Tonika Lewis Johnson

Tonika Johnson
Born
Tonika Lewis Johnson
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Education
Occupations
Known for
  • Folded Map Project
  • Inequity For Sale
  • Englewood Rising
  • UnBlocked Englewood
  • Belonging
StylePhotography
Awards
Websitewww.tonikajohnson.com

Tonika Lewis Johnson is an American photographer, social practice artist, and community organizer based in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Her work focuses on the historical and contemporary effects of racial segregation, housing discrimination, and disinvestment in Black communities, using photography, mapping, public art, and participatory projects.

Johnson is best known for The Folded Map Project, a multi-year initiative that examines residential segregation in Chicago by documenting properties with identical street addresses located in racially and socioeconomically different neighborhoods on the city’s North and South sides. Johnson has developed related projects including Inequity For Sale, UnBlocked Englewood, and Belonging. She is a co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective and the Resident Association of Greater Englewood.

Johnson has received national recognition for her work, including being named a Chicago Magazine Chicagoan of the Year in 2017, an Architect Magazine Gamechanger in 2021, and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2025.

Early life and education

Johnson was raised as an only child in an artistic household; her mother was a writer, her father practiced photography, and several members of her extended family were visual artists.[1] She grew up in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, where her maternal grandmother had lived since the 1960s.[2] She lived in Englewood until the age of seven, when her mother moved the family to the Uptown neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side; they later returned to Englewood when Johnson was eleven.

Throughout her childhood, she attended schools on the city’s North Side, including Lane Technical High School, a selective-enrollment public school.[2][3] Her daily commute between Englewood and the North Side contributed to her awareness of racial and economic inequalities across Chicago neighborhoods.[4] While in high school, Johnson began pursuing photography and participated in Young Chicago Authors.[5] She went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Columbia College Chicago in 2003.[6] She later completed an MBA at National Louis University in 2005.[7]

Career

After graduating from college, Johnson worked as a grant writer for nonprofit and social service organizations.[2] During this period, she continued photographing her surroundings independently, initially viewing photography as a personal practice rather than a professional art career.[2]

In 2010, Johnson co-founded the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, a resident-led organization focused on neighborhood advocacy and leadership.[2] Alongside her artistic practice, she worked extensively as a teaching artist from 2011 to 2015, leading photography and media programs in Chicago Public Schools and community-based settings, including partnerships with Changing Worlds.[8]

Johnson’s photographic work gained broader recognition after it was described as art by viewers online.[2] In 2016, she received a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, which she used to produce large-scale photographic prints exhibited at the first Englewood Art Fair, marking her entry into public exhibition.[2]

In 2017, Johnson co-founded the Englewood Arts Collective, an artist-led initiative supporting cultural production and creative placemaking in Greater Englewood and beyond.[9] Her work increasingly combined photography with public engagement and public presentation.[10] In 2019, she was appointed to the Cultural Advisory Council for the City of Chicago.[11]

Major works

The Folded Map Project

First exhibited in 2018, The Folded Map Project is a multi-media project examining Chicago’s residential segregation using the city’s street grid. Johnson photographs properties with the same street address located miles apart in racially and socioeconomically different neighborhoods on Chicago’s North and South sides and brings the property owners—whom she refers to as “map twins”—together for recorded conversations reflecting on their lived experiences.[12][13][14]

The project includes documentary photography, facilitated meetings, recorded conversations, a short film, and an educational curriculum. In 2020, The Folded Map Project was organized as a nonprofit organization, with Johnson serving as chief executive officer.[15]

Inequity For Sale

In 2021, Johnson developed Inequity For Sale, a public art and research project documenting the effects of mid-20th-century discriminatory land sale contracts imposed on Black homebuyers in Greater Englewood. The project installed life-size markers on South Side homes to share the history of contract selling and expanded to include documentary photography, oral histories, interviews with residents and descendants, and a podcast.[16][17]

