If you spent any time walking or driving around Chicago’s neighborhoods this summer, you probably bumped into a block party, or went to one yourself.
Block parties are a Chicago summer staple, where neighbors can ask the city to close down their street to traffic, let their kids run freely between houses, and spend time with new and old friends on the block. Chicagoans can request that the city’s “Jumping Jack” program send a bouncy castle for kids to enjoy for free. Residents can even ask for a visit from a local fire truck or from mounted police horses.
There have been about 3,700 block party permits issued across the city so far this year, the most since before the pandemic. The city sent more than 700 free bouncy castles to Chicagoans who requested them, and fielded more than 600 requests for a visit from a fire truck.
As summer winded down, we visited three neighborhood block parties across the city to capture how city residents enjoyed their open blocks.
Little Village, Saturday, Sept. 2
Rey Raigoza is the founder and executive director of Urban Warriors, a youth development nonprofit. He came together with a few neighbors, as they do every year, to organize a block party at 28th Street and South Avers Avenue where he grew up and still lives.
“Sometimes we’re so locked into our own houses. These kinds of events bring us out of our homes, to get to your neighbor, engage with one another and build community.”
As he was planning this block party, Raigoza reflected on the annual block parties from his childhood. “It was a day we circled, literally,” Raigoza told me.
Raigoza showed up to the block party with boxes filled with free soccer balls, left over from a sponsorship event for an Urban Warriors all-girls soccer team. As soon as he opened the box, a steady stream of kids stopped by to claim a ball. The kids then gathered in the makeshift soccer field they’d created in the middle of the street.
Portage Park, Sunday, Sept. 3
Portage Park on the Northwest Side had the most block parties this year of any community in the city. I stopped by one in the 4800 block of West Warner Avenue, where many young families were out enjoying a hot but beautiful day. Families on the block look forward to the annual block party — once the yearly debate over what weekend to do it on is settled.
Carlos Martinez has lived on the block for more than 30 years. Martinez said, when he first moved in, block parties were held every year and organized by the alderman, who also lived on the block. Martinez said the block parties died off for a while, and now, they’re back.
“Everybody got older and the sons grew up and moved out. Then it was all elderly people, and now, change again. A young generation. It’s beautiful.”
Mike Walsh, a high school social studies teacher, organizes the block party during his spare time in the summer. His favorite part of the block party is having the normally busy street — a popular cut-through for drivers between Cicero and Milwaukee avenues — open for kids to play on.
“Everyone’s kind of on the same page with kids at different stages. We all support each other. So it’s a nice little family I think we got going on here.”
Englewood, Saturday, Sept. 9
The following weekend in Englewood, Kusanya Cafe threw a block party in the 6900 block of Green Street, where the cafe is located, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its opening with neighbors and cafe regulars.
Meosha Thomas is an art teacher in Englewood, who teaches entrepreneurship as art and art as a form of social justice. She set up a snow cone stand at Kusanya’s block party, serving up elaborate iced treats topped with candy for community members.
“The snow cone lady and the candy lady in Black and Brown communities were usually a child’s first exposure to entrepreneurship, and she was a pillar of the community. So this is a way to honor both.”
Jonathon “Pastah J” Brooks is a pastor at Lawndale Christian Community Church, and a board member of Kusanya who helped plan the event. He’s loved block parties ever since his childhood in West Englewood, just a couple of miles away.
“To me, block parties meant two things, they meant the end of summer. But they also meant the opportunity to be free in your neighborhood. That’s what block parties were. You didn’t have to worry about if your mom was gonna say you can only go that far to that far. It was like the one night you could be out past the streetlights coming on.”
Brooks and other Kusanya board members brainstormed many ideas for how to celebrate the cafe’s anniversary. They decided tapping into Chicago’s block party tradition would be the most meaningful way to honor the community that has supported them for years.
While block parties have been around for many decades, Brooks said, these days, they’re more important to him than ever.
“You still see the same spark, especially post-pandemic, when we were all kind of trapped in to just have the opportunity to just be outside together,” he said. “I think block parties kind of take on a new meaning now because we understand the value of being together.”
Claire Kurgan is a data news intern at WBEZ.
Amy Qin and Jessica Alvarado Gamez contributed reporting to this story.
Correction: The last name of a subject in a photo caption for this story has been corrected; it’s Palacios not Palacio.
