration of local Latino culture at The Monarch Festival from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Camera Park (101 E Fullerton Ave). The festival includes local bands like Los Corb and Zeus Rock, Aztecan dancers, Mexican folkloric dances, local artisans, and food vendors.

In July 2020, as people across the United States protested the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, a group of armed agents in unmarked vans began detaining protestors in Portland, Oregon. The agents were only identifiable by generic “police” patches on their vests. But they turned out to...

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Saturday, Aug. 6 – 🎤 Enjoy a free Celia Cruz tribute concert plus live music, food and local merchants from noon to 5 p.m. at Kelvyn Park (4438 W Wrightwood Ave).

When Illinois decided to shut down its immigrant detention centers earlier this year, advocacy groups and attorneys were left scrambling to find clients who had been abruptly transferred to jails and private detention centers across the country. At the McHenry County jail in suburban Chicago, Al-Amin Porosh, a 25-year-old immigrant...

Visual artist and photographer Diana Solís in her apartment that doubles as a studio, in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, Ill., Friday, July 22, 2022. Solís painted the paintings in the background. Jonathan Aguilar/Borderless Magazine. During the coronavirus pandemic, longtime Pilsen resident Diana Solís started taking long, early...

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Thursday, July 28 – 📖 Join Chicago Latina Moms for a discussion of bilingual education and the different programs available for developing and maintaining Spanish language skills. The Facebook Live event starts at 7 p.m.

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Thursday, July 21 – 🪕 Join the Old Town School of Folk Music/Chicago Future Folk Project for a free concert at Harrison Park (1824 S. Wood St.) from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. See performances by Ida y Vuelta, which features Afro-indigenous music from southern Mexico, and Hannah Mayree, a Bay Area singer-songwriter and banjo player.

May Thach, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum Florida Organizing Manager, attends a Unity March event in Washington, D.C., June 25, 2022. The event, which organizers called the first national rally led by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, called on the government to take action on reproductive rights, economic justice and ending racial violence specifically toward the AAPI community.

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Friday, July 15 and Saturday, July 16 – 🎷 The Chicago Latin Jazz Festival starts at 5 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday. The free, family-friendly event will be held at Humboldt Park Fieldhouse (1440 North Humboldt Drive). Bring chairs or picnic on the lawn.

Cleanup of the old Kerr-McGee factory site in West Chicago, Ill., around 2012. This fall, Illinois will begin the final cleanup of West Chicago’s notorious Rare Earths Facility, once the largest producer of radioactive thorium in the world. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency plans to clean up contaminated groundwater beneath the old factory site.

Sandra and Jesse Arzola in front of Sandra's family’s house in West Chicago, Ill., Saturday, June 25, 2022. The couple lived with Sandra’s family in West Chicago during the 1990s when the city was cleaning up radioactive waste left behind by an old factory last owned by the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation. Jonathan Aguilar/Borderless Magazine.

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Thursdays – 🍺 The Argyle Night Market kicks off Thursday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Argyle Street between Sheridan Road and Kenmore. The free summer event is every Thursday through August 25th and includes live music, food, local vendors and more.

Salima Mazari in her current home in the American Midwest, May 4, 2022. Mazari, a former Afghan district governor, continues to aid her people from abroad and connect them to resources. This story is part of our ongoing series, Broken-Winged Birds: Afghans in Exile. Read the full series by Afghan...

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Saturday, July 2 – 🏳️‍🌈 Join Chicago Black Pride for the Pride South Side 2022 event, which includes a bar, live music, food vendors and festival vibes. The event takes place from 12 noon to 5 p.m. at the DuSable Museum of African American History (740 East 56th Place).

Afghan politician Naheed Farid, who was one of the youngest members of the Afghan Parliament, near her house in Germantown, Md., April 23, 2022. This story is part of our ongoing series Broken-Winged Birds: Afghans in Exile. Read the full series by Afghan refugee journalist Saleha Soadat on our website.

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Friday, June 24 – Come say hi to Borderless’ Youcef O. Bounab at the free World Refugee Day Conference hosted by World Refugee Day Chicago and DePaul University. The conference will examine critical issues of forced migration with renowned leaders, academics and activists in this field. The event will take place at DePaul University’s Arts and Letters Hall 103 (2315 N Kenmore Ave) from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Soccer players from Invincible United, a mostly Malaysian team, and Talara, which included players from many refugee backgrounds, pose for a picture in the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago, Ill., Saturday, June 18, 2022. The teams were the first to play in a soccer tournament celebrating World Refugee Day in Chicago. Jonathan Aguilar/Borderless Magazine.

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Friday, June 17 – ✏️ Public Narrative and Juneteenth Productions present “Reclaiming Our Narrative: A Community Building Event for Changemakers and Journalists.” The in-person event features panelists in journalism and BIPOC community-based organizations, including Borderless. The event will take place at DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Student Center (2250 N. Sheffield Ave.) from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Mohammad Aimal puts a bike helmet on his nephew, Yahya Nazari, in Evanston, Ill., May 14, 2022. Nazari received a free bike, lock and helmet from a father-daughter duo that is distributing bikes to Afghan refugees. Emily Soto for Borderless Magazine. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon when 14-year-old Yahya...

Each week Borderless Magazine highlights some of the best things to do in Chicago’s vibrant immigrant communities. Do you have an event that you’d like us to feature? Email us at info@borderlessmag.org and we’ll try to include it in the future!