At Legler Regional Library in West Garfield Park on Oct. 11, over 100 registered West Side participants will scan photos and letters, get their portraits taken, record personal and group oral history accounts, and learn from experts how to conserve photos and documents at-home. This History Harvest is a kickoff event for the Westside Historical Collective’s cultural archive.
“I want to be able to give people access to telling their stories,” said Kenn Cook Jr., who founded the Westside Historical Collective a few months ago. “We’re not monolithic. Our stories are so nuanced. There are different kinds of stories here, and I want to tell all stories.”
Cook aims to upload materials that the collective amasses online and, if funding allows, host a traveling exhibition throughout the West Side to display archival material and have oral history listening sessions. This way, the archive can be accessible to researchers and students, but also community members who want to learn about the West Side.
A photographer by trade, Cook is this year’s artist-in-residence at Legler Regional Library. When he started his residency, he said he realized how difficult it was to find accounts of West Side history and culture in official archives. So, he decided to create one.
“I never got a formal education about West Side history,” Cook said. “The West Side is so rich in history. There are so many pioneers here, and their stories need to be told.”
Cook aims for the collective’s Westside Cultural Archive to merge the stories of past and present West Siders.
“A lot of people who really laid that foundation for the West Side’s Black culture are starting to get up in age. And when they leave, the stories go with them,” Cook said of the sense of urgency he felt in starting the archive now.
But he also wants to tell the stories of current West Side residents.
“One of the things I really feel strongly about is it’s not always just about capturing the things of the past, but it’s also telling the stories of right now,” Cook said. To address this effort, attendees can get their portraits taken at the Legler History Harvest event.
At events like the kickoff, Cook aims to identify people in family photos, hear stories about lineage and record personal oral history accounts. The Black Lunch Table archiving project will also be involved with the archive, as they help facilitate and provide prompts for memory circles, where a group of people sit down and collectively tell oral histories together.
“Part of the project is using historical information to build community as well,” Cook said. He added that a memory circle, or even a group of locals talking on their own porch, helps participants form connections between themselves.
“I want people to feel seen,” Cook said of his goal for the first Harvest History event. “I want them to feel like there is a place for them to tell their own stories. I want them to feel like they have the authority to offer their own stories. I want people to learn that there’s value here.”
Archiving the West Side
The Westside Cultural Archive is an extension of the work that Cook has already been doing on the West Side, allowing people to tell their own stories through his individual photography practice.
Cook is developing a photo zine called “From the West Side with Love” that depicts everyday people and scenes — photos which he will likely display at Legler Regional Library once the project is completed and add to the Westside Cultural Archive.
“My photo project is about giving people here a chance to be the authors of their own story,” Cook said. “When stories of the West Side are told, especially by mainstream media, they’re usually negative. We’ve been painted in a light that I feel has not completely given us the opportunity to tell our complete story.”
An image from Kenn Cook Jr.’s #MyWestSideStory photo project | Kenn Cook Jr. 
An image from Kenn Cook Jr.’s #MyWestSideStory photo project | Kenn Cook Jr. 
An image from Kenn Cook Jr.’s #MyWestSideStory photo project | Kenn Cook Jr. 
An image from Kenn Cook Jr.’s #MyWestSideStory photo project | Kenn Cook Jr.
Though Cook grew up on the West Side, after he and his wife got married, they briefly moved to the southern suburbs.
“I just kind of bought into all the propaganda, like ‘It’s so dangerous. You can’t raise a family,’” Cook said about how he heard people talk about the West Side. But he ultimately decided “I can’t really help my community or do anything for my community if I don’t live there. If all the people who feel like they have some similar success leave, then there’s nothing that can be done here. I want people to feel like they can invest here when they see the beauty and all the history and how rich it is.”
Helping to reverse the negative perception of the West Side is part of why Cook created the Westside Historical Collective and Westside Cultural Archive. And building the archive is as easy as inspiring locals to conserve their family history at home.
“Official institutional archives don’t always seem accessible for the everyday person,” Cook said. “One of the things I want to do is give power back to the people and let people know that we all can be storytellers.”
In addition to hosting more History Harvests across the West Side, Cook said he aims to work with local organizations to create and access more archival material.
At the Legler History Harvest event, for example, partners include The Black Social Culture Map, Chicago Film Archive and Alt Space Chicago. Cook said he also hopes to work with churches to scan and archive service programs, sermon notes and church photos.
“I think if we understand what the West Side was, we can understand what it can be,” Cook said. “I want to help people dream about a brighter future for the West Side. I want to inspire more change, more growth, more people invested here, more people living here and more people just loving the West Side.”
The Westside Historical Collective is hosting its kickoff History Harvest at Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Rd., on Oct. 11 from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.