Two Summers on Hayes Avenue Documentary Viewing and Refuge High: Coming of Age in America by Elly Fishman Book

While I was taking teacher certification classes at Northeastern Illinois University in spring 2026, we were asked to do an asset mapping group exercise where we were assigned different neighborhoods in the Chicagoland area by our professor to profile and list assets to the community.

Asset mapping has different names in different professions, but it is a technique commonly found within social work where members of the community are asked to find the resources available to that community. The purpose is to look at communities with a fresh set of eyes and to view more of the assets of a neighborhood rather than the deficits.

Our neighborhood was Rodgers Park. The school we were assigned as Sullivan High School. I was introduced to a book called, Refuge High: Coming of Age in America by Elly Fishman. This book was a collection of sparking profiles of both the students and the staff at Sullivan High School, in which 43 languages are spoken. Many are coming here to America for asylum and have found a close knit, supportive community within Rodgers Park.

My graduate group and I were introduced to Tess Lacey, a recent graduate from Sullivan High School in Rodgers Park. We interviewed her on Saturday, April 11^th, 2026 at the Common Cup coffee shop in Rodgers Park, the same day that the Whitney Young High School 50^th anniversary yarn bombing was revealed at the Whitney Young High School Sneaker Ball and Yarn Con was taking place and Windy City Knitting did a knit-a-thon to raise money for our local food bank. That was a big day (whew!)!

However, even bigger things were coming forward, such as the filming and release of

Tess Lacey’s upcoming documentary. Through the Roman Susan Art Foundation during the summers of 2024 and 2025, Tess Lacey created a documentary titled, Two Summers on Hayes Avenue, a visual summary of her blog entries in The Kidler with interviews of local Rodgers Park residents and employees. Tess Lacey also is a part of the One Northside organization.

 

The Kidler blog site address is https://kidler.webnode.page  

 

The One Northside website is www.onenorthside.org

 

The crowd was diverse in ages, races, religions during the documentary viewing on Thursday, May 24^th, 2026. Everyone was happy that Tess and her friends were able to get this project off the ground.

Congratulations Tess Lacey! I wish nothing but the best for you and all of your future endeavors!