UnBlocked Englewood

Johnson launched UnBlocked Englewood in 2023 in partnership with the Chicago Bungalow Association.[18] The initiative focuses on a single residential block in Englewood and seeks to “[reimagine] home improvement and neighborhood revitalization as public art.”[19]

Initially centered on 22 homes, the project had repaired more than half of the participating properties by 2025, supported in part by a grant from the City of Chicago.[20]

Belonging (Chicago)

Belonging (Chicago) is a photographic and audio project examining how race, class, and place shape young people’s experiences of inclusion and exclusion in urban environments. The project features portraits and recorded interviews with Black and Latinx youth reflecting on experiences of misperception, surveillance, and belonging within the city.[21]

Belonging: France

Johnson expanded this inquiry internationally through Belonging: France, a continuation of the project documenting experiences of belonging and exclusion in Paris and its surrounding suburbs, including Clichy-sous-Bois. The project situates Chicago’s patterns of segregation within a broader global context.[22]

Don’t Go

Johnson is the co-author, with sociologist Maria Krysan, of Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It (2025), which examines residential segregation in Chicago through narratives addressing long-standing warnings to avoid the city’s South and West Side neighborhoods.[23][24]

Other work

Johnson’s photography was the centerpiece of Englewood Rising, a resident-led billboard campaign conceived with community activists and funded by Englewood residents. The campaign used large-scale public imagery to counter narratives of poverty and crime by highlighting the neighborhood’s cultural and visual landscape.[25][26]

Awards and recognition

Selected exhibitions

Works

  • Johnson, Tonika Lewis; Krysan, Maria (November 19, 2024). Don't Go. Cambridge Hoboken (N.J.): Polity. ISBN 978-1-5095-6444-6.

Personal life

Johnson lives in Englewood, Chicago.[48][49] She has two children.[2]

