Imagine Englewood If's Unity Day - Communal Action as Anti-Dadaism

A century after its inception, Dadaism, remains an alluring yet illusive artistic philosophy. The avant garde art movement purportedly began as a response to the horrors of the first world war, where artists transmuted the disillusionment of living through a world on fire into a rejection of industry, economy, tradition, logic, and normative society – essentially the whole established order. Some consider it the first manifestation of what is now considered modern art, with many of today’s most esteemed creators embracing the surrealistic framework laid out by Marcel Duchamp, Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven, and Marcel Janko to produce work that interrogates the motivations of society, pushing back against the commoditization of humanity or the invasive machinations of the contemporary world.

While the global Dadaist movement was fragmented across geographies and manifested in a myriad of philosophies, one of the major themes across the global campaign was questioning the concept of art itself. Some described the movement as “anti-art” and it could be posited that a dada art piece was likely the first that ever elicited the now infamous response “I could do that” from armchair critics.

The age of Dadaism was a time of unease and deep contemplation – Dadaists lived in a world where whole bloodlines and cultural histories had been shaken (if not destroyed completely), in the midst of a literal and figurative reconstruction after witnessing promising technological advancements of the industrial age that were once marketed as newfangled, life improving innovations being quickly adapted into killing machines. These contradictions provoked a deep scrutiny within the artists of the time as their works became an exercise in probing what truly mattered in their brave new world. It facilitated a sort of artistic Buddhism - in short, nothing was art therefore everything was art – including protests, choruses of poems being read simultaneously to create an unintelligible wall of sound, and even a receptacle for human waste.

While Dadaism peddled in an somewhat nihilistic examination and dismantling of societal norms, there is a modern, uplifting and generally unrecognized medium that nonetheless functions similarly in its aim to examine relationships and disassemble power structures: the art of communal action.

The current era is an age of individualism, alienation, and disillusionment, only amplifying this type of work's importance. Building consensus while connecting people with each other, let alone finding a shared purpose, requires both art and science in a way that is uniquely beautiful and inspiring. Often times one must also navigate forces, institutional and otherwise, that are invested in the failure of these types of projects.

To any veteran of event planning, its quickly apparent that the coordination of an experience is not much different than the painting of a canvas, the recording of a film, or conducting a symphony. Within each of these mediums, creation often requires first identifying a purpose or message, then meticulously planning each stroke of the paintbrush, line of dialogue in a script, or musical note in a song as the vision slowly materializes. One of the few differences of live performance and event production, compared to visual art, is that there are no erasers or second takes. There is generally one shot to get it right, and when Murphy’s Law inevitably rears its head, these types of artists need to be able to adapt and continue forward. For this reason, iEi is well served by the multiple creatives employed on their team, including hip hop artist Heavy Crownz, painter Jai Kalondra, and multi hyphenate Boukhepra.

There are many examples of large scale visual performance art pieces but where does something like a community beautification project fall on the artistic spectrum? Does intentionally gathering a community to clean up the streets, landscape a garden, or paint a mural constitute art? In my humble opinion, this is art of the highest order. In that sense, Imagine Englewood If’s “Unity Day”, an annual event that takes place the first Saturday in May, is a masterpiece - of community, celebration, and harmony.

Founded by Michelle Rashad, Imagine Englewood If is a unique organization, as the non-profit successfully implements a number of initiatives across health & wellness, community enrichment, gardening education, and arts + culture programming. Their Peace Campus, where Unity Day starts with a breakfast/check in and ends with a community celebration featuring food, music, and fellowship, is a vibrant and uplifting group of properties featuring a community garden, a playground made of natural materials, basketball courts, and multiple houses that each have a distinct theme that alludes to their purpose (i.e. Imagination House, Healing House). Everywhere you look is a burst of color, with some buildings decorated with portraits, others positive affirmations, more yet with geometric shapes of bright greens, yellows and blues, and the multicolored kaleidoscope of a functional vegetable garden at the north end of the block.

The experience of walking onto Peace Campus is akin to stepping into another world, likely intentional due Englewood’s status as a community that’s been historically neglected and under resourced by the city of Chicago. Somewhat similar in both aesthetics and purpose to other immersive public art environments such as The Hiedleberg Project, it was created to provide a community gathering space focused on healing generations of inequity and building a better future.

Where Unity Day differs from Tyree Guyton’s work in its utility – there are a plethora of free programs taking place daily including youth leadership initiatives, after school learning, art making sessions, healthy cooking demos, gardening workshops, and adult education courses. iEi’s peace campus is a wonderful example of art extending beyond the traditional mediums and into taking action to materially enhance and the lives of people within the community as well as the community itself.

The 11th annual Unity Day, which took place on On May 4th 2024, is a great example of the art of community change making on a mass scale. That morning, about 200 people gathered on the Peace Campus to join together and contribute by any means necessary towards this year’s 3 major goals: Collaborate with community organizations and block clubs to clean up blocks and street corridors, Partner with ward offices to tackle wasteful vacant lots and areas, and restore and repair the Nature Park on the Peace Campus.

After a brief welcome and orientation (along with the ever important breaking of bread and sharing of refreshments) attendees divided into groups to contribute to a number of beautification projects: cleaning up empty lots, weeding community gardens, repairing a playground, and painting a mural on a fence. After a few hours of connecting with ones own and other people's humanity through the fulfilling activity working of side by side with your fellow man, woman, and child, folks returned to peace campus to celebrate together. It was a beautiful sight seeing a sea of people of all ages, colors, and creeds enjoying themselves together over grilled food, double dutch jump rope, and meaningful conversation (giving credit where its due – most of the volunteers and contributors were from within the Englewood community so the demographics generally represented the racial dynamics of the neighborhood).

Can a community beautification day truly be considered art? In the case of iEi’s Unity Day, the answer is a resounding “yes” for multiple reasons. In the most straightforward sense, adding a mural to a fence and restoring their natural playground are two projects that clearly fall under the visual art umbrella. Furthermore, cleaning of a public corridor or prepping of a garden are activities meant to beautify the world – a major purpose of any artistic pursuit. On a deeper level, the event added vibrancy to the most important canvas that exists – the human soul.

Despite being an influential art form, Dadaism faced many criticisms – chief among them was it’s focus on deconstruction instead of building. Unity Day, and iEi’s mission in general represent an unrecognized yet timeless art form, a sort of reverse Dadaism (“Addaddism?”) that appreciates the art in every positive action, the glory of community connection, and the unique spirit within every human being. It shifts the focus from examining systemic issues and asking “why does this exist” to a more productive and enlightened evaluation of “what can we build in it's place”.

Though we’re not recovering from a world war, there are many parallels between today and the era where Dadaism arose. In a time where violent conflicts are igniting around the globe and rising inequality suggests an economy on the brink, sometimes creating traditional art can feel trivial. Unity Day represents a solution: in world where things can seem hopeless it’s only logical to return to the actions that have matter throughout time immaterial – helping each other and contributing to an objective greater good. Sometimes, if you’re having trouble picking up a brush or a pen, the most radical thing you can do is get together with community to pick up some trash or pull some weeds.

Use this link to sign up for Unity Day 2025