Tengo Lincoln Park en mi Corazón:
Young Lords in Chicago
Exhibition
September 11, 2025—February 8, 2026
Tengo Lincoln Park en mi Corazón: Young Lords in Chicago explores the Young Lords Organization’s (YLO) trajectory in the Lincoln Park neighborhood amidst gentrification and urban renewal, which displaced the vibrant Puerto Rican community of the 1950s and 1960s. Originally a street gang, the Young Lords transformed into a prominent civil rights organization.
The exhibition explores the origins of the movement, emphasizing the concept of counter-mapping as a means of activism and community empowerment. Counter-maps are cartographies that reveal the knowledge and resistance of communities, challenging historical displacement and invisibility imposed by traditional maps.
Image Credit: Chicago History Museum Sun-Times Collection.
Tengo Lincoln Park en mi Corazón: Young Lords in Chicago features archival materials, historical artifacts, photography, murals and prints, with works by Carlos Flores, Ricardo Levins Morales, and John Pitman Weber.
It also includes newly commissioned work by Sam Kirk and a central multimedia installation by Arif Smith with Rebel Betty, inviting visitors to engage with one of the most influential movements in Latinx civil rights history, rooted in the everyday struggles of a Chicago neighborhood.
The exhibition also reflects DePaul’s long engagement with the Young Lords’ history in Lincoln Park, shaped by faculty, staff, and students through exhibitions, courses, creative programming, archiving, community tours, and student activism. Examples include original artwork by Areli Lupercio that became a new logo for the organization, early graffiti art by Paul Mireles that later inspired his leadership in the New Era Young Lords Chicago Chapter during his time at DePaul, and the 2024 historical marker that offered the first public acknowledgment of the movement’s origins in the city.
One of the most significant acts of resistance occurred in May 1969, when the Young Lords occupied the Stone Administration Building at McCormick Seminary, now DePaul’s School of Music North Building. The site, one of the few remaining in Lincoln Park directly tied to the YLO, is now marked by a public plaque recognizing their activism. It anchors the exhibition’s focus on place-based memory and the political legacy of the Young Lords in Chicago.
Tengo Lincoln Park en mi Corazón: Young Lords in Chicago is curated by DePaul University Professor Jacqueline Lazú and organized by DePaul Art Museum.
The exhibition features archival materials, historical artifacts, photography, murals and prints, and newly commissioned work. Student artwork will be created and added to the exhibition.
Meet the Creatives
Meet the team of historians, artifact makers, storytellers, and artists who helped bring this exhibition to life.
Jacqueline (Jacqui) Lazú is a writer, public historian, archivist, and community collaborator whose work bridges scholarship, cultural production, and grassroots activism. She works across literature, performance, and public history to center the lived experiences and political struggles of Latinx and Afro-Caribbean communities across the Americas. A recognized scholar of the Young Lords Organization, Dr. Lazú has helped preserve and interpret their legacy through archives, exhibitions, writing, and public programming.
Carlos Flores
Carlos Flores is a photographer, teacher, and cultural organizer who has documented Puerto Rican and Latino life in Chicago since the late 1960s. A former member of the Young Lords, his photographs capture vanished landmarks, personal memories, and moments of collective resistance and solidarity. Beyond photography, Flores has been a driving force in the city’s cultural landscape, co-founding the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, creating the National Puerto Rican Cuatro Festival, and serving as artistic director of Chicago’s Latin Jazz Festival. His work continues to preserve and shape Chicago’s Latino cultural memory.
Ricardo Levins Morales is a Minneapolis-based artist and organizer who uses art as a form of political medicine to promote collective healing from the injuries of oppression. Born into his native Puerto Rico’s anti-colonial movement, he became active in Chicago’s activism scene in 1967. His art has supported groups like the Black Panthers and Young Lords and aligned with struggles for racial, labor, environmental, and social justice. He co-founded the Northland Poster Collective (1979–2009), and his work is widely used by grassroots movements and communities.
John P. Weber is a painter, printmaker, and muralist who is still best known as a public artist. Throughout his teaching years at Elmhurst University and beyond, he continued as a studio artist, participating in major national and international travelling shows. He became deeply involved in the community mural movement, making, organizing and documenting public art embedded in local neighborhoods.
Sam Kirk is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has received numerous honors and recognition. A biracial, queer American artist, Kirk works across mediums—including large-scale murals, lenticular prints, stained glass, and public installations—with a consistent focus on inclusivity and visibility. Her public art exists at the intersection of storytelling and social practice, using public space as both canvas and catalyst to foster connection, amplify underrepresented voices, and spark dialogue—transforming landscapes into platforms for cultural reflection and belonging.
Arif Smith is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and arts administrator. His performance- and video-based work centers on diasporic citizenship and African-rooted performance practices, exploring Blackness, marronage, and intertextuality. Smith was a 2017-18 Artist-in-Residence at the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life and Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture. Currently, he is the Music Moves Manager at Old Town School of Folk Music. Smith is also a band member of Bomba con Buya, Iré Elese Abure, and Black Monument Ensemble.
Rebel Betty is an AfroIndigenous Puerto Rican poet, artist and cultural worker who uses a multidisciplinary approach to depict the magic and movement of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities and to trace back ancestral forms of resistance and culture through storytelling and archiving moments in history. Her visual art, organizing and cultural work center on the preservation of culture in Black and brown communities through facilitated dialogue, poetry, music, education and the arts.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the many people and institutions whose support made Tengo Lincoln Park en mi Corazón: Young Lords in Chicago possible.
At the DePaul Art Museum, we thank Ionit Behar, Curator, Phoebe Collins, Collections Manager, Laura-Caroline Johnson, Director, and the entire support staff for their dedication and collaboration.
At DePaul University, we are grateful for the Vincentian Endowment Fund, the Division of Mission and Ministry, the Dammrich Award for Innovative Teaching in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, the Center for Latino Research, the Center for Black Diaspora, the School of Music, the Office of the President, and the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity.
We also extend our thanks to the Old Town School of Folk Music for their partnership.
Exhibition Location:
DePaul Art Museum
935 W Fullerton
Chicago, IL 60614
Admission to the DePaul Art Musuem is free. Visit the museum website to view exhibition hours, directions, and visitor information for classes and groups.
FAQs
News Coverage
- DPU: DePaul Art Museum fall exhibitions feature Chicago-based artists and Young Lords
- WBEZ Chicago: From street gang to civil rights group, the Young Lords’ impact is on display in a new DePaul art exhibition
- Chicago Sun-Times: De pandilla callejera a grupo de derechos civiles; el impacto de los Young Lords en una nueva exhibición
- Chicago Sun-Times: New DePaul art exhibit honors history of the Young Lords
- The Latinx Project at NYU: Just Like Yesterday: The Young Lords at DePaul
- Newcity Art: “Young Lords in Chicago” Reminds Us, the Struggle for Social Justice Only Ends if We Concede