References

  1. ^Meltzer, Yvette (August 26, 2018). "Photographers on Photographers: Yvette Meltzer on Tonika Lewis Johnson". LENSCRATCH. Retrieved January 8, 2026.
  2. ^ abcdefghMeltzer, Yvette (August 26, 2018). "Photographers on Photographers: Yvette Meltzer on Tonika Lewis Johnson". LENSCRATCH. Retrieved December 5, 2025.
  3. ^Nikolic, Velibor (October 23, 2025). "Alumni Spotlight - Tonika Lewis Johnson". Lane Tech College Prep. Retrieved December 5, 2025.
  4. ^"Chicago artist Tonika Lewis Johnson among 22 winners of coveted MacArthur 'genius grant'". Chicago Sun-Times. October 8, 2025.
  5. ^Shannon, Meghan. "The Next Generation of Philanthropy". Colum.edu.
  6. ^"Alum Tonika Lewis Johnson '03 Named MacArthur Fellow". Columbia College Chicago.
  7. ^"NLU Magazine_Fall 2017". Nl.edu.
  8. ^"Tonika Lewis Johnson". Field Foundation.
  9. ^"Commentary: 'Don't Go' caution became the new redlining. Englewood is proving people do indeed want to go". Crain's Chicago Business. October 27, 2025.
  10. ^"Serving Social Justice". University of Illinois Chicago.
  11. ^"Cultural Advisory Council Members". Chicago.gov.
  12. ^"Folded Map Project Highlights Chicago Segregation, Gentrification". WTTW News.
  13. ^"'Map Twins' Bridge the Gap Between Chicago's North and South Sides". Bloomberg.com.
  14. ^Strubberg, Jay (June 11, 2018). "Artist's 'Folded Map' Project Aims To Break Down Cultural Barriers". Scripps News.
  15. ^Beete, Paulette (February 8, 2021). "Tonika Johnson On the Folded Map Project and Bringing Residents Together to Discuss Chicago's Segregated Neighborhoods". Colossal.
  16. ^"Tonika Johnson: Englewood - Gordon Parks Foundation Gallery". Gordon Parks Foundation.
  17. ^Howard, Annie (October 17, 2022). "Tonika Lewis Johnson Uses Maps to Explore the Effects of Contract Buying on a Chicago Neighborhood". Architect Magazine.
  18. ^"UnBlocked Englewood". CBA.
  19. ^Hill, Tonia (December 12, 2024). "Englewood artist Tonika Johnson explores housing segregation and wealth building in new documentary". The TRiiBE.
  20. ^"Block party shows UnBlocked Englewood's progress on repairing South Side homes". Chicago Tribune. July 6, 2025.
  21. ^"Tonika Lewis Johnson's Photos Spark Transatlantic Conversation About Race". Hyperallergic. September 4, 2023.
  22. ^"Photo Exhibition Explores Social Dynamics in Chicago and Paris Through the Cities' Residents". WTTW News.
  23. ^"Don't Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It by Tonika Lewis Johnson, Maria Krysan". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved January 8, 2026.
  24. ^"Were You Ever Told to Avoid the South or West Sides? New Book Shares Stories of Disrupting Segregation". WTTW News.
  25. ^"Campaign Pushes Back At Negative Englewood Image". CBS Chicago. August 9, 2017.
  26. ^"'Englewood Rising' Campaign a 'Reflection of What Already Exists'". WTTW News.
  27. ^"Tonika Lewis Johnson". MacArthur Foundation.
  28. ^"Tonika Lewis Johnson". University of Chicago.
  29. ^"Honoring Everyday Heroes: Red Cross to Recognize Twelve Local Changemakers". American Red Cross.
  30. ^"Tonika Lewis Johnson - Fellowships in Art". The Gordon Parks Foundation.
  31. ^"The Power of Possibility: Imagining an Equitable Future". Metropolitan Planning Council.
  32. ^"2022 Landmarks Illinois Influencers". Landmarks Illinois.
  33. ^"Repairing homes as a form of public art, Tonika Lewis Johnson helps Englewood reinvest in the disinvested". Chicago Tribune. January 5, 2024.
  34. ^"Meet ARCHITECT's Game Changers". Architect Magazine. October 17, 2022.
  35. ^"Tonika Lewis Johnson". National Public Housing Museum.
  36. ^"Tonika Lewis Johnson and Paola Aguirre Serrano". North American Cartographic Information Society.
  37. ^"Award Program". APAIL.
  38. ^"These are the 2019 Leaders for a New Chicago". Field Foundation.
  39. ^"14 Chicagoans received $50,000 each to make a difference in the city. Here's how they plan to spend the dough". Chicago Tribune. June 13, 2019.
  40. ^"Chicagoans of the Year 2017: Tonika Johnson Is Englewood's Everyday Archivist". Chicago Magazine.
  41. ^"MCA - The Long Dream". Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
  42. ^"'What would Chicago be like with no jails?': New SAIC exhibit challenges artists and Chicagoans to reimagine criminal justice". Chicago Tribune. August 5, 2019.
  43. ^"Art for Justice: A Roundtable with Nick Cave and Bob Faust". Ocula.com. December 19, 2025.
  44. ^"6 Artists Imagine What a World without Prisons Looks Like". Artsy. September 26, 2019.
  45. ^"Past Exhibitions". Loyola University Chicago - LUMA.
  46. ^"Tonika Lewis Johnson: Everyday Englewood". Loyola University Chicago.
  47. ^"From the INside: a Photo-Poetical Ode to Englewood by Tonika Johnson, Poetry by Tara Betts on Exhibit at HWLC". Chicago Public Library. March 22, 2017.
  48. ^Kueppers, Courtney (October 8, 2025). "Chicago artist Tonika Lewis Johnson among 22 winners of coveted MacArthur 'genius grant'". WBEZ. Retrieved October 13, 2025.
  49. ^Reed, Atavia (October 8, 2025). "Englewood's Own Tonika Lewis Johnson Is A MacArthur 'Genius'". Block Club Chicago. Retrieved October 13, 2025.
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